When the door opened, warm, moist air flowed out.
Inside, plants were growing like a small forest.
A transparent glass dome arched over the ceiling, and beyond it, the afternoon sunlight poured down softly.
A small waterway with a stream running through it.
Plants with shining petals.
Moss imbued with mana.
And tiny spirits moving to and fro among them.
For a moment, I blinked.
There were more spirits than I had expected.
Some looked like clusters of light.
Some resembled little birds.
Some poked their heads out from between petals.
Some bounced around like droplets of water.
Most of them were faint and small.
They must be lower spirits.
But the instant we stepped inside, the movements within the greenhouse stopped for the briefest moment.
It was truly only for an instant.
So brief that a student would not have noticed.
‘This is a guest after a long time. But…… is what lies within a different being?’
Then, from somewhere, a man’s voice sounded.
No one around me seemed to have noticed.
Was I the only one who heard it?
Iris did not miss the moment the spirits’ movements stopped.
Her eyes quietly deepened.
Selena, too, drew in a breath.
“……They all stopped.”
“Yes.”
Iris answered in a low voice.
I felt as if I were breaking out in a cold sweat inside.
No, why are they all stopping?
You’re making the atmosphere weird because of me for no reason.
And, as expected, it seemed I was the only one who heard the man’s voice.
I don’t know who it was, but I have a feeling it might be the Spirit King Wolryeong mentioned.
Elysia, holding me in her arms, asked carefully,
“Haku, are you uncomfortable?”
I shook my head.
I was not uncomfortable.
If anything, the air inside the greenhouse was pleasant.
It was the complete opposite of the nausea I had felt near the Department of Magical Engineering building.
The flow of mana was gentle, and the presence of the spirits was not sharp.
It was just burdensome that everyone was far too conscious of me.
Iris took out a small recording tablet.
But before lifting her pen, she looked at me and said,
“May I record this?”
I looked at her for a moment.
She did not seem to have any ill intent.
So I nodded.
Only then did Iris begin recording.
“Immediately after Haku entered, the movements of the lower spirits within the greenhouse temporarily ceased.
No flight response. No hostile response. No fear response.”
She paused for a moment and looked at me.
“A halting response close to courtesy.”
My ears twitched.
She was accurate.
So accurate that it made me uncomfortable.
It was then.
From among the glowing cluster of flowers deeper inside the greenhouse, a very small lump of light floated up.
It was even smaller than the other light spirits.
A round, soft-looking spirit with a somewhat dazed air about it.
Selena said softly,
“Lulu?”
The little light spirit called Lulu circled twice in the air, then slowly approached me.
Elysia instinctively held me a little closer.
But Lulu had no hostility.
The spirit came right up in front of my nose and tilted its round body slightly.
Then, in a clear, tiny voice, it said,
“Small.”
The greenhouse fell silent.
I blinked.
What?
Lulu looked at me once more and said,
“Small. But high.”
At that moment, Iris’s pen stopped.
Selena’s eyes widened as well.
Elysia, not understanding what it meant, looked back and forth between me and Lulu.
I shouted inwardly.
‘If you’re going to talk, say something people can understand!’
Small but high.
What on earth was that supposed to mean?
Lulu floated around me.
“Small fur. High moon. Fluffy. Old.”
Stop.
Stop talking.
Iris’s eyes began to sparkle even more than before.
I was doomed.
Those were the eyes of a researcher.
I knew it instinctively.
Those few incomprehensible words Lulu had just uttered had become an enormous clue to Iris.
Iris murmured very quietly,
“High moon…… old……”
Selena also said softly,
“Lulu is rather low in intelligence, so it can’t express complex concepts.
But the impressions it senses intuitively are quite accurate.”
That explanation was no comfort at all.
If anything, it only made the situation more serious.
Iris looked at me.
“Is Haku related to the moon?”
I immediately tilted my head.
I have no idea what you’re talking about.
I’m just a fox.
A small, fluffy fox.
Iris stared at my expression for a long while, then said quietly,
“You’re skilled at pretending not to know.”
‘Why do you keep seeing through me?’
Elysia gently stepped in.
“Lady Iris. Please keep your questions within a range that won’t burden Haku.”
“My apologies.”
Iris immediately backed down.
But her gaze was still fixed on me.
This person was dangerous.
Not in an aggressive sense, but in the sense that she saw far too much.
I burrowed a little deeper into Elysia’s arms.
Elysia held me as if wrapping me in her embrace.
Her touch made me feel a little more at ease.
The observation did not last more than fifteen minutes.
As promised, Iris did not touch me, nor did she use any measurement magic.
She simply recorded, in silence, how the spirits reacted while I was inside the greenhouse,
what Lulu said,
and how I expressed my intentions.
At the end, Iris closed her recording tablet and said,
“That will be all for today.”
Thank goodness.
I let out a sigh of relief inwardly.
However, she immediately added,
“May I request another observation next time?”
As expected, there was no way it would end so easily.
Elysia did not answer right away.
She looked down at me.
It meant the decision was mine to make.
I looked at Iris.
She was still calm.
She was not forcing me.
But she did not seem to have any intention of giving up either.
Honestly, it was troublesome.
Truly troublesome.
But strangely enough, I did not completely dislike it.
Iris did not see me merely as a cute mascot.
It was burdensome that she was drawing close to the things I wanted to hide, but at the same time, she was trying to understand me.
That might be dangerous.
But someday, it might become necessary.
Very slowly, I nodded once.
Elysia drew in a small breath.
Iris looked at me for a moment, then bowed her head politely.
“Thank you, Haku.”
The way she called my name was a little different from the other students.
It was not a cry of adoration at my cuteness, nor was it bright, excited affection.
Her voice was like someone carefully reading the title of an ancient text they had yet to decipher.
I found that a little strange.
It was not unpleasant, but neither was it comfortable.
When we left the greenhouse, Lulu followed after us again.
“Small. Fluffy. High.”
Stop.
Please stop.
As Iris moved her hand as though to record those words again,
I quickly buried my face in Elysia’s arms.
Pretending I didn’t hear.
Pretending I heard absolutely nothing.
That evening, the story naturally made its way to the Vallerion ducal residence.
At the dining table, when Elysia carefully spoke of her contact with Iris Asteria,
Isolde set down her teacup and sank into thought for a moment.
“The young lady of Asteria showed interest in Haku?”
“Yes. She said the spirits’ reactions were strange.”
At those words, Leopold’s gaze grew somewhat heavy.
“Asteria is a prestigious house of knowledge and magic.
If they noticed something, it may not end as simple curiosity.”
I slightly folded my ears on the cushion beside the dining table.
As expected, adults reacted quickly.
Lucius looked at me with his arms crossed.
“But she followed proper procedure and didn’t perform any unauthorized measurements, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then for now, we should remain cautious, but there’s no need to push them away unconditionally.
If anything, Asteria may be able to explain Haku’s peculiarities.”
Camilla asked with a slightly worried expression,
“Haku won’t be experimented on, will he?”
Good question.
That’s what I’m most worried about too.
Elysia firmly shook her head.
“I won’t let that happen. If Haku dislikes it, I’ll refuse immediately.”
At those words, I wagged my tail slightly.
Seeing that, Isolde smiled gently.
“Haku trusts Elysia, doesn’t he?”
I turned my gaze away for no reason.
I trusted her.
That was true.
Elysia was the first person I had come to rely on after arriving in this world,
and even now, I felt a little more at ease when she was by my side.
Leopold remained silent for a moment, then said in a low voice,
“If there is to be contact with Asteria, Vallerion must also know the situation. All the more so if Haku is not a mere familiar.”
If Haku is not a mere familiar.
Those words settled quietly over the dining table.
I held a piece of bread between my front paws like a fox who knew nothing.
No, I tried to hold it.
But the bread Elysia had cut into small pieces for me was slightly warm and smelled good.
In the end, I stopped thinking and took a bite of bread.
‘That’s right. I’ll think about the difficult things later.’
Right now, I’m hungry.
When they saw me chewing on the bread, the heavy atmosphere eased a little.
Camilla laughed softly, and Isolde’s eyes softened as well.
Even Leopold’s lips moved ever so faintly.
Elysia gently stroked my head.
“Haku is Haku.”
At those words, I suddenly raised my head.
Elysia was quietly looking at me.
“No matter how the spirits see you, no matter what Asteria says, to us, Haku is Haku.”
Those words lingered strangely deep in my heart.
I still did not know what this body was.
I did not know why the spirits showed me respect.
I did not know what Iris’s “high moon” meant either.
But at least Elysia was looking at the me I was now.
Not as some unknown being.
Not as a dangerous familiar.
Just as Haku.
I quietly curled my tail.
I was a little embarrassed.
So instead of answering, I took another bite of the remaining piece of bread.
“Kyawng.”
Elysia laughed.
And I thought,
My connection with Iris Asteria would probably not end today.
She would come again.
She would record the spirits’ reactions, doubt my power, and step closer, little by little, to what I was trying to hide.
It would certainly be troublesome.
After the meal ended like that, we returned to Elysia’s room as usual.
The hallway was quiet.
The mansion, with the commotion of the day settled, seemed a little wider and deeper as night drew closer.
Elysia entered the room with me in her arms, and I settled down familiarly on the cushion beside the bed.
Then, suddenly, one thing occurred to me.
Come to think of it.
That person had not been at the dining table today.
I raised my head and looked at Elysia.
‘Elysia, where is Grandfather?’
“Hm?”
Elysia stopped in the middle of taking off her coat and hanging it on a chair, then looked back at me.
After thinking for a moment, she soon gave a small nod as if she had remembered.
“Oh, Grandfather went to a southern resort.”
‘A resort?’
I perked my ears slightly.
Somehow, that old swordsman-like person and the word resort did not quite go together.
“Yes. He said things seemed to be running well now even without him, so he would go and rest.
Grandfather said he doesn’t know when he’ll return either.”
Was this what they called life after retirement?
I gave a small nod.
‘I see.’
Elysia watched my reaction, then sat on the edge of the bed and asked,
“Haku, are you uncomfortable around Grandfather?”
I thought for a moment.
Curling my tail slowly, I answered,
‘Rather than uncomfortable, he’s scary.’
Elysia looked at me for a moment, then smiled quietly.
“That’s true for me too.”
Elysia did not deny it either.
Even as Elysia and I smiled at each other and talked, the day quietly drew to a close.