Like that, the rabbit diligently licked Ruan’s palm before dropping off, seemingly satisfied. Though he felt regretful when the fluffy paw pads and moist tongue’s touch disappeared from his palm, he didn’t show it.
“Fortunately, it seems you like the doll.”
The rabbit looked up at him quietly as if affirming the Demon King’s words. Now that he’d gotten the doll back, Beni was preparing to leave, carefully holding the doll in his mouth.
“If you’re not busy, won’t you stay a little longer?”
At the gentle question, the rabbit stared at the Demon King while holding the doll that looked exactly like him in his mouth. Once Ren fell asleep, he didn’t wake easily unless there was a very loud noise, and the late-night Demon King’s Castle had no difficulty returning to the dormitory as long as he avoided the guards well.
Besides, the Demon King had even fixed his doll very prettily, so there was no reason anywhere for Beni to refuse his proposal.
When the rabbit nodded slightly, Ruan curved his two eyes. The Demon King’s eye shape was straight with sharply upturned ends so it was on the scary side, but the moment it curved, the image changed dramatically. Beni somehow felt a bit stuffy inside at such a change in the Demon King and turned his eyes away.
“Then the bed would be better than the floor for staying longer.”
The Demon King held out both hands with the backs facing down toward Beni, and this time the rabbit climbed onto his palms without hesitation. Because of his small size, there was still palm left over even after that.
His steps toward the bed became even more careful at the light weight, enough to wonder if something had really climbed onto his hand. With each step he took, the soft fur rubbed against his skin from the vibrations he felt.
The rabbit that fit snugly in his hands was small and light, and more lovely, adorable, and cute than anything Ruan had ever seen. Though his thought of someday welcoming this child as his mate remained unchanged, he felt like he didn’t dare deserve it.
It was an emotion somewhat too pure and noble for a Demon King to have.
Was the distance to the bed really only this much? Ruan looked at the large bed he’d already arrived at with dissatisfaction, then realized the rabbit was still staring intently at him and changed his expression to a gentle one.
The rabbit wasn’t keen enough to notice the momentary change. When he lowered his hand onto the blanket, the rabbit immediately hopped down without any lingering attachment.
The Demon King’s bed, which he’d climbed back onto after that day of encountering the snake, was still large. And.
‘As expected, he’s not here.’
The Demon King’s rabbit, Ben, was nowhere in this room. Though he’d been trying to find Ben continuously from the moment he entered, he couldn’t sense even a trace of him.
The rabbit tilted his head in puzzlement, then first put down the doll he’d been holding in his mouth. Because the doll’s volume was a bit large compared to his mouth, one side of the doll’s belly was soaked wet with saliva.
Ruan looked at the doll’s slightly darkened belly with desire-filled eyes, then ended up meeting the rabbit’s eyes again. At the bright yellow eyes that sparkled innocently, knowing nothing, the Demon King smoothly picked up the doll.
“Oh my, it’s wet. I’ll wipe it for you.”
Saying so, the Demon King with a good-person-like face wiped the saliva on the doll with his sleeve while hiding one hand behind his back.
Not long after, something that looked exactly like Beni’s doll appeared in the hidden hand. With the saliva still on it, no less. He’d replicated it with magic in that short time.
An item to finally go in the empty spot at the very top of the largest cabinet in the Beni collection room had been created.
Ruan finished wiping the doll with a gentle face and returned it to Beni again. As soon as the rabbit quickly received the doll, he tucked it smoothly under his belly. Thanks to his fluffy fur, the rabbit doll was buried in the fur and hidden perfectly.
Then he looked up at the Demon King obediently, and Ruan barely held back his desire to pet such a rabbit wildly and opened his mouth.
“Actually, I have a worry.”
The Demon King’s worry! The rabbit’s two ears stood up even more sharply and turned toward the Demon King. The Demon King had given him, who had snuck in as a servant of the Demon King’s Castle, delicious foods, directly said he liked rabbits, and even fixed and returned a doll to him as a rabbit.
Since such a person had a worry, Beni absolutely wanted to solve that worry. Because he wasn’t an ungrateful rabbit who didn’t know gratitude.
“Can you listen for a moment?”
The white rabbit immediately nodded his face up and down rapidly. The round yellow eyes filled with determination to help with whatever worry it was with all his might. It wasn’t like the rabbit had eyebrows, but if he did have them, the rabbit’s expression was serious enough that they would have been drawn sharply upward.
Ruan swallowed his laughter inwardly while deliberately drooping his eye shape sadly.
“Recently, it’s become hard to see my rabbit……”
If it was the Demon King’s rabbit, it would be the rabbit called Ben. Somehow, Beni looked around again. There were no traces of a rabbit visible anywhere. Had the rabbit run away from home? If he was similar in size to himself, that rabbit might be in very big trouble right now.
Shouldn’t he find him right away? If it were himself, he could understand a similar rabbit’s accident and could enter narrow places well enough, so it might be easier to find him.
Beni wanted to convey these words to the Demon King, but as a rabbit he had no means to convey them, so in his frustration he only stamped his hind feet lightly.
“Haah…… So lately I’ve had no energy at all, rabbit.”
The Demon King’s voice trembled as if he might cry at any moment, seemingly very heartbroken. To be this sad, Beni wanted to find the rabbit called Ben for him right now.
After contemplating for a moment, the rabbit suddenly took out the doll hidden in his chest again, held it in his mouth, and pushed it under the pillow at the head of the bed.
What was he suddenly doing? As Ruan watched, the rabbit returned to his place and started looking around as if searching for something.
Looking this way and that and sniffing with his nose, the rabbit crawled back toward the pillow. As if he didn’t know the doll was under there, he rummaged around, then lifted the pillow up high with his head. Under the raised pillow was naturally the doll, and the rabbit acted surprised, then soon pounded the floor wildly with his hind feet.
Thump thump thump, the mattress rang out regularly and strongly. The rabbit didn’t stop there and waved his front paws as if showing the Demon King, pointing at the rabbit doll.
Wouldn’t the Demon King understand by now? Beni was now trying to convey to the Demon King through his own performance that he could find rabbits. It was Beni’s effort to convey it through his body when words didn’t work.
However, the Demon King, either not understanding at all, just covered his mouth and stared at him. Beni pointed with his front paw at the doll hidden under the pillow and patted his own chest.
‘I, can, find, your, rabbit, for, you!’
“……”
At the Demon King’s lack of response, frustration finally rose and the rabbit embraced the doll under the pillow with his front paws and stood up abruptly on two feet. Though walking on two feet was difficult, it wasn’t impossible, so the rabbit waddled over and placed the rabbit doll right in front of the Demon King with a thud.
The Demon King, looking down at that doll, finally removed the hand covering his mouth and said,
“Ah, you’re saying to keep the doll instead of the rabbit?”
‘Ah.’
In an instant, the rabbit’s eyes became fierce. By this point he should understand to some degree, but the Demon King who couldn’t guess at all was so frustrating it was infuriating.
Grind, the rabbit unconsciously ground his teeth before hurriedly stopping.
Though it was annoying that words didn’t work, being oblivious wasn’t a crime either. It was the moment when Beni was looking up at the Demon King, wondering what to do.
Kup.
Ruan finally couldn’t hold back his laughter and burst out. He’d already reached his limit from when the rabbit had tightly hugged the doll with his front paws and waddled over. Beni looked at the Demon King giggling to himself with completely uncomprehending eyes.
‘……Why is he laughing?’
Was there anything laugh-worthy among what he just did? When the rabbit frowned and tilted his head, the Demon King gently stroked the white head softly and said,
“You’re saying you’ll help find the rabbit?”
The Demon King finally understood! The rabbit nodded his head so vigorously that his long ears flapped. Ruan contemplated for a moment. He hadn’t said it for this purpose.
“I’d appreciate that. But that rabbit is very good at hide-and-seek, so there’s no need to push yourself to find him.”
Ben was good at hide-and-seek too, somehow it seemed they really had a lot in common with himself. Since Beni was confident in hide-and-seek too, he proudly pounded his hind feet. It was a sign of confidence.
“Of course, if you want to look for him…… I won’t stop you, but instead I’d like to ask another favor.”
When Beni nodded, Ruan wrapped his hand that had been constantly petting the rabbit around his bottom. It was a small bottom, small enough to fit in one hand with room to spare. Then while pulling him toward himself and lowering his body, he whispered,
“I have no energy because I can’t see the rabbit. So when you have time, can you come to my bedroom? Day or night, it doesn’t matter.”
It’s not forcing you, the Demon King’s two eyes curved like half-moons smoothly. The rabbit who had been looking up as if entranced nodded just like that.
It absolutely wasn’t that he nodded with his soul taken by the face, but a reasonable conclusion reached because he had to repay the debt of gratitude.
Like that, Beni’s double life began.
