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Chapter 02
Me, Tori. A 5-year-old rabbit beastfolk from the Moon World.
Facing the tiger lord’s wide-open mouth and the fangs glistening inside it…
‘Pfft.’
I snorted through my nose.
‘My goodness, he’s so playful! I thought he was just a terrifying person, but looking at him now, he’s actually quite a tease!’
I had been on the receiving end of pranks like this countless times!
Seeing the lord’s eyes sparkling with subtle anticipation, I struggled with all my might. I wasn’t scared at all, but to make the lord satisfied, I acted like I was completely terrified! It was a voice and gesture that could fool anybody.
“Eek, save me! Save meee!”
The reason I could notice the lord’s prank like this and go along with it was all thanks to the Grim Reaper uncles. Since the Moon World was connected to the Underworld, there were so many Grim Reaper uncles coming and going from the Moon Palace, and every single time, they used to crack the exact same joke.
“Tori, let’s eat you up.”
“Eeeeeek!”
At first, I thought it was real and was completely terrified. Among the other moon rabbits, there were even friends who got so startled that they ran straight to Lady Hang-ah. However, in the end, as time passed, everyone came to realize it. That it was all just a mischievous joke thrown out just to see our reaction!
In short.
‘Ahem.’
For me, who was in my 5th year of living in the Moon World, handling this much was a walk in the park—as easy as pie.
I squeezed my eyes shut, opened them, and screamed: “Kyyyyah, I’m so, so scared!”
“I’m going to gulp you down in one bite.”
“Kyaaah!”
With my acting reaching its peak, the lord’s eyes—which had been shaped like half-moons—had turned into crescent moons before I knew it. Heheh, it was a very rewarding effort.
‘Great! At this rate, he might let me stay overnight……!’
It was right around the time I was screaming while puffing up with hope.
“Euuuaaaagh! Master, my looorrrrd!!”
Someone’s shout echoed from far away, and soon a middle-aged man who seemed to be a servant of this household came running.
Apart from the servant uncle’s urgent gestures, I was happy.
‘So this person is the master lord! No wonder, I felt like he wasn’t an ordinary nobleman.’
Since I seemed to have made a good impression on this lord, full expectations filled me that I might not be kicked out.
I was so excited that I was stomping my feet up and down. At a certain moment, my body suddenly floated into the air. The servant uncle had lifted me up in his arms the moment he arrived.
“Huh?”
Furthermore, because the servant uncle turned his body as he was, only the servant uncle’s torso was visible in my view—no matter how much I turned my head, I couldn’t see the master lord!
‘T-This way, how am I supposed to play along with the prank?’
Unable to say anything, I just blinked my eyes, and as if this situation was baffling to the lord as well, a sullen voice washed over.
“Hand it over.”
A voice so cold it was hard to believe he was the same person who had been thoroughly enjoying himself just moments ago!
However, as if he wasn’t even scared of such a lord, the servant uncle held me tightly and spoke in an angry voice.
“I refuse, my lord! You’ve had far too much medicinal alcohol. This isn’t a plain rabbit, it’s a beastfolk, a beastfolk!”
“I am well aware.”
“Where in the world does a beastfolk try to eat another beastfolk……!!”
Ahhh, that’s not it…! How could you believe that!
However, without even giving me a chance to explain, the servant uncle began to sprint away frantically. …That is to say, taking me along with him.
‘Huh?’
What’s more…
‘Huh…??’
Without even stopping the servant uncle, the master lord just waved his hand goodbye to me……!
A short while later.
“Then get a good sleep. Don’t you ever come outside!”
“Yes! Good night!”
Sitting inside the storeroom, I bowed to the servant uncle through the gap in the closing door.
At first, the servant—Uncle Jang—who had sprinted while carrying me dangling in his arms, set me down in front of the back door.
“Child. Hurry and leave this house, okay?”
“Y-Yes?!”
How pitch-black my sight turned at that moment! It was the first time in my life I resented warm eyes dripping with concern and kindness that went as far as opening the back door for me.
Fortunately, after hearing about the wild dogs outside, the uncle let me stay here for one night, but…….
‘While I’m inside, it would be nice to check if Lady Hang-ah is here too.’
The joy of preserving my life was short-lived. I let out a sigh so deep it felt like the ground was sinking.
“Sigh.”
Uncle Jang was currently misunderstanding the lord completely.
“A-Earlier, the master lord was saving me. It was probably a joke….”
“You little thing, speaking so carefree when you were right on the verge of being eaten! Where in the world is a person who cracks that kind of joke to a terrified child!”
‘T-There were plenty though…?’
Even when I tried to explain, the misunderstanding only grew bigger……. Even while preparing a place for me to stay for the day, Uncle Jang instructed me multiple times:
“Child, for now, sleep quietly here. It’s a secret from the lord, so never come outside! You are only staying temporarily until the pack of wild dogs retreats. You must leave as soon as the sun rises tomorrow!”
“Huh? Ye-yes……”
“Got it? You must never, ever come out! We made a promise!”
Hahhh……, I thought that since I managed to stay, all I had to do now was find traces of Lady Hang-ah……!
Rumble—.
At the sound of my stomach echoing inside the quiet storeroom, I pulled out the potato Uncle Jang had handed me a moment ago and took a bite.
Then, nom nom, I devoured the potato in the blink of an eye while examining the inside of the storeroom.
The walls and roof blocked the cold wind, straw bales were stacked on one side, and various farm tools and odds and ends were piled up on the other. Although cluttered, the storeroom was the warmest and coziest place I had stayed in during my time on earth.
In particular, the bed the uncle had made by swiftly stacking straw bales and laying out a cotton quilt was so nice I wanted to go back to the Moon World and boast about it.
That cozy bed motioned to me as if telling me to lie down quickly, but…….
“I’m sorry…! Finding Lady Hang-ah comes first!”
No matter how much I promised, it couldn’t be helped. Eating the potato was also to gain strength and find Lady Hang-ah!
The moment I gently opened the storeroom door like that…
“You little thing, I told you that you shouldn’t catch the lord’s eye!”
BAM! CLICK!
I blinked my eyes at the sudden harsh scolding and the door shutting tight just like that.
‘No way, i-is he guarding outside the door…?!’
They even locked the door!!
Flustered, I stared vacantly at the door, then slowly lowered my head.
Kugh. Since it has come to this, that’s the only way…!
‘…There’s no choice but to dig a tunnel and go out. Then I can move around quietly!’
While Tori—who made up her mind—was hard at work digging a tunnel, the two servants of the tiger family were in the middle of a serious meeting.
“Cannibalism, there is no such thing.”
“And a young beastfolk barely reaching up to one’s knees at that…….”
At Jang Baek-gi’s words, his rough-faced companion—the very gatekeeper who had frightened Tori—let out a deep sigh.
“Tsk, looking at her earlier, she was so tiny. She wouldn’t even make a single mouthful.”
In truth, these two were not originally servants. Before the Jangsan Tiger Family—the top tiger clan—fell from grace, they were prominent warriors who served the leader, Beom Hyeon.
They had merely claimed to be servants now to protect their leader.
However…… day after day, the leader’s speech and actions—getting soaked in liquor jars and growing rough—were gnawing away at their steadfast loyalty.
To the point that they eventually believed their master lord was truly going to eat a rabbit beastfolk…!
“First off, let’s put about ten bottles of liquor on the lord’s table to make it so he can’t get up.”
“Why not just dunk him straight into the liquor vat altogether?”
“No, once the lord gets drunk and falls asleep, we can just guard the front of the storeroom after that!”
“Hmm……, alright.”
The operation proceeded step-by-step according to their plan.
Beom Hyeon passed out dead drunk, and they took turns guarding the front of the storeroom.
However, was it because their motivation was too far ahead? In the early morning when shifts had rotated once, Jang Baek-gi—who opened his eyes feeling refreshed—lost his smile upon realizing that the shift immediately preceding hadn’t been carried out.
Furthermore, inside the storeroom where the child was supposed to be……
“Isn’t this the bundle the kid brought with her? The kid isn’t here though?”
It was empty.
Only the bundle was left behind all alone.
“No way, did he chew her up without leaving even a bone behind…!”
“If you have time to say such damn cursed things, go look for her right now!!”
Turning pale with fright, they scattered.
The main quarters, the inner house, the annex, and outside the walls! They searched every nook and cranny of the Jangsan Tiger household, but the baby rabbit was nowhere to be seen.
Moreover, what made them even more uneasy was that the master lord’s whereabouts—who should normally be in the main quarters—were also unknown….
“……Over there.”
Just then, Jang Baek-gi pointed to a storeroom in the corner with its door wide open.
It was a food storehouse that hadn’t been opened for quite a while because everything put inside gathered mold and caused trouble.
“Why is that door open over there…?”
At the gatekeeper’s words, Jang Baek-gi asked:
“……How long has it been since we last served a meat dish to the master lord?”
“…O-One month?”
A ominous foreboding flashed between the two.
A short moment later, the two servants—who rushed toward the storehouse without bothering to see who was first—faced a cauldron with water boiling vigorously, the master lord……,
“To think you’re planning to steam and eat her!”
…And the baby rabbit, smiling brightly without knowing her own future.
