I Became the Emergency Food Supply of the Bear Family - Chapter 5

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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 5

Snap.
Nabom opened her mouth wide and caught the leaf that Ferdi offered.
Crunch-crunch-crunch.
With a crisp, cheerful sound, the dandelion leaf vanished in an instant into the small mouth.
After so long without a proper meal, Nabom’s face trembled with delight.
‘It’s so delicious!’
Nabom, her eyes glazed with hunger, swept up another dandelion from the soil and swallowed it whole—flower and all.
The two brothers watched with fascination as the rabbit buried her face in the dirt, munching through the grass with abandon.
Each time her jaws moved, the fur covering her face rippled gently, and the two perked ears wobbled in rhythm.
“If you eat like that, your face will get filthy.”
Ferdi brushed the dirt from her cheeks and nose with careful fingertips, his words sounding more like an excuse.
“Hey, you’re being unfair, big brother!”
Rui reached out as well, but Nabom—utterly absorbed in eating—didn’t even glance his way.
Rui looked around anxiously, then uprooted a dandelion straight from the soil.
“Rabbit! Snow rabbit!”
When he approached with a handful of blooms, Nabom finally turned to look at him.
She sniffed at the dandelions in his palm with her little nose, then snapped up one flower.
Munch-munch-munch. Crunch-crunch-crunch.
Lost in chewing the leafy stems, Nabom showed no reaction even as the boys caressed her chin and cheeks, or ruffled the thick fur on her ears and belly.
“She really does eat well, little snow petal.”
“It’s not ‘snow petal’—I told you, big brother. Snow rabbit.”
“Right. Snow rabbit.”
“Anyway, she needs to eat a lot.”
Rui, who had been chattering alongside Ferdi, offered another fresh dandelion with cheerful momentum.
“Right now she’s not even a mouthful for the lord!”
For a moment, Nabom’s jaws stilled.
But at the fragrant aroma drifting before her nose, her mouth opened right back up.
Snap. Munch-munch-munch.
The green leaves disappeared in moments into that small mouth.

***

The snow sleigh raced forward swiftly.
Bang!
Though the sleigh shook violently, the two figures aboard kept their balance with effortless ease.
Theodore Grizzly and his attendant, Demirun.
“The ride comfort will definitely need improvement.”
Demirun muttered while tidying his disheveled hair, then suddenly scowled.
“Perhaps we should add a roof.”
The relentless blizzard struck their faces with such force that keeping their eyes open was impossible without shielding them.
Yet their lord—who seemed barely to notice the sleigh’s rough suspension or the howling wind—simply stared straight ahead in silence, not a single line creasing his brow.
“Truly, your courage is…….”
Whistle!
Screech!
At Theodore’s whistle, the sleigh came to an immediate halt.
“……remarkable.”
Demirun gripped the sleigh’s rail to barely keep himself from tumbling over.
Theodore stepped down from the sleigh without so much as a stumble and stretched his hand toward the dogs. Four sled dogs eagerly brought their heads beneath his palm, competing for the touch.
Mere contact with Theodore’s hand sent the dogs’ tongues lolling out, panting happily with their mouths curved upward.
The loyal hounds of the Grizzly Clan looked cheerful as always.
“I’ll be back shortly.”
Whether the dogs heard him or not hardly mattered—their eyes remained fixed on Theodore’s receding back.
“Was it provisions you brought me to gather, sir?”
Demirun asked, hurrying to catch up.
Late November.
In about a month, hibernation would begin. The more supplies they stockpiled, the better.
“Now that I think of it, we haven’t secured that yet. What everyone loves most.”
Yet Demirun’s next words never left his lips.
Theodore had suddenly turned down a direction Demirun hadn’t anticipated at all.
“Sir? This is the territory of the Arctic wolves, is it not?”
At Demirun’s question, Theodore nodded impassively.
“But sir, surely you don’t mean to just…….”
Demirun hesitated and came to a stop.
Arctic wolves. White wolves. The domain of the Blashin Clan.
Between the Arctic and the Northern Region there hung a delicate tension—the peoples of each rarely ventured into the other’s territory.
Should they encounter each other.
Should they recognize the lord of the Northern Region.
“Run.”
Theodore glanced back and uttered a single word. Demirun saluted at once and immediately followed.
The two soon arrived at a forest clearing.
Or rather, at what had become a clearing.
“This is…….”
Despite the snow cover, deep gouges marked the earth clearly. Several pine trees that had formed a cluster lay toppled, their heartwood exposed.
One of them bore a striking impression—the shape of an animal’s back pressed deep into the wood.
“Don’t tell me. Did you fight the white wolves here?”
Demirun turned to his lord, his face drained of color, but Theodore remained unmoved.
He surveyed the surroundings quietly, then—spotting something—moved forward in long strides.
Demirun’s eyes followed, and his mouth fell open.
“Did you…… create this, sir?”
The earth had been dug to an enormous depth. It was less a pit than a true chasm—large enough to swallow a dozen wolves without effort. A trap.
Yet Theodore quietly shook his head. Demirun’s eyes narrowed.
“Don’t lie to me. If not you, then who would set such a trap?”
Ignoring Demirun’s words, Theodore turned from the pit and approached the pine trees.
“Please be honest. Why would you set such a snare? Do you harbor some grudge against the white wolves, or……”
But again, Demirun could not finish.
Theodore suddenly embraced one of the pines—the one bearing the animal-shaped mark—and began to exert force through his arms.
Crack!
Before Demirun could even cry out in alarm, the tree tore free from its roots.
Such power without so much as a transformation.
Demirun’s mouth fell slack, and he shook his head in disbelief.
Meanwhile, Theodore—indifferent to his attendant’s reaction—carried the pine toward the pit.
Boom!
With tremendous force, he brought it down—the tree split clean in half with a sharp crack.
Theodore wedged one half into the pit, then carefully positioned the other piece to fit snugly beside it.
He then shoved snow and soil into the pit around them, and began stamping down the accumulated snow with methodical, heavy steps.
“Sir, what are you……”
“Run.”
At Theodore’s glance, Demirun understood what his lord wished to convey.
He exhaled heavily and stepped beside Theodore, joining him in pressing down the snow with his feet.
“Yes, sir. I understand. I saw nothing. I was never here, and I certainly didn’t help you conceal this trap, I……”
As Demirun grumbled his denial, Theodore’s eyes grew cold. Both men felt it simultaneously and bolted for the trees ringing the clearing.
How long had passed? Through the howling blizzard, shadowy figures began to emerge.
White wolves. Arctic wolves.
They turned their heads this way and that, sniffing the air as if searching for something.
But the pit had been restored to its original state, their escape route had erased their tracks, and the blizzard howling from all directions prevented any scent of other beastfolk from reaching the wolves.
Three of the larger wolves began to growl at the other three, in a tone that suggested blame, though their exact words remained indecipherable.
In human form, one cannot understand the speech of transformed beastfolk. But at this distance, transformation alone would be enough to eavesdrop.
Demirun met Theodore’s gaze with a subtle question in his eyes, but his lord shook his head quietly.
‘True. A bear’s form is far too large.’
Even in this snow, he would be discovered immediately.
After the three growling wolves departed, harassing their companions, the others limped after them in turn.
“Sir, we’re about to become snowmen. Perhaps we should head back……”
“Send word to Pallas.”
Theodore’s command came soft as a whisper.
“Yes, sir. What should the message say?”
“As you read it.”
At last, Theodore turned from the clearing and began to walk.
“Tell her to come to Grizzly Castle.”
Demirun saluted his receding lord before following.
Before catching up, he glanced back once more at the clearing. Suddenly, the tree Theodore had gripped came into focus.
Where Theodore had placed his hand, the bark was dented. His strength had been fully engaged—right up until the moment before he would have crushed it. While glaring at the wolves.
Demirun’s expression darkened.
‘…… So that was it.’
That little snow rabbit must have been under threat from the white wolves. Did Blashin still believe in that old mythology?
A small life, hunted by its predator.
The precious child his lord had lost all those years ago.
Now Demirun understood why his lord had chosen a new emergency ration.
On the way back, Theodore suddenly veered in the opposite direction.
“Sir?”
The moment Demirun voiced his question, Theodore’s form blurred and shifted. A massive brown bear soon took his place, with tattered, shredded clothes falling to the ground below.
“You forgot to undress beforehand again, sir.”
Demirun shook his head in resignation and tossed off his own clothes with a swift motion.
“So that’s why you brought me along.”
He smiled, then his own form transformed as well.
A black bear with a white crescent mark on his chest followed in long strides behind the great brown bear.

***

Nabom was lost in a trancelike state, chewing dandelions under the boys’ relentless grass offensive, when suddenly her ears perked straight up.
“The lord’s presence.”
“The lord must be back!”
The two boys sprinted out of the greenhouse first.
Nabom’s small body trembled.
There was no mistaking it.
This scent matched exactly the brown bear she’d encountered in the forest that day.
When Anna carried her outside, sure enough, the lord of the Grizzly Clan stood before the greenhouse in his bear form—and beside him, a black moon-marked bear, a predator’s reek so overwhelming that Nabom nearly fainted.
“Welcome back, sir!”
“Well done, sir!”
The boys offered crisp, formal salutes.
Her suspicion had been correct.
A family where hierarchy was absolute, where even children were treated like soldiers—a military clan. The Grizzly Clan of the Northern Region!
‘If only the source material had included more about this place.’
She might have gleaned some hint of escape.
As Nabom’s ears drooped in dejection, the two boys snickered and whispered to each other.
“Playing knights is so much fun. Right, big brother?”
“Shh. Knights don’t gossip like this.”
Those quiet words, unfortunately, reached Nabom’s ears not at all.
Soon both boys gasped in unison.
“Wow!”
“Oh, amazing!”
Behind the two bears, the sleigh was piled high with something.
“Salmon!”
“So much of it!”
Fresh salmon rose in a mountain upon the sleigh.
Rui and Ferdi burst out laughing, then cried to each other:
“It’s the special meal! The special meal!”
“Yeah. The special meal we always eat before hibernation.”
At Ferdi’s words, Nabom’s head snapped around.
Just now. Surely.
Hibernation—did he say hibernation?

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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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