Even though he ate as much as he wanted, the Cerberus didn’t mind, so he’d come thinking it might have some connection to the Demon King’s rabbit, but every day? I came almost every day too, so why didn’t I see him?
Yuri, who looked at the dazed Beni questioningly, saw the Cerberus that had come outside and drew in a breath.
“Goodness, the Cerberus came outside?”
Yuri bent at the waist and made cooing sounds toward the Cerberus, but the Cerberus barked and threatened even more fiercely than it had with Beni.
“I didn’t know its size had shrunk this much. Even when I briefly saw it before when moving the pen, it wasn’t this small…… It might die soon.”
Beni’s mind, which had gotten tangled up at the mention that the Demon King’s rabbit had come here often, snapped back sharply.
“It might…… die? But it still looks this young!”
Beni examined the continuously barking Cerberus once more. Its two eyes seemed somehow dried out, but its appearance alone was still very much like a baby. Then she crossed her arms and cupped her cheek with one hand.
“From what I heard, it’s about 100 years old this year. I’ve only been in the castle for 4 years myself, but after the previous Demon King stopped waging war, it was neglected for 30 years and hasn’t eaten anything.”
“……30 years?”
“Yes, I think they said the Cerberus’s staple food is His Majesty the Demon King’s magic power? So they said it could survive without eating? But since the previous Demon King neglected it for 30 years, and Cerberus are monsters with very strong loyalty to their master, it thought it was abandoned for being useless and stopped eating even food, so its size gradually shrank. They said if it continues not eating anything like this, it’ll disappear just like that.”
It was one shocking fact after another. While Beni couldn’t respond at all, Yuri spread both her hands wide and said,
“When I saw it 4 years ago, it was about this big. They say it shrinks faster as it gets closer to disappearing, and I guess that’s true.”
Now he could understand why the Cerberus’s pen was so large. Beni looked down seriously at the Cerberus that was still glaring at him. To think its size had shrunk from that extent to become similar to himself, a rabbit, in just 4 years…….
“What needs to be done to prevent the Cerberus from disappearing……?”
“First it needs to eat, right? Or maybe if His Majesty the Demon King kept the Cerberus by his side now, that might work, but I don’t know. They say the Cerberus followed the previous Demon King well. Whether it follows the existence of a Demon King itself, or if it followed the previous Demon King specifically.”
The previous Demon King was dead. Ruan had said he killed him. As Beni stared at the Cerberus that kept looking up only at him for some reason, Yuri brought the bucket she’d left behind.
“Since it came out like this anyway, maybe it’ll eat today.”
Then she carefully opened the pen door and went in. The Cerberus immediately scampered and hid inside its doghouse.
“Ah, as expected.”
Yuri looked regretfully at the disappeared Cerberus, then tilted the bucket toward the bowl placed in front of the doghouse. Then a stew with chunks of meat came out from inside. When Yuri came out after leaving just that, Beni looked at her questioningly and asked.
“Um…… Is there no other food?”
Should dinner be light? At Beni’s question, Yuri answered as if it were obvious.
“Yes, that’s all there is? Why?”
Beni, who had hesitated for a moment, finally couldn’t hold back his doubt and asked.
“Originally…… I thought there was more food……!”
Ah, Yuri nodded her head slightly and answered.
“That was because His Majesty the Demon King liked it before when his rabbit stole food from here. In reality, it was the rabbit-nim’s food disguised as Cerberus food.”
Huh……? Something was strange.
James’s rabbit drawing that resembled him too closely, Ruan who mistook him for his rabbit, Yuri’s words that the rabbit liked to steal food from the Cerberus pen.
The Demon King’s rabbit that they all spoke of in unison was too similar to himself. Beni felt like he was missing something important.
When Beni seemed shocked, Yuri, mistakenly thinking he was distressed about something else, added,
“Since it was His Majesty the Demon King’s rabbit, we had no choice but to prepare food at first, but it really ate so deliciously. And it looked so adorably cute. To be honest, I wanted to go and touch it once. But it’s already been…… about two months since we stopped seeing it.”
It had also just been reaching two months since Beni had been caught by Tallos and became a servant.
“Now everyone thinks the rabbit-nim has passed away…… If I’d known it would leave so suddenly, I should have risked death and touched it once……”
Yuri’s lonely voice sank heavily. Even while looking at her with shaking eyes, Beni couldn’t say anything.
* * *
The doubt that had been gradually growing in Beni could be confirmed right away not long after.
From dinner until coming to the lodging, Beni was out of it. Ren, who had changed into comfortable clothes, waved his hand in front of Beni’s face as he sat perched on the bed.
“Hey, what’s with your state today? You don’t have a fever, do you?”
Ren swept aside Beni’s bangs and placed his hand on his forehead, but Beni’s body temperature was much cooler than his own. He knew that beastkin mixed-bloods generally had low body temperatures, but among them, Beni seemed to be on the quite low side.
“Should I make you some cocoa?”
Instead of words, Beni just shook his head.
“You maybe……”
Ren, who had trailed off, straightened his back and waved his hand.
“Never mind, no……”
Only then did Beni look up at Ren properly. He wanted an explanation of what he was trying to say, but Ren changed the subject.
“If your head’s complicated, go out for a walk or something for a bit.”
“A walk?”
It seemed better to move his body as Ren said. Before going to the Demon King’s bedroom later, he needed some fresh air to see if the speculation he was making now was correct. When Beni got up from the bed, Ren also started putting on his outer clothes.
“You’re going out too, Ren?”
“You don’t want me to?”
“No, no, not at all! You don’t really like the cold either, Ren. That’s why I asked.”
Thanks, Beni said and turned around to put on his clothes piece by piece, while Ren was supplied from the Inferno Core mining site in his wardrobe…… Actually, he’d scratched at the manager thoroughly for a week demanding it be handed over. Anyway, it had much better insulation than ordinary gloves and had a self-heating function.
It was the moment when Ren, who had been pondering, turned toward Beni holding those gloves.
“Ren.”
Beni was standing right behind him without him knowing when he’d come. When the startled Ren staggered backward, Beni narrowed his eyes into a straight line and slipped something into his clothes pocket.
“His Majesty told me to use this secretly by myself…… You carry this around too.”
Warm heat spread inside his clothes in an instant. When Ren put his hand in questioningly, the surface was very smooth. When he took it out, it was simply a bright red and transparent jewel, but having seen countless mana crystal stones while working at the mining site, Ren couldn’t help but recognize it.
If you looked closely, an energy that seemed to ripple as if waves were rolling inside, the appropriate temperature heating that made his whole body drowsy just from holding it.
“……The Demon King gave you this?”
“Yeah, he said since it’s winter and cold, if I carry this around and hold it, I’ll be warm.”
This was a top-grade mana stone. No, was it even right to call it just a mana stone? This was no different from the Demon King having condensed his mana tightly. Seeing how it had such a clear form and had no effect other than heating even when held, it seemed perfectly sealed.
Even though the Demon King personally gave something like this…… this bastard Beni hasn’t noticed anything at all?
Ren vaguely understood why the Demon King was keeping Beni as just a servant.
Since this guy was this oblivious, he must be planning to watch until he figured it out. He’d consistently believed this Demon King would be very violent and selfish, but as time passed, it seemed he might not be such a bad person after all.
〈That’s fortunate. Make sure that heart doesn’t change in the future, and I’m counting on you.〉
Counting on him…… probably meant more to keep his mouth shut, right? Ren suppressed his frustration and returned the mana stone to Beni.
“I don’t want to die, friend.”
