Chapter 75
Chloe calmly looked around at her family and recalled what Isabel had told her about the previous heir selection hunt.
“I heard His Grace brought back such a huge wild boar that people whispered, ‘Is an eight-year-old really capable of that?’ They even said several grown men had to help carry the thing!”
That wild boar her father had captured wasn’t one of the prey that had been released beforehand.
Apparently, he had provoked a beast lurking on the edge of the hunting grounds and lured it into the arena.
To bring it down, Lucian had hidden high up in a tree, then leapt down at the perfect moment to strike its vital point.
The judges briefly debated whether to accept the boar as valid prey since it wasn’t one of the designated animals.
“But really, who could deny victory to a candidate who brought down such a massive beast? Even the family head brought back a huge snake, but since it wasn’t venomous, it couldn’t compare to a wild boar.”
In the end, they unanimously awarded Lucian the victory.
If that was acceptable, then my method has no problem.
Chloe’s eyes shimmered confidently as she imagined herself holding the winner’s trophy.
“If it was something little kids could do, then I should be able to do it too! I might not be able to catch a boar like Dad, but I can at least catch the animals they release beforehand!”
Subtly indicating that she knew the details, Chloe looked toward her uncle as though asking for help.
“I even heard the youngest participant back then was only five!”
“…That’s true.”
Though defeated by her determined gaze, Ian let out a small sigh.
“If you can take on beast-form, you meet the conditions to participate. Seven isn’t considered that young for the heir selection. But—”
Though he sounded like he was taking Chloe’s side, Ian firmly added:
“Your father is right. The hunting competition is extremely dangerous, Chloe.”
“I heard wearing a Protective Mana Stone is mandatory. If anything dangerous happens, we can instantly return to the base!”
But Chloe had already prepared for that counterargument.
“And since it’s a competition for young kids, all the dangerous predators are blocked off beforehand. So the animals in the forest are basically just deer and elk, and…”
She spoke smoothly, but right before naming the last animal, she paused and pressed her lips together.
“Rabbits…”
But as if she had never faltered at all, Chloe continued bravely:
“I’m not going to catch rabbits. I’m going to catch birds!”
“Chloe, and how exactly do you plan to do that?”
Unable to hold it in anymore, Melissa put her hand over Chloe’s, trying to reason with her.
“Like Lucian said, you don’t have any hunting experience.”
“Most kids who enter don’t! And they said we can bring one hunting tool. Just one. Two or more is cheating.”
“But Chloe…”
Melissa hesitated, unable to finish her sentence, as if searching for gentler words.
Realizing what her mother was trying so hard not to say, Chloe spoke for her—calmly.
“I know. You’re thinking, ‘What can a rabbit possibly catch?’ right?”
“Chloe, I absolutely wasn’t—!”
“But it’s true that being a rabbit is the issue, isn’t it? If I were a lion or a wolf, you wouldn’t be stopping me like this.”
At that, Lucian, Ian, and Melissa all pressed their mouths shut.
Seeing all three struck silent, Chloe let out a faintly bitter smile.
But even with that expression, her voice remained steady.
“Even so, I still want to go.”
“Chloe…”
“I was born a rabbit. And I’ll be a rabbit for the rest of my life.”
Chloe gently held the hand Melissa had placed over hers and looked straight into her mother’s worried eyes.
“I can’t spend my whole life running away. I can’t grow up only being protected.”
“No.”
At the voice from in front of her, Chloe turned toward her father.
“I can protect you for your entire life.”
With an unwavering face, he declared firmly as he looked at his young daughter:
“I brought you home with exactly that intention. I am raising you with exactly that resolve. You don’t need to choose a difficult path.”
Chloe stared at her father’s stone-solid expression for a long moment.
Now she understood—he meant every word. Not a single bit of it was a lie.
He truly intended to take responsibility for her for the rest of his life.
Even so, Chloe smiled gently and shook her head.
“But I don’t want that.”
She was deeply grateful for that love.
After a life where no one had protected her, to now be loved unconditionally—it warmed her immeasurably.
“But I want to grow. I want to grow a lot.”
“…”
“I want to become a wonderful adult. I don’t want to live as a child who never grows up.”
Precisely because their love was so precious to her, Chloe decided she wouldn’t grow up sheltered behind their protection.
“To do that, I need challenges. I need trials that will show me my limits and help me surpass them. So please—let me participate in the heir selection.”
She wanted to protect the people who loved her.
“Who knows? Maybe I’ll win! You said the hunting competition is all about strategy. Maybe I’ll really take first place!”
And she wanted to live loving them—and being loved—forever.
“Please let me go. Okay? Please? All the other families choose their heirs this way at my age too!”
Her tone sounded like she was pleading, but the content was more persuasive than anything.
The adults couldn’t immediately refute her and fell silent.
A heavier stillness than before settled over the dining room.
Everyone seated fell into their own thoughts.
After a long moment—
“We’ll discuss this again later.”
Lucian set down his cutlery first and stood up.
“That…”
“Later. We’ll talk again later.”
Chloe tried to grab her father as he hurried away, but seeing his pale face, she dropped her hand.
The door closed with a soft thud.
Eyes downcast, Chloe noticed the plate of eggplant she had hidden under the orange peel earlier.
This wicked, demonic turd…
Her anger shifted toward the eggplant.
She didn’t want to eat it. She really didn’t want to eat it.
But if eating it could show her determination—
if it could help persuade her family—
Chloe stared at the unpleasantly shaped eggplant, then picked up a spoon instead of a fork.
And then—
“Gasp!”
Right in front of her mother, uncle, and friend, she scooped up a large spoonful of eggplant and shoved it into her mouth.
“C-Chloe! You’re eating the orange peel too! Spit it out!”
Ignoring her mother’s panicked voice, Chloe chewed, eyes welling with tears.
But in the end—she swallowed it down.
“C-Chloe…”
The taste of the eggplant she had eaten herself for the first time in this life was—
Ugh. Disgusting.
Truly, it tasted exactly like demonic poop.
Shion had to walk quite a long distance to find a secluded place suitable for training.
Maybe he should’ve just gone to the training grounds—he thought that for a moment.
No. Forget it.
He quickly shook his head.
He remembered all too vividly the barrage of questions and unwanted attention that day he had gone without thinking.
“Wow, when did you start training with a sword?”
“Eek—are you already practicing with a real blade?”
“In the Deimos family, how do you train with—”
The knights belonging to this family talked far too much.
Shion shuddered at the memory of all the meddling he had been subjected to that day.
Better to walk longer than go through that again.
Yes, definitely better.
If they saw him coming to the training grounds every day, they would undoubtedly treat him like some overeager child and tell him he didn’t need to work so hard.
Reander must be full of people who wouldn’t survive a single day in the Deimos family.
As he walked along the outer castle walls, Shion couldn’t help comparing this place to where he had grown up.
Compared to that hell, this place felt so peaceful it was almost boring.
Here, he didn’t have to live each day desperately to avoid being discarded one day, or having his limbs cut off and body dumped.
Here, he didn’t have to constantly prove his worth just to be allowed to eat and sleep.
It’s… too comfortable.
He had that thought without meaning to—but quickly corrected himself.
This place was normal. The place he had lived before was abnormal.
This place was right. His old world was wrong.
And above all—there was someone here who lived fiercely, just like he once had.
