I Became the Emergency Food Supply of the Bear Family - Chapter 6

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 6

Why hadn’t she thought of it sooner? Bears go into hibernation!
Na Bom drew her small front paws together and closed her eyes.
Thank you, divine providence.
If bears ate such enormous quantities of salmon before hibernating, it meant they would be asleep for a very long time indeed.
She didn’t know exactly how long bears slept through winter, but surely it would be more than enough time to escape.
They’d only eat the salmon, right?
Surely with that much salmon piled up, they wouldn’t bother with something as tiny as her.
Yes, that had to be it.
How long had she been repeating this prayer to herself?
When she looked up, Na Bom found herself in the Great Hall of Grizzly Castle.
More precisely, atop the hall’s long dining table—directly upon a table lined with plates of the bears’ meals.
Much good “thank you” did me.
What kind of merciless god permits such a thing?
Squeak, squeak-squeak, screech!
As sorrow and despair welled up inside her, Na Bom threw back her head and cried out.
That’s right. Rabbits cry too.
When angered or threatened, they are perfectly capable of vocalizing their distress.
Yet the beasts gathered around the table, watching Na Bom with her front teeth bared and her small mouth stretched wide, simply looked charmed.
“Screech!”
“Rui, you mustn’t be loud during meals. And don’t mock Snowflake like that.”
“But she’s adorable.”
Ferdi and Rui, seated on either side of Anna, exchanged remarks without the slightest concern, Na Bom perched between them on the table.
The Great Hall’s long table was not occupied solely by members of the Grizzly Family.
It was a shared meal—the family and their attendants together.
All of them waited eagerly for this hour, their faces bright with anticipation.
When Theodore, the master of the house, gave a nod, everyone bowed their heads in gratitude before driving their forks down toward the steaming salmon dishes.
Clink! Scrape-scrape.
At the sound of cutlery from every direction, Na Bom flinched and grew restless.
Though they were all absorbed in the salmon now, there was no knowing when one of them might feel appetite stirring toward her.
Especially that brown bear. Theodore.
Given that he’d been addressed with the unnecessary courtesy of “emergency rations,” her status as the master’s emergency provisions was beyond doubt.
Driven by primal fear, Na Bom found herself backing away without thinking.
“Emergency rations.”
At that moment, a chilling voice reached her ear, and Na Bom’s head snapped around.
Death incarnate—or rather, Anna.
“I think you’d prefer this to salmon.”
Anna held out grass and leaves toward her.
Perhaps because Na Bom had been staring at the plate so intently, worried about becoming the salmon’s fate, Anna had mistaken her for being hungry for it. With a reflex, Na Bom took the leaves into her mouth.
She didn’t want to eat more, but she chewed reflexively.
Crunch-crunch-crunch.
As she chewed mindlessly, her anxiety seemed to ease a little.
They said I’m still too small for Theodore’s emergency rations. He won’t eat me until my body grows bigger.
Besides, whenever she accepted the leaves, Anna’s hand scratching at her jaw felt wonderfully comforting.
After eating a few more, Na Bom suddenly frowned.
‘Wait.’
Her body felt different from usual.
When she sat normally, her hind legs were usually visible, but now her belly had puffed up so much that she could barely see their tips.
‘What’s happening…?’
Had she truly become a full portion of emergency rations already?
It was at that moment of shock.
“Anna.”
A low voice cut across the table. A large man with a thick black beard glared at Anna menacingly.
“You’re standing too close. Don’t overstep your bounds.”
“My apologies, Captain.”
Anna rose from her seat and bowed with precise, practiced courtesy.
“As her direct attendant, I believe I’m simply being responsive to her needs.”
But at Anna’s added remark, the man—the Captain—scowled more darkly.
“You know as well as I do. This is the first time the emergency rations have been invited to the master’s table.”
“I’m aware.”
“If you’re aware, then bring that small and adorable—ahem, bring the emergency rations closer to the master at once.”
The moment the Captain’s order fell, Anna reached out her hand.
Startled by both her swollen belly and the Captain’s sudden intense gaze, Na Bom couldn’t dodge; she was caught.
And so Na Bom was delivered before Theodore, left immobilized in the middle of the long table.
“Indeed. I see why the young masters call her Snowflake.”
“So snowy white… perfectly round… ugh!”
“That fluffy white coat. It must be incredibly soft.”
Theodore’s flanking retainers leaned close to Na Bom, their faces pressing in. One furrowed his brow deeply and clutched at his chest, while the other’s hands trembled as he stared at Na Bom with feverish eyes.
The intense gazes of the muscular retainers—each perhaps twenty times the size of a small rabbit—were terrifying, but they weren’t what Na Bom found truly unbearable.
“……”
Theodore continued to stare at her.
Silently. With quiet intensity, as though lost in deep thought, observing her from head to tail.
The fur on her entire body bristled. Na Bom was certain.
‘He’s deciding whether to eat me or not…!’
Once that certainty took hold, her resolve crystallized immediately.
Just as Na Bom clenched her trembling front paws—
“Emergency—no, Snowflake!”
The Captain, who had been glaring at Anna so menacingly, thrust grass and leaves toward Na Bom. But Na Bom neither saw the fresh foliage nor heard his voice crack strangely.
Hya-choo!
With a silent battle cry, she channeled all her weight into both front paws and batted at the Captain’s arm.
But having put too much force behind the strike, she tumbled right off the table.
Thump! As she tried to land on her hind legs, her rear end hit the floor instead, and the pain made her cry out: Screech!
In that instant, Theodore leaped from his seat.
“Catch the rabbit.”
The moment Theodore’s command rang out, his retainers all sprang up as well.
A short, decisive order from the master. The piercing gazes of countless predators converging upon her.
Forgetting even the pain in her hind legs, Na Bom launched herself upward.
She bolted away in pure panic, bumping into table legs and trays beside the dining surface, smashing several plates in her mindless flight. She sought only an exit.
It was no wonder she didn’t hear what Theodore said next.
“The rabbit’s injured her hind leg. If she keeps moving, the wound could reopen. Catch her quickly.”
“Yes, sir!”
The retainers’ eyes widened and they saluted. None of them could remember the last time they’d heard the master speak at such length and with such urgency.
So they all charged after the rabbit with tremendous force. But their very aggression had the opposite effect.
Na Bom slipped through the gaps of their reaching hands, darted between their sides, and leaped onto one man’s shoulder. As he tried to grab her, she pushed off into the air and clung to a window frame.
Bang!
The half-open window swung wider with the force of Na Bom’s impact. She squeezed her body through the gap.
“Snowflake!”
Desperate calls for her echoed from within the hall.
Na Bom didn’t look back; she stretched her body long and dove forward. Just as she was about to descend into the garden beyond—
Snap!
Her hind legs caught on the window frame, and her body jerked downward.
Na Bom fell straight down toward the ground.
Thud.
She struck earth, but the impact was gentler than expected.
Opening her eyes cautiously, her vision bloomed with green. The ground beneath her was soft; thick soil lay deeply layered.
‘Quickly.’
I need to get up. I need to run farther.
Yet despite that instinct, Na Bom’s eyelids kept drooping.
To the rabbit, wound tight with tension against the predator scents, the sweet fragrance of grass felt like sinking into a warm, welcoming bed.
Plop.
Na Bom’s body, utterly drained of strength, tipped over sideways.

***

“Snowflake!”
A voice called from far away.
“Emergency rationssss!”
A voice thick with worry and desperate longing, someone searching urgently for another.
Who was it?
Why were they searching for someone with such urgency?
“Where are you, Snowflake Rabbit?”
The bright cry of a young boy roused Na Bom from her sleep.
It was the voice of the Grizzly Family’s second son.
It was me they were looking for.
But Na Bom couldn’t understand why his voice sounded so desperate.
‘Is there some reason I can’t go missing?’
Perhaps losing the master’s emergency rations would bring punishment upon them.
That wouldn’t be right.

“We could’ve gone to the amusement park today! Why’d you have to go and do this?”
“Can’t even achieve humanization. Would’ve been better if you were never born.”

I don’t want anyone to suffer because of me.

“It’s all because of you!”
“Why do I have to be treated like this? It’s all your fault.”

I don’t want to be anyone’s burden anymore.
Na Bom clenched her small teeth and tried to pull herself up, to escape the green-shrouded place somehow.
It was then.
‘…?’
Her vision suddenly brightened, and a predator’s scent washed over her.
Na Bom opened her eyes slowly.
Through the dim green light, parting the grass, came the face of an enormous brown bear.
Theodore.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————