The Baby Bear of the Black Fox Mansion - Chapter 41

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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 41
“Um…”
The innkeeper’s eyes rolled back in thought.
“Well, you see, the weather’s improved and we’ve started producing milk, but we haven’t any honey yet, I’m afraid…”
“…Huh?”
Miel’s face crumpled in an instant.
The innkeeper, watching the child’s lip quiver into a downturned triangle, wore an uncomfortable expression.
In the old days, when sunlight was abundant and ingredients plentiful, honey had been nothing precious—but since that inexplicable winter descended, it had become rarer than diamonds.
Things would normalize gradually, no doubt, but that wouldn’t be today.
“Do you have milk, at least?”
“Ah, yes. The milk, we—”
“Then, little one, you can share some of your honey with us, can’t you?”
“…!”
Miel nodded eagerly and rummaged through her pack, producing a small sealed jar of honey.
“Will this be enough?”
“Yes, I think that should do.”
Presently, a cup of warm milk appeared, and the innkeeper stirred in a generous dollop of honey.
“It’s too hot to drink now—take it upstairs.”
“Okay!”
Zeros Nordic carried the child in one arm and held the cup in the other as he climbed the stairs.
‘Why am I doing this, exactly?’
The reality of it struck Zeros Nordic suddenly, and he let out a sigh.
Click.
Zeros pushed open the door and stepped inside, but his feet stopped dead.
“…What’s wrong with the bed?”
The room itself was spacious enough, but the bed was the problem. A single enormous bed occupied what was clearly a family room.
He frowned.
“They must’ve thought we were a family. I’ll ask them to change it and—”
“Wow, what a huge bed!”
“…”
Watching Miel bounce on her toes, Zeros Nordic’s protest died on his lips.
As he hesitated, Valen Noctis stepped inside and began removing his coat.
“Sir, are we just going to stay here?”
“Why not? It’s not like there’s any real problem.”
“Well, I suppose that’s true…”
She’s so delighted—I can’t very well ask them to change it now.
Zeros sighed, closed the door, set the child down on the bed, and handed her the cup.
Miel reached to drink it eagerly, but Zeros blocked the rim with his large hand.
“Now, little one. Blow on it first, then sip carefully, yes? If you drink it straight down, you’ll scald your mouth and tongue and won’t be able to eat anything but broth for days.”
“Okay.”
What a fussy old man.
Miel blew gently on the milk and sipped it slowly.
“Mmm~!”
Sweetness and richness bloomed across her tongue.
Not so long ago, she’d thought she’d never taste honey again in her life.
“Miel is a happy panda.”
She spoke through sips of the delicious milk, her words slightly slurred.
“…”
“You’re quite resilient, aren’t you.”
She must have had a difficult childhood, given what Gares Bernier had put her through.
And yet she longed for her family just as desperately as anyone would.
Miel blinked once, looking at Zeros, then smiled.
“If Miel is brave, Mama and Papa will think how glad they are when they see her.”
“…”
“If Mama and Papa don’t come home to find Miel has become a bad panda, it will be sad, yes?”
A soft laugh escaped him.
He nodded, still smiling.
“That’s true. A sweet little thing like you turning troublesome—that’d be a shame indeed.”
Zeros Nordic let out a hearty laugh and dropped onto the bed beside Miel.
His large hand wiped away the milk mustache from her mouth.
“Maybe because I wonder if I’ll have a child like you someday—it doesn’t feel like we’re strangers.”
“I hope we both get real families soon, sir and Miel.”
“That’s true.”
Zeros Nordic tilted back slightly and opened his mouth.
It was the moment Miel set down the glass after draining the last of the milk.
“So what does it mean, seeing ghosts? Little panda.”
Zeros Nordic grinned and struck without warning.
“……!”
Miel clapped both hands over his mouth, milk mustache and all.
Miel squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head firmly.
“I, I don’t see ghosts…….”
“But you just said you did earlier.”
“I, that’s not…….”
“They won’t bite you.”
He shrugged.
“I see similar things myself.”
“……!”
“Not exactly ghosts, but curses and traces of contamination, that sort of thing.”
Miel’s eyes widened.
Curiosity flickered to life in those trembling eyes.
“Really?”
“Yeah. I’m a sorcerer by trade, so that much I can see.”
“A sor… sorcerer?”
“Right. I find curses, uncover their origins, cleanse them—that sort of work.”
Miel tilted his head.
“Little…….”
“Little panda.”
“……Yeah, you freed that person from the tree, remember? It’s something like that.”
“Is Miel a sorcerer too?”
Zeros Nordic studied the child for a moment, then shook his head.
“Probably not. You use a completely different method of purification than I do.”
Besides, it was strange that such a massive curse—one that had warped the climate across an entire territory—had left behind no trace of miasma or dark magic energy whatsoever.
Usually, whether it was a demon, a curse, or anything else taking root, traces always remained.
Miasma or contaminated dark magic, one or the other.
And it was their role to identify the source of that contamination and purify it.
The role of the Nordic, who ruled the North and belonged to the Snow Mark Tribe.
“So tell me, little panda. Sorcerers outside Nordic are extremely rare, so I’m curious too.”
* * *
Late at night.
The child lay sprawled in the center of the vast bed, snoring softly. Zeros Nordic, watching the boy sleep, sat at a table by the window with a bottle of liquor he’d bought from the inn and began to pour.
“Let’s have a drink.”
He poured two glasses as he spoke to the middle-aged man just emerging from the bathroom.
Valen Noctis gave him a sidelong glance, then sat across from him with a stern expression.
“What do you make of what the child said?”
“About what.”
“Why else did you bring him all the way here? You already told Jeri the whole story beforehand.”
At Zeros’s words, Valen Noctis fell silent.
“The claim about seeing ghosts is one thing, but learning Demonic Language and purification techniques from a butler or maid? A child who was left to rot in Bernier?”
“Are you suggesting the child lied?”
“No, that’s not it. That small, naive thing lying—that’s not likely. What I’m saying is, couldn’t he just be misunderstanding? Or maybe someone taught him those things while posing as a servant or maid to exploit him.”
At Zeros’s sharp words, Valen Noctis tilted his glass without responding.
Watching him, Zeros drained his own cup of the harsh liquor in one gulp and exhaled slowly.
“But it wouldn’t be a lie. The child genuinely read and broke the curse. However the method came about… there’s no doubt he’s not an ordinary child.”
“But Bernier’s Innate Ability shouldn’t include purification or cleansing…….”
Zeros furrowed his brow.
Just as others couldn’t replicate Noctis’s magic, it was uncommon for someone to manifest an ability other than their given Innate Ability.
“This is complicated.”
He scratched his head.
“But why did you say you’d take the child to the Panda Clan anyway? When it’s clear he doesn’t belong there.”
They had unmistakable traits, and their attachment to their own bloodline was so fierce that you rarely saw them outside their own territory.
They guard their bloodline with such ferocity that they rarely entangle themselves with outsiders.
“There are some things a person can only truly understand by seeing and experiencing them firsthand. No matter how much we explain, it will only dampen the child’s spirit.”
“I suppose.”
Zeros Nordic exhaled slowly.
“Yet if you understand it so well, why do you keep your distance from Jeri? It’s not as though you’ll remain separated forever. Just be honest with me.”
“……Noisy.”
“Since leaving the house, you’ve already grasped everything you could about us. The means to break the curse on Noctis. You even met our father. So why won’t you be forthright?”
He shook his head slowly.
From where Zeros stood, the Noctis family seemed twisted somehow—though he couldn’t say where the knot had begun.
“He still doesn’t know, does he? That you’ve been tending the barrier stones in his territory all along.”
“You talk too much.”
Clink.
He set down his cup.
Those blunt, sharp eyes regarded Zeros with unmistakable displeasure.

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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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