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Chapter 13
Sadly, after the meal, my sister kicked me out without hesitation.
“Stop joking.”
“I’m not joking though……”
“You’re done eating, so leave.”
“Hey, that’s so cold. I’m still a baby……”
“Luce, get lost.”
“Wow, you’re straight-up swearing at me. You only let Coco slide because she’s a baby.”
……Anyway, this is all because I look weak.
That’s one more reason I need to catch a tiger.
Before heading back to my annex, I looked toward my grave and spoke bravely.
“Animal friends, summon!”
Even after saying that, I wasn’t specifically thinking about mice.
Scritch, scritch—
A white mouse crawled down the wall.
“I shall bring forth the leader of our mouse clan, ‘Emperor of Mice.’”
“Mm-hmm……”
I nodded at the slightly foolish-looking mouse.
Soon, the “Emperor of Mice” made a grand entrance through a hole in the wall.
“……Hoh, this is quite astonishing. You say you want to catch a tiger?”
After listening to my whole story, the mouse curled his tail into a circle thoughtfully.
“Yep!”
The mouse trembled.
“I can’t help. A mouse like me would be one bite if I went near a tiger!”
“Why not? You’re the ‘Emperor of Mice’!”
“Ahem. Even the great ‘Emperor of Mice’ has things he cannot do.”
“……”
“I truly don’t want to go anywhere near a tiger! My instincts are screaming at me—avoid tigers! Avoid anything near tigers! I’d end up as a half-chewed mouse!”
“Then… is there any animal that can help me?”
“Absolutely not!”
This was different from when we dealt with the maid.
The animal friends who could help me were gone.
With a gloomy expression, I clutched my head tightly.
‘Sparkly brain, think about Sister! Do your job!’
Right now, I had no one and no animal to help me.
‘First, I need to find where the tiger is.’
Even in the future I saw, it didn’t show where the tiger would be found.
All I could rely on was the brain blessed by God.
Just as I gripped my head and sank into thought—
“Ah!”
A lightning-like realization struck me.
“What is it, Coco?”
“You said you don’t even want to go near a tiger, right? Instinctively!”
“Right! That’s why I absolutely won’t help you find some tiger spirit!”
“Mouse! No! You just helped!”
“Huh?”
I patted the confused mouse on the head.
“You and the other small animals— is there anywhere in this entire mansion you instinctively never want to go?”
At that, the mouse solemnly smacked his tail against the ground.
“Y-yes! It used to be my food storage, but it’s become a terrifying, dreadful place!”
“Did it recently become somewhere you don’t want to go?”
“Yes! A-and that place is…….”
After hearing the mouse’s words, I ran, hair flying behind me.
‘This is the scariest place for the mouse these days.’
The far western side of the ducal estate—near a building where there were many soldiers and strong winds.
‘Weak animals like mice instinctively fear places where frightening beasts like tigers are!’
Heheheh, I laughed.
‘And besides, animals have habits humans don’t know about.’
I recalled what everyone searching for the tiger had forgotten.
‘Animals are simple. They think about just one thing.’
I’m like a puppy who loves rolling around on the grass.
And I heard tigers are similar.
They love tiger grass and roll around in it enthusiastically.
‘Here too, it probably thought of just one thing. Tiger grass.’
I walked lightly and looked around.
The tiger grass here was pressed down flat.
As if something heavy were weighing on it.
I lifted my hand and brushed the air slowly, whispering as I thought deeply.
So then……
“There might be a tiger here.”
I pointed at the flattened grass.
As if explaining to the absent “Emperor of Mice.”
“It’s very windy today. But…… the grass isn’t moving.”
Even in the strong wind, the tiger grass remained pressed down, not swaying with the breeze.
‘The tiger spirit’s special ability must be to hide its body.’
I murmured quietly.
“It’s probably hiding on top of the tiger grass.”
The runaway black tiger swallowed hard.
‘Did she read my thoughts?’
In a gloomy corner of the ducal estate that no one visited—
A black tiger lay hidden in invisibility.
‘I thought if I turned invisible, I’d never be found.’
He lay on a small patch of grass beside a dog hole in the wall, breathing shallowly.
Then—
“Hello!”
The silver-haired little child, having completed her deduction, called out boldly.
Staring straight at where he was—though he was clearly invisible.
‘Is she calling me?’
The black tiger pressed himself even tighter against the tiger grass.
“You’re here, right? Black tiger!”
……A clear, ringing voice that was impossible to ignore.
The gentle black tiger couldn’t run away and instead pressed letters into the dirt.
[Can you see me?]
Of course, she shouldn’t be able to read that.
Humans couldn’t read the black tiger’s writing.
“Yes! I can’t see you, but I can see you!”
The black tiger’s mouth fell open in a small “o.”
‘A human who can read my writing?’
Though startled, the polite tiger carefully wrote again.
[I see. Today must be a very lucky day.]
“Why?”
[It’s amazing that we can talk. No one else ever knew…….]
“Really? You never played with people passing by?”
He was a tiger whose teeth had all fallen out during the long monster war, leaving him pitiful-looking.
Who would speak to a toothless tiger?
Hiding that truth, he scratched words into the ground with his claws.
[Yes. I used to fight monsters in a very cold land. No one ever talked to me. It was hard.]
“……I see…….”
[So maybe that’s why I learned how to hide my body. No one was interested in me anyway.]
The letters slowly formed on the ground.
The little girl blinked as she looked at the casually written words, as if engraving them into her eyes.
“No.”
[What do you mean?]
“I’m interested in you!”
‘There’s a human interested in me……?’
His shriveled paw twitched toward the girl—then dropped.
As his mind wavered, his invisible body slowly began to reveal itself.
A shabby body with ribs showing from years of war.
The black tiger looked at the tiny girl with gentle eyes.
“It must have been really hard living as a wild tiger.”
With yellow eyes, he gazed at her—
At the small, round, spirited eyes.
At the tiny hands gently holding his fur-thinned paw.
At the little girl who might not even be a tenth his size.
“By the way, my name is Coco.”
“……”
“Come with me now. At first, I wanted to catch you so you could become family with my sister.”
“……”
“But now, I just want to be your friend!”
[Fr……friend……]
“Yes! I’ll play with you, heal your hurting heart, and make you happy.”
“……”
“Oh! And I’ll introduce you to my sister—the coolest person in the world!”
The girl beamed and held out her hand.
But……
The black tiger hesitated, lifting his front paw.
[No.]
……The black tiger could not take her hand.
