After Haku and Elysia left the reception room.
When the door closed quietly, silence settled over the room for a moment.
Lucius stared at the closed door for some time.
Camilla was blankly looking at the spot where Haku had been until just moments ago,
and Gradeon sat in the chair beside the fireplace with his eyes closed.
The first to speak was Camilla.
“……Is that really a familiar?”
Her tone pretended to be light, but there was unmistakable agitation in her voice.
Lucius did not answer right away.
He slowly turned his gaze to Gradeon.
“What did you think, Grandfather?”
Gradeon remained silent for a while with his eyes closed.
The firewood in the fireplace crackled softly.
After a long moment, Gradeon spoke in a low voice.
“On the outside, it is a fox.”
Camilla furrowed her brows.
“We saw that too.”
“But on the inside, it is not a fox.”
At those words, the air in the reception room grew heavy again.
Lucius’s gaze sank.
“Is it a magical beast?”
“No.”
“A spirit?”
“Not that either.”
“Then is it of the divine beast line?”
This time as well, Gradeon did not answer immediately.
He slowly opened his eyes.
His cloudy gray-blue eyes caught the firelight and gleamed sharply for a moment.
“I do not know.”
Lucius narrowed his brow.
“Are you saying even you do not know, Grandfather?”
“I say I do not know because I do not know.”
Gradeon was calm.
“But there is one thing I do know. That little fox does not fall within the category of what we commonly call a familiar.”
Camilla crossed her arms and leaned back against the sofa.
“Then isn’t it dangerous?
Elysia carries that child around all day.
It even seems to stay with her in her room.”
Lucius’s expression stiffened slightly.
“Camilla.”
“What? I’m saying it because I’m worried.”
Camilla lowered the end of her sentence a little.
“To be honest, that child is cute.
Its eyes are pretty, and its reactions are…… well, fascinating. But you saw it just now.
It understood Grandfather’s words and nodded.”
As if recalling the sight of Haku nodding, she bit her lip lightly.
“That wasn’t the reaction of a trained familiar. It understood human speech, judged, and answered.”
Lucius did not refute that.
He had seen it too.
Haku had not simply reacted to sound.
When Gradeon said, “If you intend to help Elysia, then help her properly,”
it had nodded as though it understood the exact meaning.
That was the reaction of an intelligent being.
And what mattered even more was that Elysia had not tried to hide it.
“Elysia already knew.”
Lucius spoke quietly.
Camilla let out a short sigh.
“Of course she did. She’s with it every day. There’s no way she wouldn’t know.”
“And yet she did not report it to the family first.”
Lucius’s voice lowered slightly.
“That could become a problem.”
Camilla looked at Lucius.
“Brother, are you really thinking of taking issue with that?”
“I am not saying I will take issue with it.
But I am saying we need to know what situation Elysia is in.
If Haku truly is affecting the flow of Elysia’s aura, then this is not a private matter concerning a familiar.”
It was a judgment befitting an heir.
Valerion was a house of the sword.
If the flow of Elysia’s aura was changing,
then it was both a matter of Elysia’s personal growth and a matter of the family.
It was not as though Camilla did not understand that.
But for some reason, she turned her head with a displeased expression.
“Still, I think I know why Elysia hid it.”
Lucius looked at Camilla.
“What do you mean?”
“She said she didn’t want Haku to be treated like a test subject.”
Camilla’s voice grew a little quieter.
“The old Elysia wouldn’t have been able to say something like that.
She would have just swallowed it alone and followed whatever the people around her decided.
But today was different.”
She looked toward the closed door.
“Elysia tried to protect Haku. With her own words. By her own will.”
Lucius fell silent.
He had felt it too.
Today’s Elysia was different from before.
The Elysia of the past had always been cautious.
She knew her position within the family,
and she knew that her sword had not blossomed as expected.
So she grew even quieter and lowered herself even more.
But Elysia, just moments ago, had been different.
Though afraid, she had spoken.
It had not been an attitude of trying to hide Haku, but of trying to ensure it would not be handled carelessly.
Gradeon laughed softly.
“That is why that fox runs deep.”
Lucius and Camilla’s gazes turned back to Gradeon.
Gradeon raised a hand and lightly tapped his knee.
“I have watched Elysia’s sword for a long time.
That child’s problem was not a lack of talent.
If anything, she had too much.
The currents were biting at one another.”
Lucius quietly nodded.
He knew that as well.
Elysia had never failed to make an effort.
She had never put down the sword.
And yet, strangely enough, at every crucial moment, her sword was late.
As though the power within her body collided and scattered before it could reach the tip of her blade.
Gradeon continued.
“But today’s Elysia was different.
She is still immature.
She has not truly blossomed yet.
But a flow has begun to form.”
“Do you believe it is because of Haku?”
“There is a high possibility.”
Gradeon nodded.
“I do not know what that little fox has done.
But it is true that Elysia’s center has changed.”
Camilla muttered as though somewhat dumbfounded.
“To think one little fox could change the sword of Valerion……”
“It is not always a person who changes a sword.”
Gradeon’s voice was low, but clear.
“Sometimes a single word, sometimes a single defeat, and sometimes an existence one must protect changes a sword.”
He looked at the closed door.
“That fox must have become such an existence for Elysia.”
Lucius sank into thought.
“If that is so, then we must confirm it all the more.
Even if it is true that Haku is helping Elysia,
leaving the two of them close without knowing the nature of that power is dangerous.”
“Did she not say she was receiving counsel from a professor in the Department of Special Familiar Studies?”
“Will that alone be enough?”
Lucius’s question was realistic.
“Resonance, familiar contracts, aura interference.
All of this is already tied to the academy.
I heard the Seonghwihoe has also created regulations concerning Haku.
If the rumors spread further, other families will take interest as well.”
Camilla furrowed her brow.
“They’ve already spread. I hear it’s practically a celebrity at the academy.
They even had reservations to pet it.”
“I heard a notice had already been posted for that.”
Lucius spoke curtly.
Camilla shook her head in disbelief.
“A notice about petting a familiar. Truly absurd.”
Even as she said that, she averted her gaze, as if recalling Haku’s fluffy silver-pink fur from earlier.
“……Well, I understand why they’d want to touch it.”
Lucius looked at her.
“Camilla.”
“What? You were a little curious too, Brother.”
“I did not look at it that way.”
“Really?”
Lucius did not answer.
That silence felt more like an answer, and Camilla gave a small laugh.
But that laughter did not last long.
Gradeon spoke quietly.
“It would be best to inform Leopold and Isolde.”
Lucius’s expression became serious.
“How much should we tell them?”
“What we saw.”
“That Haku appears to possess intelligence,
that it is affecting Elysia’s aura flow,
and that she is receiving counsel from the Department of Special Familiar Studies?”
“Yes.”
Camilla leaned forward slightly.
“Then won’t Father try to investigate immediately?”
“He will.”
Gradeon did not deny it.
“But Leopold is not foolish.
If he sees how Elysia has changed, he will not rashly separate Haku from her.”
Lucius nodded.
“Mother will likely look to Elysia first.”
“She will.”
Camilla murmured softly.
“If Mother finds out, I feel like she’ll start by making Haku’s diet more meticulous.”
Lucius was briefly at a loss for words.
Gradeon laughed low.
“It seemed it was already too late for that.”
“What?”
“The kitchen was preparing separate food suited to Haku.”
Camilla blinked.
“Already?”
Lucius pressed a hand to his forehead.
“Rumors travel faster in this household than I expected.”
“And here I thought only the academy was fast.”
Camilla said that, but she looked somehow slightly amused.
Soon, however, her expression turned serious again.
“So, what are we going to do?”
“For now, we watch.”
Lucius said.
“If we intervene hastily, Elysia may hide more. Haku is also highly likely to become wary.”
He recalled Haku’s eyes from just moments ago.
They had been the eyes of a small fox cub.
But within them had been a strange caution and discernment.
They were not the eyes of an animal that knew nothing.
“Haku understands far more than we think. So we must not treat it carelessly.”
Camilla nodded quietly.
“I agree with that. Even just now, it was pretending not to know on purpose.”
“You saw that?”
“I did.”
Camilla lifted the corner of her mouth slightly.
“After nodding at Grandfather’s words,
it immediately made a face like, ‘I don’t know anything.’
Far too late.”
Gradeon narrowed his eyes as though amused.
“Clever.”
Lucius spoke seriously.
“Being clever means it can judge for itself to that extent.
I understand why Elysia wants to protect Haku.”
Camilla murmured quietly.
“It’s the first time I’ve seen Elysia shield someone like that.”
At those words, Lucius was silent for a moment.
He remembered Elysia from childhood.
A child who had wanted to take up the sword, but who had been frustrated over and over because her body would not move as expected.
A child who tried not to cry even when crushed beneath the family name.
A younger sister who always pretended to be fine so no one would discover her weakness.
That Elysia had raised her voice today for someone else.
For Haku.
Lucius spoke slowly.
“Perhaps it was what Elysia needed.”
Camilla looked at him.
“Haku?”
“A reason to take up the sword not for herself, but for someone else.”
The reception room grew quiet again.
Gradeon closed his eyes as though satisfied.
“A sword grows by feeding on reasons.”
At those words, Lucius and Camilla looked at Gradeon at the same time.
Gradeon continued slowly.
“The family’s honor, duty, responsibility. Those are reasons as well. But there are swords that do not blossom with those alone.”
He smiled faintly.
“Elysia’s sword was likely one that had to meet something it wanted to protect before it could bloom.”
Camilla could say nothing.
Lucius also remained silent.
Those words were too accurate.
Elysia had taken up the sword because of the Valerion name.
But rather than raising her up, it had instead weighed her down.
And yet after meeting Haku, she had drawn a line for herself for the first time.
To protect Haku.
Camilla spoke in a small voice.
“Then…… it’s true that Haku is having a good influence on Elysia.”
“So far, yes.”
Lucius said cautiously.
“But we must watch whether that remains true going forward.”
Gradeon nodded.
“Yes. Acknowledge it, but do not grow careless. Be wary, but do not suppress it.”
He raised a hand and lifted his teacup.
“That child is not an existence that will disappear if suppressed. It will merely grow distant.”
Lucius engraved those words in his heart.
“Then for the time being, I will not question Elysia directly.
However, we must confirm the results of her counseling with the Department of Special Familiar Studies.”
Camilla tapped the armrest with her finger.
“What about me?”
“You must not needlessly test Haku.”
“When did I do that?”
Lucius silently stared at Camilla.
Camilla looked away.
“……I’ll only do it a little.”
“Do not do it.”
“Fine.”
Gradeon laughed softly.
“Camilla.”
“Yes, Grandfather.”
“There is nothing wrong with being curious. But that fox is not a toy.”
Camilla’s expression stiffened slightly.
“I know that much.”
“If you know, then that is enough.”
Gradeon looked back at the fireplace.
“However, if the opportunity arises, you should at least greet it properly.
That child will distinguish between those who treat it like a person and those who do not.”
Camilla recalled the way Haku had stared at her just moments ago.
It had been a small, adorable fox, yet strangely, before that gaze, she had felt as though she must not speak carelessly.
“……I already felt that a little.”
Lucius slowly rose from his seat.
“I will organize what needs to be reported to Father.
However, I will ensure that what happened today is shared only within the family as much as possible.”
“Good.”
Gradeon answered briefly.
Camilla also stood.
“Then I’ll go tell Mother that snacks for Haku are already being prepared separately.”
Lucius turned to look at her.
“Is that important right now?”
“It is.”
Camilla said calmly.
“It’s so small, and yet it’s been dragged around by the Seonghwihoe and the Department of Special Familiar Studies. If it’s tired, it needs to eat.”
Lucius looked at Camilla for a moment, then let out a small sigh.
“It seems you have taken a liking to it after all.”
Camilla did not answer right away.
Instead, she turned her head slightly and said,
“Elysia was holding it like that…… How could I dislike it?”
Those words were unusually honest for Camilla.
Lucius did not ask further.
Gradeon watched the backs of the two, then murmured very softly.
“A small silver-pink fox……”
The flames of the fireplace reflected in his eyes.
“A strange bond has attached itself to Elysia’s sword.”
He was silent for a moment.
Then he smiled faintly.
“This will become interesting.”