The Lion Cub's Cute Rule - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

“Vera… my daughter… I, well… you see, you’ve loved those sorts of things ever since you were little…”

The man in front of me rubbed his hands together, his greasy hair plastered with sweat.

He was my father. Not long ago, he’d left to trade goods and hadn’t come home for a week.

Just as my stepmother was about to sell off the family property and run, he returned and told us he’d accidentally wandered into a beast’s territory. The price of being released alive was choosing one of his three daughters as a sacrifice to the beast.

Naturally, that duty fell to me. After all, my stepmother would never let her precious darling daughters take the risk. She was still counting on both of them marrying counts!

“It’s all right, Father. You were always going to give me away to someone eventually. I am… willing to sacrifice myself for this family.”

I smiled and took my father’s hand, because crying and resisting wouldn’t change anything. It would only get me tied up and delivered to the beast.

Better to make use of what little guilt he had left and ask for a few things.

“But I need to take some things with me-not gold, silver, or jewels.”

I cut off my stepmother just as she opened her mouth to shriek.

“Give me something to defend myself with. Surely you wouldn’t bear to see me turned into little pieces of meat on the very first night, would you, Father?”

Maybe “little pieces” sounded too gruesome. Maybe Father thought of my mother, who had died young, and still had some faint trace of love for me.

In any case, I brought a knife, a hunting fork, a soft rope… quite a few weapons.

They also sent over a special bottle of spice no one recognized as part of my dowry. After all, any expensive spice with a name would never have made it into my hands.

Before I left, the two daughters my stepmother had brought with her circled around me, dripping with mockery.

“Ohhh, let’s guess. Who’s the girl getting thrown away?”

“It’s-Ve-ra!”

“Who can only carry a little bundle, all pitiful and tragic, off to feed the beast?”

“It’s-Vera!”

“Vera, my ass.”

I raised my hand and rewarded each of them with a slap, sending them spinning like tops.

Then, before my stepmother could erupt into a shrieking explosion, I snatched a horse, swept up my bundle, and charged out of the house.

Honestly, there was nothing so bad about going to keep a beast company. Sometimes, people were far more frightening than beasts.

The castle was magnificent and enormous, but gloomy and ancient.

The marble fireplace in the drawing room was cold, cradling ashes from who knew how many years ago. There were many gold and silver vessels, all giving off the metallic tang of rust. Gorgeous velvet curtains hung everywhere, but they were buried under such a thick layer of dust that their colors could no longer be seen.

The place was like a tomb long forgotten.

I touched the dagger strapped to my thigh and kept walking upward.

From the darkness ahead, a foul, fishy wind suddenly swept toward me. Then came a hoarse, brooding voice.

“What arrogant creature dares trespass upon my territory…

“I will tear you apart, devour you, rip you into little pieces…

“Tremble… Hurry and run away in tears, pissing yourself in terror… Do not be curious. Do not explore… Wuwuwu? Mreow!!!”

There was a tremendous crash of splintering wood, and some enormous creature came rolling down with a thunderous rumble.

Amid terrified mreow-mreow yowls, the big fellow tore down and tangled up countless curtains all the way, then plunged straight into an endless whirlpool of cloth strips!

With a bang, dust billowed everywhere.

“Cough! Cough, cough-”

Once the sounds of struggling disappeared, I crept over on tiptoe.

-What a huge kitty ball!

So the legendary beast that haunted the ancient castle was only a Great Lion.