I Became A Squirrel Seeking For The Villain

Yohan stood by the window and watched the squirrel scurry away. The squirrel, a Shinsu, had appeared as a mirage and soothed his pain for a moment, but then disappeared into Tezen’s bedroom. 

“Ah.”

The pure and innocent look in his eyes when he saw the Shinsu earlier had disappeared, and a languid and bewitching aura began to hover over his face.

“Come again.” 

It was the first time in his life he had ever tasted such soothing power. It was a brief moment of heaven for a person who had been in pain since he was a child. A fantastic, ecstatic sensation that he didn’t want to miss again, even if he had to lean on external compassion and be pitiful…

Right now, his magic was rampaging through his body, and he couldn’t use it properly. If he could, he would have destroyed this entire mansion and brought back the Shinsu. But trapped in this room, unable to do anything, his only option was to rely on the favor of the unknown Shinsu. The unexpected appearance of a squirrel with the ability to calm him was like a saving grace for him.

Once he refined his magic, he might be able to use it, and then there would be no reason for him to stay here in the corner tower of the Hyrad Duchy. For that to happen, the meeting had to be longer. He would be in trouble if this one time was just the squirrel’s whim. In order to make it long, he chose all sorts of sympathetic words, but… 

Yohan groaned in agony as the pain began to surge through his body again. And yet he kept his hand on the acorn that the squirrel had given him. He had to think of a way to make himself a bit more special to that squirrel. That way, it will keep coming back to him every night, and he will be even more important to it than Tezen, so it won’t abandon him.

That’s why, the following night, when the squirrel appeared at his window again, Yohan happily greeted it first.

“You’ve come again, Shinsu.” 

“Kew-kew.”

And when the squirrel stuck out its front paws, Yohan didn’t bring his forehead forward, but instead gave it a sly smile and said,

“I want to name you.”

 

*      *      *

 

Tezen had a very good habit of not waking up once he was asleep. So I was able to escape the second night without difficulty and go to Yohan.

‘I really want to turn into a human quickly, please.’ I thought so considering what I had to go through the whole day with Tezen. I felt so bad that I shuddered. 

“Slave, why do you keep sleeping like this, huh?”

I was trying to get some sleep during the day because I was tired, but he kept poking me in the back, and he brought all kinds of books talking about Shinsu and talked loudly.

“You can tell a Shinsu’s gender by the pattern on its tail… Let me see your tail!”

Tezen exclaimed in admiration as he tugged on my tail. I snatched it out of his grasp and glared at him.

“Hmm, you’re a girl! I didn’t know that. I don’t think anyone else does.”

Of course, only a few powerful wizards are able to have a Shinsu, so not many people know this fact. Plus, Shinsu was incredibly expensive. I knew that Ella had paid an enormous sum of money to the temple when she brought me here. After confirming my gender, Tezen became serious and asked.

“Are you going to humanize later as a girl?” How old are you?”

‘If I could answer that, I wouldn’t be a squirrel, you stonehead.’ I sighed and quickly wrapped my tail around myself, burying my face in it.

“I wish you were older than me; that way, it’s easy to boss you around.”

As if being possessed by a squirrel wasn’t bad enough, I also didn’t like my owner. Even at fourteen, how could he be so immature and vicious? But he wasn’t completely useless.

“And… mmh. Humanization is explained in detail here.”

Tezen eagerly read the book’s contents, and it gave me a better idea of my situation.

“If you absorb a large amount of mana in a short period of time, you can humanize for a short time. However, it takes more than fifty days of steady absorption to sustain human form.” 

Fifty days. That meant I’d have to stay with Yohan for at least 50 days. As far as I knew, Yohan would be sent off to war in three months, so I had plenty of time. 

“Of course, wizards with that kind of power are very rare, and only one Shinsu has ever been successfully humanized.”

My goal was now to become the second Shinsu to succeed in turning into a human. Given the immense power of Yohan’s mana that I felt yesterday, it didn’t seem impossible.

“However, if you humanize before the fifty days are up, all the mana you’ve absorbed will be nullified, so you have to hold on even if you think you’re going to turn into a human. Do you understand?”

Tezen spoke as if admonishing me. 

“When you feel like you’re about to turn, don’t stop absorbing magic power; instead, you should absorb the other person’s magic power harder to calm yourself down. Remember that.”

I couldn’t tell what this feeling was supposed to be; I had no way of knowing. But somehow, I knew I would turn into a human.

As I clenched my fists again in determination, Tezen smirked and spoke to me again. 

“Slave, quickly absorb my great mana power, and humanize.”

“Keeeew.”

Tezen believed to the core the words Ella whispered to him every day, “Your mana is enormous, more than enough to make you the master of Hyrad.”

Well, in a way, Ella was amazing. The inexperienced fourteen-year-old Tezen was so convinced of his greatness that he never questioned her words.

‘Even if I turn into a human, it won’t be because of your mana.’

If I were to absorb Yohan’s mana and humanize myself, I would definitely ask him to erase the Hyrad mark on me and leave this manor. 

‘There’s no reason to stay here.’

Yohan will go to war and return several years later. He will bring victory and will deal with Ella and Tezen first. I didn’t need to stay in the middle of such a bloody fight.

‘I need to turn into a human first. I can’t live my whole life as a squirrel eating acorns.’

To do that, I had to absorb Yohan’s overflowing mana.

 

*      *      *

 

I went straight to Yohan’s room as soon as it was dark. The window was wide open, and he was pacing by the window, waiting for me.

‘You brat, you’re so cute.’

His face was so innocent that it was hard to imagine that this boy would grow up to be a world-crashing villain. He was the perfect sickly boy, with brilliant purple eyes that stirred up protective instincts, pale white skin, and sunken eyes that looked like they were holding back pain.

‘Now, let’s do something good for each other.’

I quickly extended my forepaw to his forehead, but he only smiled sweetly. 

“I want to name you.” 

I couldn’t help but feel amazed. 

‘Woah… what a sweet thing for him to say.’

I’d been sick of hearing Tezen call me ‘slave’ all day, and to have him name me was an unexpected joy.

“I’ve been thinking about it all day…” Said Yohan expectantly, blinking his innocent-looking eyes. 

“How about Paul or Tom? I think a short name would suit you.”

“Keeew-keeewww.”

‘Wow, you’re awful at this.’ I shook my head.

“…You don’t like it because it’s too short? If so… then something a little longer, like… David or Carlson…’

“Keeew!”

‘No, why are you only thinking of male names?’ I thought about how to explain to him that I’m a girl and finally decided to let go of my shyness. 

“Keeew.”

Yohan followed my finger as it pointed down at him and gave me a puzzled look for a moment. 

“…Mmh?”

“Keeeeew.”

I then pointed to myself and made an X with my two little arms to indicate that I didn’t have ‘that.’ If you put two plus two… Yes, I don’t have what’s down there.

“. . .”

Surely Yohan understood what I was trying to say. He stuttered, embarrassed.

“Are you… female?”

When I nodded, he was silent for a moment, as if at a loss for words. I was a little confused too. Seeing him use the word ‘female’ he didn’t seem to even know the basics of Shinsus. According to the book Tezen had been reading so diligently earlier, since Shinsus could turn into humans, they were treated as humans as well.

‘Well, it is hard to know about Shinsus unless you look for information yourself.’

I looked around Yohan’s modest room. The only books were a few thick, worn, and difficult-looking ones. A child locked in a remote room, eating only the rations given to him and practicing swordsmanship alone with a dull blade, could not have access to advanced books.

‘How much does he know about Shinsus? Does he just know that they can calm rampaging mana?’ I wondered if he at least knew about humanization. As I tilted my head in wonder, he gently lifted me up.

“Anyway, thanks for coming; it must have been hard. I’ll think about a name later. I don’t know many girl names…” 

He fumbled around, then carried me to the bed.

“Keeew?”

“This is the only place that’s soft. You must have had a rough ride up the hard wall.” 

He smiled while speaking softly. It was the second time I was filled with joy. The first was when he said he would give me a name.

‘My goodness, how could this boy be so sweet?’

“You know, I’ve been waiting for you all day. Actually, I was feeling lonely.”

‘Oh, you poor thing. I’m going to come by a lot.’

“But I kept myself busy thinking hard about a name for you, and tomorrow I can think about your name all day too, so the time will fly by.”

Who wouldn’t feel moved after hearing such words? For the record, my human soul has been here all along.

“Kew-kew.”

I patted the pillow with my front paws, indicating to lie down. I could feel his mana still rampaging, and I wanted to make him feel comfortable. To me, it was an act of service. 

‘I like you because you’re nice, unlike Tezen. I really feel sorry for you.’ 

To be treated like this, despite being the eldest son, with his father away at war and being left alone to wait on a squirrel all day.

Yohan smiled sheepishly, nodded, and lay back on the bed. 

“Kew.” I put my front paw on his forehead and began to take in the enormous amount of mana that was rampaging through him. As it came in waves, I felt a very strange sensation in my stomach, just like yesterday. But the feeling was even more ticklish and strange, maybe because of the mana I had already absorbed yesterday.

‘Wait.’ 

Yohan, closing his eyes, let himself go into my hands. He looked both relaxed and ecstatic.

‘Earlier… Didn’t Tezen say that if you absorb a lot of magic in a short period of time, you can momentarily humanize yourself?’

It was then.

‘What, what’s this?’

Suddenly, Yohan’s mana began to fluctuate within my body. 

“Kew-keeew!”

As I was about to take my paw off in a panic,

‘Wait, maybe…!’

I recalled what Tezen had been saying earlier.

 

“When you feel like you’re about to turn, don’t stop absorbing magic power; instead, you should absorb the other person’s magic power harder to calm yourself down. Remember that.”

 

‘Is this what it feels like to turn human? Then I shouldn’t have taken my front paw off…’

“Squirrel, what’s wrong?”

To make matters worse, Yohan frowned, slowly opening his eyes. And…  

‘What do I do?!’

In the blink of an eye, my front paw turned into a small, white girl’s hand.