Episode 29
“Hmm…”
This is difficult.
“Hah, Golden Bunny, for now…”
I held Golden Bunny’s tiny front paw. Holding its small, soft paw felt oddly therapeutic.
To clear my mind for a moment—
“Let’s trim your nails.”
“Beel?”
It suddenly occurred to me that I’d never trimmed the Golden Bunny’s nails before.
“Oh no, how did they get so long?”
Golden Bunny yanked its paw back, as if embarrassed.
But the nails had grown quite long, too much to ignore.
‘Is it really necessary to trim them?’
“Hold on, Golden Bunny.”
After some hesitation, I got up from the bed and walked over to the bookshelf.
I pulled out a book titled Caring for Pet Rabbits.
Though Golden Bunny was originally a person, this book seemed necessary while it was in rabbit form, so I had bought and read it.
“There was something about nails… Ah, here it is.”
I skimmed through the passage again:
[In the wild, rabbits wear down their nails by digging, so trimming isn’t necessary.
However, for pet rabbits, it’s recommended to trim their nails every one to two months.]
“That’s right, it did say that.”
Since Golden Bunny was a pet rabbit in this state, it was time for a trim.
It wasn’t digging through dirt or anything, after all.
After carefully reading the rest of the explanation, I opened a drawer beneath the closet and took out the rabbit nail trimmer I had purchased beforehand.
“Alright, Golden Bunny.”
With a determined expression, I turned back.
“Come here.”
“Beep?”
Fear flickered across Golden Bunny’s face.
I slowly approached it. Golden Bunny, which had been curled up in a ball, stretched out and began retreating.
“Golden Bunny, don’t you want to come to me?”
I made a mock crying face.
Golden Bunny hesitated, its steps slowing slightly.
Now’s my chance!
I lunged toward Golden Bunny.
Though it leapt away, I managed to catch it mid-air and pull it into my arms.
“Beep, Beeep!”
“Golden Bunny, let’s just stay like this for a moment, okay?”
“…Beep?”
When I didn’t do anything and simply held it, Golden Bunny stopped struggling.
“Heh~”
I hummed a tune to soothe the golden rabbit.
“…Beep?”
However, Golden Bunny looked as if it had just seen something terrifying. I stopped humming but kept smiling as I walked over to the sofa and sat down.
Then, using the blanket draped over the sofa, I quickly covered Golden Bunny’s eyes.
“Beep, Beee?!”
“It’ll be over soon, Golden Bunny.”
I held its front paw and brushed aside the soft fur to reveal the nails clearly.
“They’ve really grown long.”
If left untrimmed, the nails could get caught on something and cause an injury. I couldn’t ignore it.
Snip.
One nail was trimmed.
“Bee–!”
The golden rabbit seemed to be swearing.
But the book had warned about this:
[It’s possible your rabbit may ‘protest’ during the process.
Nonetheless, trimming their nails is an essential duty for any caretaker.]
“You’re doing great, Golden Buuny!”
One by one, I managed to trim all the nails on its front paws. Now, onto the back paws—
“Beeeee!!”
As soon as I reached for its back paw, Golden Bunny wriggled free from my grasp.
“Golden Bunny, just a little more!”
“Bee!”
Golden Bunny shook its head vehemently.
Hmm, in that case…
“How about Bryce trims them for you?”
Although my suspicions about the Golden Bunny’s true identity weren’t entirely gone, I still had tasks to accomplish—like involving Bryce in this situation.
Golden Bunny seemed against the idea but, after much pleading, finally folded its ears once.
“I’ll call Bryce—no, let’s go to Bryce!”
I quickly gathered up Golden Bunny and rushed toward Bryce’s room.
***
The sound of nails being bitten echoed through the room.
Mars was slouched on the sofa, gnawing at his nails for the past thirty minutes.
“Sir Polus is hereby suspended from his knightly duties for one month.”
Sir Polus had been defending in a duel but received heavy punishment for using a real sword during the match.
“What if Lize reports me too?”
The only witnesses at the time were me and Lize, but if she decided to talk…
In this low-ranked knight order, they would likely suspend me for months without hesitation.
“I finally found someone willing to recommend me as an imperial knight after bribing them with so much money.”
And now, this problem arose. The timing couldn’t have been worse.
As Mars replayed the duel in his mind, his thoughts wandered to what happened after Lize fell.
“Who was that man?”
Right after Lize fell off the cliff, Mars had been punched harder than he’d ever experienced by a tall man who appeared out of nowhere.
“Was he a knight from Erne’s team?”
Though he wasn’t wearing a mask, the man’s movements were so fast that Mars hadn’t even caught a glimpse of his face.
What Mars knew was this:
As soon as he collapsed with a gasp, the man jumped off the cliff after Lize without any hesitation.
“When the match ended, the only one soaked was Lize.”
Wait a minute.
“Did another knight interfere without authorization?”
Was Lize unable to handle it alone and sought someone else’s help?
Mars’s eyes gleamed with sudden realization.
An opportunity was starting to form in his mind.
***
“Ah, sister. Why do I have to trim this
rabbit’s nails?”
“Bryce, I used to trim your nails when you were little.”
In front of Bryce’s room—
Lize and Bryce were in the middle of a heated argument.
“This is different from that.”
“Why do you think I trimmed your nails back then? Because you couldn’t do it yourself. Isn’t it the same with this rabbit?”
“No, sister, I—”
Bryce, who had been resisting with all his might, eventually gave in and accepted Golden Bunny from Lize.
Golden Bunny already had a resigned look on its face.
“Then I’ll trim its nails in your room instead of mine.”
“Why go through all that trouble when i’ve come all the way here?”
“There’s no reason it has to be my room. Why would I trim a rabbit’s nails in my room of all places…?”
“Our dear Bryce doesn’t have any particular reason to prefer trimming the rabbit’s nails in his sister’s room, now does he? Unless, of course, you’re hiding something in your room?”
“What? No, it’s not that… I just don’t like people coming into my room.”
“Bryce, so now you’re even banning your sister from entering your room?”
Lize covered her mouth and feigned a sorrowful expression.
Bryce stammered, repeatedly saying, “No, sister, that’s not it, no,” before finally squeezing his eyes shut and nodding reluctantly.
“Fine.”
“Then bring it back when you’re done trimming its nails.”
“Sister? You’re leaving? Sister?!”
Lize ignored Bryce’s cries and disappeared down the hallway.
“Ugh, this is such a hassle,” Bryce muttered, sighing as he looked down at the golden rabbit.
Golden Bunny let out a sharp huff, as if to express its own displeasure.
“This’ll be fine, right?”
After some deliberation, Bryce finally opened the door to his room.
Cassium, who had been clinging to him like a dangling ornament, immediately jumped down as soon as the door opened.
Lize had managed to trim the rabbit’s front nails somehow, but trimming the back nails was another matter entirely.
To trim the back nails, one would inevitably expose… sensitive areas.
He couldn’t let that happen after all the effort he had made to protect his dignity. He wasn’t about to let a nail-trimming session ruin everything.
‘I have no choice but to entrust this brat with my feet.’
Cassium shook his head and hopped onto the sofa.
But then—
“Beep…?”
Cassium’s ears twitched.
The sound hadn’t come from him.
“…?”
Startled, he stood on the sofa’s backrest, placing his front paws on it, and peered down.
There, he saw a small rabbit with platinum fur and blue eyes, crouched and covering its mouth, staring up at him.
• ❁ • ❁ • ❁ •By Esraa• ❁ • ❁ • ❁ •
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