The Baby Bear of the Black Fox Mansion - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 1
“My goodness, did you see it just now? On her forehead…….”
“Yes. I saw it. Dreadful, isn’t it? So that’s the one.”
“Right. The one they say carried a stone instead of a Gem.”
“Born outside by the Patriarch’s dead youngest daughter…….”
“Tsk, cursed for letting outside blood in. What a mess she is.”
“Cursed? Don’t you know? Her mother was Main Line, yet she had no Gem at all…….”
“Now, now! Mind your tongue. Everyone knows the secret already…….”
At someone’s sharp rebuke, the woman hurried to close her mouth.
“Well, anyway. Nothing strange about a worthless child bearing another worthless child, I suppose.”
Splash, splash.
Behind a small child trudging along with a water bucket nearly as large as her own body, whispered words drifted and tangled together.
Soft, chubby baby fat that would indent at the press of a finger.
Round, honey-colored eyes.
Unruly beige hair sticking out in all directions.
A crude stone embedded in her forehead, utterly out of place.
Her clothes hung in tatters, her cheeks and body streaked with mud as if she’d rolled in the mire, yet her expression was flushed with triumph.
‘Today’s hunt was a success!’
House Berneau—that great lineage of Bears who guarded the world from evil.
And Miel, their Illegitimate Child.
After a full day of toil in the Valley deep in the mountains, Miel had succeeded in her hunt and grasped the flopping fish in the bucket with her small hands.
Then.
“Hey, Stone-head!”
Thud!
Someone shoved Miel from behind.
“Oh…!”
The fish Miel had been holding flew into the air, then traced a parabola as it plummeted to the ground.
Flop, flop.
The fish thrashed against the dirt.
“My fish…….”
Droop.
The corners of Miel’s eyes sagged.
“What’s this pathetic thing? You can’t seriously be planning to eat that.”
“What does it even look like?”
“Ugh, doesn’t it reek of gutters~?”
“To call that food is just pitiful.”
Miel’s cousins and the branch-line hangers-on who followed them.
As the frozen Miel watched, the children tittered and stamped repeatedly on the dying fish.
Watching her fish trampled so brutally, Miel swallowed down her tears.
“Ugh…!”
“How can you eat some muddy minnow instead of sweet honey pastries like normal?”
Crunch.
Miel’s cousin bit into a honey-laden pastry with deliberate showiness.
At the sweet aroma, her mouth fell open of its own accord.
Seeing Miel standing slack-jawed and gawking, her cousin sister smirked.
“Want some? Should I give you some?”
“……Yes!”
“Ugh, what’s that supposed to be? If you want something, you need to show proper respect. You’re really simple-minded…. Didn’t I already teach you?”
“Oh!”
A sudden memory struck Miel, and her eyes lit up. She quickly dropped to her knees.
Her cousin had once shown her the proper etiquette for making requests.
Kneeling, Miel bowed her head and extended both hands.
“Please give it to me.”
“Ha-ha-ha!”
The children, each a head taller than Miel, burst into laughter.
“See? This one’s so stupid that even if we trick her ten times, she falls for it the same way every time!”
“She really does whatever we tell her to do.”
Miel realized too late that she was being mocked. Her lip quivered into a pout.
Her cousin promptly swallowed the remaining pastry in one bite before her eyes.
“……!”
Miel’s eyes went wide.
“You said you’d give it if I asked nicely.”
“Did I~?”
The children giggled at having caught her out.
“You actually believed that?”
“That’s so mean. You liar.”
“Liar?! Hey! Did I leave that honey pastry with you? I just don’t like your attitude, so I’m not giving it to you! If you want it that badly, go beg your servants for some~”
“…….”
The children laughed and trampled the squashed fish again.
“It’s because of you that we bears get the reputation for being slow and dumb! How can you be so dim? Please, study harder~”
Miel’s lip jutted out.
It was sad, but Miel had no money.
Because of that, her servants wore clothes that were terribly worn and tattered. Of course, they had never tasted honey pastries before.
In fact, not even Miel had ever tasted honey, though every bear was supposed to eat it.
She had done some picture study with her servants, but she’d never had a single lesson in letters.
Since she’d barely spent time with other people during her formative years, her speech was noticeably clumsier than the other children’s.
“Ugh, I’m going to become an idiot if I stay here much longer. I need to hurry back and support the Fox Clan instead.”
“Right. I saw earlier that she seems to be completely smitten with my older sister too.”
“Hmm, is that so? Well, I thought the same thing, but anyway… let’s leave before stupidity rubs off on us.”
“Yeah.”
“Hey, don’t go skulking around the Manor. Go back to your filthy Hut! You’re not even part of House Berneau anyway.”
“Older sister, really. Why did you have to say that?”
“What? Is there anyone in this house who doesn’t know that she’s just a Panda your grandfather picked up from outside?”
“……!”
Miel’s eyes widened.
“Just look at that ugly mark on her forehead—she’s clearly not one of our family. We all have such beautiful Gems when we’re born!”
“That’s true. Hey, you’re just someone your grandfather took pity on and raised!”
“Right. What makes you think a wandering Panda like you deserves to take a Panda’s place?”
“A leech who freeloads in someone else’s house without even paying rent.”
“Pretty soon your grandfather will cast you out too. I heard it from Father the other day.”
As Miel hung her head low, the children who’d been babbling exchanged glances.
Then Miel’s cousin’s face twisted into a scowl and she opened her mouth.
“What, don’t you have anything to say?”
“This one really is a stupid Panda, isn’t she. Can’t even answer?”
The crowd of children who had rushed over seemed to lose interest. They turned away, snorting derisively.
“Older sister, do you think she actually believed that?”
“Who knows? But it’s true she’s an illegitimate child, at least.”
The children muttered among themselves and giggled.
“You smell. Get to your Hut! Don’t go wandering around the Manor on your own!”
Even as she turned to leave, Miel’s cousin shouted with her nose pinched, and she vanished along with her followers.
The children disappeared.
Miel scooped the trampled, filthy fish into a dented water bucket, balanced it back on her head, and made her way to the edge of the Manor.
Wobble-wobble.
Miel walked for a long while, carefully keeping her balance so as not to drop what was on her head.
Between the overgrown brush, a small, ramshackle Hut came into view.
It was Miel’s home.
This was where Miel’s mother had lived long ago; Miel’s role was to tend the grave here, or so she’d been told.
Gares Berneau.
Her youngest maternal uncle had told her this.
He taught her that Miel, who had no parents, must learn to stand on her own. So from the age of three until now, at five years old, she has lived alone.
Of course!
The handmaidens and the steward helped her a great deal.
She wasn’t good at hunting either—at first she could only eat once every two or three days—but now her skills have improved to the point where she manages a meal once a day, and yet……!
But, the truth is…….
‘Miel, you’re the bear of House Berneau, aren’t you?’
The truth was that the torrent of abuse hurled at Miel mattered very little.
Something else had shaken her profoundly!
“……I’m not a bear of House Berneau!”
Gasp.
Her eyes widened.
The next moment, Miel hurled the water bucket aside and bolted up the stairs.
Fish scattered across the floor.
The child scrambled up the steps and flung herself onto a dust-laden bed.
“Achoo!”
Puff—!
Miel, covered head to toe in dust, shook her hair wildly.
“I’m back!”
“Oh my, Miss Miel. You’re a mess. Did your hunt go well today?”
“Yeah.”
“My goodness, but why do you look like pickled cabbage?”
“Did those wretched Main Line brats bother you again? With these old hands, I should just……!”
“It’s fine.”
Miel answered vaguely to the voices coming from all around and pulled a book from beneath her pillow!
[The Ugly Bear Cub]
The child quickly flipped through the worn, shabby pages of the fairy tale book.
[The Ugly Bear Cub] told the story of a baby bear born with black fur in a family where all were born with white fur, despised for its ugliness, driven from home for being different from its bear siblings—but who one day discovered it was actually an adorable panda, and so set out on a journey to find its family.
It was Miel’s favorite book.
“……!”
Though Miel could not read words, fairy tale books were mostly pictures.
She studied each illustration drawn on the faded pages with careful attention.
And recalled what had happened just moments before.
‘The baby bear—it’s just like me!’
The bear had black fur; Miel was a gem!
Soon enough, Miel combined all these pieces together and arrived at a truly astonishing realization!
Gasp.
“I’m…… a panda!”
Of course, Miel had no idea what a panda even was.
That pandas were also subordinate to House Berneau, or that they possessed fundamentally different characteristics—she knew none of this.
But regardless!
[The Ugly Bear Cub]’s protagonist, the baby panda, could not hunt.
Because pandas eat bamboo, you see!
How much torment she had endured for being unable to hunt.
But now!
‘Miel, it’s fine that you can’t hunt!’
Because…… !
Miel is a panda!
“I have to go to the Panda Clan.”
“Pardon? Where are you going?”
“On a journey! I’m going to the Panda Clan to find my mom and dad!”
Miel retrieved the water bucket she’d left outside and began filling it with her things.
An old Bear Doll.
“Wait just a moment, Miss.”
“Hmm?”
A small Rocket Pendant.
“You’re leaving just like that?”
“Yep.”
Tattered clothes.
“Wouldn’t it be better to think this over a little more?”
“No.”
“The Ungrateful Little Bear” from the Fairy Tale Book.
“Oh!”
The child, who had gathered everything so far, suddenly remembered something and bolted out—only to return moments later.
“This too!”
And then, a split-bellied fish caked with dirt.
The maid who had been watching nervously drew closer.
“Young Master Bear is far too small for such a journey. It would be no loss to wait until you’re a bit older.”
Miel, who had already crammed everything into the bucket, lifted her head.
“But if I don’t go now, Miel will regret it forever and ever.”
……
“Miel wants to see Mother and Father. I’ll find Mother and Father and come right back!”
Poof!
Miel had transformed into a baby bear!
A tiny cub, pale beige in color with white fur on its belly—no bigger than two adult palms pressed together.
“Squeak!”
I’ll be back soon!
“Grunt.”
Miel, the bucket handle clamped between her jaws, scurried toward the doghole with her small limbs churning frantically.
“Young Miss!”
The butler, who spotted the fleeing child only too late, reached out his hand but froze in place.
“……Can’t someone stop her?”
“You and I are both stuck here—what good would that do?”
“……She really doesn’t look back once, does she.”
And no wonder: Miel was more innocent than most and trusted people’s words at face value, but when it came to execution, she was as relentless as a Panda.
The servants, dressed in worn and tattered clothes, watched as Miel receded into the distance.
There were no shadows beneath their feet, and the landscape of Miel disappearing showed through perfectly beyond their forms.
Beneath a cloudless sky, the sun hung high overhead.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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