Red Sea

The growling sound from the creature continued to be clearly audible. However, it was as if someone had opened up my brain and was whispering directly to me, allowing me to understand his intentions behind the sounds he was making. That imaginary voice sometimes felt like a deep male voice, and at other times, it sounded like a very low mechanical noise. Suddenly confronted with this bizarre phenomenon, Jake felt fear and took a step back.

He had complained dozens of times that it would be better if he could at least communicate with the creature, but now that he could interpret the sounds it was making, he regretted ever having such complaints. He couldn’t tell if the creature was actually saying those things or if the hallucinations in his head were deliberately translating them into rough and curt language, but it seemed he had a hostile nature.

[But it’s a good thing you can understand my sounds now.]

“…Ha… Haha, it seems I’ve finally gone mad.”

Even though he was physically fine, the constant eating and that behavior had clearly worn him down mentally. Seeing Jake’s reaction, the creature stepped forward and grabbed Jake’s body with both hands.

[Congratulations. You have passed the first gate.]

“What do you mean, a gate? What the hell is that? Damn it, why didn’t you talk to me from the start? No, more importantly, why are you doing this to me?”

As his body was grabbed, Jake felt his heart drop to his toes for a moment. It was the fundamental fear that came from a massive and overwhelming presence. Because of that, his tense body trembled. Until now, Jake had expected the creature to be low in intelligence and rough due to its barbaric actions. However, despite its roughness, it clearly conveyed rational and logical meanings. Trembling, Jake began to pour out his curiosity to the creature, forgetting that he was being held captive and raising his voice in excitement.

[You’re quite noisy.]

The creature dismissed Jake with a single remark about being loud. The moment he heard that, Jake identified the source of the inexplicable discomfort. The creature was not only smarter than he had thought, but it also seemed to look down on Jake as a primitive and barbaric being. Faced with the arrogance underlying its statements, Jake was shocked to realize that the creature he had considered a barbaric being with a lowly civilization had such thoughts.

[The gate refers to the procedure for you to endure the harsh environment of this planet. And I have been making sounds to you from the beginning to the end. It’s just that you were too foolish to understand.]

“I can’t understand…. How….”

[Didn’t you come here to trade? It seems I failed to make a graceful landing.]

“You knew…? You did this knowing I was a trader?”

[Immoral? I don’t understand why you’re acting like this. If you’re a trader, act like one.]

The creature personally lifted Jake and sat him on the bed. Then, as if to tell him to stop shouting, it licked his face. Jake, frowning in disgust, pushed away the tongue sticking to his face and said,

“I don’t understand anything, so explain it to me! I seem to be less intelligent than I thought, and even less than you think! And I am not ‘you’! I have a name, Jake!”

[Keep that in mind. Jake. Have I ever introduced myself? I don’t think so.]

“Well… I thought you couldn’t speak. We couldn’t communicate in the first place!”

[That’s true. But I introduced myself knowing that. About three times. My name is….]

Jake’s face turned red. The creature pointed out Jake’s rudeness with a growl, and that was undeniably impolite. When the creature revealed its name, Jake’s face changed to a subtle expression. Whether the translation device in his head had malfunctioned or if it was an area impossible to transliterate into human language, that part sounded like raw wind.

“Kshaaah….”

When Jake showed a reaction as if he didn’t understand, the creature repeated its name. However, it was a struggle for Jake to mimic that sound with human vocal cords.

“I’m sorry… Can’t I just call you something similar? Like Kashan?”

[Do as you wish. It’s not important anyway. But it’s better than calling me a piglet.]

“Didn’t you first do that crazy thing to my body without my permission? You have no intention of apologizing for that? Rather, you should explain to me why you’re doing this!”

[I don’t understand why you complain so much about mating. Is it not to your liking? Jake is a trader. So, of course, you must meet our requirements to trade.]

“Like you said, I’m a trader. I’m not your mating target!”

[No. You must meet the trading conditions.]

Jake flinched at the realization that the creature remembered a significant portion of what it had said so far. However, he soon glared at it again with renewed hostility. Kashan was calmer and more resolute than he had expected.

“We only need sulfur from this land. Have you ever explained the trading conditions to me? I haven’t heard any.”

[There is one trading condition. Send breeding specimens to Thermo. Then, I will allow you to extract sulfur.]

“What? What kind of nonsensical talk is that….”

[Our trading condition has always been one. Send breeding specimens. Then, we will help you extract sulfur in return. However, the transportation is the traders’ responsibility.]

Since extracting sulfur is something we can do much better than doing it with shabby equipment in a hot environment, Kashan added. Jake felt as if he had been hit. The fact that breeding specimens were the trading condition was new information he had neither heard nor seen before. And if he had known, he would never have boarded the spaceship.

“I… I don’t want to do that! I could just refuse the trade, right?”

[You’re saying something strange. You’re going to give up trading? That’s a first for someone to say that. The trading condition has always been one, and many traders have come and gone. Do you think I’m trying to deceive you?]

The tongue that had been gently caressing Jake’s body suddenly stopped. Along with that, the hands gripping his body tightened.

“D-Don’t threaten me…! It’s not that you’re wrong, but I’ve never heard of the trading conditions, and if I had known it was like this, I wouldn’t have done it. It’s a shame to break off, but….”

Jake stopped speaking. He couldn’t bring himself to say that he would go find another trader to calm the creature, which seemed upset. Only then did he slowly begin to understand why this bewildering situation had arisen. From the start, no one would want to be a breeding specimen for an alien, so it was most likely that the home planet had sent him knowing that. After all, they were the ones who had created a system that would ruthlessly eliminate fellow humans if they became a hindrance to society. The same went for situations that were beneficial.

He had been sold for just a few trucks of sulfur from the home planet.

[If it breaks off, then so be it. But can you unilaterally decide that? Usually, trading is done on a planetary scale.]

And it seemed the creature knew that. This trade was not simply a transaction between individuals, but a legitimate transaction between planets, and a mere trader had no power in that regard.

“Ah… Ah, that….”

Even if he showed tears from the pain of being mated by the creature, he could count on one hand the times he had felt such intense emotions. Jake lowered his head, unable to look straight ahead due to the throbbing in his head. A sense of betrayal greater than when he learned the truth about the native beings washed over him like a storm.

[I don’t recommend giving up. As I said, being able to perceive my sounds means your body has already changed to be suitable for living on this planet. In other words, it means you have become a body that can receive our eggs….]

Kashan watched as Jake realized the betrayal but offered no words of comfort. The Thermo tribe did not understand the complex emotions of humans and only provided the most suitable judgment for the situation. Nevertheless, upon hearing Jake’s plea that he had no information, Kashan decided to explain the information that he might not know. He judged that Jake refusing to communicate and acting out was not beneficial from any perspective.

[I am the landowner. It is quite fortunate that I found the trader Jake instead of those shabby beings. Those who don’t even have a piece of land would have just laid their eggs and abandoned you somewhere.]

Kashan declared himself the landowner. The Thermo tribe consisted solely of a single gender, and they would mate with other beings that were not of their kind to modify their bodies to be capable of carrying eggs. It was also possible to fertilize among their own kind, but since they were a heat-based species, doing so would only result in the eggs being unable to withstand the internal high temperatures and cooking themselves. Breeding among their own kind was impossible.

The beings that carry the eggs must be entities without a heat source inside them, but once they lay the eggs, they must be kept in a sufficiently heated area until they hatch in the hot environment. And only strong Thermo beings could possess that territory, which Kashan explained with a sense of pride in occupying caves and land with sufficient heat.

Of course, Jake, who was in shock, listened with one ear and let it flow out the other, lamenting his situation. The moment the possibility of escape, let alone rescue, converged to zero, he felt as if he were sitting on the bed but was abandoned in the cold universe, floating in the void.

[The animals residing on the planet are too small and have adapted to the heat, living underground, so they are mostly insufficient as breeding specimens…. So we devised a way to accept traders. We breed, and they can easily take the overflowing sulfur, which is a very good condition.]

“That’s not good… What’s good about it? Are you crazy?”

Jake, who had been quietly listening, exploded, striking Kashan’s arm that was holding him. Until now, he had acted cautiously, judging rationally not to provoke or attack it, but he could no longer hold back, and the action came out impulsively.

“Damn it! You bastards! I knew it from the start! You’re all a crazy group! I’ve been abandoned!”

His shouting turned into sobs. The moment he struck the creature’s solid arm, a throbbing shock surged through his fist. He had thought its arms were as hard as stone, but actually hitting them was more than just describing them as hard. Even if it felt like his bones were breaking, Jake couldn’t stop punching, tears streaming down his face as he acted violently.

[Humans are truly rough creatures. But that’s why I like you.]

Kashan remained still, holding Jake without flinching. It seemed he intended to let him be until he tired himself out.

[Most traders willingly became breeding specimens. I think trader Jake will be the same. The Thermo do not fail. Lay the eggs.]

“Don’t joke! Do you think I would willingly comply with that?”

Normally, after getting this angry, it would be time for him to tire out, but as Jake continued to hurl insults, Kashan changed his strategy. Four arms that had slipped out from the hole reached out to grab Jake’s limbs. Kashan extended a hand from behind Jake’s body and inserted a finger into the hole located beneath his testicles, growling.

[The fact that you can already understand my sounds is a sign that you can carry the eggs well. What are you afraid of, Jake? Trader Jake. Seeking sulfur from such a small planet means your planet is not abundant, doesn’t it? Moreover, becoming the breeding specimen of the landowner is a glorious thing.]