A massive leg that looked as if it wouldn’t so much as flinch even if blades came flying at it trembled the moment I leaned against it.
“…My lady, are you all right?”
“Hm?”
Because he was in fox form, his expression didn’t show properly, but his voice somehow sounded restless.
Thanks to Sohwi coming, it ended right before I was badly hurt, and I thought I had made it clear enough that I was fine. Had it not gotten across? I wondered at Sohwi asking if I was all right.
It did hurt a little, but unlike what I was feeling, did I look badly injured on the outside?
I couldn’t check my own swollen neck with my own eyes. I wasn’t sure, but it seemed the bruising must be severe.
“Did I bruise, perhaps? I can’t see it.”
“You did, but… that is not what I mean…”
If I was bruised, but that wasn’t what he was worried about, then what did he think wasn’t all right?
Sohwi, who always seemed composed, seemed caught on something; he opened and closed his mouth several times before finally speaking.
“I am asking whether you are afraid. My lady… did you not fear this form terribly?”
A cautious consideration directed only at the existence that was “me,” asking if I was not afraid of him. He had been considerate not toward Ryu Sua, but solely toward me standing before him.
A feeling directed wholly at me alone felt rather nice.
“When you awoke, in the forest…”
“Let’s stop talking about that! I’m fine now!”
I was happy, but why was the conversation trying to drift back to the disaster of the first day again? I started to suspect that maybe he was only pretending to worry while actually teasing me.
Why did he keep trying to bring up the mistake of the person who was going to become his wife? To keep the story from going any further, I sidled even closer against his leg and glossed over it.
This fox. Now that I looked, there wasn’t a trace of worry in his eyes; he was smiling slyly!
“Aaaah~ Lord Fooox!”
“Oh dear. I had forgotten the insect.”
That thing, despite its entire body being crushed until only its head remained, was still letting out a perfectly clear voice.
Its pupils were unfocused, and from the head of a man whose neck had been severed came a fervent woman’s voice that sounded somehow ecstatic. It was unpleasant. Even though I was seeing it right before my eyes, it felt like watching some crudely edited video.
Even more so with the black clumps of calamity crawling around nearby.
“Let us clean up first.”
The moment he finished speaking, blue flames bloomed around the fox’s mouth. The flames poured lightly from his mouth as if taking the place of his breath, yet the amount was enough to fill the plaza all at once.
With a roar, the clumps burned away in an instant, and those who had been spewing calamity turned to ash and scattered. Even so, I couldn’t feel any heat at all.
Seeing the plaza cleared in an instant, as if it had been a lie that Hwaya and the other servants had worked so hard without making a dent in it, made me feel just the slightest bit hollow.
“Aaaagh!! It’s hot!!”
Unlike me, that thing reduced to only a head seemed able to feel the heat of the flames, letting out a voice like it was being scraped raw.
“Aaaaahahah!!!”
But for some reason, it sounded happy. That made it even more unpleasant.
How should I put it? It was unpleasant, but I felt like simply saying it was unpleasant didn’t convey it accurately.
I couldn’t quite think of the exact name for this feeling, or how to explain it.
“Lord Fox! More. Look at me more!”
The voice that sounded somehow delighted as it looked at Sohwi irritated me.
“I! Was reborn for Lord Fox!”
The voice calling Sohwi grated on my nerves.
“I have all the precious memories, recollections, and feelings!”
The cry that seemed to beg him to look at it was disgusting. It was a feeling I was experiencing for the first time, hard to define in a single word, and yet strangely, it wasn’t unfamiliar.
“So please accept this maiden’s heart! So that I may stay by your side! I suit you bett—”
“Repulsive.”
As if he couldn’t bear to listen any longer, Sohwi crushed the burning head beneath his foot himself.
Then he kept rubbing his foot against the ground to wipe it off, and the sight made him look like a large dog with something stuck to its paw, which was a little cute.
“Pfft, ahahaha!”
What is that? He looked like he was about to strike such a grand pose, but what he was doing was just like a puppy! Like a huge puppy doing something silly!
As if the unpleasantness from just moments ago had been a lie, it was hard to hold back the laughter spilling out of me.
“My lady? What is so amusing?”
“No, heheh, hahaha!”
I laughed for so long that I simply couldn’t stop, and Sohwi ended up returning to his human form.
“I’d like to see your fox form a little longer, though.”
“This is more comfortable for now.”
“Why have you gotten so sullen? Relax your face. I wasn’t trying to tease you.”
“What do you mean.”
He was sulking. He was absolutely sulking.
That expression looked like he was thinking he would never take on his true form again.
***
The calamity had been dealt with, and the unpleasant head had disappeared.
I had returned to the estate after leaving the remaining servants behind to clean up the village, so I thought everything had, for the moment, come to a close.
“Madam. This is all my fault.”
“I’m fine, so please raise your head. Hwaya, please!”
As soon as we returned to the room, Hwaya, who had followed me in, threw herself flat on the floor and showed no intention of getting up.
“This is all due to my disloyalty. How could I raise my head?”
She blamed herself for failing to keep her word that two people would be safe, and for being unable to stay by my side until the end.
I understood why she was doing this, but this whole thing had started because I was stubborn in the first place. I didn’t think Hwaya needed to blame herself this much.
But no matter how many times I said it was fine, she had no intention of listening! I was always grateful to Hwaya, but seeing her like this made me a little angry.
“It’s not your fault, Hwaya. I asked you to do something dangerous, and I’m safe, so it’s all right.”
“You have been left with a mark on your body, Madam. How could that be called safe?”
“No! Please!”
When I lost my temper and raised my voice, she flinched, but she still didn’t lift her head. On the way back, the way she kept glancing at my neck had looked bad, but wasn’t she worrying too much?
I still hadn’t looked in a mirror, so I hadn’t seen what state my neck was in, but it didn’t hurt, and it was only a bit bruised. Was that really something worth being unable to even lift her face over?
A class system, or the relationship between master and servant, were things I had only ever seen in fiction. To me, with my modern sensibilities still vivid, it was far too hard to grasp.
Ryu Sua might have been used to it and might have understood. But I wasn’t Ryu Sua.
“Hwaya. Raise your head.”
“But…”
“I am telling you to raise it.”
But the same must be true for Hwaya. It wouldn’t be good for me to blindly force my thoughts and values on her either.
So I decided to give way first. Even if I couldn’t do it perfectly, I would consider my position as the “mistress.”
Lowering myself had been part of daily life, so I was used to it. Though it was a little strange that lowering myself would instead raise my authority.
“Raise your head.”
“Yes, Madam.”
Only then did Hwaya slowly lift her head. Her gaze was still cast down toward the floor, but at least she had raised her head.
…Once she did, the small and large wounds on Hwaya’s face caught my eye. I hadn’t known because she had followed behind me on the way back.
She had been sent flying and had rolled across the ground, so there was no way she would be fine. Her body hidden beneath her clothes was probably in even worse shape.
“Hwaya. Is your body all right?”
“Compared to you, Madam, this is nothing.”
Her words, worrying only for my safety and not her own body, struck painfully cold.
“…Hwaya. I’ll be honest. I don’t like it when you act that way.”
“Uhk…”
At my words that I didn’t like it, Hwaya visibly trembled. As if I could ever dislike her.
That devoted kindness she had shown me since the very first day. It would be stranger for a person to receive that kind of goodwill and not come to feel affection in return.
Even if it was a heart I had received because of Ryu Sua’s body that I was inhabiting, it was still a great and deeply appreciated heart.
“Why are you saying such harsh things to someone precious to me?”
So to me, Hwaya was already someone precious, someone I liked.
It was always painful to watch such a person put herself last.
“As much as Hwaya cares for me, I want the Hwaya I like to care for herself too.”
“Madam…”
Oh dear, Hwaya looked like she was about to cry instead. Had I misspoken somehow?
“Um… should we hug—no, embrace? I’m sorry for always being so stubborn.”
I spread both arms and gave Hwaya an awkward smile.
The beaded tears spilling from Hwaya’s sunset-colored eyes looked like a sun shower falling at dusk.
Hwaya wept silently, tears dropping one after another as her body kept trembling, raising and lowering hands that had nowhere to go as she hesitated.
I pulled that Hwaya into an embrace myself. Perhaps because she was startled, I could feel her body go stiff and rigid, enough to make me feel sorry for her.
“Hwaya. I don’t know much right now.”
I said it while tightening my arms around her a little more.
“Since I woke up, I’ve spent most of my time with you, so I still don’t even know the other maids’ faces properly.”
I didn’t know the original story, and I had no memories from this body, so I was a completely blank white page.
“Most of what I do know are things you told me, Hwaya.”
Because the first person to write something on that page was Hwaya.
“I’ll cause trouble because I don’t know things, and I’ll be stubborn too.”
To me, Hwaya was the first being a baby bird saw after hatching from its egg.
“Every time that happens, please help me well from beside me. And don’t blame yourself too much like this. Um… right.”
Right. Like a mother.
“Like a mother… Ah, is that a little strange? Then a nanny?”
“Little Miss…”
Mm… I had still been an adult man, though. Being called Little Miss was a bit…
I decided not to mention that right now.