Only when everything had calmed down did the realization dawn on Furan Shi.
The time regressed again. He's getting sick of having to repeat this trial storyframe. It was all thanks to the serpent sleeping beside him, so he was partly annoyed at him. But at the same time, seeing a younger Camilius makes his heart melt. Maybe this time, he'd get to know him more.
「 Camilius Fontaine 」
「 White python demihuman. Male. About fifteen years old. Mama's boy. Filthy rich, slightly spoiled. 」
His appraising skill only had these information for him, no matter how many times he'd tried it on the young python. How does he even upgrade this skill if he doesn't know which one it is?
He could only rely on getting to experience this world again, in a younger body.
As to why he went three years into the past…
「 "It was NPC [corn snake]'s wish to monopolize host Jinx(Furan Shi). It was an emergency regression due to the unforseen poisoning that happened, and this was the timeline that popped up first in my calculations." 」
What a very elaborate story. Furan Shi almost never believed it.
「 "Say "voulez-vous coucher avec moi?" first with that voice, and then I'd believe you." 」
「 "...next time." 」
There was another strange thing he couldn't solve: his skill [The Monster]. Somehow, even after going back to Jinx's twelve-year-old state, he can still activate the skill. Raum couldn't explain it to him, either. So he concluded it was because he'd already experienced it once in the world that he didn't have to experience it again.
Not that he didn't want to experience it again.
In his past life, he had only done it twice. Once, with his hot homeroom teacher, and another time—
No, his thoughts are going off an irrelevant tangent.
He scooted closer to Camilius, his small figure easily fitting right in the python's arms. He then nuzzled his head against the other's chest. His arms followed suit, wrapping carefully around the other. Camilius' tail was draped limply on his hip. Furan Shi carefully lifted it up and draped the rest over his own hip, too.
And then he went back to hugging the young python.
Aleister couldn't separate the two of them. The man couldn't really resort to child abuse — talk about being hypocritical — so in the end, he'd helplessly allowed for them to share a bedroom, on the condition that they couldn't do what they did again. That… touching tongues.
They added it to their four rules, making it the fifth.
「 "Raum, I want to leave this story. Can I hop to another world now? 」
「 "Then go die." 」
「 "...maybe later." 」
He further nuzzled his body in against Camilius'.
He knew he was a foreign element to this world, but having to experience death twice in it left an indelible mark in his already unstable mind.
He had only been a Selvan for a day, and tomorrow, he'd come meet the rest of the family outside of the main house. In the past, he'd only met Anton Selvan and Julianna Fontaine, but meeting them again… how different could their temperament be now that they're three years younger?
Guess he needs to sleep to find out.
——————————
"Awww he's so small..!"
Anton almost squealed when he saw the cute wittle bunny. Everyone else was towering over him — even the young Camilius. The runt wolf thought he'd be forever doomed as the smallest in the villa compound in the long run, until the boy came.
Now everyone has a new person to either pity or coo at.
Yay, people that acknowledges his existence~! Furan Shi couldn't have felt better about himself with all these attention on him and his cuteness.
He's just so small, sourrounded by all these taller demihumans. He can see their tails wiggling behind them, too, save for Anton's because it was tucked in his pants.
His own bunny tail was wiggling, something they coo at, too, for being so fucking cute and round, fluffy, and.. well, lively.
And in his high, he forgot the questions he should be asking Raum. He had so many questions, but he could recall not a single one. He's pretty occupied with all these greetings.
They're warmer than before, and anywhere he looked, whatever he did, they would cheer for him like he was a baby. A cute wittle baby that can do tricks too advanced for a little buwunny.
Ah, what even is his 85% potential for? Maybe his missing 15% is for this.. whatever this is.
He'd worried over not building the stories enough to take shape, but right now he's a completely different person, drunk on attention once again. It's a blessing that he'd transmigrated as a bunny instead of a snow leopard.
The only thing perhaps that's a little bothering was how Anton kept on asking simple math equations, as if he couldn't answer them in a heartbeat.
"Ah," Aunt Julianna sighed, but kept her fond smile towards the bunnyboy. "Such a shame he's a Selvan."
Aleister took no offense on that, and instead aided her worries with his answer, "he said he'll marry Camilius one day, unfortunately."
Aunt Julianna's mood brightened more at that, of course. "He's a very smart boy for a rabbit."
"Indeed, he is." It was Aleister's turn to gloat. "He's not a Selvan if he's not smart."
Ah, just the right words to trigger the snake woman. Her hand clenched subconsciously on her nephew's (Camilius) shirt.
Camilius, meanwhile, didn't seem to be affected at all by the bickering of the adults.
"He will be a Fontaine after four years," he suddenly reminded everyone. It made everyone stop and stare back at him. Aunt Julianna smiled at her clever nephew. "Uncle Aleister promised me that."
At least, he was calling Aleister 'uncle'. Anton turned to his brother seeking for his answer, which he found in the way Aleister helplessly nodded and in his tepid smile.
Suddenly they felt as if they'd lost something so precious.
"C-can I marry him instead..?" inserted Anton. "He'll be an adult in three years, right..?"
"He wants Camilius, too."
Ah. Well.
Jinx was introduced to the rest of the Selvan family, or… what remained of them… and then over to the Fontaine side. He was overwhelmed by a lot of warm welcome that he almost didn't want the day to end, but all good things naturally come to that conclusion.
He was alone again in his room, and this time he couldn't think of a single question he'd wanted to ask Raum. All he could remember was that he was doubting the bird system since the second turn.
His mind was still saturated with the thrill of being the center of everyone's attention.
Well, he was doubting Raum's translations, unless he considered the system agent's being a greenhorn. It's basically a baby system with no experience, and however protective it was of its host, like the rest of the system agents, it can still be overwhelmed by world data.
And then his hands were shaking. The rush of being high for hours was subsiding. This always happens after a high tide (of his mood). But with Camilius by his side, he had nothing to worry about. So he went to the young python's room.
Ah, right. He still had to worry about having to explain his brimming tears. Maybe he was just drained, or the crash was just that hard, but Camilius had already detected the glistening of his eyes and he couldn't turn around to hide it anymore.
"You don't like to be my wife, master..?" Camilius asked, his worry creasing his forehead to a small frown. He helped Jinx wipe away the forming tears.
But the rabbit shook it off as he answered, "I-I want to..!"
"Then.. why are you crying..?"
"B-because I…"
Ah. The bunny had to make something up on the spot.
"...I've never been this happy.."
Nevermind.
Camilius sighed in relief and smiled. "There we go." He enveloped the smaller boy in a hug. "Then, I'm happy for you. You deserve all of this."
Hearing something so positive finally pushed the tears out of his eyes, and like a broken faucet, he couldn't stop them from falling thickly.
Until he was sobbing nonstop in Camilius' arms. "Okay.." he weakly mumbled through his squeaky sobs. "Thank you.."
Camilius leaned away for a bit just to align their noses. He tilted his face and leaned in again, kissing the bunnyboy softly. This time, there was no glitching. Just the softness of the python's lips against his, and Furan Shi found himself succumbing to the feeling that he, too, had closed his eyes and calmed down
Technically, they didn't break the fifth rule. But eh, they've been breaking rules, what's another on the list, eh?
He realized he liked kissing Camilius more than Daddy Uno, or even the gentle Daddy Dos. It was as if he was back home, even if he didn't know Camilius for that long.
The python wrapped his arms around the other, his tongue seeking permission to enter inbetween Jinx's lips. The latter parted them, allowing Camilius to deepen the kiss.
That's when the soundless glitches happened. The space behind Camilius opened up, revealing a large, oxblood red ellipse that seemed to stare back at Furan Shi's very soul. It didn't matter that he had his eyes closed at the moment. He felt the world shift rapidly around them, forcing him to push the python away to catch his breath. And then he opened his eyes.
The anomalies stopped at once.
"What's wrong..?" Camilius asked with yet another frown on his cute face. The bunnyboy, who was gasping for air, frantically shook his head.
「 "Raum, was that…?" 」
「 "The OOC warning, sorry." 」
"W-we broke the fifth rule," Jinx breathed, a lie he easily slipped out through his teeth. The kissing part wasn't the lie, but his sentiments about it. He didn't even realize he wasn't supposed to know about the four rules because those only existed in his first turn of the story
Camilius didn't realize it, either, that Jinx wasn't supposed to know about the past. How convenient lah. "Does it matter?" He asked instead and stepped in to calm the bunny down.
The bunny, after a while, gazed up at the python. His cinnamon eyes cleared, and he was panting no more. "Oh.. y-you're right.." But that didn't mean they should continue. Jesus.
"Why don't we… erm.. play outside..?"
The python, hearing that suggestion, turned to the open window nearby and looked down at the view of the garden. "Too sunny outside. I can't play in this hot weather." And, turning back to Jinx, he said, "why don't we just cuddle?"
Furan Shi, having had enough of the young python's ways of finding loopholes, suddenly shrunk, until his form was buried under his pile of clothes. He'd morphed into his black rabbit form. Camilius could only sigh as he picked up the small creature into his arms.
"Whatever master wants is what I want.. I guess…" Camilius hesitantly mumbled and carried the bunny outside.
In this weather, the most Camilius could go to was the open pavilion in the garden. He had a maid carry an umbrella over his head as they walked to it. He placed the bunnyboy down on the round glass table and sat himself on one of its round chairs.
Tea was served to the two of them.
「 "Raum, isn't this just a tutorial world?" 」
Furan Shi could now freely converse with his system agent without Camilius distracting him. To the python, his nose was only moving, twitching cutely. But in Raum's silence, he decided to continue his point.
「 "Level zero story… remember..?" 」
「 "...I forgot about that part." 」
The black bunny rabbit shot his head up in surprise, fortunately not alerting the python nearby, who was sipping on his tea as he watched Jinx in amusement.
To him, maybe the tea was just too hot for the little one. He picked up Jinx's cup and gently blew on it. "Careful with your tea, master~"
The current fourteen-year-old Camilius was so unlike the seventeen-year-old Camilius. Who knew this presentable, goody-two-shoes young master could end up looking like a delinquent? A hot delinquent, ahem, who didn't need to do much to attract (and scare away) potential mates. Poor python.
Anyways.
「 "I got the gist of my job already. So what do I have to do to get out of this trial world?" 」
「 "Erm… live until the end. But didn't you like the attention?" 」
「 "So, die, then." 」
Camilius was trying to guess what goes in his master's head. Why was the bunny staring right at him with his cute, beady eyes? He couldn't help but chuckle as he set down Jinx's cup back to its porcelain coaster.
"Master, here. I cooled it down for you."
He received two nods from the bunny before it proceeded with licking the surface of the beverage. It was indeed cooled down.
「 "I doubt NPC [corn snake] would let you die." 」
「 "There's… another way, right?" 」
「 "You found out about it?" 」
The bunny suddenly jumped down to an empty chair, and then to the floor and started hopping away. Camilius, confused, followed him anyway.
The bunny rabbit was hopping back into the main house. The maid with the umbrella almost couldn't keep up with the two. Once inside, Camilius followed the rabbit all the way to the bathroom where the latter morphed back to his demihuman form.
The bunnyboy stood naked before the mirror that's thrice bigger than he could ever be, his eyes squinted in scrutiny at his own body being reflected there.
「 Cute rabbit demihuman, Jinx Selvan. Raised at the same orphanage as Snow. Became Camilius' master from another timeline of the same world. 」
His gaze carefully panned down his small, thin body as his appraising skill worked its magic. Demure peaks of tousled black hair, his soft skin a dark, rich brown and his cinnamon eyes discerning as much as they seemed to shine. The round tips of his fluffy lop ears only reached his shoulders at this age, and he's too thin to be considered healthy.
「 A misunderstood character, bullied by his circumstances that earned him the passive [Harbinger of Nuanced Inconveniences]. Attached to Camilius Fontaine. Curious, a bit froward, and doesn't take shit from another person. Has an inferiority complex he hides by weaponizing his cuteness. Doesn't submit to anyone. 」
Oh.
「 Only vulnerable in front of Camilius Fontaine. 」
So that's how he was rewired.
The said python was watching him from the back, both confused and pitying him for having a very small, scrawny figure only shy of being easily blown away by a small draft. He watched the bunnyboy touch himself, from the head, down to the tips of his ears, his shoulders, his hips…
As if Jinx Selvan was shy of his own body with that pout on his face.
Camilius stepped away from the doorframe and approached him, chuckling helplessly. "It's alright, master. We can always eat together so we can get healthy together."
"R-really..?" Jinx flinched and instinctively covered his private parts. "W-well… sure.. that would be nice..!"
"Stay here. I'll go fetch your clothes."
"No, wait." Camilius felt the bunny rabbit grabbing his hand. They both stilled.
"Erm…" they chorused.
"I-I'll be waiting.." Jinx softly spoke as he let go of the python's hand.
Camilius reluctantly left after that.
「 "You can't get OOC anymore in front of that character." 」
「 "I know. That's why I have constructed this brilliant plan hehe." 」
「 "I'm rooting for you, then." 」
——————————
Anton Selvan had liked the bunnyboy, his new nephew, at first sight. Not romantically, not intimately…
But he smelled so nice the runt wolf almost felt he could eat him on the spot. Not romantically, not intimately…
He could still hold it in, until he saw that black fluff ball bouncing towards him. He was walking to his lab when he noticed something approaching him. It was bouncing, and to his delight it was Jinx in his small beast form. He'd known because of that sickly sweet scent.
He kneeled down to pick the bunny up in his arms and ruffled its head. "How's my favorite nephew doing, hmm?"
He was his only nephew.
The bunny dramatically bobbed its head up and down, up and down as if to say he's doing great. Anton chuckled at the sight. If he wasn't Aleister's son, Anton would've feasted.
Also, Jinx seemed to be a smart specimen, too precious to end up as a fodder to his…. condition.
He entered his lab and went straight to his worktable as he distracted the bunny rabbit with his words.
"You're doing great? Wow, that's good!"
"Oh, and how is the villa compound for you so far? Great?? Oh, okay..!"
As he spoke, the bunny seated on top of his books, he walked to a cabinet at the side to fetch something.
"Ah, then how was Camilius" he turned his face back to the bunny to see its answer. The black rabbit was nodding again. "Oh, he's a good kid, isn't he?"
"Right. Can you turn back to your human form for me?"
Jinx easily complied and morphed back, his legs soon hanging off the edge of the table. He scooted away from the books so he wouldn't have to sit on them. Anton then handed him a green hospital gown, which he wore obediently.
"I only have that for you in here, sorry."
"It's okay, uncle..~" Jinx cutely smiled up at him, his head tilting a bit sideways to act cutesy.
He was in the gown, seated patiently for the runt wolf. Anton couldn't ask for a better meal. Oh, but he can't eat him. Not really. Aleister wouldn't like it.
So all he could do for now was get enough of the bunnyboy's scent and… "I'll get your blood sample, okay? Everyone in the compound did this,.too, don't worry."
Jinx's blood sample was taken.
"I'll need to swab the inside of your mouth, too."
Jinx's mouth was swabbed. Oh, how sweet was the scent of his pheromones coming from the side of his neck. Anton almost was dazed by it that he had to physically restrain himself not to attack.
Oh, right. This is the first time we're seeing his point of view. Jinx was almost irresistible to him.
And finally…
Oh. "What are you doing?"
Jinx was taking off his small gown. And then he pounced at the runt wolf. Anton, not expecting the sudden turn of events, stumbled back with the bunny in his arms and they both fell to the floor.
The bunny rabbit was straddling him, the bunny's hands around his neck. A small, neat smile crept across the runt wolf's face.
"Showing your true colors, bunny?" he taunted, but eh. Wrong choice of words. The bunny rabbit wasn't trying to do something a regular bunnyhuman would do.
Furan Shi was trying to get OOC as much as possible.
He felt the world shift around them, and only he could feel it. It wasn't enough.
He leaned in and bit the wolf by the side of his neck for no reason at all. "Ah.. Jinx..!"
The clouds fell outside, the room smelled of formaldehyde rigt after cotton candy, and the colors around him rapidly changed under seconds. He finally saw the same oxblood red ellipse open up behind Anton, the same color as the blood trickling out of the latter's neck. Furan Shi pushed the runt wolf into it, himself included.
They stopped midway. Furan Shi felt himself getting pulled back by the ears. Anton Selvan fell in, but he dissolved into red butterflies right in front of the bunnyboy right as he landed in the dark.
The ellipse closed, and the anomalies around them stopped at once.
"Master…" Camilius' voice was lowered, a warning tone hinting his disapproval of the bunny rabbit's sudden choice to leave him. "What was that for?"
"Am I not enough for master?"
Furan Shi slowly turned to find the young python glaring at him with a subtle trace of his hurt. "Camilius..? Where's Anton..?"
"Is he even that important in this story?" Camilius spat. In his anger, he grabbed the rabbit by the neck and picked him up off the ground. Furan Shi tried his best clawing at his hand, but then again he had been thoroughly groomed by the orphanage. His nails were round and polished. "It's about you and me, and the mafia I'm about to lead in four years."
"C-Camilius.." Furan Shi pleaded, or— tried his best to plead through his choking. "Wh-"
The young python was gnashing his teeth together. "I've thought about this long and hard for days, which timeline would suit us both where we could monopolize each other. Turns out you don't share the same sentiment."
He suddenly dropped the bunnyboy, who hunched over and started coughing out his saliva on the floor. Camilius crouched before him and tilted his head so they could still see eye to eye. "I am very disappointed in you, darling."
「 New! Mission: "Love me, too, won't you?" 」