Chapter 11

Esteban, who had just stepped out of the training grounds after a round of swordsmanship practice before his lesson, caught sight of a familiar face. He tilted his head in confusion as he spotted Ellen exiting the greenhouse with a face as pale as a sheet.

‘Ellen? Why is he here so early?’

Ellen was usually a man who was scrupulously punctual. He was never late for an appointment, but he was never early, either. For such a man to arrive this early was undeniably strange. Wondering if something had happened, Esteban moved to approach him, only to be taken aback as Ellen vanished from sight in an instant.

It was odd enough that Ellen had disappeared as if fleeing, but even stranger was the fact that he had been seen in the greenhouse instead of at the garden, the usual location for their lessons. Esteban wondered if he was being oversensitive, but he couldn’t shake the nagging sense of foreboding as he directed his steps toward the greenhouse.

His mother’s advice—that it was not good to be suspicious of others—echoed in his head, but it was better to check for himself than to remain uneasy. Perhaps he could even help if Ellen had found himself in some kind of trouble.

Having made up his mind, Esteban approached the garden entrance and scanned the surroundings. The interior of the garden looked no different than usual, as if the unease he had felt moments ago was nothing more than a groundless worry. The tension that had stiffened his shoulders dissipated, and a sigh naturally escaped his lips. Esteban ran a hand through his hair and let out a hollow laugh.

‘What on earth was I thinking…?’

Ellen was the only one who hadn’t run away, despite staying by the side of someone who could rampage at any moment. While it was true that others had deceived him in the past, that wasn’t a valid reason to doubt Ellen.

‘I was being overly sensitive.’

Feeling more at ease, he was about to turn around and leave the greenhouse when he heard a bizarre sound that had no business being in such a place—the faint, shallow sound of breath that seemed on the verge of cutting out entirely.

“……?”

Scowling, Esteban turned back toward the garden. Unable to ignore the lingering discomfort, he stepped inside. Once again, he scanned the area with a grim face, but there was still nothing out of the ordinary. Just as he was beginning to think his sensitive nerves were causing auditory hallucinations—

“H-help…”

At the voice, which was clearer than before, Esteban’s head reflexively snapped toward the source of the sound. Searching for the origin, he soon discovered a young girl collapsed beneath a plant with large leaves. Startled by the sight of the unconscious child, Esteban moved closer, only to realize that the girl—who looked to be about his age—wasn’t wearing a single stitch of clothing.

He reflexively averted his gaze, but his heart began to thud for a very different reason than before.

‘W-what is this?’

Panicked by the incomprehensible situation, Esteban’s mind went blank, failing to function properly. Why was a girl he’d never seen before collapsed in his mother’s precious greenhouse? And why was she unclothed? He had no way of knowing.

‘Is this a plot to make me lose control through shock…? What kind of pervert would come up with such a disgusting idea…!’

At that moment, a fluffy, wheat-colored tail flickered through Esteban’s mind. He stopped his retreat and turned his gaze back toward the fallen girl.

‘What are you? A pervert?’

Startled by the voice ringing in his ears, Esteban hurriedly looked around. In the quiet greenhouse where not even a breeze blew, there was no way he could have mistaken a sound. Yet, strangely, he heard an auditory hallucination that seemed to rebuke him, followed by the memory of a face snorting at him.

When the memory of that swaying, wheat-colored tail overlapped with the color of the collapsed girl’s hair, Esteban’s face hardened as a suspicion took hold.

“……Poblian Fennec?”

Along with the name of the girl he had considered a nuisance, he remembered a story the servants had once whispered about shapeshifters.

“I heard shifters are naked when they humanize.”

“Oh my, turning naked. How vulgar, just like beasts.”

The moment the thought occurred to him, his hands moved automatically. Esteban quickly covered Poblian’s naked body with the jacket he was holding. Only then did his blank mind begin to function again, allowing him to properly examine the unconscious Poblian’s face.

“What on earth happened…?”

Though confused, Esteban’s eyes quickly scanned the surroundings. There were too many strange things for this to be a simple case of a late humanization. There were traces of blood on Poblian’s lips, messy footprints of an adult male scattered around her, and the image of Ellen fleeing the scene earlier.

At that moment, Poblian coughed, spitting up dark red blood. Cutting short his spiraling thoughts, Esteban picked her up, only to hesitate for a split second. Poblian was incredibly small and light—so much so that it was hard to believe she was thirteen, the same age as him. Looking down at her pale face, Esteban gritted his teeth and hurried out of the greenhouse.

***

“I don’t know much about shapeshifters, but to call this a fever caused by humanization… it seems a bit different from the symptoms I’m familiar with. I was under the impression that shifter-fever isn’t severe enough to cause a loss of consciousness.”

“What does that mean, Sir Benson?”

Aria asked Benson, the Winchester family doctor, her face grave. Benson stroked his white beard as he spoke.

“I cannot be certain, but to me, these symptoms look similar to when one’s mana flow has been forcibly accelerated. The mana flow itself is also somewhat tangled.”

Aria’s face hardened at Benson’s words. Glancing at Esteban, Benson added in a nonchalant tone, “Currently, isn’t the most likely scenario that she accelerated it herself?”

“Herself?”

“I mean, since she was unable to humanize, she might have felt desperate.”

The faces of both listeners stiffened at Benson’s suggestion. He added as he packed his medical bag, “One of the servants saw this child heading toward the garden, but since she was found in the greenhouse, that theory isn’t entirely far-fetched.”

The corners of Esteban’s mouth twisted at Benson’s words.

‘She stole Bluebell and went to the greenhouse to eat it in secret?’

It was a preposterous argument. A fennec fox with a tiny body that didn’t even reach a child’s knee had no reason to go through a mansion full of servants all the way to the greenhouse just to hide. The garden alone would have provided plenty of hiding spots for someone like Poblian. And there was no way a clever fennec fox with such sharp hearing wouldn’t have known that.

In Esteban’s mind, the image of Ellen fleeing the greenhouse surfaced once more.

“Regardless, it’s a stroke of luck that she was found in time. I will prescribe a potion to slow the mana flow along with medicine to smooth it out, so please ensure she takes it three times a day until she regains consciousness.”

Benson looked at Esteban, who remained seated with a grim expression despite his words, with a peculiar look before standing up. Aria rose to see him out. Once the door clicked shut, Benson turned back to Aria.

“My Lady, this old man believes that cleaning a house multiple times is never a loss.”

Aria’s face hardened as she understood the hidden meaning behind Benson’s words. After a moment of silence as if choosing her words, she asked cautiously, “You must have a reason for saying that?”

“In truth, over-consuming Bluebell doesn’t cause the mana flow to accelerate to this extent.”

“Which means…”

“Yes, it means she didn’t just eat Bluebell.”

Benson clicked his tongue in sympathy as he looked at the pale Aria.

‘The kind-hearted Lady looks as though she never imagined such a thing could happen within the Winchester household.’

In contrast, Esteban seemed to have noticed that he was lying, despite his earlier concerns about a rampage. Seeing Aria’s ghostly complexion filled Benson with pity, but he added firmly, as if he had made up his mind: “If the one who suffered this wasn’t that child, but the Young Master, there wouldn’t be a single person left alive in this mansion right now.”