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Chapter 05
The filthy space looked like a collection of livestock pens. Inside, Prince Michael, with his gleaming appearance that seemed out of place in such a setting, was peering into the cage.
In the cage were children with wings, children with horns sprouting from their heads, and a child with hair like an old woman’s. Children of various appearances were confined there.
Canis, with her perked ears, was hidden behind the other children and had not yet entered Michael’s field of vision. Instead, the white-haired girl standing relatively close to the outer edge caught his eye.
“What is this freak?”
Beastkin with animal features were nothing unusual. Rare, perhaps, but those were their natural traits.
But a human child with hair bleached white like an old woman’s was grotesque.
She drew people’s gazes oddly, like a deformity of three eyes or fused soles. That was probably why she was trapped in this cage along with the other beastkin.
The child flinched at the gaze that looked upon her as if she were a bizarre mutation.
Grrrr.
And sensing the child’s distress, Canis felt hostility welling up toward the one who had frightened her.
It was the smallest and most fragile child in the cage. There was no need to wound her with such low curiosity and insensitive words! Canis’s throat rumbled with rising wariness and antagonism.
“Hm?”
At that moment, Prince Michael’s attention shifted to the source of the ominous sound.
The sight of her ears perked up and teeth bared stood out in stark contrast to the others who were all cowering in fear.
“That one…”
“Ah, yes, Your Highness. A young beastkin who has never yet had an owner. As you know, the breed is popular—well-trained, they are loyal and clever.”
The slave trader, who had been bowing incessantly without straightening his back beside the prince, quickly rattled off an explanation.
Without bothering to listen to the trader’s chatter about things he hadn’t even asked, Michael observed Canis with interest, her face coated with wariness as she glared at him.
“Grrrr.”
Her hostility heightened at the disrespectful gaze, as if watching an animal’s antics, and Canis’s growl grew clearer and louder.
At the threatening sound warning him not to come closer, Michael’s eyes sparkled with delight instead. Making no effort to hide his interest, he curled his lips and asked the trader who was still bowing beside him.
“How much?”
Even as he asked the price, Prince Michael kept his eyes fixed on Canis, gazing straight at her without looking away.
Furious at being treated like a cheap trinket on a market stall, Canis howled.
“Woof! Woof woof! Woof woof!”
Startled by her sudden outburst as if she would overturn the cage, the trader hurriedly shouted at the entrance of the tent, summoning his servants.
“Wh-what madness! Hey, you there! Yes, grab those and bring them here now!”
Following his orders, the workers rushed over with their equipment.
As if the noisy commotion around him had nothing to do with him, Prince Michael remained standing where he was, watching the cage, and gazed steadily at Canis.
“You are the first to dare bare your teeth and bark at me like this.”
Canis, who had been snarling fiercely as if to spit blood from her throat, shouted in fury at him, who didn’t even blink but watched her as if she were a spectacle.
[ “_____!” ]
—
Yes. What appeared next was the first choice.
As the clues presented to her so far indicated, if this was the world of the game, this was a branching point she absolutely could not skip.
The choices that determined the game’s ending were mandatory events accompanied by illustrations. The future progression was decided precisely by what was chosen at that moment.
And now.
The encounter at the slave shop was the first mandatory event.
Yujin analyzed what the original story’s situations meant and the key points for攻略 (strategy).
Prince Michael originally had little interest in acquiring slaves, but he became intrigued by Canis because she didn’t hide her hostility and confronted him head-on.
Seeing her bare her teeth without cowering before the cage that confined her or the soldiers surrounding her, Michael took her to the palace under the pretense of taming an insolent stray dog.
‘And after this, the Prince Michael route was nothing but confinement endings.’
The only time an ending other than confinement appeared in connection with the prince was when the wrong choice was made at the first mandatory event.
If you didn’t pick the correct answer for the event, Prince Michael would leave with a bored expression, and Canis would be disposed of by the shop as punishment for causing a disturbance.
But even if you chose the correct answer for the event…
‘Canis wasn’t happy.’
From the player’s perspective, there was fun in collecting various confinement endings, but Canis, who had to endure the insane prince’s obsession head-on, was disgusted by him.
In every route within the game, Canis wanted to escape from Prince Michael.
‘That very thing further provoked Michael and led to confinement, but…’
Canis always pursued freedom. Living like a pet trapped in a cage gnawed at her soul.
Poor Canis. From now on, she would spend her life never leaving the palace, unable to do anything.
Later, trapped in a cage built from all the empire’s treasures by Michael, who had become emperor, she would never have the freedom she desired…
‘Huh?’
A palace filled with treasures… Doing nothing…?
Suddenly, a flash of realization struck her.
Yujin recalled the last words she had muttered before her surroundings suddenly changed.
– …I’d rather be reborn as a dog in a house like that.
The Imperial Palace.
The empire’s palace, where the prince would take the protagonist, was overflowing with treasures.
Feeding and keeping a single pet without lifting a finger would be laughably easy.
“……”
A crazy thought, one that would further complicate this already chaotic situation, crossed Yujin’s mind.
Michael still hadn’t averted his interested gaze from her.
Grrrr.
From behind, she could hear Canis growling threateningly. Before Michael could react to that, Yujin took a deep breath and opened her mouth.
“Woof woof woof woof woof!!”
It was clearly the sound of a person barking.
Amidst the deep silence created by the flustered people, only the barking echoed. Canis, who had been about to let out a threatening sound, stood with her mouth agape, staring at Yujin.
While everyone wore bewildered expressions, Prince Michael pointed at Yujin and asked.
“…Is that one also a beastkin?”
“No, she is not.”
The trader bowed and wiped the sweat from his brow incessantly.
“She is clearly human, but…”
Is that one crazy? The expression seemed to imply such unspoken words. Yujin paid no heed to their reactions and barked furiously.
She knew exactly what she was doing right now.
‘It’s crazy.’
Originally, the protagonist Canis was naturally fearless and had a dense attribute for various events, so she had charged in without even knowing who that person was. But Yujin knew exactly what kind of person Prince Michael was.
In the game, he never laid a hand on Canis.
Only Canis.
Instead, he showed the face of a merciless tyrant to everyone but her. All the more to keep Canis bound to him.
So a mere girl from a slave shop doing this dog act to a prince of cruel disposition, under normal circumstances, would be nothing but a unique way of begging to have her head lopped off.
But this was the world inside the game.
‘What if… this is an event.’
If, for the first event starting now, it didn’t have to be the protagonist who fulfilled the conditions, but anyone else would do.
‘It’s worth confirming.’
Anyway, the worst that could happen from acting crazy here was death.
Death was only a moment anyway.
The prolonged stress and sudden change in environment drove Yujin to extremely cynical thinking. As a result, she calmly entertained self-destructive thoughts and carried them out without hesitation.
“Woof woof woof woof!”
…The fact that this consisted of actually barking like a dog confirmed that Yujin’s original common sense and minimal dignity had been utterly shattered.
Now! Look at these clearly bared teeth! I am definitely barking at you! Yujin stared intensely at Prince Michael with clear intent and thought.
‘Say that line!’
And then take me with you!
Whether her efforts paid off or not, Prince Michael, who had been watching the girl making dog noises with an incredulous expression, opened his mouth.
“How much is that one?”
It wasn’t the expression of interest he’d had when looking at Canis, but it didn’t matter.
“You are the first to dare… bark such nonsense right in front of me.”
Yujin was satisfied that she had smoothly drawn out the line right before the choices appeared. She knew the correct answer to respond with.
‘If I choose this answer, Prince Michael will…’
With a strange sense of conviction, Yujin confidently opened her mouth.
