I Became the Emergency Food Supply of the Bear Family - Chapter 69

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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 69

Kaien’s gaze fixed on her with absolute certainty, as though he knew everything.
Ber was seized by sudden dread.
‘I’ve been found out.’
Found out—by Kaien, of all people.
Honestly, she hadn’t expected discovery to come so easily. And why should it? She hadn’t even been a Royal Academy student at the time. She’d come as a visitor, staying only briefly in the Academy grounds.
True, she’d coughed blood and collapsed, but the School Nurse had done nothing more than begin a cursory examination before Theodore rushed in and spirited her away from the Academy entirely.
After confirming there was no trace of Kaien searching for her, and after becoming certain his lung disease had been cured, Ber hadn’t worried much at all.
Because Kaien possessed no clues—no way to identify whoever had healed him.
Besides, hadn’t the Sage Pallas himself said so? That there existed no mage in the Academy capable of recognizing the Spring Power she possessed.
And yet, how on earth had he—
“How could you not remember me? Two years ago, in the Academy gardens—I was that wolf you saved. You don’t recall?”
The rabbit, frozen in place atop the stone, didn’t even blink as Kaien leaned down and pressed the question again. But still there came no response.
‘……Surely not.’
That day, perhaps? The day her Spring Power had surged uncontrollably and she’d transformed, rolling about in animal form across the garden floor.
If her bare skin had touched Kaien that day, then her Spring Power might indeed have activated. If she’d discovered a wound on his body that had since healed……
As Ber’s mind raced through the possibilities, a brilliant white light suddenly flooded her vision, and the rabbit clamped her eyes shut.
The moment she opened them again, what sat before her was not an Academy-uniformed student, but an animal.
-Does this form from two years ago help you remember?
‘…….’
A soft voice resonated in her mind. But Ber could not move. She remained frozen in place, staring at the creature before her.
A beast.
A massive, pitch-black beast—five times, no, ten times larger than herself.
Across furred skin, a chest split wide with definition. Remarkably massive forearms. A jaw opened to terrible length. Below it, glinting teeth of enormous size.
A bite from those jaws would end a small creature like her in an instant.
What was she supposed to remember?
A black dog from two years ago? There was no way she could recall this form.
What seized Ber’s mind instead was a far older memory.

-Damned rabbit!
-Shall we just eat this one?

An abandoned young rabbit.
The people who’d caged her tiny, skeletal frame and carried her away. Followed by beasts that shifted into the form of a white wolf, scratching their own legs, drool dripping between their fangs as they spoke of devouring her.
The black wolf before her now seemed to merge with that white wolf of memory.
The wolf standing before her showed no threat, no intent to attack—she knew this. Yet terror had claimed her nonetheless.
She needed to flee. She wanted to vanish from before this wolf at once. But her fear-paralyzed body refused to move.
-……Ber?
Confused by the rabbit’s utter lack of response, Kaien called her name once more.
Was it possible she didn’t recognize him even in his transformed state? He’d changed much since then—it would be natural if she didn’t.
And yet, his certainty could not be wrong.
This girl before him was definitely the Manifestation of Eos.
From the day his long affliction vanished as though erased, Kaien had thought and thought again.
That sensation he’d felt in the dream.
Warm sunlight pouring down his back, his whole body’s tension melting, dissolving. That sense of being cradled in verdant spring.
Soon enough, Kaien remembered: this sensation was not new.
In childhood, when Marinella’s treachery had left him abandoned in the Northern Region. When he’d collapsed searching for the power of Eos, and Jeung had saved him. The words Jeung had spoken when he came to his senses.
Grizzly Castle. The Sled Dog Knight Order.
Didn’t he too dream that day when he lay unconscious beside Grizzly Castle? A warm dream of being held in spring.
After that, Kaien began investigating the House of Grizzly.
Infamous northerners of wild descent. The Emperor’s puppet, refusing nothing the Emperor commanded.
They were a renowned house, yet almost no other information could be found. Its head, Theodore Grizzly, would not step beyond his domain except by imperial decree.
So Kaien kept close watch on Perdi Grizzly, his own year-mate, and Louie Grizzly, who entered a year later. He sought to find the connection between the power of Eos that had healed him and the House of Grizzly.
But whether concealed or simply unrelated to Eos, Grizzly’s two cubs revealed not the slightest detail.
Kaien had begun considering broadening his investigation when
a rumor spread that yet another Grizzly had enrolled at the Royal Academy.
Since the House of Grizzly was known to have only two heirs—eldest and second son—both Academy students and Kaien alike took interest in the rumored newcomer.
Being in the same Swordmaster Department and a year below Louie, Kaien had quickly grown close to him and managed to glean some talk of the rumored “younger sibling,” though he’d gained no substantive information.
Unable to grasp any clues, all Kaien could do was secretly observe the third child of the Grizzly house.
The third child was a girl.
Hair of pure white, gathered into two plaits or a single loose braid. Skin so pale it seemed fragile. A slender frame with limbs that seemed to stretch longer than proportionate. A bright, artless smile as she laughed while conversing with friends.
She seemed like an angel.
Alongside that impression came an unbidden thought.
The miracle of two years ago—might it have been thanks to an angel sent by his mother in heaven? If so, he wished that angel were such a girl.
He wished she were a child so bright and pure that merely seeing her warmed the heart.
Seized by that strange fancy, Kaien had turned away with a bitter smile.
He’d only wanted to express his gratitude, but the emotion kept swelling and swelling, uncontainable, for having found no way to address its object.
Perhaps he should simply follow the youngest and confront her about what happened two years ago. As that obsessive impulse flickered unbidden, Kaien suppressed the urge and turned away—only to encounter it.
A small, snow-white creature, like a living snowball.
An Arctic Rabbit.
At the sight of an Arctic Rabbit in human form—a creature one would scarcely meet unless traveling to the Arctic itself—Kaien’s mind immediately recalled the legends of Eos.
Yet the rabbit seemed unwell. Life took priority over his debt of gratitude. And when he brought the Arctic Rabbit to the School Infirmary that day, Kaien saw his own remaining wound vanish without a trace, and he was certain.
He’d rushed to the infirmary without even drying his hair or washing properly.
Late in the evening, he’d caught the departing School Nurse and asked about the human she’d brought in.

“Oh? I thought you two knew each other. It was that student who brought you here two years ago when you were transformed. That day she suddenly coughed up blood and I was worried, but it seems she’s healthy now.”

At the mention of blood, Kaien’s head snapped up. He wanted to hear more details, but the teacher thrust a roster at him, and his thoughts froze.
The spot the teacher’s finger indicated held a name written in neat, rounded script.

Ber Grizzly

The name of the girl he’d been pursuing all this time.

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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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