A Tiger Rolled Into My Life, Bringing Chaos With It - Chapter 16

At Cher’s low murmur, Tiga tightened his grip on the deodorizer. Wind brushed between them. The sound of rustling leaves filled their silence. Tiga silently tucked the deodorizer inside his clothes.

“If you get any information, put a note under this rock.”

Cher said, tapping a rock that rose up to his waist. Meeting regularly could draw attention. But making frequent phone calls might earn suspicious glances from the store owner. Even if there was some delay in exchanging information, this was better.

‘If it were Tinya, this method wouldn’t work.’

She would probably spend all day trying to lift the rock. He could easily imagine her struggling, then trying to push the paper into the crevice between the rocks.

Tiga’s expression became peculiar. It was because, for a moment, warmth had crossed Cher’s face. A smile briefly appeared at the corners of his mouth before disappearing. Does he have some memory associated with a rock that size? He briefly considered the possibility but quickly dismissed it. Memories with inanimate objects? This guy couldn’t even form memories with living beings. He must have seen wrong due to the darkness.

More importantly.

“I didn’t hear something important.”

“What?”

See that? Answering so rudely. What warmth? He inwardly clicked his tongue but continued with his business.

“Where you’re staying now.”

“…”

“I should know in case of an emergency. Are you staying in the peace zone? Or all the way in the bear territory? Also, do you have an extra deodorizer? If you gave me your only one, we should split it… Hey. HEY!”

Cher, who had been quietly listening, turned and moved away at a rapid pace. He didn’t stop even when called. Though Tiga tried to follow belatedly, he was already too far gone, and there was no way to find someone who was completely out of sight.

“Ah, seriously.”

He wondered why someone who usually did whatever he wanted was being so quiet. He should have punched him earlier when he was angry. If he just showed that personality, half of his followers would decrease, but he didn’t even do that because it was bothersome. Only his childhood friend had to suffer.

***

‘I’m definitely not telling him.’

Though Tiga wouldn’t likely follow him, Cher deliberately took a detour back to the herbivorous district. Was it because staying in the herbivorous district was illegal? Was he afraid Tiga would report this to his father, the leader? If he had worried about each of these things, he wouldn’t have attempted today’s meeting in the first place.

The reason for not telling was simple. If he revealed it, it was obvious that Tiga would visit at some point. There was no assumption that he wouldn’t come. He would come one hundred percent. He was the one who secretly followed him even when he went to the lion or bear territories to avoid the tigers. Even today’s meeting place was one that Tiga had discovered by secretly following him. The only place he hadn’t been detected was the grooming shop.

The reason he asked him to check out the hyena territory was partly because he was trustworthy, but more to divert his attention elsewhere.

Sincerely, Cher hoped that Tiga wouldn’t come to that small house.

‘We’ve just started talking normally, and if one more tiger shows up…’

It was obvious what would happen.

Unlike her soft, squishy appearance, Tinya’s inner self was like an iron fortress. Cher clearly remembered how Tinya had avoided him until just a month ago. Except when receiving grooming as a customer, she had pretended not to see him and ignored him for nearly half a year.

T/N: Kinda random and totally confusing, but the text is suggesting that Cher had been a customer at Tinya’s grooming shop for some time before the current events of the story. At least that is how I understand this part.

Even he, a regular customer she had seen often, was treated that way. What if an unknown male tiger suddenly barged into her house? She would not only faint but would also revert to not speaking to him at all. Would the poor baby tiger effect work twice? He’d probably hear her say, “Since your friend seems to be accepting you, why don’t you go back?”

‘I can’t leave yet.’

The contract was until he returned to normal. Of course, even if he returned to normal tomorrow, he planned to stay for a few more months. He would finally break the arrogance of Leona, who had teased him with a cheerful face, saying, “You still haven’t talked to her? I had a full conversation yesterday.”

Cher quietly pulled the door handle and entered the small house. Though the outside air wasn’t that cold, the warmth that enveloped his body made him feel like he had truly come indoors. He took off his hat, dusted it off, and then took out the deodorizer from her bag, placed near the entrance. He sprayed it once on everything from his hat to his clothes. Though he wouldn’t smell due to using it in front of Tiga earlier, he was preparing just in case.

Afterward, he sauntered into the bedroom. A snort escaped him at the sight of her, unchanged from before, without even a single toss or turn.

“Sleeping so well.”

He muttered as he lay down beside her. The bed was just the right size to accommodate his height while being perfect for two people. He had made the right choice with this size. If he had bought a larger one, it was obvious that Tinya would flee to the corner. Though she probably wouldn’t have entered the room at all.

No sooner had he thought this than Tinya, sensing the cold presence, mumbled and turned her body toward the wall. Cher’s eyebrows twitched. Perhaps it was because he had just been reminiscing about when she pretended not to know him. It was just her turning her back, but he didn’t like it. Pretending to be drunk with sleep, he embraced her.

“W-what is this?”

Is she a light sleeper? It was surprising to see her wake up immediately at his touch. Tinya relaxed her body when she realized it was him whose hand had landed on her stomach.

“You startled me…”

Whether she had mumbled unconsciously, the sound of her swallowing her breath was heard belatedly. Holding back his desire to laugh, he pressed his body close to hers. As he entangled his legs with hers and pressed his face against her shoulder blade, a “hik” sound was heard. Following that, she made movements to escape from him. However, it was impossible for her to escape from the grasp of a tiger determined to maintain this position.

“How can you have such strength even while sleeping…”

Her voice sounded so dumbfounded that she didn’t even bother to lower it. Then, seemingly resigned to her fate, she relaxed her body. Only her small, panting breaths suggested that she was inwardly complaining. Even that didn’t last long. Just like when she fell asleep earlier, she quickly drifted off.

‘Just like a newborn cub.’

He was the one who had become a cub, but ironically, she was the one acting like one. Her breathing, which sounded like whispering, was quite stable.

He breathed along with her and eventually fell asleep.

***

At the time, even Cher had fallen asleep.

In the western outskirts of Greyden, where even moonlight didn’t reach. Over the rough land backed by wasteland, a dry wind passed. The wind erased footprints as it brushed past them, carrying the mixed smell of blood, iron, and old grease. The damp dust settled deep in the lungs, and even the air was desolately dry.

This was the territory of hyena shifters, specifically an avoidance zone that even most carnivorous shifters were reluctant to enter.

Rustle.

Inside an old metal container, under a dimly flickering light, shadows gathered in dozens of layers. In the dull silence that pressed down on the space, some looked around cautiously. Before them, two hyena shifters were trembling with their hands and feet tied.

“You’re sure you fed it to him?”

The low, dry question from the one seated in the center tore through the space. In an atmosphere where even swallowing saliva was frightening, the bound ones reflexively nodded.

“Th-that much is certain!”

“Yes, yes. We saw him shrink with our own eyes.”

“And yet you lost him?”

At the rebuke that flew as soon as the words ended, both their shoulders flinched, and apologies poured out. They were the ones who, after feeding the long-awaited “d**g” to Cher, were tasked with killing him. To assassinate Cher, who rarely left the tiger district, they had no choice but to enter directly and resolve it, and they had to select those who could match him from within the group.

The result was disastrous.

They couldn’t kill him even when he had shrunk, and instead, they returned bloodied. The thought that Cher might be laughing at this scene made their insides turn.

“Have you tracked his whereabouts?”

The surveillance team, waiting tensely, answered.

“Not yet… Since the day after we fed him the d**g, we’ve been secretly observing the leader’s area, but we haven’t seen the tiger cub form anywhere.”

The central hyena, Jakan, slowly clenched his fist. After seemingly looking at the ceiling in silence, he dropped a low, heavy voice.

“So, you’re telling me that after a whole week, you haven’t found a single trace.”

No one could answer. They hadn’t considered the possibility of failure at all, and as a result, they hadn’t prepared a separate tracking team. Even with the “deodorizer,” the risk was too great to send many into the tiger district.

“Increase the search personnel. Search the tiger district more thoroughly.”

At Jakan’s command, someone cautiously stepped forward.

“Lord Jakan. We don’t have much deodorizer left. We need more…”

“I’ll give you three more. This must be resolved before the leader returns. Understood?”

“Yes!”

The energized hyenas dispersed for their mission. Left alone, Jakan tapped the armrest with his fingertips.

He was both relieved by the leader’s absence and concerned by the lack of communication. The leader was currently infiltrating the herbivorous district. The reason was to track the existence of elephant shifters, which were only passed down as legends.