I Became the Emergency Food Supply of the Bear Family - Chapter 30

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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 30

Since being reborn as an Arctic rabbit, this world had become real to Na Bom. So it was easy to forget, but this was still a world born from fiction.
It was only natural—novels flowed around their protagonists.
Forces that opposed the protagonist might, at best, receive forgiveness and live quietly; at worst, an entire family could be slaughtered.
Through listening to quite a few works via text-to-speech, she’d learned something crucial: web novels might not be worlds where virtue is always rewarded and vice punished, but they were worlds where you absolutely could not defy the heroine.
So when adoption into the Grizzly Family was finalized, she’d need to do something—anything—to avoid becoming the heroine’s enemy.
‘Living as long as possible is my goal in this life!’
The saving grace was that the original story had quite a lot of time left before it began.
The Grizzly Family was mentioned in the later half of the work. By that time, Ferdinand, the young count of House Grizzly, was in his third year at the Royal Academy.
Students could enter the academy from age sixteen; third-year meant eighteen. Ferdinand was ten now. Louis was nine. And she was eight….
The original story would begin eight years from now.
“The Northern Region is a harsh, unforgiving climate unlike anywhere else in the Empire. But summers here are cooler than most places.”
Na Bom, who had been blinking drowsily while looking at Heinz, nodded carefully, as if trying to gauge his mood.
She couldn’t concentrate on the lesson.
Looking at the map of the Empire while listening to the explanation made it suddenly feel real—the fact that she’d been reborn into the world of Taming You.
Being reborn as an animal, and worse, as the weakest creature of all, a rabbit, was bleak. But there was one consolation.
‘I’ll get to meet Enya!’
Taming You had been a rather memorable work among all the romance novels she’d read. The reason was that the heroine was so captivating.
Enya was a character who perfectly embodied what “sunshine heroine” meant.
She was a warm character who brought happiness not just to those around her in the story, but even to the reader herself.
There had been many times she could only endure her hard hospital life because of Enya. Honestly, she was grateful enough that she wanted to thank her in person.
‘…Wait.’
When Enya first appeared, she was sixteen. And the original story begins eight years from now.
Could it be—
That she and Enya are the same age?
‘No way!’
“Well, let’s call it a day here.”
The moment Heinz declared the lesson over, Na Bom jumped up in place.
Heinz looked down at Na Bom with a subtle expression, then let out a wry smile.
“So happy about that? If studying feels difficult, tell me anytime. You have better concentration than Louis—I mean, better than the second young master—so that’s why you seem so full of energy.”
Na Bom nodded in agreement, though somewhat bewildered.
Then, looking up at Heinz’s face again, she fell into thought.
‘Would Grandfather be a character in the original story too?’

***

That night.
For some reason, Na Bom found herself in Reeb’s room.
Only a thin thread of moonlight filtered in, casting the room in shadow.
Reeb was still asleep.
Na Bom approached the bed and stood on her hind legs, pressing the sheet’s edge with her front paws.
As she gazed at Reeb’s pale face, a dream-like memory surfaced.

“Mom, look at this! Mina made it for me.”

Even when she was very young, her vocal cords and lips had worked well.
She would chatter endlessly to her mother, who visited the hospital every day, about the children in the same ward, talking until she grew tired and fell asleep—she could speak that much.
But as she grew older, her muscles wasted away.

“Mom.”

She’d called out with all her strength, but no voice came. Eventually, she couldn’t even open her mouth. Naturally, her mother could no longer hear Na Bom’s voice.
It was painful, but not lonely.
Her mother was always there. Her family visited the hospital often.
But what about Reeb?
Louis seemed unable to meet his mother, even when he wanted to. It was because of the Curse—the one that meant he couldn’t touch those he loved.
She remembered Reeb’s smile when she greeted her—faint, but bright.
No matter how the Curse gnawed at her, this woman wouldn’t have cared. What Reeb worried about was whether her Curse might spread to her beloved husband and children.
‘I think I understand a little now.’
Her own inborn illness was, of course, not a contagious disease that spread when you touched a patient.
But even without being a disease, other things spread all the same.
The acrid stench of disinfectant mixed with hospital food. The heaviness of a sick person’s presence. The despair that clung to those without a future. The loneliness and sorrow of those left behind.
A person lying in a sickbed exerted a malignant influence, whether great or small, on those given a present and a future.
‘She just doesn’t want the three people left behind to fall into despair.’
But it was such a tragic thing.
To accept death alone, unable to see the face of someone you loved or hear their voice—it was so very cruel.
That’s why Na Bom stretched out her paw.
Toward the woman before her, fighting a loneliness too unbearable to endure.
Just as Na Bom’s paw was about to touch Reeb’s hand—
‘…?’
Her ankle was caught in a human hand. There was no time to turn her head and see who held it.
“Not tonight.”
At the sound of the familiar male voice, Na Bom slipped into sleep.
A white hand caught the rabbit as she collapsed, as if fainting.
“Power that the wielder doesn’t realize they possess.”
Pallas murmured quietly, touching the corner of Na Bom’s eyes as he confirmed the activation of Sleep Magic.
“How frightening it is.”

The next morning.
Na Bom woke to the chirping of birds.
She lifted her body and looked around. It was her room, her bed—already familiar now.
‘That’s odd….’
Na Bom tilted her head in confusion.
Had it been a dream?

***

Perhaps because Louis’s mother had appeared in her dream.
Na Bom suddenly wanted to see Louis, so she slipped out of her room before Anna could fetch her.
She made it to the front of Louis’s door well enough, but her rabbit body couldn’t open it.
‘My room has a separate pet door.’
It must have been one the Grizzly youngest daughter used—the one who’d died before she could even undergo Humanization.
‘….’
Na Bom’s expression was growing dark as she stared up at the door.
“Snowdrop, why are you out here so early in the morning!”
Anna came racing down the hallway at breakneck speed, shouting.
In an instant, she reached Na Bom and immediately scooped her up into an embrace.
‘Right, she’s the sled dog.’
Her running speed was formidable.
Na Bom, half startled, struggled to push against Anna’s arms, which were holding her rabbit form in a warm grip.
“Oh? You were in front of the young master’s room.”
Anna realized this belatedly and loosened her grip slightly. Na Bom swiped her forehead and let out a sigh.
‘She’s been holding me too tightly lately.’
Sometimes she’d rub her cheek against her head, which was almost too much to bear.
She didn’t seem to be like this before everyone fell asleep.
As Na Bom squinted and looked at her, Anna’s mouth soon softened into a smile.
“You wanted to see the young master, didn’t you.”
At Anna’s words, Na Bom obediently nodded.
She wanted to see if he was sleeping well, check if his Hibernation might be lasting longer. Not that she’d learn anything just by observing Louis while he slept, but still.
“Hehe, good. Let’s go visit for just a moment, Snowdrop.”
Anna, radiating happiness, carefully opened Louis’s door. The hinges made no sound at all.
As Anna crept silently to the bed, Louis was there in bear form, asleep.
Whether he’d been tossing about, the blanket that had covered the brown bear had already fallen to the floor below the bed.
Watching the bear’s chest rise and fall with each shallow breath, Na Bom felt a sense of relief wash over her.
“Should we go get breakfast now?”
At Anna’s whisper, Na Bom quietly nodded.

Humanization training began that day without fail.
After playing with Malamute for only a brief time, the animal-form sled dogs came running and, saying they had training too, took the servants with them.
Left alone, Na Bom happily played, trampling through snow she loved.
‘….’
Then, suddenly lifting her head, she found herself facing the Annex Building.
When had she come all the way here?
“…So this is unavoidable after all.”
‘Pallas?’
Pallas, murmuring in a tone tinged with resignation, soon lifted Na Bom’s body.
“Don’t worry. This time will be different.”
With that cryptic word, her vision suddenly flipped upside down.
It was Teleportation.
They arrived in Reeb’s room.

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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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