The Childhood Friend of the Villainess in a Romance Fantasy

Translator: Elisia

Editor/Proofreader: TempWane

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Even if I regained memories of my past life after Father dropped me and I hit my head, those memories didn’t completely overwrite the ones I had of living here.

There were moments when things I once found comfortable suddenly felt strange, but that didn’t mean I had forgotten the teachings of my family.

Nature does not lie.

Every animal walking in nature eats and is eaten. They do their best to avoid being eaten, and they do their best to eat.

Even plants growing in the wild are no different. They stretch their stems straight upward to catch more sunlight, and they spread their roots widely to stop nearby plants from taking nutrients.

Under such trees, other plants struggle to survive. They climb the trunks, evolving constantly to thrive with minimal sunlight.

Survival doesn’t belong to the strong. The strong are simply those who survive.

Those who are unfit for survival are eaten and disappear. The survivors leave descendants and continue to live. We still don’t know exactly why giants disappeared, but ultimately, it can be said that they, too, adapted to nature by mixing with humans and surviving through shared traits.

That’s the law of the North.

A plain truth, without deceit, visible to the eye.

Behind Amelia and Prince Evan’s silence, as they froze at the sight of the squirrel in my hand, the sound of wolves gnawing on venison served as the background music.

“Squirrels at this time of year… No, all animals preparing for hibernation fatten themselves up to avoid starving in their sleep. They stockpile food to eat during their slumber, but they also prepare steadily before falling asleep.”

“But still…”

At my words, Amelia gazed at the squirrel in my hand with a reluctant expression.

I could understand her feelings. Even by my standards, which considered squirrels as food, this one was undeniably cute.

But piglets, calves, chicks, and foals are also adorable. So are newborn fawns.

Yet, we eat all of them.

Some people may take a liking to certain animals and raise them with affection. Wolves, generally our competitors, remain at my side now as an exception, just as exceptions always exist.

But exceptions are just that—exceptions. To call such rare cases a violation of the law or contradictory is simply foolish. If someone can take full responsibility for their actions, what’s wrong with them doing so? Whether they raise birds, moose, or even wolves, as long as they can sustain themselves without depriving others of food, that’s their business.

Not that I had any intention of raising a squirrel, of course.

“What about you, Your Highness?”

“Huh?”

I held up the squirrel to the prince, who stood with his mouth slightly open and a dazed expression. The squirrel, having been pulled out of hibernation into the cold and swayed about in midair, was beginning to wake up. It struggled to open its eyes and look around.

Soon, it would realize the danger it was in and thrash about to escape from my hand.

It might even bite me, and if I let go, the squirrel would dash away into the forest at lightning speed.

I wasn’t nimble enough to chase a fleeing squirrel, nor was my skill with a bow good enough to shoot such a small target. If the squirrel managed to escape, it would live, and I wouldn’t get to eat it.

Of course, how long the squirrel could survive after losing its stored resources right before true winter was uncertain. It might suffer a far more agonizing death from starvation and cold than being swiftly caught and eaten.

“I, I…”

The prince stammered as I stared at him intently.

Could it be that the prince also had reservations about eating squirrels? After all, he was only ten years old.

I, too, had once wanted to keep lizards as pets when I was younger, even though I didn’t know what they ate. And I hadn’t known that most of the wild animals I could catch in the mountains of Korea were protected species.

So if he felt that way, I could understand.

“I refuse.”

The prince finally broke out of his shock and said,

“That… That isn’t hunting.”

“If this isn’t hunting, then what is it?”

I tilted my head and asked. The prince seemed at a loss for words.

“Well, this is… right, foraging. It’s no different from women gathering fruits outside. It’s not a manly thing to do.”

“The men of our family also gather fruits they come across during hunts and catch small animals like this one. They skin them, process them, and smoke them whole for storage.”

“Smoke them…”

Amelia muttered blankly.

“I don’t know how you define hunting, Your Highness, but in Delkis, hunting means catching animals for food. Of course, some animals are harder to process and are left alone, but we don’t distinguish between large and small animals or methods of hunting.”

“…”

Seeing the prince rendered speechless again, I continued.

“If you let me know what you consider proper hunting, I’ll try to accommodate it. But if you told Father you wanted to go hunting to learn ‘the ways of Delkis,’ then this is an excellent example. Some hunters bring back dozens of small animals strung on cords.”

“Strung on cords…”

Amelia muttered again.

“…”

The prince stared intently at the squirrel in my hand. By now, the squirrel had fully awakened and was frantically surveying its surroundings. Its bright, beady eyes were undeniably cute.

“So, if I catch a few squirrels and bring them back—”

“No one in Delkis will mock you, Your Highness. If someone does, they are not a Delkis person.”

Securing food in any form was praiseworthy. If it provided more than one’s own sustenance, it was even more commendable since it meant contributing to the survival of others in Delkis.

“…Fine, then…”

Just as the prince reached out to take the squirrel—

“No!”

Someone snatched the squirrel from my hands with a shout.

It wasn’t hard to guess who. Apart from me, the prince, and Amelia, no one else was here. The wolves certainly weren’t stealing the squirrel out of compassion.

“…”

“…”

As the prince and I stared at her, Amelia clutched the squirrel to her chest with both hands and declared,

“I cannot condone to eating this little one.”

“This… little one?”

I murmured quietly, and Amelia’s cheeks flushed red. It seemed she had spoken without thinking, but now she was embarrassed at having called an animal a ‘little one’.

“If the lady insists on taking that squirrel, I won’t stop you. But wild squirrels can be unexpectedly fierce. Holding it like that might get you bitten.”

Finding more prey wouldn’t be difficult, but holding the squirrel in a way that put its face near her hands was risky. My hands could handle a bite, but her uncalloused hands would likely be punctured by its sharp front teeth.

“Ah.”

Realizing this belatedly, Amelia quickly pulled the squirrel away from her chest. But—

“…Squeak?”

The squirrel, now perched on her open palm, tilted its head and made its characteristic rodent sound.

Oh, right.

I tended to forget this during hunts, as prey often panicked around the wolves I led. But I was a druid.

That squirrel had been in my hands for a long time.

“It’s not running away,” the prince remarked.

I shrugged.

“So cute…”

And Amelia, it seemed, had already fallen for the squirrel.

…Would she faint if she knew how many squirrels lived in this forest?