Chapter 11.
When I brought up the whole pet-and-master relationship with my own mouth, I felt awful.
“Hmmm… fine. And?”
But I couldn’t take it back once I’d said it.
“In return, Your Grace, you’ll allow me, Kali Herais, to let you call me however you want.”
He wrote it down faithfully, just as I said. Only he changed one part.
Instead of Kali Herais, he wrote Kali Spencer.
‘Ah. So I’m Kali Spencer now. No longer a Herais.’
That was when it finally hit me that I had married him.
“And one more thing.”
“What is it? Say everything before I sign.”
“If I become human again, I want to leave this place.”
“Does that mean divorce?”
“Is that what it would be called?”
I tilted my head. His face only wore that same inscrutable smile, impossible to read any real emotion from.
“But Leon, isn’t it the same for you? This wasn’t a marriage you wanted, either.”
“That’s true.”
Leonhardt couldn’t deny it. Everything the squirrel said was true from start to finish.
He hadn’t wanted the marriage, and once the witch’s curse was broken, there would be no need to keep it.
So he acknowledged that and wrote it into the contract: once the curse was lifted, Kali Spencer would return to being Kali Herais.
“Ah, but wait. If it’s like this, then I got two things I wanted, but you only got one…”
She pointed at the part about the pet-and-master relationship. Leonhardt smirked and nodded.
“True. You could’ve just tricked me. You’re rather honest.”
“Do you think I’m you or something? What do you take me for? I’m a very honest person.”
“Hmmm… so you’re saying I should write down one more thing I want, too. Now, what should I ask for?”
He tapped the table with long fingers.
He had to choose something she couldn’t wriggle her way out of with cunning. Something advantageous to him, not her.
After quite some time, Leonhardt finally spoke.
“From now on, if something comes up that you can’t avoid, you must do exactly as I say.”
“……”
“Why that face?”
“That’s incredibly vague and not specific at all.”
Kali stared at him in disbelief as he wrote it down anyway. Regardless of whether she liked it or not, Leonhardt intended to finish this contract.
He already had two identical copies ready, only the signature lines blank. He slid one toward her.
“Oh. Don’t squirrels not know how to write?”
“I can write, you know! Don’t underestimate me. Seriously.”
She snatched the pen and scrawled her name in the signature line—Kali—in Korean.
And then she realized her mistake. She didn’t know this world’s letters at all. Couldn’t read them, couldn’t write them. Only speaking worked, strangely enough.
Sure enough, Leonhardt stared for a while at what she’d written, his expression puzzled.
“What is this supposed to say?”
“Uh… well, um…”
“These aren’t letters I recognize.”
“It’s… the language I used back where I came from.”
What had Kali Herais’s backstory been, anyway?
‘Characters like this never even got a single line of backstory.’
What if Leonhardt asked? She broke into a nervous sweat inwardly. Luckily, he didn’t pursue it.
“I see. Interesting letters.”
“It’s just my name. Now you just need to sign, Leon.”
He signed instantly. One copy he handed to Kali, the other he kept, then rose to his feet.
“Don’t lose it. Keep it safe.”
“Of course. Who’d just lose something like this?”
She rolled the paper carefully and tucked it at her side.
“Well then… I look forward to our time together.”
He smiled, as though delighted.
“My cute little squirrel.”
Kali suddenly had a bad feeling about the future.
“Milady, why do you look so happy?”
“No, I don’t. My face always looks like a squirrel.”
Flopped belly-down on a pillow, Kali pressed down and rolled off the slope, tumbling to the bottom.
Then she wriggled back up and slid down again. The pillow made a decent little slide. Strangely fun, in its own way.
“Levi. Is Leon still in the mansion?”
“Ah, His Grace the Duke…”
“Mm. He’s my husband for now, and he gave me permission to call him that, so it’s fine.”
No one had ever dared call the Duke by name before. Not the previous Duke, nor the one before that.
But then again—she was the Duchess. Levi easily accepted that reasoning and nodded.
“Yes! He’s in the study. Do you want to see him?”
“Not at all. It’s good if he’s busy.”
She had to get closer to him, at least enough to pull off this whole pet-and-master relationship. The master, Leonhardt, was supposed to dote on the pet, Kali. But would that actually happen?
‘Somehow… even though we agreed to cooperate to break the curse…’
Why did it feel like she’d lost somehow?
Leonhardt, who never did anything that put him at a loss. She had meant to be the same way, and yet she couldn’t shake this uneasy feeling of being at a disadvantage.
“Oh, and—His Grace asked you to join him for lunch today.”
“Lunch…?”
“Yes. Surely, it means His Grace is fond of you, milady.”
“What on earth makes you think that?”
“He always kept everyone at a distance. He never let anyone approach.”
“…Levi. You seem to know quite a lot, don’t you?”
Levi stepped closer and held out a hand. Kali, without hesitation, climbed onto his palm.
Why had Leonhardt invited her to lunch? He was not someone who trusted easily, nor who let others near.
Kali clambered up Levi’s arm and perched on top of his head. His height was just right—not too tall like grown men, which felt uncomfortably high.
“Then, after a stroll in the garden, we’ll head to lunch…”
Knock, knock.
Just as Kali had settled down on Levi’s crown, there was a knock. The door opened.
And there he was.
“Kali. Time for a walk.”
Leonhardt stood there, holding something that looked suspiciously like a dog collar.
…At twenty-eight years old, he had received the seed of misfortune.
His first thought upon hearing of a cursed bride had been only that—misfortune, nothing more, nothing less.
Or rather, unwelcome. The thought reminded him of his mother, the former Duchess—also a cursed bride.
A woman who had never once received love from his father. Labeled a cursed bride, she had lived locked away in an iron tower until the day she died.
‘I thought my cursed bride would be the same.’
But at least his mother, though cursed, had still been human. His bride was a squirrel. Not even a person.
So he’d planned to ignore her, let her spend her days in a room until she died as a squirrel. After all, a squirrel’s lifespan was far shorter than a human’s.
‘If only I hadn’t seen that squirrel that day while drunk.’
Much smaller and frailer than expected, yet still breathing with all its little might.
Leonhardt’s world until then had contained no such small, delicate creatures. Only terrifying monsters. Savage beings. Compared to those, such a tiny life felt alien.
‘It was just a whim, that’s all.’
A whim that carried him into the wedding hall. Even the startled look on that squirrel’s face hadn’t been so bad.
And the whim continued.
He kept prodding at that tiny being. Each time, she reacted instantly. Like a freshly caught fish flopping around.
It had been a long time since he’d encountered anything so fresh.
His world had been black and white, until suddenly, a creature of full, vivid color had appeared.
‘It’s been a long time since I’ve felt something like this.’
Years of living under a curse had stolen his real laughter.
Now, at last, he smiled again.
He had no intention of letting go of this toy that gave him such amusement.
‘At least, not until this whim of mine ends.’
Leonhardt rose from his seat.
He looked like a predator moving leisurely toward its prey.
“Well then… time to go fetch it.”
His pet.
When she saw the dog collar in Leonhardt’s hand, Kali was speechless.
“Kali. Time for a walk.”
They say you can’t spit at someone who’s smiling.
‘Well. I think I could.’
Hack, ptooey.
She urged Levi to get closer, and he obediently obeyed.
Right in front of Leonhardt, Levi stopped. From Levi’s crown, Kali stood tall, took a deep breath, and leapt.
“Are you insane?”
She landed squarely on Leonhardt’s chest, grabbing his collar with both hands. Then she scrambled upward.
Leonhardt only followed her movements with his gaze, curious what she’d do next.
At last she reached his right shoulder. Stopping there, Kali clenched her tiny fist.
Okay. One, two…
“…Three!”
Pow!
She socked him in the cheek with all her might. Of course, her fluffy little fist did no damage at all.
But Kali’s face shone with pride nonetheless.
“Phew…”
Leonhardt chuckled, raising his left hand to roughly ruffle her head.
“Don’t overdo the antics.”
“…And what were you planning to do with that thing?”
She flung the dog collar onto the floor.
“Ah, well.”
Leonhardt picked it up and handed it to Levi.
“Are you her attendant? Where’s the maid?”
“I asked for a change. Jane’s busy.”
“Is that so?”
“Why?”
“No reason.”
His gaze lingered on Levi once more.
“Dispose of that as you like. Instead, bring me a pink ribbon. With a bell, preferably.”
