A sparse rain brought coolness, wetting the little town in the painting.
The mighty giant tiger strutted through the streets. Rain dampened its fur, and it occasionally shook off the water. Passersby in town voluntarily stepped aside, utterly unsurprised. Dogs hid in courtyards, too frightened to come out. Mischievous children lay atop walls, imitating a tiger's roar, while shy, honest children peered through cracks in their doors.
It slowly ambled to the butcher's shop, its enormous tiger head filling nearly half the storefront.
"Lord Tiger is here~ Please wait a moment. I'll bring the meat over right away."
The burly man greeted it with a smile, skillfully dragging out a huge wooden basin before running to the rear courtyard and carrying over two cleaned, fat sheep, which he heavily tossed into the basin.
"The usual rules—full weight and honest measure. They were slaughtered just this morning. Please enjoy~"
The fat tiger glanced at the mutton, opened its mouth, and spat several bits of broken silver from the corner of its mouth. They clanged onto the counter, and the butcher happily accepted the payment.
The butcher was a young, honest fellow with an excellent reputation in town. It was hard to imagine that a butcher could be so bashful and afraid of strangers—the sort who would personally wash the dishes after every family feast.
It huffed and snorted, crunching meat and chewing bones. Once it had finished the meat and bones, it licked clean every scrap stuck to the wooden basin, its tongue scraping the wood with a rustling sound.
After the meat came a large basin of sheep's blood. It was a truly lavish meal.
Finally, it licked the corners of its mouth and carefully washed its face, then turned around and headed back without even offering a greeting.
As