CH 27

“Nyaan. Nyaan, nyaan.”

“Kyuu?”

“Nyaao, nyao.”

“Kyuu, kyuu.”

The black cat and the pink rabbit were making cute voices before me. Moreover, when I looked at them from the side, Noir seemed to be a senior who was teaching the small rabbit various matters.

H…how cute…

When I was shaking my grasped hands due to the excessive cuteness, my eyes met with Amanda-san who was doing the same thing.

Ehehe.

“Still, I couldn’t believe that the muscular bear-like Frank is the partner of this very cute rabbit!”

“Probably it understood that Frank-san is a good person?”

“I think that whoever can be friends with it as long as they can chant cure. I wish I could chant cure, too…”

She was so bitter it seemed like she was about to sink in the ground.

“Can Cure only be learned by priests?”

In this world, one seemed to be able to learn skills as long as they acquired them, but I wonder if Cure and Heal were different?

“The temple is hiding it. An ordinary person won’t be able to learn it.”

Aah, I see. If ordinary people were able to do Cure, then the priests would run out of their jobs.

I wondered if having subjugation skill meant that one was a superior class in the game. Also wondering if we wouldn’t be able to change jobs unless we reached level 99 in a priest job and hunter job?1

That was why its name was subjugation2 and Frank-san was a master. I could imagine how fun it would be to have the muscular Frank-san with a pink rabbit on top of his head when we go to do a job change.

Well, the fact that I—who hadn’t done the hunter job at all—learned the subjugation skill meant that it was irrelevant to the superior class, though.

“Come to think of it, have you decided on a name for the rabbit?”

Currently, Frank-san was meeting with Leon-san and the others who just returned. It was inevitable to have their attention drawn to the rabbit on top of Frank-san, and so the rabbit was driven out from the tent.

The rabbit growled, “Kyuu, kyuu” outside the tent, and Noir seemed to pity it and came to comfort it, leading us to the current situation.

“It seems like it hasn’t been decided, but since it’s Frank, it seems like he will name it Luan.”

“Eh? Isn’t that a cool name?”

“It’s the name of the rabbit meat that the butchers sell…”

“Eh…That is…”

Having the same name with the meat would be pitiful…no, we ate it during the evening meal earlier, though…It was delicious, though…

I felt guilty for eating the meat of the Horn Rabbits with the rabbit-chan present over here, but everyone ate their meals quietly, so I closed my eyes and tried to eat it. It tasted delicious just like a chicken meat…in the end, I ate everything…

“If it’s Yuuri-chan, how will you name it?”

“Hmmm…It’s pink, so it might be Sakura or Sakura Mochi, or Momota or Momotarou?3  Other names would be Masao or Harunosuke or Momoko…”

“What strange names…”

“Yeah, it having a Japanese-sounding name might not sound familiar…”

I wonder if Sakura existed in this world? If yes, I’d like to see it…

“If it’s Amanda-san, how will you name it?”

“Let see…Rabbi, Rabbie, Rose, Rozeus, Vesta, Pink, Bonnie, Cupid, Coral, Roseria, Lapin, Clorie, Carl, Rosavie, Fult, Beauval, Flatt, Ratts, Cocoa, Ebner, Abel, Bit, and then…”

Au. That’s enough~~~.

Then, as a result of the meeting, the rabbit’s name was Luan!

Amazing, it was just as Amanda-san predicted!

It seemed like calling out “Rabbit Meat”-chan, but calling it Luan would feel completely different now…right?

Ah, the meeting wasn’t especially to decide on the name of the rabbit, though?! But the timing was just perfect, so…Tehe.

According to the meeting, the number of Goblins and Dark Panthers seemed to be the highest. The number of Goblins was originally quite high, so we couldn’t really declare that there was an outbreak of them at this point in time, but the Dark Panther’s was more obvious. Perhaps, the monster king this time would be born among the Dark Panthers.

If…If the monster king were really from the Dark Panthers.

If all monsters were to obey the king.

I wonder if Noir would remain unchanged and stay by my side at that time…

I was anxious over it, but even so, I decided to do the thing that I could do right now, and that was to strengthen the bond with Noir until the king appears.

I will definitely protect this child!

“Hey, Noir?”

“Nyaa.”

“We will always, always be together, right~?”

“Nyaa~n.”

I hugged Noir tightly, feeling the warmth that its body emanated.

This time’s exploration to the Demon Forest was planned to take around three days, so the knights were divided into groups again the next day to resume their exploration, and then we were returning to the fort on the day afterwards.

When we returned, Noir and I were riding on Frank-san’s shoulder. Luan the rabbit was on top of Frank-san’s head which became its default position.

“I think that perhaps, if we were to raise our subjugation skill, we will be able to befriend several monsters…”

Frank-san and I were exchanging ideas about the subjugation skill during our journey to the fort.

“I wonder how we can raise it?”

“Hm. Being affectionate with them, probably?”

“Give me a break, oi…”

“Then, fighting alongside it?”

This wasn’t a game just like Elysia Online, but their affection should be increased by having them included in battles.

“If it’s that, well…I think I can?”

“How do Horn Rabbits fight?”

“Well, using their horns. Oh right, this one’s horn hasn’t really grown, has it?”

“Kyuuu.”

‘Are you talking about me?’ Luan’s ears were perked up and it raised its face as if saying that.

“Putting that aside. The problem is when the monster king appears, will they be influenced by it?”

“That’s right…”

If these children were to bare their fangs against us…

Uun, that can’t be. It’s okay. It’s surely going to be alright.

“How long does it take for a monster king to be born, from when the Monster Flood begins?”

“That’s right. The fastest is one month, the longest is three months.”

The monster king is born faster than I expected…

“Will the Monster Flood end once we defeat the monster king?”

“Yeah. The monsters’ force will only increase until that time.”

“If that’s the case, then it’s better for the king to be born quickly and for us to quickly defeat it, so that the damage will be less, right?”

“N~. As long as we’re prepared, yeah. But this time’s Monster Flood happened faster than we predicted. Will the knight troops dispatched from the royal capital and the request for first-rank adventurers make it in time?”

“There are adventurers?”

Could it be that there were other players than me?!

Adventurers meant players, right?!

“Yeah, normally they are exterminating the monsters and earn from selling things like their skin, fangs, and so on. There are also cases in which a variant’s heart was turned into magic stone, so they are qui.te widely hunted. Their meat is also delicious.”

“Kyuuu, kyuuu.”

When Frank-san said ‘they’, his right hand was poking Luan-kun, and so it raised a voice akin to a protest.

“Nyaaa!”

Noir was apparently mad too, as it emerged from within my arms to do a cat punch towards Frank-san’s face.

“Ouch, ouch. What’s Noir getting mad at?”

That was because it thought of Luan-kun as an adorable younger brother figure?

Frank-san. Please promote Luan-kun from food to a proper pet as soon as possible…

We finally returned to the fort while talking like that.

Although I was only here for a few days, for some reason I felt nostalgic. In the few days we were gone from here, I became friends with Noir and also Luan-kun, such busy days…

Anyway, Leon-san and Argo-san went inside first to talk about Noir and Luan-kun.

It would certainly be troubling to have the fort panic due to having monsters entering, without any prior knowledge on what was happening.

After a while, Argo-san returned, then I entered the fort while still on top of Frank-san’s shoulder. I ended up curling myself due to the sights that I felt from the people who were staying in the fort.

“Nya~u.”

Perhaps sensing my anxiety, Noir licked the back of my hand as if saying, “It’s alright.”

“Yeah…Thanks, Noir.”

Well, in no time they would see Noir as an ordinary kitten, while Luan-kun would be seen as an adorable baby rabbit. And in a blink of an eye, the two were recognized as Izel fort’s pets.

Noir even stealthily received snacks from the fort’s chef! Even though I properly gave it meals~. Sniffle.

Luan-kun was shy, so it won’t become affectionate to anyone other than Frank-san, but as expected, it was naturally loved by the cat and it couldn’t be helped.

Then, around the time Noir and Luan-kun became used to living in the Izel fort.

The knight troops from the royal capital finally arrived at the Izel fort in preparation for the Monster Flood.