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Chapter 14
Surprisingly, his hands as he treated her were careful and precise. Pera thought Ray must have a knack for medicine as well as swordsmanship.
As she imagined him wearing a doctor’s white coat, her lips curved up into a silly grin before she realized it.
“Figures you’d be a pervert. Laughing while getting treated for wounds.”
Ray, watching her face out of the corner of his eye, spoke flatly. The disinfectant was stinging her skin, yet she was smiling—it hardly seemed sane.
He had always thought it strange that she hummed whenever she looked at her own injuries, but this was the first time she was so blatantly obvious about it.
Finishing the treatment with an unamused frown, Ray pulled his hands back as though worried he might catch some kind of pervert’s disease from her.
“I was just thinking about something else! Of course it hurts!”
“Ah, I see. Is that so?”
“Really!”
“And what exactly were you thinking?”
At that, Pera’s lips shut as tightly as a clam.
Even if she had no particular image to maintain in front of him, admitting that she’d been smiling because she imagined him in a medical coat was absolutely the worst. Pera had at least enough self-awareness to realize that.
But her silence only made Ray’s frown deepen. The chatterbox human woman suddenly closing her mouth seemed even more suspicious.
And so, in Ray’s eyes, Pera was now branded as a veterinarian with a bizarre fetish. She trudged back toward the village with heavier steps, her heart aching more from the misunderstanding than from her injured hand.
“Pera!”
The moment she stepped through the village gates, Harun’s urgent cry rang out. Theo sat perched on his shoulders.
The boy’s small hands were clutching Harun’s soft, snow-white rabbit ears.
He wasn’t squeezing them as tightly as the first time they met, but for a rabbit like Harun, having his ears grabbed at all was enough to be terrifying.
Pera rushed over with arms outstretched.
“Lord Theo! I just came back from the forest—please give me a hug and greet me!”
“Mhm! Pera, wanna say hello with me?”
“Yes!”
Theo tilted his head, his golden curls rippling like honey waves, his round ears twitching adorably. He looked every bit the picture of an angelic child, though in truth he was the most dangerous of predators.
At her words, Theo immediately released Harun’s ears and threw himself into Pera’s arms. The child sniffed her like a little animal greeting its kin.
It was a custom among some beast to gauge a person’s well-being through scent. But among the familiar sweetness of flowers clinging to her, an odd smell wormed its way in.
Theo’s tail, which had been swaying happily, suddenly stood stiff.
“Pera, weird smell…!”
“Me?”
“Mhm! Pera hurt?”
Pera checked her clothes, wondering if she’d brushed up against some strange plants, then realized.
“Ah! I fell on the way back to the village and hurt my palm. That must be it.”
“You fell? Got an owie? Should Theo blow on it?”
His golden eyes welled with sympathy as he looked at her bandaged hand. Unlike his knight, the little prince was brimming with empathy.
“If Lord Theo blows on it, I’m sure it’ll heal faster!”
“Mhm! Theo will do it!”
With exaggerated solemnity, Theo pursed his lips and blew a soft puff of air on her palm. His puckered expression was unbearably cute.
Pera was bursting with internal squeals of adoration when a voice cut through like cold water.
“There she goes smiling again. Pervert.”
Pera shot Ray a brief glare before quickly turning her attention back to Theo.
“Wow! It doesn’t hurt at all now! Lord Theo, you’re amazing!”
Her praise was loud and overflowing. Theo’s cheeks flushed crimson, his tail wagging happily once more.
He was so innocent and lovely. The thought that terrible things in the forest had been targeting this precious child made her chest ache with pity and anger.
She found herself wishing that those creatures would never again know a night of peaceful sleep—that they would suffer divine punishment.
“Theo. Come here.”
Dinner that night had been, as always, a mountain of meat. Afterward, Ray called out to the boy who was running along the wall.
Theo immediately bounded over, eyes shining with eager anticipation as he sat before Ray.
“Yes, Ray! Theo came!”
“Do you still want to stay in this village a little longer?”
It was the first time Ray had asked since Theo declared that he wanted to remain here. At his words, Theo’s ears and tail drooped low.
Even without being told, the boy seemed to realize—it was time to leave.
For someone so young, Theo had lived his entire life within the palace walls. He was quick-witted, sharper than most adults.
Ray lifted him onto his lap, soothing him gently.
“We haven’t even been to Eklet yet, remember? It’ll be even more fun there.”
“No! Here is more fun!”
Theo’s rebuttal came fast and fierce. In Timi Village, there were carrots aplenty, rabbit friends to play with, and no stern adults scolding him for being noisy. He had plenty of reasons.
“And, and! Pera doesn’t have ears or a tail! Theo has to protect Pera!”
He puffed himself up like a brave little hero, declaring that he couldn’t leave the human unguarded.
Ray chuckled inwardly at his earnestness. The boy had grown more expressive here—showing a range of emotions he had never displayed in the palace.
Ray himself had once thought poorly of this snow-rabbit village. Now, he found himself wishing they could stay longer—if only circumstances allowed.
But circumstances did not. This was no time to relax and play tag with the rabbits.
Hugging Theo tightly, Ray spoke gravely.
“Theo, your elder brothers have sent beast. They’ll come to this village soon. If we stay, it might cause trouble for Pera.”
At once, the boy’s face hardened, all expression wiped clean. It was as if he’d put on a glass mask.
He recalled the disapproving glares of his brothers, and in an instant the warmth of the rabbit village faded, replaced by the suffocating gloom of the palace.
A low growl rumbled in his throat, his golden eyes flashing dangerously.
“Yes. I found evidence in the forest. Theo… it’s time to say goodbye to the rabbits, and to Pera.”
“No…!”
“Theo.”
“No! No!!”
Theo burst from Ray’s arms, stomping the ground with furious refusal. He hated the palace, and he hated leaving this place.
The youngest prince, once so pliant, was now clinging desperately to the first home that had ever brought him joy. Here, he woke at dawn with excitement to see his rabbit friends. In the palace, he woke each day in dread.
The more he thought about it, the angrier he grew. His protests swelled into a tantrum Ray had never seen before.
“What’s going on?”
Pera came rushing in from the clinic, where she had been tending to an emergency patient. Normally, Theo was calm and well-behaved whenever he was with Ray. And Ray, though stern to her, was always gentle with Theo.
Yet now Theo was crying and shouting, and Ray looked cornered, kneeling on the floor.
Pera blinked, unable to make sense of the scene.
“Sir Ray, did you hit Lord Theo?”
“What…?”
Her deduction had seemed plausible, but Ray’s baffled reaction suggested otherwise.
Clearing her throat, Pera turned to soothing Theo instead. The boy, still sobbing and seething, clung tightly as she lifted him into her arms. He was heavier than before—growing fast.
Nearly stumbling under his weight, she steadied herself. Immediately, Theo wrapped his short limbs around her as though binding her in place, refusing to let go.
“Theo will never let Pera go!”
It was a declaration dripping with possessiveness. Ray frowned deeply, recognizing just how troublesome this attachment could become.
