Home/I Became the Emergency Food Supply of the Bear Family/ch27

Chapter 27

"Hah..."

Pallas pressed his temples and let out a deep sigh.

"This is why I dislike children."

At his incomprehensible muttering, Na-bom tilted her head—and in the same instant, his clothes vanished and Pallas's form dissolved.

Soon, an animal with a round, puffed-up gray ball-like appearance stood before Na-bom.

Na-bom's black eyes went wide, and her long ears shot skyward. With curiosity dripping from her gaze, she stared at Pallas and took ppodeuk ppodeuk steps closer.

The gray animal also closed the distance. Its heavily puffed tail tip swayed gently. If you looked only at the tail, it swayed so softly it might have been mistaken for a snake.

Watching the lush tail fur sway, Na-bom could no longer contain herself and dashed forward. She grabbed the fluffy tail with her front paws and clung to it. As she began to slide down, the animal turned and shook its body.

—You little...

Pallas sighed as if exasperated and tapped Na-bom's head with his front paw. The squishy sensation of his paw pad pressing against her forehead made Na-bom giggle with delight.

—You clearly didn't understand what that gesture meant at all.

If a cat—especially a manul cat—approaches while swaying its tail like a snake, the proper response is to avoid it if it has no intention of fighting. Because that gesture signals an intent to hunt.

Of course, what had just happened was only play—but she should at least show some basic wariness.

Otherwise, she couldn't be called a beast-person with animal instincts. And yet, she remained nothing but cheerful.

Well, it was to be expected. A creature offered as a sacrifice to the White Wolves could hardly have received proper education.

—Stop clinging to me.

Pallas managed to detach the white rabbit, who kept trying to climb onto him. Then he sat quietly, resting his paws on his fluffy tail—his way of enduring the cold.

Letting out another sigh, Pallas gazed at Na-bom.

—You said you wanted to observe me. Then begin.

Yes, thank you!

Answering with vigor, Na-bom leaped in place and circled around Pallas.

Soon she stretched out her paw to touch Pallas's gray fur, hugged his tail again, and even poked at his grumpy face.

Pallas hummed and silently endured her pawing—until finally, as if her observation was complete, Na-bom moved away.

She sat with her front paws planted before her, quietly tilting her head.

But, Lady Pallas.

—Hm? What is it?

And then she asked:

What kind of beast-person are you, Lady Pallas?

......

At the unexpected question, Pallas's eyes narrowed.

This one clearly needed more education.

---

Running through the back garden with Pallas, Na-bom soon found herself in an unfamiliar place.

It wasn't entirely new—she'd been here before, together with everyone, before the Grizzly bears entered hibernation.

The annex built behind Grizzly Castle's main building.

Na-bom's gaze, looking up at the annex entrance, seemed somewhat distant. The guards standing at the entrance didn't even register in her black eyes.

Na-bom placed her paw on the annex steps.

Her body moved naturally. It was a similar sensation to when she'd discovered the black dog collapsed outside the castle wall. She didn't understand why, but she felt she had to go.

Someone inside the annex. Someone was waiting for her.

An inexplicable certainty filled her mind.

As she stood before the annex's main gate, the guard bowed—and at the same time, a voice came from behind.

—Do you wish to enter the annex?

Stopping in her tracks, Na-bom whipped around. She reflexively bowed her head and said:

I-I'm sorry, Lady Pallas. For trying to go in without permission.

—No, it's fine. You may go anywhere freely.

With those words, Pallas's body glowed white. A snap of his fingers and clothes wrapped around him as he returned to human form.

As Pallas humanized, the guard recognized him and saluted. Gazing at the guard stepping aside, Pallas asked:

"But—why?"

Pardon?

"You came here last time, didn't you?"

......

Pausing in thought, Na-bom stared into space and answered as if murmuring:

I don't know. I don't know why, but someone—

"Someone you want to meet."

As if finishing her sentence, Pallas said.

At the smile that had formed on his lips, Na-bom felt oddly puzzled.

It was as if he knew—knew about the impulse akin to instinct swirling within her.

"Then I'll help you."

And so the two entered the annex.

The moment they set foot in the lobby, Na-bom climbed the stairs. Her steps quickened, and before she knew it, she was running down the corridor.

Stopping before the door at the end of the corridor, Na-bom turned—and Pallas, as if waiting, opened the door.

Kkiik. The old hinges groaned.

Dalkak. As the door closed, silence and darkness settled over the room.

The only light was a faint beam seeping through the gap in the slightly open curtains.

The light fell across the bed before the curtains. More precisely, across the long white-haired woman lying on it.

......

Pallas gestured with his arm, as if to say she could approach. Na-bom hesitated, then moved her paws.

The woman on the bed did not open her eyes. She didn't stir at the sound of the hinges or the closing door. Even when Na-bom drew near and stood on her hind legs, it was the same.

Theodor had introduced this sleeping woman as his wife.

That day, as if by arrangement, she had been awake—but today she was not. She slept so still it was almost frightening to watch.

"Rib Grizzly. You've met her before. Theodor's wife."

Theodor's wife. Ferdinand and Louis's mother. Ferdinand, speaking of his mother as they toured the greenhouse. Louis, calling for his mother in his tearful sleep-talk.

From their expressions and her current state—

Na-bom looked up at Pallas and asked carefully:

It seems the Countess isn't hibernating. Is she ill?

"Yes. Rib is a polar bear, so she doesn't hibernate."

Pallas answered as he looked down at Rib.

"It's different from ordinary illness—but if you call it sickness, then it is sickness."

...May I ask what you mean by that?

Na-bom asked, even more cautiously than before.

Neither the brown bears, nor Anna, nor anyone else in the castle had told her about her.

The castle's annex. In a small, lightless room, the Countess lay perpetually still.

There was clearly a story too difficult to speak of.

It wouldn't be proper for an outsider like herself to pry into such matters.

But despite her worry, Pallas began answering calmly.

"A curse. She's afflicted with the curse that returns to those who break a vow."

Na-bom's eyes went round.

The vow—introduced in the original story as a double-edged sword.

Making a vow could grant immense power, but breaking it would bring a curse upon oneself.

She recalled reading that a curse, not being a disease, was nearly impossible to cure.

"I, Theodor Grizzly, swear that I will cause no harm to this life in my arms."

It's the same kind of vow His Lordship made to me.

Na-bom's front paws pressed into the bedsheet.

Seeing someone lying ill in bed as the price of breaking a vow made the danger of vows feel all too real.

"It seems you already knew about vows. Did Theodor explain them?"

I—I asked the old man—I mean, Sir Heinz.

Since she'd actually only known from the original story, Na-bom quickly covered. At her words, Pallas nodded calmly with a Hmm, I see. Na-bom quickly asked a new question.

What vow did the Countess fail to keep?

"......"

Pallas didn't answer immediately this time. He looked down at Na-bom, then turned his gaze back to Rib, and slowly opened his mouth.

"A vow to protect a child... her youngest daughter."

Pallas's voice dropped low.

Na-bom slowly turned to look at him.

Youngest daughter? Didn't Theodor have only two children—Ferdinand and Louis?

As she thought that far, she suddenly remembered.

"From today on, this is Snowflake-nim's room."

The bed she'd been placed in that day—a room that seemed made for small animals, with signs of prior use.

"The youngest daughter of the Grizzly family, Koko Grizzly, died at a young age before she could humanize."

Back   Next