I Became the Emergency Food Supply of the Bear Family - Chapter 22

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 22

“So, you’ve finished eating?”
Na Bom nodded absently.
“Then shall we get going?”
Na Bom tilted her head at the refined voice that seemed at odds with his appearance, and at what he was saying.
“You haven’t forgotten already, have you?”
‘……?’
“I told you I’d help you with Humanization.”
At the word Humanization, Na Bom finally grasped the situation.
Humanization training. How would it work? And could I really achieve Humanization?
Lost in thought, Na Bom walked slowly toward Phalas. But Phalas did not wait for her.
“Stop dawdling. Let’s go.”
‘Eek?’
Phalas opened his mouth wide and caught Na Bom by the nape of her neck with his long fangs, hoisting her up. Dangling from Phalas’s jaws, Na Bom stretched her front paws toward Anna.
“You’re off to Humanization training, aren’t you? Have a safe journey!”
‘Somebody save me, you crazy rabbit!’
“Phalas is truly amazing. Please do your best in the training, Snow Drop!”
Caught off guard by being bitten by another animal for the first time, Na Bom thrashed about, but Anna remained composed.
Na Bom tried to send an SOS to Anna, who waved cheerfully—but then the scenery around them suddenly shifted, and Na Bom froze.
‘What, what is this? Where am I!’
“Don’t be alarmed. We’re at the entrance to the Garden, aren’t we?”
Phalas set the stunned Na Bom down on the ground, his eyes wide open, and spoke.
Na Bom blinked her dark eyes and looked around. The entrance to Grizzly Fortress overlooking the Garden. She really was here.
‘Magic, I think?’
So this is what Teleportation from novels feels like in reality. Dizzying.
Just as Na Bom shook her head and tried to stand—
‘Oof!’
Something licked her face with a wet sound. When Na Bom barely opened her eyes, a cheerful puppy with tongue lolling and panting sat right in front of her.
‘Malamute……?’
“Snow Drop, long time no see! Let’s play!”
Malamute bounced excitedly in front of Na Bom, barking with joy.
What’s he doing here. This is bad timing.
Na Bom looked between Malamute and Phalas in bewilderment, then made an X gesture with her front paw toward Malamute.
Playing with you would be fun, of course, but Humanization training is more important.
“There’s no need to refuse. I summoned this pup myself.”
At the voice, Na Bom turned to see Phalas now standing in human form. He looked down at her with cold gray eyes and continued slowly.
“To achieve Humanization, one must first become comfortable in one’s true Beastkin form. In other words, it’s important to master movement as an animal.”
So that means……
‘I can play with Malamute?’
“Yes.”
The answer came as soon as Na Bom thought the question to herself.
“Playing with the pup in front of you. That is today’s Humanization training.”
‘I, I see.’
After nodding despite herself, Na Bom realized something strange.
Just now, she’d conversed with this person—a Humanized Beastkin—hadn’t she? And he’d understood her.
‘Wait, can you really hear my voice, sir……?’
“Yes. I can hear your voice.”
Na Bom’s mouth fell open.
It was true.
When she’d tried with Theodore and Anna, it seemed they couldn’t hear her at all. Why could he?
-Hey! I want to hear Snow Drop’s voice too!
At Phalas’s words, Malamute, who’d been panting beside him, spun in a circle and began barking excitedly.
Phalas stared coldly at the suddenly frantic Malamute and asked.
“What’s gotten into this mutt all of a sudden?”
‘……?’
Na Bom tilted her head briefly.
He can hear my voice while I’m in animal form, but he can’t hear Malamute’s, even though we’re both animals?
‘Malamute wants to hear my voice too, sir.’
“I see.”
Phalas, who had understood her unspoken explanation without hesitation, gave a short reply and added:
“Unfortunately, the pup won’t be able to hear it. I can hear it only because I am a Great Archmage with vast Mana.”
‘……I understand.’
Whine.
At Phalas’s explanation, both Na Bom and Malamute drooped simultaneously.
Phalas gazed at the drooping rabbit ears and the sagging dog tail without emotion, then slowly spoke.
“Once you achieve Humanization, both the bear and the dog will be able to hear your voice.”
At that, Na Bom’s ears twitched and suddenly shot straight up toward the sky.
That’s right. Once I become Human, so many things will be solved!
Proper communication! It’s absolutely necessary to survive from here on!
‘Then I’ll play really hard today, sir!’
Na Bom jumped in place, stamping her feet with determination.
Phalas, who had been watching Na Bom with narrowed eyes, suddenly uttered a single word.
“……You can just call me Phalas.”

***

At the mention of Humanization training, the rabbit dashed out toward the snowy field.
The puppy chasing behind soon overtook her, flinging snow in all directions before stopping. The rabbit shook the snow from her fur and circled around the puppy.
The laughter of the two animals moving through the Garden seemed to reach even his ears.
‘Right. Not just anyone can hear that voice.’
An inexplicable, unfathomable power.
It would be difficult even to observe such a force unless one possessed Mana as vast as his own.
If one were to draw out Mana using a Mana Stone or sacrifice, one might glimpse Bom’s power, but only briefly. If such attempts were repeated, the mage would lose their sight.
‘She hasn’t awakened to her strength yet.’
Phalas’s ash-gray eyes followed Na Bom.
Yet there she was, projecting her voice even to those without Mana.

“I heard it clearly.”

Theodore spoke thus, his gaze lowering as if tracing a memory.

“Both the Humanized Beastkin and the animalized ones—everyone there heard the rabbit’s voice.”

Divine will, natural law—the small rabbit had overturned it all in a single moment.
By what principle could such a thing be possible?
Bom’s power, which could barely be observed. Even he, a Great Archmage who had lived over a century, could not discern its nature and characteristics.
Yet.

“And when I caught the falling rabbit,”

Theodore’s gaze, which had been fixed downward, now turned and met Phalas’s eyes directly.
Not the eyes enchanted to perceive the Incarnation of Aeostra, but the light his true eyes captured.
That brilliant light was drawn into the rabbit’s body in an instant. And then—

“The rabbit……had become human.”

She had transformed into human form as she fell into Theodore’s arms.
The small white rabbit who couldn’t even project her voice to an animalized Beastkin, let alone Humanize herself.
‘What that phenomenon means is……’
Perhaps my hypothesis holds the key. To verify it—
‘A gentle approach would be best.’
Phalas’s eyes quietly tracked the bright radiance still visible even in the white snow.
The corners of Phalas’s usually expressionless mouth had lifted ever so slightly.

***

Na Bom’s frantically moving feet gradually began to slow.
Chasing after Malamute’s receding figure, she finally collapsed in the snow and breathed heavily.
Since becoming a rabbit, she’d grown fond of running.
In her past life, her body had been so frail she couldn’t even leave her bed, so moving on two legs—or rather, four paws—and feeling the ground beneath her was truly exhilarating.
But no matter how much she enjoyed it—
‘It’s fun but really tiring……’
A rabbit’s stamina was no match for a sled dog’s.
As Na Bom lifted her head while catching her breath, Malamute had already vanished into the distance.
Bark! Bark!
High-pitched barks suddenly came from behind. Turning, she saw Malamute bounding toward her frantically.
Snow flying everywhere on Na Bom’s body, Malamute plopped down beside her.
As Na Bom shook herself off, Malamute’s laughter echoed in her mind.
-You’re definitely gonna need better stamina.
At that disparaging remark, Na Bom, still catching her breath, sprang to her feet.
Standing on her hind legs in the snow, she glared at Malamute, then made a dramatic gesture pulling her right front paw to her left side before pointing sharply at him.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————