Translator: Nox

Chapter 10

“Mooommm! I missed you!”

The children came running and threw themselves into someone’s arms without a second thought, crumpling their previously composed faces as they began to act spoiled.

“Oh dear, my son. How can you run so dangerously like that? You could trip and get hurt.”

“Hehe.”

Bunny blinked at the scene unfolding before her eyes.

“Waaah, Daaaaddy… I didn’t summon anything cool… Hngg.”

“Oh, my sweet girl. Why are you crying? To your daddy, what you summoned is the best. It’s a wonderful bracelet that suits our princess perfectly. Later, we’ll check out what abilities your summoned sacred object has together with Mommy and Daddy.”

“Hngg… But nooo.”

“There, there. How about we go shopping for a dress tomorrow with Daddy? You completed the summoning ritual so splendidly.”

“Really? Then! The blue fairy Ella dress from the Rodell Boutique!”

At the voices bursting out here and there, Bunny glanced around her surroundings.

Every child was busy chattering away in the arms of who seemed to be their parents. Endless pride and affection shone on the parents’ faces.

The only ones standing quietly were Bunny and Allen, the boy with golden eyes who had summoned a snake nearby.

“Mom!! Did you see? I summoned something awesome!!”

“I saw it perfectly. I even recorded it with the top-grade imaging orb that captures sound too. Dad couldn’t come because he’s busy, but I’ll make sure to show him.”

“Yeah!”

“Anyway, I’m so proud of you, my son. You didn’t cry or whine and completed the summoning ritual so brilliantly, so I’m sure the family head must have taken notice of our boy.”

Bunny hugged Ma-gomi even tighter to her chest, then froze at the gaze she felt coming from above her head.

‘A stinging gaze!’

She snapped her head up, and her eyes met once again with the man who was still sitting alone at the head seat. He was one of the candidates Bunny had her eye on.

‘Bunny’s daddy… no, guardian candidate!’

Bunny, whose eyes had met his, beamed brightly and bobbed her head in greeting. It looked like her head might hit the floor again.

The man, watching Bunny flail her arms in the air as she tried to lift her bowed head, paused for a moment before rising from his seat very slowly.

Regardless, after finishing her grand greeting, Bunny spun around and dashed off somewhere.

The man who had unknowingly been chosen by Bunny.

Yudia’s miracle.

Peerless genius.

God’s apostle born in the wrong place.

Monster cursed by the devil.

Kiriel Yudia, who had been saddled with every kind of epithet from birth until now, took in the sight of the small, rabbit-like child who had brightly greeted him and then scampered away.

Water-colored hair and sparkling pink eyes.

She was the child who had caught his eye from the moment she entered the room, with a bear doll strapped to her back.

To be honest, she had zero manners as a noble, not even a speck of it, but recalling the 180-degree bow that had drawn everyone’s attention, he let the corner of his mouth quirk up faintly.

‘To think he chased away even Father.’

Others might think he had stormed off in a rage, but Kiriel Yudia knew his father had fled because he couldn’t hide his trembling lips, shaking from the child’s outburst of grievances and the unheard-of vulgar word “total disaster.”

In truth, the children who entered the House of Trials had all received at least the minimum etiquette training as nobles from their families.

They were kids whose heads were already developed enough to understand money, power, and honor, and who thus had the desire to make a good impression to succeed.

So, there were no cute ones among them.

But what about Bunny?

She had plopped down flat on the floor and toddled along remarkably well with that tiny body of hers. It would be hard to find a child as purely innocent as her.

He and his siblings hadn’t been cute when they were young either, so it made sense that his father couldn’t hold back his twitching lips.

The duke’s children hadn’t been cute when young… so it made sense that he ran away.

‘Surprisingly, he likes cute things.’

Of course, aside from him, almost no one knew that fact.

Anyway, the child named Bunny was one of the two hot potatoes of the Yudia Ducal Family.

‘The child Father’s divine beast found.’

Since the divine beast had found her, she undoubtedly carried the ducal family’s blood, but she was an illegitimate child of unknown parentage.

With that thought, Kiriel narrowed his eyes.

‘Something peculiar is emanating from her.’

Kiriel Yudia had senses more sensitive than anyone’s when it came to demonkin.

And from the child, he felt a very subtle energy.

An energy that greatly irritated him, the one who loathed demonkin.

The place where the child had toddled off to after greeting him was the other hot potato, Allen.

The boy, who had been standing with a stiff expression and about to leave like a proud wolf, was grabbed by the child, who tugged persistently at his sleeve.

They seemed to be talking, but their voices didn’t carry this far.

However, Allen scowled but bent down slightly in front of the child to match her eye level.

His face twisted in extreme displeasure, yet he was incredibly compliant.

Half-human, half-beast, Allen.

He was the child born between a beastkin tribe member and a distant female relative of the Yudia family.

Not a full beastkin, deemed a disgrace to the tribe, nor fully human.

His striking golden eyes were a trait unique to beastkin.

Moreover, Allen had been abandoned on a cold winter day in front of the Yudia Ducal Family estate with nothing but a single letter, so he had been taken in by the family and raised in the House of Trials from infancy, when he couldn’t even speak.

His parents had fled in the night after dumping only the child, so their whereabouts, life or death, were all unknown.

’Not particularly interesting…’

However, the snake the child named Allen had summoned appeared to be a divine beast of quite a high rank. His father would probably explain it during the interview and teach him how to handle it.

“……”

Kiriel Yudia had thought that far and was just about to turn away.

But at the sight unfolding before his eyes, he ended up widening them slightly.

The little girl was patting the head of the boy who had bent down to meet her gaze.

“Good job! The fat king snake worked hard. Good boy! Chakada!”

“……”

At Bunny’s clumsy touch—whether smacking with her tiny, fern-like hand spread wide or stroking, it was hard to tell—Allen’s eyes widened like saucers.

“…W-What, what are you doing?!”

Startled as if burned, Allen raised his voice and jumped to his feet.

His face twisted sharply.

‘Why does this kid come up to me so casually?’

When everyone else shunned him as a monster.

Overwhelmed by the surging bewilderment, Allen unwittingly swatted away the reaching hand with a flick, as if annoyed.

Bunny blinked as her hand was pushed away.

“Good job, pat pat! Bunny and king snake don’t have daddy or mommy. So together…”

At Bunny’s words, Allen’s eyes widened hugely. The thought of receiving pity from such a young child made his face flush red.

“Hah?! I don’t need that crap. To begin with, you’re just a brat way younger than me—get lost! You ugly thing!”

Growling, Allen spun on his heel and strode out of the Blessing Room.

Rumble.

Crash!

Flash!

Even today, dark clouds gathered around Bunny, with thunder and lightning striking. Bunny pouted her lips.

“Bunny’s not ugly though…”

Luriel had said Bunny was cute every single day.

“It’s Bunny’s turn…”

She had wanted to take turns patting each other.

Sigh.

Bunny let out her bubbling disappointment with a single puff of a sigh.

“Making friends is so haaard.”

Bunny, when do you become a grown-up?

You had to go through countless trials and making friends to become a grown-up, and only as a grown-up could you become the super great big Demon King.

Bunny glanced back and looked around the now somewhat quieter surroundings.

A few parents were still there, holding their children close and stroking their heads repeatedly.

Staring at the sight for a moment, Bunny tucked Ma-gomi under her arm, raised one arm slightly, and patted her own head a couple of times.

‘Bunny’s egg is good too.’

Maybe a baby dragon would hatch from this little egg!

Imagining a baby dragon hatching from the quail egg-sized egg, Bunny grinned.

“Bunny will raise you. Baby dwagon.”

After repeatedly patting her own head with her short arm, Bunny lowered her hand with satisfaction and turned around.

“……”

And there was a gaze that had been watching her all that time.

As Bunny left the Blessing Room, the owner of that gaze soon followed her out of the building.