Chapter 108
Chapter 10.
The Forest of Beastmen.
Ding ding ding ding ding! Ding ding ding ding ding!
The bell signaling the start of class rang.
The adolescent beastmen who had been playing by kicking a ball in animal form on the playground flinched.
“Is break time already over?”
“Hey, let’s go in quickly. This game was our team’s win, right?”
“Wait, just until my turn and then go.”
A small black dragon who had placed one foot on the ball said.
A little dragon beastman whose body had grown just a very, very little bit more than in childhood, and the eggshell on its head had cleanly fallen off.
It was Asil.
Asil glared at the lion beastman on the opposing team.
“That guy called me a bald dragon. If I score this, you have to apologize to me!”
“You are bald though!”
“Ppiya!” (No!)
It was so frustrating that beastman language slipped out.
Yes, the current Asil is indeed bald. But calling Asil bald is unforgivable!
Asil, full of anger, kicked with all its might.
Boom!
Under the powerful kick of the adolescent black dragon, the ball flew… no, it burst right there.
It was a very sturdy ball made for the overflowing strength of adolescent beastmen.
Yet it burst completely from one kick by the smallest black dragon in the school.
The beastmen watching the ball fragments scattering in the air with shaking eyes whispered.
“That kid is always insanely strong……. Who was it that called it bald?”
“The lion was wrong. Why did you call Asil bald? Apologize.”
“Yeah, apologize quickly!”
“Tch.”
The lion beastman, pricked by friends insistence, awkwardly walked toward Asil.
It was quite the act, pretending not to while having deliberately picked a fight to say one more word to the most popular Asil in school.
The lion beastman lowered its head and apologized.
“Sorry. But you really are bald, right? I’ll grow a mane later, but you- mmph mmph!”
Clap.
Asil covered the lion’s mouth with her front paw.
Then, glaring sharply with the meaning to be quiet, the lion who had been watching the mood curled his tail.
“……Mmph mmph mmph.” (……Yeah, you’re not bald.)
That was when it happened.
“What are you all doing without coming in quickly!”
The swan beastman teacher waiting for the children shouted loudly out the window.
“Ah, coming now!”
The children rushed back into the school.
* * *
Beastmen were fewer in number than humans.
About 500 years ago, it was because they were driven to the brink of extinction in a war with the empire.
Of course, among them there were kings and elders, but that was just for communication channels with other races.
In reality, it wasn’t such a strict hierarchical society.
Thus, Asil attended school freely even as the daughter of the beastman king.
The other children also did not treat Asil specially just because she was the queen’s daughter.
“Now, shall we talk about future aspirations today?”
The swan beastman teacher opened her mouth, looking around the classroom where half were in animal form and half in human form.
“What do you all want to become when you grow up?”
“A doctor! I want to heal all the sick beastmen!”
“A teacher! Like swan teacher, I want to solve difficult problems all at once!”
The beastman children in the classroom raised their hands one after another.
The swan beastman teacher smiled warmly at the hopeful dreams continuing like a chain.
Then suddenly stopped at an unexpected answer.
“Potato.”
“……?”
Potato, what does that mean?
The gazes in the classroom gathered in one place.
The one who said the word potato was Snowa, the sleepy-eyed snow leopard beastman sitting next to Asil.
Snowa was Asil’s half-brother, meaning same mother but different fathers.
Asil slapped Snowa’s back.
“It’s ‘spy’.”
“Ah, right. Spy.”
“……Um, may I ask why you have that dream?”
The reason Snowa’s dream became spy was such a famously known story.
But for the swan teacher who had recently transferred to this school, it was naturally puzzling.
A spy, wasn’t it a bit of an odd job for an adolescent beastman to dream of.
It might not even be callable a job. How on earth did he come to want to become a spy?
So, asking with a smile mixed with bewilderment, instead of Snowa, the surrounding friends answered for him.
“That’s because Asil’s dream is to be a spy. Snowa just follows what Asil does!”
“A long time ago, Asil was kidnapped to the human world.”
“At that time, to punish the humans, become an excellent spy and go back to the human world.”
“That kid, in kindergarten, said she’d become a potato, dug into the ground, and asked for water to be poured!”
“She even tied potato sprouts to her back and went around— Ouch, why hit me!”
“Ppiyat ppi!” (Be quiet!)
That’s my dark history!
Beastman language slipped out again when embarrassed or excited.
Back then, I really thought spy was potato!
Asil sharply glared at the friends reciting its unwanted past one by one. The cheeks covered in black scales slightly reddened as a bonus.
The swan beastman teacher, who had firmly misunderstood something, murmured.
“Aha……. So there was such a bad experience.”
About 7 years ago, she had heard that a young beastman was kidnapped to the human world and returned, but who knew it was Asil.
She mistook that Asil’s dream becoming spy was due to an unfortunate childhood.
So, with a pitiful expression, she offered words of comfort.
“How scary it must have been? Yes, our Asil can become an excellent spy.”
“Yes!”
Any adult beastman cheering for her dream was always welcome.
Asil, in good mood, spun its tail like a windmill.
“I drink strawberry milk every day to become an excellent spy quickly. I measure my height once a day too! I want to become a huge black dragon soon!”
“Um, that might be difficult because Briana has a small build…….”
“Yes?”
“No. Drinking a lot of milk is good. Make sure to drink diligently.”
“Yes, teacher!”
Asil’s energetic answer echoed through the classroom.
The swan beastman looked around at the children with sparkling dreams with eyes full of affection, then took out a large basket of strawberries from under the podium.
“Now, this is a gift from teacher to my friends. It’s to eat a lot, grow big and tall, and become cool adults, so everyone come out and take as much as you want.”
“Wow!”
“We’ll eat well!”
With cheers, the children ran to the front of the podium.
While everyone lined up orderly keeping turns, Asil also lined up with Snowa.
‘One to eat as lunch, another to give to the rabbit friend at home, and the last one to put in milk and eat.’
Thinking that, Asil untied the scarf it had received from Edenber a very long time ago from its neck.
And with fern-like front paws, wrapped three strawberries and tied them on its back.
Now that its body had grown, it could tie up to three.
* * *
After all classes ended, dismissal time.
While diligently heading home with Snowa. Suddenly, a lion beastman jumped out from around the corner.
“Asil!”
It was the beastman who had teased Asil by calling it bald this morning.
Asil was about to absentmindedly say yes, when Snowa, glaring fiercely with both eyes, blocked the front.
“Why to my sibling.”
“I want to go together. I was going to escort to home!”
“Your house is the opposite direction from ours.”
Snowa’s yellow eyes sharply glared at the lion beastman’s shaking tail.
“Don’t wag your tail at my sibling.”
Then, suddenly bit Asil and put it on its back.
The lion beastman felt wronged.
No, it’s true that it was wagging tail at pretty and smart Asil……. But this tail is shaking for that reason…….
The lion beastman grumbled in protest.
“No, hyung! This isn’t wagging tail, it’s shaking from walking-”
“Whatever, Asil is going to live with me forever?”
Snowa sharply cut off and turned its back.
Having a popular sibling was too tiring.
Already how many beastmen it had driven away like this, it couldn’t count even with both front paws.
‘I can’t let my sibling pair with some mediocre male. Absolutely not.’
Definitely going to pair with someone as cool and excellent as me!
Snowa, firmly resolved, bit its own tail and walked majestically.
Of course, didn’t forget to nag Asil.
“Don’t play with that guy. I know because I’m the same male, the eyes are not ordinary.”
“What, always says don’t play with everyone.”
Already how many times this is, I don’t know. At this rate, no friends will remain?
Asil, cheeks puffed in dissatisfaction, tapped Snowa’s head with the strawberry stem it was eating for lunch.
Thus, the two beastmen headed to their home, the beastman castle in the middle of the Forest of Beastmen.
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