I Became the Emergency Food Supply of the Bear Family - Chapter 28

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 28

“Though Rib gained tremendous power through the Covenant, she ultimately could not save her daughter. In exchange, Rib fell under an incurable Curse.”
‘What kind of Curse did she fall under?’
In the silence that settled, Nabom asked quietly, and Pallas’s expressionless face wavered slightly.
“Rib swore an oath—that she would stake her own life to protect her beloved daughter. The recoil from such a vow is obvious.”
Pallas’s golden eyes slowly swept across Rib lying in the bed.
“Shortened Lifespan. And the Curse of Untouchable Loved Ones.”
Nabom turned her head to study Rib’s face.
Faint tear tracks remained at the corners of her eyes. Louie’s face—crying in her sleep—seemed to overlap with Rib’s.
“Rib cannot speak to her loved ones, nor can she touch them. Not for the entire span of her shortened life ahead.”
Unable to bear watching the bed any longer, Nabom’s gaze fell quietly to the floor.

“I’m sorry, Mother…….”

Louie was weeping, telling her mother—telling Rib—that she was sorry.
Had Louie, Ferdi, Theodore, and all of them been unable to see Rib because of the Curse? Perhaps Rib herself had asked them not to come.
Louie wept from loneliness, perhaps. But if that were all, she would not have apologized.
Perhaps Louie was—
Perhaps the youngest daughter of Grizzly felt responsible for her sibling’s death.
Was she weeping from that guilt, apologizing over and over?
Nabom did not know why her sibling had died. It was too delicate a matter to ask Pallas directly.
But it was certain that no one in the Grizzly household bore any fault for it.
Just as my own death was not anyone’s fault.

“Sister!”

At the sudden image of her younger sister Naeul, Nabom squeezed her eyes shut.
What if—what if Naeul also felt responsible for my death?
What if she, like Louie, wept for me in her dreams and begged my forgiveness?
I had only wanted her to feel at peace.
After all, she no longer had to skip the amusement park, no longer had to quit her job and exhaust herself nursing a sick daughter, no longer had to work late into the night to cover staggering medical bills.
I believed she would live comfortably, freely, happily.
I had wished for that. But was it impossible?
Just as I grieve for Mother, Father, and Naeul even now, living on.
“Is that Rib?”
At the voice from the pillow’s edge, Nabom opened her eyes.
“The one you wanted to meet?”
It seemed so. Nabom nodded silently.
“Why?”
Pallas asked the short question without turning his gaze from Rib.
“Why come meet someone who is merely dying?”
‘…….’
“You, brimming with young life—why, exactly?”
Nabom could not answer.
Without speaking, she backed away from the bed.
You’re right—I shouldn’t have come to this place so carelessly. An outsider like me.
Yet something was calling me. A powerful instinct that I had to go there.
Perhaps it was because someone like me existed in that place.
Nabom stood watching Rib, lying in bed with her eyes closed, and thought.

***

The next day.
Nabom was having breakfast in the Snow Field with Malamute.
Pallas’s Humanization Education held that observing humans was important, but one must also accustom oneself to observing animals’ eating habits.
Malamute was tearing into meat with gusto, while Nabom put on no less impressive a display of hay-eating.
It was a primitive, animal-like way of eating—food placed directly on the snow rather than in a dish.
Nabom chewed through the hay and swallowed. Malamute swallowed his meat at nearly the same moment.
It was so delicious that Nabom trembled with delight and, without thinking, rubbed her face in the snow.
-Mmm! Delicious!
Malamute said the same, pawing the snow aside with his front legs.
-Of course it’s the chef’s cooking!
At Malamute’s admiring assessment, Nabom nodded vigorously while chewing hay.
It had been a fortnight since the bears entered hibernation.
Time was drawing close, and anxiety over her slow progress in Humanization Education weighed on her—yet as soon as she began eating, all such worries fell away.
Nabom ate the hay in rapturous oblivion, her face pressed into the snow. Snow clung to her cheeks and mouth, but she didn’t mind at all.
Malamute watched her quietly.
-Can I try some too, Snowdrop?
At Malamute’s words, Nabom’s head snapped up.
A small face covered in snow turned toward Malamute. As the white rabbit nodded, her long ears swung in response.
-Yes!
She cried out and reached her mouth toward the pile of hay on the snow, then suddenly stopped. Malamute’s small front paws held the hay. A bundle of it extended toward Malamute.
-Thank, thank you.
Speaking her thanks again in an oddly bashful voice, Malamute took the hay she offered into his mouth.
Nabom stared unblinking as he chewed.
His heart began to race under that gaze, and Malamute lowered his head, eating the hay.
-Mm……. Not really to my taste, but since it’s the chef’s cooking, it’s edible.
The moment he swallowed and voiced his honest opinion, Nabom began drumming her hind legs against the snow.
She seemed upset, so Malamute quickly changed the subject.
-I’m sorry, sorry! After you shared with me too. Um, if you don’t mind, would you try some of mine?
Saying this, he offered her a small piece of meat—a round, dried organ from beside the red flesh.
-Sure.
The moment Malamute handed the meat to Nabom, he felt something wrong.
-Oh, my mistake! That’s not something an herbivore should eat…….
But it was too late.
Nabom was already chewing the organ.
-No, no, Snowdrop, that’s not right!
He cried out and pressed his paw against her small face, but soon he heard a swallowing sound.
Malamute leapt up on the spot, face gone pale.
-Spit it out! Quickly!
He called out urgently, then gently bit her by the scruff and lifted her up. As he shook his head frantically, the rabbit dangling from his mouth shook just as wildly.
How many times did he tell her to spit it out?
Suddenly he felt her weight lift. Startled, Malamute let go. But Nabom didn’t fall onto the snow.
A hand held both her and Malamute aloft.
“There’s no problem eating that. Leave her be.”
At the voice from above his head, Malamute looked up at the familiar face of the old grandfather looking down at them both.
‘Grandfather!’
Nabom cried out without thinking, clinging to Heinz’s forearm with her front paws.
“……Hm.”
Heinz gave a short laugh that resembled mockery, then gently stroked Nabom’s head.
He set both animals down on the snow, and Malamute studied Nabom’s expression with concern.
“Arctic Hares sometimes eat animal organs.”
At his words, Malamute spun around to face Heinz.
“Since their diet is primarily herbivorous, they lack protein. Think of it as a special treat to supplement their protein intake.”
-I see! Oh, what a relief.
Malamute barked sharply and began panting with relief, a smile on his open muzzle.
But the one truly startled was Nabom herself. She sat down on the snow, covering her mouth with her front paws.
“That reaction—so you didn’t know about yourself either.”
As Nabom nodded blankly, Heinz’s eyes narrowed. He made a low sound, then shook his head slowly.
“You don’t just lack knowledge—you lack it far too much. About yourself and about Demi-Humans.”
Nabom’s gaze, which had been fixed on Heinz’s eyes, fell to the ground. Her shoulders seemed to droop, so Heinz cleared his throat and added:
“Then I’ll teach you.”
At his words, Nabom’s eyes widened, and she looked up at him again, tilting her head.
“About the Demi-Humans that inhabit this empire. Starting today, directly from me.”
As Nabom gaped and blinked, Malamute barked beside her ear.
-That’s wonderful, Snowdrop!
Then he rubbed his brown-furred cheek against her white-furred one.
-Yes!
Nabom nodded vigorously in return.
Their small cheeks rubbed together, radiating warmth.

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