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Chapter 15: Delusions of the Wolf and the Rabbit
The grand, sprawling halls of Twilight Manor, usually a bastion of discipline and legendary prowess, were currently drowning in a sea of pure, unadulterated chaos. A chorus of agonizing screams and panicked shouts thundered through the corridors, loud enough to make the stone walls tremble. The cause of this localized apocalypse required no investigation; it was the inevitable fallout of the "Books"—those infamous, illicit manuscripts that had begun to plague the Loki Familia like a viral fever.
A few days had passed since the Loki Familia had effectively mobilized their entire force for a high-stakes sting operation, but the city of Orario was still reeling from the cultural aftershocks. Two specific volumes were circulating through the shadows of the capital. One, born from a desperate negotiation with Tione, depicted a nauseatingly sweet, fictional honeymoon between her and Finn Deimne. It portrayed a version of Tione that was surprisingly maidenly—a "sugar-overload" fantasy where a stoic, secretively lustful Finn finally let his guard down to shower her with affection.
Tione herself had taken the fiction as a manual for reality, attempting to reenact every "honeyed move" with a terrifyingly bright smile. Meanwhile, Finn's frantic, logical denials that the entire work was a fabrication fell on deaf ears, leaving the legendary commander looking more defeated than he ever had in a dungeon.
However, the book currently shattering the peace of the manor was far more scandalous.
It was an "IF" story—a narrative experiment where Bell Cranel, the "Rabbit Foot" of the Hestia Familia, was somehow a member of the Loki Familia. The plot opened with a morning training session where Bell sought guidance from the surly werewolf, Bete Loga. In a bid to "wash away their hard work," the two ended up alone in the morning bath. While a shared bath was standard for brothers-in-arms, the author had twisted the encounter into something far more... immersive.
"Oh, Bete-san. Let me wash your back for you."
"Yeah... Wait, hold on! How exactly are you planning to wash me?"
"Well, Loki-sama told me that if someone takes care of you, the best way to show gratitude is to strip down and wash each other's skin directly... with our bodies..."
"That damn, red-haired moron...!"
The text went into excruciating detail about Bell's modest yet surprisingly well-defined musculature. In the story, Bell—blushing a deep crimson—attempted to lather himself up with soap and use his own body as a sponge for Bete's back. Bete, caught between shock and a primal instinct he couldn't name, had to physically restrain the boy by the head just to maintain a shred of personal space. As Bell flailed his arms in an earnest attempt to "show his thanks," Bete could only let out a heavy, weary sigh.
"Don't take everything that idiot goddess says as gospel. Are you seriously planning to do this with every person who helps you?"
"...No. I'd only ever do this... for you, Bete-san."
"...Huh? You little... do you even realize what you're saying? You're standing in front of a wolf. Do you think you can spout that kind of sh*t and not expect to be eaten?"
"...It's okay. If it's you, Bete-san... I don't mind being eaten. Hop! ♡"
"GAH—!"
"LINE! STAY WITH US!"
Line, who had been reading the scene where Bell mimicked rabbit ears with his hands while a "heat-maddened" Bete pounced, finally hit her limit. The sheer force of the narrative imagery caused her glasses to shatter, and a literal geyser of blood erupted from her nose, painting the nearby wall. Raul and Aki, who had been vetting the material with her, scrambled to keep her from collapsing.
"This is a disaster! Line's face... it's a horrific mix of lust, vicarious humiliation, and pure 'NTR' excitement! She's entered a transcendental state!"
"What kind of state is that!?" Raul barked, his voice cracking under the pressure of the situation.
They managed to plug Line's nose with a small mountain of tissues and moved her to a nearby bench to recover. Aki looked down at the book, her fingers trembling. They hadn't even cleared the tenth page, and the structural integrity of their Familia was already failing. Despite her better judgment, her eyes drifted back to the next paragraph.
"Ah... ♡ Bete-san! ♡ I'm... I'm going to—!! ♡"
"Just hold on, you damn rabbit. I'm almost there too... ♡"
"ABSOLUTELY NOT!" Aki slammed the book shut, her face burning.
A hot surge of genuine rage boiled in her chest toward the human woman they had chased through the streets only days prior. How dare she use their own bathhouse—a place of hygiene and camaraderie—as the stage for this filth? But beneath the anger, Aki felt something more dangerous. A door she had kept triple-locked in the deepest recesses of her heart was beginning to creak open under the weight of the "Bete x Bell" dynamic.
"So... what do we do with this thing? If Bete sees it..." Raul trailed off, looking at the book like it was a live grenade.
"He won't just get mad," Aki whispered, her voice grim. "He might actually lose his mind and level the manor."
Just as they were debating the merits of a ceremonial burning, a thunderous explosion of wood and masonry shattered the air. Dust and debris rained down from the ceiling as a massive hole appeared in the outer wall of the manor.
"What now!?"
"Is it an attack!?"
Aki and Raul sprinted toward the sound, finding a scene of pure destruction. Bete Loga was standing in the center of the wreckage, looking like a demonic avatar of fury. His eyes were bloodshot, his fangs were bared, and a dark, murderous pressure radiated from him in waves. Before they could even call out to him, he charged through the hole in the wall, disappearing into the city like a guided missile.
"What on earth happened!?" Raul gasped, staring at the Bete-shaped hole in their home.
"Raul... look at this."
Aki pointed to a small, crumpled scrap of paper caught in the jagged edges of a broken beam. It was a page from the very book she held in her hand.
"Well, that explains the property damage."
"Commander Finn!?" Both of them jumped, only now noticing the Prum standing behind them.
Finn Deimne had likely been there the entire time, observing the chaos with his usual, unnerving calm. He reached out and plucked the scrap of paper from the debris, looking at it with a weary, knowing expression.
"I assume you've both 'vetted' the Bete volume as well," Finn said, his voice level. "All I can offer him—and myself, for that matter—is my deepest condolences."
"So, Bete is... hunting her?"
"Yes. Right now, he is likely sprinting through the streets with enough killing intent to make the gods hide in their temples. He won't stop until he finds the woman who wrote this."
Raul and Aki shared a look of dread. When Bete was in a state like this, only the executives like Finn, Gareth, or Riveria stood a chance of reigning him in without a full-scale brawl.
"For now, let's focus on the mundane," Finn said, gesturing to the rubble. "We can't have a gaping hole in our perimeter. Let's get to work on the repairs."
"Understood..."
As the sound of falling masonry continued to punctuate the air, Aki began organizing the cleanup crew, muttering about how she was always stuck with the "annoying chores" while the boys went out to play hero—or in Bete's case, a very angry villain.
—————
Bete Loga was a walking disaster zone. He stomped through the bustling streets of Orario, radiating a localized aura of bloodlust so thick that seasoned adventurers instinctively gave him a ten-foot berth.
"Dammit! That total b*tch—!" Bete bared his teeth, his knuckles white as he clenched his fists.
The image of that human woman—her mocking, childish face as she dodged them—was burned into his retinas. He had been scouring the city for nearly an hour, but the sheer scale of the labyrinthine capital was working against him. Finding one specific woman with no leads other than her face and gender was a nightmare. Worse still was the reaction of the public. Everywhere he went, he saw people whispering behind their hands. He saw goddesses giggling and pointing, their eyes filled with a terrifying, predatory spark of "shipping" interest.
"Tch!"
He clicked his tongue so loudly it sounded like a gunshot. While the mortal population was smart enough to stay back, the gods were a different story. They had no sense of self-preservation.
"Bete x Bell is the new meta!" one goddess shouted from a balcony.
"I don't know," a male god yelled back. "I want to see the 'Uke-Bete' version! Someone write that!"
Bete's irritation reached a boiling point, but even in his rage, he knew better than to pick a fight with a divine being in the middle of a public square. I just need to find her, beat her within an inch of her life, and burn every copy of that book, he repeated like a mantra.
Then, the unthinkable happened.
"Oh? Bete-san?"
"YOU—!?"
Bete skidded to a halt, nearly tripping over his own feet. Standing right in front of him, looking as innocent and confused as a newborn foal, was Bell Cranel. Normally, Bete would have ignored the kid or thrown a quick insult his way, but his brain—currently saturated with images of "soap-washing" and "eating rabbits"—completely short-circuited.
"S-Stay... STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM MEEEE!" Bete roared, his voice cracking with a mix of fury and genuine panic.
"Wha—!? Eek!"
Bell let out a yelp of pure terror, nearly jumping out of his boots. He had no idea what he had done to deserve a world-class scream from the werewolf, and he stood there, frozen in bewilderment.
Bete should have kept running. He should have turned a corner and disappeared. But the shock of the encounter had pinned him to the spot. The surrounding crowd immediately sensed the drama. Goddesses began whistling and cheering; male gods started making bets on who would "confess" first. The atmosphere in the street shifted from "market day" to "rom-com climax" in a matter of seconds.
"Goddammit all!" Bete buried his face in his hands.
"Um, Bete-san? What exactly is—"
"I FOUND YOU! YOU THIEVING LITTLE RABBIT!!"
The sound of a high-speed projectile preceded the impact. A blur of Amazonian intensity dropped from a nearby roof, delivering a perfect, mid-air dropkick directly into Bell's chest.
"GAH—!?"
Bell was sent tumbling through the air, landing hard on the cobblestones. As he stared up at the sky, a dry, hollow laugh escaped his lips. Is this my life now? Does every encounter with the Loki Familia have to end with me airborne?
"Bete Loga!! Why were you trying to make babies with a rabbit—and a male one at that—instead of me!?" Lena Tally screamed, her face flushed with a mix of jealousy and obsession. "If you like rabbits that much, I'll just learn magic to become a Wererabbit! I'll grow ears! I'll do it!"
"You... you perverted Amazon!?" Bete recoiled, his face twisted in disgust. "Why are you even here? And stop shouting such insane sh*t in public!"
"Eek! ♡"
Lena didn't care about the insults. She lunged forward, clinging to Bete's chest and shouting so loudly she was practically foaming at the mouth. Bete's anger finally hit a plateau, looping back into a cold, mechanical clarity. He delivered a sharp, controlled kick to Lena's stomach to peel her off him. Instead of doubling over in pain, Lena let out a moan of pure, unadulterated ecstasy, looking as though she had just been handed a bouquet of roses.
"Ugh... What is even happening...?" Bell groaned, picking himself up from the ground.
"Oh, you're still awake, you thieving rabbit!" Lena snapped, pointing a finger at him. "I'm not letting you have him! I don't care what the book says!"
"Stop making this more complicated than it already is!" Bete roared, his voice echoing off the buildings.
It was a lost cause. The gods in the crowd were already memorizing the dialogue, ready to feed the rumor mill with the most scandalous version of the "love triangle" possible.
"Listen here, Rabbit Foot!" Lena shouted, puffing out her chest. "You might have gotten Bete Loga to give you plenty of 'bite marks' in that book, but I've taken plenty of his 'powerful hits' right here in my gut—♡"
"I TOLD YOU TO SHUT UP!"
Bete silenced her with a heavy fist to the crown of her head, finally knocking the wind out of her. Bell, meanwhile, was completely lost at sea. He had no context for the "bite marks," no idea why Lena considered a punch to the stomach a "powerful hit" in a romantic sense, and absolutely no clue why he was being treated like a rival.
This feeling... Bell thought, his knees shaking. The way she just screams her own logic at you and ignores everything else... she's exactly like Lefiya-san when she's in a mood. It's absolutely terrifying.
They say humans fear the unknown, and Bell was currently staring into the abyss of Amazonian delusion. Seeing the "trembling rabbit," the goddesses and the women of the "rotten world" in the crowd began to wail with delight. "Look how scared he is! Someone hold him!" and "The way Bete 'protects' the rabbit by scolding the Amazon... it's so spicy! ♡"
"What!? Ugh, look at you, acting all frail and pathetic!" Lena pouted, rubbing her head. "Do you really think that 'scared bunny' act is going to make Bete-san fall for you!?"
"I'm not acting! And none of this has made sense for the last twenty minutes!!" Bell screamed back, his voice an octave higher than usual.
As for Bete Loga...
I'm done. I'm going home. I'm locking my door and never coming out.
His face was gaunt, his fiery rage replaced by a hollow, soul-crushing exhaustion. He turned on his heel and began to walk away with the gait of a man who had lost everything. Lena, of course, wasn't about to let her "predator" escape.
"Wait, Bete-san! Come back! I have more ideas for the sequel!"
"STOP FOLLOWING ME!!"
Bell could only stand there in the middle of the street, watching the two of them disappear into the distance while the crowd cheered.
"Is... is the Loki Familia actually okay?" Bell whispered to himself. "Does this mean even Aiz-san is acting like this...?"
Between Lefiya, Tiona, and now Bete, Bell felt a deep, gnawing sense of unease about the structural integrity of Orario's strongest Familia. He didn't know it yet, but the gods were already circulating a new, spicy headline: The Scandalous Love Triangle—The Fierce Wolf, the Lush Flower, and the White Rabbit! It was the kind of news that would make Hestia scream until her lungs gave out, but that, as they say, is a story for another time.
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