TSROTRATBP Chapter 13

At some point, the servants of House Raebien had stopped seeing me as a beastman and started treating me as nothing more than a pet rabbit. Despite the fact that I was fully capable of rational thought—for the single reason that I had no way to express it.

That treatment had become blatant, I think, sometime around when my fifteenth coming-of-age ceremony had passed. It hardly mattered. My life of contempt didn't change one way or the other regardless.

There was, though, one thing that never sat right with me. As a child of the household, in a manner of speaking, I'd been given a lavish bedroom—but because of my rabbit form, I lived on a cushion rather than a bed.

And sometimes the servants took advantage of that, using my room as a place to have sex. Sex wasn't possible in the servants' quarters, and the stables or other spots risked spreading disease.

'Master Den, I don't think here's really the—'

'So what if no one's around?'

At night, my room—the one nobody else ever set foot in—would sometimes fill with the noise of them pawing at each other. At first they were careful, aware that I could understand what was said. Later, they arranged their next meeting quite openly in front of me.

They knew it perfectly well: even if I somehow managed to show how wrong it was, no punishment would ever come down on them.

Thanks to the pheromones that leaked from them every single time, I never even had to study the pheromones-and-sex material separately. Most of what happened to me at House Raebien had been that kind of bitter memory.

After shaking myself off several times, I pressed a paw to the book again. There wasn't time to be dwelling on the past.

…Hm?

Deep in the middle of my reading, a faint rustle stirred behind me. Turning my head, I found Ahin and Iverin had entered the bedroom at some point without my noticing.

Was it already this late in the evening? I glanced toward the terrace, and hearing a strange sound behind me, turned back toward them.

"Ahh…."

Covering his eyes with one hand, Ahin drove his fist into the wall, again and again. And that wasn't all—even Iverin, who always kept a stone face, was openly twitching at the corners of his mouth.

What's gotten into them?

Utterly baffled, I watched, but Ahin was too caught up in laughter to notice or care.

I'd seen him wear something like a sneer before, but this was the first time I'd ever seen him burst out laughing like this.

"Being with Miss Rabbit does show a person the rarest sights life has to offer."

Managing, just barely, to get his expression back under control, Iverin found his words.

"A baby rabbit, reading a book…! I'd like to have this scene captured in a painting."

Only then did I understand their reaction, and I looked down at the book. I couldn't see myself, of course, but picturing a rabbit seriously pressing a paw to a book was, admittedly, more than a little ironic.

Still, from where I stood, it was hardly a laughing matter, and my eyes narrowed automatically into an axe-blade glare.

"I can't take this…."

"My lord, get a hold of yourself. If you keep laughing like that, won't Miss Rabbit be hurt?"

Iverin, saying this, had a mouth that was itself trembling with barely-contained laughter. His face was visibly crumpling from the effort, plain for anyone to see. Catching sight of that expression set Ahin off again, and the sound of his fist against the wall resumed.

Letting out a low breath, I turned my gaze toward the window, wistful.

Yeah, as I thought—I really can't stand these flighty black panthers. Really.

It was a day the estate's guard had unusually tightened. The knights' already-ominous eyes had gone sharper still, and the household staff, too, held themselves stiffer than usual.

Ahin had left the bedchamber earlier than usual, and Lady Valens had sent word that pheromone practice was impossible today, some matter of schedule.

More than that, Meimi had recommended a walk not toward the front rose garden as she usually did, but toward the small pond behind the annex. Nothing wrong with that, so I was in the middle of crossing the lawn, drinking in the air to my heart's content.

Is something going on?

The mood was peaceful enough—and yet. No sooner had that thought crossed my mind than a nearby guard's eyes met mine, and his expression froze solid.

…Huh?

Bewildered, I looked up just as my whole body lifted, suddenly, into the air. The hand was careful, but there was something odd in it too—a touch that seemed, somehow, reluctant. I thought it might be Meimi holding me and turned to check, but instead some beastman I'd never seen before was looking down at me.

Who's this?

A man I'd never once seen in all my time at this estate. Too fine to be household staff—the deep-blue clothes he wore, the whole look of him, too refined for that.

Looking up at the pale pink hair and the golden eyes, I wondered whether he might be an herbivore beastman.

Cattle beastmen were said to generally have that same beautiful gold.

Just thinking that far brought on some unaccountable warmth toward him.

But why?

An estate crawling with black panthers—why an herbivore beastman here. Though, granted, by that logic my own presence roaming this garden was hard to explain to begin with.

A visitor?

Secretly pleased, I found myself craning to look him over. As my questions kept deepening, the man watching me abruptly pinched his nose shut.

"…Reeks of black panther."

Not an herbivore beastman.

Only then did my head clear, and I whipped my gaze around in a panic. The knights who'd already closed to a certain distance around us looked plainly at a loss, neither stopping his behavior nor treating it lightly. They looked like men who didn't dare lay a hand on him.

Why?

Was he someone of high status in this household—someone I simply hadn't crossed paths with yet? But his eyes weren't the red particular to black panthers. They were gold—gold, as if it had been inlaid there.

I turned my head again to check Meimi, and found her, like the knights, faintly creasing her brow.

Me—Meimi!

Pale with dread, I looked between the man and Meimi in turn. What had gleamed between his lips a moment ago had unmistakably been sharp fangs.

Who's this—a predator?

We'd shared enough of a daily routine by now that, Meimi caught the wordless question at once and tipped her chin. A predator. Facing her confirmation, my mind went hazy.

And where did you come from—another predator, now.

Stiffened automatically, I looked up at the man with terror in my eyes. That endlessly beautiful face looked, just then, like a demon of slaughter.

The man didn't even stop at picking me up—he brought his nose in close around my nape. I felt a light breath, searching.

What—

As the unfamiliar breath kept brushing against me, alarm shot through my head. A different feeling from the one Ahin gave me—every hair on my body standing straight up.

This predator—!

Please. I flailed, staring desperately at Meimi, but it was nothing but pitiful thrashing.

Meimi—!

Meimi's face, when our eyes met, went paler still. After that brief, terrifying stretch of time, the man's fine brow openly furrowed.

"…Why does that panther's scent sit so heavy on you?"

How would I know that. More to the point, get those horrifying fangs away right now! Startled out of my wits, I pushed both hind feet against the man's cheek, right there in front of me.

By the time I'd reached the point of frothing at the mouth in little bubbles, Meimi finally spoke up, unable to watch any longer.

"Lord Maniuntz, forgive me, but—"

"Do put her down, my lord."

For the first time, that low-pitched voice was a relief to hear. I whipped my head around and found Ahin standing there, dressed more neatly than usual in formal wear.

Why did such relief come flooding in. Still thrashing, I stretched my forepaws toward him.

"Didn't expect it. Lord Grace, keeping himself a pet rabbit."

"Come here."

Cleanly ignoring the man's words, Ahin bent down and gestured to me. Thankfully, the man let me go without any particular resistance.

Ahin!

Bolting the whole distance, I ducked behind the fold of Ahin's trouser leg and kicked backward at the man. A timid sort of threat. But the man paid my triumphant little display no mind whatsoever, hand sliding into his pocket.

"When did my lord pick up a little hobby like this, I wonder."

What's their relationship?

At those following words, I looked between the two predators, a little startled. They seemed roughly the same age, but there was clearly something unwelcome bleeding through his voice.

More than that—if someone could talk to Ahin like that, it meant they held roughly equal standing. But Ahin didn't answer the question either, only picked me up, his face going rather grim.

"The dirty lion smell's soaked in."

A—a lion?

Nothing quite so appalling had been said before. My eyes, trembling, swung toward the man standing behind us. His golden eyes weren't the cattle I'd expected—they were the particular gold that belonged to lions. Why is a lion coming and going from a black panther estate.

Not here.

This place really isn't. This estate was absolutely not a place any herbivore beastman ought to be.

Terrified out of my mind, I shook my head over and over, clinging to Ahin's finger. At that, his expression turned strange. The dispassionate red eyes looked, for a moment, almost pleased.

"You want to go to the lion?"

What nonsense is this now. Blanching, I drew an X with my forepaws to make myself clear. A moment later, Ahin gave a light nod as if he understood.

"Ah—you want to be the lion's food?"

Spend enough time with Iverin and you graduate to nonsense, apparently. Struck dumb, mouth opening and closing uselessly, I watched Ahin bend down like he genuinely meant to set me on the ground.

No, no!

I wanted to scream, if only I could, but there was nothing quite so stifling as being unable to speak. Clinging to Ahin's hand as if it were a lifeline, a smile spread across his composed face. A profoundly suspicious smile.

"Cling harder if you want to live."