Chapter: 7
Still Alive?
Come to think of it, the number of knights guarding the princess’s palace had increased at some point.
Lately, whenever he came to see me, he often wore a serious expression while receiving reports from his adjutant.
Emperor Ritain had been going out for personal inspections more frequently these days.
He seemed to be preparing for something, convinced that an unusual event was about to occur.
‘Is that why he gave me such a precious magical tool? Because he’s afraid I might die?’
Between the Rilberg Empire and the Penterin Empire flowed high mountain ranges and deep rivers, making interaction nearly impossible.
Therefore, magical tools were extremely rare and expensive in the Penterin Empire.
Yet, Ritain had gone out of his way to acquire such a tool and place it on Jusielia.
Jusielia felt needlessly upset, and her pride was wounded.
In my past life, I think I was a fairly strong beastman who could hold her own.
‘How did I end up like this?’
Jusielia stared at her reflection in the mirror.
Pure white fur with a hint of silver, black stripes, round ears, and mysterious blue eyes like a frozen winter lake.
‘Yes, I’m admittedly cute. But so what? What good is it just being pretty?’
Jusielia was nearly eight months old.
Yet, her growth had stopped at the size of a typical one-month-old tiger cub.
The royal physician and priests had gathered and diagnosed that because Jusielia was a ‘White Tiger,’ her growth might be slow, and they even hypothesized that some power might be obstructing it.
While she was the first White Tiger born into the Penterin royal family, she wasn’t the first White Tiger to be born at all.
White Tigers had been born into other families a few times before.
However, they were all frail and died young. Based on this, the surrounding beastmen concluded that Princess Jusielia was small and growing slowly because she, too, was a White Tiger.
Hearing this, Jusielia was so dumbfounded that she furiously scratched at the floor.
‘Then when in the world am I going to grow up, and when can I humanize! It’s so frustrating!’
Beastmen usually complete their humanization between the ages of four at the earliest and eight at the latest.
But at this rate, there was no telling when it would happen. Jusielia was frustrated and had been feeling down lately.
All the beastmen who cared for her were in their human forms, so Jusielia was eager to walk on two legs and speak as well.
‘Sigh.’
After Ritain delivered his long, threatening speech and left the imperial castle, Jusielia leaped onto a high windowsill and gazed outside, lost in thought.
Once it was concluded that Jusielia’s lack of growth was a characteristic of the frail White Tiger, everyone, starting with Emperor Ritain, became even more overprotective of her.
Jusielia rested her front paw on the windowpane and sighed.
‘Damn it. I hate being a White Tiger. I just want to be a regular tiger! If I’d been born a Golden Tiger, there wouldn’t have been any problems.’
She felt sorry for her mother, who had given her life to birth her, and for those who had waited for a White Tiger, but as the one in question, Jusielia was honestly just annoyed.
‘Sigh. If it weren’t for that blasted oracle.’
The reason the Divine Beast Ganash had been waiting for a White Tiger to be born into the Penterin royal family.
The story from the children’s book Sophie had read to Jusielia went like this.
A very long time ago.
This was before the vast continent was divided into the Eastern and Western Continents.
In ancient times, beastmen and humans lived together in relative peace.
Suddenly, a tide of bloodshed began.
A being known as the Dark Divine Beast gathered its followers, destroyed the world, and mercilessly slaughtered living creatures.
Many beastmen and humans joined forces, but as it was a time before proper nations had been formed, they couldn’t mount an organized resistance and were helplessly defeated.
Unable to stand by, the Divine Beasts stepped in to stop it, but as the battles between the powerful Divine Beasts continued, the continent was reduced to ruins.
The number of casualties and deaths continued to rise.
Deciding they could delay no longer, the White Tiger Divine Beast ‘Anash,’ one of the tiger Divine Beast siblings, stepped forward.
The great Anash cornered the Dark Divine Beast and sacrificed herself with her unique supernatural ability, dying along with it.
The scars of that fierce battle still remain vivid on the continent, the most prominent being the mountains and rivers that now separate the Eastern and Western Continents.
It was a tremendous battle, powerful enough to create the high mountain ranges and deep rivers that split the continent in half.
‘And so, humans and beastmen came to share the divided continent, right?’
Jusielia recalled the story from the children’s book and blinked.
After the battle ended, the Western Continent had been completely destroyed by the Dark Divine Beast, so most of the survivors remained on the Eastern Continent.
Among them, the humans, who deeply hated the Dark Divine Beast, declared that they would henceforth reject the blessings of the beastmen.
And so, a few human archmages created magical airships and carried the humans over to the Western Continent.
At the time, the beastmen were said to have scoffed, believing those humans would soon perish.
‘But they’re living just fine. I’m curious too, about the people of the Rilberg Empire.’
In any case, the story concluded that among the beastmen who remained on the Eastern Continent, the Penterin family, a clan of tiger beastmen, established the empire.
‘So the Divine Beast Ganash believes that a White Tiger born into the Penterin royal family will be able to wield Anash’s power, right? Or that it might even be Anash’s reincarnation.’
It was said that the reason White Tigers were rarely born, and died so quickly, was because Anash, the only White Tiger Divine Beast who should have blessed them, was gone.
However, the priests and scholars determined that a White Tiger born into the Penterin royal family was highly likely to be ‘Anash’ herself.
A White Tiger Divine Beast capable of defeating the powerful Dark Divine Beast would have to be incredibly strong.
‘It’s ridiculous. The expectation that I might be Anash…’
Jusielia scoffed in disbelief.
She stared intently at her soft, jelly-like paw pads that were resting on the windowpane.
‘Anash, my foot…’
Jusielia grumbled, licking her soft pink front paw.
Hello? You’ve all got it wrong.
My teeth haven’t even fully grown in yet; I’m still eating baby food!
I can’t even tear into meat properly, so what ‘legendary White Tiger’ are you talking about?
Her pride wounded, Jusielia grew sullen and plopped down on the windowsill, resting her chin on her paws and flicking her tail.
“Agh! Your Highness. How did you get up there?”
“P-Please come down!”
Having spotted Jusielia lying on the highest windowsill, the knight Xaviet and the maid Uni rushed over, reaching up and stomping their feet in a panic.
Before more people gathered and it got noisy, Jusielia launched herself to the floor, landing nimbly.
“Kyaa! Your Highness!”
“Kyang!”
See that?
I can still do this much, you know.
Jusielia had meant to express that she was capable of something, but in Sir Xaviet’s eyes, she was just an adorable baby White Tiger.
He clenched his fists, turned his head away, and trembled.
Uni shot him a sharp glare, then jabbed him hard in the side and hugged Jusielia tightly.
“Gah!”
“Are you hurt anywhere? Oh, my goodness!”
“Krrreung!”
Finding the sight of Sir Xaviet trembling and insisting his ribs were broken amusing, Jusielia squirmed out of Uni’s grasp.
Then she flopped onto the floor.
‘Haah, honestly. I want to grow up quickly.’
But why am I in such a hurry? Is there a reason I have to grow up fast?
Suddenly puzzled, Jusielia tilted her head.
It was a strange feeling.
This sense of restlessness.
‘It feels like I’m being chased by someone who’s after me…’
Just then, Jusielia’s ears twitched as she noticed a commotion in the palace hallway.
‘This kind of fuss usually only happens when Dad comes to the princess’s palace.’
Jusielia unknowingly referred to the Emperor, her guardian, as Dad and shivered. She had instinctively sensed danger.
But Emperor Ritain had definitely left the imperial castle this morning.
He had even said his goodbyes, saying he wouldn’t see me for a long time, so it had to be true.
‘And this presence is different from Dad’s!’
Tense for the first time in a while, Jusielia’s fur stood on end.
The door burst open.
Jusielia’s eyes widened in surprise at the person who forcefully opened her door and strode in.
‘Hah.’
Without realizing it, she raised her hindquarters and once again assumed an attack stance.
The visitor was a boy wearing a dark black uniform with a golden sash and a sword at his side.
The golden eyes set in his sharp features were unsettling.
This boy, who was clearly anything but ordinary, was Ijeten, the Crown Prince of the Penterin Empire.
Startled, Jusielia froze.
“Oh! It’s a real White Tiger, isn’t it? But…”
Having spotted Jusielia, Ijeten strode in with eyes full of curiosity.
He looked down at the wary little White Tiger and curled his lip.
“Still managed to stay alive, huh?”
