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Chapter 28
‘What could make a dull thudding noise like that come from the office?’
Sensing that something was wrong, I hurriedly set the tray down on a table by the hallway and flung the door open.
“Young Master, I’m coming in! Are you alright?!”
Preparing for the possibility that an assassin had broken in, I gripped the dagger strapped to my thigh and threw the door open, only to see…!
‘…What are they doing?’
Uh, well, this is…
“Hello, Ail. You’re back early.”
As I stood frozen in confusion at the entrance, Ris was the first to greet me with a smooth smile.
‘Del is plastered upside down against the wall as if someone had thrown him there, Sir Demon is sprawled on the floor after clearly trying and failing to catch the flying Del, and in the center of all this chaos is the target himself, smiling as though nothing happened…’
…Just what kind of situation is this?
Everything had begun about an hour before Ail returned to the ducal residence, inside Ris’s office.
Though its essence was that of a divine beast, Del still possessed the body of a fox and therefore largely followed the instincts of one.
As foxes were nocturnal creatures, Del usually spent most of the daytime sleeping. Because of that, the divine energy he possessed noticeably weakened while the sun was up.
Weak enough to fall victim to some pitiful trap deliberately set for him.
For example… right now.
“Young Master, I never realized you had a hidden son.”
“You really have no hesitation saying things you shouldn’t to a minor.”
“I’m not joking, Young Master.”
Ris was already irritated from having been forced to attend an unexpected meal with the Duke. With Demon’s nonsense added on top of that, his nerves naturally became even sharper.
Just as Ris turned his head with visible annoyance—
“…What is that?”
“Judging from the circumstances, I believe it is Lord Del.”
Following Ris’s finger, Demon calmly provided a reasonable yet bizarre answer.
On the sofa Ris was pointing at lay a small boy who looked about ten years old, with long snow-white hair.
He was asleep.
Completely silent, not even making a sound as he breathed.
It was strange. Just a little while ago, a fluffy fox had been lying there.
“Divine beasts can’t take human form before reaching adulthood.”
“…It appears Lord Del ate the meal His Grace bestowed upon us.”
It didn’t take long to identify the cause of this bizarre phenomenon.
The only thing different from their usual routine had been Duke Casio’s invitation to breakfast that morning.
Furthermore, in a rare display of generosity, the Duke had invited even Del—who was treated as “the Young Master’s pet”—and personally allowed him to partake in the meal.
“I told him not to eat it, yet he stuffed himself anyway.”
A beast through and through.
Ris’s cold voice carried not a shred of sympathy.
With a certain attendant absent for once, there was even less reason to watch what he said.
‘I was wondering why he had been so quiet all day.’
Apparently, he hadn’t even had the energy to talk.
Considering he hadn’t spent the usual amount of time wandering around the office causing trouble, there was little room for doubt.
“Still, it’s fortunate the effects only appeared now. If he had transformed during the meal itself…”
Demon trailed off, unable to finish the sentence as though the mere thought was horrifying.
Kallan Casio was both Ris’s father and his enemy.
That had been true ever since the Casio divine beast—which should have remained beside the family head—had chosen Ris instead of Kallan.
A person without the divine beast could never become the head of House Casio.
Those who were not chosen could not leave their names in the records of past family heads, nor could they wield the divine beast’s power that every head of the family possessed.
Moreover, a new divine beast could not be born until either the current divine beast or the master it had chosen died.
As a result, Ris and Kallan were both each other’s only family and inevitable enemies.
One sought recognition as the rightful family head, while the other merely bore the responsibility of having been chosen.
“Demon, check if it’s still breathing.”
At Ris’s command, Demon hurried over to Del.
After placing a hand beneath the boy’s small nose for a moment, Demon turned back and nodded.
In such a weak human form, Del could neither attack nor defend in any meaningful way.
Especially because he was not yet an adult and had not transformed through a normal process. In this state, he couldn’t even use the power of a divine beast.
‘If he’d transformed in front of Father like Demon said, he would’ve died without even being able to put up a fight.’
Being forcibly turned human meant that all of a divine beast’s energy had been drained away, leaving it weaker than ever and unable to defend itself.
‘Looks like they used a poison that only affects divine beasts… Amazing that he survived despite his slow growth.’
Ris had warned him beforehand just in case, but Del’s beastly appetite had apparently caused the disaster anyway.
The one fortunate aspect was that Del had reacted to the poison late enough that Kallan had failed to discover his true identity.
In truth, it was no easy task for Kallan to identify the divine beast’s form.
That was because every Casio divine beast manifested differently.
Some appeared as sparrows or sunflowers, while others inhabited inanimate objects or ordinary items.
There had even been a divine beast that manifested as a pebble no larger than a fingernail, and another that appeared as an ancient drawer.
Naturally, unless one was the chosen master, recognizing a divine beast was extraordinarily difficult.
‘Looks like he merely suspected Del and decided to test the theory… Since Del survived, he probably won’t be under suspicion for a while.’
Even Ris’s grandfather—the previous family head—had possessed a divine beast that manifested as an old fountain pen left forgotten in the corner of a study.
For Kallan, narrowing down the existence of a divine beast among such possibilities was a constant headache.
“The main dish happened to be rabbit meat, Lord Del’s favorite. He probably couldn’t resist.”
“So how do we turn him back?”
Now that they had confirmed he was alive, the remaining problem was returning him to his original form.
Otherwise, there would be no way to explain the sudden appearance of an unknown boy.
The other servants were one concern, but they especially needed to avoid the notice of the head maid, one of Kallan’s loyal followers.
“Cases like this are extremely rare, so I don’t know much myself. However, according to a book I once read, divine beasts recover their strength through deep sleep.”
Demon admitted he didn’t know how long it would take, causing Ris to narrow his eyes irritably.
“He’s already been sleeping all afternoon. Does he need more time?”
“He appears to have suffered a significant shock, so perhaps we should wait a little longer. By tomorrow morning, he’ll surely have returned to normal.”
In many ways, it was fortunate that Ail wasn’t around today.
From morning until night, Del had nearly exposed himself in the worst possible ways.
“If he turned human because of shock, then wouldn’t a bigger shock turn him back?”
“The shock I referred to was not that kind of shock… Please refrain from violence. Lord Del is a patient who only just survived.”
At least it was late at night, when everyone else was asleep, making it far less likely that someone would discover Del’s appearance.
Ris reluctantly accepted Demon’s plea and was about to return to work when—
Knock, knock.
“Young Master, it’s Ail. I’ve brought your tea—”
Crash! Bang!
What happened next took only an instant.
The moment Ail’s voice was heard, Ris suddenly grabbed Del by the scruff of his neck and hurled him at the wall.
The frail boy’s small body slammed into the solid surface and tumbled downward, the sound echoing unmistakably through the room.
“Gah— Lord Del…!”
Whoosh!
Demon instinctively threw himself after the flying Del.
Thud!
He stretched both arms out desperately in an attempt to catch him…
Unfortunately, not even a single strand of Del’s hair touched his hands.
