Jung Yu-na answered inwardly, biting her lip hard.

A drop of blood trickled from her lip.

‘I’m worse really trash.’

I’m a despicable human.

Jung Yu-na felt like burying herself somewhere and dying.

Of course, she couldn’t do that because of the child.

In this situation, death would be nothing more than a convenient self-consolation.

Jung Yu-na had no intention of seeking comfort in front of the child.

Not with the mistake she had made in the past.

✱✱✱

‘Ugh.’

I sat crouched, pressing down on my ears for a long time, all just to get the water out of my ear.

Unlike when I was a normal human, since my ear is that of a cat girl, it’s now filled with fur, making it harder to dry, since there’s always a little bit of water in every hair.

Drip

Drip

Watching the water ever so slowly drip down, I started feeling frustrated.

Even if I spend the next half hour crouching down like this, it still won’t make my ear dry.

‘What should I do?’

Should I try to do a handstand? Maybe if my head is down, the gravity would help make the water go down faster.

As I seriously considered this, I remembered the wolf woman who had come to see me.

Since she had animal ears like mine, she might know how to solve this.

‘Is she still in the tent?’

Hmmm… Let’s check on her.

I got up and ran towards the tent, carrying the bucket that had contained the minnows.

“Ah—!”

I heard the woman’s voice behind me, but I couldn’t make out what she was saying.

The water filled in my ears was acting like earplugs.

Well, it wouldn’t be anything good anyway.

I deliberately ignored her and ran to the tent.

“Gye… ul?”

As I ran up to the wolf woman, she looked around warily, perhaps because I had approached so hastily.

“Hey, how do you get water out of your ears?”

“Ah… water…”

While muttering something indecipherable, the wolf woman fiddled with my ears, which caused my body to involuntarily trembled.

“Are you feeling a bit better now?”

“Uh… yes. I can hear properly now.”

“That’s good.”

What exactly had the wolf woman done to my ears?

Curious, I touched my ears, but they were still quite wet.

“What happened to my ears?”

“I used mana to remove the water that got inside.”

“Ah, mana.”

You could use mana to do even that?

I didn’t know that, no other people that I had seen in the last few months had ever done that, maybe because they don’t need to do so?

Unlike Beast-kin, human ears go dry much faster.

‘There’s a lot to learn.’

Though I wasn’t sure of the wolf woman’s intentions, it seemed like it wouldn’t be bad to stay with her.

She had been quite helpful in various ways.

Maybe she wasn’t such a bad person after all.

“Thank you.”

Just as I thanked the wolf woman, Yeoreum emerged from inside the tent.

She looked me up and down, her eyes widening in surprise.

“Gyeoul, why have you turned into a wet, wet… cat?”

“I fell into the pond.”

“Ah, did you trip down?”

“No, someone was behind me—”

I stopped mid-sentence and clamped my mouth shut.

It would be ridiculous to say I fell because I got startled by someone behind me.

It seemed better to say I just lost my balance and fell.

“…Did someone push you from behind?”

“No–no–I just fell on my own.”

Ah, it seems she doesn’t believe me, her eyes held a look of suspicion.

At times like this, it was best to just pretend to be stupid and talk about something else.

“I think I brought too many minnows.”

“Ah, yes…”

The girl nodded, her gaze shifting towards the pond.

She seemed to be looking for someone, frowning and scanning the area.

“I’ll go check on the minnows for a bit. Gyeoul, do you want to dry off?”

“Yes…”

Thud!

The girl threw a goblin’s mana stone into the fire.

….To use such a precious stone for kindling a fire.

I felt a sense of admiration and looked back where she was, but the girl had already disappeared into the distance.

‘She’s fast.’

Scratching my head, I sat down in front of the fire.

For now, I decided to just dry off.