Let Us Adopt You
PROLOGUE
Ten-year-old wildcat beastkin Bariya clutched a baby tiger with unusually mottled fur tight against her chest, sneaking wary little glances from the corner of her eye.
Across from her sat three tiger beastkin, savage-faced, their eyes wide and glaring. They were the Caliphs — the head family that commanded every tiger beastkin on the continent. Family head Baden. His wife, Sabrina. And their heir, Shirca. The three of them poured out such a murderous air that it was hard to believe they were merely facing a girl of ten.
Grrrr.
Whether it sensed the dangerous mood or not, the baby tiger in Bariya's arms bared its teeth. The three beastkin did not so much as look at it. Their sharp eyes were fixed on Bariya alone.
"You."
The first to speak was Sabrina Caliph, a beauty with a dazzling presence.
"You dare wreck my estate and run?"
At that lethal tone, Bariya's eyes darted. She had done wrong, and she looked entirely unrepentant.
Sabrina clenched her fist.
"You shameless little runaway. I cannot forgive this!"
"You're right."
"I agree with Mother."
Husband and son both nodded along with Sabrina's fury — Baden, and Shirca.
"So I'll get straight to the point."
Sabrina set a single sheet of paper down on the table with a decisive thump.
It was a document declaring that Bariya would be taken in as a daughter of the Caliph family.
"......Huh?"
At the truly shocking proposal, Bariya's eyes went round.
"Are you all sick? I really think you might have hit your heads...... Oh. Was it because of me?"
"We are perfectly normal!"
Sabrina bellowed at the worried question.
"But if you refuse, it will hurt our hearts."
Baden nodded at Shirca's words.
"So become our daughter."
"Or you could just be my little sister."
Bariya was dumbfounded.
"Being the family head's daughter or being Shirca's little sister is the same thing."
Shirca was Baden and Sabrina's son, after all.
"If you don't want to call the two of them Mother and Father, you can just be my sister."
"Nonsense. Being my daughter is far better than being your sister."
Sabrina cut in, bristling. To Bariya the two options were identical, but the pair insisted they were plainly different and launched into an argument.
"Well, Bariya. Which will you choose?"
Choose. Choose. Even with the options already fixed, the three beastkin crowded around her and pressed her to pick.
It was the first moment a wildcat beastkin would be entered into a tiger family's register.
Deep in a forest where there was nothing but grass and trees, with not a soul to help her, Bariya panted for breath and swept her surroundings with a fierce glare. Six or seven hyenas, drool stringing from their jaws, had her surrounded.
It was a hair-trigger standoff, but Bariya did not panic in the slightest. She watched the situation with a cool head. It had already been three years since the hyenas began hunting her. Three years was long enough, as the saying went, for even a dog at the academy to write a treatise — and running had become Bariya's specialty.
What was more, ever since she had stepped onto land that might have belonged to some beastkin or other a few months ago, the pursuit had slackened. At some point only Ordinary Animals, not beastkin, had been chasing her, and driving them off had grown considerably easier. A beastkin was superior to an animal. That held true even for Bariya, who was still only ten.
"Kyaaak!"
Bariya hissed savagely and slammed her tail against the ground. Cowed by the spirit of a wildcat no bigger than a fist, the hyenas flinched and trembled.
Grrrr.
But they had their orders, and they would not retreat. They crept in anyway, watching her all the while, and at last Bariya unsheathed her claws.
Come on, you idiots. I'll show you the greatness of a wildcat!
She was a heartbeat from raking out the nearest hyena's eye.
Whud!
Kyain!
Bone cracked, and one hyena screamed as it was flung aside. Not only the pack — Bariya, too, jerked her head around in surprise.
"Why are these annoying hyena brats swarming like this?"
A youthful young man, silver hair streaming on the wind, kicked a hyena in the ribs and sent it flying. Honestly, she had not even seen the violent motion. No — watching him punt that infuriating hyena so cleanly was deeply, viciously satisfying. Even so, Bariya could not react as she should have.
Wh-what does he look like?
Silver hair, skin like unblemished white jade — the young man was beautiful enough to be shocking. Bariya, learning for the first time in her life that a man could be beautiful, was staring blankly at him when—
"......!"
The young man turned toward her. The moment her eyes met irises bluer than the sky, every hair on her body stood on end. This was no time to lose her wits over a face. She knew it by instinct.
That is no ordinary beastkin. If I'm caught, I'll die!
That thing was a predator beastkin more dangerous than the hyenas!
"A baby kitten?"
Her wariness had only just spiked. At the young man's words, irritation surged hot through her. She was a wildcat, you great predator! True, she had not grown properly and was rather small and cute — but even so! He could not tell a great wildcat from a house cat. A sigh at such stupidity rose all on its own.
But this isn't the time to argue about that.
Any beastkin was dangerous. A predator beastkin stronger than hyenas went without saying. If she did not want to die, she had to run, no matter what.
Bariya clenched her teeth, spun, and tried to flee.
But—
"Kyeng! What?!"
Before she had taken a single step, her body suddenly rose into the air. The blue-eyed young man who had definitely been far away — when had he even closed the distance? — had her by the scruff.
"It really is a cat. Aigoo, trapped among those hyenas, you must have been so frightened."
Another predator beastkin came up beside the young man. Bariya thrashed like mad.
"Kraaang! Kraaaang! Let me go! Let me go!"
"......She's got a truly filthy temper."
"Right? Doesn't seem like an ordinary cat."
The blue-eyed beastkin, who had been quietly watching Bariya flail with her whole body, suddenly buried his nose against the scruff of her neck.
"......!"
A chill prickled over her skin. The illusion of fangs closing on her nape flashed before her eyes.
"Kyaaaak!"
Startled, Bariya lashed the young man's cheek with a forepaw in a frenzy.
"Good heavens!"
The other beastkin's mouth fell open at the sight of him taking five slaps to the cheek in an instant.
"Something no one has ever managed — th-this precious baby kitten!"
He applauded the pawprint stamped on that fair cheek.
"We'll have to take her to the estate."
The young man, stroking his cheek, wore an ominous smile. Bariya, who had been glaring at him in open wariness, flinched.
"......You're not going to eat her, are you? She's a baby kitten who doesn't know a thing."
"That wouldn't be so bad either."
Leaving those loaded words behind, the young man turned.
"We're heading back."
Only then did Bariya notice that every last hyena was already dead. The beastkin who looked to be of the young man's kind had dealt with them.
"Here. Keep a good hold on her until we're back at the estate."
While Bariya was still examining the dead hyenas, the young man passed her to the man at his side. It was only a brief instant, but Bariya, her freedom restored, lit up.
This arrogant predator dared look down on me?
She could run when it was time to run. First she would pay him back!
"Uh, uhhh?"
"Uh?!"
Kicking off the man's hand, Bariya sprang into the air and showed off a splendid twist. Then she launched a glorious hind-paw kick straight at the wide-eyed young man's face.
Thwack!
His head snapped sideways under the blow, and everyone watching gaped.
Shirca Caliph. For the heir who had lived his life as successor to the tigers' head family, it was a moment that would never come again.
The Caliphs, the head family that ruled every tiger beastkin. The reason their heir and Young Patriarch, Shirca, had come to the border of tiger territory was none other than the hyenas, whose numbers had swelled of late. They were Ordinary Animals, not beastkin, but the growing count of hyenas — with whom relations were already poor — nagged at him, so he had brought his knights to see for himself.
I didn't expect to find something like this out here.
He had wondered what was going on when those irritating hyenas were gathered in a sickening swarm. What they had been surrounding was a tiny baby kitten. Honestly, he had not even noticed it at first.
"Aigoo, Lady Kitten. If you wish to live, you must not do such things. You truly almost died just now."
Jake, Shirca's right hand, sighed and sighed again, then swiftly swaddled the baby kitten he had barely subdued, binding her tight in cloth.
"Sir Jake, why are you speaking so respectfully to a baby kitten?"
Another knight asked, baffled by the sight.
"Because she is the grateful soul who struck our Young Patriarch's cheek. You lot will treat her as precious, too."
"Ahh. If that's the reason."
At Jake's answer, the knights nodded in all seriousness. Shirca was speechless.
"Kraaak! Let me go!"
Even in the midst of it, Bariya never stopped thrashing for a second. Everyone burst into admiration at such a truly tremendous temper.
"She just won't calm down. Ah — shall we try giving her something to eat?"
I'm about to be dragged off. Why would I be hungry?
"Here. Eat."
"Mmph!"
The moment she bared her teeth, something was shoved into her mouth. A savory aroma, saltiness seasoned just right, the taste of meat spreading across her tongue! At the flavor of jerky that was both delicious and nourishing, Bariya's struggling stopped. It had been far too long since she had tasted proper food.
"Mnya-nya."
"Ooh, look at her eat."
"So she was hungry after all."
The knights clustered in twos and threes, heads together, gawking at her.
They're not about to snatch it back, are they?
Bariya, who had been gripping the jerky neatly in her forepaws and tearing into it, twisted sharply and hid inside the swaddle.
"Hrk."
"Kh—"
"Hnnn......"
At the sight of her rump wiggling as she gobbled the jerky from inside the bundle, the knights clutched at their hearts. They had already forgotten that the child had been thrashing at a terrifying pitch.