Chapter 16 : Experint (1)
Looking around at the tree branches and leaves covering the sky, I flew in between the willow branches, whose stems hung down like curtains.
When I closed my eyes and focused my mind, I could hear faint sounds thanks to my hearing, which had improved compared to when I was human.
The sound of the wind, the sound of leaves rubbing together, and the sound of animals' footsteps.
Good, there are no people.
Relieved, I returned to my human form.
I, having returned to a higher line of sight and slightly poorer vision, pushed the branches aside and slowly looked around my surroundings.
Large trees blocked the surrounding view, but traces of small animal footprints or what looked like hos remained here and there.
This was the small animal zone of the Imperial Forest, where the Hunting Competition was held just a short while ago.
Unlike that day when the tragedy occurred, today I was all alone, and no one knew I was here.
Ah, one person knew.
The 1st Prince, Rasia Abalan.
Since the 1st Prince was the one who cleared the people from this place.
Although he did show a very displeased attitude.
-You want to empty the Imperial Forest? And make it look like I'm the one entering? Why should I?
At the voice that, while lowered in volu, seed full of complaint, I answered as if it were obvious.
-Because I need to go in.
-So why make it seem like I'm the one going!! ...is what I'm saying.
He, who was about to raise his voice again, glanced at and whispered the rest of his words.
-I don't want anyone to know I'm coming and going from there.
-Why?
-I'm visiting for soone's treatnt, so it wouldn't be good to attract people's attention, would it?
The 1st Prince shut his mouth tightly again.
-Ah, and just in case, discard any thoughts of attaching people to follow . I'm as good at reading presences as I am at erasing them.
The 1st Prince, with a startled expression, boasted that he would never do such a thing.
-You'd better. If you attack people, I'll just circle the forest, and that will only delay the treatnt.
The 1st Prince glared at after hearing those words but didn't say anything else.
Even if he puts strength in his eyes like that, the most he could do is probably secretly search my room or send people into the forest tomorrow or the day after.
But there was nothing in my room that could be called mine, and even if he sent people, they wouldn't be able to collect every single stone from the vast expanse of the forest.
He, still just a re prince, wouldn't be able to turn the Imperial Family's forest upside down as he pleased, either.
Of course, the claim that I was visiting the forest for a cure was only half-true.
About half was a lie.
Because today's real purpose lay elsewhere.
I followed the traces of small animals that could be found in every corner of the forest.
Things like herbivore droppings hidden between moss, small footprints, or half-eaten tree nuts.
Today, I planned to find out about my ability.
Because the black horse incident last ti allowed to hypothesize that I might be able to transform into animals other than a crow.
I thought I could only turn into a crow, but if it was actually a better ability than that, I needed to know to what extent I could use it and how to use it.
That is, if my ability truly was to transform into an animal.
I found the damp ground around an oak tree and placed a small, long cylindrical container nearby.
And I filled it slightly with the tree nuts I had prepared.
If a stupid fellow was unlucky enough to get caught, I planned to experint on it.
It was good for experinting multiple tis, and above all, I didn't think I could catch a large animal without getting hurt.
Even if I tried to start with a wolf, I'd probably be torn to shreds as soon as I got close.
I planned to start small.
From sothing very small.
So, well, sothing like a squirrel.
Peek.
A small figure suddenly popped out from the pit covered with slightly decayed leaves and moss.
A small head, a striped tail, a barley-colored body.
It was unmistakably a squirrel.
“……”
“……”
Both I and the squirrel stared at each other awkwardly.
The squirrel was surprised to encounter a darkish human guarding the front of its house, and I was surprised to suddenly et my target when I wasn't ready.
“Uh, first, co here.”
Flustered, I stealthily hid the trap I was about to set to the side and slowly extended my hand to the fellow.
I even thought it was absurd.
As if a wild animal would co to just for that…….
Scurry.
……It did.
Contrary to my expectation that it would run away imdiately, the fellow climbed onto my hand with a dazed face.
The fellow even made eye contact with and twitched its small brown nose.
……Is the 7th Prince really that popular with animals?
“If you keep obeying people like that, you'll get caught soday.”
Even at my words, muttering in disbelief, the fellow tilted its head and scurried around on my hand.
Yeah, at next year's hunting competition, just stay inside your burrow.
***
My original plan was to catch any small animal with the trap I prepared and test the conditions for transformation while it was confined.
If that didn't work, I'd turn into a crow, snatch one, and lock it up.
But then.
“Hold on. Just stay still.”
This restless fellow ca into my hands so easily that I couldn't even confine this little guy and had to fumble.
While I was rummaging through my bag with my other hand, the fellow, perhaps now completely recognizing as its friend, climbed up and down my body.
It was clear that it climbing onto my hand just now was a re coincidence.
This little squirrel just wouldn't stay still.
“Here, here, look at this.”
I took out my secret weapon.
The fellow finally stopped moving and fixed its gaze on the acorn in my hand, as if srized.
It was the shiniest and plumpest one I had picked out from the tree nuts I prepared.
The squirrel couldn't take its black eyes off the nut.
“Shh. Stay still.”
I placed the acorn in the fellow's tiny hand.
Its eyes widened slightly, and those pupils soon looked at as if moved.
As I just watched without a word, the squirrel, perhaps reading my intention that it was okay to accept the gift, examined the plump acorn this way and that, then opened its mouth to put it in its cheek pouch.
It was perfect timing.
I quickly snatched the acorn from the squirrel's hand, which had its mouth open.
The fellow, having snapped at nothing, looked back and forth between its empty hand and the acorn in my hand for a mont, bewildered.
Deep betrayal, along with bewildernt, filled the two tiny pupils fixed on .
Yes, this was it.
I carefully retraced what I had done right before the last two transformations.
The crow whose neck was grabbed on the first day of possession, the black horse that ran away leaving behind during the Hunting Competition.
The common denominator between the two seed clear.
A sense of betrayal.
The emotion that filled their eyes was surely the driving force and condition that allowed to transform.
And there was nothing more betraying than giving sothing only to take it away.
“Squeak! Squeak! Kkwek!”
As if proving my thoughts were correct, the squirrel, thoroughly provoked by , started making mouse-like sounds and hitting here and there with its small paws.
“Alright, alright, I'm sorry.”
I handed the acorn back to the fellow.
The small friend with black pupils, though sowhat dissatisfied, seed unable to refuse the tempting gift, glaring at as it took the acorn and quickly stuffed it into its mouth lest I take it away again.
Though the angry squeaking sounds didn't stop.
I kept the cald fellow by my side and slowly closed my eyes.
It seed the condition was now t.
It was trembling with betrayal towards , just like the others, so if my hypothesis was correct, I would be able to transform into a squirrel this ti.
Just like when transforming into a crow…….
Hm, what can a squirrel do?
I recalled the fellow that had been climbing up and down on .
‘I want to climb up and down trees freely.’
I waited for the warm energy to envelop , as it always had.
“……?”
But nothing happened.
When I opened my eyes, I was still a large human, and the squirrel was just looking up at with an expression that seed to ask what I was doing.
***
“I'm pissed, I'm pissed, I'm pissed!”
Rasia Abalan, unable to control his anger, lay in his bedroom and punched his pillow.
Unable to withstand the force, the goose feathers inside burst out and scattered, but that didn't cool his anger.
Lately, only one thing made him angry.
His damned seventh younger brother.
An insect whose na he couldn't even rember.
He was the reason why he was currently in self-confinent in this room, a state unbefitting his status.
-It's been arranged that you, 1st Prince, have gone hunting, so you must not leave your bedroom during that ti.
The 1st Prince's anger flared up again as he recalled the face of the fellow who had presumptuously given the order, and he drove his fist into the innocent bed.
It was a loss that couldn't be covered even by a commoner's living expenses for a year, but Rasia couldn't care less about such things.
Wasn't he a guy who used to live prostrate, knowing his place?
No, actually, he didn't rember well.
As far as Rasia rembered, he was always the one destined to be appointed as the Crown Prince in the future.
There was no need to rember each and every one of the lower ranks beneath him.
He vaguely rembered the Imperial Family being abuzz when so black-haired prince was born, right before his Manis was asured when he was young.
When he was a bit older, he heard talk that the prince was, as expected, a half-wit who possessed no power.
But the fellow was gradually forgotten from his mory not long after.
The Emperor's thorough disregard for him played a part in this, but another reason was that the relationship between the Imperial Family mbers was strictly the law of the jungle.
The higher-ups had no interest in the fellow, and his other brothers and sisters with little Manis despised him for having no Manis despite bearing the Imperial Family's na.
The 1st Prince was in the 'not interested' camp.
But now he had turned to the 'despise' side.
Just you wait.
As soon as the treatnt is over, I'll skin that bastard alive and hang his hide on the window of the 7th Prince's Palace.
No, before that, I'll find out where that fellow gets the cure from, by any ans necessary.
Picturing a hopeful future, the 1st Prince suppressed his anger.
Knock knock.
Soone knocked on the bedroom door.
“Who is it? I told you not to let anyone in!!!”
“His Highness the 2nd Prince is looking for you, Your Highness.”
When a Knight spoke of the younger brother who had co all the way to the front of the 1st Prince's Palace, the 1st Prince shot up.
Wasn't the 2nd Prince his only true brother, whom he trusted?
He had bolted upright, wanting to lighten his mood by seeing the pleasant fellow, but the 1st Prince lay back down again.
-You must not et anyone. Because you, 1st Prince, are at the hunting ground. Even if the 2nd Prince cos, you must never et him. If you break this, I have nothing more to help you with.
It was because he recalled that face that had spoken so obnoxiously.
“Dammit, tell him I'm not here because I went to the hunting ground.”
Rasia eventually relayed those words to the Knight and started punching the pillow on the bed again.
***
“His Highness the 1st Prince has gone to the Imperial Forest to enjoy hunting right now.”
“Oh dear, I've picked the wrong day. Understood.”
The 2nd Prince, Dito Abalan, turned around with a disappointed expression and left the 1st Prince's Palace.
At the smile on his lips, the gatekeeper bowed his head as if apologetic.
The 2nd Prince, who did not erase his smile the entire ti he walked out, stopped his steps for a mont and turned back, casting his gaze toward the bedroom window of the 1st Prince's Palace.
He smiled even more deeply, turned his back, and walked down the path again.
“I wonder who taught my foolish older brother how to discern people.”
He muttered cheerfully.
***
Today's experint ended in complete failure.
Wondering if I hadn't made the fellow angry enough, I tried giving and taking the acorn a few more tis, but I only got hit a few more tis by the pebble-sized hand.
I was quite bewildered because I had been sowhat confident that my hypothesis was correct.
I couldn't see any other common ground between the two.
Besides, the crow had been in the sa space for less than 5 minutes, so there was nothing to compare with the horse.
I sighed and faced the squirrel glaring at .
And I changed my mind.
The crow was there for a short ti, but it also didn't do much.
“Then it should be easy to reenact.”
I took out an acorn again.
This little fellow was going to receive a big reward today.
***
In conclusion, I couldn't turn into a squirrel by the ti I returned to the 7th Prince's Palace.
Though I did fly back in the form of a crow.
Unfortunately, the squirrel was much more scatterbrained than the crow or the horse.
I sohow succeeded in stroking the head of the fellow that climbed onto my shoulder, but while I was testing if I could transform by stroking its head, the fellow disappeared with 3 acorns.
It was a squirrel with less ambition than expected.
It was almost ti for the lady-in-waiting to bring dinner, so I had no choice but to shoulder my bag again and fly back.
In any case, its ho was likely around there, so as a token of appreciation for its hard work, I overturned the container I intended to use as a trap and scattered the tree nuts before coming back.
Hoping for next ti, I left the forest without any lingering feelings.
The bag, which should have been lighter than when I ca to the forest, felt heavy, but I didn't think deeply about it, figuring I was just more disheartened than I thought.
***
Knock knock.
“Yo, Your Highness, I've brought dinner.”
“Co in.”
Having roughly tossed my bag near the desk and returned to human form, I was thankfully able to let the lady-in-waiting in just in ti.
Today's al duty is Anna, I see.
Even though she had helped prepare the 7th Prince's al several tis already, Anna still stumbled over her words once after knocking.
Following my words to keep dinner simple, the cook sent only 3 dishes: onion soup, salad, and a smoked duck dish.
Anna placed the bowls on the desk with deft hand movents.
By the ti Anna finished setting up, I closed my eyes for a mont and leaned my tired body toward the chair.
The cause of today's failure was probably because I didn't prepare a cage to confine the animal.
As I resolved to prepare an enclosure next to the trap before setting it next ti, I noticed one strange thing.
Why wasn't Anna leaving?
Usually, after finishing preparations, she should have asked for my leave and exited, but Anna had been quiet for a while.
The mont I, feeling sothing was strange, opened my eyes, Anna opened her mouth.
“Cu, cute!!”
It was completely different from what I had expected.
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