Translator: Nox

Chapter 37

It had already been ten days since Bunny set up her little stall in a secluded corner of the House of Trials’ entrance hall and started selling food.

And during that time, there had been one small commotion.

Someone had yelled at Allen, who was busy helping the frazzled-looking Bunny manage the line, calling him an unlucky beast cub. In return, Bunny had flatly refused to sell to him.

“I’m not selling to you.”

“What? Why?! I’ve got money!”

“Allen, Bunny’s big bro. No selling to trash with a filthy black mouth that can’t talk right.”

“Where’d you get that from?! He is a beast, that’s a fact. He’s not even human or a proper beast…!”

To the words of a boy who was two or three times her size, Bunny had—what had she said? She’d stared at him blankly, then snorted, shrugged her shoulders, whipped her head away, and declared:

“You’re monster-ugly, so I hate you. Monster-ugly’s not human. Allen’s handsome.”

“Hah?! You watch your mouth, you know that?!”

“You said Bunny’s big bro’s not human too. You’re monster-ugly, so not human. Get lost. Monster-ugly jerk. Bunny’s only gonna look at pretty handsome stuff.”

“What makes you so pretty anyway?! You look like busted dough yourself?!”

“Yep. Bunny’s super-duper cute king. Your face is total trash.”

Even a boy ranked around 20th in the House of Trials—far bigger than Bunny—had been utterly roasted by her, vocabulary, word order, and pronunciation all imperfect as they were. After witnessing that, no one dared speak carelessly to Allen anymore.

They might curse behind his back, but no one said it to his face.

After that, Allen started calling Bunny “my little sister” and “my little sis” left and right, puffing out his chest even more and raising his voice louder.

It was overprotectiveness that went far beyond overprotective.

“One person, max three. Too many people, can’t help it.”

Grumbles erupted here and there at Allen’s words.

Still, being able to have a little every day was better than not getting any at all.

And that made sense, because Bunny’s “twirly potatoes” were insanely delicious.

The “honey-pickled sweet potatoes” she’d sold for the two days before that were already legendary among the kids who’d tried them.

Word even had it that the boy who’d fought so fiercely with her was tossing and turning in agony, wondering if he should apologize just because he kept craving those twirly potatoes.

And that wasn’t all.

Rumors spread that the menu changed sometimes, so by around 5 p.m. every day, more and more kids wandered aimlessly around the entrance hall.

Twirly potatoes were made by thinly slicing potatoes into long spirals without breaking them, skewering them straight onto a wooden stick, frying them up, and dusting them with sugar or sweet corn powder.

‘Luri taught me this secret weapon food.’

The trick to slicing the potatoes into unbroken spirals came from Luriel.

Bunny was a genius among geniuses who could awaken talent from just one look!

She had sharp eyes. Meaning, she could mimic anything after seeing it once. That’s why she was a genius at cooking too, having watched Luriel make it over and over.

Of course, she couldn’t use fire on her own—little kids using it might summon a red dragon, after all.

After one wave of the crowd swept through, Bunny let out a huge sigh.

“Could I have just one too, missy?”

“Jessie!”

“Here’s ten rosts, right?”

“Yeees!”

Bunny handed one twirly potato to Jessie.

Looking at the jingling, overflowing coin basket, Bunny grinned. Hee hee. Just three left now.

‘One for me, one for Melissa, one for Allen…’

Should she call it a day?

She’d been at it for a whole 40 minutes since starting, so Bunny was exhausted.

Yaaawn.

As she rubbed her eyes and was about to say let’s go…

“Hello, little cousin. Mind giving me three too?”

“Yeees.”

As Bunny tilted her head at the new customer…

“Cousin?”

“Yeah. You’re the branch family kids our little uncle adopted this time, right?”

Tanned skin, silver hair, blue eyes.

He was a big, tall boy at first glance. His head was a whole size bigger than Allen’s.

“Came to say hi. Heard you were selling tasty stuff too—rumor’s everywhere. Kinda surprised you look even dumber than I thought, though.”

“Huh?”

Bunny’s head tilted as she handed over the twirly potatoes.

Did she hear that wrong?

Bunny rubbed her ears.

Crunch.

The boy took a bite of the potato she’d given him, and his eyes widened slightly.

“Oh, way tastier than I expected. Thought it’d be some low-class slop. Nice surprise. Anyway, nice to meet you. I’m Calvad Udia, son of Holy Knight Commander Klein Yudia. Makes us cousins, right?”

Bunny blinked.

Why did those words rub her the wrong way?

As Bunny crossed her arms with a serious frown, Allen stepped forward.

“Why’re you here? Quit yapping and get lost.”

“A beast raised by the family talks now? Honestly didn’t expect you to get adopted… Uncle’s got weird tastes. You’ve grown a lot, though. Looking me in the eye now. Guess that beating at the ranking battle wasn’t enough education.”

His voice stayed soft and gentle throughout, but every word seemed barbed with sharp thorns.

“Told you, just came to see your face. Wanted to meet our youngest little cousin too.”

The boy, Calvad, bent at the waist, ruffled Bunny’s hair, and smirked.

Bunny’s eyebrows shot up.

‘Bunny hates this guy.’

“Being a bastard means selling this kinda grubby food, huh? Fits you, though. Sitting on the floor hawking wares. Anyway… Divine beast summoning’s done, so the Ranking Determination Battle’s coming up soon. You’ll show then, right?”

Ranking Determination Battle?

Bunny’s head tilted slightly.

She stared at Calvad for a moment, then turned and tugged tug tugged at Allen’s clothes.

“What’s up, Bunny?”

Seeing Bunny frozen stiff, Allen crouched down almost to his knees, meeting her eyes, and beamed as he asked.

Calvad froze.

‘What the heck with this guy. Always acting tough but bowing his head everywhere…’

When did he start smiling all over his face, holding his head high like that?

Calvad clenched his fist, bit his lower lip lightly, then smirked.

“Time go now. Bunny learn human words time.”

“Yeah! Let’s go. To Daddy’s?”

“Mhm. No, Bunny room.”

“Got it, I’ll walk you.”

Allen, grinning like a butler as he packed up all Bunny’s stuff for her, stuck by her side.

“You ignoring me?”

“Yep.”

Bunny gave a short reply and wagged her finger side to side: tsk tsk tsk.

“Bunny no talk to fools who badmouth big bro. Grown-up rule!”

Heh.

Bunny flashed an annoyingly cheeky grin and spun around.

Seeing Allen dash after her and grab her little hand, Calvad’s face twisted.