TSROTRATBP Chapter 18

"I see. …I'm sorry, what did you just say?"

Swallow her whole—Iverin's shoulders sagged, all the fight gone out of him. It was far too random a claim compared to what he'd been expecting.

"I nearly actually bit her, once."

"Ah, y-yes—…. That's a truly astonishing fact."

Explaining it vaguely, Ahin recalled the pheromone he could sense at night. When rabbits fall into a deep sleep, they give off a far richer pheromone than while awake.

It was a scent no one but a beastman could ever possess. More than once, he'd felt the instinctive urge to swallow it whole.

And if his guess was right, the pheromone ability the rabbit carried was the sort that could prove useful for a very long time to come. A resource far too valuable to let slip away.

'She's already eighteen.'

'A freak who never went through humanization, even after her coming-of-age ceremony.'

Eighteen had caught him off guard, but either way—one stone, two birds. A rabbit, not a human—her range so limited, easy to keep his eye on besides.

There were still plenty of things left unclear, but those were matters to work out gradually. Facing Ahin, who without noticing had begun running his tongue along his own lip, Iverin pressed him further.

"My lord, please, I beg you for a proper explanation."

"Too much trouble."

"You are truly petty beyond words."

Ordinarily Iverin would have answered with something along the lines of "If that is my lord's wish," but this time, apparently curious enough that his usual flattery gave way to a rather insolent reply. Letting out a light laugh, Ahin rubbed his fingers together with a sharp snap.

"Feeling like running again, are we?"

At the same moment, the black panthers under his command emerged once more, cutting through the underbrush. The sight of the dark beasts gathering in numbers turned the very air around them chilling.

"Dessert."

At the order, the black panthers bared a fierce intensity toward Iverin. Still-fresh blood hung from between their exposed teeth. Sensing the threat, Iverin spread both arms and responded with composure.

"Gentlemen of the black panther clan, please, calm yourselves. We've spent no small amount of time together, after all—turning on me so suddenly like this seems rather cold."

"Might as well tear that noisy mouth right off, while we're at it."

"That mouth is practically my life itself. Truly, this is too much."

Well accustomed to situations like this, Iverin fled at the fastest speed he could manage. It was a surprisingly quick reaction for a man who despised having his neat black hair thrown into disarray. Ahin waved a lazy hand, seeing off the game of tag now underway between Iverin and the black panthers.

"I'll bring some refreshments. Do rest, in the meantime."

The faint scent of aged wood tickled the tip of my nose. Meimi set a marble weight on the book to hold it open, then left. The moment she did, I looked up from the floor and took in the sprawling library.

Grand house, grand library. Not a shred of exaggeration in that. Books sat stacked in numbers too vast to count, stretching off into a blur, and the shelves holding them ran on in one unbroken row.

Late again today.

Dusk had long since fallen. On the nights Ahin's return dragged late, naturally my own day dragged on with it.

He'd been late yesterday too. Was his schedule busier than usual lately? I stared blankly into the middle distance for a moment before fixing my eyes back on the book.

Pheromone Theory.

The book Lady Valens had handed me was worn nearly to tatters by now. My gaze, deep in the middle of a passage, snagged on one particular line.

Some theorize that when an innate pheromone ability is too powerful, humanization is delayed as a result. As a documented case: a fox beastman possessed of a pheromone difficult to manage achieved humanization at the age of five—

Flip-flip-flip. My forepaw swept faster through the pages. But contrary to my hopes, no further mention of that particular sentence existed anywhere else. Two lines. That was the whole of it.

...A powerful pheromone delays humanization?

Across every pheromone text I'd read so far, this was the first time I'd encountered that piece of information. On the chance it might apply, I squeezed my eyes shut and turned my focus inward, toward whatever force circled inside my body.

Hm.

Unfortunately, far from powerful, all that drifted there was some soft, cotton-candy sort of nothing.

The fox beastman in the book had achieved humanization by five at the latest, so perhaps my case was simply different. Maybe it was some quirk peculiar only to the fox clan to begin with.

Frowning, I turned toward a strange presence I'd been sensing for some time now.

A servant...?

Lately, unfamiliar staff had noticeably increased around the estate. They were usually brought on temporarily for family functions, and this particular servant kept repeating pointless cleaning motions—poking at a flower vase, wiping down a bookshelf that didn't need it.

Our eyes met, and he slid his hand out slowly, his eyes crinkling into a soft, coaxing shape.

"C'mere, now—"

The way he clicked his tongue struck me, unmistakably, as suspicious, and I drew my body back.

Don't underestimate a rabbit's wariness.

Up until now, the household staff had, given my position as Ahin's food source—a rather elevated one, at that—mostly not approached me this way. Meimi held her post through most of the day besides.

More than that, the servant in front of me had the most sly and calculating look of any black panther I'd met yet. The moment I sharpened my guard, sure enough, his gentle-seeming eyes flipped.

Argh!

He suddenly lunged with the rag he was holding, meaning to smother me, and I flinched back, heart lurching, just in time. His expression hardening, the servant turned his back to the guards stationed far off and blocked my only route of escape. However you looked at it, his intent was to catch me.

No one's here.

Meimi hadn't come back yet. It was late besides, so aside from the guard at the entrance, the sprawling library held only the servant and me.

I waved my forepaw to signal danger, but the distance was far too great for the guards keeping watch outside to notice. His hand came flying at me again; I dodged just in time and bolted toward the back.

Why is he chasing me!

Running deeper and deeper into the library, I checked behind me and swallowed against a dry throat.

He hadn't been able to raise an outright commotion for fear of the guards, so if you could call anything lucky here, it was that the servant stayed slow. Better still, the bookshelves stood in orderly rows, letting me put my small size to good use.

If I just circled around the shelves toward the entrance like this, I ought to be fine. Just as I let myself feel a flicker of relief, my face went pale as a sheet.

Wh—what is that.

A faint light rose from the servant's body, and his shape began to shrink. And then, something that had absolutely no business being here revealed itself: a dark brown wolf.

My heart dropped straight through me, and the world went dark at the edges without my permission. Saliva ran in a thin stream from the wolf's slightly parted jaws.

Wh—why...!

Why was there a wolf here, of all places? His eyes had definitely been red just now.

I shrieked it into the air like something cornered and dying, but no one was there to answer. Worse, freed from his human form, the wolf's mobility had sharpened, and the distance between us closed in an instant.

Was this the doing of the wolf beastmen?

Black Panther Territory and Wolf Territory have always had their conflicts, you know.

Wolves have always coveted other people's territory, haven't they.

Frightened voices flooded my head. I ran like something possessed, and then my feet slammed to a halt—skreeek. Cold night air turned my sweat-soaked body chill.

No.

The terrace. Ahead lay a dead end I couldn't go any further past. The wolf, seeming to remember this himself, glanced around and closed the distance at his leisure, like some well-fed beast with no need to hurry.

Pad, pad. Those hushed, careful footsteps could not possibly have been more terrifying. My hind legs backed up in a stumble, hovering dizzily over open air.

Ah—Boxed in against the terrace railing, I faced the wolf with trembling eyes. A distant, wave-like terror crashed over me.

"...Vivi?"

I flinched. That low voice from below made my eyes and the wolf's both go wide and quiver at once.

It was an idle, unhurried call, entirely ignorant of the urgent situation up here. Who'd have thought there'd come a day I'd be glad to hear that lazy voice.

Ahin!

Emotion nearly overwhelmed me on the spot. I poked my head out over the railing, and two figures came into view under the lamplight. Though it was only three stories up, the drop felt dizzyingly far.

Below the terrace, alongside Ahin, stood a lion beastman whose relationship with him didn't look terribly good. That, surely, was the man Meimi had told me about—Rune Maniuntz, of the lion clan.

That lion's still here?

Not the moment to think about that. I checked behind me in a hurry—the wolf hesitated, holding still. Poking my head back out, I flailed both forepaws wildly, begging for rescue.

There's a wolf up here!

An actual wolf, drooling all over the place. Contrary to my desperate cries, Ahin simply raised a hand and gave a light wave, as if in greeting.

"Lord Maniuntz, you ought to wave back."

"……?"

"Responding to a greeting is basic courtesy, wouldn't you say?"

"Don't spout nonsense at me."

That's not it! Frustrated, I pushed myself up slightly and swung both forelegs this way and that. But Ahin and Rune, having grasped none of the meaning whatsoever, both furrowed their brows at the same moment.

"What could that mean, I wonder."

"……? How would I know that?"

"This is why lions are useless."

"What did you say?"

An entirely pointless argument broke out on top of it. Whether he'd caught the sound of their conversation or not, the wolf's hesitant eyes flashed. He gave a quick lick around his mouth and began his approach again with those hushed, careful steps.

C— c—coming.

Backing away only bought me nothing more—there was no more path left. Regrettably, the two of them, entirely unable to see the situation from where they stood, were still arguing over what my gestures meant.

You beasts, this is not the time for that!

The wolf's footfalls drew closer still. It was a dizzying height, but there wasn't a moment left to hesitate. My body, having just barely dodged a swipe of sharp claws, finally pitched out into open air.

"How would a rabbit know how to wave hello?"

"That one's a genius rabbit, so—Vivi!"

Both Ahin's and Rune's pupils blew wide at once. Reflexively, they both threw their arms up toward the sky.

Aaaah!

The closer the ground came, the faster the fall went. Four legs thrashed against a fear sharp enough to sting, and then something wrapped my whole body up at once. Still unable to find my footing, I kept scrabbling and clinging with all my legs.

"Vivi, hold on,"

That familiar voice, close by, and the rational mind that fear had been drowning slowly swam back into focus.

...Hair?

The moment silver hair fell into my restored field of vision, the blood in me went cold all at once. I stopped moving and gave the situation serious consideration.

Plastered against Ahin's forehead, making a wreck of his face and hair. Forget the wolf—I might die at the hands of this black panther instead.

"Vivi."

Ahin peeled me—frozen stiff—off his face with some effort, and furrowed his brow.

"Why the sudden jump? Some kind of thrill-seeking hobby I didn't know about?"

You're one to talk about nonsense being a hobby. Dangling in midair, I wanted, if it were at all possible, to kick him with my hind legs. Apparently it wasn't only me who thought so, because Rune, our eyes happening to meet, wore a thoroughly dumbstruck expression.

"Lord Grace, does the air not smell strange to you?"

Rune, who'd been standing there blankly, suddenly looked up at the terrace. Following his gaze, Ahin's red eyes went dull.

"...A wolf."