How to Use the Lord’s Future Diary

Chapter 15

The rabbit in front of me wasn’t a real rabbit.

It was something like a spirit, serving as the messenger of the Beast God ‘Bestia.’

No, in this case, perhaps “holy spirit” was a more accurate expression.

After all, this was something influenced by a divine being.

The black rabbit statue I had picked up today was apparently a divine relic of Bestia, and by awakening Bestia’s messenger, I had been chosen as its contractor.

When great hardships came to the Beastman tribes, the divine relics of each tribe would seek out contractors like this, and those contractors would be burdened with the duty of guiding the Beastmen as leaders.

By contracting with the rabbit statue like this, I had become the guide of the Rabbit Tribe.

“Beast God Bestia?”

The name was very unfamiliar to me, but it wasn’t something I couldn’t accept.

In a world where Divine Power obviously existed, the existence of a Beast God worshipped by Beastmen wasn’t that strange.

A world where Divine Power existed, where temples and priests existed.

It wouldn’t be strange if saints suddenly appeared, nor would it be unbelievable for a Beast God to send down its messenger.

And since its very name was Beast God, it was only natural that its messenger was an animal.

To begin with, I had transmigrated into a world full of monsters and even had a diary that warned me of the future. What was the big deal about a rabbit holy spirit being added on top of that?

Especially considering how the Rabbit Tribe had been living these days, they did seem to need a guide.

No matter how skilled they were at guerrilla tactics, living in a forbidden place like the Forest of Illusions was far too hardcore.

“But why me? Shouldn’t the guide of the Rabbit Tribe obviously be someone from the Rabbit Tribe?”

-That’s my question as well. Until now, the guides had never been anyone other than their tribe’s own.

The time when Bestia’s messengers had been most active was when the Beastmen, enslaved by the Empire, were fighting for independence.

At that time, Bestia’s messengers appeared to as many as six tribes, and six guides led the Beastmen to freedom.

‘Of course, each guide had been a member of their own tribe, working within their own domain to help their people.’

The Rabbit Tribe’s contractor back then had even died a glorious death while helping his tribe escape.

Even this rabbit admitted that this was the first time a contractor who wasn’t a Beastman had appeared.

-Could it be something like this? Perhaps my master has rabbit DNA.

“…Are you saying I’m a rabbit? You’re asking for a fight, aren’t you?”

-Why are you angry? What greater creature is there than the rabbit? Besides, doesn’t my master also like rabbits very much?

“Me? Not at all. I don’t even like rabbits.”

-For someone who claims that, isn’t your taste rather obvious? Strange rabbit ears, fishnet clothing…

“Wait—how do you know about that?”

-Now that we’re contracted, I know everything about my master. To think you’re a soul from another world. You’re truly fascinating, master. And human, at that.

“Damn it. So there’s no such thing as privacy here?”

-Why should that matter? I can only communicate with my master anyway. To put it in the terms of your world, you could think of me as a high-performance AI chat bot.

“You really do know everything.”

Unintentionally, I seemed to have stumbled into a scam contract that leaked all of my personal information.

‘I have no idea what the hell is going on here.’

While I stood there dumbfounded, the rabbit only tilted its head.

The black rabbit stood on two legs, its ears twitching as it tilted its head.

Uselessly, it looked extremely cute.

Maybe that was why it pissed me off even more.

“This contract… there’s no canceling it, is there?”

-If my master dies, I will return to Lord Bestia’s side.

“Wow, so this is basically forced sales, huh?”

It seemed like even termination wasn’t possible.

My head started to spin at the absurdity of it all.

And then, the rabbit said something rather meaningful.

-But master, you carry a strong beastly scent. Could it be that you possess something related to Lord Bestia?

“I told you, I’ve never even heard the name Bestia before.”

-I see. Well, my master is human, and a soul from another world.

I really had no idea what this was about.

Although to be honest, most knights in the Johnson Territory were beastlike in their own ways.

Iron was especially beastlike.

But even in Iron’s memories, there had been nothing about Bestia.

This rabbit had no reason to lie to me, so there must be some kind of connection, but I couldn’t figure out what it was.

The strangest thing I possessed was probably…

“…The diary?”

-The diary? Ah, you mean that diary my master has. Yes, if it’s that diary, it might hold some divine power. But it’s not Bestia, I think. Lord Bestia doesn’t give off that kind of feeling.

“Really?”

-Well, he is the Beast God, after all.

“Ugh, I suppose so.”

-But it will be worth checking. Once I see that diary myself, I might understand more.

If this rabbit could examine the diary, then maybe I hadn’t been scammed completely.

‘Since I transmigrated into another world and don’t have anyone I can openly talk to, maybe having this guy around isn’t such a bad thing?’

He was a rotten bastard for bringing up rabbit DNA right from the start, but his appearance was decent enough. He even looked like a healing pet, so he might not be too bad to have around.

Just as I was trying to accept this situation positively somehow, I learned this rabbit’s true use.

-But even aside from that, I am a very useful existence.

“What exactly can you do?”

-Though much of my power is sealed right now, I am quite a capable assistant. Supporting the growth of the Rabbit Tribe is my basic role. Of course, for now, it won’t be anything too great, but if many of the Rabbit Tribe gather under my master, I will become quite helpful. For a master who intends to take in the Rabbit Tribe, doesn’t this make for a promising prospect?

“Right, the Rabbit Tribe… Ah, come to think of it, if I’m the guide of the Rabbit Tribe, shouldn’t they be obliged to follow me?”

-Not necessarily. Lord Bestia despises blind faith. And the Beastmen themselves aren’t the kind to follow their god blindly either. Still, it does give you a certain degree of justification.

“That’s a bit disappointing. But right now, even that ‘certain degree’ is enough. After all, communication hadn’t been going well at all until now.”

Well, too much blind faith always became a problem anyway.

And in a world like this, where Divine Power truly existed, it was easy to slip into fanaticism. But it seemed that the Beast God Bestia wasn’t particularly fond of such things.

Considering that, the fact that he still sent down messengers to care for the Beastmen suggested he might actually be a rather devoted sort.

At any rate, since I had obtained this rabbit statue, it seemed I at least now had proper justification to hold serious talks with the Rabbit Tribe.

“Now that I think of it, Tito reacted pretty sensitively earlier, didn’t he? I guess Tito must have recognized this as a divine relic.”

This was turning into quite a favorable situation.

A statue I happened to stumble upon had significant meaning to the Rabbit Tribe, and I had gained justification to absorb them into our fold.

Sure, I had also ended up saddled with a strange contract and this rabbit along with it, but it didn’t seem like this fellow was going to get in my way.

The purpose of this messenger of Bestia, this rabbit, was simply to have me lead the Rabbit Tribe well. And if the Rabbit Tribe joined our territory, that was something I would naturally have to do anyway.

“Hey, that’s all fine and good, but as you know, I’m human. Not Rabbit Tribe.”

-I understand what you mean. I cannot force my master. That is not the nature of the relationship between messenger and contractor. The fact that the contractor is not Rabbit Tribe is painful indeed, but this too must be Lord Bestia’s will. It is enough if you simply guide the Rabbit Tribe according to your own discretion.

“Really? Well then, I suppose we’ll get along.”

-Considering the current state of the Rabbit Tribe, no matter what happens, it doesn’t seem things could get much worse than they already are.

“That’s true.”

That much of a confirmation was enough for me.

After all, I already wanted to bring the Rabbit Tribe in as residents of our territory, so all I needed to do was proceed as planned.

If they became residents of the territory, the territory’s development would naturally become their prosperity.

Using the guide as justification to lead them didn’t bother me at all.

And the power of the rabbit statue revealed itself the very next day.

“You discovered the divine relic…”

“Ah, yeah. They say this statue belongs to the Rabbit Tribe, right?”

“Ohhh, indeed. This is the Black Rabbit Statue we lost long ago.”

At the break of dawn, the Rabbit Tribe elder Luxa came to me, stroking the black rabbit statue with tears of emotion.

He explained that it was the divine relic lost back when the Rabbit Tribe had fled into the Forest of Illusions, and he never expected it to return to them like this.

I had heard that Beastmen’s faith tended to be relatively light, but Luxa seemed to be a Rabbit Tribe member with particularly strong devotion.

“So, the thing is… I’ve apparently become this so-called guide. By contracting with the statue.”

“…The guide, you say?”

“Yeah, that’s what happened.”

“You are not Rabbit Tribe, yet you say you’re the guide?”

Proving that I had become the guide turned out to be extremely difficult.

After all, it was far from normal for a human—not even a Beastman—to become the Rabbit Tribe’s guide.

Of course, even now, the black rabbit this Black Rabbit was perched on my shoulder.

But Black Rabbit was visible only to me.

Because the Rabbit Tribe’s power had weakened too much, most of Black Rabbit’s abilities were sealed. Among them, his ability to manifest had been sealed, meaning he couldn’t show himself to anyone else.

Which meant, of course, there was no way for me to prove that I was the guide.

‘You’re a lot less useful than I expected.’

-…How rude, master. If the Rabbit Tribe’s numbers increase even a little, I will be able to manifest.

‘And that “little” is the problem. To gather the Rabbit Tribe, I first have to be recognized as their guide. But who’s going to believe a human guide?’

Looking back, I realized how naive I had been yesterday, thinking that simply possessing the rabbit statue would be enough to be recognized as guide.

At the very least, I should have thought of a method to prove it.

For Beastmen with strong tribal pride, there was no reason to lie to their own kind. But I was human, wasn’t I?

Why would they believe me?

“…I believe you.”

“Huh, seriously?”

But there was someone.

A Beastman who believed my words.

And it was none other than the Rabbit Tribe elder, Luxa.

Perhaps he had unusually sharp insight, because he accepted my words without hesitation.

“Tito said so. That the lord seemed like a good man.”

“Really? But just that much? That’s hardly proof I’m the guide, is it?”

“The fact that you, a human lord, even know of the guide’s existence is enough to convince me. For this is a secret of the Beastmen, unknown to humans.”

“Hmm, I suppose that makes sense.”

He said he had agonized greatly when I first proposed migration.

That was why he had sent Tito to observe us, and Tito had confirmed that we bore no ill intent.

Even so, he still felt uneasy and could not decide on migration. But now, with the matter of the rabbit statue, he had made up his mind.

Even the mere discovery of the missing rabbit statue was enough to give him a vague but hopeful expectation.

“Even if it isn’t true, it doesn’t matter. Rather than continue to endure here until destruction, following a good man’s proposal is a better chance for survival.”

Of course, there was another calculation behind it.

A very practical calculation.

At any rate, it seemed I had found a cooperative Rabbit Tribesman.

I would have to gather the Rabbit Tribe around Luxa.