DVDD 04

Chapter 04

“Lady El….”
Rari called out with a tearful face.
“I’ll be there! I’ll stay by your side…!”

“Thanks,” El replied.

But she knew.
Even with Rari around, she wouldn’t feel lonely, yet she could never shake the thought that she was nothing more than a stranger here.
‘Loneliness’ and ‘understanding’ were two entirely different things.

El had begun to step out a little from her routine of eating and sleeping, often taking walks to the garden where the dog was.
Rari had remarked that El wandering around alone without anyone fussing over her was a huge improvement, and asked if she should keep the dog inside the palace.

But El didn’t feel capable of taking responsibility for something. She was even scared of forming attachments.

“Hey, pupper.”
“…Grr.”

Besides, that dog was still on maximum alert. How could she possibly raise such a creature?

“Why aren’t you eating?”

For several days, Rari had been preparing the dog’s meals separately, yet it didn’t eat a single bite.
El thought maybe it didn’t like human food, so she even brought some dog food—originally for canaries—but the dog refused it too.

Since it didn’t eat, its thin belly showed no signs of filling up. Was it trying to starve itself?

“You need to eat at least a little to survive.”

Even saying it herself, El let out a small, bitter laugh. She herself survived only on watery soups every day.

Because of that, dresses that had fit perfectly before arriving from the kingdom were now loose.
Still, she took comfort in the fact that the dog hadn’t completely stopped eating and scolded it a little.

“Are you refusing because you dislike me?”
“…Grrr.”
“Hey, should I not come then?”
“Grr!”
“If you don’t want me here, I won’t come. Answer me.”
“…”
“Ah, right. Dogs can’t talk.”
“…”
“If you don’t growl when I get up, I’ll come again. But if you do, I won’t.”

The dog always growled at El at the slightest provocation.
No matter how smart a dog was, it probably didn’t understand what she was saying.
So she got up, thinking there was a 99% chance she wouldn’t be coming back.

“I’m going. Take care.”

But the dog didn’t growl.

“Hey?”
El looked at it, confused.

“You’re not growling?”
“…”
“Why not!”
“…”
“Huh?”

El let out a hollow laugh, incredulous. The dog had been growling just a moment ago. Did it understand her words?

“Hey, don’t go?”
“…”
“Not going?”

Still no reaction. The dog had turned its head completely, resting on her arm without even giving her a glance.

El tried one more thing, just in case.
“You’re ugly.”

“Grr!”

Finally, a reaction. El, stunned, took a step closer to the dog.
She thought maybe it had opened up a little despite not showing it—but the dog immediately got up and moved away.

What was it trying to do?

“Did you understand what I said?”
“…Grr!”
“If you did, growl longer. Like this: Grrrrr!”

The dog let out a snort.
Hmph. A dog making humans speechless.

A promise was a promise, so El continued to visit the dog.

The dog’s location always varied, but recently it could always be seen just inside the entrance.
It would peek out while lying down, as if waiting for El, but when El arrived, it would yawn slowly or close its eyes, acting as if it had no interest.

El, unaware of the dog’s nature, grumbled about why she had to endure this ordeal every time. Yet even she now brought carefully prepared food suitable for the dog.

The dog didn’t eat cold food because it was picky.
El gave it steak and sandwiches that she herself ate, and only then did the dog eat.
But if she gave it the food whole, or if dirt touched it, it wouldn’t eat. Only when El cut it into pieces did the dog finally munch happily.

A finicky dog. Maybe it had been lost by a noble who used to raise it. But could someone even bring a dog into the royal palace?

El asked Rari, and as expected, it wasn’t allowed.

“Where on earth did you come from?”
“…Kingdom.”

Still, the dog recognized El’s face and no longer growled.
Once, it wagged its tail, and El thought, Finally, are you greeting me? But the dog immediately looked back at its tail with a betrayed expression. Apparently, it was an automatic reflex.

“This place is hard to live in… should I let you out?”

If there were a servant like Rari, who wasn’t on a lifelong contract and wanted to raise a dog, it might be better for the dog to leave with them.
The palace was not a suitable place for a dog—food was hard to come by, and running into guards or knights could be dangerous.

“…Yes, that would be best.”

She had no confidence in taking care of it herself. In such cases, finding someone else was the best solution.

Eventually, a robust servant carried the dog away. It had been difficult to catch it.

“This is all for your own good. Go live well.”

El patted the dog’s fur for the first and last time, feeling how soft it was.
She tapped its now slightly plump belly, which had gained some weight from the food she’d given over the past few days, and waved until the dog was out of sight.

“That servant is a good person, right?”
“Yes, of course.”
“…Good, then.”

“Aren’t you sad? I thought you’d take care of it yourself, Lady El.”
“…Well.”

She had grown a little attached after spending a few days with it, but she would probably forget over time.

A few days later, the servant came back.

“White has left the house! She has committed a grave offense!”

White was the dog’s new name. But on the very first day, it had run away.
The servant had searched the village high and low for days but couldn’t find it, and now trembled, kneeling before El.

Even though El was a dethroned princess, she was still recognized as a noblewoman in the Sahad Kingdom, so perhaps the servant worried about facing punishment.

“…I see.”
“You mean to let it go?”
“Yes.”

The servant wiped away tears and bowed deeply before hurrying off.

El wondered why they were so terrified. Even Rari had never feared her this much.
“Do I look scary?”

Objectively, she was quite pretty.
Not fitting the southern ideal of fair-skinned beauty, but certainly not ugly. Perhaps her eyes looked slightly fierce.

“Lady El, you are an incredible beauty!”
“Then why did it run away like that?”
“I’ll ask next time I see it.”
“Alright.”

“But what about the dog?”
“Should I just leave it in the palace? Should I go look for it?”
“You, personally?”

Perhaps leaving it in the palace would have been better; someone else might have cared for it. El felt sorry for the dog.
“…With that temperament, it wouldn’t survive outside the palace.”

El sighed deeply.

Then…

“Why are you here?”
“Grr!”

She had no idea how it had returned, but the dog was in the palace.
It growled at her, body full of discontent, as if saying: Why did you give me away? Why did you abandon me?

Whatever the case, she didn’t need to go searching for it, so she was relieved.
Seeing it return despite being sent away, it seemed that this place was either its home or simply preferred.

El didn’t want to get involved with the dog any further.
She had grown attached to it without realizing it, just by taking care of it—something she found frightening.
She had never considered herself cowardly, but in this unfamiliar place, caution had become necessary.

She had been pretending to be a Laelrain, though not truly inside. Perhaps if she hadn’t married and stayed in the Sahad Kingdom, she wouldn’t have been suspected—the wicked girl has changed.

Back when she was Song Ilin, as a fan of romance novels, she had read many books.
In those novels, the protagonist adapted easily and naturally, but her rational mind reminded her, This is a story, not reality.

By the time she regained her senses, she had already been married off to a foreign country.
Unless she returned to the Sahad Kingdom, she would never meet the main couple.
Her absence was good for them, and she had no desire to return. That meant she had to survive here somehow.

But it wasn’t easy. She had no motivation, and no one was looking for her, so she naturally fell into a lazy lifestyle.

“Dog.”
The dog tilted its head.
“Dog.”
“King!”
“…Dog.”

Why did it feel like the dog had come looking for her instead of being in the palace?

“Why did you come inside the palace?”

The dog usually avoided people, lingering near the garden.
But since El rarely went outside, it had apparently tracked her to her room over several days.

“Did you miss me?”

The dog didn’t respond, but El laughed for the first time since coming to this world.

She had been strangely preoccupied with it from the start. Perhaps that was how it was meant to happen.
El eventually gave the dog a place by her side. And the dog did the same.
It approached her, ate the food she gave, and remained calm even when petted.

“Dog.”

She hadn’t named it because she didn’t plan to raise it, but now the story had changed.