“One, two, three, fouuur, five….”
“What are you doing, My Lady?”
Bunny sat on the bed with her legs stretched out, methodically counting the coins she’d emptied from her elephant-shaped piggy bank. She froze at the sudden voice behind her, then finished her count.
It was Belial.
“I’m countin’ money to buy choco later.”
Because, as everyone knew, the price of choco was far higher than a Seongryeokseok. To Bunny, this was a self-evident truth. Was it not common knowledge that sweet choco cost more than pebbles?
She understood this perfectly.
“Choco? Ah—is there a specific chocolate you desire?”
“Yup.”
“If you just say the word, this Belial will fetch it for you immediately….”
“No. Bunny has to buy it.”
She shook her head back and forth, staring at him as if he were dense. Belial watched her blankly for a heartbeat before smiling.
“Is that so? I have committed a rudeness.”
“Yup. But, Berry.”
“Yes, your Berry is right here, My Lady.”
“From now on, you have to knock when you come in here.”
Bunny tapped the air with a tiny, adorably clenched fist to demonstrate. Belial laughed brightly and nodded.
“Ah, of course. From now on, I will absolutely!! not forget to knock.”
As Belial punctuated his vow by clenching his own fists, Bunny nodded in satisfaction.
*‘Berry is a bit loud.’*
She thought to herself, returning to her counting. After arranging the coins into neat stacks of ten Lostro each, she tucked them back into the elephant and hopped off the bed.
“Where are you going?”
“Alan.”
Leaving the room, Bunny expertly navigated the vast, cavernous mansion. She turned right, then left, and swung wide around a corner.
The top floor of the Mansion Of Trials.
Unlike the wooden floors below, this hallway was paved in cool, sparkling marble, and the air was crisp.
*‘Here, the fourth room.’*
Bunny stood before the door marked ‘Alan’. She could read ‘Alan’ now; he had brought a sign to her, claiming it was his name, and shook it diligently until she memorized the letters.
*‘Alan, who gave me a cookie today, was gloomy.’*
It wasn’t a “zapping” feeling, nor a “tingling” one—it felt more like a “whoosh.”
*Thump, thump.*
Bunny hammered on the door. Usually, she would have received an immediate reply, but today, silence greeted her.
“Alan!”
*Thump, thump!*
She clenched both fists and pounded even harder. The room remained tomb-quiet. As Bunny’s lips puffed out in a pout, Belial’s eyes flashed red.
“It seems there is no one inside, My Lady.”
He had examined the interior; there was no presence to be sensed. When Bunny turned the doorknob, the door swung open, unlocked.
Bunny’s eyes went round as she stepped inside.
*‘Alan’s room is way bigger than Bunny’s.’*
And it didn’t smell musty at all. She hopped up to inspect the desk. Clothes were tossed messily across the floor, and a notebook lay open on the tabletop, a dark, damp stain drying on the page.
As far as Bunny knew, Alan went to sleep at 10 o’clock. It was only 9.
Yet, he was gone.
The notebook bore what looked suspiciously like tear marks. Surprise gave way to a sharp, focused intensity on Bunny’s face.
*‘Kidnapping!’*
Alan had been snatched!
Unfortunately, Bunny didn’t have the strength to fight a kidnapper right now. Everyone knew kidnappers were monster-like people who commanded shadow beasts, snatched children in sacks, and locked them in tiny, suffocating spaces.
*‘If Bunny doesn’t transform, she’s still small and weak.’*
There was only one logical conclusion. Bunny turned around heroically and marched out. Belial closed the door behind them, acting as her shadow.
“Berry, let’s go!”
“Where to, might I ask?”
“Daddy!”
Bunny moved her short legs as fast as they would carry her. Her toddling, hurried footsteps radiated urgency. Belial rubbed his chin, following at a leisurely pace.
“Do you like that fellow named Alan?”
“Yup. Alan gives Bunny choco cookies.”
“I see. He might not be bad as a pet, certainly… though for such a beast, it would be better to simply put a leash on him.”
“Hm?”
Belial, who had been muttering to himself, smiled brightly and shook his head when Bunny tilted hers to look up at him.
“It is nothing. Let us go. I shall assist you.”
Bunny glanced at him, then toddled toward the main mansion. Only when she caught the eye of the guards did she stop.
“Miss Bunny?”
“Yup! Hello. Is Daddy here?”
“He hasn’t gone out today, so he should be inside, My Lady.”
“O-kay.”
Bunny rushed inside, and Belial bowed his head slightly, affecting the poise of a knight. Bunny didn’t stop until she reached Kyriel’s door, pounding on the wood with both hands.
“Daddy!”
“Bunny…?”
A surprised voice came from within, and the door swung wide. Kyriel stood there, fresh from washing, shirtless and dripping. He blinked, stunned.
“What brings you here at this hour…? Surely you didn’t come to see Daddy….”
“Daddy, Alan is gone.”
“…Ah.”
Kyriel’s expression shifted, momentarily caught off guard. He looked toward the distant mountains beyond the window, his gaze trailing off.
“Bunny thinks he got kidnapped.”
“Kidnapped?”
Impossible. This was the Judia Dukedom; nothing happened within these walls without his knowledge.
*‘I haven’t heard anything, either.’*
Just as Kyriel turned his head, the full moon rising in the sky filled his vision. He froze.
“Ah.”
The full moon—the night when the strength of the beast-kin was at its zenith. Alan was a hybrid, human and beast.
“He is likely sleeping elsewhere tonight.”
“Why?”
“Alan is a special child. On nights when the full moon rises, he cannot maintain his human form. It seems he doesn’t want us to see him like that.”
Bunny blinked, her eyes clear and puzzled.
“If he doesn’t want to be seen, he stays alone?”
“Well. I suppose so.”
“But….”
Bunny thought of Alan. He was a boy who held his head high, yet would shrink away and bow his head the moment someone whispered that he was a monster. Because everyone called that form shameful and disgusting, maybe he was hiding.
*‘When Bunny lived with Luri, I was sad because people said I was a baby without parents. I wanted to hide because they pointed fingers, saying I might be the child of a demon.’*
Luriel had made her wear a hat. When she was a baby and couldn’t hold her human form well, she’d wrapped a hood over her head to hide her horns. She had never been able to stay in one place; she’d kept wandering, never settling.
*‘But… what if Alan thinks that Bunny and Daddy also hate him because he’s a monster?’*
“…….”
Kyriel’s eyes widened slightly at her words.
“Or, does Daddy hate Alan because he’s not human?”
“No. I don’t hate him,” Kyriel said firmly.
He didn’t care about the lineage, provided they weren’t demons. He thought everyone else was much the same. Though, he certainly wished to root out the demons from the world entirely.
“Then you have to tell him you like him even if he’s not human,” Bunny said, her face deflated and gloomy. “You have to tell him he’s pretty and a good boy so Alan can cheer up. Otherwise… Alan will be all alone and crying….”
Kyriel stiffened, staring at her.
A perspective he hadn’t even considered. Because the boy wanted to hide, he had naturally thought it better to leave him to his privacy.
But Bunny was right. If they kept avoiding the scene every full moon, refusing to face him, Alan would only continue to believe he was a monster, destined to be alone.
“…I see.”
Kyriel muttered softly.
*“Don’t go near the youngest young master of the Judia Dukedom. They say he’s cursed by a demon and suffering from a disease.”*
*“Kyriel! My little brother! You’re adorable again today.”*
The voice of someone whose face he could no longer recall overlapped with his own memories.
Kyriel slowly opened his mouth.
“Do you want to see Alan?”
“Yes.”
“Then shall we go look for him together?”
Bunny’s face brightened instantly. She nodded vigorously.
“Yes!”
At her spirited answer, Kyriel stroked her hair and scooped her up into his arms. He signaled for Belial to fall back, and stepped out of the mansion, carrying the child into the night.