# 2
Helmut
Episode 2
Helmut remembers.
The warm hand that covered her face, the woman shedding tears with her pitiful eyes.
She was a beautiful woman with long blonde hair. Her teardrops fell from her gentle blue eyes. She was a woman who desperately called out her name, a name she could never call again.
‘Helmut, Helmut!’
The child instinctively realized that that was his name.
Soon rough hands snatched him from his mother’s arms. A mournful scream pierced my eardrums.
Before being wrapped in swaddling clothes and dropped into an unfamiliar place, the child had my name engraved in his mind.
When the child was able to pronounce his name correctly by using his tongue, he never forgot to point to himself.
“I’m Helmut.”
Elaga, a leopard with intelligence who has lived for a long time, asked a question as if it were absurd.
-You arrogant bastard. Want to call your prey by its name?
“Helmut.”
With a sad face, the child stubbornly repeated.
‘Why didn’t I take that thing and eat it?’
Elaga, sensing that something was amiss, growled in dissatisfaction.
The child stared at the house-sized leopard baring its teeth in front of him without any sign of fear.
This is a leopard that I have taken care of until now by giving it food and a warm place to sleep. Even though it growled, I didn’t become scared again.
Elaga roared.
-Kaaaaaaaaaa!
And after a while, he pretended not to like it.
-The name of this body is Elaga.
“Helmut.”
“I got it! Yes, your name. “It’s Helmut.”
The child just stared at him with a somewhat satisfied expression.
*
Helmut was a strange child.
Under the influence of the sprout of darkness, he awakened his intellect at an early age and gained strength faster than an ordinary human child.
Helmut, who was exceptionally mature, neither cried loudly nor whined.
Her white face contrasted with her jet-black eyes and hair made her as pretty as any girl.
Helmut must have recognized the person feeding him, and from the beginning, Helmut was strangely friendly towards this threatening giant leopard and followed him around.
When they got sleepy while running around and observing or playing, they clung to Elaga’s fur and slept, not caring whether he threatened them or not. Elaga tilted her head.
‘You’re surprisingly good at adapting, right?’
It seemed like he was probably born with that type of personality.
‘Well, I’m glad you’re not crying so hard my ears hurt.’
Elaga thought comfortably. Since she only deals with monsters with red eyes, she sometimes finds small, fragile human children a bit cute.
Sometimes, among monsters with unique tastes, there are those who raise small monsters that are pretty or have rare colors. I felt like I knew how it felt.
‘It’s a little annoying, but it’s cute.’
If you watch the little thing twitching, your mouth will soften with joy. I felt proud when the guy who was crawling on the floor was now running around.
However, from the moment Helmut opened his mouth, Elaga realized that the slightly annoying guy was actually a very annoying guy.
It’s convenient that if you throw something to eat, you eat what you throw and sleep when you’re sleepy.
However, Helmut, who had grown up well, did not want Elaga’s rare affection or affection, but wanted something else.
Helmut had many questions. From some point on, whenever he was curious about anything, he started asking questions. The questions continued endlessly. for example… … .
‘Why is Elaga so hairy?’
One day, Helmut, who was cowering from the cold at night, stroked Elaga’s white fur and asked,
Elaga answered while showing off her hair, which she carefully selects every day.
‘Because I’m a leopard.’
‘Why do leopards have so much fur?’
‘It’s to preserve body temperature.’
‘Then why don’t I have much hair? It’s cold.’
‘Because you are human.’
‘Why do humans have no hair?’
‘How do I know that? ‘Stop asking annoying questions!’
The conversation ended like this when Elaga lost her temper. Elaga, a monster, does not have the patience to deal with her child from the beginning.
But Helmut did not give in. From then on, whenever I got the chance, I would catch up with Elaga, who was my only conversation partner, and ask her questions.
‘Elaga! ‘What does this say?’
‘Ella, are you eating this?’
‘Elaga, why is Elaga called Elaga?’
-Kaaaaaaaa!
A person who won’t work even if you lose your temper or threaten him. When even her proud fur fell out due to stress, Elaga climbed up a tree and screamed.
‘If I keep going like this, I’m going to explode!’
That day, Elaga made a decision.
‘I need to make it happen quickly and throw it away.’
However, it took longer than expected for Helmut to be able to take action.
The growth of human children was slow. Time passed like a slug until I was able to start walking and regain control of my body.
If you leave it alone, it could die at any time, so you have to feed it regularly. And she annoys him with a barrage of questions.
Elaga also knew that learning was also a part of growth. That is how humans grow with knowledge.
But Elaga was truly in pain. He experienced the feeling of his lifespan being shortened in the long cycle of parenting.
Elaga was a monster. And monsters eat children and do not take care of them.
But he cared for Helmut. Why? For some reason, I don’t know. It just happened naturally.
Flow is sometimes forced. Elaga also became accustomed to the shackles of parenting day by day.
Something the size of a bean has grown quite a bit. From one bite to a slightly larger bite.
One day, Helmut, who was ten years old, said to Elaga:
“I want to go hunting now.”
‘If you know how to hunt, you’ll be able to take care of your own food, right?’
-okay.
Elaga readily accepted.
*
It was easy to set a target. Because monsters large and small coexist in the vast territory of Elaga. This is thanks to Elaga’s tacit permission.
Although the forest of Pahe was large, the monsters could not escape the area restricted by the sacred barrier.
Once the strong ones bicker with each other and monopolize the space, the weak ones have no place to live, so they naturally end up sharing the territory.
Powerful monsters capable of dominating a wide area were wary of each other, but territory was a matter of competition between wild beasts and wild beasts, and had nothing to do with things like birds and rats that came and went there.
Of course, Elaga’s territory should not be seen as a peaceful ranch. In the forest of digs, being looked down on leads to challenges.
Monsters transformed from wild animals were a good source of food. Elaga hunted them and fed Helmut to raise them.
Ten-year-old Helmut knew the Forest of Farhe well. In particular, he knows his position in the Forest of Pahe.
If Elaga hadn’t left the scent behind, it would have been eaten and no bones would have been left behind.
Even if he had a sprout of darkness, a ten-year-old boy couldn’t hunt whatever he wanted.
‘But there are also people I can hunt.’
Helmut made a plan. I didn’t mention hunting for nothing.
Elaga watched from a distance. She showed a lot of hunting. Her physical differences are enormous, but even Helmut will get the hang of it.
Helmut waited on the tree. He knew that there were monsters that often appeared down there and grazed.
After waiting for a while, a monster secretly appeared and greedily buried its head in the rich bushes.
‘now!’
Helmut jumped down without hesitation and crushed his target. puck!
-Kya, kyaaaaaak!
A loud noise stung my eardrums. Its size is huge and its appearance is too hideous to be called a rabbit. A tree-sized body and sharp teeth.
‘If you let your guard down and get bitten, even your bones will be ripped out.’
Sweat ran down the back of my neck. Although Helmut was no match for Elaga’s paw, he pressed down hard on the nape of his target’s neck with his firm hand. This is the weak point.
-Keeek, kiiii!
The force of the struggle was enormous. It was impossible for Helmut, who had just turned ten, to endure any longer.
‘You have to stop breathing quickly.’
Helmut quickly reached out and grabbed a sharp stone. And then he hit the head of the struggling rabbit with force.
Kwasik! A mixture of blood and brain fluid splashed onto his expressionless face.
Instant death. A convulsion occurred and the rabbit’s body lost strength.
Helmut calmly turned over the dead body. It was a successful first hunt.
The pitch-black eyes, whose excitement had not subsided, stared intently at the lifeless rabbit.
– Get out of the way.
Elaga, who had been leisurely watching from the other side, sauntered over to me.
As Helmut stepped aside, Elaga raised her claws and sliced open the rabbit’s chest. The floor was soaked with blood rushing out.
Helmut wiped away the blood that had spattered on his face with the back of his hand. Elaga gently rolled something of hers out of her rabbit’s chest with the tips of her sharp claws.
A very small bead with a round shape. It was ominously black, as if it had cut out the darkness. This was the first time Helmut had seen this, as Elaga ate it immediately after hunting it.
-Look, this is the hack. If you eat this, your strength will increase and your life will be longer by replenishing the energy that is lost from your body as time goes by. This guy is small and weak, so it’s only about this size.
Helmut nodded. Just as he was about to stretch out his hand for his first kill,
-Where?
Elaga struck Helmut away with a swing of her tail and swallowed the marble.
“What are you doing!”
Helmut, who almost collapsed, grabbed his fur in displeasure. Elaga thumped the floor with her tail.
-Why, you fed me and raised me, but you can’t even give me this much? Is it a waste?
“You just have to ask for it!”
-If that were the case, you wouldn’t have hunted so hard.
Helmut twitched his face at the nonchalant reply and turned his head. Elaga sneered and laughed.
‘The medicine has gone up.’
Helmut was the one who usually scratched, and Elaga was the one who lost her temper. I felt good that the situation had now turned around.
-You are human. If you eat something like this and become a monster, you won’t be able to go out of the forest.
Anyway, that was the biggest reason. I didn’t intentionally try to pick on Helmut.
Elaga closed her mouth, feeling somewhat lonely.
Helmut looked at him blankly and started dragging the dead rabbit. The meat was his portion.
