Chapter 141
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Ruby thought of her grandmother. She had watched up close how much her grandmother, as Chief of the Pink Rabbit tribe, loved and cared for the tribe.
And not only her grandmother; her mother too had walked that path by the book.
Having grown up watching the two of them, Ruby believed a Chief had to be that way. So she’d only spoken her mind.
“There’s honest advice, and then there’s honest advice, isn’t there?”
“Are you saying what I said wasn’t it?”
“I’m the one who spoke out of worry. I’m not sure that deserves such a scolding…”
For a moment, in Ivan’s dispirited words, Ruby saw an illusion of his wolf ears, which weren’t even out, drooping.
“Huh.”
The sight looked so pitiful.
An urge rose to stroke the crown of the head of this man who stood a head taller than her. At the same time, her mother’s words came to mind.
‘Once a male starts looking cute, it’s all over.’
It was the answer to a question young Ruby had asked. The Pink Rabbit tribe had always had fewer females than males, so they practiced polyandry.
That’s why Ruby had five grandfathers. Her real grandfather, and the four others who became her grandfathers as her grandmother’s mates.
Not just her grandmother; the other female rabbit beastfolk kept on average three husbands too.
But her mother alone had a single mate. Ruby once asked her mother, who couldn’t forget the mate she’d lost long ago.
‘Why don’t you take in another male, Mom?’
She’d lost her father so young that, more than missing him, she resented that he’d left her mother alone. To the pouting Ruby, her mother only smiled and said:
‘I made a promise. That even after your father died, I wouldn’t take another mate.’
‘That’s just Dad being greedy. It’s wrong to be greedy.’
‘Hehe, who does my daughter take after, to be so clever?’
‘You, obviously.’
‘I’m not so sure. The way I see it, you take more after your father.’
‘What? I don’t like that!’
‘Ha ha, see? The way you flare up the moment you’re teased, it’s just like looking at your father.’
‘Hmph! Mom, I hate you!’
‘There, there, my daughter’s sulking.’
Mom held me and soothed me for a long while, then spoke in a calm voice. I was young at the time, but I could tell. That within it lay a longing too deep to fathom.
‘If… someday a cute male appears before my daughter, don’t let him go.’
‘But I like cool males.’
‘Oh, you, you. You only say that because you don’t know males yet. There are plenty of males who look cool in this world.’
‘Aren’t there plenty who look cute too?’
‘Absolutely not. Among all the cool males, there’ll be only one who looks cute to my eyes.’
‘I don’t get it.’
‘You won’t understand now. But if you ever meet a male like that, be sure to remember these words, Ruby.’
Mom gently stroked my hair and said firmly:
‘Once a male starts looking cute, it’s all over.’
Ending the recollection, Ruby’s face slowly began to flush. The red that started at her face slowly spread until not only her neck but even her arms were tinged red.
Ivan, beside her, was startled by the change and hurriedly lifted Ruby up.
“I knew it! You haven’t fully recovered yet! Liam!”
Making a great fuss, Ivan hurried back to the room. He set Ruby down on the bed and rolled the blanket into a round shape, making it like a rabbit burrow for her.
“Do you still claim you’re fine looking like that?”
Displaying his displeasure with his whole body, one eyebrow cocked crookedly, he pushed his face right up to hers. Ruby saw the illusion again.
An illusion in which, unlike his expression, his flattened ears twitched with worry, and his wolf tail drooped low in dejection.
Ah, Mom. You left one thing out. Looking pitiful seems even more hopeless than looking cute.
Ruby couldn’t take her eyes off the sight of Ivan, flustering in front of her as he waited for Liam and the attending physician, for a long time.
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