Translator: Nox

Chapter 4

Bunny laid out all the items she had packed in a neat row, then placed the daily necessities Roden had picked up for her earlier alongside them. There were towels, pajamas, a pillow, a toothbrush, and the like.

With her small hands, she carefully arranged each one. She lined up Toto, the Great Demon King teddy bear, and the elephant plush by the bedside, then let out a sigh—wiping away sweat that wasn’t even there with the back of her hand.

Knock knock.

At the sound of the knock, Bunny jumped up from her spot.

“Yeeess~!”

Standing tall on her tiptoes, she hopped up to grab the door handle and swung the door open.

The first thing she saw was a woman in a maid uniform with scarlet hair. The woman, whose face was as impassive as Roden Hainer’s, bowed at the waist in greeting.

“Pleased to meet you, Miss Bunny. I’m Jessie, the maid assigned to assist you starting today. I look forward to serving you.”

“Hello! I’m……”

Oops, if they find out Bunny’s destined to be the Great Demon……

They’ll eat me!

The Yudia Ducal Family is dangerous with their pincers!

“Great… aspiring mage Bunny, age four!”

Jessie’s cheek twitched once at Bunny’s booming declaration of ambition.

The maid Jessie quickly composed her expression and presented what she held in her arms.

“Yes. I’ve brought the necessary documents. This is your schedule. You’ll be starting classes in F Class, the easiest one. Depending on your grades, you can advance all the way up to A Class.”

Bunny blinked at the rapid-fire explanation.

“Since it’ll be unfamiliar at first, I’ll escort you to the classroom for the first week.”

“Yeeess……”

“This residence is called the ‘House of Trials.’ You can think of it as a large boarding school run on a grand scale by the Yudia Ducal Family, where they select outstanding talents from the branch families and ensure they receive a complete foundational education.”

“Yeeess……”

Bunny nodded with lifeless eyes.

Seeing that Bunny clearly didn’t understand a thing, Jessie knelt down to meet her gaze and spoke again.

“So basically, you just need to attend classes every day during class time. Can you read?”

“Yes! Bunny’s a genius!”

Bunny shrugged her shoulders with her nose held high. A small smile curved Jessie’s lips as she watched the child’s mouth quirk up mischievously.

“Excellent. If you can read, you’ll be able to climb the ranks in no time. And there’s a summoning ritual coming up soon—if you draw a good summoned beast there, your rank will shoot up all at once.”

“Summoned beast?”

“Yes. Everyone who inherits the ducal bloodline can summon divine beasts or divine artifacts. After all, the blessing of the gods flows through the Yudia Ducal Family.”

Creak.

Bunny’s head turned with a rusty creak, barely managing to move.

‘Bunny… doesn’t have the gods’ blessing……?’

Luriel had said it.

The power of the gods and the power of demons are opposites. When strong holy power touches a weak demon, it turns to ash and the demon’s body crumbles away.

‘I’m doomed……’

Bunny’s future: a pile of ashes……?

“What if no divine beast comes?”

“Pardon?”

“I mean, what if I don’t have a divine beast?”

“There’s never been a case where the summoning failed. Don’t worry. As a blood relative of the ducal family, you’ll definitely summon one.”

Rumble crash!

Thunder and lightning struck once more, only around Bunny.

Bunny, in super huge crisis……

Already the second time!

Because……

‘Bunny… isn’t really human……?’

Luriel had once said it.

Demons and humans are completely different.

With Bunny frozen like a statue, not moving a muscle, Jessie tilted her head slightly and spoke.

“Then I’ll come fetch you for mealtime later. You must be tired—please rest well.”

“Yeeess……”

Click. The door closed as Jessie left, and Bunny dashed over to flop face-first onto the bed.

“Luri… Bunny’s totally doomed……”

It was the only word Bunny knew to express utter despair, so today, once again, she wailed that she was doomed.

* * *

“I’ve brought Miss Bunny from the orphanage as ordered, Your Grace.”

Roden Hainer bowed his head as he reported.

The elderly man, who had been steadily working through a stack of documents, slowly raised his head.

Eyes that slanted sharply upward to give a fierce impression, an impassive face, lips pressed firmly into a straight line, blue irises, and silver hair slightly dulled in color by the passage of time.

His posture—buttons fastened up to his neck, without the slightest tilt or disarray—fully embodied the man’s stubbornness.

Though he was elderly, he looked remarkably hale and hearty, even with three grown children.

“No word yet on whose child she is?”

“No, Your Grace. We haven’t found out.”

“When that partner of mine suddenly informed me there was a blood relative in some no-name orphanage, I wondered what the issue was……”

The family growing larger was a problem in itself, and the elderly man clicked his tongue in displeasure.

Once he found out who the irresponsible fool was that had a child they couldn’t care for and abandoned it at a facility, he had no intention of letting them off easily.

The Yudia Ducal Family was a sacred house that had carried the blood of the gods down through the generations.

Since most who inherited the blood—whether thick or thin—could summon holy creatures, they managed their bloodline with utmost thoroughness.

They had no desire for that blood to leak out carelessly and overflow into the world.

And yet, as time passed and their numbers grew, a significant portion of those living in the territory now were ducal branch family members.

In fact, even to leave the ducal family, one had to undergo a ritual to sever the gods’ blessing.

The ducal family, which had originally been made up of only a small number, had expanded this much all thanks to the plan pushed by his ancestors several generations back.

A plan to create an army composed solely of family members with the ducal bloodline—ones who possessed summoned beasts.

The current duke, Ludbrid Yudia, had shaken his head and called it a mad dog’s insane scheme ever since he was a child, but in the end, all he could do was inherit the title at the most inconvenient time.

That child was already the second defector.

One had gotten intimate with a beastkin and had a child; another had even produced an illegitimate and abandoned it outside.

With the numbers reaching a point where they were becoming impossible to manage, he intended to put an end to this whole ‘House of Trials’ business in his own generation.

If the children he had now didn’t reach the benchmark by age twenty, he planned to sever the blessing from both them and their families through ritual and provide livelihood support in exchange.

Otherwise, there was no way to handle this wildly proliferating branch family—and the ones that would keep increasing in the future.

“She seemed to have grown up for a long time at the orphanage. What kind of child is she?”

“……”

At Duke Ludbrid Yudia’s question, Roden Hainer paused for a moment to think of Bunny. Her plump cheeks as she waddled along with a bag nearly as big as herself, her bright smile, her adorably sausage-like little hands.

“She’s an adorable young lady, Your Grace.”

“…What did you say?”

He had asked about her temperament and personality, but adorable? What on earth was that supposed to mean?

Ludbrid Yudia stared at him in disbelief, but Roden Hainer did not take back his words.

* * *

“Yes, then do your best in your first class, Miss Bunny.”

“Yes! Bunny’s gonna read words. Genius Great De……!”

King.

…is a secret!

Bunny trailed off, struck a fighting pose, then adorably slung her rabbit backpack—with its dangling limbs—over her shoulder and toddled into the classroom. She plopped down in the very front seat.

It was because the desk and chair there were noticeably smaller than the others.

‘Get a perfect score and become a ducal family young lady!’

Bunny pulled out the book and set it on the desk, placing her bag beside her.

“Alright, today’s class starts from page 27 of the textbook. If you’d like to read the page first, please raise your hand.”

Heh.

At the teacher’s words, Bunny snorted through her nose and shot her right hand up high, nose proudly in the air.

Super-duper easy-peasy for Bunny!

“Oh! The new student today… ah, you’re Miss Bunny, right? Then, would Miss Bunny like to give it a try?”

“Yes!”

Bunny stood from her seat and proudly flung the textbook open wide.

“……”

And silence descended.

The page was covered in weird, twisty letters. It was only then that Bunny realized one crucial fact.

“Miss Bunny?”

“……”

Bunny doesn’t know human words.

“I… I don’t know them at all……”

Bunny mumbled softly, her face starting to crumple up tearfully.

All Bunny knew was the splendid demonic tongue she had diligently studied with Luriel ever since she was little.