TSROTRATBP Chapter 11

Today was more special than usual. Despite morning having arrived, Ahin—who typically didn't leave his bedroom—had taken me along and climbed into a carriage for once.

Shortly after, Iverin arrived and joined us as well.

Clatter. The estate's main gate opened with a tremendous noise. Since arriving here, this was my first experience venturing outside the estate, so while I was frightened, I couldn't help but feel strangely excited.

'Wow...!'

The scenery Iverin showed me through the window changed rapidly.

It was a street lined with tall spires and green roofs. Even viewing just part of the city, I could clearly perceive the status of black panther territory—far ahead of other territories.

'Amazing.'

The feeling of my small, familiar world being shattered. For me, who could count on one hand my experiences facing the outside, this was an intensely happy and desperately longed-for moment.

After hesitating briefly, I extended my front paw out the window.

Would a day come when I, too, could look around the world by my own will rather than at others' whims? The refreshing breeze felt somehow bittersweet.

"Now then, if you can't catch the doll, you'll be eaten."

After my sightseeing concluded, a small doll attached to a string floated before me.

You wretch. Eyes bulging, I frantically swung my front paws. Swipe, swipe. But maddeningly, just when I thought I'd caught it, the doll would drift away from my paws.

"It's because your legs are short."

"......"

"Chubby rabbit."

Ahin's movements as he teased me by swinging the string around were utterly detestable.

Iverin, who'd been watching this spectacle from across the way, released a faint breath.

"Lord Ahin, you placed her on your plate this morning as well. If you continue like this, Miss Rabbit may truly come to hate you. Even now, she's looking at you with eyes full of loathing."

At Iverin's words, Ahin stopped swinging the string and examined my face. His red eyes blinked between the silver hair draped over his forehead.

Soon he wore a twisted smile and answered in a satisfied voice.

"That's quite a good look in her eyes."

"I see. Miss Rabbit, please feel free to hate Lord Ahin to your heart's content in the future as well."

"That's good too. I think I'd find it thrilling."

"Well, so he says."

Their conversation strayed far beyond the bounds of normalcy even by my standards, having met few beastmen.

Irritation surging, I abandoned trying to grab the doll and instead swung my front paw at it. Whack, whack. In an instant, the doll transformed into a punching bag.

"Invincible rabbit."

"My, the continent's first rabbit fighter may be born."

Iverin, wearing a rather serious expression, brought his face close. Enraged, I pushed his forehead away with my hind paw. These black panthers truly had a talent for making one's blood boil with mere words.

"Iverin, she seems to dislike you quite intensely."

"Oh my. Miss Rabbit, please consider my tender heart."

Tender, indeed. Ahin pressed my puffing cheeks firmly, then lifted me and stuffed me into his jacket pocket. It hurts! His merciless hands showed no sign whatsoever of changing.

"We'll reach our destination shortly."

The coachman's announcement came through the small window connected to the driver's seat. Judging by how our speed gradually decreased, we seemed to have reached our destination.

Eventually, after disembarking from the carriage and facing a large stone building, my complexion turned deathly pale. Though my memories of venturing outside were few, this was an architectural style impossible to forget. The place they'd intended to visit was none other than a temple.

'No.'

Having no particularly good memories of temples, it was absolutely the last place I wanted to set foot.

'Why a temple...?'

While struggling in the pocket, one hypothesis flashed through my mind like lightning.

Occasionally, young beastmen who failed to achieve humanization would stop by temples to be blessed while having holy water sprinkled on them. Of course, I'd undergone that process several times as well.

However, when humanization still hadn't progressed even by the time I underwent my coming-of-age ceremony, I'd visited again to request a priest's diagnosis.

Ahin must have come to the temple to identify my true nature—someone who seemed like an ordinary rabbit yet possessed pheromones.

Unable to calm down, I began struggling violently in the pocket.

"Stay still."

As my kicking grew fiercer, Ahin pressed my head down firmly.

This time, I had no choice but to resist—I gnawed desperately at the pocket. We don't need to go out, so let's just go back. I hate temples.

Despite my desperate upward gaze, Ahin and Iverin entered the temple interior without delay.

After presenting identification and going through several verification procedures, the place we entered was an ivory-colored temple where a single priest waited.

Peeking just my face out from the pocket, I rolled my eyes around. Murals painted everywhere and flames burning atop braziers created a sacred atmosphere.

"Lord Grace, welcome."

A priest with a long beard draped over gray-white robes bowed silently.

From the moment I faced him standing in the distance, I couldn't think properly. My heart began pounding. Into my dazed mind, unpleasant memories from the past came flooding relentlessly.

'This is a terrible curse!'

It had been a voice loud enough to make my ears ring. If, by any chance, this priest said the exact same thing. And if Ahin and Iverin heard it. The anxiety I'd forcibly suppressed raised its head completely.

"Wait here for a moment."

Ahin, who'd taken me out of the pocket and set me on the floor, pressed my cheek. When I looked up with anxious eyes, he demanded in a leisurely voice.

"Answer."

Nod, nod. As I reluctantly moved my head, Ahin smiled faintly, rose to his feet, and walked toward the priest.

I watched his retreating figure with trembling pupils. His back in that black uniform felt excessively large and distant today.

"It's been a while. Three years?"

"Our first meeting since the Beast God Festival. It's an honor that Lord Grace would personally seek out this humble priest."

As the time spent exchanging greetings between the priest, Ahin, and Iverin lengthened, my stomach churned. Though the distance was somewhat far, from carefully observing their lip movements, I could deduce two words.

Rabbit.

Beastman.

The moment I drew breath, that unpleasant nausea I'd once felt surged up. Through my tangled thoughts, the priest's voice echoed repeatedly like a reverberation.

'This is a terrible curse!'

My throat constricted. If I truly heard such words again, even from this priest.

'How pitiful—a young lamb abandoned by the Beast God!'

When I came to my senses, I was running frantically somewhere.

"Eek!"

"Wh-what?!"

As something rushed past their feet, startled priests stepped aside. Dodging legs that jerked up in confusion, I pushed even more force into my paws. My blurred vision changed rapidly.

'Regrettably, there is no remedy.'

Ah, the black panther told me to wait quietly. Since I broke my promise, this time I might really be eaten. Even while such absurd thoughts occurred, my paws kept moving contrary to my will.

'There's no precedent for this either.'

Stop. The anxiety that had been gnawing at me all this time felt like it was rising to the surface.

'Didn't the priest determine it was a curse sent down by the Beast God? Rather unsettling, isn't it?'

After running for some time, I arrived before a large stone statue. The towering statue symbolized the Beast God—the deity beastmen worshipped, represented by multiple animal forms intertwined together.

As I gazed blankly up at it, tears soon began streaming down. Beast God, why can't I transform into a human? Am I truly cursed?

Questions to which I could receive no answers kept blooming. Due to my hazily blurred vision, I could barely see the statue properly. My chest felt not just tight but achingly painful.

'...Why only me.'

Why. Though it was a process everyone else experienced at a very young age, even before they could properly perceive it, why didn't it apply only to me?

My younger brother, born three full years after me, had long since become a boy. It was the same for my other half-siblings.

I resented it endlessly, yet there wasn't even a clear target for my resentment. As I sobbed, I felt all the strength draining from my body.

Just as I was about to let my body go limp, a large hand suddenly extended and picked me up. Silver hair I'd grown familiar with draped into my vision.

"Hey."

It was an excessively low call. Ahin, who'd drawn a shallow breath, wore an expression that was neither his usual smile nor his emotionless face, but rather somewhat angry.

"This time, I'm a bit irritated. At you."

He roughly ran his hand through his hair, making the silver strands shoot up before fluttering gently back into place.

Unable to convey any words and feeling frustrated, I simply struggled to escape from Ahin's hands.

Even I didn't run away by my own will. And even now, I don't want to go to the priest.

"Why are you crying?"

Wouldn't you cry in this situation if you were me? I really hate it, let me go.

Eventually, claws extended, I scratched Ahin's hand sharply. Despite red marks rising on the scratched area, the hand holding me showed no sign of releasing.

After a moment, Ahin asked in a somewhat softened voice.

"You hate the temple?"

Not wanting to be late, I nodded my head more earnestly than anyone.

I hate it so much. I hate the temple, and I hate the priests even more. Nodding continuously, I glared at Ahin through my tear-soaked vision. And today, I don't much like you either.

"Lord Ahin!"

From behind, Iverin's excited voice rang out. His neat black hair was sticking up in various directions, as if he'd been running around.