Page 34 of The Last Tiger

Kenzo nods, fixated on the glowing painting. He wears a curious, strained expression; the blood has completely drained from his cheeks.

Sure enough, the golden line marks a clear trail through the woods. If someone were, for whatever reason, trying to sneak a tiger to the capital, this meandering path would certainly be more inconspicuous than hopping on the nearest train to Hannam City.

As the light begins to fade, I scan the drawing again, doing my best to commit it to memory; I recognize most of the landmarks, anyway.

After a few moments, when I’m certain I have it in my head, I hop off the rock and stand at a distance, nodding resolutely at Kenzo, trying to push down the nagging feeling of guilt that’s suddenly begun to brew in my core.

An image flashes through my mind: the Slaying Ceremony. The creature, trembling. Its severed head, snapping madly in the air. I shudder. Can I really be responsible for that?

The tiger was once our national symbol. If I bring them the tiger, it’ll be like turning in one of my own kind—becoming what everyone says my family stands for. Something that I swore, in the deepest fiber of my being, I would never become.

A collaborator.

But it’s not like I have a choice.

Isao has my entire family right under his thumb. If I fail to bring him the tiger, he won’t hesitate to kill them all in an instant. I have no doubt about that. My stomach turns over as once again I think of Moonhee…

There’s nothing I can do about that. Not now. Not when I’m powerless.

But if I turn in the tiger and earn Isao’s favor—if I become a hero in the Dragon Empire—then I’ll truly have the power to make a difference.

For the first time, I think I finally understand how Father has felt all these years.

The desperate need to protect oneself and one’s family.

The helplessness before the utter power General Isao has over our lives.

The frantic voice in my head telling me that if I can just give him what he needs, then maybe we’ll be spared.

Just like him, I’m facing a puzzle without an answer—how to juggle the impossible demands of working within a corrupt system.

If I don’t get my hands on this tiger, someone else will.

In fact, someone else already has . If I walk away from this path, Isao will kill the rest of my family as easily as he killed Moonhee, so it’s no longer a question of whether the tiger will die, but rather, who the tiger can save as it goes down.

And so I promise myself this: If I succeed—if I capture the tiger—then once I’ve got the empire in my corner, once I have Isao’s favor and all the power that comes with it truly in my hands, I promise—I promise to use that power for the good of our people.

“Okay,” I say, firming my resolve. “Let’s do it, then. Let’s go steal ourselves a tiger.”

Time seems to slow as Kenzo opens his mouth to reply. For some reason, I can’t seem to hear him. His voice sounds muffled, as though he’s speaking to me from inside a dream.

And then, suddenly, my bones melt . My hand collides painfully against the inner wall of the cave, scraping against the rough stone as I stagger to my knees.

A deep, inexplicable sense of dread floods into the base of my stomach.

Then, without warning, it transforms into a wordless, aimless sorrow, escaping from my mouth in a strangled sob.

My blood boils—then cools in an instant and turns to ice. My vision swims.

Something is wrong.

“It—doesn’t want us to be here,” Kenzo gasps through the haze.

“What do you mean, it ?”

Kenzo grabs me by the hand and yanks.

We burst out of the mouth of the cave as if expelled by a gust of wind.

The two of us sail into the grass and dirt, tumbling in a heap of arms and legs.

Kenzo grunts beneath my weight. Immediately, the strange reeling from inside the cave dissipates, returning the blood to my legs and clarity to my mind. I leap off Kenzo and to my feet.

Empty, tigerless cavern.

Magic, glowing map.

Angry, sentient cave.

I have to say, it’s not exactly what I was expecting to find today.

But it’s certainly something. Something to show me that this isn’t the end of the line—in fact, we’ve only just completed step one.

The tiger might still be up for grabs.

I push my doubts firmly away. I don’t have the luxury to question myself now.

“Thanks for breaking my fall,” I say, dusting myself off.

“Ow…” Still lying in the dirt, Kenzo clutches his chest and exhales theatrically, as though he’s never been knocked on his back in his life.

“Oh please.” I roll my eyes. “That was nothing compared to some of the battles you must’ve had at Adachi.”

“There’s a rock digging into my back,” he whines, sitting up and readjusting his sleeves. “I think I’m bleeding.”

“Then heal yourself and stop whining.” I laugh, scraping off the mud from my knees. Leave it to the melodramatic golden boy to complain about something so ridiculous. “Isn’t your whole thing that you’re supposed to be in the military ? Since when did a little blood bother you?”

“I was supposed to be in intelligence . Not out on the field. Hand-to-hand combat is for disposables.”

I almost laugh at the absurdity of his comment before I realize that he’s not joking.

Kenzo glares at the dirt, his mouth pressed into a thin line. He rearranges his long, shaggy hair before throwing his hood back up to conceal the top half of his face.

Sheesh. I have no idea what happened just now to offend the guy so much, but clearly, it struck a chord.

I avert my gaze, turning around to look back toward the cave. Perhaps I can take one last glance at the glowing mural—

But it’s gone.

In place of the circle of greenery, the weird-looking statues, and the rock cavern…now there’s nothing but endless trees. It’s as if the tiger’s cave had never even been there in the first place.

I peer over, noticing something in the dirt. Lying on the forest floor, partially crumpled, is an old, folded piece of paper. I walk over to pick it up. It’s been recently trampled, lying beside the trail of fresh paw prints.

I unfold the paper, smoothing it out. There’s a drawing of a tiger on the front, and on the back is a shoddily scrawled message:

For Lover Boy—Jin Xx

Lover Boy? I wonder who that is.

“I think we may have found our target,” I call back to Kenzo, holding up the flyer.