Two-Person Galactic Journey: Earth Was Destroyed While Imprisoned in Space Prison-Chapter 201

Chapter 201
Now then, first I'd like to brush off the dirt and check what's inside.
Assuming the eyeball-like object is indeed an eyeball, I'll approach it from the ground. Emotion stays behind with Queen Bee. I lower the altitude slightly and give instructions to blend in with the trees.
There are plenty of places to hide. Not only among the trees that haven't been eaten yet, but also in the soil overturned by the giant beast.
"......It kind of looks like a frog."
A frog without legs. You could even say it's just a frog's head.
It sways its body and bites into trees, snapping them off and swallowing them whole. From within, I hear a sound like trees breaking—perhaps they're being crushed or snapped by the internal pressure.
The closer I get, the stronger the smell of soil becomes. Dust kicked up with each movement, and crumbling chunks of soil. Breathing it in almost makes me choke.
It still doesn't look like it has a skeleton. But up close, its body only looks amoeba-like—it's actually quite different. Though dirtied with soil, the visible patches of skin show a firm elasticity.
It drags itself along the ground, scraping as it moves. It steps on sharp, broken tree trunks, but doesn't seem to care. Is it confident it won't be hurt, or does it not feel pain at all?
"Still can't quite tell yet."
Just a slight twitch from the giant beast is enough to instinctively trigger a sense of mortal danger. But Kait approaches right beneath it without hesitation.
Using moisture gathered from the surrounding trees and soil, he begins washing the dirt off the beast's body. It's only a small part of its massive form, but after a while, the dirt softens and peels away.
The water turns murky in no time. Kait isn't trying to clean the whole body, so he doesn't bother replacing the water—he just keeps washing.
The beast shows no particular reaction. It doesn't even seem to realize it's being washed. Since it doesn't show any interest, it likely hasn't noticed Kait's presence either.
"I guess that should do it?"
He pushes aside the now pitch-black water and dumps it onto the nearby ground. Seeing the area cleaned by the water, Kait instinctively furrows his brow at the unexpected sight.
There's fur. Coarse, gray fur covering the skin. The presence of body hair itself isn't all that strange. It's just that the fur looks oddly familiar.
No, since it's a creature from the same planet, it's not strange for the fur to resemble something else. Or maybe it's trying to trick others into thinking it's an ally by mimicking similar fur. No good—no matter what theory I come up with, none of them are convincing.
Since just looking won't help, I decide to touch it. I leap up to the cleaned spot and touch the fur and the skin beneath it.
It's a strange sensation. The texture is clearly different from any fur I've touched before. Yes, it feels different from that of a goat-bear. Even though it looks just like goat-bear fur.
The texture of the skin underneath is also bizarre. Though the whole body moves like a mass of elasticity, the touched area is mushy and soft. It feels like pressing on old, spoiled meat. Definitely not a pleasant texture.
"Pardon me for a moment."
A bit forcefully, he lifts a nearby tree and scrapes at the beast's skin. It's not as clean as washing with water, but at least the color of the skin becomes visible. And just as Kait had suspected, it was there.
The Smallfolk of Ramadite knew of the beast's existence, but not its true identity. It's too alien to be called a new discovery. Maybe it would've been better not to touch it out of curiosity.
"Well, I found it, so I guess it can't be helped."
This giant beast has to be ed to the council.
Why is it that the moment I start a carefree trip with someone, I end up running into trouble like this?
Kait let out a deep, quiet sigh.
***
Since he's decided to it, he'll need to record some observations. Kait puts some distance between himself and the beast, then sits atop a tree facing the opposite direction of its gaze.
Still, it's huge. Just how long did it take to grow this big? To put it mildly, it's like a mountain. It stores a massive number of trees in its belly and returns underground. Imagining the meaning behind that, he continues to observe.
Then—
"......Hm?"
At first, it looked like a reckless rat was running up the beast.
But the strong sense of wrongness made him realize otherwise. It's running on four legs. Of its six functional limbs, two aren't being used. No—are they holding some kind of tool?
"Oh come on, give me a break."
It's not just one or two. Even at a glance, more than a dozen are climbing the beast's skin, each on their own. When he focuses his gaze on them, their identity becomes clear.
Kait leaps into the air. He strips every leaf from the surrounding trees and hurriedly flies toward the group.
How far are they planning to climb? They're running recklessly. But gradually, their speed slows. When they stop, they thrust the tools they're holding into the ground—in other words, the beast's skin. It's a movement filled with hate and anger. But they're far too small. They only scrape a little of the skin. It hardly counts as a wound.
"△re! ◇ga!"
"〇×! ◇wo! △re!"
They're shouting in some hard-to-understand language.
The Federation's translation function can't fully cover it—it seems to be a slightly different dialect.
One discovery is enough. More than that is too much, he thinks as he watches the creatures frantically attacking the beast. Probably soon—
"!?"
Sure enough, the moment the beast turns, they're flung into the air.
Kait calmly activates his psychic power. He weaves the leaves together with his ability to make an improvised net.
The group falls gently onto the leaves. Though all of them had closed their eyes, they cautiously open them when the expected impact doesn't come.
"G-Giant〇be!?"
Ah, this time I could understand most of that.
***
What Kait had rescued were Smallfolk who looked just like Adie Ze. Six functional limbs and small bodies. Since they even share the same birthplace, they must be of the same race.
But it raises questions. As far as he remembers, the ancestors of Adie Ze and the others had made all Smallfolk on the surface into Federation citizens. Since the Federation thoroughly explored the surface, there shouldn't be any Smallfolk left in this area.
"Well, this is a problem."
The idea that they're Smallfolk visiting Ramadite for vacation is unlikely. After all, they called Kait a giant. He's aware that he's relatively well-known in the Federation.
Still, rather than assuming these are Smallfolk the Federation failed to find, it's more likely that Federation citizens are pretending not to know Kait. At least, Kait trusts Federation tech enough to say that with confidence.
Well, if they insist Kait is a giant, they're not going to talk honestly, even if they are Federation citizens. While lightly restraining the noisy group with the net, he hurries to Queen Bee. The fastest way is to have Adie Ze and the others identify them through Emotion's eyes.
"Emotion. We've got an emergency."
'What is it, Captain?'
"Are the Smallfolk still connected to the comms?"
Kait had hoped one of the elders would tell them to stop playing pranks.
'......Huh? Kait, Third-Rank Citizen (Enec Lagif). Who are those Smallfolk......?'
Hearing Rutimi De's confused voice, Kait instinctively looked up at the sky.