“Hee. I’ll just go watch the parade and come back! I’ll explain the situation to Shushu when I meet her, and she’ll understand!”

Bestia, who had been in a bad mood until just now, smiled brightly. She felt her mood lifting at her own brilliant idea. Bestia headed towards the village with an excited heart.

“Wow! There are really a lot of people!”

The path where the parade was scheduled to pass was packed with people. Bestia stood on her tiptoes and looked around. She was wondering if she could find her best friends, Shushu and Crusoe.

“I guess the kids haven’t arrived yet.”

Among the densely packed people, the friends she was looking for weren’t there. Bestia, who had been looking around aimlessly, suddenly widened her eyes.

“Ah! A, a pickpocket! No! Stop!”

A boy put his hand in and out of an old woman’s pocket. A few coins glinted in the sunlight. Bestia shouted loudly. At her cry, the pickpocket took off running. He slipped through the crowd like an eel with his thin body.

“Hey! Stop right there! There’s a thief over there! Thief!”

Bestia ran after him. She thought it would be easy to catch a thief who looked younger than her. But she was mistaken.

“Huff, huff……”

Running while squeezing through the gaps between large people quickly drained her stamina. Bestia bent over, catching her breath.

“Oh my. Why is he so fast!”

She should have just told the security guards, but burning with a useless sense of justice, she did something unnecessary. She didn’t even have the strength to stand. She thought she might not even be able to see the parade at this rate. It was a big problem. Thinking she should go back even now, she raised her head.

“Hey!”

“Huh? W-what?”

A sharp call pierced her ears. When she finally came to her senses, she saw several people holding knives. Bestia’s face turned pale. She looked back. The only escape route was blocked as well.

“Why did you follow us and interfere with our business when you should have just gone on your way!”

“You don’t look like a noble lady either. Want to get in trouble?”

“D-don’t do this! I’ll scream if you come closer!”

“Scream? Go ahead. Do you think this is our first time in this alley? People rarely come here.”

Soon, the knife-wielding people started to close the distance little by little. Bestia glared sharply at the pickpockets surrounding her. There were about eight people, some looking older than her, some similar, and a few much younger and shorter.

If there was even a slight opening on either side, she would have tried to rush through, but there was a problem. Each of them had a knife or a club in their hands. All she had was a yellow handkerchief with pretty embroidery.

“Wait! How can you hit a woman!”

“That’s funny!”

“What?”

“Villains don’t care if you’re a woman!”

Seeing the well-sharpened blade, Bestia quickly changed her expression. She tried her best to look pitiful. She appealed to their humanity. But these weren’t the kind of people that would work on. As they raised their knives, an extreme fear washed over her. Bestia crouched down, covering her head with her hands.

“Kyaa! Help!”

A shrill scream filled the narrow alley. The instinct that had been sleeping awoke in the face of the imminent terror. Her body suddenly felt hot, and a bright light entered her tightly closed vision.

─ Quack! (Kyaa!)

Bestia screamed again in fear of the sharp blades pouring down.

“Huh? W-what! Just now?”

“What? What is it? Her?”

“D-duck?”

“…Duck?”

Duck?

Both the listeners and the speakers were bewildered. The woman in front of them had turned into a duck. The group of pickpockets had stupid looks on their faces. They stood still with their knives raised in the air, frozen by the sudden event. Eight men surrounding a pure white duckling looked at each other.

Bestia didn’t know what had happened to her. She was just trembling with her eyes tightly shut, wondering when the blade would come down. Small quack, quack… sounds leaked out between her small and cute yellow beak.

“It’s a duck, right?”

“Yeah. Seems so.”

“First time seeing a duck beastman.”

“Me too.”

You too? Hey, me three!

Everyone in the alley doubted their ears. Including Bestia.

─ Quack? Quack? (Duck? Who’s a duck?)

“What are we doing now? Eight people in front of a small duckling?”

She thought she was about to be beaten up and collapse, but the situation was strange. Bestia carefully opened her eyes. Her pupils shook greatly at what she saw as soon as she opened her eyes. She didn’t even have the presence of mind to notice that someone with a heavy voice was behind her.

─ Quack? Quaaack? (What’s this? Why did everyone get so big?)

Everything in her sight had become enormously large. It was like being in an unfamiliar world. When she looked around in confusion, she saw the pickpockets looking down at her from a dizzying height.

─ Quaaaaaack! (What’s going on!)

“The duckling is scared out of its wits!”

And the moment she screamed again, her body floated up. Bestia finally looked down at herself.

Her whole body! No, except for the yellow legs… No, let me correct that again. Except for the yellow legs and yellow beak, her entire body was covered in pure white feathers!

─ Quack! Quack? Quack quack? (What! Was that duck referring to me? Am I a duck?)

Bestia panicked. She flapped her small, useless wings and stamped her feet. Her yellow webbed duck feet danced on the palm of the mysterious man’s outstretched hand. Every time the duck bounced, light white feathers floated in the wind like dandelion seeds.

“Is that your way of thanking me for saving you?”

The man looked at her as if she was cute. It was his first time seeing a real duck. Then suddenly, he jerked his head up. The eight pickpockets stepped back at the man’s sharp gaze.

“W-who are you to do this!”

“D-don’t interfere with our business and go on your way!”

“Yeah! Get lost!”

The man who suddenly appeared was very suspicious. It was a face they had never seen before. He was extremely handsome, but his clothes were extremely shabby. Despite his ragged appearance, his face was smooth and shiny. He was definitely not a vagrant.

“How dare you tell me to get lost.”

The man frowned at the disrespectful words directed at him. His gaze towards the boys became even more fierce.

“Moreover, to even draw knives to bully such a small and precious duckling. The future of the Delta Empire is still dark.”

Although he had been traveling throughout the empire to celebrate the new year, this was the first time he had encountered such a thing. They say it’s darkest under the lamp. He met people abusing animals in a small village on the outskirts of the capital. And this was happening even now, when his beastman-friendly policy was being most strongly applied.

“Tsk. I’m disappointed.”

Caenian Ruvan, the youngest man among all the emperors, clicked his tongue. He, who had been showing several unconventional moves with overflowing vigor, was on a secret journey.

This situation he encountered in the midst of it was bitter. More precisely, he was angry at the delinquency of the youth who would lead the future of the empire. He was also worried about when the anti-beastman atmosphere created by the previous emperor would disappear.

If they’re this harsh even to a mere animal, how would they be to beastmen?

“I won’t send you to prison. However, I will personally mete out punishment.”

His mouth tasted bitter, but he was the emperor. In other words, he was a man with the duty to make amends for the mistakes of the previous generation. And sometimes, one physical punishment is better than a hundred words of lecture.

Caenian bent down while holding Bestia in his arms. In his hand was a club that someone had dropped. The pickpockets had terrified looks on their faces.

“W-who are you to punish… Aagh!”

“Wait a moment… Ugh!”

“We are… Ouch!”

And in an instant, he knocked out all eight of them. The pickpockets who were hit by the club collapsed one by one. Caenian turned around with a satisfied look on his face.

─ Qu-quack! Quack! (W-wait! Who are you!)

The startled Bestia quacked frantically. She hit the arm of the man holding her with her pathetic wings. Caenian stopped walking. It was after they had already left the gloomy alley.

“Don’t worry, duck. You’re safe now.”

─ Quack! (What are you saying!)

Caenian lifted Bestia high. Their gazes locked on his palm. Bestia, who didn’t know who the other person was, and naturally so, blinked her blue eyes.

That’s right. Eyes as blue as a lake. The only thing that remained of Bestia’s human appearance after turning into a duck was her eyes. Caenian also stared at Bestia’s eyes and tilted his head.