The Strongest Daughter-In-Law Of The Black Lion Family [EN]: Chapter 1

The Strongest Daughter-in-Law of the Black Lion Family (1)

#1.

I’m hungry.

I hastily scooped up some white snow and stared blankly at the sky.

It had already been a year since I became a weasel. From the moment I opened my eyes, I had to survive in the harsh wilderness, and I moved according to my instincts.

I tenaciously endured through spring, summer, and autumn, but the first winter I experienced was too harsh.

Now, all the food I had stored up was gone. I hadn’t eaten anything since yesterday, so I had no strength left in my body.

I wish I could survive by just eating snow, but weasels can’t live on grass alone.

‘To think I was reincarnated as a weasel only to starve to death. This is too much!’

There was no way food would come out even if I dug at the innocent ground. It was at that moment of despair.

‘Sniff, what’s this smell?’

The faint scent of delicious food wafted from somewhere. Instinctively, I was drawn to the smell and began to move.

Because I was so hungry, my sense of smell became extremely sensitive, and I could smell things from a distance as if they were right next to me.

‘That’s…’

A huge castle at a glance. It was the territory where the beastmen I had seen countless times while surviving here lived. It was a place I instinctively avoided because I might get bitten if I went in carelessly.

But such a delicious smell was coming from there. For me, who had been starving for two days, it was a smell that was hard to shake off.

‘Oh, it’s Bianco.’

Then I found Bianco trying to get into the castle through a dog hole. Bianco was a weasel beastman abandoned in the wild like me, and unlike me, he was a clever beastman who had successfully humanized.

‘Come to think of it, Bianco has been saying he’s going to raid some warehouse. Could that be it?’

I suddenly remembered how he had been tirelessly trying to get me to go raid the warehouse with him for days.

Bianco said there was plenty of food piled up in the warehouse.

Judging by the strong smell, it was certain. I stared blankly at the direction of the smell for a moment. My 고민 [Korean word meaning ‘worry’ or ‘dilemma’] was short.

‘Ah, whatever. It’s the same whether I starve to death or get bitten by a beastman.’

Blinded by hunger, I ended up going to a place I shouldn’t have.

* * *

Having successfully infiltrated the castle with Bianco, I was faced with an unexpected predicament. Bianco had suddenly disappeared.

I waited for a long time, but he didn’t come, so when I went to the warehouse, it was already empty. That weasel bastard had abandoned me and ran away alone.

This is why you can’t trust anyone!

But the misfortune didn’t end there. The biggest problem occurred on the escape route.

Who would have known that the place I landed would be on top of some young lion beastman’s head?

“What’s this?”

“?!”

Startled, I quickly landed and distanced myself from the boy. The boy was looking at me with strange eyes, as if I had used his head as a stepping stone out of nowhere. His sleepy eyes were full of weariness.

‘Huh, what is it?’

I had been seeing only animals all the time, so when I saw a beastman who had humanized for the first time in a while, I unknowingly missed the timing to escape.

The golden eyes, like a lion beastman, had a very intense yellow light resembling the sun. The black hair had a shimmering light as if it contained the dark blue night.

‘What do I do? Is he the young master of this house?’

The boy’s appearance, which exuded an extraordinary atmosphere at first glance, made me swallow hard.

If he found out I had raided his house’s warehouse, he might bite me to death right away.

I was cautiously watching him for a while when I suddenly remembered what a friend who used to enjoy watching in my past life had said.

‘Weasels pretend to be crazy when they hunt rabbits. That’s how they can catch unsuspecting rabbits.’

I don’t know why that friend’s words suddenly came to mind, but it couldn’t hurt to try. What wouldn’t I do to survive?

I swallowed hard and glared at the yawning boy.

Soon after, I started to act crazy with all my might, jumping around and making a fuss.

Was my flamboyant craziness effective? The boy’s eyes widened noticeably.

‘Good, let your guard down like that!’

I started to jump around even more vigorously, not forgetting to slowly distance myself.

But if I had known that it would attract the boy’s attention, I would never have done it.

* * *

“This is a first.”

Jerachiel looked at the white weasel in front of him with strange eyes. The creature that had suddenly landed on his head was startled and rolled away, then started to act crazy with its whole body.

Jumping here and there.

A cotton ball-sized beast that stole his gaze by jumping around. It was so flamboyant that even the drowsiness that had been weighing down his eyelids disappeared.

Still, it seemed to know he was a beastman and that he was a lion beastman. Maybe it was because he was humanizing that the other side was acting without fear.

The bizarre behavior unfolding before his eyes was enough to attract Jerachiel’s attention more than a lazy afternoon nap.

Originally, he was going to take a nap to avoid Ivan.

The sight of the white creature dancing with all its might was quite comical.

How could such a small body, which would be gone in one bite if placed on a plate, have such strength?

It seemed that it had accidentally stepped into the lion’s territory while hunting. But unless it was an idiot, it wouldn’t dare to act like that in front of a lion.

“Is it perhaps lacking something [mentally]?”

At those words, the weasel flinched and glared at him relentlessly. It was just a puppy not knowing how scary a tiger was.

It was so small that it would collapse with just one lion’s roar. It seemed to know exactly when he was insulting it.

The weasel’s fur boasted a pure white appearance like white snow. It was so white that only its eyes, nose, and mouth were visible when it was in the sparse, unmelted snow.

It was the end of winter. The fierce, cold wind had subsided a little, but the weather was still chilly.

Judging by the fact that it was smaller than a normal weasel, it seemed that it hadn’t been eating properly. It must have been hungry and came all the way here.

Originally, he would have just let it go.

But after seeing such an interesting sight, his gaze was fixed on the weasel. It was a pity to let it go like this.

‘Looking at its trembling fur, it seems to be scared of me. I wonder if it would be surprised and faint if I went back to my original form.’

The thought of that little creature collapsing made him want to tease it. Not knowing he was having scary thoughts, the weasel continued to dance.

Judging by its actions, it was as if he was the weasel’s prey, acting without hesitation.

“Is it perhaps performing a trick?”

He didn’t think he had ever heard of a weasel performing tricks.

Jerachiel tilted his head and observed the weasel. By this time, the weasel, which had been slowly moving far away, suddenly flashed its pink eyes and quickly ran away while he was off guard.

“Ah.”

Only then did Jerachiel realize why the weasel had been acting so strangely and let out a soft exclamation.

It had been distracting him all along to escape.

“It wasn’t lacking after all.”

But no matter how fast it ran, it was still within his territory. Jerachiel raised his body, which had been half-lying on the tree. At the same time, he returned to his lion form and began to follow the weasel.

It was an unexpected game of tag between a lion and a weasel.

* * *

Why, why are you following me!

Having succeeded in getting away from the lion by putting on the performance of my life, I was soon faced with a crisis.

The guy who had been half-asleep until just now was suddenly chasing after me with clear eyes. Because he had returned to his original form to chase me, I was in a situation that was no different from being cornered.

Even though he was still a young lion, a lion was still a lion. The lion chasing after me, shaking its mane, was the epitome of fear for me.

‘Scary, scary, scary!’

The fear doubled when the guy who had seemed like a pretty docile boy until just now turned into a terrifying lion.

If I got caught like this, it was the same as taking a direct train to that big mouth.

What kind of wealth and glory was I trying to enjoy that I dared to sneak into the lion’s territory and rummage through the warehouse, only to run into a lion?

Bianco, the guy who had been trying to get me to go raid the warehouse for days, had already run away and was nowhere to be seen.

‘You bad bastard! I hope you get eaten by a lion on the way!’

Of course, it seemed like I would be eaten by a lion first.