Chương 32: I Only Needed Something Salty

The white fragment was truly salty. Kichan rubbed the powder left on his fingertip again. It felt rough like stone dust, and the moment it touched the tip of his tongue, saltiness came up first. After that, a little smell of earth and a faint metallic taste remained.

"Salt... maybe?" No one understood the words. Still, Dust went to the threshold of the storehouse as if it had understood, then stopped. When Kichan lifted his head, Dust came back and grabbed the end of his sleeve. Its little wire legs bit into the cloth and tugged hard.

"You want me to follow?" Instead of answering, Dust went outside, then looked back from the doorway. Kichan looked down at the bowl of cold grain porridge. It had been so bland during the day, and now the taste of salt remained on his fingertip.

"Ha." A short laugh slipped out.

"What the hell did you pick up?"

Before the day had fully brightened, Kichan followed Dust out. He tried to go alone, but Ren followed him. The elder came out too, carrying one empty sack. When Kichan showed them the white powder on his fingertip, the elder's face stiffened first. It was not joy. Surprise and wariness rose together on his face. Ren asked something in a low voice. Instead of answering, the elder looked toward the forest. Kichan looked back and forth between their faces.

"Isn't this good?" No answer came back. That reaction made Kichan move more slowly. He held the wake-up rod in one hand and followed the path Dust had taken. Dust was already past the fields behind the village, slipping into the low brush.

A little way into the forest, the path narrowed. It was not a path for people. The undergrowth was pressed down low, and trails made by small bodies ran between thick tree roots. Kichan walked while gently pushing aside the grass ahead with the wake-up rod. From far away, it had looked like a gray rock. Up close, it was different. On one side of a low cliff, something like a white pillar rose from the ground.

It looked a little like a bamboo shoot pushed up from the earth, or like ice that had been frozen for a very long time. The surface was layered with marks where animals had licked and scratched it. Dust stopped in front of it. Kichan did not touch it right away. He smelled it, rubbed it with his fingertip, then scraped only a little with the end of the wake-up rod. White powder fell away. Inside, thin gray veins were embedded. It was too strange to simply call rock salt, and too salty to simply call ore.

In the end, Kichan touched just a little to the tip of his tongue. It was salty. Bitterness followed after it.

"Even salt isn't normal in this world." Ren carefully reached toward the rock. The elder immediately caught his wrist. The elder's hand was trembling. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Only then did Kichan look properly at the surroundings. The dirt below the rock was smooth and polished. Small animals had licked and passed through this place for a long time.

Footprints dusted with white powder led toward the fields, and on the other side were larger tracks. They were not the tracks of a mouse or a mole. The claws spread in four directions, and one print was bigger than Kichan's palm. Long tooth marks had been carved across the rock surface too. Kichan lowered the wake-up rod for a moment. If he had been alone, he would have gone back. He definitely would have. But behind him were Ren and the elder.

The elder was holding an empty sack, and Ren kept looking back toward the village. Both of them knew this rock existed, but their faces said they had never been able to come close. Kichan looked at the white pillar again. He remembered the smell of the village's cold porridge. He remembered the empty storehouse.

"Just a little." Before Ren could say anything, Kichan raised the wake-up rod.

"We'll break off a little and run." No one understood the words, but the elder's eyes widened as if he had. Kichan tapped the lower part of the white pillar with the end of the wake-up rod. The sound was louder than he expected. Crack.

"Oh." A fissure appeared. Kichan instinctively struck it once more. This time, a piece the size of his palm fell away.

"Good—" Then a low cry came from deeper in the forest.

The small animals came out first. They were smaller than rabbits and had larger eyes than moles. Grain husks clung around their mouths, and three horns that had not yet hardened stuck out from their foreheads. They had been coming toward the salt pillar, but when they heard the cry, they all changed direction at once. The direction the small ones ran was not toward the village. Kichan saw that and felt a curse climb up his throat. Something the small ones were afraid of was coming. The brush pressed down.

What came out from inside was too large to call a rat. A low body, thick forelegs, a snout caked with dried white powder. One hard horn stood on its forehead, and the tip of that horn still bore a worn gray line from old scraping. It did not look at Kichan. First, it looked at the fallen salt fragment. Then it looked at the elder's empty sack. The elder stepped back and caught his foot on a tree root. Ren tried to grab him. At that moment, the option of running vanished from Kichan's mind.

"Back." The word did not get through. Still, Kichan stretched one arm behind him and pushed Ren and the elder back. With his other hand, he adjusted his grip on the wake-up rod.

"Ah, seriously." He heard the words coming out of his own mouth and became even more annoyed.

"Why does it always go like this?" The beast charged. Kichan tried to dodge. A beat too late, he realized that would send it toward Ren and the elder. So instead of slipping aside, he stepped forward. The end of the wake-up rod struck under the beast's horn. Bang. Kichan had not thought he put that much force into it. The beast's forelegs lifted off the ground, and its body twisted sideways. It clawed at the dirt to avoid crashing into the rock. Earth and white powder scattered together. Kichan was startled too.

"No, that wasn't supposed to be that much." The beast lowered its body again. This time, it looked at Kichan. Not at the elder. That alone was enough for Kichan to raise the wake-up rod again.

"Yeah. Look at me." The beast charged again. This time, Kichan moved first. Instead of taking it head-on, he pushed along the side of the horn as if brushing past it. The beast's body staggered and scraped past the salt pillar. Another thick piece fell away. Kichan paused for a second when he saw it.

"We need to take that too." Behind him, Ren shouted something almost like a scream that resembled Kichan's name. Kichan came back to himself.

"Fine. I won't take it." He stood between the beast and Ren again. That was when Dust moved. Its small wire body ran toward the fallen salt fragment and shoved it with its legs. The fragment was heavier than it looked, and Dust half-dragged along as it held on.

"Hey, you don't do it either." Dust did not listen. In the end, Kichan swallowed a sigh and twisted his body. As the beast charged again, he planted the wake-up rod in the ground and lowered himself. The beast's horn caught on the rod, and Kichan's arm went numb. Even so, he held. Ren and the elder had backed away. The moment he confirmed that, Kichan twisted the rod. The beast's body was pushed sideways. It did not fall. Instead, it circled wide around the salt pillar, growling low, then retreated into the forest.

Kichan did not chase it. Absolutely not.

"Done. I'm not going." He muttered as he caught his breath.

"If I go in there over a bit of salt, I'm really insane." Then Dust rolled one salt fragment to his feet. Kichan looked down at Dust. Dust flicked its legs.

"... You are seriously." In the end, Kichan picked up the fragment.

When they returned to the village, the people smelled it first. What Kichan had brought back was barely enough to fit in his palm. Still, when the elder dissolved a tiny amount of it in water and added it to the pot of grain porridge, the air in front of the hearth changed. It did not become an amazing meal. The grain was still scarce, the meat was scarcer, and the bottom of the pot showed too quickly. But one child took a spoonful and opened her eyes wide.

"Bapkkap?"

"I told you, that's not my name." When Kichan said it, the children laughed. The elder did not laugh. He looked at the remaining salt fragment, looked toward the forest, then looked back at Kichan. His eyes held both gratitude and worry. Kichan avoided those eyes.

"We can't bring much." The elder did not understand the words. Still, when he saw Kichan wrap the salt fragment in cloth and leave only a very little of it, he slowly nodded. Salt existed. But it was not something they could simply bring back. Kichan understood that much. Then a very low cry came again from the forest. It was farther away than before. But lower. The villagers' laughter shrank for a moment. Kichan tucked the wrapped fragment inside his clothes and held the wake-up rod upright.

"Yeah." He muttered while looking at the forest.

"Salt doesn't come free either."