It seems about a week has passed since I opened my eyes in this beast’s body.

During that week, I learned several things.

This is a cold region, there aren’t many wild beasts roaming around, and…

‘Yul, you were right.’

The only thing I can eat are insects.

“Kyuuuu~”

Belatedly realizing the foresight of my friend Yulnisia, who was the kingdom’s greatest magic tool user, I raised my head to the sky and wailed.

‘I’m sorry for laughing at you back then about eating insects. I was wrong! You were right!’

In this vast forest, the only thing I could eat were insects. It’s not that there were no beasts at all, but I gave up on hunting.

Not only was it unreasonable to hunt with my small, short front paws…

‘Even if I hunted successfully, I wouldn’t know how to eat it.’

Even if I succeeded in hunting, skinning the beast, preparing it, and roasting it would be impossible.

‘Oh, my fate.’

I was fighting for the country, and when I opened my eyes, I suddenly became a beast.

‘What in the world happened?’

I had no idea how much time had passed since that day, whether this was the kingdom or some completely unknown place. There was no way to find out either.

‘Sniffle, how pitiful.’

As I hung my head dejectedly, an enormous sound rumbled from my stomach.

Grooowl!

Naturally, I felt even more miserable.

‘I’m hungry.’

Since opening my eyes in this beast’s body in the mountains, I hadn’t eaten a single meal.

It’s not that I didn’t try to eat anything. If hunting was difficult, I could at least pick some fruit to eat.

But there were only birch trees here, and not even a shriveled turnip could be found.

The only things here were insects, and more insects.

‘But how am I supposed to eat these insects deliciously!’

Finding insects wasn’t difficult. If I dug in the ground, white larvae would crawl out in droves.

I held a wriggling white larva with my trembling front paws, but soon flung it away.

“Kyu!”

No matter how hungry I am, I can’t eat that. It’s absolutely impossible. How can I eat something that’s wriggling like that? Besides, it would surely upset my stomach.

As I trembled, another tremendous sound rumbled from my stomach.

Grooowl!

It was truly a dilemma. I was hungry, but there was nothing to eat. In the end, I cried out mournfully.

‘Yulnisia! Please help me!’

“Kyuukyuu~”

Only “kyu kyu” sounds came out of my mouth, making me despair once again.

* * *

Another three days passed.

During that time, I wandered the forest, filling my hungry stomach with water. Since I had become a beast anyway, it would be nice if I could at least understand the language of other beasts, but I didn’t have that ability either.

‘I’m lonely.’

I never knew before that not having anyone to communicate with could be such a great pain. I trudged through the forest, sighing heavily.

‘It would be nice if I could at least know where this place is.’

What happened after the rampage? Did Espen stop the rampage? Are the others safe?

How long had I been crossing the forest, seeking answers to questions that wouldn’t come?

Then, an unfamiliar sound that I hadn’t heard before rang in my ears. I perked up my ears.

‘It’s people!’

This was definitely the sound of voices!

‘Since I can understand it, this must be the kingdom! I’m in the kingdom!’

If that’s the case, if I get out of this forest and go to where people live, I might be able to find a way back to the palace.

‘I’m so excited!’

Happy to hear human voices, I ran towards them without even trying to muffle my footsteps. And I poked my face out of the bushes.

‘It really is people!’

Whether they had come to the mountain to cut wood, two men carrying large axes were walking up the mountain path. One of them spotted me and pointed, shouting.

“Ah, there’s a weasel!”

“That’s a rare white weasel, isn’t it?”

Thanks to their words, I was able to learn what kind of beast I had turned into.

‘A white weasel? I became a white weasel?’

I had noticed from my reflection in the water that I had become some small animal, but I didn’t know it was a weasel until now.

‘But are white weasels rare?’

Just as I tilted my head in confusion, one of the men suddenly shouted and rushed towards me.

“Quick, catch it!”

“Kyu kyu?!”

The two men rushing at me with axes were terrifying beyond measure. Especially since I had become smaller after turning into a weasel.

‘Why are they trying to catch me?!’

As I scampered away without knowing what was happening, I suddenly stopped in my tracks.

‘They said it’s rare, which means it’s valuable. Maybe they’re trying to catch me to carefully preserve me?’

Perhaps this was a golden opportunity to get comfortable bedding and meals?

Just as I was thinking that and turned to look back at the two men, it happened.

The two approached from different directions, surrounding me, and chuckled.

“If we skin it carefully, keeping the head intact, it’ll fetch a high price. A white weasel pelt with such a cute head attached. The noble ladies will love it.”

At those words, I let out a mournful “kyuing” cry.

‘They’re going to skin me?!’

They weren’t going to catch me and treat me well, but kill me and skin me?

But the two men had already come too close, and there was no way to escape.

‘What should I do?’

I looked with tense eyes at the glinting axe blades and the faces of the two men smiling at me. The sound of my pounding heart seemed to reverberate through my whole body, even reaching my ears.

It was at that very moment.

Whoosh!

“Ah, hot!”

A spark that flew from thin air attacked the two men. It wasn’t an intense flame, but it was enough to create an opening for me to escape. Taking advantage of that gap, I squeezed between the two men and fled.

‘Huff huff, I really almost died.’

I didn’t need to run far. After all, I was small in size. I curled up inside a solid tree trunk and caught my breath.

‘Thank goodness. I can still use fire mana… Huh?’

It was at that very moment.

It felt like a giant hammer had struck my body. My insides turned upside down, and my whole body trembled. My stomach churned, and water and stomach acid poured out.

“Kyueeek!”

I felt dizzy, as if I had fallen into hypoglycemia. I collapsed with a thud. How much time had passed? It was clearly daytime before, but when I regained consciousness, darkness had already fallen heavily.

I put strength into my trembling front paws and raised my body.

‘Huff, I thought I was going to die.’

My body was still shaking. It was because I had forcibly created a spark in an emergency situation.

‘I have almost no mana left. I shouldn’t use magic recklessly. It was unavoidable since it was a life-threatening crisis, but…’

Mana flows out from my heart. But now that I had scraped the bottom of the barrel, I couldn’t help but feel it.

That my heart was broken.

‘Sniffle, how pitiful.’

The chilly wind felt unbearably cold today. Unable to run away any further, I crawled back into the tree trunk where I had been hiding.

And I curled up my body and closed my eyes.

* * *

The next morning, when I opened my eyes, I felt even weaker. Even breathing was a struggle, so I leaned against the tree trunk in a daze.

‘Ah, is this how I die?’

What kind of death should this be called? I’ve seen mana go berserk, but I’ve never seen a case of it disappearing like this.

‘No, this isn’t because of mana, it’s just because I’m hungry.’

I thought to myself while crying “kyu kyu” pitifully.

‘I’m going to die because I couldn’t eat insects, Yulnisia.’

But still, insects are too much…

But of course, no matter what I muttered to myself, my life didn’t end with a snap. Even dying beautifully without pain was not allowed for me.

‘…I should at least drink some water.’

I dragged my stumbling body to get some water. How long had I walked, stepping on rustling leaves?

A square cloth of a different color appeared before my eyes. Anyone could see it was a cloth laid out for someone to sit on.

‘Gasp! There must be people nearby.’

The faces of the men who were happy about skinning me yesterday hadn’t even faded yet. I tried to turn my body around quickly. Right at that moment, a small basket on top of that cloth caught my eye.

More precisely…

‘Bread!’

A light brown round object poking out of the basket, making my mouth water just by looking at it.

‘It’s bread!’

“Kyuu!”

I ran towards it, cheering. The moment I saw the bread, nothing else was visible to my eyes. Only the bread swaying as if to tempt me caught my attention.

When I got there, it really was bread. I was so moved that I almost cried.

‘It’s bread, bread. How long has it been since I’ve had bread?’

Even during the war, I had only chewed on turnips instead of bread, and now that I had become a weasel, I thought I would never eat it again, but here it was, right in the middle of the forest.

I immediately grabbed the bread tightly with my small front paws and bit into it.

As if it had been baked fresh today, with a crisp sound, the hard outer crust of the bread crumbled, and the soft, savory inside filled my mouth.

‘Sob sob, I’m so happy.’

What else is there to life? This is happiness.

It was so delicious that I almost cried. Yes, I had forgotten for a long time. That flour could taste like this!

Even though no one was going to take it away from me, I devoured the bread frantically as if it would disappear if I hesitated. When I had gnawed through about half of it, it happened.

A hand, warm to the point of being hot, grabbed the scruff of my neck and lifted me up. Even as my weight shifted to my neck, I held onto the bread tightly, not letting go.

A low, heavy voice sounded from above my head.

“What’s this?”

I turned my head, trembling. Ruby-red eyes were staring at me intently.

‘Gasp.’

Blinded by the sight of bread, I had gotten too close to a person!