Chapter 49 - The Prince of the Beastly Kingdom is Supposed to Have a Harem…14
The three of them went to the kitchen to prepare breakfast while Julia and Nikola returned to their room for a while. Ruth slipped out of there and rushed to the storage room. Of course, Celine told him, “Please come back to help me as soon as possible,” so he couldn't stay long.
After exiting through the living room door, Ruth continued down the hallway, passing through the curve that consisted of the rooms of Clark and his parents, and finally paused in front of the door to the storage room. Gently, he opened the door.
"You were awake after all."
"Grrrrrr..."
When he turned on the lamp in the room, he saw a pure white Ocal standing on all fours on the sofa where Ruth was sleeping.
(Wow…it has purple eyes)
The eyes that the Ocal opened were a beautiful light purple that complemented its pure white appearance.
Though he seemed a little angry as he clutched Ruth’s cloak with his mouth and made a growling sound, the way his eyes looked did not allow Ruth to peek into his true intentions. Ruth thought it was a little different from the Ocals he’d seen before. As if expressing his irritation, the room was also messy. It was a relief that the spare bedding in the back hadn't been vandalized. It seemed like it was recovering quickly considering it stood up on all four legs—the leg that was caught in the trap seemed to have healed quite a bit. As long as he was fine, it was probably good enough for now.
(Well, that's what happens when you wake up in a room where you don't know where you are and the door doesn't open.)
A wooden plank had been inserted under the door of the storage room to prevent it from opening by itself, so even if it was rammed on, it wouldnt open. Of course, it could simply break down the door if it wanted to, but considering that Ruth only heard the sound of hitting the wall once, it was likely out of frustration from realizing it was trapped and not a proper attempt to escape using its full strength.
“Ah, I don't mean to do anything to you, and of course, I don't plan to eat you either..."
“Woof! Woof!”
"Don't bark! I'm begging you, please don't bark! They’ll find out!"
Ruth hastily raised both hands to show that he had no intention of attacking. Of course, it didn't seem like words or gestures would get through to an animal, but he needed to calm it down somehow. To make the other party calm, he had to stay calm himself. If he spoke gently, even if the meaning didn't get across, the lack of hostility should be conveyed.
"I brought you here for treatment because you got caught in my trap. There was a blizzard outside and I thought you’d die if I left you."
“Grrrr…”
“You, were you a slave somewhere?”
“Woof! Woof! Woof!”
"Agh, sorry! I'm sorry! ‘Slave’ was a poor choice of words, so please don't bark!"
Apparently, the word slave was very unpleasant for it. It bared its fangs and barked at him. However, when Ruth apologized desperately, he stopped barking, though still glaring intensely. Ruth gave a sigh of relief but then realized something.
(Huh…is it able to understand me?)
Ruth had encountered Ocals many times in the mountains, but he had never been able to communicate with them. They were animals that didn’t use nor understand human words. However, this Ocal's current attitude seemed to be in response to Ruth's voice.
“Could it be that you understand human speech?”
The human language was common to both humans and beastmen. While there were rare races that had their own unique language, Clark had said that no one in the capital who belonged to the human race was unable to understand the common language. Ruth remembered thinking when he heard this that despite the various regions and races, this world was remarkably organized in that aspect. If you thought about it that way, maybe even animals could understand the language. However, there was also a second possibility that Ruth couldn’t dismiss.
But just as Ruth considered the second, less pleasant possibility, the Ocal took up its cloak again and began to swing it around.
"C-calm down! What are you doing!?"
“Grrr, grrrr!”
The Ocal ignored Ruth's confusion and swung his cloak so vigorously that his whole body swayed. Whether the Ocal really disliked the cloak or was agitated by something else was unclear, but his behavior resembled that of a tantrum-throwing child.
And then, glaring at the bewildered Ruth, he kicked something that was on the floor towards him.
“Whoa, hey!”
The object that flew into Ruth's hands was the bowl of soup he had set out for the Ocal. The bowl was empty, and there was no sign of spilled soup around it.
“You mean you ate it?”
"Grrr~"
The Ocal was still growling, but looking closely, you could see that the fur around its mouth was dirty from the soup leftovers. It was likely that the Ocal had indeed consumed the soup Ruth had given it.
(This kind of makes me happy)
When he was little, Ruth longed for something like the pet he had in his previous life and once tried to capture and tame an Ocal, but even when he tried to feed it, it would never eat the food he provided and would never let Ruth touch it while it was consious. In the end, Ruth shed tears when he saw the Ocal becoming haggard without eating despite being hungry. Ultimately, the Ocal was disposed of by Rossa. Ruth was scolded, being told that animals were different from beastmen, and even communicating with beastmen was difficult, so one shouldn’t recklessly play with their life. Come to think of it, that might have been the moment he first started being aware of his father as a father since remembering his past life.
When the Ocal saw that Ruth had the plate on his hand, it left its cloak on the spot and came to his side.
Ruth bent down, hoping that perhaps it would let him pet it, but for some reason it suddenly headbutted him.
“Wa– OUCH! What is it!?”
"Grrr."
When Ruth crouched down, the Ocal’s head was about the same height as Ruth's face. The Ocal was slightly larger than a large dog, so even a small tilt of its head would cause it to bump into Ruth’s chin. And it hurt quite a bit.
Ruth fell on his butt after being nudged repeatedly in the jaw, but the Ocal didn’t care and didn't stop moving. When Ruth dropped the plate he was holding, it finally stopped headbutting him - but then picked up the fallen plate. The Ocal pushed the plate toward him insistently, as if urging him to take action. It was then that Ruth finally realized there was a reason behind the Ocal's behavior.
“Do you want a second serving, by any chance?”
"Woof!"
As if to confirm Ruth's realization, the Ocal let out a small bark at just the right moment and wagged its tail vigorously. Its behavior resembled that of a dog eagerly waiting for its meal.
"You... You really do understand human speech, don’t you?"
"....."
Ignoring Ruth's question, the Ocal returned to the sofa, picked up the cloak, and began to wave it around. It seemed like this was an act of encouragement.
"Alright, alright, I'll bring you some food so just wait a bit. It might take some time, so please be patient until then, okay?"
"Grrrrr"
While making a sound that he couldn't tell whether it was a reply or a growl, the Ocal wagged its tail excitedly. It watched as Ruth opened the door and left, clearly more interested in getting the food than escaping.
Ruth closed the door, put a wooden plank in the gap, and headed straight for the kitchen.
(...Seems like it can understand people's words...)
No matter how you look at it, its actions seemed to indicate that it could understand Ruth's words. However, as Clark mentioned, a beastman who can change his appearance should also be capable of speaking, so it would be strange for him not to simply tell Ruth, “Give me food.'' It would be much easier than waving a cloak around like that; normally, it would just speak up.
(So, it really might just be an ordinary animal after all…? Could it be that the slave mark allows it to understand human language?)
Ruth wasn’t sure about the exact effects of the slave mark, as he only had the information he’d heard from Daniel. Given that a slave’s location was generally known to their owner, it wouldn’t be surprising if there were other abilities associated with it.
(But either way, the prince issue is settled. That’s a relief.)
If it had been the prince of Ziltania that Julia mentioned, he would likely revert to his beastman form and ask Ruth for food directly. He wouldn’t be content with a storage-like room and wouldn’t engage in childish antics like brandishing around Ruth's cloak and pretending to be a child. The Ocal was probably just an animal with a slave’s crest after all.
After gathering his thoughts, Ruth felt relieved.
≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫
Noir: The pronoun used for the Ocal will be “it”, but when we see its beastman form, I’ll be using “he/him”.
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