Compared to how the wind had been chilly recently, it had been an unusually warm day.
The sunlight warmed my belly, so I woke up and wriggled my body. I had wanted to savor the stiff feeling a bit longer.
Why did I feel like I slept so long? The place where I had lain was a cushion stuffed with soft cotton.
Tap, tap. I suddenly sat up and rubbed my eyes when I heard a strange sound. He said that once I got up, it would be at Grace Manor.
‘It is the mansion, but….’
More precisely, I was on a chair placed around the training field.
It could be training time. The noise of wooden swords clashing from the affiliated knights had tapped at my ears.
Because it wasn’t real swords, it was less scary than I imagined. Since I had deliberately avoided training times, it was a sight I saw for the first time.
“Are you awake?”
A shadow cast over me as I looked around in confusion. It was Meimi.
“This is the training field.”
So why was I sleeping in the training field? She wiped my face with a warm cloth and explained as I opened and closed my mouth wordlessly.
“You slept for a whole day.”
Because Ahin, who had grown tired of waiting for me to wake up, had carried me around along with the cushion. According to his schedule, I dozed off in the training field after passing through his office.
As she wiped my front paws in a pose of raising my arms in triumph, I put on a tired look.
‘This is crazy…!’
I had a sinister feeling that he would have acted the same way even if I had been a human; was it a needless worry?
“…Ash went to the Border Forest to bring Bara for disposal. Lord Rabbit would have to make a decision.”
The words Bara and disposal made my fur stand on end. Listening to Meimi’s explanation that Bara submitted to one stronger than itself, I realized that the sound of wooden swords had ceased.
‘Had it ended?’
When I shifted my gaze to the center of the training field, the knights watching this side awkwardly tapped their wooden swords together. It was a level of training that seemed like children’s play, far from that of regular knights.
‘This is strange.’
As I tidied up the cushion that had served as my bed, the sound of wooden swords stopped again.
So, this was how they planned to act. Pretending to dust off the cushion, I suddenly, like lightning, spun around without warning. Sure enough, the knights who had been looking this way flinched in surprise and swung their wooden swords a beat too late.
“-Ugh!”
Because they missed the timing, one knight, struck by a comrade’s wooden sword, rolled on the ground.
They were definitely watching me. Observing those suspicious individuals, I shrugged toward Meimi.
‘Why are they doing that?’
As she bent her knees, she silently unfolded a newspaper from the Rabbit Territory. It was not a newspaper that followed regular procedures but a gossip paper that one might find scattered on city streets.
“…they’re reading the newspaper.”
“They’re reading the newspaper?”
“They’re reading the newspaper…!”
Voices of knights relaying the words one after another were heard. They tried to whisper them from ear to ear, but it was utterly meaningless before a rabbit’s hearing.
‘N-newspaper, why?’
Growing uneasy, I hastily unfolded the newspaper.
「The Rabbit and the Black Panther, and the Lion」
After I read through the article, I pounded my chest in frustration. The excuse of being a dancer I used in the Rabbit Territory had been reborn as a flashy scandal.
‘What is all this!’
As I fumed, taken aback, Meimi, who soothed me, opened her mouth.
“They are all guessing that the protagonist of the scandal is Lord Rabbit. They even consider that it might be the same person as the stable boy that Lord Ahin carried around before.”
Perhaps because she had been tormented a lot by the employees as Ahin’s close aide, fatigue had surfaced on her face.
“They do not know about Lord Rabbit’s humanization, but they are almost certain you are a beastfolk. Still, since only good gossip about Lord Ahin and Lord Rune’s social status is written, that is fortunate.”
Whether it was fortunate or not, it was a completely absurd story. They wrote that Ahin had bought me a mansion. Also, if they described my appearance as the reincarnation of a nymph, how could I, without shame, become a human?
‘…A nymph, really!’
Was it that fairy that, if seen even once, blinded both eyes with its beauty?
Feeling humiliated, I fiercely tore apart the newspaper with my front paws.
Amid a bloody struggle, I sensed someone approaching from behind.
“You woke up?”
It was Ahin’s voice, who had returned after guiding the training.
Only then, recalling what happened before I woke up, I halted abruptly.
Such unilateral action had to have limits. This time, I could not let it slide.
Even if I were afraid, should I not face it? I would remain cold until we had a proper conversation. Having been reborn as a cold rabbit, I turned my head with sharp eyes. And then I stopped breathing.
“…Vivi?”
Ahin wore a thin garment that he usually wore under his armor.
It was made of a material that absorbed sweat well, so knights often wore it during training, but the problem was that the curves of his body were revealed too blatantly.
Moreover, with his silver hair, damp with sweat, swept back, it became a sight I could hardly bear to look at with open eyes.
Did he appear in such attire to improve the strained relationship between us?
As I stared, frozen in place, I felt blood rushing to my face. Swoosh, when I wiped my nose with my front paw, fortunately, there was no blood.
Ahin, who watched the whole process with an expressionless face, lifted one corner of his mouth.
“Is this okay for a nymph’s taste?”
Please don’t say that word again. With my ears raised, I shook my head.
Ignoring my reaction, he refused the towel extended by his chief servant.
“-Since the nymph rabbit will soon have a nosebleed, wipe it with that.”
“Yes…?”
“Look at that perverted expression.”
Again, the sound of wooden swords ceased abruptly.
This time, the knights did not even pretend to hide their gazes. They eyed me as if to discern what exactly a “perverted expression” looked like.
‘I’m not a pervert, and I’m not a nymph either!’
Dozens of pairs of red eyes were filled with deep conviction.
* * *
Following Meimi’s schedule, I walked with Ash, hopping briskly on the lawn.
In the past few days, Ahin had not once brought up the matter of the Rabbit Territory. Perhaps he noticed I was stressed since I rolled beneath the blankets every night and had nightmares.
For now, he told me sharply to stop caring about all matters of the Rabbit Territory.
In truth, I, who had not fully sorted out my feelings, simply agreed. Even this hard lump in my chest would soften if enough time passed.
‘Bara…!’
As I ran across the lawn, lost in thought, I swiftly stepped back. I had encountered Bara being dragged by a knight on a leash.
Recalling the claws that had once lunged at me in the Border Forest, my body curled up involuntarily.
‘Where to…?’
Back to the Border Forest entirely? If so, there would have been no need to summon it to the mansion.
As I guessed, a foreboding feeling crept up inside me. Ahin’s indifferent eyes, intending to punish Bara, who had tried to harm me earlier, flashed through my mind.
I approached quietly and looked up at the knight, who blatantly avoided my gaze.
Tell me. Only after I widened my eyes did the knight reluctantly open his mouth.
“…A kill order has been issued.”
* * *
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