The diligently running carriage entered the forest at the border of the rabbit territory, which led to the black panther’s territory, before long.
I, who folded my hands neatly on my abdomen, exchanged signals with Quinn using our eyebrows. I needed to silence Quinn, who had witnessed the scene with Rune.
Was having a short conversation with Rune something that required this much caution? Although I simmered with anger, I also fretted anxiously about whether that would reach Ahin’s ears.
When I raised my right eyebrow threateningly, Quinn snorted. Whether in hawk form or human form, he was always unfiltered in his nastiness.
‘Somehow.’
No matter how much he might have been Ahin’s messenger bird, it was said that he entered the underground prison too easily. Because he was a close aide with reason, he passed through the entrance without any formalities.
“Miss Rabbit, your cheek is pressed against the wall. Although the carriage wall is thick, if you stay like that, you’ll catch a cold.”
Everine who kept his gaze fixed on the documents, spoke calmly. It seemed I had unknowingly crept into the corner while engaging in a staring contest with the menacing Quinn. I, who had been pressed closely against the wall, straightened up and cleared my throat.
“How did Quinn end up becoming Ahin’s retainer?”
“Um, is it alright if I tell her?”
At Everine’s question, Quinn stomped his foot once. Everine lifted his leg nimbly as if accustomed to it, avoiding his kick.
“He is someone who never spoke except when it is absolutely necessary. I will tell you in his stead.”
So did that mean that the damned rabbit was something necessary to say? Quinn had a strange knack for making the corners of the damned rabbit’s eyes twitch upward.
“Miss Rabbit, by any chance had you ever taken a close look at the scar on Bara’s eye?”
“If you meant Bara’s eye···.”
A scar that ran across one of Bara’s eyes came to mind naturally. It seemed like quite an old mark, but there was no way I could have seen the black panther’s face in detail. When I shook my head, Everine tapped the corner of his eye.
“It was a mark that Sir Quinn made several years ago.”
“That scar?”
“After taking out his eye, Sir Quinn became a heroic half-corpse.”
“…Surely you didn’t attack a black panther in hawk form?”
“Yes. Pretty ignorant, right?”
After exchanging questions, we tried hard to avoid Quinn’s increasingly fierce gaze.
“He didn’t even have the strength to return to human form, and if he had stayed like that, he would have died. So Lord Ahin picked him up and brought him along.”
Ahin truly picked up all sorts of things. I couldn’t quite bring myself to say that aloud, so I just nodded my head.
“After that, Sir Quinn went back and forth to Grace at his own will. He didn’t even obey the orders of Madam Valence, and only followed Lord Ahin’s commands.”
Everine, who explained in a toneless voice, held out a fruit basket. He watched me pick a piece of fruit with a calm gaze.
“So when Lord Ahin picked you up, Miss Rabbit, I found it a bit strange. When he brought Sir Quinn, he just tossed him aside and never looked for him, but you, Miss Rabbit, he carried around in his pocket without fail. Right?”
Quinn, who had been staring blankly at the fruit basket, roughly nodded. having received a sort of answer, Everine suddenly spoke grimly.
“You got caught in the wrong way.”
“I see. …What?”
Things had been going smoothly, so why did a curse suddenly come out?
“When you were picked up and saved, you should have run away at full speed.”
“W-why, why?”
Without knowing the full details, I got chills and dropped the apple I had picked up. The apple rolled over and vanished into the mouth of Ash, who had been rolling on the floor.
“Today was the first time I had seen Lord Ahin utter an apology. He was someone who would never bend his stiff neck once in his entire life.”
“…….”
“Seeing that, I realized it. If you tried to run away now, you would end up as a salad with chicory. Poor Miss Rabbit.”
Everine pretended to cry, even though he didn’t particularly look sad. I tried to ignore it and move on, but even Quinn, who had been ignoring everything, now nodded rather seriously.
‘What the….’
No matter how much of a joke it was, until now, what they had mentioned were roasted dishes like rabbit roast or steak.
But salad was raw, wasn’t it? Realizing that the menu choice had become even more brutal, I clutched the innocent fruit basket tightly.
“That was too cruel, ack!”
Crreung-
Along with the vibration of Ash’s throat as she suddenly sprang up, the carriage came to a sudden stop. Everine and Quinn blocked me as I staggered from the recoil.
The halted carriage was submerged in a chilly silence. It was the calm before the storm. Ash, excited, circled around on the floor, growing tense.
The moment I let out the breath I had been holding, clang, a frictional sound of blades clashing came from outside. It was a sound that froze my bones.
“Surely not like the previous time with the wolves…!”
“Miss Rabbit, please calm down.”
Everine restrained me, who was flustered, with composure. At the same time, the coachman’s voice came from outside.
“Bandits blocked the front. It seemed they would be dealt with soon, so please wait a moment.”
The coachman’s voice sounded calm, as if he were talking about something insignificant, just like Everine. Quinn also took a guarded stance, but it seemed that he was only preparing for a worst-case scenario, not intending to participate in the fight.
“Isn’t the forest at the border a stronghold of bandits. It looked like we became a target because we moved in a small number. Still, since we have a group composed of the coachman and the best elite knights, the situation would be over soon.”
Everine, who sat me back in my place, reassured me in a voice no different from usual. Rolling my eyes, I asked cautiously.
“Even if they were just ordinary bandits… wasn’t it dangerous?”
As soon as the question ended, Everine’s eyes gleamed sharply. He quickly took the silk hat hanging on the carriage wall.
“Miss Rabbit, you should take refuge in this silk hat. There’s no time, hurry.”
“Ah, got it… talk some sense!”
Realizing belatedly that I was in human form, I yelled and then hastily covered my mouth.
Clang, clang, hwaak, countless footsteps and battle cries mingled together, but because the carriage was enclosed on all sides, it felt as though we were in another world.
After looking around the interior without a single window, I then turned to the right window. Click, at the same time, there was a sign of someone hooking a latch outside the window. It was a tiny hint of presence that one wouldn’t know unless one focused.
‘…Why were they locking the window?’
I furrowed my brows in confusion. Who and why would someone lock the latch from outside? Wouldn’t it be right to lock it from the inside? There seemed to be no other intention than to prevent the window from opening.
“Aagh!”
Right then, a scream rang out from outside, further tangling my already complicated thoughts. Clutching the pherenium wrapped around my wrist tightly, I caught my breath.
‘…Strange.’
The more I mulled it over, the stranger everything seemed. Especially Everine, Quinn, and the coachman’s attitude, which didn’t fit the current urgent situation at all. They showed no surprise, as though they had anticipated an ambush.
‘…Don’t panic.’
I closed my eyes slowly and pondered.
What on earth was happening outside?
Normally, bandits would force the window open, not discreetly latch the door handle. It didn’t make sense if this was the work of bandits whose aim was money. From the start, it was hard to think of locking from outside as anything but an intention to confine.
‘Perhaps because it would be troublesome if we looked outside.’
While setting up various hypotheses, my mother’s anxious expression suddenly popped into my head.
‘We can’t part ways like this. Follow this mother.’
If, by any chance, the purpose of this ambush wasn’t money or anything else but me. There wouldn’t be anyone other than my mother who would do such a thing. The fact that this happened just before leaving the rabbit territory strengthened my guess.
Having thought this far, Ahin’s face flashed through my mind, and a new doubt arose.
Could that keen-witted Ahin have failed to anticipate such an ambush? And why did Ahin insist on staying alone in the rabbit territory?
‘What? Telling me to go back first?’
‘Yeah, I had something left to take care of.’
Mother, Ahin, ambush. Mother, Ahin, ambush….
‘No way… Ahin did something to Mother….’
I patted my trembling thigh, trying to stay calm.
In fact, I had found it strange ever since Ahin, who stuck close to me, tried to send me off first. This was a person who wouldn’t even let me wander alone in Chief Amon’s mansion.
I bit my lip hard enough to draw blood and took out the letter paper Russell had given me from my bosom. Hiding the stiff paper behind my back, I waited for the right moment.
Staying completely still, I sensed Everine and Quinn becoming unusually tense, even though they had been reassuring me that nothing would happen. The fact that Everine’s mouth stayed quietly shut proved it.
Thud, suddenly, something seemed to have hit the carriage, shaking it enough to jolt our bodies. In that instant, Everine and Quinn’s vigilance faltered.
‘Now’s the time.’
Taking a deep breath, I shouted.
“Ash, salute!”
Ash, who was sitting semi-automatically, brought her front paw straight up to her forehead.
“Salute, what is this?”
As the two people’s attention focused on Ash, I jumped up and slipped the letter paper into the gap of the window. As I pushed it up, click, I heard the latch opening.
“Miss Rabbit, what are you…!”
The moment I threw the window open, the pheromones inside my body reacted, as though stirred. Although it was impossible to sense it in detail with the five senses, I could no longer not notice that someone else’s pheromones were stimulating mine.
‘Dominant-class pheromones….’
It couldn’t have happened without Ahin being here.
‘Why was Ahin, who should have been at the mansion, here?’
Staring blankly out the window, I quickly turned around.
Instead of scolding me for opening the window, Quinn and Everine moved in secretly, closing the distance. Rather than questioning my action, it looked like they were busy trying to prevent me from doing anything foolish.
“D-don’t come any closer.”
Wielding the letter paper like a sword, I glared, my eyes filled with blood. The shadows cast by the two tall men were quite threatening.
“I told both of you not to come, stand right there.”
I tried to speak harshly, but a soft, round voice popped out. Swallowing the surge of frustration, I straightened the letter paper.
“Miss Rabbit, why are you suddenly acting like this?”
“…Why are you acting like this, Everine. Tell me, Ahin is here, right?”
“Yes? Why would Lord Ahin, who stayed at the mansion, be here?”
Everine answered without wavering and reached out his hand.
“First of all, it’s dangerous, so please come over here.”
“If you wouldn’t give me a proper answer, I have no choice but to check myself. I would jump out of the window.”
“…So this was the action force of Miss Rabbit that Lord Ahin mentioned.”
Everine, who rarely wore a flustered expression, scratched the back of his neck.
“Tell me what’s happening outside and what you’re hiding from me. Ahin was here, wasn’t he?”
“If you come over here first, I would explain everything. Your body is shaking like an aspen tree.”
“…Rabbits are originally prone to trembling. So stop changing the subject.”
“I’m sorry, but I’m under a gag order. I’m in no position to tell you anything, so if you would kindly direct your reproach to Lord Ahin, I would be grateful.”
Even while responding smoothly, both of them steadily narrowed the distance. Perhaps they intended to knock me out if it came down to it. Rolling my eyes and glancing back and forth, I took a bold step.
“Everine, if even a fingertip of yours touched me, I wouldn’t say a single word to you for the rest of my life.”
“Yes? Where in the world was there such a law?”
“You know how scary I could be when I got angry.”
Once, I had gotten so furious at Everine’s teasing that I crawled into Ahin’s spare shoes and ignored him all day.
Recalling how he had bowed and scraped at that time, his complexion visibly worsened.
“Sir Quinn, I don’t think we need to push Miss Rabbit like a villain.”
Without replying, Quinn clicked his tongue and drew a dagger from his belt. Startled, Everine, whose eyes widened, hastily grabbed his shoulder.
“All we needed was to cross safely into black panther territory, so why draw a blade?”
“If we consider the possibility of her getting off the carriage, it would be better to knock her out. That damned rabbit could think more cleverly than expected.”
“Indeed, just looking at how fast she opened the window….”
In the voice of Quinn, which I heard for the second time, there was once again the phrase “that damned rabbit.”
Anyway, judging from the conversation between the two, there must have been a secret outside the carriage. Hesitating, I deliberately made an aggrieved voice.
“Kn-knocking me out was too much, wasn’t it?”
“…Yes, knocking her out was too much.”
Everine, who seemed to have softened, tried to dissuade Quinn again.
“You knew how painful it would be even if you used the back of the sword. And if Miss Rabbit’s body got hurt, it would also hurt our future.”
“Move.”
“Although Miss Rabbit concealed a sinister intention, I couldn’t allow the blade. It would be better if you stabbed me instead.”
“…….”
“No, what would you do if you really aimed your sword at my neck? That’s dangerous, so please put it away.”
I vaguely guessed why Ahin made Quinn stay by my side in human form. In a situation like this, Everine would waver, whereas Quinn would show no mercy.
But what they overlooked was the fact that
‘Aim at the one who would release pheromones and think of it as shooting an arrow at the target.’
I had learned a sort of attack method.
‘…Could I do it?’
Gripping the pherenium, I searched the fruit basket with my other hand. It was the same one that had attracted Quinn’s subtle gaze until recently.
“Quinn.”
When I flicked a strawberry at him, his attention scattered for a moment. At the same time, I activated the pherenium and rubbed my thumb and index finger together.
Snap!
Quinn’s towering body, struck by the pheromones I released, collapsed. Just as I was about to relish the joy of success, an unexpected complication occurred as Everine, who stood next to him, also fell over.
‘…Why Everine too?’
I had definitely aimed at Quinn correctly. As I stared down in puzzlement, my eyes narrowed more and more like a narrow-eyed bird as time passed.
‘His intuition is eerily quick.’
To think that he decided he had to pretend to faint in that short moment. He wasn’t made a chamberlain by sheer luck.
Approaching Everine’s feet, I whispered quietly.
“Everine, this attack was something that I shot and sent toward only one target.”
He did not return an answer, with his long eyelashes lowered.
“For reference, I aimed at Quinn.”
“…Where did you learn such a technique,”
Tap. When I mercilessly rubbed my fingers together, Everine’s head, which had been moving slightly, drooped down with a thump.
Kneeling down, I brought his head, which had turned sideways, back into place. Not an expressionless face, but the colorful sleeping figure made him finally look his own age.
“Everine?”
I pinched his nose and waited for a long time, but his lips did not open. It seemed that he had fallen completely into the grip of sleep.
‘This is so scary….’
Hu- I intermittently gasped for breath and rubbed around my chest. Not only was I afraid of my own ability, but it was also hard to handle, to the point where my heart ached.
The fact that Everine had fallen asleep was practically the same as meaning that the healing-type pheromone greatly surpassed his neutralizing pheromone.
That was not all. The sensation running through my blood vessels had become even clearer than when I had just begun to learn pheromones.
Perhaps because I had used perenium, I felt as if Ahin’s dominating-type pheromone still lingered at my fingertips.
At this point, it seemed like I could use the pheromone a few more times without returning to a rabbit.
“…Sorry.”
After straightening the sleeping Everine’s posture, I pulled out the dagger from Quinn’s hand. The dagger, about the length of a forearm, was small in size but had a blade sharp enough to gleam.
Swallowing my dry saliva, I tucked the dagger, which I had placed in its sheath, into my bosom. I had not the slightest intention of wielding it, but it was better than being unarmed.
“Ash, come behind me.”
Creeeak, I carefully opened the carriage door and stuck out only my eyes first. From behind, Ash bit and pulled at the hem of my clothes so that I would not fall forward.
The unique pungent scent of the forest and the smell of the wind stimulated the tip of my nose. Pretending not to notice the fear that made my stomach clench with a dull ache, I loosened my wrist muscles.
The place where the carriage had stopped was deep in the middle of the border forest. My mouth was parched, and I rolled my gaze around in a wide circle.
I did not see any sign of Ahin, whom I sought. Perhaps it was due to being affected by his pheromone; most of the beastfolk had collapsed without any wounds.
Seeing that there were no visible bloodstains, I felt slightly relieved and immediately opened my narrowed eyes wide.
What remained were only the mysterious beastfolk who were crossing swords, the coachman, and the two knights affiliated with the Grace family who had been escorting the carriage.
Wouldn’t it have been better to make them sleep rather than spill blood?
“Wait.”
I stopped Ash, who was about to dash out, and gathered pheromone at my fingertips.
Tap, tap, tap.
Each time my fingers rubbed together, the targeted beastfolk fell down like paper dolls.
Even upon seeing it again, it was a scene I could not believe was my own ability. While seriously considering whether I should faint and then get back up, I steadily snapped my fingers together.
Before long, all the beastfolk fell down. As if we had promised each other, Ash and I exchanged glances and slowly stepped onto the ground.
“…Ahin, where are you?”
Around the now quiet carriage, nothing but the sounds of insects could be heard.
Before long, the darkening sky began to descend into twilight.
Silencing my footsteps, I went and stood before the beastfolk dressed in black attire. Even with my eyes closed, it was a suspicious getup that completely concealed the face with a mask. After removing the black cloth and flipping open the eyelids, pale purple pupils were revealed.
‘A rabbit beastfolk.’
What if he had really been just a petty thief? Anxiety surged momentarily, wondering if I had made a mistake, but that could not have been the case.
If that had been so, Quinn and Everine would have blocked me, and I would not have sensed Ahin’s pheromone from outside the window.
‘He was definitely nearby.’
Sweat seeped into my tightly clenched fist. The more I thought about it, the more my mind became tangled, so wouldn’t I know everything once I found Ahin?
“Ash, youwait in the carriage.”
Wiping my damp hand on my clothes, I belatedly realized that Ash had disappeared.
“…Ash?”
Startled, I turned my head, and in the distance, I saw a black tail swaying in the bushes.
“What’s wrong?”
Had she discovered something? I followed after her, crawling on all fours, and pushed through the thick undergrowth.
When I pulled aside the last bush, I saw a medium-sized tree in my view. Tied to the end of a short rope connected to the tree was a somewhat familiar horse.
‘A black horse?’
Plod, plod, as I approached, my steps gradually turned into a run. Even from a distance, the jewel attached to the black horse’s chest clearly proved its identity as Jane. This confirmed that Ahin had come to this spot and that he was still somewhere nearby.
“…Jane!”
I, who had been running toward Jane, recoiled in fright at the rustling sound.
“Ack!”
The white rabbit that had leapt out of the bushes ran away as if it had gone mad the moment it saw Ash. I, who had watched its busy back with a complicated and subtle feeling, narrowed my eyes.
‘That is….’
The bushes in the path where the rabbit had escaped looked as if they had been cut cleanly by a sword. Above that, folds and crushed marks, as if someone had passed through, connected to the depths of the forest.
* * *
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