I Became the Emergency Food Supply of the Bear Family - Chapter 59

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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 59

Enya’s face drained of all color. She froze, her shock written plainly across her features for anyone to see.
“I don’t understand what you’re saying. I’m just a humble herbalist.”
Her voice trembled, her speech stiff and halting. Anyone could tell she was flustered, scrambling to deflect.
“There’s no need to lie. I can see what you were doing—casting magic while pretending to apply ointment.”
“Magic? What do you mean all of a—”
“Time-Reversal Magic.”
Ber delivered the words with the coldest expression she could muster, watching Enya’s face turn ashen. The herbalist’s mouth opened and closed soundlessly—a reaction she could no longer hide behind deflection.
Faced with Enya’s stunned silence, Ber offered her a smile.
“If you continue like this, you’ll be in danger. Surely you know that. Your secret will be exposed. Eventually, it’s inevitable.”
Just as mine was.
The smile faded from Enya’s face. Ber watched her frown, as though remembering something painful, and felt a pang of regret.
She must have been thinking of the past. It hurt to wound her like this. But Ber hadn’t wanted to. Still, there was no other way.
“You need protection. Someone to shield you.”
“…Who exactly are you?”
“I’m offering you time.”
Before Enya could ask her true identity, Ber turned away. She placed her hand on the clinic door’s handle and looked back over her shoulder.
“If you wish for our house’s aid, answer the letter.”
Leaving only cryptic words behind, Ber stepped directly out of the clinic. As the door closed, she heard Enya’s voice cry out: “Wait!”
The clinic door swung open again with a clang.
“…She’s gone.”
Enya poked her head out, glanced around, and muttered in disappointment. After a moment more of searching, her expression turned grave, and she shut the door.
“Phew…”
Ber exhaled, leaning her head against the wall. Fearing Enya might follow, she’d quickly scrambled around the building’s corner to hide.
‘That was terrifying.’
She’d practiced diligently, watching how Louie shamelessly performed in front of her, but acting simply didn’t suit her nature. She’d been so tense she was sure her real form would slip through.
“Snf.”
Ber covered her nose. Her rabbit nose began twitching slightly as the strain of suppressing her true form wore off.
‘I didn’t want to see that look on Enya’s face.’
But there was no choice.
This was the only way to keep you—and all of us—safe.

***

After confirming Enya’s clinic, Ber immediately sat down to write a letter. The recipient was Theodore.
The letter contained roughly three things.
An inquiry about his wellbeing. News of academy life. And—

«I’ve discovered someone with the power to reverse time. It seems they can turn back—or advance—the flow of time for parts of their body. A child around my age who runs a clinic using this power. Could this be another Awakened Being like myself?»

About Enya.
The reply arrived much faster than expected.

«I’m relieved you’re managing well. We’re all in good health. I’ll send someone soon.»

A characteristically terse letter from Theodore.
And the “someone” he’d promised arrived sooner than she’d anticipated.

One weekend, roughly a month after Ber had enrolled at the Royal Academy.
Dressed in casual clothes and a hat pulled low, Ber was surveying the Alley Market.
She’d deliberately forgone her school uniform today. Last time she’d visited the clinic, she’d worn the Royal Academy uniform to signal to Enya that she came from an influential house.
But today, she needed to move in secret.
‘I can’t let them run into each other.’
Kaien—the secondary male lead of Gildreu.
In the story, Kaien’s first appearance came two months before Enya’s kidnapping.
On a weekend, early morning. Enya had treated a student from the Royal Academy her own age—a boy with black hair and grey eyes. A warm, ordinary period followed that scene. Then came the kidnapping. Before losing consciousness, the last thing Enya saw was a symbol carved into the wall behind her market stall.
An X-mark, scratched into the brick with a blade.

With that internal monologue, Enya had lost consciousness.

What later came to light in the story was that Kaien had been taking an interest in the famous street herbalist Enya for quite some time.
‘So the marks could exist even if Kaien hasn’t been treated by Enya yet.’
As long as his lung disease hadn’t fully healed.
That was what Ber was trying to verify. Whether she had truly cured Kaien’s illness—or hadn’t.
Ber kept her head lowered, eyes raised as she scanned the street.
A shoeshine stand at the market entrance. An elderly couple’s fruit stall…. She saw no marks on anything near the Alley Market.
As she searched for signs of Kaien’s presence, she found herself drifting toward the front of Enya’s clinic.
She pulled her hat lower and circled around to the building’s rear, checking the wall for any marks. Halfway through her circuit—
“Third.”
“…!”
Ber’s shoulders tensed at the voice from behind her.
“There you are. I’ve been searching for a while.”
“Shh!”
Pressing a finger to her lips, Ber suddenly grabbed the man’s arm and pulled him behind the trees.
“P-Pallas, what are you doing here?”
“After going to the trouble of finding you, this is the welcome I get?”
“You appeared so suddenly, of course I was startled!”
“Did you not read the letter?”
A letter? Ah. That must be who the Head of Household meant when he said he’d send someone soon.
“I had no idea you’d arrive so quickly.”
“Are you truly applying mortal time standards to me? Foolish. From anywhere in the empire to the capital—”
“Shh!”
Before Pallas could launch into his usual self-praise, Ber clamped her hand over his mouth and peered past the trees.
“…”
Pallas glowered down at the girl muffling him with a fierce glare. But Ber seemed wholly unconcerned.
The Head of Household, his wife, their children—
When the day comes that my life ends and we meet again in heaven, be prepared, Dorothy.
Pallas’s expression grew complicated, but Ber left him to his thoughts, keeping her focus on the clinic.
Just then, the grandfather was escorting a patient inside. Only after the clinic door shut did Ber release Pallas’s mouth.
“You move about like a thief. There’s no need to hide so carefully.”
“It won’t work. That child is inside the building.”
Enya would certainly be wary of her, and Ber still had to find the marks. Stealth was essential.
“Hmm. If you wish to remain undetected, I know a better way.”

White light flashed from behind the trees. Two small shadows began climbing the building’s wall.

At the sight of the determined little rabbit, the wildcat’s irritable expression softened slightly.
The wildcat descended slowly, backing down toward the ascending rabbit, and extended its tail toward her. The rabbit, still clinging to the wall, looked up and tilted its head, uncertain what the offered tail meant.
-…Grab it.
-Huh?
-My tail. Grab it.
The rabbit’s dark eyes went round as saucers, and a bright smile bloomed across its small face.
-Really? Can I really grab it?
The moment the wildcat gave a reluctant nod, the rabbit launched itself up the wall at tremendous speed. Then—
-Wheeeee!
With a joyful cry, the rabbit flung itself onto the wildcat’s thick, fluffy tail.
-Pallas’s tail is so soft!
Gone was any sign of the caution and tension from moments before. The rabbit nuzzled its grey fur against pink cheeks, squeaking with delight.
-It’s so fluffy!

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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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