If Happy Ever After Did Exist

Chapter 2

Mikoto, firstborn Prince of the house Mikoshiba, is seven feet tall with red furry limbs and too-sharp teeth and right now, staring down at the huntsman he’d caught dissecting an animal on his property, he thinks he really should’ve thought of wearing a shirt earlier.

“What did you think you were doing,” he growls, majestically, partly in annoyance and partly to conceal the fact that underneath all this fur his cheeks are warming up like Indian summers because holy crap this guy saw me shirtless. Never mind that right now, Mikoto’s a cursed beast with more pressing matters on his mind than fur-covered nudity. “Trespassing, and poaching, on my land?”

“I was not poaching on your land,” the accursed huntsman says, coolly, reaching for the hat that had dropped from his head when the Beast abruptly tackled him to the ground. True to form, the Beast had been every bit the imposing figure and Umetarou might have wanted to cry a single manly tear because of said tackling. He has no clue why the Beast chose to not hold him down and/or obliterate him after, though.

Little did Umetarou know, the reason why Mikoto – the beast – had stood up was because he knew that straddling one’s intruding guest-ish person was kinda not really good manners, and honestly, the reason why the beast had immediately decided to adopt a majestic pose was indeed to cover up his awkwardness over the whole situation.

“The boar was my prey, which I had my eyes on ever since I saw it running off, outside your gates. However, the boar gave chase before I could shoot at it, hence running after and eventually ending up killing it here. I hadn’t really noticed that I’d gone past your gates until you arrived.”

And what a welcome Umetarou had the pleasure of receiving.

This whole quest was tedious.

Well, at the very least, Prince Masayuki had made his escape, and Umetarou now had a replacement heart he could pass off as the Prince’s. Who knew that boar hearts could pass off as really convincing human ones? Seeing as that blasted Maeno once mistook ducklings for chicks and could never seem to get the difference between his left and his right, Umetarou thinks it’d be enough to work off of, for sure.

First things first, though, he has to bring this bleeding box to that annoying royal, and quickly make his escape from the palace walls. Now that the only traces left of his royal patron – Queen Yuzuki’s sons, the Princes Masayuki and Hirotaka – had hidden off in Umetarou’s cottage, or were in the hands of noble white magic-user Miyamae (Umetarou’s former teacher, who he admires greatly), respectively, there was no reason for him to persist living in that kingdom.

The eldest daughter of the Sakura family, though. She was a friend. Umetarou thinks he would have to say farewell to her, first.

Well, before all that, though. Whatever should Umetarou do about this Beast?

“T-that’s not an excuse!” Well, in fact, it kind of was. Mikoto knows it’s his fault for not closing the gates after sweeping the dust bunnies out of his grounds. But to be completely honest Mikoto also has no clue what he’s supposed to be doing here. Wasn’t a beast supposed to wreak havoc over the townspeople or something? If he’s gonna follow the script, he has to go do stuff like throw this guy in a dungeon, right? Then go off walking regally into the sunset, going about pillaging the kingdom down the mountain, the one sharing borders with the kingdom Mikoto should’ve been ruling over if only that curse didn’t get in the way?

“Off to the dungeons with you!”

The huntsman looks at him with confused eyes and for that one tiny pinprick of a second, Mikoto almost puts the poor guy back down so he can fall down on his furry knees to grovel at the huntsman’s feet, but then.