Chapter 3
A Strange Dream
The warmth on her head made her yawn.
“Khaa.”
Opening her mouth wide, Jusi padded to the bed and, overcome by a sudden wave of drowsiness, fell into a deep sleep, purring softly.
***
Trees and bushes with green leaves shimmering in the sunlight, the sound of a flowing stream, the chirping of insects.
‘…I’m in the mountains!’
Jusi was surprised, but quickly calmed down.
‘Ah, this must be a dream, of course.’
Jusi nodded to herself, figuring she must have been so bored that she wanted to escape, even if only in a dream.
Looking around, she found herself in a dense, lush forest.
It was so vivid it was astonishing.
As Jusi glanced around, her eyes widened.
A small child was sitting on a large rock near the stream, crying.
‘Five or six years old? Around that age.’
As she approached, she saw it was a child with black hair.
It was heartbreaking to see such a small child burying their face in their hands, swallowing their sobs without a sound.
She thought that a child should cry their heart out like a child.
‘Why is a child crying so silently? How pitiful.’
Just then, the child lifted their head and looked at Jusi. When their eyes met, Jusi’s widened in astonishment.
‘My goodness!’
Jusi’s mouth fell open in admiration.
They were as beautiful as a flower.
The child, blinking their teary, crimson eyes, had incredibly delicate and pretty features.
The child was wearing a large cloak that hid their body, and their features were so fine that it was difficult to tell their gender.
Jusi decided to comfort the crying child and ran toward the stream.
She then plucked profusely blooming flowers and diligently gathered them with her front paws.
‘Tch. How clumsy.’
Jusi grumbled, thinking there was nothing to be done with a tiger’s paws.
Still, the scent of the flowers was wonderful.
‘I hope this brings some comfort.’
Jusi held the bouquet in her mouth and offered it to the child.
The teary, crimson eyes widened.
“For me?”
‘What a nice voice.’
Pleased, Jusi nodded her head.
The child looked bewildered for a moment before accepting the bouquet, a blush coloring their cheeks.
Their shy smile was so beautiful. Jusi was so happy to see the child happy that she spun around, leaping and hopping with joy.
The child, who had been smiling while watching Jusi, suddenly stiffened.
“Little tiger, it’s dangerous!”
A frantic voice.
Jusi turned to look in the direction the child was pointing.
Seeing something black slithering up from the stream below, Jusi frowned.
‘What is that?’
This was just a dream, an illusion, so it shouldn’t matter.
But it was incredibly eerie.
What could it be, writhing so chillingly?
Curious, Jusi unwittingly took a step forward, and the black thing ‘looked’ at her.
‘It saw me?’
Making eye contact with something that had no proper form was so bizarre and frightening that she froze stiff.
It was then.
A stream of golden light poured out, forming a wall between Jusi and the ominous thing.
“No, little tiger! You must not meet that thing. Get away!”
Jusi turned to the child, her eyes wide.
‘Did you do that?’
A question that couldn’t be heard.
The child cried out desperately.
“I’ll be there soon. Okay? You have to stay safe and well!”
Leaving behind those incomprehensible words, they vanished like mist.
‘How strange.’
Jusi turned her head again.
‘Anyway, that black thing… I’ve seen it somewhere before… I think I know it.’
The afterimage flickering in her mind was so faint, it was as if it were tempting her to go closer and see for herself.
Before she knew it, the pitch-black ‘thing’ had climbed up the stream and was just a step away from her.
An evil presence, so dark it seemed to suck everything into a hellish abyss.
‘I’m sure of it. This thing and I have met in my past life.’
“You…”
The moment she tried to speak to it.
Whoosh-!
Suddenly, something large snatched Jusi by the scruff of her neck and began to run, speeding away from the spot.
Jusi dangled from the jaws of some creature, bewildered.
But seeing the pitch-black thing chasing her fearsomely sent a shiver down her spine.
She was weak, but that thing was incredibly strong.
The obsession with which it chased her, trying to kill her, was sheer madness.
It was terrifying.
Why is it doing that? Why does it want to kill me so badly?
‘…Is this really a dream?’
She was afraid.
Glaring back at the thing hunting her, Jusi continued to race through the rugged mountains, dangling from someone’s mouth.
The scenery blurred past, and the rushing wind left her completely dazed.
How long had they been running?
When the one carrying her set her down on the ground, Jusi’s jaw dropped in astonishment.
Silvery fur, a massive body, black stripes, and piercing blue eyes with upturned corners.
It was an immensely large and elegant white tiger, its size incomparable to her own!
The white tiger gazed at Jusi for a moment, then suddenly leaped away and disappeared.
“Ah!”
At that moment, a proper human cry escaped Jusi’s lips, not the mewling of a white tiger cub.
But Jusi had no time to wonder about that.
Because not long after the white tiger vanished, pure white snow began to fall heavily in the midsummer mountain.
***
Jusi, who had fallen asleep for a nap, slowly opened her eyes and looked around.
This was, without a doubt, her room in the Princess’s Palace.
The mountain with its lush green forest, the white tiger, the beautiful child, and the strange, heavy snow in midsummer—it was all a dream.
‘Yes, it must have been a dream…’
But it had been so vivid that the feeling lingered, and she lay there in a daze even after waking up.
She felt strange.
As she got off the bed, a mirror came into view.
A tiger cub wearing the bonnet Sophie had put on her earlier.
She looked just like a doll.
‘Hmph.’
Jusi wanted to grow up quickly.
It was frustrating to have an adult mind but live as a protected cub.
At first, she had enjoyed it leisurely.
After all, even a white tiger cub was still an animal, and animals were meant to grow.
But Jusi’s growth was so slow it seemed to have stopped altogether. She was still as tiny as a one-month-old cub.
‘I heard that white tigers are naturally frail and grow slowly, but…’
Trudge, trudge.
Dejected, Jusi walked to a corner of the room, buried her head, and whimpered.
Just then, a commotion erupted outside.
“We’ve received word that His Majesty the Emperor is on his way to the Princess’s Palace!”
Everyone was flustered, but after exchanging glances, they all began to prepare for the Emperor’s arrival under the Head Maid’s direction.
They tidied the room with practiced speed.
Jusi glanced at them as they hastily straightened their clothes and waited by the door.
‘But the sound is coming from over there.’
Jusi’s gaze was fixed on the terrace.
The doors burst open!
Just as Jusi had expected, the Emperor appeared not through the door from the hallway, but by opening the terrace doors himself.
“Gasp!”
“Your Majesty!”
The beastmen, who had been so focused on Jusi that they hadn’t heard the noise from outside, hastily lined up at the Emperor’s appearance.
His hair, cut short around his neck, was a brilliant gold that shone like the sun.
The Emperor was a strikingly handsome man with deep, vermilion-gold eyes and sharp, well-defined features.
Moreover, despite being nearly two meters tall, his broad shoulders and solid muscles gave him perfect proportions.
This was proof of the ‘strength’ and superior ‘physique’ bestowed by the tiger divine beast, Ganash.
“Glory to Penterin, we greet Your Majesty.”
Ritain Dester Penterin.
The 35th Emperor and the father of the White Tiger Princess, Jusi.
As he stepped into the room, everyone instinctively bowed low.
Befitting the ruler of the Eastern Continent, his presence was overwhelming. He was famous for his belligerent, sharp, and cruel nature, so everyone feared him.
The intimidating aura emitted by the beastmen of the Penterin royal family was so immense that ordinary beastmen would collapse or burst into tears from sheer terror upon meeting him.
“Hmph.”
Emperor Ritain swished his black cloak, his eyes quickly scanning the room for someone.
His sharp, golden eyes, like those of a predator searching for prey, landed on the small white tiger whimpering in the corner.
Her rear was stuck high in the air, her head pressed right into the corner of the wall. Emperor Ritain watched Jusi for a moment, then hesitated before clearing his throat with a short cough.
“Aha? Ahem.”
And then, a gentle voice, completely unfitting for his large frame and dignified presence, flowed out.
“Where did my little baby go~? I can’t see her?”
Everyone froze like statues.
