BCD 19

“Aw, so cute.”
“Irene is cute?”
“Yeah, she’s cute.”
“Even though Irene can’t fly…?”

He’d puffed up with pride when he was praised, but now he seemed bothered that only Erhi had been complimented.

“Yeah, you’re cute.”
“Hehe….”

Irene smiled in relief.

“Is Royena praying again today?”

Since prayer time was something she guarded as dearly as her life, it was a question that hardly needed asking.

But Erhi glanced toward Royena’s room and muttered,

“That’s strange.”
“What is?”

At my question, Irene quickly answered.

“Royena prays at night these days too.”
“And in the morning.”
“She doesn’t come out of her room much.”

She doesn’t come out of her room much?

I was just thinking about knocking when Irene suddenly clung tightly to my leg.

“Sielina, what are we going to play today?”

Her sparkling eyes were clearly not made for patience.

Nothing serious could be wrong… I’ll stop by later when I head out.

In the end, I pushed my worries aside.

“Kids, how about we play inside today instead of going out?”

At my suggestion, their eyes lit up.

This was only the second time I’d entered the children’s room.

The first time was right after we came out of the underground cave, so I was too distracted to notice anything.

The children seemed much the same—excited as if they were inviting me for the very first time.

“Sit here, Sielina.”
“That chair’s too small.”
“Is it?”
“Adults sit over there.”

Erhi walked behind a large chair and clumsily pulled it out.

Looks like he paid close attention when Remphrey did that before.

I patted Erhi’s head once and sat down.

“Thank you, little knight.”

While Irene busied herself preparing for doll play, I slowly looked around the room.

They really have everything.

A cute wooden mobile hung from the center of the ceiling, and all the furniture—the wardrobe, the desk—was perfectly sized for children.

“Sielina, do you like rabbits or squirrels?”
“Hmm, rabbits.”
“What about you, Erhi?”
“I like wolves.”
“There isn’t a wolf, though….”

With a serious expression, Irene rummaged through the toy box.

The toys are all worn, but you can tell someone made an effort to prepare a wide variety.

This room really did seem to have been made for children from the very beginning.

Come to think of it, they said the previous duke personally brought Royena to the ducal estate.

Which meant they knew from the start that the children would be born as magical beasts.

And even so… they prepared the children’s room this carefully.

Was it the hope that the curse could be lifted that kept them going?

“I don’t want to play dolls.”

Irene pushed the box away, her face falling.

“If there’s no wolf, I don’t want to.”

She seemed disappointed that there was no animal doll Erhi liked.

“Dummy.”

Shrugging shyly, Erhi made a surprisingly mature suggestion.

“Then how about we read a book together?”
“Yeah!”

Flipping through the shelf, Erhi picked up a fairly thick book.

That doesn’t look like a picture book.

I watched the two with interest.

“How about this one?”
“Yeah, that’s fun. Let’s show it to Sielina.”

Judging by how confidently they chose it, they’d read it many times before.

“Sielina, let’s look at this together!”
“What kind of book is it?”

The moment I took it, I couldn’t hide my surprise.

<Understanding the Imperial Swordsmanship Forms>

They found this fun?

“Sielina, look.”

Irene flipped the cover open for me.

The contents were exactly what the blunt title promised.

One page showed step-by-step illustrations of sword forms, while the opposite page explained each stage.

“This person’s name is Ehi.”

Irene pointed at a picture showing someone drawing a sword.

“Ehi…?”
“Yeah.”

I quickly scanned the area around the illustration. No matter how hard I looked, there was no word that read Ehi.

“And this one is Arin.”
“Arin….”
“Ehi is going to save Arin right now.”

Of course, there was no Arin written anywhere either.

It wasn’t as if a stiff swordsmanship manual would ever label its diagrams with names.

“No, look at the direction carefully. Arin is the one going to save Ehi.”
“Is that so?”

The children smoothly began weaving their story together.

They’re imagining a story just from the pictures.

No wonder the book choice had seemed odd for seven-year-olds.

“Irene. Erhi.”

I gently slipped in while they paused.

“Can you read this book to me?”

At my request, they looked confused and then shook their heads.

“You’ve never learned how to read letters?”

I pointed to the text beside the pictures.

After staring hard at the letters I indicated, the children slowly nodded.

“Has Royena ever read you books?”

Perhaps my expression had grown serious without me realizing it, because they answered cautiously.

“Royena tells us lots of old stories.”
“Stories with wolves.”
“And stories about trees.”

I quickly reassured them.

“That sounds fun. Will you tell me those stories later too?”

They soon returned to ‘reading’ the book.

Imperial Sacred Script is a language only nobles can read and write, so Royena probably doesn’t know it either.

Even while I’d been carefree after possessing this body, this script had always haunted me.

A grand duke’s daughter being forgetful because she’s dull—that’s believable.
But a grand duke’s daughter who can’t read at all? That wouldn’t fly.

I’d struggled so much secretly teaching myself to read that just seeing the script again made my neck tense.

“Kids.”

They looked up at me together.

“Do you want to learn letters?”
“Letters?”
“These?”

Erhi pointed at the long lines of text.

“Yeah, those.”

I explained further.

“If you can read letters, you’ll understand much better what Ehi and Arin are doing right now. It’s all written here.”

Their eyes began to sparkle.

“I want to learn.”
“Me too.”

But once I made that promise to them, worries started piling up.

I can teach them letters when I come by, but what about after that?

What if the curse were lifted as soon as today…?

Could these children, raised like wolf pups, really live as ordinary young master and young lady of a ducal house?

If only I could freely use the goddess’s power…

Startled by my own thought, I glanced around reflexively.

“What’s wrong, Sielina?”
“Are you bored? Want to play dolls?”

I waved my hands with a smile at the children, who immediately focused their attention on me.

“Huh? No, it’s nothing.”

When I left the children’s room, I heard footsteps pacing downstairs.

“Royena?”

She spotted me over the railing and clasped her hands together as if in prayer.

“Duchess….”

Her anxious expression made my own heart sink.

“What’s wrong?”

Before I even reached the bottom of the stairs, she dropped to her knees and bowed deeply.

“Please help me, Duchess.”

Flustered, I helped her up.

“Wait—explain first. What do you need my help with?”
“This has never happened before, so I don’t really understand what’s going on either…”

She truly looked at a loss.

“After telling me to summon the Duchess here at once, the goddess has been asleep ever since.”

Asleep? That sounded absurd.

“Asleep? Where?”

She led me into the room and placed me directly in front of the goddess statue.

“This is just a….”

A statue, right?

Gentle pale-green eyes gazed steadily at me.

“You’re saying she’s sleeping inside that?”

She nodded vigorously.

“She does fall asleep often, but she’s never slept this long before. Something… something bad must be happening to the goddess.”

I wasn’t sure how much to believe the words of this zealot, but the goddess’s previous words naturally came to mind.

‘If you’d been any later, I would’ve had to wait another few hundred years in vain. No—there’s no time for that anymore…’

She had clearly said there was no time left.

Was her life being worn down by giving me divine power? Or was it because she was forcibly using her authority?

Looking back at her actions so far, several possibilities came to mind.

Whatever it is, Royena would probably faint if she heard this.

Either way, I couldn’t pretend to ignore the goddess’s condition any longer.

“Why do you think I can wake the goddess?”
“Because you are the one the goddess chose.”

Her unwavering tone carried blind faith.

If she was going to borrow a body, she should’ve borrowed someone like this…

Shaking off the stray thought, I got to the point.

“So you believe I can wake her, but you don’t know how, right?”

She nodded.

“Then you won’t complain no matter what method I use, as long as I wake her?”
“……”
“Should I just stop, then?”
“N-no! Please, have mercy…!”

I strode forward and grabbed the statue.