TSROTRATBP Chapter 10

Back in Ahin's room, I set my face grim and hard.

Something's off. No way I'm letting this go now. Not Ahin. Not his mother either.

'You smell like pheromones.'

'I sensed the faintest pheromone from you just now.'

I'd heard predators' senses were far sharper than herbivores'. Both of them saying it out of nowhere, separately—maybe it wasn't just me imagining things.

Pheromones only show up once humanization's underway—but there's always exceptions. But I was a beastman who'd stayed a baby rabbit this whole time. Couldn't measure myself against the normal case.

Even so…

I still had no idea how you were even supposed to turn human.

I recalled the vague things the house maids used to say while looking me over—one day you just turn human, apparently.

'It just happens, Lady Vivi—poof, like that!'

Like hell. Supposedly you run a fever for hours first, then turn—never seen it, never gone through it myself, so it was nothing but guesswork.

I stared blankly into empty air, and the days behind me flickered past like a panorama.

'This is humiliating. Do you know what kind of scandal trails after me because of you—!'

'Sis, just quit it already. I'll catch you a fat rabbit later, stick it in the cage with you.'

'Don't even bother—Lady Vivi can't tell anyone anyway. Can she even talk?'

Humanization. Eighteen years of it—wanting, then giving up, over and over—and it flared up in me again.

Eyes shut tight, I focused everything I had, trying to feel for the pheromone somewhere in my body.

And nothing happened.

Ahin came in early today, still in his day clothes, and without a word hoisted me straight onto the bed.

He lay down too, staring me down. An awkward silence stretched between us.

"…Hey."

What?!

What are you staring at me like that for?

As always, I bitched about it only in my head, easing my ass back cautiously. His pretty face was too close for comfort.

He caught me quick, grabbed me by the scruff, pinning me still, and slowly opened his mouth.

"Those morons—no, the wolf clan hit us again today."

At the sudden, dizzying glimpse of fangs right in front of me, I squeezed my eyes shut.

"So I got hurt."

Hurt? Scared it might be bad as last time, I cracked my eyes open.

But unlike that night, no blood on his navy uniform with its silver epaulettes—and no blood-smell either.

Puzzled, I studied him further. Tilting his head to one side, Ahin pointed to his left cheek.

"Here."

I stared blankly at the pale skin, brow creasing. A scratch that'd be gone in a day or two—calling it a 'wound' was a stretch.

And he'd made it sound like some big deal. Unimpressed, I scoffed, and Ahin blinked those red eyes.

"Not gonna treat it?"

Why would I?

Besides—how's a baby rabbit supposed to treat a wound anyway? I scoffed at the absurd demand and waved my forepaws no.

"Still won't?"

No treatment.

At my continued no, the smile dropped off Ahin's face. A moment later, he rose, snatched me up by the scruff, and hauled me into the air.

"A rabbit that can't even treat a wound is no use to me. Aaah—"

This deranged beast! Ahin tilted his head and opened his mouth as though he genuinely meant to swallow me whole.

Mama! Fangs glinting right below me, I went white, thrashing all over.

At any second, my hind leg might slip straight into his mouth. Ahin brought me right up to his lips, eyes curving into crescents.

"Feel like treating it now?"

Of course. I nodded rapidly, and he set me back down on the bed. Ahin bent down again, lying flat, and offered his cheek.

How, exactly, was I supposed to treat this. Staring, baffled, at the little red mark, I caught Ahin's brow twitch, displeased—a wordless demand, plain as anything.

I'll fix it—I'll try!

Head flapping side to side, I glanced back and forth between paw and red mark.

Trying to swallow this Lady Vivi whole in one bite—honestly, I'd have loved nothing more than to swing a paw and add a matching scratch of my own.

What a bind.

How was I supposed to meet this lunatic's demand? Turn it over all I wanted—a four-legged baby rabbit's body just couldn't put medicine on anything.

Lost in thought, I saw his brow twitch again, and quickly moved in, giving the wound a light lick.

Obviously the wound wasn't going to heal from that, but in my current form, this was the best I had.

The sudden action left Ahin momentarily blank-faced; he straightened his head.

"This counts as treatment?"

Then what the hell did he want from me? Did he actually want to get smacked with a paw?

I stared at him in confusion, and Ahin's expression grew steadily more complicated. It felt, somehow, like the two of us had been talking past each other this whole time.

Straightening from where he'd been lying, he let out a dissatisfied breath.

"Well…"

His red eyes drifted slowly, landing on me. Watching me for a moment, Ahin smiled crookedly and touched the scratched spot himself.

"This isn't so bad either."

Leaving that cryptic remark hanging, he rose and walked toward the bathroom.

Demanding I fix it, and now he's done with me just like that? Sitting there dumbfounded, I landed a kick with my hind leg square on that damn beast's retreating back.

Damn beast!

Without some small, petty revenge like this, I really thought I'd work myself into a sickness from the stress of it all.

Ever since that day in the rose garden, Ahin's mother had taken to holding teatime every single day, timed exactly to my usual garden-walk hour.

Thanks to that, the garden walk had, in practice, been replaced by this odd teatime, now a fixture of my daily routine.

"Lovely weather."

Isn't it.

I closed my eyes gently in the passing breeze. The sky was clear, not a cloud in it, and rose scent scattered on the wind made the air feel peaceful.

At first, being around Ahin's mother—Matriarch, and fanged besides—had been deeply uncomfortable. But the more our meetings continued, the less it felt like a difficult stretch of time.

Even the simple act of chewing offered hay earned me praise—well done, wonderful, and more besides.

What's more, her frequent almost-mutterings, tossed off as though to no one in particular, had let me pick up quite a bit of information.

For instance: Ahin had come of age—completed his coming-of-age ceremony—this very year.

Always so busy dodging his fangs with my eyes, I'd never really clocked it—but now that I thought back, his face sat somewhere between boy and man.

Lost in that thought, staring off into empty air, her gentle voice continued.

"How endearing. The way your mouth moves when you chew—utterly endearing."

"Little one, hold out a paw for me."

"Have a taste of this."

Thanks to her generous contributions, I'd been plumping up at an alarming rate, day by day.

Aware the teatime existed, Ahin had taken to flipping my body over and muttering the outrageous slander "piggy-rabbit" whenever the mood struck him.

Ahin's mother introduced herself as Valens Grace, and instructed me to address her as Lady Valens—despite the fact that I obviously had no way of speaking at all.

Grace?

There was a strange sense of déjà vu about the surname "Grace"—but if it belonged to some prominent noble house of black panther territory, I'd likely just heard it mentioned somewhere in passing.

"Try this one too."

Watching me eat the head chef's specialty, hand-crafted hay, Lady Valens's expression suddenly turned complicated.

She reached out and, without warning, flipped my entire body over onto my back.

"…Little one."

Her voice had dropped noticeably lower than usual, and I flinched, looking up at her.

Fingers pressing at my scruff, Lady Valens spoke again.

"Hold your breath for a moment. Then imagine pressing down on the blood vessels inside your body."

Hold my breath, and press on my blood vessels?

I had no idea what that meant, but her expression was so severe that I held my breath exactly as instructed. Concentrating quietly, I felt something strange stirring somewhere deep inside my body.

Wh—what is this?

A sensation utterly unlike anything I'd known before. Was I meant to suppress this, whatever it was? Turning the puzzling instruction over in my mind, I simply tried clenching as hard as I could, until the blood rushed straight to my face.

After a brief moment, Lady Valens's voice returned, somewhat more generous than before.

"Clever girl. Well reined in."

Her extended finger stroked gently at my head, again and again.

Receiving her praise, I turned the strange sensation I'd just felt inside my body over once more, quietly, in my mind.