The Baby Bear of the Black Fox Mansion - Chapter 7

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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 7
* * *
Miel slipped out of the Manor and bounded up the snow-covered mountainside on all fours, moving with determined urgency.
Pitter-patter. Hop.
Crunch. Crunch.
A baby bear’s small paws left soft impressions across the white expanse.
Despite the secrets Miel harbored, there was one peculiar ability she possessed.
‘I discovered it when my Cousin accidentally pushed me off the mountainside and I tumbled down.’
If Miel cried—
If she wished for strength while weeping, strength would come to her.
But at this moment, Miel wasn’t sad. However, fortunately for her, she knew how to become sad.
The Stream’s upper reaches were where Miel had arrived, where the mountain waters ran free.
The water higher up hadn’t frozen yet, which meant it was still flowing, albeit sluggishly.
Miel tossed the Old Cloth she’d brought onto the ground and stood boldly before the Stream.
‘Crying method, number one.’
With grim determination, the tiny bear cub plunged—splash!—into the freezing water.
Splish-splash—
Gasp, gasp—
Fish that had been sleeping in the moonlight of the late night darted frantically in every direction, leaping to escape the baby bear’s stubby little paws.
“Oof.”
Once the hunt began, Miel floundered in the Stream for quite some time.
Until sunset came and the moon rose in its place.
* * *
“My goodness! What on earth is this?”
A maid who’d arrived early in the morning stood with her mouth agape. The entrance vestibule was an absolute mess.
Dead fish were scattered everywhere, and the floor was coated in muddy water.
“Who on earth could have done such a thing…?”
“Miel did!”
Miel emerged from her hiding spot behind a pillar, raising both paws triumphantly.
“Miel hunted for you! It’s a present!”
“Miss…?”
The maid’s eyes widened at the sight of Miel.
She had been informed about the baby bear cub that the Manor’s master had brought home yesterday.
Miel stood before the maid with evident pride.
Surely a scolding would come soon enough.
‘If I get scolded, tears will come naturally…’
Back in Bernear, whenever Miel had brought hunt-gifts, everyone had scolded her for making a mess.
She’d been punished each time.
Some punishments hurt, others were exhausting, but tears would flow unbidden whenever she was disciplined.
So this time, if she were reprimanded, tears would surely come again.
‘As long as it’s not being locked in the storage shed.’
That punishment had been unbearable.
Trapped in a dark storage shed with no way to go hunting, her stomach would growl incessantly.
With a solemn expression, Miel clenched her eyes shut, anticipating the punishment to come.
“Oh my! So Miss brought these as a hunt-gift. I was quite startled, thinking a wild beast had gotten in during the night.”
“…Yes.”
“Thank you so much. I’ll have these cleaned up and sent to the cook to see if we can prepare them into something delicious.”
“…?”
“Still, if you stay in this condition, you’ll catch a cold. Why don’t you come with me and get cleaned up?”
“…??”
Why wasn’t she being scolded…?
Miel, who had squeezed her eyes shut expecting a harsh rebuke, carefully opened them and peeked.
The maid crouching before her was smiling.
Tilt.
Miel’s head tilted to one side.
The maid didn’t look angry, nor did she seem about to deliver any punishment.
‘I did what I always did…’
“What is all this?”
As Miel stood bewildered, her eyes darting about, a sudden voice made her head snap up.
At the unfamiliar tone, the child’s gaze fixed on the newcomer.
“Master.”
The maid rose hastily from her seat and bowed at the waist.
It was Zerphaeon.
Since it was early dawn and he hadn’t fully woken, his furrowed brow betrayed a certain weariness as he rubbed it with the heel of his hand.
“I asked what all this was about.”
“M-Miel hunted it! It’s a present!”
As Zerphaeon pressed the maid further, Miel quickly scurried out and raised one hand high, standing at attention.
Since he was an adult, he would surely punish Miel as well.
“……Ah.”
Only then did Zerphaeon smile faintly, as if the situation had finally dawned on him.
‘The child is adorable.’
His head had been aching from the reports that had poured in since morning, but now it seemed to clear a little.
“So the little bear went hunting at such an ungodly hour.”
He must have woken far too early and made a commotion.
“Yes!”
Having learned the language through years of training under his cousin and uncle, Miel understood his meaning perfectly and nodded eagerly.
“You’re soaked through.”
It was clearly a remark that fit Miel perfectly!
“Yes!”
The soft fur bristled stiffly, as if she felt the cold.
Her small body was trembling, her cheeks flushed crimson, yet the child didn’t whimper once—only gazed up at him with eyes bright with anticipation.
‘Is she hoping for praise?’
Zerphaeon opened his mouth.
“You’ve worked hard. If you wanted fish, you should have said so. I would have served it for breakfast.”
“……Eh? Eh…….”
Miel’s eyes wavered as if struck by an earthquake.
“…Miel, you have some talent.”
“…….”
At Miel’s halting reply, Zerphaeon’s eyes softened, and he silently stroked the child’s head.
“Have what you’ve hunted brought to the kitchen for breakfast, then wash up and get some more sleep.”
“……???”
“Tell the cook to prepare these for the meal, and have the child washed and put back to bed.”
“Yes, master.”
The maid bowed, and Zerphaeon, having given his orders, turned to leave.
“…????”
“Come now, little miss bear—shall we get you washed and back to sleep?”
“?????”
Cradled in the maid’s arms, Miel’s mind was nothing but question marks as she was scrubbed thoroughly and laid upon a bed so fluffy and soft it seemed to swallow her whole.
The room, with its roaring fireplace, was far warmer than the world outside, and Miel’s eyes began to droop.
The maid drew the curtains and tucked the blanket all the way up to Miel’s chin, then patted her chest a few times.
“Sleep well.”
With those softly smiling words, Miel’s consciousness simply flew away.
* * *
“The Young Duke did not attend lessons beginning yesterday afternoon.”
Zerphaeon’s brow furrowed.
“Of course, I understand that he’s at an age where rest is warranted, so I overlooked it yesterday through my own discretion, but……”
The Brown Fox Tutor, who served as Lisah’s private instructor, pressed on, her eyes squeezed shut.
“He did not attend this morning’s lessons either, and he was not in his room……”
“…….”
Zerphaeon pressed his temples firmly with his thumbs.
“Cancel today’s lessons for now and stand by.”
“Yes, understood. I apologize for the late report.”
Zerphaeon, looking down at the tutor who bowed deeply, set down his documents and rose from his seat.
There had been occasions before when she overstepped in such a manner, but he tolerated it precisely because he knew she cared for Lisah more than anyone.
It was a good thing to have an employee who, in place of his own clumsy efforts, looked after his son so carefully.
‘Is he off with that little bear again today?’
Yesterday he’d been glued to the child all day long.
Suddenly, Zerphaeon wondered whether Lisah lacked playmates his own age.
He’d chosen not to recommend the academy yet, as the boy wasn’t old enough, but now that a peer had appeared, was it time to have him attend various social gatherings?
‘Ever since meeting that little bear, he’s been absolutely captivated.’
Only two days in, but if these problems persist, I’m afraid I’ll have no choice but to send the child back to Bernear or find her suitable adoptive parents—much as it pains me.
“Miel, Miel hunted! Gift for you!”
That thought drew him back to the scene he’d witnessed at dawn, and he found himself smiling faintly.
How desperately she must have craved praise, to venture out hunting in that small frame before daybreak.
‘Admirable, certainly. Endearing, even. But……’
Zerphaeon, in his current state, lacked the capacity to care for the child with the attention she deserved.
Inside and outside his walls, vultures circled, ready to consume him at the first sign of weakness; the public whispered that his sole heir was cursed; and his wife had not opened her eyes in years.
The Abnormal Climate that had struck the Southern Region suddenly had accelerated the food shortage, and with more subjects fleeing the domain, his tax revenues dwindled.
Only two or three of his investments had yielded respectable returns, and he was clinging to existence on the profits they generated.
He had searched for the cause relentlessly, summoning scholars and mages and hedge priests alike, yet no one could identify it.
Wondering if Demonic Beasts were to blame, he had even taken to the field himself to cull them from the Southern Region.
Yet that year, though he had exterminated every Demonic Beast in the South—down to their young—nothing changed.
His wife’s affliction was much the same.
Serniel had collapsed not long after giving birth to the child, and had remained unconscious ever since.
Worse still, three years ago her abilities began to run wild.
Even renowned physicians summoned at great expense could neither treat her nor explain what ailed her.
And so the whispers of a Curse only grew louder.
An old legend held that Black Foxes were a race born cursed, tainted by contact with forbidden magic.
The sudden shift in the Southern Region’s climate.
The steady exodus of his subjects.
The dwindling trade partnerships.
These suspicions, converging, lent credence to the rumor with each passing day.
At every regular meeting of the Fox Clan Council, he faced considerable obstruction, or so he’d heard.
‘The child deserves better than this……’
He could not leave a child of another species in a place so unstable and fraught with distrust.
He had just reached the threshold of Miel’s chamber when—
“Your Grace!”
The urgent voice made Zerphaeon’s brow furrow deeper.
He turned, then stopped short.
“Aura? What is the matter?”
Zerphaeon’s eyes widened.
His wife’s physician.

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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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