“So, where are we? What is this place?” I asked her curiously while glancing around.

To me, it felt like a rich place or a building in which was owned by a high official. It goes well with what she told me about her helping the empire to reap benefits from them in return. So, it makes sense that she would choose to live in a really cosy and comfortable place in the city.

“I live in a magic tower,” she replied with a smile while rubbing her face against my fluffy body.

“Huh?!” I exclaimed, feeling shocked by the unexpected words. “This… is a magic tower? What?”

“Don’t believe me? Let me show you.”

She said so and rose to her feet while carrying me in her arms. I must admit, she was gentle in holding me like one would hold their beloved pet.

“Wait! Did I just think of myself as a pet?! No! I am not a per!” I screamed inside my mind in shock.

I’m not a pet. I’m just a human that was brought back as a rabbit because my killer seems to have taken a liking to me, but she hated humans and stuffed me into a rabbit’s body instead. Seriously, I wish I can call this a dream but everything I felt so far is so real, even getting killed just earlier isn’t something I can overlook.

“But I am not a pet! I am not, and she’s not my owner! She’s not!” I thought to myself desperately to try and keep my sanity.

Just then, she said, “There we go.”

That’s when I realised, she had come into the bedroom and stood next to the window looking out of the window. I looked through the window as well and saw a weaving path leading to the house that seemed to start from a large clump of trees.

“Is that a forest?” I asked her in doubt.

“Yes,” she verified.

“Oh okay. This is nice. Your house is located somewhere outside the forest then,” I praised her choice of living. “A very good place to be away from all the disturbances, and we can even see when intruders come on us. A nice view.”

“Oh~! That’s so sweet of you to say~!” She said happily and hugged me happily.

I rolled my eyes at her constantly snuggling her head into my fluffy body, but I found her actions cute so I didn’t mind.

While at the window, I paid attention to the front of the house where I saw a path leading to the house. It was weaving back and forth in a slightly disorderly fashion with vases with flowers growing out of them, although they seemed to be somewhat overgrown. Still, it did not dither the nice view it gave from the window. I followed the path and saw it leading into the clump of trees. Looking left and right, I only saw trees, meaning that it probably was a forest and the house was located outside it.

“Is that a forest?” I asked her curiously.

“Yes,” she replied. “The whole area in front is a heavily forested area that no amount of light gets through.”

“That’s… oddly specific,” I said in surprise.

“That’s because the trees grow very close to each other and their tops block out the light entirely,” she explained while rubbing my body, which I began to like for some reason. “It’s a natural phenomenon around here, but I like it very because it doesn’t give any intruders a way to get here.”

“Oh. Is that so,” I said while continuing to observe the place. Just then, something caught my eye to the right and asked, “Hey, what’s that?”

“Mmm? What is what?” She asked while leaning out of the window.

“That. Over there,” I said, and I pointed with my paw.

She looked down at the direction my paw was pointing to and turned in that direction before saying, “Ah. That.”

“Is that the ocean? It’s so blue,” I said to her while leaning out of the window to see as well while she held me tightly so I did not fall over.

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To the right of the forest stretched an entire area covered in blue colour as if it was the ocean. Of course, I’ve never been to the ocean, but I’ve seen illustrations of such from the books I came across around the street. That was how I identified that large area of blueness as the ocean.

It did not make sense though because a heavily forested area was right next to it. I presumed that there would be some kind of beach before any land is there. Yet, here is an ocean that seemed to be right next to the forest.

“Wait. Hold on a second,” I thought suddenly as I noticed a small detail. “Is that ocean… beneath the forest?”

“Hey… Um… Irene,” I began as I called her name for the first time.

“Kyaa~!” She suddenly let out a squeal and hugged me while saying, “You called my name! You called my name!”

She hugged me tightly and leaned back in the room to swirl around while hugging me tightly. This seemed to be her way of celebrating in happiness because of how joyous she felt just from me calling her name.

“Ah. Yeah. I did…!” I said while being swayed back and forth by her prancing around the room. Suddenly, I felt like I might lurch from the sudden movement and said quickly, “S-Stop! I might get… sick…!”

“Oh! Sorry!” She said and quickly came to a stop.

Irene switched her hold on me and laid me on her arms while I took deep breaths as I felt my head spin a little. It took me a few minutes, I think, before the dizziness receded, and I heaved a deep sigh of relief once I felt better.

“How are you feeling?” She asked me with concern.

She stood there without making a single move and held me while gently rubbing me on my tummy. It seemed that she really cared for me because I know how tiring it was to stand like a statue while holding something. So, I felt very moved by her caring and began wondering about her as a person instead of seeing her as my killer.

“I’m feeling good now, thanks,” I told her, and she breathed a sigh in relief.

“Thank goodness,” she said, and brought me up to her to give me a warm hug. “I’m sorry for distressing you. I’ll be careful in the future.”

I could see the pain her face and felt her trembling slightly, which was very different to the evil aura she had let out earlier. It made me want to know her more as I began to stroke her gently with my paw.

“It’s okay. We live and learn, right?” I asked her, and she nodded in agreement.

A few seconds later, I got to ask my question of why the ocean seemed to be beneath the forest. It’s not that just the ocean, but the forest seems to stop at a certain point to the right and all I could see was the sky.

“This is so weird,” I thought as none of this made sense with what I imagined the general geographic area to be like.

“Oh. You noticed that,” she said, looking impressed and pressed her finger to my nose.

The pressure on my nose suddenly made me wiggle my nose, which made her make a cute sound. I felt very embarrassed at being witnessed at doing something so ridiculous, but what can I do when I’m a rabbit? I just did what a human would do with their nose except with a rabbit nose for mine.

“Anyway,” I said as I tried to bring her back onto the subject, “why is it like that?”

“Well…” she began and seemed to ponder on how to explain it. I remained silent and waited patiently for her to give me a proper reply, but instead she merely smiled and said, “I think it’s better to show you instead so you get the idea yourself.”

“Um… Okay?” I said, clearly puzzled by her decision.

She put into her arms and left the bedroom as she headed towards another entranceway. When we got there, I saw two pairs of stairs; one leading downward and another leading to the top of the house.

We began climbing up the spiralling staircases in what seemed to be a tower. I was amazed this house had such a thing and remarked about it to Irene, but she just laughed.

“I told you, this is a magic tower.”

“A magic tower wouldn’t be this spacious and be luxurious.”

“Maybe, but it’s definitely a magic tower.”

Irene was adamant that this was a magic tower while I clearly saw it as a house.

We continued to debate whether this was a house or a magic tower given with what I’ve seen so far for a few minutes. Along the way, there were some window holes that showed the outside. I glanced at them as we passed and saw a scenery that was unbelievable, but I assumed my perspective was wrong because of becoming an animal.

Once we arrived at the top landing, I looked around to find that we were indeed in a tower like structure overlooking a large area. She carried me to the nearest window, and I looked out to see something that took my breath away.

There were clouds floating way above with swarms of birds flying around, but there was nothing in the immediate vicinity. Instead, the blue ocean that I saw earlier was somewhere far, far below us. Down there, I saw the small islands scattered with large gaps of ocean as what seemed like fog drifted to obscure the view. Despite this, I could see the island and saw large mountain, but all of them felt like they did not reach us at all.

It was as if the house was located somewhere high up and far away from the land everyone lived on. This suddenly reminded me of a story that my mother told me as a child. It was a story of a sorceress that was disliked, hated, and hunted, and the only place she could dwell in was a atop a floating castle. She lived in isolation to distance herself from all kinds of contact to live a miserable life alone.

I glanced up at Irene and saw her looking out of the window with a lonely expression on her face. In that instant, I felt as though the story my mother read to me almost applied to her, and it made me incredibly sad.

As a kid, I always felt saddened by the fate of the sorceress to die alone, and it felt the same could apply to Irene. Yet, judging by her expression, it felt like she was accustomed to this despite looking so young. This raised a question about her age, but I decided to ask that later and instead questioned her on our whereabouts.

“What is this place, Irene? Where exactly are we?”

She looked down at me and made a sad smile before closing her eyes and saying, “My prison.”