In the deep mountains, where cold late autumn rain fell incessantly.

The darkness quickly filled the void left by the setting sun. A small, thin silhouette lightly climbed the steep mountain without a path, like a squirrel.

“Ah ah ah ah…”

The two legs running on the muddy path became tangled. Arms flailed trying to regain balance, but,

“Uwaaah, ouch…!”

Eventually slipped and fell into a puddle.

The girl stood up, frowning as if in pain. Punching her waist and hips. Her clothes were already soaked through with rain and mud. The sleeves, the hem of the skirt, the tattered clothes were damaged everywhere.

“At least I didn’t break the medicine bottle, thankfully.”

The girl held a small glass bottle preciously to her chest and breathed a sigh of relief. White breath continuously spread into the cold air between her teeth. After wiping away the rainwater obscuring her vision with the back of her hand, she hurriedly started climbing the mountain again.

After going a bit further, the dense forest where even the sky was barely visible disappeared, and a waterfall on a cliff revealed itself. Arabel stepped onto the slippery rocks, exhaling heavily.

She began crossing the river, hopping from rock to rock. When she reached behind the waterfall, the entrance of a moss-covered cave came into view of her round, light brown eyes.

Arabel entered the cave, pushing aside the curtain-like moss vines. The dying embers of a fire dimly illuminated the inside of the cave. Arabel’s gaze fell upon a mound of leaves and branches piled up like a small hill next to the embers.

The leaf mound… was slowly moving up and down. Sharp red eyes glinting between the leaves followed Arabel’s footsteps.

Arabel addressed the tall, protruding leaf mound. It was a kind and clear voice that didn’t match the dark and damp cave.

“Sorry, did you wait long? Just wait a little. I’ll warm you up.”

Before she finished speaking, she crouched in front of the fire and took out a small bottle from her inner pocket. It was a glass bottle about the size of two of Arabel’s fingers.

When she poured the clear liquid inside the bottle onto the dying embers, the fire immediately came back to life and began to blaze. Soon, warm heat warmed her wet body. Only then did Arabel’s thin shoulders, which had been stiff from cold and tension, relax.

The beast’s eyes, not letting down its guard, watched the girl approaching. It felt the careful touch removing the leaves covering its massive body.

Plop plop, countless leaves fell beneath the beast that was curled up lying down. A huge black panther, at least five times bigger than Arabel, revealed itself. Even lying prone with a large wound on its belly as if dead, its overwhelming presence was tremendous.

Grrrr…

The beast made an eerie sound through its large jaws, big enough to swallow Arabel’s thin neck in one bite and have room to spare.

“You must be hungry. I’m sorry this is all I have to give you.”

Arabel sat in front of the black panther and untied her rolled-up apron. Wild grapes and wild strawberries she had brought in her apron fell onto the leaves.

“I thought about secretly bringing some salted lamb from the kitchen, but my teacher said before. Meat seasoned by human hands can be very harmful to injured wild animals. He said wild fruits from the mountains are better.”

The beast’s mouth, lacking even the strength to chew the wild fruits before it, refused to open. Arabel’s eyes trembled with concern as she waited for the beast to eat.

Feeling it couldn’t go on like this, Arabel grabbed a handful of the fruits from the ground. She stuffed her mouth full of wild strawberries and grapes until her cheeks bulged out. Though they were sour and astringent being out of season, she didn’t mind and began chewing diligently.

After a while, she spit out the purple fruit juice into her hand. Without hesitation, Arabel opened the mouth with long, sharp fangs that looked like they could easily pierce through a knight’s iron armor. She unhesitatingly put her hand full of fruit juice into the mouth.

“Grrrr…”

The beast, its throat parched, gulped down the fruit juice flowing from Arabel’s hand with its long, thick throat.

Still not quenched, its rough, thick tongue licked Arabel’s hand clean. It licked up every last drop of juice soaked into her skin, as if urging for more.

“Okay, okay, let go of my hand.”

Arabel gently soothed the beast, stroking its ear with her other hand.

How many times did she repeat this? When the black panther’s tongue finally released Arabel’s hand… Not a single fruit remained on the ground, and even the area around Arabel’s pink lips was stained a deep purple.

Though its thirst was somewhat quenched, the poison that had infiltrated its stomach began to spread even more rapidly throughout its body. The beast’s body heaved once greatly from the extreme pain.

Arabel hurriedly took out the medicine bottle she had brought. While carefully pouring it drop by drop onto the beast’s wound, she said:

“I brought it from father’s laboratory. It’s medicine used to treat injured wild animals from hunting grounds. But father has never treated an animal as big as you…”

When the yellowish, sticky liquid touched the wound, white smoke rose from the belly skin along with an acrid smell.

Grrrr…

The beast’s painful cry echoed across the cave floor.

“The medicine should take effect right after applying it…”

Arabel’s voice trembled as she looked at the burning wound site. Her large, kind eyes quickly filled with tears.

Far from healing, the wound on its belly gaped open and even began to spurt dark red blood. A pool of blood formed under the wound site that had barely been stopped from bleeding all morning.

“I’m sorry… *sob* I must have made the wound worse. *sob sob*…”

Large teardrops fell one after another down her two cheeks that had been scratched while climbing the mountain.

“If only I had the healing ability like my family, I could have cured you already.”

Her thin hands moved busily trying to stop the bleeding, but to no avail. If it were her father, or sister Camille, or younger sister Roxy, who all possessed the healing ability passed down through generations in their family, they would surely be able to treat the injured black panther.

‘I should go down to the estate now and ask for help.’

Thinking this, Arabel stood up. But she immediately sat back down. Far from helping, they would kill it on sight.

The black panther was officially declared a monster by the imperial court. All imperial citizens had the duty to report or kill black panthers on sight. If one caught a black panther, even a commoner could receive the privilege of becoming nobility, and if one let a black panther go, they could not escape the harshest punishment in the empire.

Black panthers had long disappeared from not only the empire but the entire continent after a 100-year campaign. Yet this dawn, Arabel had encountered a black panther in the mountains behind the territory.

Arabel tightly hugged the rabbit family in her arms as she watched the beast slowly approach. She had secretly tried to release the experimental mountain rabbits into the forest, but now both she and the rabbits had suddenly become prey for the black panther.

However, contrary to its chillingly eerie gaze, the monster’s movements were infinitely slow and weak. Arabel’s gaze shifted to the beast’s belly, which was splattering blood on the moss. Dozens of short spears that she hadn’t noticed in her panic were stuck in it.

After releasing the mountain rabbit family in the opposite direction, Arabel approached the black panther. The monster bared its sharp fangs at Arabel with eyes full of hostility.

‘I’ll help you. Are you in a lot of pain? Please bear with it a little.’

Though her voice came out choppy from fear, Arabel stretched out both hands to the black panther. Soon, the black panther also surrendered its body to Arabel, who was carefully removing the spears stuck in its belly.

When the spears were gone, only then did the black panther collapse onto the grass. Looking at the brightening morning sky, Arabel thought:

‘If left like this, it will be discovered by people and killed, or become food for carnivores.’

Arabel recalled the cave behind the waterfall where she had met her teacher before. It was with great difficulty that she pushed and pulled the beast’s huge body into the cave.

“Until dawn you were able to move on all fours.”

The beast, now lacking even the strength to cry, lay prone with its head drooping to the floor, blinking its eyes. Arabel realized that poison had spread throughout the beast’s body and there was nothing more she could do.

Her thin arms encircled the thick neck. She tried hard to share her body heat, holding the beast’s body tightly as it grew colder. Burying her wet face in the beast’s drooping shoulder, Arabel whispered:

“All life in nature is precious, so why so cruelly… I’m sorry. For not being able to help you.”

The sound of the heartbeat was no longer felt in Arabel’s ears. Large teardrops fell drop by drop onto the black panther’s wounds. Outside the cave, the sound of unceasing rain and the crackling fire lulled two pairs of tired eyes to close simultaneously.

Chirp chirp chirp, the cheerful sound of a paradise flycatcher faintly reached Arabel’s ears. Morning sunlight peeking through gaps in the moss vines tickled Arabel’s closed eyelids.

The small body, not yet fully awake, squirmed, not wanting to leave the warm heat it was touching. From head to toe, it felt like being trapped in a hard, smooth stone. Though it was rigid, not even allowing a finger to enter, it was unexpectedly comfortable and cozy. It was even warm, as if heat was rising from inside the stone.

Arabel, still wandering the boundary between dream and reality, buried her face deeper. Unconsciously, she spread her palm wide and placed it on the warm stone. With her eyes closed, she ran her hand up and down the stone with good texture and excellent elasticity.

Her fingers, kneading it like playing with a toy, were adorable. Strangely, some parts were smooth without a single curve, while others were rough as if slashed with a sickle.

Arabel’s hand moved lower and lower, following the contours of the stone. Then, a long hand gently but firmly grasped her wrist.

“I don’t mind the touching, but how about opening your eyes while you do it? It would be more satisfying that way.”

An unfamiliar man’s voice spread over the top of her head. Arabel’s eyes flew open as if cold water had been splashed on her face.

A vast expanse of bronze that didn’t even fit into her round eyes blocked her view. Only when her small head tilted far back could she see the face of the owner of the stretched-out Adam’s apple. It was an unrealistically handsome face that seemed to belong in a masterpiece by an imperial artist.

For a moment, Arabel squeezed her eyes shut without even exhaling the breath she had taken in. Harboring a vain hope that if she closed her eyes again, she might wake up from the dream.

“It seems your naughty hand has roamed too much to pretend to be asleep.”

A voice tinged with laughter reached Arabel’s ears, which had turned bright red up to her forehead. It was a slightly husky but pleasant baritone voice.

Contrary to Arabel’s wish, her increasingly clear mind was telling her. The fact that she was now in the arms of a strange man. And that the man was in a state without a single thread on his body.

There was no time to properly think about what on earth had happened. Arabel timidly wriggled her body once to escape from his arms. With her hand, which had been unrestrained until just moments ago, now clenched. Unfortunately, things did not go as she wished.

Because the two arms firmly embracing Arabel’s body did not move an inch. No, the arms imprisoning her body tightened even more strongly.

As she felt the healthy male body she had never imagined even in her dreams, Arabel’s mind began to grow faint…

Suddenly, from outside the cave,

“…Arabel…!”

“Miss Arabel!”

The voices calling for Arabel, which had been heard from afar, grew closer and closer.

“Black panther!”

Arabel, now fully alert, raised her head from the man’s arms. Her large eyes darted around the cave, searching for the dying beast.

She had clearly fallen asleep holding the black panther last evening. But when she opened her eyes, she found herself in the arms of a strange man instead of the black panther.

Arabel’s large eyes, meeting golden-tinged red eyes, trembled, lost. Her voice quivered between lips stained purple:

“…Black panther…?”