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Brought to ‌you by Valir Scans! To support ‌‌‌our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read ‌‌‌directly on our official site: valirscans.org
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Chapter 19
Before entering the Duchess's Bedroom, I waited in the small Parlor attached to the room, tugging slightly at the pink ribbon around my neck. The Governess had tied it for me, saying I needed to make a good impression on my first meeting with the Duchess.
"You may enter now." ‌‌
The Governess rose, visibly tense. Caution permeated her every step, and I found myself mirroring her careful movements.
'Is she truly so frightening?'
I didn't know what the Duchess was actually like, but the Governess certainly did.
'Could she have summoned me to scold Gerd for biting her?'
Or was it because I ‌‌‌hadn't ‌‌approached her first with proper warmth and courtesy?!
As I fretted while trying to read the situation, a ‌‌‌surprisingly calm voice reached my ears.
"So you're the child Kirakserus brought back."
"Ah, how do you do."
The moment I lifted my head to greet her, I was overwhelmed by two things.
'She looks as though she might scatter into dust at any moment... so fragile.'
So this is what a person ‌‌looks like when all their vitality has been drained away.
Parched lips that seemed to struggle with every word. Skin devoid of luster, entirely unadorned. And... eyes that had already died.
Inanna lived and breathed, yet she was merely going through the motions of existence—not truly alive at all.
'And yet.'
The dignity and grace she ‌‌‌‌had cultivated her entire life remained intact. If anything, they radiated outward with an almost crushing presence.
Sitting rigidly upright on the bed, the elderly woman rendered me utterly speechless.
"I wished to call ‌‌for you earlier out of curiosity, but you were unconscious until yesterday, so I could not summon you so ‌‌soon."
"Are you still in pain...?"
"Yes, one might say so. Though I am considerably better ‌‌today. Come closer. Let us talk."
Her refined manner of speech held ‌no hint of disdain upon seeing ‌‌my fur and eye color. Until now, I had remained unmoved by anyone's scorn or contempt, yet strangely, I sensed that if she rejected me, it would wound me deeply.
"Evangeline. Are you caring for this child?"
"...Yes, madam."
"When you were tending to our Ariadne, I never imagined such a future awaited us...."
A faint sigh colored her words, and the Governess's shoulders trembled.
Listening quietly, I wiggled my toes and perked up my round ears. ‌‌I wanted to offer comfort somehow, yet I had nothing to give.
'The Governess was originally Ariadne's nanny.'
I committed only this single new fact to memory.
"Child. The Patriarch gave you Evangeline for a reason."
"A reason...?"
"Do you know ‌anything of my daughter?"
It was the first time I had ever felt someone's voice sink deeper and deeper beneath the surface, as though drowning.
Though ‌‌‌‌her expression remained unchanged, the moment she broached the subject of her daughter, Inanna's face paled rapidly... and the pheromones she released grew ‌noticeably weaker.
"Yes, I've heard...about it."
I answered carefully.
"You are perceptive. Evangeline is the wet nurse who raised my daughter directly. When that radiant child ascended to the position of Sub-Patriarch, Evangeline naturally stood at her side."
"...."
"The Patriarch has given you... the ‌‌‌retinue that Ariadne once possessed."
When the voice laden with profound sorrow reached its end, my rounded ears were already flicking rapidly.
I had already noticed that multiple factions existed within this vast Driblyane family. They simply remained hidden because Patriarch Emmanuel still maintained his vigor.
The Elders all seemed to harbor considerable ambitions to line their own pockets.
In other words, Patriarch Grandfather's decision to assign me an attendant close to ‌‌‌Ariadne could be seen as a declaration to consolidate his power.
"Thank you very much."
"What a cautious child. Clever yet wise besides. Such a nature is rarely found."
Inanna's lips trembled slightly, as if she ‌‌understood that I grasped everything. She seemed to be making an effort to smile.
"Madam, the tea is ready."
Right on cue, the Head Maid appeared with cookies and tea on a silver tray.
Since I had given caramel to Raphiren, my slightly disappointed heart was comforted by the rich buttery aroma of chocolate chip cookies.
"You seem uncomfortable in that form. ‌‌‌‌Do you not know how to sense Icculis?"
I wanted to answer, but my cheeks were already so stuffed with cookies that I could only nod hurriedly.
"Icculis spreads throughout the entire world. If you learn to condense the Icculis in the air, you will ‌be able to ‌‌‌humanize. It will be twice as difficult as for others, but it is not impossible." ‌‌
"Really...?"
"Yes. Normally, beastfolk instinctively sense Icculis, but... albinos find it inherently difficult."
That's why the original work described being born as an albino as tantamount to a curse.
I swallowed the cookie and imagined myself in human form. Without any real basis, I thought I'd look rather cute.
"I should assign you a teacher to instruct you in sensing Icculis. Though we began as animals, we cannot remain so forever. Usually, children humanize by three or four years old...."
Goodness, if that's all it takes, I couldn't ask for ‌more. Raphiren told me to devise schemes, ‌but as a soft-bellied white Marten with pink fur, there ‌isn't much I ‌‌‌can actually do.
I'm also terribly curious about how old I actually am.
"But... Elder Lady. If I still can't sense Icculis... will I not humanize?"
"Elder Lady?"
Truth be told, I wasn't sure how to address her.
Elder Lady? Duchess? Inanna?
Or perhaps... something a bit more affectionate like Grandmother?
Since I couldn't be certain, I simply ‌‌‌chose something neutral and tried it out, but when she responded ‌‌‌with bewilderment, my shoulders instinctively shrank. ‌‌‌
Should I have been more formal after all?
"Ah, you need not address me so formally. Simply call me Inanna."
A moment later, the Duchess ‌‌‌‌slowly repeated it as if she had just realized something.
"That would be better for Kirakserus Driblyane."
In her softly murmured voice lay concern for her ‌son.
"If I seem close to Inanna, would that help... the Young Patriarch?"
"It would."
"Then I'll come every day and show you lots of fun things!"
In corporate terms, Inanna is my direct superior. I have much to learn, so I must study under her.
For that to happen, Inanna would need to regain her spirits soon....
'I don't know how great the sorrow of losing a child first must be.'
I understand loyalty, but I never learned familial affection.
From ‌‌books, from films, from what others say. So I know intellectually what familial love is, but I don't truly understand what it tastes like, what it feels like, or what ‌‌‌principle makes it so enduring.
'So this is how agonizing it is to send a beloved child before you.'
I hadn't even exchanged more ‌‌‌than a few words before I found myself gazing pitifully at the Duchess, whose breathing ‌‌had already grown labored.
The Duchess, who hadn't even touched the steaming teacup as its steam dissipated into ‌‌the air, seemed like someone desperately trying to expel the last vestiges of life from her withering body.
It was as though she couldn't take her own life with ‌‌her own hands because it would wound those left behind, yet she yearned for someone to ‌‌‌swiftly extinguish the breath from her desiccated frame—that was the atmosphere permeating this place.
Everyone seated here seemed to sense the Duchess's impending death, and I felt my breath catch in my throat.
"Um, would it be alright if I ‌‌‌‌took a look at the Duchess's Bedroom?"
Sitting any longer made my chest ache inexplicably, so I flashed the brightest smile I could muster and raised my hand with a flourish.
"There are so many shiny things in there!"
"Yes, sitting here must be tedious. Go ahead and ‌‌have a look. You're welcome to explore."
"Thank you so much!"
After bowing energetically, I scurried away and wandered about, examining ‌‌this ‌‌and that.
The Duchess's Bedroom was lavishly appointed, so there was plenty to admire... wait?
'Why... why is this here?'
In the next moment, I discovered ‌‌‌‌a piece of furniture and my breath caught as though my heart had stopped.
A forgotten memory suddenly burst through the barriers of ‌‌‌my mind. It was a memory from when I was that cursed tree.
"The myrtle tree ‌‌‌‌has such beautiful flowers, Mother."
It was the leisurely, arrogant voice characteristic of someone born to command. The woman smiled at her mother with composure, as if to say there was nothing to worry about.
"I'll be going now, Mother. Please stay well."
"Don't forget this is your final war. The last one. And when you return, take pity on your aging mother and go for walks with me more often."
"I will. ‌‌‌‌‌I promise you, my beloved Mother."
Life as a tree was tedious. There was nothing I could do but listen.
I soon grew ‌‌‌‌bored, and after becoming completely one with the tree, I could ‌‌feel nothing but ‌‌‌the sap flowing slowly through my body and the aphids.
'But... ‌‌‌there was one terrible cry that remained etched in my memory.'
The elderly woman who always came to wipe my leaves and water me wept that day as though her lungs were tearing apart.
Crash!
Every pot within her grasp shattered, and her usually immaculate hair was completely disheveled.
Fortunately, she collapsed before she ‌‌‌‌could lay hands on me, but the anguish she emanated was so profound that it yellowed my once-verdant leaves.
"My child! My precious child, my proud daughter...! Take me with you. You should have taken me too!!!"
Not long after that day, I withered and died. Plants are sensitive to pheromones, and the unrestrained pheromones pouring from all around made it impossible for me to survive.
'But now...'
As I gazed upon the ornate vanity, a memory I had naturally forgotten through countless possessions struck me with full force.
'A ‌‌‌‌solid gold leopard figurine.'
As I spun ‌‌around, I saw an elegant green couch and a collection of blue porcelain ‌‌‌pieces.
'I wonder why I didn't recognize it immediately...'
This room no longer held family portraits. There were no plants. Where once the air had been filled with the refreshing vitality that plants exhale, now only the shadow of death loomed.
The change broke my heart.
'And it's strange too. How... have I returned ‌‌‌‌to the place of my first possession?'
How could this be?

---------------
Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
---------------