“What did you just say? Shut—”
“Shut up.”
“That’s what I was about to say—”
I grabbed Mars by the collar and crumpled it mercilessly in my hand.
I was gripping so hard it felt like I might crush his collarbone.
“What did you do?”
“I fed it poison.”
“……”
I threw Mars aside.
Then I punched him once and hurriedly started running toward the annex.
‘No, Geum Rabbit…!’
When did he poison it?
No, I shouldn’t have sent Geum Rabbit alone and gone back to the main house.
‘No…’
The word no echoed endlessly in my head.
Could such a small rabbit endure poison? What if it was already dead?
I burst into the annex.
“Malon!”
“Yes, Lady Lize.”
Malon, who had been opening a window in the living room, came over immediately at my call.
“Did you see a rabbit? It must’ve come here alone earlier—my rabbit…”
“My lady, please calm down. You mean the golden rabbit, correct?”
“Yeah. It’s not like I have any other rabbit.”
“If it’s the golden rabbit, it’s in your room.”
The moment I heard that, I ran upstairs.
‘Geum Rabbit, Geum Rabbit…!’
And as soon as I opened the door—
In the middle of the sofa in my room, I saw a black rabbit curled up into a fluffy ball.
“No… Geum Rabbit…”
My legs gave out, and I collapsed on the spot.
The rabbit lay there with its eyes closed, completely still.
“Geum Rabbit, no. I haven’t even told you that story you were curious about yet…”
I should’ve told it earlier instead of putting it off.
“What I was going to tell you… was that Casium received a new secret mission by the emperor’s order and has been carrying it out… That’s why he hasn’t been seen for days…”
I muttered without even realizing what I was saying, staring at the unmoving rabbit.
“It’s frustrating and a little enviable from my perspective, but to you it’s not even that important… Why did I hold onto something like that without telling you?”
Everything I hadn’t done for the golden rabbit, everything I postponed—I regretted it all.
Having memories of my past life, I knew better than anyone how precious a single life is.
And yet, I still did something I would regret like this.
“Geum Rabbit… I’m sorry.”
Then, at that moment—
“Pii…?”
The black rabbit lifted its head.
“Pii!”
The rabbit called out to me just like it always did.
It looked completely fine—no sign of pain at all.
I froze in place, breathing heavily.
“Pii?”
“Geum Rabbit…”
As I sat there, the rabbit trotted over to me.
“Pii.”
It tapped my foot lightly, as if asking if I was okay.
“……!”
I immediately scooped it up into my arms.
“Are you okay?”
“Pii?”
“Did Mars feed you anything strange? Did he give you something poisoned?”
“Pi, pibii, ss…!”
At the mention of Mars, it sounded like the rabbit was cursing.
“Piiik, pipibi—”
“Go ahead, curse all you want. I’m just so glad you’re safe. If something had really happened to you…”
Tears welled up in my eyes.
I don’t usually cry. But thinking the golden rabbit might have died made tears rise without me realizing it.
“Because of that bastard Mars…”
I tilted my head up to stop the tears, but one still rolled down.
“Pii.”
The rabbit stretched out its paw. A tear dropped onto it.
Seeing my tears, the rabbit blinked, startled.
“Pii.”
Its expression was different from usual.
How should I describe it…
‘It looks angry.’
And the next moment, the golden rabbit jumped out of my arms and ran off somewhere before I could stop it.
Mars was rubbing his cheek with a cold egg.
The swelling from where Lize hit him was finally starting to go down.
“Heh.”
The sight of Lize running off, pale as a sheet.
His cheek hurt more as he laughed, but he couldn’t stop.
It was amusing how she reacted so strongly over such a trivial creature, and satisfying that he had struck a proper blow.
‘Serves you right. Who told you to mess with me?’
Mars snorted and laughed again.
As he laughed, his father’s words suddenly crossed his mind.
‘You won’t disappoint me, right, Mars?’
Ah… but he failed the intermediate knight exam.
He had been planning to bribe the captain, but someone had ruined it by stuffing dirt into his water bottle.
‘Who the hell put dirt in there?’
Mars paused, rolling the egg in his hand.
‘Could it have been that brat Bryce?’
He soon shook his head and resumed.
‘No way. That little brat couldn’t have touched my things.’
Then who?
‘The rabbit’s dead.’
No, a rabbit couldn’t have done that in the first place.
At that moment—
Whoosh.
With a gust of wind, the lamp lighting Mars’s room went out.
“What the—”
The room plunged into darkness.
“Villn! Villn! Light the lamp!”
He called his servant, but there was no answer.
“Was it the wind…?”
He muttered nervously and started toward the wall—
Whoosh.
The sound of wind came right by his ear.
Before he could even process it—
“Ugh!”
Something struck the back of his knee, and he collapsed.
‘What is this… this feels familiar…!’
He felt like he had been kicked like this before.
Who was it that did that back then?
“Wait—!”
As he tried to stand, he was kicked again and dropped to his knees.
“Argh—this feeling…! That rabbit!”
He shouted, but confusion followed.
Hadn’t he poisoned it?
He had coated it heavily—no rabbit could survive that.
‘Then why does that kick feel like that rabbit’s?’
Just then—
“Pii.”
A strange sound came from behind him.
The wind rustled through the slightly parted curtains.
And—
“……!”
When he turned around, he saw a figure backlit by moonlight in the darkness.
The shadow of a gigantic rabbit loomed over his face.
“Pii.”
A heavy, oppressive voice filled with suppressed rage.
‘A g-ghost…’
That was his last thought before Mars lost consciousness.
Morning.
After straightening my clothes in front of the mirror, I turned to look at the golden rabbit reflected behind me.
It was lying on the sofa, covering its eyes with its ears.
‘It always does that when I change clothes.’
I smiled at it and finished adjusting my outfit.
The gold embroidery on my crisp white knight uniform jacket gleamed in the sunlight.
The silver Erne insignia, symbolizing a division commander, shone proudly.
It was always a beautiful uniform—made more meaningful by the effort behind it.
“Geum Rabbit, I’m done getting dressed!”
Only then did it move its ears and lift its head.
I smiled at it.
The weather was bright and refreshing, so I tied only half of my hair instead of my usual tight style.
“…Pii.”
The rabbit stared at me blankly.
“Geum Rabbit?”
“……”
“What’s wrong? Did you fall for me?”
“…?!”
The rabbit blinked rapidly.
It shook its head vigorously with its ears folded down, then jumped into its personal bag.
“Haha, I’m joking.”
“……”
Even though it must have known it was a joke, its exaggerated reaction was adorable.
‘There’s no way the golden rabbit would fall for me!’
I left the estate and got into the carriage heading to the knights’ order.
“But where did you go yesterday?”
“Pii?”
“You suddenly ran off somewhere last night.”
“Oh, pii.”
It shook its head as if telling me not to worry.
I didn’t know what it had done, but its oddly cool attitude made me smile.
I asked a few more times out of curiosity, but it only shook its head, so I decided to drop it.
“Anyway, I have something to tell you, Geum Rabbit.”
After a moment of hesitation, I continued.
“We were supposed to go out together this afternoon… but I don’t think we can.”
“Pii?”
“There’s an important guest coming today.”
To be honest, I had never really thought about marriage—especially arranged marriage—so I didn’t know the exact procedures.
I only knew it involved proposing a meeting, delivering a marriage letter, and proceeding with mutual agreement.
The golden rabbit stared at me from the bag, as if waiting for what I’d say next.
“Oh, it’s nothing special. Just… guests coming for formal discussions.”
I brushed it off casually and then muttered without realizing—
“I wonder if I’ll get to see Casium today…
