TSROTRATBP Chapter 24

That cunning black panther? No matter how he turned it over, it made no sense. Even granting he didn't know it was a beastman, why mark it with pheromone at all?

And a beastman who'd completed humanization could hold true form for half a day at most.

Which made it strange, too, that a rabbit capable of human shape had spent so much time in its animal one. It might be faster to hunt for the parts that weren't suspicious.

'What is she hiding.'

Since the wolf clan's activity had started ramping up, and negotiations with the lion clan had been going back and forth—right up to when the rabbit appeared. Every part of it was riddled with questions.

Hands shoved into his pockets, Rune ran his tongue lightly over his lower lip.

Despite the small commotion, the ball had wrapped up without further incident. I still hadn't found my footing, though, and I swallowed hard against the heavy air in the room.

The moment we returned to the bedroom, Ahin threw himself face-down onto the sofa without even changing out of his dress coat. He looked, for all the world, like someone quietly weeping.

As if that weren't enough, Iverin had followed him in and was now aiming a look of open reproach in my direction.

I was barely holding onto my own sanity as it was, and now this—what was even happening here. There was no getting a fix on these black panthers, not one of them.

I'd been sending him a fairly suspicious look for a while when Ahin spoke up, whining.

"Iverin, pass a message to Vivi for me."

"Gladly."

You don't have to say it out loud, I can hear you fine. Recalling the time I'd answered Rune directly, I worked my mouth silently. Of course, no unfamiliar voice came out this time, the way it had then.

"I'm disappointed, Vivi."

What's he on about now, of all things.

Twitching my nose, I finally remembered running like a madwoman through the ballroom. From Ahin's perspective, it must have looked exactly like this: he'd granted my request nicely, and I'd bolted the second I got the chance. My conscience pricked a little, but thinking it over now—hadn't fleeing the ballroom actually been the best possible choice?

"Tell her I'm disappointed."

"Miss Rabbit, Lord Ahin says he hates you."

Iverin's grave voice rang out, carrying out the instruction. Iverin, if you're going to relay it, relay it right.

"How could you try to run off with a lion, of all creatures, when you already had a partner?"

"Was the lion more to your taste than the black panther?"

He hadn't relayed even ten percent of what was actually said. Ahin, who'd been slumped on the sofa, lifted his head and fixed his stare on Iverin.

"Say it right."

"Miss Rabbit, say it right. The lion or the black panther?"

"Iverin, I was talking to you."

"My apologies."

Not looking the least bit apologetic, Iverin took a step back. His posture, at least, remained entirely proper. It made me wonder, all over again, how someone like this had kept his head attached under Ahin all this time.

"Out."

At that, Ahin's hand found the sheath propped by the sofa and rested there, and Iverin vanished as though he'd teleported.

Watching that soundless, retreating figure, I went stiff.

We spent every night together, but strange as it was, whenever it was just the two of us like this, tension always crept over me. And today of all days, I'd made a brand-new secret for him to find.

Human...

Amid all the confusion, if there was one thing I could guess at, it was pheromone.

With Ahin, and now with the fox beastman too—both times, breathing in someone else's pheromone up close had brought clear, distinct pain, right before my form changed.

"Vivi."

Looking up at the call, I found Ahin reclined on the sofa, watching me.

"Where'd your crown ornament go? You had it on earlier."

Only then, too late, did I notice the weight gone from the top of my head—and winced. As if a little crown would still be sitting there properly after all the chaos of turning human. Ulpes and Meimi's faces, clapping enthusiastically, drifted hazily through my mind.

"Well, guess it doesn't matter."

A bright smile broke over his face, and he dropped a hand off the sofa and scooped me up. His grip on the scruff of my neck had gotten less rough than before, but it was still the kind of touch that kept me on edge.

Worse, being hauled up with both hands while he lay there meant my whole downward view filled with nothing but Ahin. His mussed silver hair, his loosened cravat—there was something dizzying about it, and I looked away for no good reason.

"Not that it's strange the lion got curious. I did mark you with my scent, after all."

I flinched, my body going rigid, and looked back down at Ahin. A pure white rabbit was reflected in his red eyes.

'You're absolutely soaked in that black panther's scent.'

The same claim Rune had made.

But when?

When had he put pheromone on me? If the theory was right, I might turn human the moment I breathed pheromone in up close.

But apart from the times Ahin had bitten my neck, I hadn't noticed any particular scent until now. Maybe it had to be something more overt than just marking me the usual way—something more direct, pheromone-wise.

Wanting a fuller explanation, I waved my right forepaw and pressed him.

"You're a beastman, so every once in a while you leak pheromone. So I kindly covered it up with mine."

Explaining kindly, Ahin swung me lightly through the air, side to side. Right, even now I could feel the pheromone stirring inside my own body—an upstanding beastman, that's what I was. Nodding along as I swayed, I suddenly clapped both paws over my mouth, my face frozen in horror.

Wh—what did he just say?

He knew I was a beastman? I wanted to shriek. As I kept flapping my mouth open and shut without a sound, Ahin looked up at me, mouth curving into a bright, clean smile.

"I know you never went through humanization, either."

Worry scattered along with white fur on the breeze that blew past. Looking up at a sky that seemed unusually high today, I let out a heavy sigh.

'The rabbit beastmen crossed the border to check whether you'd survived. Oh, but I killed them, so I didn't hear anything more than that.'

Last night's conversation kept drifting through my head. How did he manage to say something that chilling with such a kind face?

'I figured rabbits would all be like Vivi, but there were more whiskers on them than I expected.'

I couldn't even guess whose face he was describing. Given his personality, either way, it was hard to take at face value his claim that he hadn't heard anything more. What was certain, at least, was that he clearly knew I was a beastman, and that I'd never gone through humanization.

I wonder if he heard anything about my family, too.

Nobles generally kept many children underfoot, so the ones who became an embarrassment were often discarded without much thought. Ahin, an only child, was the unusual case.

Those rabbit beastmen who crossed the border... those would've been sent by my parents, wouldn't they.

If the ones killed in black panther territory hadn't returned, they might have sent people to confirm whether they'd survived.

Once my thoughts got that far, a bitter taste crept in. If Ahin ever learned the full, specific route by which I'd been discarded, how would he react?

'I like Vivi because she's a rabbit.'

The words that had followed after that, brief as they were, sent a dull ache through my chest even now. To someone who'd been despised as a half-formed beastman, being told it was fine because I was a rabbit was such a strange sort of phrase to hear.

But setting all of that aside, the biggest problem was what Ahin had murmured next, all trace of humor wiped from his face.

'If you were human, that would actually be inconvenient.'

Startled, I'd looked up at him, and he'd immediately put on that angelic smile of his again, as if it were nothing worth mentioning.

Any other day I'd have chalked it up to black-panther bullshit. But right now, things were different. Just yesterday, I'd turned human and then turned back.

Maybe there was some reason it would be inconvenient if I were human, or maybe he was just attached to me being a rabbit. Whatever the reason, it was a genuinely troubling thing to have said.

Does he... not want me to become human?

If it were possible, I wanted to climb into Ahin's head for even a moment and climb back out. On top of everything, Rune Maniuntz, whom I'd run into while in human form, was another source of unease.

"Little one."

Valens's low voice reached my ears as I dug myself deeper into gloom.

"Your pheromone's scattered quite badly."

Chuckling softly, she took a sip of black tea. Only then did I snap back to attention and hurriedly check my body from the inside.

I must have let my pheromone go slack without noticing, lost in thought like that. As I hurried to pull it back together, Lady Valens stroked my fur, slow and gentle, the way you'd praise a clever child.

"Being near your scent puts me in a good mood."

Scent?

Judging by what she'd said, that might be the reason she made time for these teas so often.

What kind of scent could it even be?

Unfortunately, no matter how I brought a forepaw up to my nose, there was no way to smell my own pheromone.

"You've got a very fine pheromone."

Was it really a fine one? Sniffing at my own paw over and over, I suddenly went still.

Pheromone. A word tied to everything that had happened to me lately.

"Miss Rabbit, please be careful not to trip on the rocks."

Meimi's voice trailed after me, edged with concern. Turning my head, I found a fair distance had opened up between us.

Faster, faster!

Come on, Meimi! I kicked my feet, urging her to catch up, then spun and bolted off again.

Meimi kept to her own principles, in her way: walks went to the flower garden, reading went to the library, exercise went to the training yard, and so on.

Which meant that, right now, sprinting toward the training yard, my paws had picked up speed.

'Being near your scent puts me in a good mood.'

I couldn't just let Lady Valens's words slide. As the sovereign of black panther territory, she'd surely reached heights of skill I couldn't even imagine.

'Lord Ahin, your sleeping hours have gotten longer lately.'

'With Vivi around, I somehow don't feel like getting up.'

'Isn't it only on mornings with an especially heavy workload that you sleep in?'

'Was that so?'

I'd been listening in on Ahin and Iverin's conversations too, in my own way. Thinking back on it, Ahin had shown a strange fixation, from the very start, on sleeping beside me. That might have something to do with pheromone.

Some argue that when an inherent pheromone ability is too powerful, humanization is delayed.

A line I'd read in Pheromone Theory. If. Just—

If, maybe. If I were one of those cases.

I'd turned human, of all impossible things, just yesterday, so it wasn't an entirely impossible hypothesis.

The training yard nearest the tea location soon came into view. Skidding to a stop, I kicked a hind leg back toward Meimi.

Meimi, wait there.