Chapter 30
“Good. It’s not damaged anywhere and still in fine condition. At this rate, we can sell it for a proper price.”
What had been neatly wrapped in cloth was a pale yellow mass of something that looked like cotton—familiar even to my eyes.
“Damn it… it’s not like this is the first time I’ve done this, so why did I have to get caught this time?”
It was the waterproof paste used to make divine beast nests—the same material I had recently used to help Joshua plug a hole in a water tank.
I realized that the corrupt senior had been smuggling it out several times.
‘They’re distributing it as a drug!’
That waterproof paste is harmless when used normally, but if processed at temperatures above a certain level, it becomes something like a drug that causes dizziness and a euphoric high.
Because of that, crimes related to this paste had once occurred, so it was now strictly controlled.
But Joshua, who happened to be working overtime late at night, had witnessed the scene of this crime…
“Still… this is driving me crazy. How am I supposed to deal with this guy now?”
Ah, wait a second!
He said he fought with a guy who was being territorial!
That’s what the novel said!
But this isn’t on that level at all!
Honestly, I had imagined something like workplace bullying from my days at a company.
Those days when I gritted my teeth every day, thinking I just wanted to punch my awful boss in the face once!
Of course, verbal abuse mixed with personal insults and dumping one’s work onto others is also pretty terrible!
But this is a completely different level of crime!
Divine beasts, if Joshua’s life was in danger like this, I should’ve called the guards instead of handling it myself!
“Haa… guess there’s no choice.”
At that moment, as if he had made up his mind, the corrupt senior walked toward Joshua.
“Blame your misfortune for coming to a place like this at this hour.”
“W-what are you going to do?”
“No matter how much you scream here, no one will hear you in the dorms, so don’t waste your energy and stay quiet.”
As he said, this place was quite remote within the divine beast nest, so even if someone screamed loudly, others likely wouldn’t hear.
The corrupt senior reached out toward the bound Joshua.
Ah—no!
“Little ones! Bite him!”
At my impulsive shout, the divine beasts all took flight at once.
“Kyaa!”
“Kyaang!”
Bang!
“Ugh—ah! What is this…!”
In an instant, the baby divine beasts burst through the door and swarmed the man standing in front of Joshua.
“D-divine beasts?”
Joshua also widened his eyes in surprise.
Two divine beasts latched onto Joshua’s ropes and began gnawing at them.
“Aaaagh! You crazy things! Get off me—!”
The man struggled violently to shake off the divine beasts.
Because of that, a few of the babies lost their grip and fell off from the recoil.
“D-don’t hurt the babies! You bad person!”
Freed from the rope, Joshua stood up on shaky legs.
But in the next moment, he moved in a posture that seemed strangely familiar.
His limbs flailed loosely, waving about in all directions.
I stared blankly at the scene unfolding before me, my tension rapidly fading, mouth hanging open.
You know those inflatable air figures in front of amusement parks or newly opened stores?
It felt like two of those figures, unable to control their limbs, were flailing wildly in all directions.
“Kuuek!”
Then, a man who had been struck by Joshua’s fist—bad luck, since his vision had been blocked by the baby divine beasts—let out a scream and fell backward.
“Kyung kyung!”
“Pwoong!”
The baby divine beasts quickly piled onto him to keep him from getting back up.
The corrupt senior, seemingly exhausted, could only groan under the weight of the divine beasts, while Joshua, though looking disheveled, appeared unharmed.
‘W-wait… is it over? Just like this? That anticlimactic?’
This did seem to match the incident mentioned in the novel where Joshua was in danger…
But still, there was no sign that Joshua had formed a bond with a divine beast.
Could it be because I interfered and sent the baby divine beasts in as reinforcements?
Did that reduce Joshua’s sense of crisis?
‘Ugh—wait! Then is this my fault again?!’
I started feeling like pounding my chest, wondering if I had acted too hastily and messed things up again.
But at the time, there was no other choice.
I couldn’t just stand by and watch Joshua’s life being threatened right in front of me.
‘First of all… I got deceived by the novel! This wasn’t just a simple workplace dispute!’
“Kee-kee!”
As I stood outside the warehouse, secretly clutching my head and wondering whether to be happy or sad about how things had turned out, weasels suddenly scampered in from the darkness.
Following them were the sounds of people’s footsteps.
“This way! This way! The weasels ran toward the warehouse!”
“Honestly, how did those creatures even get in…? Huh? Why is the door broken?”
I quickly hid myself.
Ever since the corrupt senior took out the nest paste earlier, he had been out of sight—and it seemed the clever weasels had gone to fetch other caretakers from the dormitory.
Good, well done!
They should have called the adults from the beginning.
“Hey! What are you all doing here?!”
“The warehouse is a mess! Don’t tell me you fought here?”
“Wait a minute…! Is this Bella paste?!”
The caretakers, upon checking the warehouse, were shocked.
After scanning the surroundings, they seemed to quickly grasp the situation.
“What is going on here! Explain properly!”
“M-manager… well…”
Joshua, flustered, seemed to gather his courage and began to speak.
“J-Joshua… Joshua tried to steal the Bella paste!”
At that moment, the corrupt senior—still pinned under the baby divine beasts—cut in first.
“I heard it clearly! He said he was going to take it out and sell it! When I caught him, he attacked me and ended up like this!”
Not only did he refuse to admit his crime, he shamelessly denied it and tried to pin it on Joshua.
“W-what are you talking about?! That was all your doing, senior!”
“You little brat! How dare you lie without shame! Managers! This one is lying! I don’t know what trick he used, but he even used divine beasts to do this to me! You’re not going to believe someone so suspicious, are you?!”
Joshua didn’t seem to be good at arguing.
While the corrupt senior loudly fabricated accusations, Joshua could only open and close his mouth.
The caretakers began murmuring among themselves.
With no clear evidence, they seemed confused about whose words were true.
What now… is it my turn to step in?
“No, it was that uncle who did it!”
I seized the opportunity and quietly jumped in.
My sudden loud voice startled everyone, making their eyes widen.
“P-Princess?”
“I saw everything from where I was hiding! That man stole the paste and hid it, and when he got caught by that older brother, he tied him up and hit him!”
I imitated a child’s speech, pointing at the man lying on the ground as I continued.
“Uncle, hurting kids is what bad adults do. Stealing is also what bad adults do!”
Caught off guard by the sudden witness, the culprit looked utterly bewildered.
The others were the same.
Joshua stared at me with his mouth wide open.
“W-why is the Princess here at this hour?”
Ah… right. I hadn’t prepared an excuse yet.
Well, whatever. I’ll just make something up.
“I dropped something when I came to the divine beast nest during the day, so I came back to look for it. Then I heard noise from the warehouse and came to check, and that uncle was yelling, so I got scared and hid!”
Even if it sounded strange, what could they do?
I’m a princess!
“Th-this is ridiculous! That’s not true!”
But the culprit, suddenly faced with the appearance of the princess as a witness, seemed to lose his composure in panic.
“Since the warehouse is dark, the Princess must have seen something wrong. Surely you won’t believe the words of such a small child, right?!”
His reckless words irritated me.
“Small child?”
My earlier act of pretending to be an innocent child vanished.
“You insolent fool! How dare you speak so carelessly in front of me?!”
At my cold voice, everyone around shuddered in a different kind of shock than before.
The man, directly facing my piercing gaze, turned deathly pale and gasped.
“I am the Princess of Rosantina. Just because I am young does not mean you may treat me lightly!”
Though this body belonged to a five-year-old child, I still carried the accumulated presence of a princess from my past life.
“Especially someone like you, who takes pleasure in tormenting children and lies as easily as breathing—how dare you think your words are worth more than a single sentence from a five-year-old child?”
