Chosen by the Northern Grand Duke

Chapter 40: Rabbit (2)

……A rabbit.

No matter how I looked at it, it was a rabbit.

A rabbit with silver fur and jet-black eyes.

Its body was the size of an adult man's torso.

It was bigger than a normal rabbit, but it was a conceivable size.

It would be bigger if it stood up, I suppose.

That was all.

If I could feel something, I might at least be scared…… but I couldn't feel anything.

But Harad wasn't stupid enough to deny reality.

The very fact that he couldn't feel anything was a warning in itself.

A being of a different class. Or an ability that deceives the senses themselves.

Either way, it was the worst.

Fwoosh-!

Harad first set the world on fire.

The world as he saw it.

Excluding the knights, wherever Harad's gaze reached, flames surged.

Hiding his view with the flames like that, Harad called out to the knights.

“Derrick!”

The knights did not wake up.

They were still snoring and talking in their sleep.

Even with their bodies on fire.

‘The rabbit.’

It was its doing, Harad sensed instinctively.

A high-ranking magical beast that handles magic, incomparable to the tattered magical beast.

Harad’s eyes flashed. The flames that had surged everywhere gathered to a single point. That point was the rabbit.

The compressed fire was incredibly dense.

The rabbit within it was not even visible as a shadow. From the outside, it looked as if it had burned to death without a trace.

‘No way.’

Harad scoffed.

-Kiiing.

The rabbit was alive.

Its cry was incredibly calm. It meant that a mere fire like that could not harm it at all.

It was as expected.

A drop of blood trickled down Harad's lips.

His gaze was on the rabbit and the clinging flames above it. There, a jet-black sun was projected.

The shadow of the Origin reflected in the world.

The jet-black sun was small. It was because this was not the Sanctuary of Fire.

But it was undoubtedly Harad's full power.

Light emanated from the rim of the jet-black sun.

As Harad stared at the light, which resembled a solar eclipse, blood flowed from his eyes.

Following that shape, the writhing flames in the light dripped down.

It drenched the rabbit, which had extinguished the flames at some point.

That crimson flame was as sticky as lava. And powerful. It had the firepower to melt just about anything.

-Kiiing.

The cry was nonchalant.

Harad's eyes widened. The tears of blood became thicker. The flowing crimson flames also intensified.

The crimson flame, which had been like a stream of water, became a waterfall.

That torrent twisted and turned. A vortex of crimson flames devoured the rabbit.

-Kiiieeng…….

The cry changed.

A silver light flashed within the vortex of crimson flames.

The rabbit's fur was shining.

Thanks to that, the rabbit's form could be seen clearly.

The cry was not a scream, but a sigh of admiration.

The rabbit had its mouth open and its head raised. It was tasting the crimson flames, looking at the jet-black sun that was pouring them out.

In other words…… it was enjoying it.

As if the crimson flames were a hot bath.

“……Bullshit.”

Harad was in disbelief.

And he was enraged. It wasn't just his own anger. The sun existing in his mindscape throbbed.

His heart momentarily shriveled up.

He spat out all his remaining mana and poured it into the projected shadow of the sun.

The already black sun turned even blacker.

The light on the rim swelled. The crimson flames coursing through it turned black. On all of it, fine cracks spread.

Harad's lips, knowing the result of that phenomenon, curled into a circle. Boom! Harad’s will represented an explosion.

It was then that his vision suddenly distorted.

Just before the representation was manifested as magic, his gaze shifted to the sky. His body had fallen backward.

The rabbit, which had rushed in at some point, had rammed into Harad. His chest felt tight. The rabbit was on top of him.

Harad's eyes, looking up at the rabbit, widened.

The vortex of crimson flames where the rabbit had been just a moment ago unraveled. It shot towards the rabbit like countless whips.

The sword Harad drew in a reverse grip rushed towards the rabbit. A few streaks of crimson flame transferred to the sword.

-Kiiing.

The rabbit did not react.

No, it didn't even look.

It just let it happen.

Klaang. The sword that struck the rabbit's neck shattered.

The crimson flames could not even harm the tip of the rabbit's fur.

On the contrary, its sheen only deepened.

At first, it was a heavy silver, but now it was shining.

The more Harad attacked, the more the fire touched it, the more the rabbit's fur shone.

The more he attacked, the more energetic the rabbit seemed to become.

Harad let out a dry laugh.

The knights did not wake up, and there was no news from Elaine, who had been knocked away first.

“……This is death.”

He had to at least save Elaine.

His heart throbbed. The shadow of the sun projected in the world disappeared. He intended to project it onto his body again.

Mutual destruction. Or at least he had to inflict some damage…….

-Kiiing.

It was then.

The rabbit's front paw pressed down on Harad's left chest. That alone stopped his heart's activity.

To be precise, the flow of mana stopped.

-Kiiieeng!

Then it rubbed its face against Harad's.

The rabbit's face was chillingly cold.

It was incomparable to the chill of the boundary; a shiver that felt as if his body would freeze upon contact ran through him.

* * *

Projection.

The rabbit had toyed with Harad's full power.

The crimson flame he had produced, prepared to become a cripple, was eaten like a snack.

Furthermore, he was subdued, and even the flow of his mana was forcibly cut off.

It was a complete defeat, with all his means sealed.

-Kiiing!

But instead of delivering the final blow, the rabbit was rubbing its furry face against Harad's.

It was not an action one would expect from a being that had sent Elaine flying with overwhelming power, put the knights to sleep, and neutralized Harad.

‘Why?’

The rabbit, still sitting on Harad's stomach, began to lift its front paw and lick it.

……It didn't seem to have any intention of killing him.

‘It didn't attack me.’

The rabbit had attacked Elaine without hesitation.

But not against Harad.

His injuries were the aftereffects of the projection.

“Is it because I’m a mage?”

-Kiiieeng!

The rabbit shrieked and shook its head.

Surprisingly, it seemed to understand words.

“The Origin.”

It wasn't because he was a mage.

The rabbit seemed to distinguish between Origins.

-Kiiing!

The rabbit affirmed.

The corners of its mouth were turned up, as if it were smiling.

‘It liked the crimson flame.’

The sun.

The rabbit was reacting to that Origin.

The rabbit lifted its front paw from Harad's chest.

The blocked mana flowed again.

It felt like it was telling him to use magic again.

……That was humiliating.

The rabbit's body was chillingly cold.

The surging anger of the sun pushed back that chill.

But Harad did not spit fire, but blood.

It was the aftereffect of manifesting the projection, and furthermore, the crimson flame.

-Kiiieeng!

The rabbit, covered in blood, was startled.

It didn't seem disgusted. The rabbit licked the blood off Harad's body, not its own.

Harad found the scene utterly ridiculous.

Even more so the fact that his and Elaine’s lives were in that rabbit's hands.

‘……Elaine.’

At that name, Harad regained his senses.

This was not the time to act recklessly.

He had to draw the rabbit's attention. Otherwise, the rabbit might go to finish off Elaine.

Harad raised his hand.

The rabbit's ears perked up. When he stroked its body, the rabbit's body went limp. It lay on Harad's chest and enjoyed his touch.

-Kiiing?

The rabbit got up when Harad stopped his hand.

It wasn't intentional. It was because of the aftereffects. His body wouldn't move anymore.

https://ko.dict.naver.com/#/mini/search?query=-Kiiieeng!

The rabbit cried, its mouth wide open.

It seemed to have noticed that Harad's condition was unusual, and absurdly, it looked genuinely worried.

‘……Crazy bastard.’

Whose fault was it that he was like this.

Harad didn't even have the energy to let out a dry laugh.

The aftereffects were more severe than he thought.

Groans escaped him from the pain of his innards twisting and his blood vessels feeling like they were on fire.

At this rate, he might really die.

It was then.

The rabbit, which had been looking down at Harad worriedly, suddenly opened its mouth slightly.

A small tongue could be seen between its sharp incisors.

Something sparkled under the tongue.

The rabbit moved its tongue and pushed out that sparkling something. It fell onto Harad's chest with a plop.

‘A marble?’

It was a marble the size of a human eyeball, and it emitted a silver light, the same as the rabbit's fur.

The rabbit nudged the marble with its front paw.

The marble rolled on Harad's chest and stopped. Exactly where his heart was located.

The rabbit pressed the marble with its front paw.

At that moment, Harad's eyes widened.

The marble was even colder than the rabbit's body.

That coldness pierced through his flesh and rushed into his heart.

Though the sun's mana could melt even the chill of the boundary, the marble's coldness did not diminish at all.

Harad felt a thrilling coolness.

It was a pleasure he had never felt since he was born.

As if a cool night were descending on a scorching desert, his insides, which had been boiling with aftereffects, began to calm down rapidly.

His twisted innards returned to their place, and his burning blood vessels cooled down.

Before long, the coolness disappeared.

His body moved. It was as light as if he had returned to before he had manifested magic on the rabbit.

“……Amazing.”

Harad had to admire it, forgetting his anger and worry.

He didn't know the principle, but it was definitely recovery.

The marble the rabbit had held in its mouth had restored Harad.

-Kiiing!

The rabbit cried out as if satisfied.

When Harad tried to sit up, the rabbit got off his body. The marble rolled to the floor.

The marble was only half silver.

The other half had become transparent, and the half-full silver liquid sloshed around.

“……It’s consumable. And it can be used again if refilled. Is that right?”

It wasn't a silver marble, but a transparent marble with something silver inside it.

Probably mana.

-Kiiing!

The rabbit affirmed.

Then it gently pushed the marble on the ground with its snout.

“You want me to have it?”

-Kiiing!

The rabbit affirmed and offered its head.

It seemed to want to be petted. With a complicated expression, Harad petted the rabbit while pocketing the marble.

‘I can do this one more time.’

Half was consumed for healing.

Since half was left, he could get this hurt one more time.

How much time had passed?

The rabbit, which had been enjoying the touch, suddenly perked up its ears. It turned its gaze somewhere, but Harad couldn't see anything.

‘I can't feel anything either.’

Come to think of it, the rabbit was the same.

Though it was right in front of him, Harad could not read the magical beast's presence.

-Kiiing!

The rabbit bit Harad's finger and pulled.

It was a bite with its mouth, not its teeth, but the force was considerable.

“You want me to follow?”

His finger was shaken up and down.

The rabbit was nodding its head.

It must have meant for him to go to the place it had just been looking at.

It was in the direction of the second Wall.

Or the Otherworld beyond it.

His mind was a mess.

What was at the place the rabbit wanted to go, what the rabbit was thinking, why it reacted to and liked the sun…….

These were all questions Harad could not answer.

He would find out if he followed the rabbit.

“No.”

But Harad refused.

He had no intention of following the rabbit whatsoever.

-Kiiieeng.

The rabbit cried out in a low voice.

Its teeth touched the bitten finger.

“Threats are useless.”

The rabbit's face contorted like a demon's.

Its teeth touched the bitten finger.

“I’d rather die than go. Kill me.”

-Kiiieeeeng.

The rabbit cried out lower, and longer.

It was an incredibly threatening cry.

But its teeth did not dig further into the finger.

‘It’s not killing me. Can’t it kill me?’

Either way, the rabbit seemed to have no intention of attacking Harad.

To be precise, not Harad, but the sun.

He didn't know the reason, but the rabbit seemed to like and value that Origin very much.

“Go alone.”

The rabbit did not go.

Still biting his finger, it kept looking back and forth between the place it had been looking at and Harad.

“If you don't go, I'll kill myself. Me.”

The rabbit, startled, let go of his finger. It licked his finger as if to say, ‘don't do that’.

“Go.”

-Kiiing…….

The rabbit cried, looking up at Harad with pathetic eyes.

Finally, it rubbed its head against the back of Harad's hand one last time, then turned around and darted into the deep darkness of the boundary like an arrow.

“……”

Silence fell.

Only then did Harad release the tension he had been holding in. His entire body was drenched in a cold sweat.

It was the first time in his life he had experienced such powerlessness.

It hadn't been this bad even in front of the 6th Rank mages he had faced in his past life.

The sun was that kind of Origin.

In his past life, Harad was a 5th Rank, but he could hold his own to some extent against 6th Rank mages.

But that sun had not affected the rabbit in the slightest.

‘Because my Rank is still low?’

There was no way to know.

He would have to raise his Rank and face it again to find out.

In his past life, the 3rd Rank Harad had never fought a powerful enemy.

Harad moved his feet, estimating the direction in which Elaine had been sent flying.

The ground was a mess.

The trees that had been fine were broken and uprooted.

It wasn't a trace of battle.

It was the trace left by Harad's projection, and by Elaine as she was sent flying.

The rabbit had simply…… existed.

How far had he gone?

He could see the figure of Elaine, motionless, embedded in a huge rock.

It was the result of that first blow, the attack that Harad hadn't even perceived.

Elaine's entire body was covered in wounds from the impact of the crash, and her left arm was bent at a grotesque angle.

Fortunately, she was still breathing.

Her faintly rising and falling chest proved it.

It was then.

Elaine's eyes fluttered open.

“……Rabbit.”

Elaine, embedded in the rock, suddenly popped out and drew her sword. She whipped her head around.

“It was a goddamn rabbit.”

Though Harad wasn't even visible, Elaine seemed to have captured the moment of the surprise attack.

It was a surprising feat, but now it was a ridiculous one.

“Where is it.”

Elaine whipped her head around, scanning her surroundings.

Judging by her expression, she seemed to have already anticipated the outcome.

“It’s already over, Grand Heir.”

“……Fuck.”

In her life, Elaine had been defeated twice.

Both times were after meeting Harad.