Episode 10
The next day.
Today again, thanks to Brody not coming to visit him during the night, Kyle woke up feeling refreshed and came out of the den.
Next, he looked for the den where Brody would have been.
Naturally, he assumed that she had dug a hole next to him and slept there, so he looked around the area.
But strangely, there were no dens nearby though the smell of the rabbit was definitely coming from around here.
He headed towards the place where he smelled the rabbit. Since rabbits were animals that don’t smell, he carefully followed the faint scent and saw something lying down at the end.
It was Brody, the rabbit.
It seemed like she had slept on the bare ground last night without digging a hole, and had been swept away by the wind that rolled her all the way here. Her body was covered in cold snow.
Kyle sighed and walked up to her, nudging her with his front paw.
How soundly must she have slept to come all the way here and not wake up?
He looked at her with pitiful eyes and was about to tell her to wake up, when he noticed the rabbit’s body was frozen for some reason
He quickly turned the rabbit over. Then, rabbit’s body fell limply with her eyes closed.
“!”
Startled, Kyle lowered his head and placed his ear on Brody’s torso.
Fortunately, she was breathing. A faint breathing sound slowly escaped from her open mouth.
He tried calling the rabbit several times to wake her up.
“Hey.”
But no matter how much he called, the rabbit did not move. It looked like she was going to die soon.
Suddenly he remembered the rabbit that had been behaving unusually all day yesterday.
Had she been feeling unwell since yesterday?
Of course, that didn’t mean I felt pity or felt guilty for kicking the sick rabbit.
Kyle gathered his startled mind for a moment. And then he thought about what he had to do.
If the rabbit was dead, or was going to die soon, it was right to leave her alone.
Even if he took the dying rabbit anyway, there was nothing he could do. He couldn’t treat her.
She would be just like a lump of luggage that was being lifted.
However, he just couldn’t sit still and nurse her until she got better.
He had to leave right away, and the purpose of the journey was urgent.
In the end, after much deliberation, Kyle decided to abandon the rabbit.
It was a really quick decision.
He took off the rabbit’s bag and took out the map it contained.
Even if he couldn’t recognize the letters, he could recognize the pictures.
If he just followed the direction Brody pointed out during their travels so far, he should be able to get to the dock in the south without any problem.
Of course, it would be difficult to find a ship there and get on it, then arrive at the southern continent and go down, but there was nothing he could do about it.1I think the difficulty is about sneaking in and out.
Kyle left the rabbit behind and set off with the map in his mouth.
It bothered him, but he thought it was just the regret of not being able to use her abilities anymore.
“Thank you for your hard work.”
He said an indifferent farewell and left without looking back.
‘Can you see the sea at the end over there?’
‘Where.’
‘At the very end of your visual field.’
‘I can’t see it.’
‘…Yes, it looks like you can’t see it because of the ice, but that’s the sea. Just follow the bay all the way south.’
Kyle walked on Mount Rodia, recalling what Brody had said.
Only one animal’s footprints were left in the clean snow.
The small paws that used to circle around and scurry across the snow were gone.
‘Kyle! Do you want me to show you some back tumbling?’
‘Can’t you just walk quietly?’
‘Hehe, I’ll show you back tumbling! Look Carefully!’
Brody, who was noisy and squeaky like a newborn chick, ran in front of him and then tumbled backwards.
The white body spinned around in the air and landed on the ground.
Because it was a feat that a wolf could not do, Kyle’s eyes instantly sparkled with interest.
Then Brody got excited and showed off a back tumbling show.
Hahaha, she laughed and continued back tumbling around him.
However, while playing around like that, Brody did not see the rock behind her and hit her head on the rock the moment she jumped backwards.
‘Kyaa!’
Kyle just passed by it even though he saw Brody falling down holding her head.
But later on, he kept chuckling because that scene kept coming to his mind, and he would have to watch Brody show her rabbit teeth as a result every time.
Kyle, who was laughing helplessly at the memory that was suddenly recalled, soon stopped in his tracks.
He glanced around.
He thought it was really quiet when he couldn’t see the cotton ball that should have been rolling around him excitedly by now.
It was nice because it was quiet.
Because it was not noisy.
Whether the rabbit got sick and died or not, he was traveling alone in this snowy country, and he couldn’t help but feel so comfortable and happy.
There was nothing to bother about.
There was nothing sticking to him.
Since he was alone, everything was just fine.
He enjoyed it so much that he kicked the snow off the floor.
“….Ugh.”
**** rabbit.
Kyle swore2I don’t like swearing, so it’s a no no here.. Even though he tried not to think about it, he felt like hitting myself on the head with a hammer as he was unconsciously thinking about the rabbit.
The further he went, the more he became concerned about the rabbit, so he couldn’t think properly about the trip.
Was she dead?
She must have died.
No, she might not have died.
He didn’t think the reason he was doing this was because of guilt.
He thought that the rabbit was too useful to just throw away, and that he kept looking back with regret.
Kyle turned around and walked forward again.
He did this over and over again, and finally started running back the way he came.
He was very annoyed by the delay it would take to get back on the road, but he ran anyway.
If the rabbit was dead when he got there, anger at having wasted his time on such nonsense would likely take over his entire body.
Of course, this time too, this anger would not be directed at himself for abandoning the rabbit, but at the rabbit that died arbitrarily.3Oh my blood pressure ಠ益ಠ
Kyle returned to the den where he stayed last night and soon found the rabbit.
Brody was lying there just as he left her. Her backpack and its contents were strewn around her.
It looked as if it had been attacked by a robber. Of course, the robber was Kyle himself.
Kyle examined Brody’s body. Fortunately, she was still breathing.
He put the scattered books and belongings back into the backpack to pick up Brody.
But among those items, a book that came out of the bag when he was taking out the map caught his eye. Unknown characters were written on the unfolded page.
Among them, there was only one collection of illustrations he could recognize.
Above the illustrations was dark text. Judging from the fact that there was a bizarre picture of a skull around the text, it seemed like a cautionary note.
The three illustrations drawn under that text were:
A picture of a clock identical to Brody’s pocket watch and the number 3 written there.
A picture of a rabbit resembling Brody stretched out on the ground and the number 3 written there.
Lastly, there was a picture of a rabbit resembling Brody waking up and stretching out its front paws.
What did this all mean?
Kyle decided to think about it as he went, put the books in the backpack, and then hooked Brody’s arms through the backpack straps.
Then, he put the backpack in his mouth, resulting in Brody’s body dangling from there.
He was lost in thought as he left on his way with Brody like that, thinking about the illustrations he saw in the book earlier.
First, there was something he vaguely guessed.
It seemed like these the illustrations were talking about the Clock Rabbit’s abilities.
Otherwise, what else could a pocket watch and the number 3 mean to a Clock Rabbit?
Also, looking at the cautionary picture and the dark text, he thought it seemed like a warning about ‘What happens when you use your abilities’.
Perhaps that ‘consequence’ refered to what was depicted in the second illustration, i.e. Brody, who has collapsed like this.
But why was the number 3 written in the illustration of the rabbit lying down?
What did it mean? Could it be that it was referring to the period of time one would be laying down for?
3 minutes? 3 hours? But her energy hasn’t been good since yesterday, so it’s not 3 minutes or 3 hours.
So is it 3 days?
It shouldn’t be 3 weeks or 3 years.
Still, the last illustration showed a rabbit stretching out and waking up like an excited Brody.
Anyway, it seemed to mean that the rabbit would get better after the time related to number 3 passed.
Kyle thought he would just take her with him for three days first.
He threatened her, who couldn’t even hear him, by telling her that if she didn’t wake up after three days, he would really leave her.
By the time he reached the spot where he had reached before, the sun was already setting.
He wanted to walk a little more, but he saved his stamina for tomorrow. Plus, he had used up all the energy that he normally wouldn’t use because of bringing the rabbit back, so he decided to take a quick rest.
After digging his own hole, Kyle also dug a small hole for the rabbit.
He then threw the limp Brody inside and went into his den.
But the more he tried to fall asleep, the more he worried about the rabbit on the other side of the wall.
The night was cold. Was it okay to leave her alone? What if she freezed before she was able to wake up?
Eventually, after much deliberation, Kyle got up and went to Brody’s den. Then he took out Brody who was laying inside.
After returning to his den and wondering where to put her, he ended up putting her down underneath his chest fur that Brody wanted to go in before and sat down awkwardly.
It was very awkward because it was his first time holding something like a mother chicken, but he endured it.
In fact, he had been feeling a little indebted to her ever since he found out that Brody became like this after using her powers for his sake.
Of course, he didn’t want to admit it because he didn’t want to feel sorry for her.
‘I didn’t force her to do anything. I just told her to do it, but it was that *** rabbit who decided to do it.’
He grumbled hard, and pulled Brody’s body inward with his muzzle.
It was only when her small body was almost completely buried in his fur that he was able to sleep peacefully.
This routine continued the next day. Kyle mumbled all sorts of curses but couldn’t leave Brody behind, went through the same hardships and spent the night in the same den.
And finally, three days later.
Kyle, who thought the *** rabbit would wake up as soon as dawn broke and wake me up, was startled to find that his fur was empty the moment he opened his eyes.
There was no rabbit.
***
TL:
There will be locked chapters after the 15th chapter, there will be one locked and one unlocked update per week.
