I Became the Emergency Food Supply of the Bear Family - Chapter 51

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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 51

My fist flew before my words could.
It connected with his left cheek. Raul staggered backward from the sudden blow, his back slamming against the tree. When he lifted his head, blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
I stared at him as he dazedly touched his bleeding lip, then spoke just four words.
“Don’t you dare speak that word.”
How dare you presume.
“Ah, so you want to try me?”
Raul laughed—a bitter, hollow sound—before shoving me hard. I crashed to the ground. Standing over me, he raised his foot.
Bang! The impact drove the air from my lungs. His heel came down hard on my chest.
I gasped, unable to breathe. My lungs heaved, and I coughed violently. As my body convulsed in agony, Raul finally lifted his foot.
“Ngh……”
I couldn’t catch my breath. My hands fumbled with the buttons of my blouse, desperate to draw in oxygen, but it was useless. My skin began to glow white. My body transformed of its own accord into Animal Transformation.
“Unbelievable.”
Raul smirked as he lifted away my blouse to reveal a small wolf beneath it.
“Pathetic.”
He spat out the word with contempt, then seized me by the scruff of my neck and yanked me forward. He hoisted my form and tossed me to the ground, then kicked my clothes into the bushes beneath the trees.
“I’ll hide your uniform for you. If anyone finds out the so-called Minor Heir of the Nuarell Family loses control like this in a place like this, I’ll be embarrassed too.”
Raul was saying something, but I could barely hear it. My vision was still white. My breathing wouldn’t return. My ribs ached.
Gripping one of my ears, Raul whispered to me.
“Please step down from your position as Minor Heir. That way, Mother won’t……”
His words trailed off. He released my ear abruptly, his fist clenching. He straightened his bent knees and stood.
“Don’t die. If you die and the lord of the house becomes troubled, I’ll never know when I can become Minor Heir.”
With those words, the sound of Raul’s footsteps faded into the distance.
Thump, thump, thump.
My heartbeat was deafening. It pounded so hard I could feel the shape of my own heart.
My pale, thin tongue hung from my mouth. My lips felt cracked and parched. Each shallow breath scraped like fire through my throat.
My vision blurred. Fear seized me, and I squeezed my eyes shut.
I was so weak. So pathetic.
The thought of winning back Father’s heart was madness. A body that crumbles at a single kick—how could I think such things? A powerless wretch who couldn’t even protect his own servant.
In the darkness behind my eyelids, Jeong’s face surfaced. And then my consciousness shattered.

It seemed I was dreaming.
Before Mother took to her sickbed. In the days when Father was not yet indifferent as he is now.
When I reached out my hands to them both and laughed, both Mother and Father had smiled with joy.
I couldn’t tell if it was merely fantasy or a real memory from the past. I simply continued to recall that time—warm as sunlight, suffused with happiness.
It resembled the strange warmth I’d felt that day when I collapsed before Grizzly Castle. Something inexplicably peaceful. A comfort that needed no reason.
Even though I couldn’t escape this cursed illness, nothing could be resolved.
Yet it felt as though whatever came next would somehow be all right.
It was a strange feeling.
As if cradled in sunlight. As if held once more in the arms of Mother, whom I would never see again……

“The Spring Goddess will surely watch over you.”

It was as if I heard Mother’s final words. Then my vision flooded with light.
I jolted upright.
I blinked dazedly. I was sitting on a bed. The blanket slid away as I moved, revealing my bare skin. The red evening sun spilled across white sheets. The darkening sky visible in the distance told me night was not far away.
Just then, the curtain that had been drawn around the bed pulled back sharply.
“You’re awake.”
A woman peeked through the curtains and smiled, then laid clothes on the bed.
“Come on, put on your uniform.”
What the School Nurse—not just a woman, but the School Nurse—had placed was my school uniform.
It seemed someone had moved me to the Infirmary while I was unconscious.
Who was it? The School Nurse? Or another student?
In any case, I decided I should offer my thanks and changed into my uniform. As I emerged from behind the curtain, the School Nurse turned to face me.
“You were collapsed beneath a tree with difficulty breathing. I examined you when they brought you in—nothing seemed wrong—but how are you? Are you in any pain?”
“No, I’m fine.”
The words came out reflexively. Only after I spoke did something feel off. My hand rose to my chest, and my brow furrowed.
“I’m fi…… fine. I’m not in pain anywhere.”
No. That wasn’t right. Something was wrong. There couldn’t be a place I wasn’t in pain.
What was this feeling? As if something that had been choking my chest had vanished. I felt light. The air flowing through my nose was so clean. I wanted to breathe in more. Right now.
My heart raced with excitement. My feet moved of their own accord. Before I knew it, I was rushing toward the door.
“Wait, just a moment!”
I paused at the School Nurse’s voice.
“What’s your name?”
“Kaien.”
I opened the door and turned back briefly to add,
“Kaien Nuarell.”
With that, I dashed out. I ran without thinking. My legs carried me where they would.
My breath came ragged. But that was all—there was no tightness in my chest, no feeling of my heart being wrung. It felt as though I could run on and on, as far as my legs would take me.
Before long, I’d reached the entrance to the Garden. I placed my hand on a tree and stopped to catch my breath.
I’d run hard, yet it didn’t hurt. If anything, I felt invigorated. So running could be this pleasant.
“Haha……”
I laughed without thinking. But the moment the sound left my lips, my expression turned serious.
“……What——”
What had just happened?
I’d never in my life been able to run such a distance. Yet I’d run it without any difficulty whatsoever.
As if…… as if my lung disease had actually healed.
My pupils, which had been darting about frantically, suddenly stilled as if something had occurred to me.
In that instant, Kaien’s head snapped up.
‘……!’
Ber jolted awake.

***

Startled, I gasped for breath. I swallowed hard, my throat dry.
‘What was that dream?’
Black hair. Gray eyes. Pale, sickly skin. A sharp, cold expression.
I was certain.
The one who’d just locked eyes with me in that dream was Kaien Nuarell, the Sub-male Lead of Taming.
Raul, the other person who appeared in that dream, was also a character from the novel.
Raul Nuarell.
Raul, Kaien’s half-brother, was the second son of the Nuarell Family and coveted the position of heir. Kaien’s lung disease never healed until before Raul kidnapped Enya, and he eventually lost his position as Minor Heir to Raul.
A mother who had died young from the same disease as him. A father who ignored him. Raul and his mother Marinella, who tormented him.
It was the readers’ interpretation that this tragic background had caused Kaien to undergo Corruption into a terrifying, obsessive character.
‘The readers who supported the Kaien-Enya couple were mostly the ones who pitied Kaien.’
Sure, I understood he was pitiful, but even so, he’d gone too far with the heroine. Enya was meant to end up with Adrian.
Right, I knew that outcome was correct a hundred times over…… but why had I suddenly dreamed of Kaien? And such a vivid scene that wasn’t even in the original work?
It was a scene that didn’t appear in the source material at all, yet I’d seen it in such detail.
I stared at the canopy hanging above my bed, biting my lip anxiously.
‘And why does he look so much like……?’
The form Kaien took when he transformed and the puppy I’d rescued today resembled each other far too much. Far too much.
I sighed and pushed myself upright.
Don’t overthink this. It was just a dream, after all.
Shaking my head vigorously, I glanced around my surroundings and froze.
‘……This is my room.’
I was at the Imperial Academy just moments ago. When did I get back here?
At that moment, a figure came into my field of vision. Theodore was fast asleep, sprawled across the foot of my bed.
“Theodore?”
I called out to him, and he stirred awake.
His large golden eyes focused on me for a moment, and then he pulled me against him in a tight embrace.
I could feel Theodore’s heartbeat.
It was racing—a frantic, anxious rhythm.

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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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