The Baby Bear of the Black Fox Mansion - Chapter 46

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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 46
“Why would you say something so cruel? Why did you tell grandfather that you’re better at things than your older brother? It’s not your brother’s fault he was born black. Why would you say a black fox can’t do it?”
[…….]
Miel’s eyes hardened with determination.
“You got it wrong. The butler told me so. Sweet potatoes all grow from the same earth, they’re all the same kind of sweet potato, but if you say pretty things to them, they become pretty sweet potatoes. So why is it like that?”
With each word from Miel, the old man’s face crumpled further.
It contorted, twisted, until it had collapsed entirely.
[What does a little thing like you know? That was a saying passed down through the Noctis Family. Something that must be preserved, naturally! You’re just……!]
[This mad creature still hasn’t come to his senses. Pathetic. That’s why no one brings a single flower to your grave after you die. I’m sorry, little bear.]
[You……!]
Miel’s eyes widened in surprise.
When the prickly grandfather pointed accusingly at Miel and shouted, the old man’s mother standing beside him — who had been smiling warmly — spoke in an icy voice.
‘Grandfather’s mother is strong.’
Miel nodded with satisfaction.
“Who exactly are you talking to?”
The man finally couldn’t contain his curiosity and asked.
“It’s grandfather’s father here, sir.”
“……Father?”
“Yes.”
He furrowed his brow.
“He looks like this, and he has a mole here, and his mouth is like this.”
Miel used her fingers to pull the corners of her eyes upward sharply, creating thin, pointed eyes, then pressed hard near her mouth to show him.
Then she drew her lips downward, forming a triangular shape.
“And he has wine-colored eyes.”
“……!”
The man drew in a sharp breath.
“……So even that illustrious man couldn’t gain an afterlife after death. How refreshing.”
Yet as the man said this, he looked neither pleased nor refreshed at all.
Rather, he simply…….
“Are you sad?”
Miel still gripped the man’s pant leg tightly.
He met the child’s gaze.
Honey-colored irises.
For some reason, they seemed to have grown warmer than before, drawing closer to gold.
Finding it oddly fascinating, the man opened his mouth without thinking.
“I’m not sure.”
“Are you angry?”
“……Perhaps.”
“Were you very angry at grandfather too?”
“…….”
He stopped breathing.
Just for a moment, a single instant.
But then he opened his mouth again.
“There was a time when I was.”
Tilt.
Miel tilted her head.
“Certainly, back then.”
When he had been far younger and smaller.
In some childhood where only resentment and bitterness and pain held sway, there had indeed been a time when he resented and hated his one remaining brother, who walked the very same path as their father.
“What about now?”
“…….”
Stretching out his one remaining arm, the man placed his large hand atop Miel’s head with a soft tap.
“That was a long time ago.”
“Right, so what about now?”
Miel pressed for the answer the man was trying to evade, her voice clear and distinct despite her small frame, her childish speech patterns, and her slight lisp.
So very insistent.
“…….”
He remained silent.
“You’re curious. If I’m truly such an extraordinary person, would this word become a curse upon my death?”
“……!”
“Valen. Your child will be born a black fox, and you will kill your own child with your own hands.”
He remembered.
Decades had passed. Seasons had shifted hundreds of times over.
After such an expanse of time, despite how much had faded in color, there remained one crystalline page, one moment of memory burned sharp and clear.
“Do you still hate me?”
……
The man drew in a breath.
And then he remembered.
Very slowly, very gently—words he had not spoken aloud in years, and yet he had visited this place every year regardless.
Telling himself he didn’t want to meet, lingering even after the early tomb visiting ended, refusing to leave until someone had laid down one more flower.
“……No.”
The reason why.
“I want to apologize.”
He spoke it aloud at last.
“…That’s what I think.”
A single careless word spoken to a careless younger brother in his foolish youth—words he had wanted to become a curse.
His cowardly brother, who thought he possessed everything, had actually been crushed beneath their father’s words all along; and knowing this, he—just like their father—had pushed him further, and so he had spoken something bitter.
Then came the Monster Wave, and he fled, leaving an arm behind.
So much time had passed while he turned away.
If only he had known that his curse-like words would shackle his brother’s entire life, he would have done differently.
It was regret that came too late—regret far too late to undo.
So many years of avoidance had left him with no courage to meet him again.
What had begun as silence had hardened into something nameless and formless, and he had simply come to this place mechanically, season after season, out of habit.
Thud.
Something fell.
Miel and the man turned their heads.
“……!”
“Oh, Grandfather.”
The two of them stood frozen, facing one another.
Miel tilted her head and was about to tug at the man’s trouser leg again when—
Swoosh.
She was lifted up.
“Come on, our little panda—let’s go play with the gentleman~”
Zelos scooped Miel into his arms and patted her back.
“We’ll see you at the lodging before dinner this evening~”
He gave Valen Noctis a quick tap on the shoulder, then strode briskly away from the Cemetery. As the landscape receded, Miel blinked her eyes.
“Where are we going? Miel still has things to tell that pointy-eared grandfather!”
“That’s enough.”
Zelos Noctis smiled, patting Miel’s back slowly.
“Well done.”
He spoke as they walked.
“Our little panda did what she could. The rest is for those two to resolve.”
“But……we can’t see them anymore……”
“Because they’re dead. It makes sense that you can’t see them.”
“Then how do they talk?”
Miel tilted her head in confusion.
“They don’t need to talk.”
“……?”
“The living still have to live.”
He lifted Miel high above his head with those cryptic words.
“Wow!”
She rose far into the sky, higher even than Zelos Noctis’s own head, and Miel’s mouth formed a perfect O of wonder.
“Whose child is this—so splendid? I’d like to meet your parents someday, this wonderful little panda they raised.”
“……!”
Miel’s eyes grew wide.
“…If!”
“Hm?”
“If Miel finds them, I’ll show you for sure!”
Her heart raced, boom-boom-boom. With such excitement, the child called out with all her strength.
Until now, no one had ever spoken to Miel about her parents.
But for the first time, he told Miel that he wanted to meet her parents.
The expression on that small, delicate face was so earnest that Zelos found himself laughing despite himself.
“That’s right. I hope we both find our families soon. Don’t you?”
Miel nodded vigorously, her whole head bobbing.
She was nodding with such enthusiasm that her head might fall clean off, so Zelos placed his palm against her forehead and stilled it.
“When we go to the Panda Family Residence this time, my wife and child won’t be there, I suspect. I’ve never been to the Panda Family Residence myself, after all.”
With that, he stepped into a cafe that caught his eye.
It was a dessert shop that sold cakes, black tea, and sweet juices.
* * *
“Father, shall we depart now?”
“Yes. I’ve sent word ahead to the Panda Family Residence. I’ve explained the circumstances, so they won’t be startled by a sudden visit.”
Jerpeon climbed into the carriage with unhurried ease as he spoke.
Lisar had kept his promise, and Jerpeon, troubled by the matter in various ways, had decided to settle his urgent affairs and head to the Panda Family Residence.
Lisar packed a handful of Honey Cakes and one Honey Jar, then giggled. Honey was an excellent choice for coaxing a baby bear.
“I can’t wait to see her.”
Watching his daughter’s tail wag with excitement, Jerpeon smiled softly.
Soon the carriage departed.

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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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