Chapter 21

“Well…?”

“Ah! Maybe it’s because our lady is a squirrel beastkin?”

All eyes turned toward the young soldier who had proposed the unexpected theory.

Suddenly finding himself the center of attention, the young soldier turned red and continued in a shrinking voice.

“W-well, I mean… beastkin are usually popular with the animals they resemble, right?”

“No, that’s more about submission—”

“I mean, even the lion guards love the young master. Maybe that monster is acting the same way…?”

Ah. So that’s how he misunderstood it.

The lions weren’t fawning over Carl because they liked him. They were just showing their willingness to submit beforehand to avoid the dominance battles—or, rather, the thinly disguised bullying—meant to establish hierarchy.

The knight was about to correct the young soldier’s misunderstanding, but Carl reacted first.

“This insolent—”

Snap.

A sharp clicking sound came from Carl’s teeth.

“A damned squirrel from who-knows-where.”

“Y-young master. You’re… exuding killing intent…!”

“How dare it set its sights on our squirrel?”

The sheer bloodlust Carl was radiating was as if he’d been thrown right back onto the battlefield. The knight trembled at the sight.

It felt like he was witnessing firsthand what would happen if someone dared to pluck a sleeping lion’s tail.

“Bring all the men inside! It’s a hunt!”

At Carl’s rare shout, the knight flinched and ran off in a panic toward the training grounds to gather his comrades.

***

Meanwhile.

Beatty found herself in an unknown place, her vision filled with lush green trees.

“……”

A dense forest of trees.

This wasn’t like the decorative trees in the garden. The thickly grown woodland was unmistakably outside the castle.

“This is… the Northern Mountain Range?”

It was the only logical conclusion since she had spent every day gazing up at it.

It would have been strange to be transported somewhere even farther in the blink of an eye.

As she anxiously scanned her surroundings, she heard that voice again.

—Hello.

Flinch.

Even the second time, she couldn’t get used to it. Beatty shivered.

Her gaze darted around frantically.

Tap, tap.

Something brushed against her cheek, catching her attention.

“……”

After a moment’s hesitation, Beatty boldly reached up and plucked the thing off her face.

She clenched it tightly in case it was an attack, but when she saw what it was, her eyes widened.

“A… squirrel?”

—More precisely, a Snowstorm Squirrel Beast.

“What?!”

Beatty gasped at the sight of the white squirrel staring straight at her.

She understood its words, but its mouth hadn’t moved at all.

—This was the best body I could find to contain myself. That’s why it took me so long to find you.

"Find… me?"

Confusion flickered in Beatty’s eyes.

Seeing her expression, the white squirrel gave a small, amused smile and continued.

—You need an introduction, don’t you?

“……”

—Hello, little speck.

“Speck?”

—Yes. A fragment of a star. And you, in particular, are my fragment.

“…Yours?”

Beatty frowned at the incomprehensible words.

—That’s right! I am .

Bzzzzzzzt.

Her head throbbed.

—Hmm. I suppose that doesn’t work either.

“?”

—Anyway. To put it in terms you can understand…

The white squirrel raised a finger, and a small, shimmering light appeared at its tip.

—A star.

"A star… like the ones in the night sky?"

—That’s right.

As if reading her thoughts, the squirrel responded.

Fwoosh!

The tiny glowing orb at its fingertip shot into the sky like a reversed falling star.

—I am a star itself. And the one who governs them.

Beatty still didn’t understand, but at the squirrel’s next words, her eyes widened.

—You mortals call me the Constellation of the Squirrel.

“A Constellation!?”

The origin of all beastkin.

A divine being from another world who had saved the world before its destruction.

For a squirrel beastkin like Beatty…

“The ancestor…?”

Seeing something straight out of ancient myths claim to stand before her, Beatty thought nothing could surprise her more.

—Ah! This will be easier to explain like this.

She was wrong.

The next moment, Beatty’s jaw dropped in shock.

—I’m the one who sent you back here.

“What?!”

—Yes, I should have started with that.

“You sent me back?”

Beatty was thrown into turmoil.

“What are you talking about? Then… suddenly returning ten years into the past… no, even the fact that I was dying—”

—Shhh.

The self-proclaimed Constellation gently soothed her, cutting off her flood of questions.

—We don’t have much time. I picked this body because it’s sturdy, but…

“This body?”

—This beast’s body, I mean. It was hard to find a vessel in this area that I could descend into, even for a short while. So take good care of it once my descent ends.

The Constellation guided Beatty’s hands to securely grasp the Snowstorm Squirrel Beast’s small body, then spoke again.

—I’ll tell you something important.

At those words, Beatty’s skeptical expression wavered, her ears perking up.

—The reason I sent you back.

“!”

—That reason is…

Thump, thump.

Her heartbeat echoed in her ears as she concentrated, hanging on his words.

The Constellation, who had been facing her with an unmoving mouth, unexpectedly lifted a paw.

—Oh, this is unraveling faster than I thought.

“……”

Beatty blinked in confusion at the white squirrel.

Tilt.

The air of profound mystery he’d exuded moments ago vanished, replaced by… just an ordinary squirrel beast.

“Tsk, tsk.”

He made a clicking sound with his tongue.

“…The reason…”

Shake.

Beatty’s hands trembled on their own.

“You have to tell me the reason before you go!!!”

The squirrel’s ears twitched at the volume of her outburst.

Until now, no living thing had dared to yell at it. Every intruder in its domain had been swallowed whole, its mouth stretching wide enough to devour even boulders.

The Snowstorm Squirrel briefly bared its rows of sharp fangs—

But then—

Huff, huff—

It caught the presence radiating from the breathless, trembling girl before it. A strange, soothing energy that made its body feel relaxed.

The beast decided it liked this girl.

Instead of carrying out its initial plan to crush her head between its teeth like any other intruder, the Snowstorm Squirrel lightly patted her with its jelly-padded paw, as if to calm her down.

Beatty, who had been simmering with a mix of anger and disbelief, finally snapped back to her senses when she heard something from not too far away.@@novelbin@@

Crunch.

What was that sound…?

She suddenly became hyper-aware of the fact that she was alone, unarmed, and stranded in an unfamiliar forest deep within the mountain range.

Grip.

Unconsciously, she clutched the strap of the bag slung over her shoulder.

Rustle.

“!”

This time, the sound was much clearer.

Heavy footsteps… A large beast?

The Northern Mountain Range was infamous for its abundance of massive predators—just as common as pigeons were in the capital.

Beatty’s gaze flitted around anxiously, searching for any sign of the approaching danger.

I need a tall tree—something high enough to climb!

Just as she was about to look for an escape route in her squirrel form, an unexpected voice reached her ears.

“…You.”

Huh?

A human voice.

And not just any voice—it sounded… familiar.

Like someone recognizing an acquaintance. As if this meeting was unexpected for them as well.

Do they know me? Wait—maybe…!

Could it be someone from the ducal estate, tracking the beast that had abducted her?

Beatty turned toward the source of the voice and—

“…Who are you?”

What she saw was a suspicious figure, almost as if they’d been drawn straight out of a shady illustration.

A lone person wrapped completely in a black robe, deep within a mountain range where humans were rarely found.

Even the locals knew better than to travel here in small groups, yet this person was wandering alone in a place that was strictly off-limits for most.

A massive shadow, one that rivaled Carl’s imposing stature, loomed over Beatty’s small frame.

The suspicious appearance should have set off every alarm in her mind, but—

“I am…”

The voice was unexpectedly… youthful.

Huh?

The deep silhouette towering before her didn’t match the speaker’s voice at all.

It was the voice of a boy, still on the cusp of adolescence.

Of course, everything looked huge to an eight-year-old like Beatty, especially when she was already on high alert. The darkness had exaggerated the figure’s outline in her panicked mind.

Beatty calmed herself a little and observed him again.

He’s about the same height as my brother.

Now that she realized he wasn’t an adult but someone around her own age, her wariness eased slightly.

“…Who are you?”

“……”

The unidentified boy hesitated, as if troubled by the question, and kept his lips shut.

“Hey…”

Flinch.

The moment Beatty took a step closer, he recoiled and took a step back.

What the—why is he scared of me?