Chapter 85
<88화>
“Mister. Let’s go take a look too.”
The knight, who had been on high alert for a dangerous situation, hesitated for a moment at my command before nodding his head.
I followed closely behind him as we moved toward the front of the butcher shop.
“Sir Knight, this brat here has been hiding a monster!”
Facing the knight, the butcher shouted once again.
But.
“Wait, why is that boy crying?”
Peek.
Before the knight could respond, I poked my face out from behind him and asked bluntly.
The butcher’s eyes went wide.
“L—Lady? Are you the Lady of Crost?”
The owner recognized me immediately.
As news had spread, it seemed people now knew my face well enough to recognize me on sight.
“Yes, I am, but…”
“H—He’s trying to kick my friend out….”
I was about to shrug and answer, but a thin, mosquito-like voice cut me off.
“…What was that?”
Thinking I had misheard, I scratched my ear and tilted my head.
“M—My friend isn’t a monster…!”
The mosquito-like voice began to drift through the air again.
“Do mosquitoes live through the winter?”
When I asked, the escort knight whispered to me with a flustered expression.
“It’s not a mosquito; I believe it’s the voice of the boy clinging to the butcher.”
“Oh?”
Whoops. Right.
Only then did I look at the boy.
My eyes met directly with his, which were round and brimming with tears.
His gentle-looking face slowly crumpled, and he burst into tears again with a loud “Waaaaah!”
Oh boy, he was really heartbroken about something.
The child sniffled, unable to even open his eyes because he was crying so hard.
I arched a brow of justice and glared at the butcher.
“First, tell me what’s going on here. You said there’s a monster, but this boy keeps saying it’s his friend.”
“It is a monster! It’s a Ferry, no less!”
A Ferry? What kind of monster is that?
My question was answered by the escort knight’s sigh.
“…Of all things, it’s a Ferry? Ha. Ferries are a bit of a headache.”
“What’s a Ferry?”
“It’s an animal-type monster that’s quite small for its kind. Its characteristic is its small body and nimble speed, which it uses to dart around and pounce on people. If it were large, it would be easier to deal with, but since it scurries everywhere, it’s actually harder to catch.”
“Is it a dangerous monster?”
“It is. Their claws are sharp; if you’re unlucky, they can rip the skin right off your face.”
“Gasp!”
Hmm… In that case.
My surprise at the gruesome warning was brief. I rummaged through the inner pocket of my jacket.
I pulled out the blowpipe with the poison needle I had hidden inside.
“Then open the door for now. I’ll see for myself whether it’s a dangerous monster or truly that child’s friend and make a judgment.”
“Lady, you can’t!”
“He’s right, it’s dangerous! I should be the one to…!”
May and the knight were horrified by my words.
Toward the knight who was stepping forward—
“Oh. Of course, the knight is the one looking, not me.”
“Pardon?”
I gave him a refreshing smile.
“If I get into another accident, my dad will scold me.”
Sliiiide.
Before he knew it, the distance between the knight and me had widened.
After drawing an invisible line between us, I clenched my small fists and gave him a “Fighting!” gesture.
“…….”
The knight stood silent for a moment, as if he had briefly forgotten the fact that I was the Lady of Crost.
“…F—Fighting….”
He accepted the command a beat late, drawing his sword with a grim expression.
‘Fighting!’
I once again clenched my tiny, soft fists.
The knight shot me a look that seemed to ask, ‘Then why did you take out a poison needle?’
“Ahem!”
Regaining his composure and gripping his sword, he kicked the door open violently.
What followed was a heavy silence.
“…….”
Beyond the open warehouse door, something was lurking in the dark space.
Purple eyes—the mark of a monster—glared at the knight who held his sword aloft.
The surrounding air froze in an instant.
“…Urgh!”
Just then, the boy tried to rush into the warehouse.
However, the butcher grabbed the boy by the scruff of his neck to stop him and shouted to the knight.
“H—Hurry! Please, kill it quickly!”
It was a plea for help to do something about the monster in the warehouse.
But the knight, seemingly tense from the unexpected situation, only continued the standoff while gripping his sword.
‘If the knight can’t handle it…’
Then the moment might come where I have to use the poison needle I brought just in case.
“…….”
Maintaining a certain distance, I stood behind the knight and tightly gripped the needle in my hand.
Just as I was about to bring it to my lips.
Patter-patter-patter.
With the sound of something small but fast running, a white shadow darted between the knight’s legs and made a great leap.
‘Fast.’
There was no time to prepare.
If a living creature could reach the speed of light, it would have been that fast.
And soon, the small shadow pounced onto the crown of my head.
“Lady!”
The knight turned around too late and raised his sword to slash the white object mid-air—
“No!”
The boy’s scream happened almost simultaneously.
An unexpected situation unfolded.
The boy, having finally broken free from the butcher, tackled the knight just as he was about to strike the monster.
“Ugh…!”
The knight staggered from the force of the boy’s body, and the white object, luckily evading the blade, landed right on my face.
“Gyah!”
My vision went dark instantly.
‘It’s dangerous. If you’re unlucky, it can rip the skin right off your face.’
The warning I had heard earlier rang in my head.
“Ge—Get your hands off my face!”
I might actually die. In an emergency that made my hair stand on end, I hurriedly tried to pull the monster off.
“I—It’s okay if you stay still! It’s just saying hello!”
The boy’s urgent shout made my hand stop just as I was about to grab the monster’s scruff.
‘…Hello?’
As I stayed still, I felt the warm, soft belly of the monster against my face.
And then.
“Sniff, sniff…”
A tiny sound, as if it were sniffing me, echoed in my ears. Soon, the weight blocking my vision moved away.
“……?”
The first thing I saw was the people looking at me with shocked expressions.
The second thing I noticed was a short pink leg fluttering at the edge of my vision.
The whimpering creature climbed all the way onto the crown of my head, and then—
“Kyuu?”
It suddenly leaned its head down to meet my eyes.
‘This face…’
It looked quite similar to the animal called a stoat in my past life.
And a very cute one at that.
A short while later.
“So… you called this cute thing a monster that rips skin off faces?”
“…There were precedents for it. When that Ferry first appeared, it suddenly pounced on a knight’s face. So when he tried to attack it with a dagger, it scratched him with its claws…”
“T—Then, if a giant ten times bigger than you tried to s—stab you…”
As the knight explained his grievance, the mosquito-like voice crawled out once more from the side.
“W—Would you attack out of surprise or not, waaaaah…!”
“Be quiet, you brat.”
The persistent mosquito voice turned into a weak scream.
It was because the butcher, who had been glaring at the boy, had rapped him on his small forehead.
“Sniff… sniff… Anyway… Bibi didn’t do anything wrong…. Bibi was j—just surprised….”
Seeing how he still insisted on saying what he wanted even with a pea-sized bruise on his head…
This kid has a personality that’s good at both crying and speaking his mind.
‘Hmm.’
I stroked my chin while glancing at the boy.
‘This has become a headache.’
To summarize the situation:
A white, long body with adorable pink limbs.
The monster the boy called Bibi was an animal-type monster reminiscent of a stoat from my previous life.
They sniffed each other’s heads as a sign of greeting, but in trying to do this to humans, they ended up pouncing on their faces.
However, since people took it as an intent to attack, many of them had been killed.
‘Instead of ripping my skin off, it acted affectionately while sniffing me.’
Nevertheless, the Ferry was currently locked in a transport cage for the crime of attacking a Lady.
I looked down silently at the Ferry.