TSROTRATBP Chapter 2

After that, the man balled me up and stuffed me into his pocket, then hauled me off somewhere.

He was so rough about it that I blacked straight out.

I came to in a bedchamber more lavish than anything I'd ever seen, even at the Raebien estate.

…Where is this?

I hopped back and forth over the plush bedding—and despaired.

I couldn't muster the nerve to leap down from the bed. But I had to get out of here. No matter what.

Before I lost consciousness—that is, right before being stuffed into the man's pocket—I'd seen something I shouldn't have.

A head. Rolling in the dirt. And in his other hand—a sword, blood-slicked, red as fresh-killed meat.

Anyone could see it. This man had killed the two beastmen carrying me—no doubt about it.

The maids at the Raebien estate used to say the black panthers of the neighboring territory had no patience and were savage besides.

By that logic, he should have killed me on the spot—so why had he brought me somewhere like this instead?

My small skull turned it over—and landed on a horrifying answer. In this rabbit-kit's body, I wasn't even emergency rations. Just an emergency snack.

No!

I let out a wail and pounded my forepaws on the bed.

No. Absolutely not. Not even my own homeland, and here in some strange place I was supposed to end up on a plate as somebody's meal? Never.

If I'm ever going to escape, it's now.

Eyes blazing, I loaded up recoil in my hind legs. Break a bone or not, I was jumping.

…Here I go!

For real this time. I'm really, actually jumping!

Face set grim, I launched off the bed—and in an instant, someone's hand had me, snatched clean out of the air.

Surely this wasn't the black panther from the forest earlier. I turned my head, stiff as a board, and there was a man with jet-black hair—looking at me, worried.

"That was reckless. You could've really hurt yourself."

Fortunately—or unfortunately—the owner of the hand that caught me was not the rude black panther from before.

Odd thing was—face and voice both bone-dry, dead opposite of his tidy looks and polished way of talking.

Just as the peculiar irony of it began to ease my tension, I caught myself again, swallowing a wary breath.

I couldn't let my guard down. Every time he opened his mouth, that flash of fang showed—enough to raise every hair on my body.

And it seemed the rumor that most black panthers had red eyes was true here too—his own eyes carried that same crimson tint.

"Honestly, Lord Ahin, tossing a poor little rabbit on the bed like that. Anyway—we haven't met. Where'd you come from?"

As if I could answer that.

Rabbit territory! I'm from rabbit territory! Too bad my screaming inside never made it out of my head.

"I see. So you can't speak…!"

That's not something to gasp about. Head empty, or what? Let go of me! I cursed him out bitterly in my head, but he clearly had zero intention of putting me down.

"The floor's safer than the bed, I should think."

He walked over to the sofa in the room, picked up a plush-looking cushion, and set it down on the floor.

"Now that Miss Rabbit is here, you mustn't allow yourself to be carelessly injured. You're Lord Ahin's property."

Setting me down carefully on the cushion, the man explained with considerable seriousness. He even wiggled a finger for emphasis.

Explain properly.

What's with this weird 'Miss Rabbit' business? And property, what's that supposed to mean? Fed up, I smacked the cushion with both forepaws.

Whether he'd somehow understood or not, the man gently smoothed his index finger over my head.

"Also, you must always maintain a clean and tidy state."

Clean, how?

Puzzled, I looked up at him.

Still, going by his conduct so far, I'd managed to gather a few pieces of information.

The man before me was the subordinate of the black panther who'd brought me here in his pocket, and from the repeated title "Lord Ahin," that appeared to be the name of the black panther in question.

Say more.

Information was always better in abundance.

Under my prodding stare, the man stroked my head once more, gently, and his lips parted.

"Given that Lord Ahin brought Miss Rabbit into his own bedchamber like this, there must surely be some special—"

Special what?

"—purpose to it. Most likely emergency rations."

…A perfectly sound conclusion, sir.

Lady Vivi's distinguished self—sapient adult, possessed of eighteen years of education, firstborn of a noble house, currently residing on a floor cushion—

Keeled right back over, foaming at the mouth.