Chapter 004
“I will sit and wait for now. I’ll ask the maid later, anyway.”
She had no intention of calling the maid immediately; the underlying meaning of her words was for him to hurry and sort himself out during this time.
Serge, in his fox form, looked at Rayleigh while pricking up his ears, then began to walk toward the door with hesitant steps as if testing her reaction.
Rayleigh felt that things had settled relatively well as she watched him, but she suddenly sensed something strange.
‘Hmm?’
The fox’s movement was unnatural. He was limping on his left hind leg; it appeared he had sprained his ankle. He likely tripped and got injured during the forced transformation.
Rayleigh stood up quickly and ran toward the little fox. If there were a danger of him attacking her due to madness, that would be one thing, but as long as that wasn’t the case, she couldn’t leave the injured animal without help.
Serge flinched warily. To calm him, she spoke to him gently:
“I won’t hurt you. I see your leg is injured, isn’t it?”
“……”
Rayleigh pulled a handkerchief from her small pouch.
“If you strain your leg while it’s twisted, it won’t be good. It might become a chronic sprain.”
She didn’t have a splint to fix it firmly, but tying the handkerchief tightly around the injured area might ease the burden a bit. The little fox looked at Rayleigh quietly without resisting.
Rayleigh wrapped the handkerchief around his left leg and secured it. She was used to treating wounds herself because of her past life, so her hands moved skillfully.
“There, all finished.”
Serge looked at his leg for a moment, then began to walk. He was still limping slightly, but the tightly tied handkerchief seemed to have helped, as his steps improved noticeably.
The fox walked quickly toward the entrance, then suddenly turned back.
“…Kyang.”
Then he hurriedly left the drawing room.
‘Was that an expression of thanks?’
Rayleigh smiled while watching his swaying tail until it vanished from her sight. Once she was completely alone,
“Haaah…”
Rayleigh finally let out a delayed sigh of relief. For her, who aimed to pretend to be ignorant of the family secrets and then escape, the situation she just went through was truly a major crisis.
‘Suppose they discovered that I know the family secret. I would never be safe.’
Even if the Duke seemed easygoing, he was the head of a great noble family. In the worst-case scenario, she might be killed to silence her. And even if she stayed alive, she might be locked inside the estate without being allowed to leave. In that case, she would be like someone caught by a water ghost, perishing with them when the family is destroyed.
That future was absolutely unacceptable. Since her husband Serge’s magical power was this unstable, she would likely encounter the little black fox unexpectedly again in the future.
‘But he didn’t seem as dangerous as I expected.’
In the novel, their loss of reason and brutality were emphasized, but thinking about it calmly, that was due to the influence of the increasing demonic power. By the time the novel begins in the future, the beast-kin explosions become more severe, and the beast-kin—being half-demons—are depicted as being affected by them too.
Currently, the explosions aren’t that intense, so the Duke and his son from Elestein should be fine for now. If there were a problem, the destruction of the Elestein family and the discovery of their identity would have happened much earlier.
‘So, the important thing now is to pretend I don’t know who they are.’
She had to continue her unfamiliar acting and do her best in the role of the naive wife and daughter-in-law.
When she finished organizing her thoughts, Yuan, the Duke’s aide, appeared, rushing in looking tense.
“I apologize, Little Mistress! There was a misunderstanding. Master Serge was in the library, not the drawing room.”
“It’s alright with me. If he is busy, I can greet him later.”
“No, just wait a moment, and I will bring him as soon as he is ready.”
She felt sorry seeing Yuan, who always seemed calm and composed, appearing flustered for the first time.
‘He seems to suffer a lot because of his troublesome master…’
While pitying him internally, she waited for about ten minutes.
“Master Serge has arrived.”
It seemed she would finally be able to face her husband in his human form. Perhaps thanks to meeting him as a fox first, her initial feeling of tension had faded. Rayleigh stood up politely to receive Serge.
The drawing room door opened, and Yuan appeared first. But her husband Serge, who was supposed to appear, was not there.
‘Hmm?’
Yuan looked behind him with an embarrassed expression.
“Master.”
“……”
With hesitant steps that matched the expression ‘nervous and shy,’ a boy appeared from behind Yuan. Rayleigh was startled for a moment.
His appearance was completely different from what she had imagined based on his father. He had black hair like his father, but his thick, high-prescription glasses made it difficult to discern his features accurately. His eyes, glimpsed behind the lenses, were golden like Walter’s, but that was all.
She thought he was the same age as her, but his size was slightly smaller than hers. Even considering that boys grow slower than girls in childhood, he was remarkably small. It seemed the magical power instability of the beast-kin also affected his growth.
‘Well, appearance isn’t important. What matters is personality.’
Hoping her husband had a quiet temperament, Rayleigh greeted him politely:
“It is an honor to meet you for the first time. I am Rayleigh, who will live with you in Elestein from now on.”
“Ah… Wel… come…”
The boy replied to her with hesitation and a stutter.
“Please… look after me… I am Serge.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you. I hope we get along well, Master Serge.”
“Yes…”
“……”
“……”
The conversation did not continue after that. He could have brought up a normal topic like “You must be tired from the long journey” or “What do you think of the Duke’s castle?”, but he didn’t. To break the awkward atmosphere, Rayleigh continued the conversation instead:
“While I was moving to the eastern wing, I noticed the central garden is very beautiful! I’ve never seen a garden so well-maintained before. It’s an honor to live in such a wonderful place.”
“Thank you…”
“……”
“……”
He lowered his head and replied with difficulty, clutching the edge of Yuan’s clothes as if it were a lifeline. He seemed blatantly lacking in social skills. Yuan, who was watching, intervened to settle the situation quickly:
“No doubt the Little Mistress is very tired from the long trip. Since you will have dinner together with the Duke later, shall we leave the greetings at this for now?”
Serge raised his head and relaxed his brows.
“Tired…? Then… we can meet… later…”
“Thank you for your understanding. It seems you were busy too, Master Serge, so rest well until the evening, and we shall meet with the Duke later.”
“Yes…”
“I look forward to our future cooperation!”
After finishing her polite greeting once more, Rayleigh turned to leave the drawing room. Then Serge called out to her:
“Umm… there…!”
“Yes?”
When she turned to him, the boy flinched. But he gathered his courage somehow and slowly opened his mouth:
“The garden… see it… as much as you like… if you… are okay…”
“……”
“If you… are tired… no need… to see it…”
It seemed he had thought carefully about her spontaneous words about the ‘beauty of the garden’ and tried to respond. His words were unpolished and clumsy, but his intentions reached her.
“Thank you. I will gratefully accept your offer and check it out quietly.”
“Yes…”
It seemed that was the limit of his social skills, as he lowered his head again.
‘Well, someone this shy won’t offer to escort me or walk together.’
She now realized why Walter described his son as a ‘difficult young man.’ But Serge’s mere attempt to answer her bravely made her feel sympathy. In any case, she considered shyness much better than arrogance and left the drawing room.
As she walked away, a golden gaze from behind the glasses fixed steadily on her back.
* * *
Yuan, who came out to see Rayleigh off, added an excuse:
“Master Serge… is a bit shy.”
the words ‘a bit’ seemed inaccurate, but Rayleigh didn’t comment and simply nodded.
“It’s natural for people’s personalities to differ. I will make an effort to become close to him.”
“Yes. Please be a support for him.”
Perhaps because of his knowledge of the family’s circumstances, Yuan seemed to care for Serge more like family than just a subordinate.
“Will you return immediately? Or would you prefer to stroll in the garden since Master Serge suggested it?”
“Well, since I’m here, it’s fine to explore the garden.”
“Alright. If you need anything, ring this bell, and a maid will come to assist you.”
Yuan seemed a bit tense as he explained quickly.
“Do you have an urgent matter?”
“In fact…”
He relaxed his facial expression slightly.
