I Became the Emergency Food Supply of the Bear Family - Chapter 29

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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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Chapter 29

And so Na Bom found himself receiving tutoring from Heinz in Ferdi and Louie’s study room.
“Right then. You understand up to here, yes?”
Heinz pointed with his finger at a page lined with animal illustrations and asked. Na Bom gazed at the lynx drawing Heinz indicated and nodded slowly.
“Hmm?”
Seeing the rabbit standing there vacantly, merely bobbing his head up and down, Heinz sighed.
“Already lost in thought, are you?”
As he teased and tickled the rabbit’s cheek with the tip of his quill, the creature startled and turned his head away.
Then, as if in apology, he shook his head vigorously. Soon the rabbit, who had been sitting before the book, rose on his hind legs and began making gestures with his front paws, expressing something urgently.
With his front paws, proportionally quite long for his small frame, he pointed at Heinz, then at himself, then at the clock. The rabbit’s ears, moving frantically, hung limply as if without strength.
“Ah, I see. So you’re saying there’s no time for this when you haven’t even achieved Humanization yet, is that it?”
As Heinz interpreted the gestures, the rabbit’s face brightened, and his drooping ears perked up with a spring.
It seemed he had interpreted correctly.
“Don’t worry. This is something Pallas asked me to do as well.”

“Though young, he is nearly ignorant when it comes to demi-humans and animals both.”
“Well, having been sacrificed to the White Wolf, there was no one to teach him the ways of the world in the first place.”

At the sage’s matter-of-fact expression, Heinz found himself clenching his fists.
Long-held faith. Tribal tradition. A way of survival—abandoning the few to preserve the many.
It was utterly rational and instinctive, the beast-like behavior of submission to strength. And yet.

“You cannot accept the simple truth—that to protect someone, you must take another’s life?”
“Pathetic wretch. You have no right to inherit Hegwig’s name.”

Resentment welled up for the first time in ages.
A resentment toward that natural animal society, that world of Survival of the Fittest.
Had his expression darkened just now? Or was the worry running deeper than expected?
Clouds gathered once more over the rabbit’s brightened face.
Heinz clicked his tongue with a soft tsk, then gently scratched under Na Bom’s chin with his fingertip as he spoke.
“This is also part of your Humanization training, so don’t worry about it, Yon-seok.”
Whether ticklish or not, Na Bom shook his face and pulled away from Heinz’s hand.
Yet the worry did not fade; Na Bom was now staring at the calendar resting on the desk.
Heinz, watching him do so, took the small face in his hands and turned it toward himself.
“Don’t worry.”
Overlapping his index and middle fingers, Heinz stroked Na Bom’s head as he continued.
“With you, Humanization will surely be possible.”

“Forgive me, Pallas. It has already been a fortnight since Hibernation began. Should we not be focusing on Humanization training now?”

When Heinz asked this, Pallas shook his head with an expression of utter conviction.

“Worry is unnecessary.”

Eyes alight with certainty.

“That rabbit will achieve Humanization without fail.”

A confident smile playing at the corners of his mouth.
At such an answer—as though he knew the future itself—Heinz could only nod in agreement.
Under his palm, the rabbit’s eyes gleamed with a sparkle. It seemed the words he had just spoken gave him courage.
The rabbit sprang up from his spot and clung to Heinz’s arm, hanging from it.
His small, white face nuzzled against the older man’s sleeve, rubbing against it affectionately.
Heinz’s ears flushed crimson in an instant.
He had simply repeated the words the sage had just spoken.
‘Thank you, Grandfather.’
Na Bom expressed his gratitude, knowing full well it could not be heard.
His grandfather not only comforted him when his spirits had flagged, but understood his words better than anyone else—Na Bom had long wished to express his thanks.
“Ah, in any case, there’s no time to linger! We’ll begin again, so sit yourself down at once!”
Heinz spoke in a gruff tone and removed him somewhat roughly, yet for some reason, it did not frighten Na Bom at all.

***

“Now I should verify how much you’ve come to understand.”
Heinz, having finished his explanation of the demi-humans of the northern Empire, raised his index finger as he spoke.
“First question. When a manul cat approaches with its tail swishing, should you run away? Answer O for yes, X for no.”
Na Bom quickly raised his front paws above his head and formed a circle.
“Next. Arctic wolves are born with white fur from birth.”
This time he made an X in front of his chest.
“The last one. Arctic foxes change their fur color with the seasons.”
The next answer was a circle.
Once he had finished answering, Heinz smiled with satisfaction.
“Yes, you understand very well indeed. Your comprehension is quite high for your age, I must say.”
At the final words Heinz had spoken, Na Bom’s toes twitched slightly.
He felt a twinge of conscience.
Still, he had lived a previous life as a human, so this degree of learning came easily to him.
Na Bom quickly shook his head and stretched out a front paw, pointing at Heinz.
“Hmm? You’re saying your good understanding is thanks to my clear explanation?”
When Heinz asked the meaning of the body language, Na Bom nodded immediately.
“Brat.”
He said it shortly with a reluctant expression, but soon his lips twitched as he spoke.
“You know well enough.”
Even as he answered smugly, Heinz scratched behind his now-reddened ears.
“Ahem. Well then, next shall we—”
Clearing his throat, Heinz picked up the paper that had been resting beside the animal book.
As he unfolded the paper that had been folded several times, a map spread across the desk.
The Empire.
A map of the Albero Empire, where the story of Taming You unfolded.
Pointing with his pen to the western part of the Empire, Heinz opened his mouth.
“Before I explain about the demi-humans inhabiting the Western Empire,”
Since Heinz paused, Na Bom looked up at him with a curious gaze.
Heinz smiled with amusement and drew a circle with his fingertip over the Empire’s territory.
“First, I shall tell you about the Empire itself.”
Na Bom’s mouth opened wide, and he quickly nodded vigorously.
The northernmost reaches of the north, where the Arctic itself lay before them. Bjorn, the domain of the Grizzly Family where Grizzly Castle stood.
South of Bjorn lay the central Empire. Lua Albero, the capital.
It was the seat of the Albero Empire’s imperial court, one of the primary settings of the original work.
Where the imperial household, various influential families, and the Royal Academy existed.
The Western Empire, adjacent to the sea, had not appeared in the original work, while the Eastern Empire had only been mentioned in passing.
‘The heroine Enya was from the Squirrel Family of the Eastern Empire, after all.’
Finally, the Southern Empire. In the original work, it had been as important a setting as the capital itself.
The domain of the Nuarel Family, to which Kayen, the secondary male lead of Taming You, belonged.
‘Now that I think about it, the original work hasn’t begun yet.’
As Na Bom listened to Heinz’s explanation, he fell into contemplation.
Until now, he had been desperate merely to survive, with no time to think of the original work.
Even now, his life remained uncertain, but if he could achieve Humanization in time, he might secure a stable home.
Once safely adopted into the Grizzly Family, he would need to think about what came next.
According to the plot, the Grizzly Family was not in a particularly advantageous position.
The original work begins with Enya Oakley, the squirrel demi-human heroine, being driven from her home and arriving in the capital.
Afterward, as Enya—who had been supporting herself with her specialty, Healing Magic—is kidnapped, the bright and adorable healing story meets its turning point.
Kayen, the secondary male lead of Taming You, visits a healer operating in the capital’s streets for treatment.
An incurable lung disease he had suffered from since birth.
No medicine, magic, nor the most renowned physicians had ever cured Kayen’s illness. Not even easing his symptoms had been possible.
Kayen, who had thought only a slow decline toward death awaited him, found his lung disease improve through Enya’s Healing Magic.
Afterward, Kayen kidnapped Enya and brought her to the Nuarel residence.
But naturally, Enya desired her freedom.
She only rejected and feared Kayen, who clung to her so desperately and sought to bind her.
Eventually Kayen released Enya, a new male lead appeared, and only after Kayen was revealed to be the secondary lead did the work recover its original warmth.
Of course, to Na Bom now, the trajectory of the original work mattered little.
The problem was that the Grizzly Family stood in opposition to the heroine.
In the latter half of the work.
A knight order that had come even to the male lead’s residence, threatening to bring Enya to the imperial court.
That knight order bore the name of the Sled Dog Knight Order.

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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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