SVPW 03

Chapter 3

A chilling tension crawled up my spine.

My body stiffened with anxiety, but my struggle to escape only grew more desperate.

Panicking, I began pushing the wall not only with my front paws but with my hind legs as well.

But for some reason, the wall that my head had slipped into so easily earlier wouldn’t budge at all when I tried to pull back out.

Did my face swell because all the blood rushed to it in the meantime?

“Whine… whine.”

A groan escaped me without realizing it. Cold sweat began to pour down my body.

“Search every corner! Check even the places you’ve already looked! We can’t tell His Majesty that a ghost took him!”

To make matters worse, someone barked out a furious order, and people began searching the building again.

Footsteps suddenly thundered everywhere like a sudden rainstorm.

Thud. Thud. My heart started pounding in time with their steps.

This is bad!

At this rate, I was going to be caught by the guards with my head stuck suspiciously in a wall.

I twisted and squirmed frantically, but now my cheeks were scraping painfully against the stone.

I’m doomed! Completely doomed!

Just when my hands—no, paws—were sweating in panic, an alarming voice rang out behind me.

“There’s something here!”

“What? What is it?”

People began murmuring behind me.

“A white rag…? Huh, it’s moving!”

The moment I realized someone had spotted me, my heart dropped to the floor.

…Wait. A rag? Not a fluffball or something—a rag?

Even in this dire situation, that comment irritated me greatly. If whoever said that had said it to my face, I would’ve slapped them hard!

Ugh. How humiliating!

But the approaching footsteps quickly made my heart shrink again.

“What? It’s a mouse.”

A mouse?! Now I’d gone from a rag to a mouse. I’m not a mouse—I’m a ferret!

“Why is it stuck in here?”

Someone grabbed the back of my neck roughly, and at the same time my face scraped painfully as it was pulled free from the wall.

Aaaargh!

My cheeks burned like they were on fire, but at least my head was finally out.

Still, pain was pain. I had no reason to feel grateful just because they pulled me out.

I glared at the person who had grabbed me so roughly.

“A wild animal must have crawled in. Throw it away.”

The man holding me was a guard, and a middle-aged man who had been watching nearby gave him the order.

Dangling from the guard’s grip, I flailed my four paws helplessly.

My scruff was painfully stretched in his grasp. Clicking his tongue, the guard began walking toward the window.

Ah… so this is how I’m leaving—through the window.

Realizing I was about to be thrown outside, I squeezed my eyes shut. I tried to comfort myself that being thrown out like this was still relatively lucky.

Today really had been a roller coaster of a day.

Resigned to everything, I began thinking about what I would do after being kicked out of the imperial palace.

Then suddenly—

“Stop.”

A single word in a low voice silenced the commotion among the guards.

The guard about to throw me froze mid-motion, like someone had shouted “freeze” in a game.

In the sudden quiet, the crisp sound of approaching shoes echoed smoothly through the building.

“Y-Yes! Your Highness!”

Startled by the sudden shift in atmosphere, I opened the eyes I had squeezed shut.

Everyone who had been rushing around was now bowing their heads.

What kind of situation is this now?

It was because of the man who had approached the guard holding me.

Your Highness?

I examined the man in front of me.

The first thing I noticed was that he seemed to be shining.

How could a person sparkle from head to toe like that?

Golden hair, glossy skin beneath it, a sharply pressed uniform—he looked like a white marble statue decorated with gold that had suddenly come to life.

Compared to me, who had just crawled out of a pile of dust, he was clearly on a completely different level.

His tightly closed lips, as neat as his appearance, moved, and everyone focused on even his smallest movement.

“I would appreciate it if you would gently put down the pet you’re holding.”

At his words, everyone blinked as if they couldn’t process the situation.

Of course, that included me.

“…Your… pet?”

The guard holding me asked blankly. The blond man smiled lightly and spoke again.

“That small white one in your hand.”

At that moment, everyone’s gaze turned to the guard’s hand.

And my gaze also dropped to my limp body dangling in the air.

…Me? Me?!

My already round eyes widened so much they felt like they might pop out.

“Come here.”

“I-I didn’t realize it was the Crown Prince’s pet! I-I’m sorry!”

The guard hurriedly held me carefully with both hands and dropped to his knees.

A pet?!

To call me—a being who had lived more properly than most humans—a pet!

For a moment I forgot my situation and felt deeply offended.

Wait a minute. What did the guard just say? Crown Prince… then that means this is the Crown Prince?

While I was still stunned, the guard lowered his hands to the floor.

He looked at me pleadingly, as if begging me to get off his palm as quickly as possible.

“….”

But even when his hand touched the ground, I couldn’t move.

First of all, that man wasn’t my owner. More accurately, I had never even met him before.

Second…

It was because of the bright, expectant look in his eyes.

That’s a pretty burdensome look.

I felt like I had seen that kind of gaze somewhere before.

Ah, yes—when neighborhood kids saw me wandering around in animal form, they used to chase me with that exact look.

Pure… yet absolutely terrifying for me.

“Come on. Over here.”

The Crown Prince even bent down to lower his eye level and extended his hand toward me.

His fingertips tapped lightly on the marble floor, exactly like a pet owner calling their animal.

Is this guy crazy?

My eyes narrowed instinctively.

“You don’t seem badly hurt, though. Seeing how bravely you ran right out of the room.”

The corner of his lips lifted gently, and his eyes curved in a reassuring smile.

Wait…

His words made me remember the bandage that had been wrapped around my paw.

I had tossed it aside somewhere while running through the dirt because it got in the way, but it had clearly been wrapped with someone’s careful hands.

And the soft blanket. The warm room.

Even the faint scent coming from the man now felt strangely familiar.

“Still, you need rest. Let’s go back.”

It seemed this man really was the one who treated me.

Since everyone called him the Crown Prince, that meant the place where I woke up must have been the Crown Prince’s palace.

Of all the people in the imperial palace… why did it have to be the Crown Prince?

It felt like a terrifying connection had begun while I was unconscious.

“There are dangerous people here.”

He was probably saying that to persuade me.

But I wanted to tell him something.

You look like the most dangerous one here.

I had a good eye for people.

If I had to pick the most dangerous person here, it was definitely him.

Just look! Those perfectly healthy, powerful guards trembling stiffly before him!

And I know exactly who you are.

It might not have helped much in life, but I had the reincarnated reader buff—I knew the original story.

I didn’t know whether the story had even started yet or whether the protagonist was already suffering through it somewhere…

But I knew for certain that the man in front of me was a future antagonist.

When rebels killed his father and brothers, he would descend into darkness.

Crown Prince Shavelian.

Technically, the real culprits behind the massacre of the beastfolk were the current emperor and the nobles.

But in the end, the one the protagonist would face was Crown Prince Shavelian.

I had sworn I wouldn’t follow the original plot even a little…

Yet somehow I had ended up right in the middle of enemy territory.

“You look like you’re thinking very hard.”

Had I been lost in thought too long?

Startled by his sudden comment, I flinched.

No way. Was my perfect animal acting already being suspected?

“Or perhaps you prefer that one instead of me?”

Was it my imagination, or did the corner of his lips curl up a little strangely?

Suddenly I felt pressured.

One thing was certain: I definitely didn’t like that guard!

If I was going to run away, I at least had to get out of this situation first.

I quickly jumped down from the guard’s hand and ran toward the Crown Prince.

When I reached his outstretched hand, warmth finally returned to his eyes.

He naturally lifted me onto his palm and stood up.

Then he held me against his chest like a newborn baby.

What is this… comfort?

There was an unfamiliar softness here, like resting on clouds.

“Let’s go back to the room.”

And so I ended up returning to the place I had run away from with so much effort.

* * *

What on earth was this man thinking when he brought me here?

After entering the room, the Crown Prince placed me inside a square cage.

To be honest, the cage—made of loosely spaced bars—was wide enough that I could easily go in and out even without a door.

Even if I’m a little fluffy right now… isn’t he overestimating how fat I am?

Thinking that, I sat in front of the cage and stared at the Crown Prince.

He was staring right back at me with equal intensity.

After smiling silently for a while, he suddenly spoke.

“What should I name you?”

The Crown Prince stroked his chin thoughtfully.

“Juju von Deluce the Second?”

Get lost.

A princess-like secret-identity name with a grand noble surname?

And why “the Second”? Where is the first one?

I had expected something cute, but this still caught me off guard.

I almost let a curse slip out of my mouth but barely swallowed it.

However, I must not have hidden my twisted expression very well, because the Crown Prince said:

“You don’t like it? That’s the kind of name Michael gave his dog.”

“……”

What kind of person was this Michael?

Just as I was starting to question the standards of the imperial palace, the Crown Prince spoke again after another moment of thought.

“Then… Dust? You look like a pile of white dust.”

Would you like to get beaten with a feather duster?

Seriously. What is this naming sense?

Did this man bring me here just to torture me with terrible jokes?