CH 5

After the graduation ceremony, I checked the things to pack in my backpack. Fortunately, this world was not too different from the one I was used to, so finding travel gear was not that difficult.

“All right, all set.”

When I stepped outside with my backpack, there were bunnies waiting for me.

“Are you really going to leave?”

All the bunnies were sad that I was leaving. These folks had no intention to leave the town of Rabbitmen, ‘Rabbit Hole.’

But that was the norm, and instead thought that bunnies like me, who venture out, were the odd ones out.

“I must.”

There were two reasons why I wanted to get out.

This town was worthy of that of a fairytale, so on the outside it looked like a great place to live. But for someone with a big dream like me, it was too small and too peaceful. This was the personal reason behind it.

Another reason was my quest to find out whether this world is inside a side plot of a novel and whether or not I was still alive.

I felt certain that I had to find the ending of this plot to get out of this world. Of course, this was all uncertain, and didn’t make much sense, but it already didn’t make sense that I became a female bunny inside a book.

“Will you be alright? I heard that not only is there a ton of danger, but dual species like us face discrimination and ignorance of others.”

Annie, who stepped from the crowd, gave me a warning with her trembling voice in fear.

“Yes. I heard that humans make dual species into their slaves.”

“Yeah, I heard that, too.”

The bunnies behind were whispering as well. There were also slaves in the world I came from, but slavery also existed in this novel. The only difference is that where I lived had only humans and in this world the humans use dual species as slaves. I think there was a part in the story  where Jarrod meets this girl named ‘Arje’ who was fighting for freedom of slaves.

“Don’t worry. Who would even use me as a slave?”

“Still, if things get tough, come back, okay?”

Although I said with confidence, Annie, who was still worried, gripped my hands tight and started to sob. 

“Yes, Annie. And if you ever want to venture out, look for my name. By the time you get out of this world, the world will already know me as a legend.”

After smiling at Annie, I headed out of the castle walls.

“Good bye!”

“Keep in touch!”

With the farewell of the bunnies behind me, I moved into the path leading to the forest. With my two legs, of course.

Trud.Trud.

I was going to use a horse at first, but when I asked the bunnies if they had an available horse, they all made confused faces asking why I would need a horse if I have legs. So, I had to give up on getting a horse. Still, my legs were not getting tired or hurting after walking without rest, I guess this was the perk of being a rabbitman.

On top of that, Annie had said that this straight path led to the town with humans, so I didn’t see a need to even walk that far.

….Am I on the right path?

No matter how far I walked, there was no trace of the human village. The path had disappeared at this point, and I was just wandering around this unknown forest.

Was I lost? No, that couldn’t be right. There should be something if I continue walking. There is no way that this vast forest could just be an empty one.

Trickle pour pour.

After walking with self-justifying thoughts to refuse that I was lost, I was stimulated by the sound of flowing water. It wasn’t too difficult to find the source of the water, since my ears vibrated towards the source of the sound without me even trying.

“It’s a spring.”

After walking towards the source of the sound, there was a clear spring. I kneeled in front of the spring and drank water with my palms. It was about time for a break.

Even though I was a bunny, I resembled a female human and thought that I shouldn’t place my head in the water and use my tongue like an animal.

“The wind is blowing nicely.”

After drinking water and leaning on a tree bark, a warm and comforting wind surrounded my body. Except for the fact that I wasn’t used to long hair getting in my mouth and covering my eyes, unlike when I was a man, the wind was soothing enough to make me relaxed.

…..Oh

I was dozing off without me knowing. I usually never sleep totally helpless like this, but maybe it was one of the tendencies of a teenage female? Reflecting on how I had let my guards down, I stared up into the sky. The sun was still up, so I figured that I hadn’t slept for too long.

Gurghrrr…

Maybe it was because I just woke up? Since my stomach made a noise, I looked towards my backpack.

It’s not here?

“My backpack?!”

I was searching over the place after being shocked. I remembered placing the backpack right next to me before leaning on the tree, but I couldn’t find it.

Well, at least I could find traces of my backpack. There were items and crumbs from my backpack leading to a path somewhere.

Swish.

I slid out my rapier and followed the evidence. Luckily, the thief only aimed for my backpack and not my life, but they were still a backpack thief.

Nom nom.

I could hear from across the bushes something eating very beastly. They had to be the culprit. I let my view closer to the thief, carefully removing the bushes from blocking the view.

“A boar?”

There was a boar, greater than the size that I was used to, eating away my food.

What in the world?”

It was fortunate that I found my backpack. The boar didn’t seem to have any interest in anything but the food inside my bag, so all I had to do was to find the bag…

Kweeeek!

“Oh mother of..!”

When I went towards the bag to retrieve the bag, the boar let out a warning as if he thought I was trying to steal his food.

“Let me just take my bag, okay?”

I thought that maybe I could communicate with the boar with my animal appearance, but

Kweeeek!

It was no use.

“Aw man, this is driving me nuts”

I didn’t want to give up on my backpack, and killing the boar with my crappy rapier was a questionable act since I wasn’t sure if it would be able to pierce through its skin. A wild boar is hard to deal with even by a group of men, and fighting it alone as a teenager was a risky move.

Oh, so that’s how you want to be?

I creeped backwards to let the boar’s guard down, and then crawled until my rapier could reach the backpack. The boar had all of its face pushed inside the bag, so it was clueless that I was there.

I slowly stretched out the rapier towards him.

Slowly…slowly…

The end of the rapier was stuck at the end of the strap. The boar was still clueless. Now all I had to do was drag the rapier back with the backpack…

“Huh?”

Things didn’t go so smoothly. The other strap was stuck in the boar’s teeth, and the boar was dragged along with the backpack.

KWEEEEEK!

The boar finally exploded, after his patience reached its limit, and got ready to attack me.

“Ahhhhhhh!”

I snatched the backpack and escaped as quickly as I could.

Du-du-du-du!

I could hear the boar following me from behind. When I looked back, the boar was definitely faster than I was. I was lasting this long being a bunny, but I didn’t have much time until it would catch up.

Wait, what was it that they said about outrunning the boar? Run in zig-zags?

I ran in a zig-zag pattern, which had no use, and only made the boar reach closer.

The plan was not working. I thought of a new plan. I remembered that boars can only run in a straight line, so the next strategy was to change my direction quickly.

Du-du-du-du!

As the sound of the boar running became closer, I threw myself to the right, and the boar kept running straight as my prediction.

“I did it!”

But as if the boar was looking down at my moves, it turned its course and started to run towards me again.

“Now what?”

If I couldn’t outrun it, the only possible option was to climb up a tree. I quickly climbed up the tree, and the boar just stared at me from the ground and stood still.

“Can you leave now? You have already finished all my food, don’t you think that’s enough?”

When I instigated the boar, it got further away as if it understood me.

I was finally ready to get down …until

Thud!

“Woah!”

Thud!

“Has it gone mad?”

The boar wasn’t leaving. The boar had stayed in the premises and now was hitting the tree, trying to make me fall down. How mad do you have to be to do that?

As time passed, the boar still remained circling the tree as if it had decided to stay. I felt that I was soon going to starve to death. Since I hadn’t eaten anything, unlike the boar that  had finished my food and should have been satisfied.

“There is no other way.”

I tightly gripped my rapier. I didn’t want to fight the boar with the sword, but after figuring out the pattern in the boar’s course of action, I held the rapier facing down and then threw it down from the tree.

Stab!

KWEEEEEK!

The boar, with a pig’s sound from the verge of death, made a riot and I fell after notwithstanding the aftermath.

Plop!

“Ouchie.”

As I looked at the boar with my upper body raised, I could see that it was clearly injured from the spouting blood and saliva. Still, it was alive. I had no other weapon since my only sword was stuck in its body.

“Now what?”

The boar was moving its legs as if it was still ready to run towards me. It seemed too late for me to run again.

Still, I had some time. My ears were leaning towards a new sound coming from somewhere.

“What are you doing? If you are going to hit me, do it now.”

I made some bluff that would not have made sense to the boar,

KWEEEK!

The boar made an unpleasant sound as if it were laughing at my statement then rushed towards my direction.

My job was done.

Shooooo!

The moment the boar started running, the sound that I had been waiting for changed into a piercing one, and then went right through the boar’s throat.

Thud!

The boar fell forward, freezing then and there, and did not budge even a little.

Clank.

My rapier fell out from the neck and fell in front of me, as if it were returning to its owner.

Bristle!

And the fellows who probably shot the arrow came up from the bushes.