As soon as we returned to the room in the mansion, Elysia set me down on the cushion.
I was exhausted in all sorts of ways.
Especially because of the Spirit King...
I was about to curl myself into a ball when I lifted my head again.
‘Elysia.’
‘Yeah?’
‘Comb.’
Elysia blinked.
‘Now?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Aren’t you really tired?’
‘That’s why I need brushing.’
My logic was flawless.
Elysia looked at me for a moment, then finally smiled and nodded.
“All right. I’ll bring the comb.”
Beside the table where the basket Clarice had given us sat a small supply box prepared by Asteria.
Elysia took out a soft comb from inside it.
It was an excessively luxurious comb, with a silver handle set with a small turquoise gem.
‘Are even the combs here magic tools?’
‘I think so. It looks like it has anti-static and fur-grooming magic on it.’
‘Needlessly thorough.’
‘Isn’t that good?’
‘……It is good.’
Elysia sat beside me and carefully placed the comb against my fur.
The first stroke slowly moved from my back toward my tail.
For a moment, my body nearly melted without my permission.
‘…….’
‘Haku?’
‘Keep going.’
‘Do you like it?’
‘Yeah.’
Elysia’s thought, tinged with laughter, reached me.
The comb slid down once more.
The lingering traces of demonic power that had been floating faintly beneath the Ivory Tree calmly settled with each stroke.
My tangled fur came undone, and the silver energy remaining at the tips scattered ever so slightly before seeping back into my body.
It felt good.
Really good.
I tucked in my forepaws and lay flat on the cushion.
Elysia carefully combed behind my ears.
“Here too?”
‘Yeah.’
“Tell me if it hurts.”
‘It doesn’t hurt.’
“The tail too?”
‘Obviously.’
“Obviously, huh.”
I pretended not to know and closed my eyes.
Tail brushing was important.
Extremely important.
Especially on a day like today, when my demonic power had stabilized in front of the spirits,
when another tail had nearly emerged, and the Spirit King had suddenly popped out of nowhere.
Elysia’s touch was familiar.
At first, she had only been cautious, but now she knew how much strength she could use,
which parts were sensitive, and which direction to comb in to make me comfortable.
I entrusted myself to her completely.
My thoughts loosened on their own.
‘Elysia.’
‘Yeah.’
‘Don’t tell other people too much detail about what happened today.’
‘About the Ivory Tree?’
‘About how another tail almost came out.’
‘All right. I won’t tell them that.’
‘Even if Iris asks?’
‘If you don’t want me to, I won’t say it.’
I opened my eyes slightly.
‘Thanks.’
Elysia’s hand paused for a moment.
Then it soon moved even more gently.
‘No, thank you.’
‘For what?’
‘For telling me.’
There she went again.
I folded my ears.
Elysia laughed.
“Haku, your ears folded.”
‘I don’t know.’
“Are you embarrassed?”
‘Focus on brushing.’
“Yes, Lord Haku.”
‘Don’t call me that.’
Elysia laughed softly.
The room was quiet.
Outside the window, the garden of Marquis Asteria’s residence was visible,
and in the distance, the glass dome of the Spirit Garden shimmered faintly in the sunlight.
As Elysia brushed me, I recalled the sensation I had felt beneath the Ivory Tree today.
My demonic power had stabilized.
Another tail had tried to open.
And I had been able to stop it.
That meant I had become a little more capable of handling this power.
Not as Wolyeong, but as the me who existed now.
As Haku.
The comb slowly passed over the tip of my tail.
I gave my tail a slight swish.
‘There. One more time.’
I could sense Elysia holding back laughter.
“Yeah. One more time.”
I pretended not to notice.
It was for maintenance.
Truly.
And perhaps life at Marquis Asteria’s residence would become even more chaotic than I had expected.
Noel’s star leaf.
Iris and Clarice’s shared interest.
Marquis Theodore’s quiet expectations.
Lady Sereniel’s gentle gaze.
The Ivory Tree in the Spirit Garden.
And the Spirit King.
Especially the Spirit King—I had a feeling I would be seeing him often from now on.
I could already see a mountain of troublesome matters ahead.
But right now, Elysia’s hands were warm, the brushing felt pleasant, and the demonic power inside me was quiet for the first time in a very long while.
So for today, this was enough.
Covering the tip of my nose with my tail, I sent a small thought.
‘I’m going to sleep for a little.’
Elysia’s reply came right away.
‘Yeah. Sleep well, Haku.’
And with the sensation of the comb gently sweeping down my back one last time, I slowly closed my eyes again.
The next morning.
I woke up feeling more refreshed than I had expected.
The air in Marquis Asteria’s residence was still unfamiliar, but the inside of my body was no longer ticklish and restless like it had been yesterday.
Perhaps because my demonic power had been sorted out once beneath the Ivory Tree, even just breathing made the flow inside me move more smoothly than before.
‘……Nice.’
I stretched out on the cushion.
I extended my forepaws, rounded my back, then straightened it, and a light shiver ran all the way to the tip of my tail.
The sensation of another tail trying to emerge yesterday still remained deep inside my body.
But for now, it was quiet.
If I did not want it to come out, it would not.
That fact alone was quite a gain.
“Kyaung……”
After yawning softly and turning my head, I saw a small silver plate on the table.
On it lay the fur Elysia had gathered while brushing me yesterday, neatly collected.
Silver-pink fur.
If it had been ordinary fur, it would have just been a clump of shed hair, but mine was a little different.
A very faint trace of demonic power remained in it, and perhaps because it had been gathered through brushing, the strands were neatly aligned.
I stared at the fur for a while.
‘……This.’
I remembered the sensation from yesterday, when I had curled up on Noel’s head.
The Ivory Tree’s star leaf had reduced the mana noise around Noel.
And I, more directly than that, had been able to soften the texture of the mana touching Noel.
In that case.
What if I used my fur as a medium?
I could not always stay by his side.
I could not, and I should not. It would not be good for Noel to become dependent only on me.
But if fur that still held a little of my demonic power was woven together with the Ivory Tree’s star leaf...
Noel might be able to maintain a certain level of stability in his daily life.
It would not be a complete treatment.
Mana hypersensitivity was probably not something that could be solved simply by reducing outside noise.
Noel’s body, mana circuits, senses, and mind were all intertwined.
But if he continued to experience a quiet state, his body might remember that state.
At first, he would stabilize through external help.
After that, he would grow accustomed to the stabilized flow.
With time, Noel’s own mana senses might gradually become less sensitive.
The odds were low.
Very low.
But the possibility of a full recovery was not entirely absent.
I looked at the fur on the silver plate, then nodded.
‘A bracelet.’
A bracelet was better than a necklace or a charm.
It would always touch his body, it would be easy to wear, and it would be easy to hide.
Place the star leaf at the center, then twist my fur around it like thread.
On top of that, I would let a very thin stream of demonic power flow through it—not to block mana, but to create a texture that allowed it to flow gently onward.
Then I could tell Noel to keep wearing it.
I immediately went to look for Elysia.
Elysia was asleep in a chair on one side of the room.
It seemed she had stayed by my side again today and fallen asleep just like that.
I got down from the cushion and hopped onto the sofa.
Then I tapped the back of Elysia’s hand with the tip of my tail.
‘Elysia.’
Elysia’s eyelids trembled slightly.
‘……Haku?’
‘Wake up.’
‘Is something wrong?’
The moment she opened her eyes, Elysia immediately checked my condition.
By now, it was practically a habit.
I gestured with my head toward the silver plate on the table.
‘I’m going to make a bracelet with that fur.’
Elysia blinked.
“A bracelet?”
‘Yeah. I’m going to give it to Noel.’
Elysia’s expression grew a little serious.
‘To Young Master Noel?’
I walked over to the silver plate and lightly touched the fur with my forepaw.
‘The star leaf worked yesterday. And when I climbed onto Noel’s head, it had a similar effect too.’
‘Yeah.’
‘My fur still has a little demonic power left in it. If I weave it like thread and use the star leaf Noel received as the center, I think it can become a stabilizing bracelet.’
Elysia listened to me in silence.
‘If he keeps wearing it, Noel’s mana hypersensitivity might gradually improve too.
For now, it’ll probably just relieve the symptoms, but if his body remembers what a quiet state feels like, it might get better over time.’
I paused for a moment.
I should not give anyone too much hope for no reason.
‘The chances of a full recovery are low. But I don’t think the possibility is zero.’
Elysia said nothing for a while.
She looked at the fur on the silver plate, then back at me.
‘Haku.’
‘Yeah.’
‘You really are…….’
Elysia could not finish her sentence.
Instead, she carefully reached out and stroked my head.
‘Thank you.’
Again with the thank you.
But this time, strangely, I did not feel like running away.
I slightly averted my gaze.
‘If Noel gets better, Iris will have an easier time too.’
‘And?’
‘……Noel smiled yesterday.’
Elysia’s hand stopped.
For no reason, I tapped the edge of the silver plate with my forepaw.
‘It’s just, staying sick all the time is no good.’
Elysia’s thought reached me, exceedingly gentle.
‘Yeah. You’re right.’
I let out a small sound, like a fake cough.
“Kya.”
‘So call Iris for me.
And we need to ask Noel whether we can borrow the star leaf for a little while.
I’m not planning to take back what was given to him, and we have to explain that we’ll be putting it in the center of the bracelet.’
‘All right.’
Elysia rose from her seat.
Then she opened the door and asked the servant outside to call Iris and Noel, and if possible, Lady Sereniel as well.
Meanwhile, I sat in front of the silver plate and stared at my fur.
There was one problem.
When I had knitted before, I had slept for three whole days.
This time, I could not overdo it that much.
A bracelet was far smaller than a knitted piece.
But in exchange, it had to be much more precise.
What mattered was not putting in a lot of demonic power, but making it flow very thinly and evenly.
‘This time, only enough that I won’t fall asleep.’
I resolved inwardly.