IBTPCS 05

Chapter 05

A filthy space, like a collection of livestock pens. Crown Prince Michael, whose sparkling appearance didn’t suit the place at all, was peering into one of the cages.

Inside the cage were a child with wings, a child with horns sprouting from their head, and a child with hair like an old woman’s. Children of various forms were imprisoned there.

Canis, with her perked ears, was hidden behind the other children and hadn’t yet entered Michael’s field of vision. Instead, the white-haired girl standing relatively close to the outside caught his eye.

“What’s this odd thing?”

Beastkin with animal features weren’t particularly unusual. Rare, perhaps, but those were their natural characteristics.

But a human child with hair that had faded like an old woman’s—that was grotesque.

It attracted people’s gaze strangely, like a deformity of three eyes or feet fused together. Perhaps that was why she was captured and kept in this cage along with the other beastkin.

The child flinched and shrank back under his gaze, as if he were looking at a bizarre mutation.

*Grrrr.*

And sensing the child’s fear, Canis felt a surge of hostility towards the one frightening her.

She was the smallest and most fragile child in the cage. There was no need to wound her with such base curiosity and insensitive words! Canis’s throat rumbled involuntarily, filled with wariness and animosity.

“Hoh?”

At that moment, Crown Prince Michael’s attention shifted to the one making the ominous sound.

With ears perked up and teeth bared, she stood out in contrast to everyone else around her, who were all cowering in fear.

“That one is…”

“Ah, yes, Your Highness. She’s a young beastkin who’s never had an owner before. As you know, slaves are popular items—they’re loyal and clever if properly trained.”

The slave trader, who had been bowing and scraping beside the Crown Prince without ever straightening his back, quickly rattled off an explanation.

Not bothering to listen to the trader’s endless chatter about things he hadn’t even asked about, Michael observed Canis with interest. She had painted her face with wariness and was glaring at him.

*Grrrrrr.*

Meeting his rude gaze, as if watching a pet perform tricks, Canis’s hostility rose further, and a growl escaped her mouth more clearly.

At the threatening sound warning him not to come closer, Michael’s eyes sparkled with amusement instead. Lifting the corners of his mouth with no intention of hiding his interest, he asked the trader who was still bowing beside him.

“How much is she?”

Even while asking the price, Crown Prince Michael didn’t take his eyes off Canis, staring straight at her.

Furious at being treated like a shoddy item on a street stall, Canis howled.

“Grrr! Grrrr! Grrr!”

Startled by her sudden rampage, as if she might overturn the cage, the trader hurriedly shouted at the tent entrance to summon his servants.

“Wh-what’s wrong with her! Hey there! Yes, you! Bring that equipment and get over here!”

Following his orders, the workers hurriedly gathered their tools and rushed over.

As if the commotion around him had nothing to do with him, Crown Prince Michael, who hadn’t moved an inch from his spot watching the cage, gazed intently at Canis.

“You’re the first one who’s ever dared to bare your teeth and bark at me like this.”

Canis, who had been snarling fiercely as if she would spit blood from her throat, shouted at him in fury—at him, who watched her like a spectacle without even blinking.

**「 “______!” 」**

—

* * *

Yes. What appeared next was the first choice.

As the clues presented to her so far indicated, if this was the world of the game, this was a branching point she absolutely couldn’t miss.

The choices that determined the game’s important endings were mandatory events accompanied by illustrations. It was precisely at those moments that the future progression was decided.

And now.

The encounter at the slave shop was the first mandatory event.

Eugene analyzed what the original situation meant and identified the key strategy points.

Crown Prince Michael originally had little interest in acquiring slaves, but he became intrigued by Canis’s refusal to hide her hostility and her direct confrontation.

Seeing her bare her teeth without backing down even in the face of the cage surrounding her or the soldiers encircling the area, Michael took her to the palace under the pretense of taming a cheeky stray dog.

‘And after this, the Crown Prince Michael route was nothing but confinement endings.’

The only time an ending other than confinement came out in relation to the Crown Prince was when the wrong choice was made in that first mandatory event.

If you didn’t pick the correct answer for the event, Crown Prince Michael would leave with a bored expression, and as punishment for causing a disturbance, Canis would be disposed of by the shop.

But even if you picked the correct answer for the event…

‘Canis was never happy.’

From the player’s perspective, there was fun in collecting various confinement endings, but Canis, who had to face the Crown Prince’s maddening obsession head-on, was disgusted by him.

In every route within the game, Canis wanted to escape from Crown Prince Michael.

‘That very desire is what further provoked Michael and led to confinement, but…’

Canis always pursued freedom. A life trapped in a cage like a pet ate away at her soul.

Poor Canis. She would now live her entire life in the palace, unable to leave, unable to do anything.

Later, trapped in a cage built from all the empire’s treasures by Michael, now Emperor, she would never achieve the freedom she longed for…

‘Huh?’

In a palace full of treasure… doing nothing…?

Suddenly, a flash of realization struck her.

Eugene recalled the last words she had muttered before the scenery around her had suddenly changed.

—

– …I’d rather be reborn as a dog in a house like that.

—

The Imperial Palace.

The Imperial Palace, where the Crown Prince would take the protagonist, was overflowing with treasure.

Feeding just one pet without lifting a finger was laughably easy.

“…”

A crazy thought arose in Eugene’s mind, one that would make this already confusing situation even more chaotic.

Michael still hadn’t averted his intrigued gaze from her.

*Grrrr.*

She heard Canis’s threatening growl from behind. Before Michael could react to that, Eugene took a deep breath and opened her mouth.

“Woof woof woof woof woof!!”

It was clearly the sound of a human barking.

In the deep silence created by the stunned people, only the barking echoed. Canis, who had been about to make a threatening sound, stared at Eugene with her mouth hanging open.

While everyone wore bewildered expressions, Crown Prince Michael pointed at Eugene and asked.

“…Is that one also a beastkin?”

“No, she’s not.”

The trader kept bowing and wiping the sweat from his forehead.

“That one is clearly human, but…”

*Has she lost her mind?* His expression seemed to imply that unspoken question. Eugene ignored everyone’s reactions and continued barking fiercely.

She knew exactly what she was doing.

‘It’s insane.’

The original protagonist Canis was naturally fearless and had a dense attribute that worked for various events, so she had recklessly acted without knowing who she was dealing with. But Eugene knew exactly what kind of person Crown Prince Michael was.

In the game, he never laid a hand on Canis.

Only on Canis.

Instead, he showed himself as a merciless tyrant to everyone else. All the more to keep Canis bound to him.

So a mere girl from a slave shop pulling this kind of dog act in front of a Crown Prince of cruel disposition would, under normal circumstances, be nothing more than a unique appeal to have her head chopped off.

But this was the world of the game.

‘If… if this is an event.’

If it didn’t have to be the protagonist who achieved the conditions for this event that was just starting.

‘It’s worth checking.’

Either way, what’s the worst that could happen from doing something crazy here? At most, death.

It was just a moment anyway. Dying.

The prolonged stress and sudden change of environment drove Eugene to extremely cynical thinking. As a result, she calmly entertained self-destructive thoughts and acted on them without hesitation.

“Woof woof woof woof!”

…The fact that this involved actually barking like a dog was proof that Eugene’s common sense and minimum dignity had been completely shattered without a trace.

Alright! Look at these clearly bared teeth! I’m definitely barking at you! Eugene stared intensely at Crown Prince Michael with clear intent and thought.

‘Say that line!’

And take me with you!

Did her efforts pay off? Crown Prince Michael, who had been watching the girl making dog sounds with an incredulous expression, opened his mouth.

“How much is that one?”

It wasn’t the same intrigued expression he had worn when looking at Canis, but that didn’t matter.

“You’re the first one who’s ever dared to blatantly… bark dog-like sounds right in front of me.”

Eugene was satisfied that she had smoothly drawn out the line just before the choice appeared. She knew the correct answer to respond with.

‘If I pick this answer, Crown Prince Michael will…’

Eugene opened her mouth confidently, with a strange conviction.