Lady Sereniel said quietly.
“What a truly clever child.”
Marquis Theodore replied in a low voice.
“Clever is not enough to describe him.”
‘Why are you making this so burdensome?’
I folded my ears slightly.
Marquis Theodore looked at me and said,
“A being who demands respect.”
The room fell silent.
“Because he is small and does not speak, it would be easy to mistake him for something that can be handled lightly.
But that child decides his own distance, and decides the range of what he will allow.
What we must do is read those boundaries.”
……That was unexpected.
When I first saw Marquis Theodore, he had the face of someone who would immediately put me inside a crystal ball and analyze me.
Of course, he probably wasn’t actually that sort of person, but that was what his eyes looked like.
But now, he was different.
He was trying to see me not as a subject of research, but as a being with a will.
‘The Asteria family is better than I thought.’
Of course, I must not let my guard down.
The people of this household are the sort who behave politely while forming about ten hypotheses in their heads at the same time.
But at the very least, it didn’t seem like they would forcibly pluck my fur or draw my blood.
……They won’t, right?
I glanced at Iris.
Iris met my gaze and froze for a moment.
“We do not collect samples without permission.”
‘Why are you answering like you read my mind?’
Scary.
I yawned.
My small mouth opened on its own.
Then Noel murmured very softly.
“……Cute.”
I froze.
Elicia said with a face that was holding back laughter,
“Haku, everyone says you’re cute.”
I turned to look at Elicia.
‘Don’t.’
Don’t say things like that.
I was a man in my previous life, and my mind is still that of a man, so why do they keep calling me cute?
Of course, I admit this body is cute.
But admitting it myself and hearing it from others are two different things.
Iris suddenly said with great seriousness,
“There is a possibility that Haku’s cuteness is not merely the observer’s subjective impression.”
‘What?’
“The proportions, movements, pitch of his cries, and the color of his fur all act in combination.”
I froze solid.
‘Why are you analyzing that?’
Why are you trying to turn cuteness into an academic field?
In the end, Elicia burst out laughing.
I immediately went back to Elicia and climbed onto her lap.
Then I turned my back.
I was sulking.
To be precise, I was pretending to sulk.
“I’m sorry, Haku.”
Elicia swallowed her laughter as she stroked my back.
“Still, no one said it with bad intentions.”
I know that.
But embarrassing things are still embarrassing.
I slowly swayed the tip of my tail.
Even while saying I disliked it, I did not push away the hand stroking me.
Noel laughed softly.
The sound of that laughter spread very gently through the room.
In that instant, the surrounding mana became a little more stable.
I narrowed my eyes.
‘It’s better when he laughs.’
Noel’s problem might not be simply mana hypersensitivity.
His body is weak, but his heart is constantly tense as well. Because it hurts, he tenses up,
and because he tenses up, the mana feels rougher, and then it hurts again.
It might be that things grow quiet when he is beside me, but it also seemed that laughing like this itself was helpful.
Iris seemed to have noticed it too.
But this time as well, she said nothing.
She was simply looking at Noel.
That face was not the face of a researcher.
It was the face of an older sister.
It felt a little unfamiliar.
So Iris makes expressions like that too.
After a while, Marquis Theodore said,
“The meal is ready. Lady Valerion, if you do not mind, would you come down with us?”
Elicia looked down at me.
“I think Haku still needs to rest.”
“We have also prepared something Haku can eat separately.
Of course, as Iris told us in advance, we excluded spices and any ingredients that might be toxic.”
‘Oh.’
Something I could eat.
At those words, my ears moved on their own.
No, I was not reacting to food.
It was simply information confirmation. A survival instinct.
Elicia saw my ears and smiled faintly.
“You look interested.”
I pretended not to know.
Lady Sereniel said gently,
“You are a guest who came a long way, after all.”
Guest.
Hearing that word, I looked at Lady Sereniel.
Not a familiar, not a rare species, not a research subject.
A guest.
On my first day in this house, that word felt better than I had expected.
I cried out briefly.
Lady Sereniel smiled as though she understood.
“Thank you. For accepting it that way.”
I avoided her gaze.
Being treated politely like this was even more troublesome.
It was actually harder to deal with than students making a fuss over how cute I was.
Elicia carefully held me in her arms.
I did not resist.
My body still did not feel completely light, and the texture of mana on the floor was a little ticklish for me to walk around an unfamiliar mansion.
Being in Elicia’s arms was more comfortable in many ways.
Above all, it was stable.
Elicia’s aura had become much gentler than when we first met.
It had not completely loosened yet, but it was no longer forcefully knotted together like before.
Whenever it touched my demonic energy, I could feel its texture aligning little by little.
‘She’s improved a lot.’
For some reason, I felt proud.
……No, it’s not like I raised her, though.
When we stepped into the hallway, I could properly see the scenery of the Asteria marquisate’s mansion.
If the Valerion mansion was like a solid fortress, this place was like a mixture of a vast library and a forest.
The walls were made of bright stone, and silver patterns were engraved here and there.
Large windows continued along one side of the corridor, and beyond them I could see old trees and crystal pillars.
Near the ceiling, small lights drifted about. Looking closely, they did not seem to be magic lamps, but illumination created by spirits and crystal devices together.
‘They’re rich.’
No, Valerion is rich too.
But the texture is different.
If Valerion is a household that pours money into swords, armor, training grounds, knight orders, horses, and military facilities,
then Asteria is a household that pours money into books, crystals, barriers, spirits, magic tools, and research facilities.
Either way, nobles really are something else.
As we descended the stairs, the servants passing by quietly bowed their heads upon seeing us.
But all their gazes touched me at least once.
‘The rumor’s already spread.’
Of course it had.
The Lady Valerion brought by Iris and her familiar.
A silver-pink baby fox who fell asleep as soon as they arrived through the gate.
The story that spirits gathered around him, and Young Master Noel grew comfortable by his side.
There was no way rumors like that would not circulate in a mansion like this.
A young maid saw me, her eyes sparkling, then immediately composed her expression.
I pretended not to notice.
I was used to it.
I received similar gazes every day at the academy.
Only, since these were servants rather than students, they were much more restrained.
No one rushed at me, and no one asked, “May I stroke you just once?”
Instead, their eyes were saying it.
Cute.
I want to touch him.
But I can’t.
I sighed inwardly.
‘Why does this body make things so hard for people?’
When we entered the dining room, I saw a long dining table.
But the atmosphere was not as burdensome as I had expected.
It seemed to be a setting where the formality had been lowered for guests.
It was quieter than the noble dinners I had seen at Valerion, and, fitting for Asteria, even the plates and cups bore subtle magical patterns.
When Elicia took her seat, my gaze naturally turned toward the small chair prepared beside her.
There was a low stand and a small plate there.
‘……That’s really my seat.’
On the plate were soft bread torn into small pieces, cooled thin soup, something like boiled chicken, and a little thinly sliced fruit.
There was almost no smell of spices.
Good.
I climbed down from Elicia’s arms and got onto the small stand.
Then I looked at the plate.
Can I eat it?
Elicia said softly,
“Eat slowly.”
I lowered my head and smelled it.
It was fine.
There was no scent of onion in the soup, and the bread was neither sweet nor salty.
The meat was barely seasoned. Even by fox-body standards, it did not seem like there would be any major problem.
‘Asteria is thorough with preparations.’
I carefully bit into a piece of bread.
It was soft.
Not bad.
It was tastier than I expected.
My ears perked up slightly.
At that moment, the air around the dining table subtly changed.
I stopped chewing and lifted my head.
Iris was looking at me.
Noel was looking too.
Lady Sereniel was smiling, and Marquis Theodore was holding his teacup while pretending nothing was amiss.
But they were all watching.
‘Why are you staring at me eating like that?’
It’s burdensome.
After swallowing the bread, I deliberately lowered my head again, pretending to be completely composed.
Then Noel said softly,
“He’s eating.”
Of course I’m eating.
I’m alive.
Elicia said while holding back laughter,
“Haku likes bread. As long as it isn’t too hard.”
Iris immediately reacted.
“I will record that.”
I lifted my head.
Iris flinched.
“……Later.”
Good.
Not now.
Marquis Theodore said quietly,
“We will continue to prepare a separate diet that Haku can eat. However, if there are any ingredients that must be prohibited, please inform us.”
Elicia answered,
“It’s best to avoid things with strong scents, anything that might be toxic, and things that are too salty. And new foods should be given only a little at a time.”
“Understood.”
It was a very normal conversation.
I licked the soup.
It was warm.
I felt as though the stiffness in my body after the gate transfer was loosening a little.
‘Mm.’
Good.
This house passes when it comes to meals.
The moment I thought that, Noel asked carefully,
“Does Haku…… eat like this every day?”
I looked at Noel.
Rather than every day like this, it depends on the situation.
Bread pieces, soup, meat, sometimes fruit, prepared by Elicia.
At the academy cafeteria, there are many things I reject after just smelling them, and because students tried to secretly feed me snacks, the Seonghwihoe made rules.
But I had no way to explain all that.
Elicia spoke in my place.
“Mostly. But you can’t feed him just anything. In the past, students tried to lure him with snacks, so it was banned at the academy.”
“Lure him with snacks……”
Noel seemed a little surprised.
Iris calmly added,
“It is one of the rules for contact with Haku. No pulling his ears or tail, no forced hugs, no luring him with snacks.”
Marquis Theodore’s eyebrow moved ever so slightly.
“Is he that popular?”
Elicia was silent for a moment.
“……Yes.”
I pretended not to know and licked the soup.
Let’s not talk about things like the academy students’ petting application forms.
I still haven’t accepted that either.