Chapter 59 : Hide And Seek (1)

“Haa… Haa…”

The girl ran.

Endlessly, following the path guided by the moon, she ran and ran.

The shackle around her neck and the tears streaming down her face glistened in the moonlight.

In harmony with that glow, her blue hair shimmered beautifully.

“…Mom… Sis…”

Everything, everything had changed so strangely.

It felt like she, too, had changed in some strange way.

It hurt.

It hurt so much.

Her head felt hazy, her body ached.

She had been thrown, trampled on.

There wasn’t a single unscathed part of her body.

And yet, the girl still ran.

She didn’t even know where she was going.

She just didn’t want to become strange again.

She ran away, terrified of being broken.

“Ugh…”

Tears poured down uncontrollably.

They dripped onto the cold, iron shackle around her neck.

“…Too… heavy… I… I can’t breathe…”

Leaning against a massive tree, she gasped for air.

The sound of chirping grasshoppers resonated through the night, making her ears tremble.

“Cold…”

Sniffling, she wrapped her tail around her body.

But instead of the sleek, glossy tail she once knew, what covered her was a rough, tangled, and unkempt tail.

Her mother used to brush it for her.

But no matter how much she called, her mother only drooled mindlessly.

And when a man in a military uniform approached, she only whimpered and whimpered.

Hiding in the corner, holding her breath, the girl could do nothing but wait until the soldiers passed.

From time to time, she heard them say, “Where did that little beastkin go?” as they searched for her.

But she hid herself deep in the straw.

Holding her breath, she stayed still.

Another soldier chuckled, “She’s probably dead. That bastard Tom almost beat the kid to death.”

And so, night fell.

She hadn’t eaten.

They had given her a pickaxe.

Seizing a moment when no one was watching, she tried to escape with her mother and sister.

“……”

“…Mom?”

“………….”

“…Sis?”

But they only continued swinging their pickaxes endlessly.

She had no choice but to leave them behind.

Bringing her thoughts back to the present, the girl opened her eyes amidst the dense forest.

“…Moon, dear moon.”

“Please… save me…”

She prayed desperately.

The silent moon watched over her, shining down until she found the strength to stand again.

Though the moonlight was cold and could not offer warmth, it gave her the strength to rise.

And so, she ran once more.

Endlessly, following the path the moon guided her on.

How long had she been running?

“…I’m… so tired…”

Panting, she came to another stop.

Her feet were already badly wounded, scraped and cut all over.

Her bruised legs and arms hurt too much to move properly anymore.

The already severe injuries had worsened as she stumbled through the rough terrain.

“…Re… refuge…”

“W-what should I do…”

Crawling almost on all fours, the girl finally made her way down the mountain.

“Huff… Huff…”

Like a weary puppy, she panted heavily.

Then—

“…A… carriage?”

Looking around, she spotted a carriage parked in the distance.

And beyond that, flickering lights from what seemed to be a campfire.

In front of the fire, people with horns and tails laughed and talked, drinking and eating meat.

“Sniff, sniff…”

“…They don’t smell like bad people?”

“Bad people”—to her, that meant soldiers.

The soldiers the girl had smelled always carried the scent of burnt things and the metallic tang of iron.

But the horned people laughing and chatting in front of her gave off none of those smells.

Still, if she were caught, something terrible might happen.

So she carefully hid her presence as much as possible and climbed onto the carriage.

“Boxes…? What are these…?”

The carriage was packed with wooden crates.

Curious, the girl approached one of the crates.

-Click.

When she opened it, she was met with a sight of delicious food piled high inside.

“…So… so much tasty food!”

Without hesitation, she started devouring the fruits.

“Where did our Mino go~?”

“…Mino hides too well.”

I’m currently playing hide-and-seek with my sisters inside the castle.

‘Hehe, those fools have no idea where I am!’

“…Y-Your Highness, what are you doing?”

“Shh! Head Maid! They’ll hear me!!”

“………”

I was crouched behind the head maid’s wide skirt.

Because of me, the head maid couldn’t move anywhere and was stuck standing still, shielding me from view.

“Hehe, if I stay like this, I’ll win for sure!”

“…Is that so?”

“!?”

Just as I excitedly responded and looked up at her—

“Found you!”

“Wahh!”

There stood my sister Yuri, picking me up effortlessly, while the head maid shook her head and pressed a hand to her forehead.

How did she find me?

I was absolutely sure I wouldn’t be caught.

“H-How did you know?!”

“Hehe, I have my ways.”

She didn’t seem like she was going to tell me.

“Tell me!!”

“Hmph~”

Just as Yuri refused to answer, my other sister, Emila, spoke up from the side.

“Mino, you were talking to the head maid the whole time.”

“What?!”

“Hey, why’d you tell her? She was so cute I wanted to keep it a secret.”

I was… chatting that much?

Shocked and confused, I quickly covered my mouth with both hands.

Beside me, the head maid chuckled softly.

“It was quite adorable, watching the two princesses put on such an act by my side.”

“Hehe.”

“…V-sign.”

Yuri giggled shyly, while Emila expressionlessly held up a victory sign.

This was unfair.

I really thought I had hidden well.

“Unfair!”

“It’s okay, Mino! You were cute.”

“…It’s NOT okay! I lost!”

Not okay at all.

Me? Losing?

Me, the master of hide-and-seek, lost?!

For some reason, I’ve always been good at hiding.

Maybe it’s instinctive? I don’t know why.

Everything before I started school feels like a thick fog—I can’t remember it clearly.

Maybe I just really loved hide-and-seek when I was younger?

But that doesn’t matter right now.

What matters is that I lost.

“Let’s play again!”

I wiggled around in Yuri’s arms, demanding another round.

“B-But we only played inside the building this time!”

“Then… should we use the entire castle?”

“Yes!”

Yuri seemed to hesitate for a moment.

Then she locked eyes with Emila.

For about 30 seconds, the two of them had a silent conversation through their gazes.

“…Alright. But how about including the training grounds where the soldiers practice?”

“Yes!”

That was the perfect size for a challenge.

I’d show them my true skills.

“Since it’s a bigger area, we’ll count for two minutes before coming to find you, okay?”

Two minutes felt a little short, but it was fine.

After a brief moment of thought, I nodded and immediately sprinted out of the castle.

Behind me, my sisters’ voices echoed down the hallway as they started counting.

“One~”

“…Seven.”

“…One~”

“Two~”

For some reason, Emila’s counting was slower, which I found amusing.

“Where should I hide?”

Now that I was outside the castle, I realized—there were too many hiding spots.

And yet, I couldn’t decide on one.

“Oh no, the two minutes are almost up?!”

Cold sweat trickled down my back.

Frantically looking around, I spotted a storage shed.

[Food Storage]

“…There!”

I dashed toward the shed.

-Creeeak. Bang!

“Heh.”

I even made sure to close the door perfectly.

Satisfied, I grinned.

This was flawless.

Absolutely perfect.

A space with only me, a narrow place where sound doesn’t seem to escape easily.

“Not bad.”

With a satisfied smile, I began to explore the food storage room.

“…There’s so much delicious stuff here?”

There were amazing things.

Since it was the royal food storage, there were rare-looking fruits, sugar, and salt piled up like mountains.

“Thank you, GM, for letting me be born as a rich family’s daughter. Just G-men~”

[GM looks dumbfounded, wondering what they are doing, then wipes the blood dripping from their mouth.]

[Seeing this, the king panics and forces the standing GM to lie back down on the bed.]

Gods are always entertaining.

Why doesn’t GM ever take care of their own body?

Thinking about such things, I sat on a box of just the right height.

At that moment—

Clatter!

—Clatter clatter!

“Eek?!”

The box underneath me started to shake.

“W-What the, wha, wha, what is this?!”

The sudden change in situation left me completely flustered.

But—I would not be scared.

Am I not—

A proud dragon?

…No.

“…Eeeek…!!”

Summoning my courage, I stomped down on the box, making sure that whatever was inside couldn’t come out.

“Don’t come out, don’t come out, don’t come out, don’t come out.”

It might have sounded like I was on the verge of tears, but I was absolutely not scared.

“N, not ou…di…ma…!”

Seriously.

I wasn’t scared.

It was just that when I spoke too quickly, my words got a little jumbled, that’s all.

—Click! Click click!

“H-hic! I-it’s moving! It’s movinggg…!!”

—Clatter clatter!

“Uwaah! It smells like a dog! It smells like an animal!”

“I-I have allergies! I have allergies, you know!!”

M-maybe? Just a little? I was a little scared.

Why, what.

Anyway, after wrestling with the box for a while, the one who started crying first wasn’t me—but the box.

“…Huweeehh… I’m so sorry…! Belle did something wrong… please spare me…”

“…Huh?”

Wiping away the few tears that had gathered in my eyes, I got down from the box and opened the lid.

Inside—

“…Huweeehh…”

“Oing?”

A beautiful girl, with fruit peels smeared around her mouth, was shedding big, round tears while begging for forgiveness.

Embarrassingly, I instinctively asked her—

“Are you playing hide-and-seek too?”

It was a question that just came out naturally.

Belle.