The Symbiotic Relationship Between the Rabbit and the Black Panther

His breath on my nape made me dizzy.

I thought you were really going to swallow me. Having barely calmed down my pounding heart, I shook my head. 

‘What do you mean pheromones … ?’

That couldn’t have happened. Pheromones only appear in beasts who have been shifted into humans.

It was also a kind of ability, and sometimes used for sexual interaction.

Moreover, the wild beasts’ pheromones were mainly aggressive and had a strong scent, whereas the herbivorous beasts’ pheromones were even insignificant in some cases.

So it was absolutely ridiculous for me to have pheromones, which were herbivorous and have not even shifted into a human.

I have been betrayed by such illusions and was already upset because of it, so I shook my head continuously.

Perhaps he has made a similar conclusion, Ahin’s grip on the nape of my neck became loose.

” … Are you a different kind?”

What do you mean by a different kind? That was too much. However, there was nothing to refute. The priest’s claim that I was cursed beyond a different kind, I was even more upset by that.

“How suspicious.”

He stared at me vaguely, then he bent his red eyes into a half-moon shape.

“I’ll just eat you tomorrow.”

Why was it connected like that? With the most pitiful looks I took my forefoot to the back of Ahin’s hand.

“You want me to let you live?”

I nodded. We’ve been sleeping in the same bed for two days, and that was enough to give me mercy, right?

He smiled mysteriously when faced with a timid beg for life.

“I told you. I’ll save you tomorrow if you cry.”

It was a languid yet playful voice. I opened my lips slightly, dumbfounded. Ahin gave me virtue as if he appreciated it.

“I felt thrilled.”

Ah, he was going to eat me. I thought he was just a crazy black panther, but he seemed to be an exception.

Freaked out, I pulled myself out and tried to escape. But I failed because Ahin didn’t miss it and pulled my hind legs.

‘Let me go!’

There was no way I could escape even if I struggled. I caught the bed with my front paws, but I was helplessly dragged away.

‘This despicable beast … !’

I reflexively stared at him. He just rubbed my back to see if I was satisfied with it.

If you think one touch like this will calm me down, you’re mistaken. With that thought, I was paying keen attention, but somehow I was getting sleepy.

Eventually, Ahin’s laughter soon disappeared. He looked down at me while holding onto my hind legs.

He tapped the bed with his finger as if he was thinking of something, then he muttered.

“I shouldn’t have killed them all at the same time yesterday.”

Recalling the terrible dead body again, I became contemplated. Perhaps it was because he was able to interrogate my identity to the men who were moving my basket.

How will this black panther react if he finds out that I was cursed?

In the first place, I wondered if he was suspicious of me but didn’t take any other action.

Was this beast bored? While I continued to contemplate, my eyelids grew heavier and I fell asleep in a blink of an eye.

***

The wooden dolls that stood in the airfield were shattered. A branch flew past Ahin’s hand as a result of the shock.

He had stood still without avoiding it, and a thin stream of blood leaked from the back of his hand.

“Wouldn’t it be better to take a break from practice today?”

Evelyn looked worried in the back. It was just after the attack of the wolf clan yesterday.

The wolf clan with barren land has long sought the black panther’s territory.

From time to time they crossed the border recklessly, but recently the number of wolves invading the black panther’s territory has increased significantly.

Thus, the head of the black panther clan proposed that the wolf clan come under their command, the wolf clan refused and took aim at the black panther’s territory itself.

Thanks to this, Ahin as the head’s successor was often bombarded with sudden attacks and assassination attempts from the enemy.

“Excessive movement strains the body. You have a wound on your back.”

Ahin turned his body toward Evelyn who was dissuading him, then he licked the blood on the back of his hand.

“I’m fine now.”

” … What?”

“The wound healed.”

“Indeed, no one can match Lord Ahin’s outstanding resilience”

Evelyn gave a flattering answer as usual, but he couldn’t hide his cold expression.

The wound that was sutured just yesterday couldn’t have healed today.

He took a step back calmly, concluding it was an excuse to grab the sword. In the first place, Ahin’s stubbornness was not something to break.

‘ … I don’t believe it.’

Ahin found out that Evelyn considered his words as a joke, then he took his hand slowly and swept the area around his wound.

Evelyn probably thought it was a joke or nonsense. However, it was not a lie that the wound was healed.

Early in the morning, he couldn’t feel any pain, so he checked his back and found only a slight scar was left in his shoulder.

The iron rattled as he put it in the scabbard. Ahin grabbed the sword as he looked back at Evelyn and smiled.

“Evelyn, investigate whether there are any missing members of families who have died or disappeared, especially in the rabbit aristocracy.”

An aristocrat in rabbit territory? Evelyn, who had paused at the sudden order, soon grasped the meaning of it and bowed deeply.

***

Ten days have already passed since I came to this mansion.

My daily life has always been the same.

I spent the day with Maimi who comes at a certain time, and gets bullied by Ahin in the evening.

Occasionally Evelyn came to see me.

“Lord Ahin, it’s better to be grilled. Would you like it for breakfast?”

“No, for now, I’ll hold off on eating it right away.”

“Congratulations, Ms. Rabbit. You have extended your life.”

Or something like this,

“You’re staring at me again.”

“Seeing you enjoy looking at Lord Ahin, you must be unusual. It’s bravery that surpasses most beasts.”

“That much?”

“Yes, I can see a general’s spirit.”

Thus, Evelyn became one of the most hated black panthers in the mansion.

Occasionally, I tried to escape when Maimi looked away, but the dagger would fly and the number of times I tried to escape also decreased.

It was unlikely that I would survive even after leaving the mansion, but I didn’t want my life to be threatened even with a dagger.

A slightly different situation occurred today during my usual time for a walk in the garden.

Sitting at the tea table in the middle of the rose garden, I kept looking at the front. On the other side, there was a beautiful woman who resembled Ahin.

The twisted silver hair that was turned up and her red eye had nothing to do with it, but they were difficult to see due to the resemblance to my enemy.

“Is this Ahin’s food, Maimi?”

She looked at me and savored her herbal tea.

“ … That’s right.”

Hey, Maimi!

As I stared into her eyes, Maimi secretly avoided my gaze.

It wasn’t a lie. Ahin hasn’t said anything since he threw me to Maimi and told her I was an emergency food.  Well … my official position was emergency food.

“Rumor has it that she’s a brilliant rabbit who talks.” 

“I’m sorry, but it looks like it’s been misunderstood. However, she is capable of understanding to some extent.”

“I suppose the rumor it’s not completely wrong. I want to see this bunny for a moment, so please step aside and wait.”

“Yes, Madam.”

Madam? I pretended to be resolute but I eventually collapsed at Maimi’s last words.

I thought she looked too much like Ahin. It meant that this woman was his mother and the lord of this mansion. 

“Bunny.”

The woman’s smile widened as she saw that Maimi had distanced her so that the conversation could not be heard.

“Give me your hand.”

“Foot.”

“Sit down.”

Those were really strange requests. What the hell is going on?

However I wasn’t in a position to defy, I repeatedly held out my front and back feet, sat down, and raised my buttocks according to the instructions.

Ahin’s mother was pleased with my virtue as she watched me move around.

“ … You’re so cute. Ahin seems to be raising his food to fit his preferences.”

For a joke, it was an excellent line. As a result of those comments, I went from being an emergency food to being livestock to be fattened and devoured.

‘Oh dear!’

Let’s try not to misunderstand it.

I lost strength in my legs and sat down at the table.

She stroked my lower jaw gently and smiled softly.

“If you want to live long, don’t be so obedient to Ahin. He’s my son, but he’s pretty screwed up. A predator tends to devour its prey when it loses interest.”

She gave advice with a sweet face, but it was enough to make me faint. It takes courage to endure being treated as a prey, yet I would be bitten if I believed it and rebelled against Ahin.

I felt uncomfortable but let’s ignore that. I put my front foot on my temple, wanting to faint again after ten days. I was getting dizzy.

“You know, bunny.”

I, who had been withering away, raised my head in response to the unfinished words. I raised my arms in the air and met her gaze.

I secretly avoided the enemy eyes that symbolized the black panther because I was terrified of them, yet my gaze didn’t waver.

Ahin’s mother was staring at me for a while. Then she spoke casually.

“I just felt a very subtle pheromone in you. Though I don’t feel it now.”

***

I had a solemn face when I returned to Ahin’s bedroom.

There was something. It was never an issue that could be overlooked at this point. Ahin too, as well as his mother.

“I could smell pheromones.”

“I just felt a very subtle pheromone in you.”

I heard that wild beasts have much more developed five senses than herbivorous shapeshifters.If they say that they could smell pheromones in me, it might not be an illusion.

Pheromones appear after humanization, but there are always exceptions. Even though I’m a shapeshifter, I shouldn’t have been judged as a typical case considering my baby rabbit form so far.

‘Even if it does ….’ 

However, I couldn’t figure out how to shift into a human.

The maids of the family often looked at me and said that at some point I would suddenly become a human or something.

“Miss Vivi, you would change with a bang!”

Did it make sense? It was said that after a few hours of fever, I would turn into a human being, but it was only a vague imagination because I had never seen or experienced it in person.  I stared blankly into the air, and the past flashed before my eyes like a panorama.

“You’re a shameless person. Because of you, the words that follow me … !”

“Noona, give up now. I’ll catch a decent rabbit later and put it in the cage with you.”

“I want to do it roughly, Vivi doesn’t even know about it anyway. Can you tell her?”

Humanization. At eighteen, the only wind that repeated yearning and disappointment for a long time had ignited the fire again.

I closed my eyes and focused on sensing the pheromones inside me. And nothing happened.