The Baby Bear of the Black Fox Mansion - Chapter 14

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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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Chapter 14
It was impossible not to know him—in the hall where the portraits of all previous Family Heads hung, his was the largest after the First Family Head himself.
Crack—!
Her vision flickered and went dark, the scene shifting into something else entirely.
This time, a Summoner who appeared to be in his late thirties stood with a demon child, small and newly grown.
“It’s tomorrow.”
“Ah, I’m finally becoming Family Head. I owe it all to you.”
“I merely kept the contract.”
“Haha! The expression on my brother’s face as he went mad and killed his own wife and children—it was exquisite! All thanks to you. Everything he touched turned to misery, monsters poured down wherever he went, and everyone he spoke to dropped dead the next day. The Cursed Black Fox fit perfectly.”
Jerpeon’s face went ashen.
Crack.
Memories flickered through his mind like a lantern show—his own childhood, the suffering Risar had endured—and he clenched his fists hard.
A small palm came to rest, gently tapping the back of his hand.
Jerpeon drew a sharp breath, his face twisting.
“Miel, you sometimes read picture books, and in those books, a lonely person always gets punished.”
…….
“So that’s okay. But you get gifts from me every single day.”
It was always like that in picture books.
Bad people were punished, and good people received rewards.
Miel felt happiest when a protagonist who had endured hardship finally received their gift.
She couldn’t read a single word, but just from the pictures alone, she could tell who was bad and who was good.
“Because you’ve suffered.”
……!
“So now, all that’s left is for you to receive gifts.”
Miel smiled brightly.
“In the end, by their own hand……!”
Jerpeon heard a voice from ahead and slowly looked up.
…….
“Kahahaha! You always looked down on me as your inferior, but in the end you bowed your head to me and begged for forgiveness.”
“I kept my promise. After tomorrow, you keep yours too.”
“Of course. But dying right after becoming Family Head is inconvenient. I need to prepare an heir. So I’d appreciate a reprieve of about a year.”
“Very well.”
Crack—!
The vision went dark again.
Crack—!
The light returned, and the scene shifted once more.
“Kh, kahahaha! Finally! I’ve sealed it! I’ve finally—!”
“You wretched creature!!”
“It was wise to limit the summoning to a young specimen from the start, sir.”
Someone standing beside the man who had become Family Head spoke. His face was indistinct, as if colored in with pencil.
“You dare break the Sacred Contract……!”
“Break the contract? I don’t know what you mean. I’m merely extending the timeline. I’ll give you your lifespan—in about a hundred years. If you still have a lifespan left to claim then, by all means, take it.”
“How dare you, how dare you……!”
“Mother will have her hundred years, or two hundred—whenever you wish, after that. It’s strange that even a ‘Curse’ like you has a parent.”
He let out a cold laugh.
In truth, Jerpeon couldn’t understand a single word the demon child spoke. It sounded like nothing but an incomprehensible language.
But… it didn’t matter if he didn’t hear it.
Just from what his ancestor was saying, he could clearly see what was happening.
“I will curse you! I will curse you even at the cost of my own life! Your soul will wander through nine thousand hells and be trapped here forever and ever!”
……!
“Someday upon this family and your land, an everlasting cold will descend!!”
The ancestor froze under the icy force radiating from the young demon.
“You, who feared the black fox so much, will lose your land to it!”
Crack, crack.
Something like tree roots erupted from the ground, binding the young demon’s entire body.
The child gradually sank deeper into the roots.
And then.
Thud!
“Mother……..”
Tap, tumble.
The demon child ensnared by vines shrank smaller and smaller, until at last it became a seed that rolled across the floor.
The Sorcerer, his face darkened with paint, smiled and picked it up, then held the seed out toward the man frozen rigid by curse.
“Now, plant this.”
The man, stiffened beyond his control by the curse laid upon him, turned his head slowly.
“What……? Why would I plant this? It should be burned to ash on sight……!”
“It won’t burn.”
“What……?”
“This seed is already a Malignant Core. Unlike sacred objects, it bears a curse within it—a thing that brings calamity. If you burned it…… every last thing the ashes touched would be cursed.”
Miel frowned as she watched the Sorcerer, his face smeared with paint.
‘A wicked person.’
The stench of decay wafted from him in waves.
“Then what am I to do!”
“Plant it and tend it well. Keep it in the warmest, brightest sunlight you have. As long as there is no bitter cold to pierce it, this thing will never awaken again.”
……
“Mark my words: never let winter enter this house. Preserve it as a Guardian Tree for your descendants, never to be cut down.”
……I understand.
The Sorcerer withdrew, watching the man nod reluctantly, having found no other recourse.
Beneath the painted face, his lips curved in a soft arc of a smile.
“……This is——”
Jerpeon drew a sharp breath, his face drained of color.
At that same moment.
Whoosh—!
The ground gave way beneath them, and they plummeted downward.
Jerpeon clutched the child in his arms with all his strength, his eyes squeezed shut.
The two of them fell into an abyss without end.
* * *
……Ugh!
Jerpeon’s eyes snapped open at the sensation of striking ground.
He started to rise abruptly, then froze, drawing a deep breath.
The child was sleeping soundly in his arms, breathing softly.
……This is——
Had she been asleep all along?
Is that why this child had used the word ‘dream’?
He lifted his head slowly.
The silvery wisps of light that had emerged when the flower burned were already gone, and Serniel too was sleeping.
‘Dream……’
Was it a dream, or was it real?
The boundary was somewhat blurred.
He found himself questioning whether he should trust everything he had just witnessed.
Jerpeon, sitting quietly, gathered Miel close as she slept soundly, then rose to his feet.
Because she slumbered, the chill that emanated from Serniel had withdrawn somewhat.
Mmm……
Miel burrowed deeper into Jerpeon’s embrace before slowly opening her eyes.
“Honey cake mister……?”
“Little bear cub. Are you all right?”
“Yes……”
Miel yawned widely, then rubbed at her sleepy eyes.
Watching the child squirm to be set down, Jerpeon obliged, lowering her gently to the ground.
He gazed at the child in silence for a moment, then slowly turned his gaze away.
Outside, the blizzard still raged.
Despite holding the warmest southern territory, the sky so thick with snow clouds made it difficult to see the sun.
“The tree must be felled.”
He spoke quietly, matter-of-factly.
That tree—the Guardian Tree that had been passed down through the Noctis Family for ages untold.
Yet who could have known it was the source of all the curses.
“If I cut down that tree, Risar and she will be all right, won’t they? Little bear cub.”
“No.”
Miel shook her head.
He paused.
Jerpeon looked down at the child.
“He got angry because that man was a liar. He should apologize, give gifts, make amends—I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. If you cut him off, he’ll stay angry.”
“……?”
What was he supposed to do—have a conversation with a Curse?
In the first place, Jerpeon couldn’t communicate with it at all.
“Do you have honey cakes and nice fruit? Maybe some chocolate?”
Miel asked Jerpeon with a bright smile.

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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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