Chapter 11
Not long ago, Deiamor had cleaned the vacant annex.
Nibellia was also sent there to help pay off her debt.
They checked how many weeds had grown around the annex and tore down the dust-covered curtains together with the maids.
The grandparents and guests were going to stay in that annex.
“Are you really going to live there?”
Soles couldn’t hide his disappointment.
Even though it was just moving next door, he felt an inexplicable loneliness.
Muniel and Ardores looked at their grandson affectionately.
“If he gets bored later, he might come back to the main house. For now, the plan is to stay there until the child gets used to the mansion.”
“Sorry for not explaining earlier.”
Seletrina gave an embarrassed smile.
“I know you must have been startled. Actually, we’ve been looking for him all along. Then, by chance, we found his whereabouts and asked Duke Deiglades, who happened to pass nearby, to bring him here.”
The one most surprised by this explanation was the boy himself.
“They found me?”
He was just like any other orphan.
He didn’t know his parents’ faces, and his oldest memory was quietly staring up at the sky alone in a corner of the orphanage garden.
The boy was overwhelmed by the continuous moments of confusion.
“You probably don’t remember…”
Kaleo spoke gently.
“Our family owes you a great debt.”
“……”
“You really helped us a lot. And shamefully, we only realized this now. Sorry for finding you late.”
It wasn’t just Kaleo.
The adults of the Deiamor family looked at the boy with sincere gratitude.
Ardores raised his glass.
Following him, the other family members lifted their glasses high. Soles and Nibellia raised their kid’s cups as well. Nibellia held hers with both hands.
“Even wolves do this.”
“……”
“Do it!”
With Nibellia’s gentle command, the boy awkwardly raised his glass.
Everyone’s cups were raised high.
Ardores led the toast.
“To welcoming you as family.”
Welcoming you as family!
After dinner.
“Grandma!”
“Hm? What is it?”
As Muniel was about to return to the annex, Nibellia asked.
“Should Nini try sleeping with the wolf too?”
Nibellia stuck out her tiny chin proudly, looking adorably cheeky, so Muniel willingly refused.
“No.”
Pouting, Nibellia lay face down on the floor.
“I’ll sleep with the wolf! I’ll sleep with the wolf!”
“Do you think the wolf would like a cat who’s whining and stubborn like this?”
“Yeah.”
“Really?”
“…Maybe not so much?”
Nibellia got up slowly, fidgeting with her fingers clasped in front of her chest. A sad look appeared on her face.
“Grandma…”
She fluttered her tiny hands like hummingbird wings to signal for Muniel to come closer. Swallowing a smile, Muniel bent down willingly.
Nibellia whispered.
“I think the wolf doesn’t know Nini…”
“……”
“So I’m sad. But not everyone is as smart as Nini, so they don’t remember the old days. The wolf is like that, right?”
“That’s right.”
Muniel gently stroked Nibellia’s head.
Nibellia closed her eyes, feeling the warm touch.
“Did you cry in the morning because the wolf didn’t remember you? Were you upset?”
“Yeah.”
Nibellia nodded.
She had been waiting since birth for the moment to meet the wolf again. But the wolf remembered nothing.
The red eyes wary of strangers.
Even young Nibellia saw it as a scary, lonely, and painfully sad “distance.”
Muniel embraced the sulking Nibellia.
“Then what should Nini do now? Do you know?”
“Yeah.”
Nibellia nodded.
“I have to teach him again!”
Her voice grew stronger and louder.
“From one to ten! I’ll roll him over and over! That thing, that’s, inside here…”
“…You mean guts?”
“Yeah, that! I’ll train until the guts come out! When they come out, put them back in, and if they come out again, put them back in!”
“You really shouldn’t bring her to the battlefield…”
Muttering that it was a lifelong regret, Muniel hugged Nibellia tightly as she energetically pumped her fists.
Actually, Nibellia had a secret known to everyone.
She had been a cat in her previous life.
A white long-haired cat raised by Saint Muniel in her youth.
That cat had snow-white, soft fur and was called Nini. The name came from the first letter of ‘Nyx,’ an old word for ‘eye.’
“Nini was actually a cat.”
“I see.”
Morning.
Dether was brushing Nibellia’s white silver hair.
In the mirror, Nibellia fiddled with her plump cheeks and told her secret again today.
“Everyone was scared of Nini. It couldn’t be helped. Nini was a dangerous and strong cat.”
“How were they scared?”
“When they saw me, they all trembled like this.”
“Like people who get so happy seeing a cute cat they don’t know what to do?”
Nibellia’s past life was already famous among the Deiamor family.
People listened to Nibellia’s story without prejudice.
They just thought it was a child’s innocent and whimsical imagination. It was actually quite amusing, so everyone listened attentively.
Maybe some even believed Nibellia’s imagination was true.
“When someone tried to touch me, I’d whip my paws like this. Did you know those were paws? Isn’t that amazing?”
“I really like cat paws. They call the pink soft pads ‘cushions,’ right? So cute.”
“Not cute at all! Nini was a very scary beast!”
Nibellia, all dressed up, got down from the dressing chair.
Her hair tied up in two pigtails like cat ears, a comfortably warm red dress, and though she said she was a cat, her gentle face looked more like a puppy’s.
Nibellia shook her clenched fists in the air.
“I whipped them like this. But now that I’m a person, if I hit someone carelessly, there are laws…”
The white cat Nini, who had rolled through battlefields with the saint, was a merciless predator.
She hunted the rats that ate the food supplies and bit the enemy’s scalps torn by saints and knights.
She often vomited furballs from swallowing too much fur.
But now, as a human, Nibellia was adjusting to human common sense.
“Laws are a little scary.”
“Realizing that difficult fact means you’re becoming a proper person.”
“Well, I do have some experience…”
“You’ve lived twice, so you’re a veteran.”
Nibellia hurried toward the dining room.
Just then, Kaleo and Seletrina were finishing their meal and coming out.
“Mom! Dad!”
Nibellia ran up and spun around them.
“You’re full of energy this morning. Did Nini sleep well too?”
“Let me see, is your fever completely gone?”
Seletrina’s cold hand touched Nibellia’s forehead. Nibellia smiled brightly and answered boldly.
“I don’t hurt at all! I think I’m all better!”
“That’s a relief. Then Mom will go to the department store.”
“Dad’s going to work too.”
“Nini will work today too!”
They encouraged each other and parted ways.
Soles was still eating in the dining room. Unfortunately, the wolf was not there.
“Did Nini sleep well?”
“Good morning! Nini starts working today!”
“Are you going to do business again?”
“I’m going to teach the wolf. And I only have one debt left to pay off now! Isn’t that great?”
“Then do you want to have breakfast with me and go to the annex together?”
“Yeah!”
After finishing breakfast, Nibellia took Soles’ hand and headed toward the annex.
The annex, built with red bricks, grew closer.
“Nini cleaned there? That’s amazing, right?”
“Nini is diligent.”
“If you’re lazy, you can’t earn money. Mom taught me that money earned by sweating diligently is real money.”
“Right. Earning money by lying is a bad thing.”
“If you do bad things, you go to jail, get tortured, your skin flayed, then you’re hung by a rope. Nini knows that well.”
“…Where did you learn that?”
Soles looked worried as his little sister proudly bragged about knowledge he shouldn’t know. He turned his head aside.
There was a big tree nearby.
Under the lush green tree, Muniel and Ardores were with the boy. The three were burying something near the base of the tree.
Phew, Nibellia took a deep breath.
Soles discreetly covered his ears with both hands.
“Wolffff!”
At the loud shout, the boy dropped the small trowel he was holding.
Before he could turn his surprised face, Nibellia suddenly hugged him tightly.
Then she stretched out her hand and stroked the boy’s blonde hair.
“Yeah!”
Satisfied, Nibellia nodded.
“Wolf, did you sleep well?”
“…Yes.”
“Did you eat? Did Grandma and Grandpa starve you?”
“That guy, you talk a lot.”
Muniel, who had come closer, gently pressed Nibellia’s temple. Nibellia laughed and pretended it hurt.
“Ha ha, it hurts!”
“You should have said ‘Good morning’ first.”
“Good morning! Good morning!”
Nibellia, barely escaping, rubbed her temples.
“I feel a bit smarter now.”
“Then will you vouch for Grandpa?”
Ardores asked. In his big hand, he held the small trowel.
“No! Even family can’t be a guarantor!”
“You really have become smart.”
Ardores pointed to a modest mound of soil under the tree where they had just been.
“What did you plant?”
Soles asked.
“We planted fertilizer. This tree is old, so sometimes we need to plant medicine near the roots.”
Ardores laid his hand on the tall tree. The children naturally looked up to the tree, following him.
“By the way, what did you come here for?”
Muniel adjusted Nibellia’s crooked ribbon and asked.
Nibellia pointed at the boy.
“Training!”
