Chapter 14: Mr. Rabbit

Taking a turn in mid-air and shifting his perspective, Angel finally saw who was sitting at the dining table. Judging by appearance, the other party could not be called a "human."

To be precise, it was a small rabbit dressed in gentleman's attire. Or rather, it should be called Mr. Rabbit.

Standing less than half a meter tall, its fur was as white as satin, and the inner ears were adorned with shy, delicate fuzz. Its eyes, like pigeon-blood rubies, were set into a cute little head. The length of its ears accounted for nearly half of its body; setting aside the slightly fantastical embellishments, this was an exquisitely adorable rabbit that would make any young girl scream with excitement.

In a different context, Angel believed he would fall in love with this rabbit, but in this unknown space, his vigilance was at its peak, and he had no mood to care about whether the rabbit was cute or not.

His attention was focused almost entirely on the peculiarities of Mr. Rabbit himself.

The biggest difference between Mr. Rabbit and a common pet rabbit lay in its attire. It wore no trousers, but its upper body was clad in a red checkered lace-trimmed tailcoat. Between its two large ears sat a black top hat, adorned with a smiling face emblem on the brim. Most striking of all was the tiny golden monocle on its face, which added a touch of gentlemanly elegance to this cute little rabbit.

Beyond that, what most caught Angel's eye was that Mr. Rabbit was not sitting in an armchair as he had previously guessed, but was instead hovering before the table, staring unblinkingly at a thick purple book.

Angel drifted around Mr. Rabbit a few times and found that, like all other creatures, the rabbit was oblivious to him. It was also possible that Mr. Rabbit was so absorbed in his reading that he hadn't noticed the unexpected intruder.

Angel wandered around the hall for a while longer, his curiosity about this world growing.

Was this truly a parallel world? Had he traveled through dimensions? Angel couldn't find an answer. More importantly, he wasn't even sure if he had passed the wizard talent test.

Just as Angel was at his wits' end, a flash of inspiration suddenly crossed his mind.

This flash of inspiration came out of nowhere; in fact, Angel felt that it did not originate from his own thoughts, but rather that something profound was using his mind to tell him... *Return to the storeroom.*

That was it. The meaning of this flash was to return to the storeroom where he had first arrived.

Return? Angel accepted this flash of inspiration without hesitation or a moment's pause. He didn't know where the inspiration came from, but he believed it instinctively.

Just as he turned to leave the hall, he heard the sound of pages turning from Mr. Rabbit nearby.

Angel looked back at the purple book being flipped through by Mr. Rabbit. Suddenly, as if possessed, he stopped his retreat, drifted quietly to Mr. Rabbit's side, and shifted his gaze to the contents of the book.

The purple book was standing upright, allowing him to see the cover clearly. The cover was nothing extraordinary, resembling a romance novel favored by noble ladies.

At the top was a row of strange symbols that Angel couldn't read, which were likely the title. Below was a slightly cartoonish illustration: the background featured a castle sketched with a few strokes, and the foreground showed a somewhat blurry cartoon girl—a red hat, long brown curly hair, a blue dress, and white shoes. Neither the girl's features nor her clothing were detailed, looking more like a child's doodle; its only redeeming quality was its colorfulness.

A castle and a girl on the cover—was this one of the "princess fairy tales" his mentor used to tell when he was a child? When Angel was very young, his bedtime stories were told by Jon, mostly ancient anecdotes with moral lessons, with only a small portion being Grimm's Fairy Tales. Although Angel personally didn't care for them much, he remembered the general names, the most famous being "Snow White" and "Cinderella."

Thus, seeing such a girlish cover, Angel was reminded of the princess stories his mentor mentioned.

Angel didn't dwell on the cover for long; since he couldn't read the text anyway, he simply drifted behind Mr. Rabbit to read the contents.

He had caught a glimpse of this book earlier by chance and remembered it being a picture book.

Standing behind Mr. Rabbit, although he couldn't understand the text, he could deduce some of the content from the illustrations.

It seemed to be a fairy tale.

A girl accidentally wanders into a wondrous world. Here, a sip of red wine makes her as small as a mouse, while a piece of cake makes her as large as a giant. With the same plate of mushroom soup, drinking from the left makes her shorter, and drinking from the right makes her taller. Amidst her amazement, the girl begins a magical journey with various wondrous creatures.

Angel read with great interest, though he felt a strange sense of familiarity. However, he quickly cast aside the unnecessary emotion and continued to immerse himself in the story.

Time passed bit by bit, and Angel failed to notice that things were beginning to veer off track.

Not to mention that Mr. Rabbit turned the pages in perfect synchronization with Angel's reading pace; nor did Angel notice that the owl plushie, the playing card soldiers, the teacup rabbits, and the colorful dragonflies in the hall had suddenly surrounded him. He was completely captivated by the magnificent journey in the story.

Angel paid no mind to any of this strangeness or dissonance; instead, he felt a sense of joy as his spirit merged with the heroine of the fairy tale.

Angel felt as if he had become the protagonist of the fairy tale, running alongside a talking rabbit.

Everything was beautiful. Although the creatures they encountered had peculiar appearances, they all carried goodwill. Angel even felt that this place was Wonderland.

Just as he was lost in the beauty of Wonderland, a piercing laugh drifted from a distant castle.

"Oh no, the Queen of Hearts is chasing us! Shava, you must leave this place immediately, or the Queen of Hearts will turn you into a playing card!" the rabbit said anxiously.

The Queen of Hearts? Leave this place? Shava?

Confusion flashed in Angel's eyes. Who was Shava? Wasn't my name Ang... Huh? What is my name?

A sense of wrongness rose in Angel's heart.

He remembered being in the castle of the manor, seeing a rabbit dressed as a gentleman, and then he realized the rabbit was... what was the rabbit doing?

The wonderful, fantastical journey shattered into pieces in Angel's heart at that moment. Something was wrong; he felt as though he had forgotten something. Angel's expression sharpened; he had to remember!

Angel's heart was screaming, but his memory continued to suffer from gaps, so severe that he forgot what he had been doing just a moment ago.

"Hehehehe—"

"Shava, why are you just standing there? Run! The Queen of Hearts is already here!" The rabbit grabbed Angel's hand. "The situation is urgent; only by going to my rabbit hole can we escape safely!"

In a daze, Angel was pulled forward by the rabbit.

The distant mountains remained lush and green, but the previous dreaminess was gone; looking at them now, Angel felt a sense of lifeless dissonance.

"That is my rabbit hole. Hurry and hide inside, I will deal with the Queen of Hearts," the rabbit said, giving Angel a shove.

With a stumble, Angel fell to the ground.

The rabbit was still urgently urging him into the rabbit hole, but a sudden surge of alertness rose within Angel.

*Return to the storeroom.*

This message flashed violently through his mind, like a sudden bolt of inspiration.

The storeroom? The confusion in Angel's eyes suddenly cleared; he remembered the storeroom! He remembered he was taking the talent test, and he had accidentally entered a strange parallel world! And, a Mr. Rabbit who was reading... a book!

The moment Angel's mind cleared, the world shifted, and everything dissolved into nothingness.

The place where the rabbit hole had been was replaced by a bloody, gaping maw of teeth. And the cute rabbit behind him had turned into a tattered, patched-up rag doll.

Angel retreated step by step, quickly moving away from the territory of the bloody maw.

Once he had moved away from that area, he found himself back in the previous hall—the hall where Mr. Rabbit had been.

The relief in Angel's eyes vanished, for he discovered that he was surrounded by a group of playing card soldiers...

(End of Chapter)