I Became the Emergency Food Supply of the Bear Family - Chapter 3

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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 3

Na Bom held her breath and peered through the door hinge at the unfolding situation.
Two people had entered the room.
“So we’ll handle that matter as you’ve instructed…….”
A sharp-featured man spoke to another man in an emotionless voice.
The other was surprisingly broad-shouldered, wearing a cloak trimmed with animal fur.
The broad-shouldered man paid him no attention. He flipped through the bedding scattered across the bed, checked under the mattress, opened the wardrobe—moving methodically through the room as though searching for something.
As though he were looking for something in particular.
Gulp.
The moment Na Bom swallowed hard.
“What are you doing, Theodore?”
The sharp-featured man called out to the broad-shouldered one.
Theodore.
In that instant, Na Bom understood.
Where she was.
Who the man searching for her was.
“Sir. We are faithfully preparing for the hibernation period. Please refrain from such unnecessary actions.”
“Unnecessary?”
The man asked slowly, moving toward the door.
Without hesitation, he yanked it open and revealed what was hiding behind it.
“I mean you shouldn’t hide emergency rations in the bedroom.”
Creak.
The man looked down at Na Bom and smiled.
Ah.
So she really was just caught by a wolf.

***

The man’s name was Theodore, of the Grizzly Earldom.
He was a brown bear humanoid who appeared in The Taming—what players commonly called the Northern Region Grand Duke.
As the head of House Grizzly, Theodore bore the epithet “the Emperor’s Faithful Hound.” He obeyed every command the Emperor gave, so thoroughly that some called him not a hound but a puppet.
The Emperor’s bear doll.
In The Taming’s world, bears were never commercialized, so it must have been the author’s humor.
‘It was funny when I was reading it…….’
Now it was just despair.
As a border lord, Theodore defended the Northern Region, and he never missed participating in the civil conflicts and numerous invasion wars that erupted across the Empire.
There was even an anecdote in the narrative where Theodore once broke into a noble’s estate alone at night and slaughtered both the guards and the lord.
The reason was never revealed, but given he was the Emperor’s faithful hound, it was likely an assassination carried out under imperial decree.
Thus Theodore had climbed to his current position as border lord through a resume stained with blood.
A monster incapable of dialogue.
A beast that would tear apart any humanoid.
To be picked up by a bear known as a bloodthirsty slaughterer.
‘And as emergency rations at that……!’
Under Theodore’s gaze, Na Bom pressed her back flat against the wall, her face drained of all color, barely breathing.
Theodore, who had been quietly watching Na Bom, suddenly crouched down. Then he slowly raised his hand.
Startled, the strength drained from her legs. She fell to the floor and curled into a tight ball, trembling.
But as time passed without impact striking her head or back, Na Bom cautiously lifted her gaze.
Looking at Theodore, she found him simply holding his hand open, watching her quietly.
‘……?’
What was the intention behind this hand?
As she remained frozen in confusion, an odd sound reached her ears.
Tsk-tsk-tsk-tsk-tsk.
Remarkably, it came from Theodore’s mouth.
He was expressionlessly making the exact sound humans use to call dogs and cats.
Uncertain, Na Bom eventually lifted her feet from the ground, not knowing when that strange noise would turn into a roar.
She cautiously climbed into his palm. His hand was so enormous that her entire body fit on it with room to spare.
“You’re quite fond of your emergency rations, aren’t you?”
Fond? He’s just toying with me!
The sharp-featured man spoke to Theodore, who was now tapping Na Bom’s nose with his finger.
“I imagine you’ll feel sad when you eat her later.”
Despite the man’s chilling remark, Theodore didn’t blink, continuing to play with his hand. The man then clicked his tongue and let out a bitter laugh. As if taking pity on Na Bom.
These insane psychopaths……!
Na Bom clenched her eyes shut.
‘Being caught by a wolf would have been better.’
Contrary to what the arctic hare clan knew, the White Wolf Clan no longer hunted arctic hares.
The reason was obvious.
Though they had eaten arctic hares for generations, none had ever gained Spring Power, let alone grown stronger.
The White Wolf Clan no longer struggled to obtain intangible power. They sought something more certain than such dubious things: capital.
Blashin of the White Wolf Clan had made a contract with the Imperial Palace. In exchange for delivering arctic hares suspected of possessing Spring Power, they received compensation.
The Imperial Palace, too, had apparently concluded that eating rabbits would not grant them Eostre’s Power, so they did not consume them.
Instead, they entrusted the distinction of true Incarnations to imperial mages.
What the White Wolf Clan had abandoned, the empire’s highest powers refused to relinquish.
‘They were completely wrong.’
The one bearing Spring Power was not an arctic hare humanoid but a squirrel humanoid.
The very heroine of The Taming: Enya.
Until Enya was dragged away to the Imperial Palace, the arctic hares had merely been left alone, not killed—so it might have been better for them to stay in their cage.
“Otherwise the rabbit’s fur will wear away.”
Despite the man’s reproach, Theodore continued to fondle Na Bom’s face.
Feeling his calloused fingertips, Na Bom swallowed dryly.
‘Theodore is the Emperor’s loyal servant…….’
Maybe Theodore’s appearance in the White Wolf Territory was on the Emperor’s orders.
Perhaps the Emperor suspected that the clan, with their cruel customs, might secretly eat the rabbits without the palace’s knowledge.
Whether she’d be sent back to the Imperial Palace or swallowed as the bear’s emergency rations, she didn’t know.
‘Whether this way or that, if I’m going to die anyway……’
She didn’t want to be toyed with like this!
Na Bom glared at Theodore, who was folding and unfolding her ears with his fingers.
Even in the dim room, his golden eyes gleamed brilliantly.
Hic, hic!
Startled by the predator’s gaze, another hiccup escaped her.
“What’s this, Rune?”
Theodore turned to the sharp-featured man, who answered.
“It seems rabbits hiccup too.”
At the man’s response, Theodore suddenly seized Na Bom by the scruff of her neck. Then, holding her by the nape, he lifted her face level with his own.
Frightened, Na Bom struggled desperately, but Theodore simply gazed up at the rabbit.
In a situation where resistance seemed futile, Na Bom finally gave up struggling and went limp.
“She’s stopped.”
With an incomprehensible murmur, Theodore’s hand slowly descended—directly toward his lips.
Was he about to swallow her whole? Surely not!
The moment she steeled herself to land a kick with her front legs.
Theodore gently placed Na Bom on the bed.
‘Oh my god. I’m alive.’
Watching Na Bom clutch her chest, the sharp-featured man sighed. Then he bowed to Theodore and left the room.
In the silence, Na Bom suddenly thought.
‘……Huh?’
The hiccups have stopped.

***

She had to escape.
Blink.
Somehow, she had to get out of here.
Blink.
Na Bom shook her head firmly, forcing her eyelids open against their persistent drowsiness. Yet her ears, which had been perked upright, drooped back down.
How was she supposed to escape in this state?
Na Bom lay on an enormous bed. Beside her, Theodore lay with his eyes closed. The sight of his sun-weathered face, marked with fine scars, sent chills down her spine.
Theodore appeared to be asleep, but he was not.
His large hand continued to stroke Na Bom’s back and loins. Every time his callus-covered palm glided across her fur, goosebumps rose along her skin.
The tender touch of a blood-crazed slaughterer.
She’d never experienced such vivid terror before.
Even though she was frightened.
‘Why am I so drowsy?’
Her eyelids kept dropping of their own accord.
After struggling against sleep, when she finally opened her eyes, the surroundings had grown unusually bright.
It was morning.
Blinking her dark eyes blankly, the moment she realized the predator on the bed was gone.
“Good morning!”
A cheerful voice rang out near her ear. A young woman in a maid’s uniform was peering down at Na Bom from inches away.
“I’m Anna, emergency rations ma’am’s maid. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Before Na Bom could even react to this new face, she was carried to the bathroom.
Anna began washing Na Bom with extraordinarily gentle hands.
Watching Na Bom’s dark eyes simply blink in confusion at the rapidly shifting circumstances, Anna softly laughed.
It was a smile so kind that her heart melted in an instant, despite being trapped with the worst of predators.
‘Is this woman not a beast?’
The hopeful thought was short-lived.
“My goodness. This emergency rations ma’am has injured her hind legs.”
At those four ominous words spoken again, Na Bom’s heart sank.
Anna unwrapped the bandages wound around Na Bom’s hind legs, then spoke with a bright expression.
“It seems to be healing well. I’ll just change the bandages for you.”
‘……?’
As Anna changed the bandages, Na Bom examined the wound.
It was true. The wound had already healed considerably. It no longer throbbed with pain. Had the wound been smaller than she thought?
“Is something wrong? Does it still hurt?”
‘…….’
Na Bom hesitated for a moment at the concern evident in Anna’s voice.
Why is she talking to me like this? Does she know I’m not an ordinary rabbit?

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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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