Blake’s attending physician, Clang, discovered Liche sitting hunched in the corridor on his way to work.

“Liche Miss?”

It was right next to the door to his treatment room.

Since when had she been like this?

Clang contemplated as he looked at her soundly sleeping round silver head. Should he wake her?

“Keeing…….”

Then he heard an animal’s cry and stealthily turned his head to the side.

Next to Liche, there was a picnic basket with a lid, from which the sound seemed to come.

“It’s not the sound of her everattached squirrel. What did she bring?”

Careful not to wake Liche, Clang opened one side of the basket’s lid.

Inside the basket, made soft with cloth, lay a small injured wolf.

“He…..”

Clang choked in astonishment.

A young beast wasn’t that big of a problem, but the fact that its fur was nearly orange, close to red, was a problem.

It was a talent of the Serdiya Duke’s family.

“The rumor of the second son.”

The one who was threatened by the first wife, the mother of the eldest son.

“But how did Miss Liche?”

Clang’s mind was complicated.

The young lady who should have been sleeping in her room overnight suddenly brought the second son of Serdiya.

Flinch.

In the meantime, Liche, who responded to Clang’s presence, slowly lifted her head. From her lap, the python that was sleeping yawned.

Her silvery eyes flickered, unable to shake off sleep entirely.

Liche turned her head from side to side, then discovered Clang squatting next to her, holding the basket’s lid.

“Hello, Clang.”

“Miss Liche, why are you here……. No, more importantly, where did you bring this animal from? Could it be an intruder[—]?”

Liche shook her head, and then at a neither slow nor fast pace, she explained.

“Pican was scratching the window since dawn. Thinking he wanted to go outside, I opened the window, and he went down to the first floor and kept calling me. So I followed him, and he was near the castle gate.”

That is, it was something Liche planned this morning. She had hidden the wolf in the bushes near the castle gate and pretended to find it in front of people at the ducal palace.

If she brought it in secretly, it would be hard to get treatment in the castle. She needed plausible circumstances that she could tell others.

Clang, who knew nothing of the true circumstances, asked in surprise.

“The castle gate? You went that far alone?”

“No. Zed went with me.”

“Zed?”

But why was Miss Liche here alone?

Liche pointed behind the perplexed Clang.

A young brownhaired man, Zed, was walking down the corridor with a blanket.

“Ah? Miss, you’re up? The doctor is here?”

“Zed. Come see me for a moment.”

Clang stood up and pulled Zed to the corner of the corridor.

In a voice that wouldn’t be heard by the child, he whispered to Zed.

“You, why did you bring Serdiya’s second son?”

He was like Blake’s right hand. Zed Treang would not have failed to recognize the identity of that wolf.

Clang, pounding at Zed, saw him shrug his shoulders.

“It looked like it was dying; what could I do? That wolf, it’s only 8 years old.”

“I know you’re soft on children. But you shouldn’t have brought it into the castle. If something goes wrong, we’ll have no excuse if Serdiya’s forces claim we killed their talent and invade.”

“It’s not dead yet.”

At Zed’s words, Clang held his forehead.

“And in my situation, you would have had no choice, right? Miss Liche was looking at me as if she was about to cry…….”

“You, you’re saying that’s the reason…….”

Bringing in the seed of strife into the castle because of the young lady’s expression. Especially at this point when even the head of the household is not around.

“If you’re going to make such a useless excuse, you might as well[—].”

Clang hurriedly stopped his whispering.

Because of the small hand grabbing the hem of his coat.

“Clang.”

Liche, who had come over with the basket, spoke carefully.

“He’s in a lot of pain……. Can’t you treat him?”

“Ah, that’s…….”

Facing Liche’s upturned eyes, Clang moistened his parched lips.
I cannot treat the wolf, yet the words do not come out of my mouth.

“I can’t leave it like this.”

“That.”

The words.

“Jed said you can heal Clang…….”

“That.”

I should have.

“You mean it won’t work on animals, not humans?”

“……No, I’ll take a look.”

I did not have the courage to disappoint those innocent silver eyes.

In the end, Clang raised a white flag.

He received the basket with the wolf from Liche with a smile, and Jed chuckled next to Clang, as if he’d caught something to tease.

(This is a time delimiter.)

“Duke Serdiya, aren’t you laughing too much? You’ll tear the corners of your mouth.”

In the imperial palace of the Roksha Empire, the Royal Hall.

Below the throne, at the highest place, Duke Serdiya was receiving a reward from the Emperor, having become the champion of the hunt.

“The glory of this year’s foundation celebration will shine above Serdiya’s head.”

The applause poured out at the Emperor’s words.