chapter 42
Should I wake Kenich now and quietly take care of both the snake and the bird?
I was seriously contemplating it for a moment.
“Let me say it again: I have no intention of threatening anyone. I certainly have no plans to tell anyone either.”
Erzin waved his hands frantically, insisting he didn’t want to be involved with the royal palace any longer.
“Ch-chut?!”
Then why did you even bring up my story?
I narrowed my eyes and asked, and Erzin spoke slowly.
“Well… shall we call it a sense of camaraderie for now?”
‘Camaraderie?’
“I heard that Aymond’s successor is a mutant like me.”
Erzin approached subtly, curling his fingers around my tail.
“Chuuuut…!”
This guy, that guy…
Why are they both so obsessed with my tail?!
“Oh, my apologies. It looked so soft that I couldn’t help it.”
It was an excuse that Gerard had used countless times.
‘Take your hand off!’
I slapped his hand away, and he let out a fake “Ouch.”
I took a step back, but Erzin stubbornly followed me.
“It must be dye for camouflage. The palace is probably looking for an albino squirrel.”
‘Tch, way too perceptive for no reason.’
“Does the cunning lizard know?”
Erzin asked with a subtle nuance.
“Ch-chut…”
Honestly, I was curious about that too.
How much did Kenich know?
He knew I had mana, so he would naturally suspect I was a beastman. After all, there were no animals in the world with mana.
‘But if you ask whether he knows that I’m Aymond’s successor, even the palace is searching for…’
I wasn’t entirely sure.
I rested my chin on my fist and pondered, and Erzin’s lips curved into a sly smile.
“So, we have another secret between us now.”
He raised three fingers one by one.
‘So annoying.’
Should I just ask him straight up?
As I ground my teeth and turned away, it happened.
“But it seems the effect of the potion is wearing off. Your back is already turning white.”
“Ch-chut…?!”
What?
I quickly turned and checked my reflection in a broken piece of mirror from my pocket watch.
“This part is especially faded.”
Just as Erzin said, the area along my spine from head to tail had become unusually white.
It must have been from being scrubbed thoroughly after entering the underground prison.
‘In a way, this is also your fault!’
I glared at Erzin, tail twitching.
His blue eyes, engraved in my memory, were still intimidating, but there were too many grudges to just let go.
‘Should I bite or not?’
Before I could decide, Erzin spoke first.
“I think today will be the last.”
‘Last?’
“I plan to leave for the Barony of Baron as soon as the sun rises.”
He said his brainwashing was gone, and more importantly, he didn’t want to stay in this castle any longer.
“Even if I stayed longer, I’d probably just end up seeing the underground prison one more time.”
It was a reasonable judgment.
Kenich would consider Erzin an eyesore, and Erzin would resist to avoid being beaten by Kenich.
“Chuut.”
Good decision.
“So, I guess it’s okay if we have a final greeting?”
Erzin cautiously extended his hand toward me.
He meant a handshake.
‘It’s the first time he’s offering his hand in squirrel form.’
I hesitated for a moment, then firmly grabbed one of his fingers.
“Chuu, uuh…?”
A sharp sting.
Static electricity shot through my fingertips, and my stomach churned.
It felt like waves crashing through a tiny gap.
Suddenly, my vision wavered.
It seemed I wasn’t the only one experiencing strange symptoms.
“Hmm, that’s odd. I suddenly feel my strength…”
Erzin also swayed, losing his balance.
His reaction was similar yet opposite to mine.
While I was overwhelmed by uncontrollable power, he gradually weakened.
It didn’t take long to figure out what was happening.
Because…
“Oh, this is bad.”
Round, blunt ears popped out of his head.
“Ch-chut…!”
Definitely tiger ears.
But that wasn’t even the shocking part.
His lips stretched into a sharp point, his canines grew, and finally…
A golden pattern appeared across his face.
It was the stripes unique to a tiger.
And then…
Boom!
‘Cough, cough.’
White smoke rose and vanished, leaving—
‘It’s a tiger…!’
A massive golden tiger remained.
It was Erzin’s true form.
‘I know that’s Erzin, but…’
Knowing it in my head was one thing; facing it in reality was another.
“Chuu, chuuuut…!”
Having only seen tigers as stuffed toys in my life, it was only natural that I ran screaming.
Because my vision was wavering like waves, I soon tripped over my own feet.
‘W-why did you suddenly transform into a tiger?’
Normally, one reverts to their true form either by their will or after using too much mana in a short period.
It was one of the two.
At that moment, I had no idea why.
Thud, thud, thud—!
Heavy footsteps approached from beyond the closed door.
Both Erzin and I turned pale and looked toward the door.
‘This is bad!’
I flattened against the floor and swallowed hard.
At this late hour.
In the room of the heir to the Duchy of Astrahan.
Only one person could be approaching with such murderous intent.
[Damn it, Kenich Kreutz.]
The thought ran through Erzin’s mind just as—
Bang!
The firmly closed door exploded open.
A little earlier.
A dark cloud cast a shadow over Duke Kreutz’s office.
“Cherry was found in that damn cat brat’s room…”
“Yes, Sir Gerard personally went to fetch Miss Cherry.”
It was a continuation of the incident earlier that day.
The squirrel kidnapped at the training ground had fought fiercely and defeated a giant bird of prey.
“Injured?”
“Luckily, she seems unharmed. She was so agile, using the terrain effortlessly. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say she played with a large bird fifty times her size.”
“Agile, indeed.”
Listening to the knight commander’s report, Kenich gave a dry smile.
Truly a black dragon castle squirrel.
It was fine that the commander praised her endlessly, but…
“Why was she in that cat brat’s room?”
Kenich’s lips pressed tightly together as he recalled that fact.
In reality, his mood had been at rock bottom since this morning, perhaps even earlier.
Ever since Cherry’s gaze had followed that cat’s rear.
A vague, uneasy feeling he couldn’t explain.
The reason he had locked Erzin Astrahan in the underground prison was largely because he couldn’t bear to watch otherwise.
But this morning…
He smelled that damn cat brat on Cherry.
Something was clearly going on between his squirrel and Erzin Astrahan that he didn’t know about.
Suspicion was growing, but there was no proof.
So…
“Gerard, is there a way to suppress mana?”
“Is your mana unstable? Your cycle hasn’t come around yet… I was concerned that the last cycle was unusually short.”
“No, not my mana. Someone else’s mana.”
“Someone else’s…? It shouldn’t affect another’s mana, Sir Kenich.”
Kenich had gone through the trouble to find Gerard because—
Mana from other beastmen did not affect the Black Dragon, who occupied the topmost rank of the Pyramid.
Only one exception: the Wigdnia royal family, bound by the ancestors’ pact.
