A flute tree was common here and could be found throughout this forest as its hollow body was perfect for small wildlife to make their nest. It was mysterious as to how a big tree like this could stand tall with its heartwood gone missing, but it was a fact that its sapwood was hard enough to support its massive weight.

A flute tree was called with such a name because of this odd characteristic. When a flute tree fell, it looked like a giant flute because the cavity inside its wood stretched along its trunk. When a wind blew inside, it could sometimes make a flute-like melody. And when its trunk was tapped, it gave out a drum-like beat.

And currently, both Oscar and the white rabbit were eating the moonlight berries inside a flute tree’s trunk as their supper while Oscar was combing the rabbit’s fluffy fur.

He never thought that these moonlight berries were delicious. They were bitter with only a hint of sweetness and its sticky juice would only make his mouth dry. But he didn’t have a leisure time to search for other sources of food, so these berries that he could grow as much as he wanted was his currently only possible meal. Besides, it seemed that the rabbit also loved the moonlight berries for some mysterious reason.

“You sure like these berries a lot, don’t you?,” he said while throwing drupes of glowing berries into his mouth while looking at the rabbit munching on its portion happily.

Hearing that, the rabbit held a moonlight berry between its front paws as it stood on two legs, showing its fluffy belly. It hopped on two legs, unbalanced, as it approached Oscar and offered him the berry?

“For me? Thank you, but I have had it enough.”

Not listening to Oscar’s refusal, the rabbit took a huge leap toward him aiming to stuff his mouth with the berry between its paws.

“Eh?”

*Kyu~!*

But jumping in an unnatural poster for a rabbit is too difficult for it as its aim was off the mark. The rabbit lost its control mid-air and bumped onto Oscar’s face. Their mouth collided for a short moment before the rabbit’s head hit his nose and they stumbled on the ground together with Oscar lying down as a mat.

“Aww, are you alright? You shouldn’t suddenly jump like that, you know?”

*Kun…*

He rubbed his nose while groaning. His other hand caressed the rabbit to make sure that it was still fine. Still, Oscar was perplexed. When the rabbit’s forehead hit his nose, he felt like it was poked by something hard.

“What is… this?”

When he touched the rabbit’s forehead, he felt an odd sensation. Something solid was hidden under this fluffy white fur. He stared between the rabbit’s hairs and found a small sparkling crystal there.

“Why is there something like this on your head?”

The rabbit tilted its head in confusion as it tried to touch its head with its forefeet, but couldn’t reach it.

Oscar stared harder at the crystal while rubbing it. The crystal gave out a dimly glowing yellow light, just like the hue of moonlight berries. He could also see yellow sparks floating inside the crystal as if the crystal was a liquid.

“It seems she had turned into a monster, nyan,” a sweet voice came out of nowhere.

The rabbit got surprised by the unknown voice. Its long ears stood straight in alert before its beloved feet unconsciously brought it behind Oscar’s figure and hid there.

In contrast, Oscar didn’t look different from before as he casually asked the owner of that unknown sweet voice back.

“It’s you again. Where are you? And what do you want?”

Suddenly, two black triangular-shaped ears protruded from his shadow. They twitched a little before the other parts slowly floated up from the darkness.

“I’ve been hiding in your shadow since then, nyan. It’s quite comfortable there, nyan, wayyyy better than bathing under warm sunlight.”

“So you have been trailing me this whole time. So what do you want then?”

Oscar gave the black cat a serious look while the rabbit faint-heartedly peeked from the vines that covered Oscar’s body.

“Nya? I just follow you because it’s interesting. Isn’t that enough, nyan? Besides, you still didn’t thank me for giving you the direction, right? You are so rude to look at me like your sworn enemy after I had gone through trouble in helping you, nyan.”

Oscar’s eyes turned big and round. That was right, he had already forgotten that the black cat didn’t do anything wrong and had even helped him pointing out where Lunus went to. It was all his fault that he didn’t thank her in return and even looked at her with a dangerous gaze like that.

This was because he had engraved his angry feeling when they first met into his memory which made him unconscious thought that this black cat was untrustable and dangerous without minding the reasons behind.

But when he realized this from listening to the black cat, he felt really guilty for returning her kindness with an unfriendly welcome. His shoulders dropped as he looked down at the floor with a shameful expression.

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“You’re right. It’s my fault that I didn’t properly thank you and returned you with an unfriendly welcome like that. Then, do you want anything in return? I will gladly help you if you can, but I’m currently chasing after Lunus so I might have to postpone it until I can meet up with him.”

The black cat sat down in front of him. It raised one of its front paws to cover its mouth and gave Oscar its bewitching eyes.

“Fu nya~, it’s not like I want something special, you know. Something like a human-made dried fish would be fine, nyan.”

“What is that…?,” Oscar asked back in confusion.

“Never mind, nyan… Then, I wanted to ask you a small favor instead, nyan. It’s easy, nyan.”

“What is it then?”

Oscar gave the black cat a serious face as he focused on what she was going to say.

“Give me a name, nyan.”

“A name?”

Oscar’s eyes blinked twice as he couldn’t fully understand the meaning behind this.

“That’s right, nyan. Since you could name that one Lunus, then it’s not too big of a task, right?”

“Just name you?”

“And a beautiful one, nyan.”

Oscar made a troubled face. He didn’t think that the small favor that she had asked for would be naming her.

“Since you are a black cat then… how about Pepper?”

“Rejected, nyan.”

“Ash...ley”

“Rejected, nyan.”

“Ink… No, Inky.”

“Rejected, nyan.”

Oscar now massaged his temples as stress had built up in his head.

“Look, it’s almost midnight and I-”

“That’s nice nyan!”

“Eh?”

He couldn’t grasp why she suddenly looked so energetic after she had rejected the names he gave her several times.

“W-What is nice?”

“The word you said, nyan. Can you repeat it, nyan?”

“I ?”

“Before that, nyan.”

“Midnight?”

The black cat nodded as she seemed happy.

“I like its sound, nyan. From now on please call me Midnight, nyan, master.”

“M-Master!?”

“Isn’t that right, nyan? When someone names a pet, it becomes his pet doesn’t it, nyan?”

I was trickkkked!, Oscar screamed in his head.

He once again massaged his temples to ease his built-up stress.

“Hang in there! Why do you want to be my pet that much?”

“Isn’t it easy? Because your shadow is so comfy, nyan. I love it. And besides, you already have that rabbit, so isn’t it fine, nyan?”

He looked at the white rabbit that had hidden behind him all this time.

“This one isn’t my pet! Our relationship isn’t something like tha- Ouch!”

He turned around and saw the rabbit headbutted him in his flank as the crystal on its forehead accurately hit his rib, making the pain ran through his spine.

“W-Why did you headbutt me?”

The rabbit didn’t answer. Instead, it turned its face sideways and repeatedly kicked the ground with one of its hindfeet.

“Are you angry? Why?”

“Fufufu nya~, isn’t it easy? It’s because she also wanted to be your pet, nyan. She seems to love you so much, so why don’t you accept her, nyan? She is also not a normal rabbit after all.”

“That’s right. Before this, did you tell me that this rabbit had turned into a monster?”

“Yes, nyan, it seems like she had eaten too much of those magic-filled berries, so she had transformed. Well, it’s not like it’s common to transform into a monster this way, nyan.”

Oscar was shocked. So the rabbit had turned into a monster because of him. He shifted his gaze between the angry rabbit and Midnight as he asked a worrisome question.

“Will she be fine like this? She won’t turn into a crazy monster, right?”

“That shouldn’t be, nyan. Monsters are not all crazy and mindless. I know that because I’m also a monster, nyan. Even so, our elements are different.”

“Element? Like a magic?”

“That’s right, nyan. Monsters are different from normal beasts that they contain magic power in their body, nyan. For me, it’s darkness. But for the rabbit, it seems to be a moon element, nyan.”

“I see. Well, as long as she won’t go crazy, I think it’s fine.”

He looked at the still-angry rabbit and extended his hand to pat it.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know that you also want to stay close to me that much. As an apology, I will also give you a name. Is this alright?”

Hearing that, the rabbit’s ears twitched as it turned around and started hopping in circle energetically.

“You seems to like the idea, eh? Then let me choose a good name for you.”

He closed his eyes and racked his brain.

“Well, since your element is the moon, let’s stick with moon like Lunus then. So your name is Luna. Is it alright?”

The rabbit, now named Luna, jumped at Oscar and clung to him like a snowball.

Witnessing such a scene, Midnight also joined in as she slowly approached Oscar and rubbed her face on him. She leaped onto his lap and gave him another bewitching smile.

“Now, since I have become master’s pet, I will show you how shadow magic works, nyan. With this, you might be able to catch up with Lunus if you are talented enough.”

Oscar returned her with a weird smile. It was good that he could learn a new technique and got a step closer to Lunus, but having both Midnight and Luna on his lap at the same time made him so stressful as they started pushing each other out of his lap.

“That’s good to hear, but let’s leave it here for today. We are all tired and it’s not like we can immediately follow Lunus in this dark night either. So… both of you should rest up and stop fighting on my lap!”

He carried both Luna and Midnight by their neck and placed them on his sides. He then lied down while hugging both of them under his arms to make sure that they wouldn’t wake up and fight each other during the night.

“Well then, good night.”

“Night, nyan.”

*Kyun~*