Python guessed what Riche was trying to do and chuckled as if interested. You’re going to ask directly, aren’t you?

Ziegbert’s tail drooped, and as if watching Riche’s cues, his ears were also bent backward.

“You know, don’t you?”

“Whine.”

Riche asked Ziegbert again, but since she didn’t understand the wolf’s speech, she could only guess from its actions.

[Shall I threaten it and ask for you? I’m confident about that.]

Python made a gesture of rolling up his nonexistent sleeve. Riche put him in her pocket and patted Ziegbert’s head.

“Ziegbert. I think of us as friends. So, if you know who I am, will you not tell anyone?”

“Woof.”

Ziegbert’s lowered tail twitched slightly. Did he understand? Although she couldn’t understand Ziegbert’s thoughts, Riche smiled and nodded.

“Thank you.”

Riche moved on to head to the study for her lesson.

After recovering, Ziegbert seemed to wander around alone.

He only showed himself in front of people who knew about his existence, mainly in front of Riche.

“Shall we start the lesson?”

Today as well, Ziegbert disappeared somewhere before Madame Michel entered the study.

She thought he would naturally appear when the lesson ended, but…

“Huh?”

After Madame Michel left, and she had organized the textbooks and opened the door, Riche looked around the empty corridor.

[Where did he go?]

Python also glanced around. Ziegbert, who should have been there, was not in sight.

‘What’s going on?’

[Was he scared by what you said earlier? You also didn’t want to be found out that you were a Retyum. Maybe he didn’t want to be found out that he was Ziegbert either.]

‘…Did it sound like a threat?’

That was not her intention.

It was just strange to ask the wolf not to tell her secret to anyone. That she had confessed to knowing Ziegbert’s identity first.

Where on earth did he go? Riche walked down the corridor, worried.

[Contractor, don’t worry too much. If he ran away for that reason, he probably wouldn’t have the courage to reveal your identity.]

‘Rather than that…… I feel like I scared Ziegbert[Dash].’

Thump.

Someone grabbed Riche’s arm as she walked.

Startled, she looked to the side and saw a boy wearing the uniform of the Saint’s aides.

Though the clothes were large on him, and he had rolled up the sleeves and hem, he was taller than Riche. A boy with a body type similar to Deon.

“Who……?”

Riche asked with a puzzled face, then quickly realized the boy’s identity.

Familiar dark energy flickered at his chest.

“……”

Ziegbert’s human form. Riche was surprised but did not show it.

Recognizing the boy she was seeing for the first time as Ziegbert at a glance would have been strange.

Since she had not yet told Ziegbert that she was a Retyum, it was better to be cautious.

Instead, she quietly used perception manipulation around her. She made her presence faint so that no one could hear the conversation.

[Who’s that? His hair color is similar to the wolf’s?]

‘It’s Ziegbert.’

[Wow, he’s pretty goodlooking, isn’t he?] Python muttered, as if unamused. He had thought it would look like a wolf, but it was just a human.

A handsome boy with a stoic expression.

Brown skin, tightly closed lips that didn’t seem to open easily, straight nose, tranquil eyes without double eyelids.

Eyes resembling the green of a forest filled with the sound of rustling leaves looked at Liche.

“Are we, friends?”

Zigbert asked. His voice was calm.

Breaking his speech into individual words, it seemed he was not yet accustomed to speaking out loud.

“……Zigbert?”

Liche asked as if to deliberately confirm. Zigbert simply nodded his head.

Only then did Liche seem to recognize Zigbert, pretending to be surprised. It was obvious, but neither Zigbert nor Liche, being somewhat dull in that aspect, felt the awkwardness.

Deon’s words about you two being of the same kind make sense now, Python teased.

Liche ignored such Python and said,

“Yeah. Friends.”

At Liche’s words, the corners of Zigbert’s tightly closed mouth slightly rose.

Friends. The word seemed to have given him trust.

Zigbert spoke to Liche in a slow but clear tone.

“Can’t, be here long. Not, accustomed.”

“You mean you can’t stay in this form for long? Is the wolf form more comfortable?”

As Liche interpreted his words and asked again, Zigbert nodded his head. Then he explained the reason he sought Liche in human form.

“Don’t tell. Because friends. What I’ve seen, heard, know…….”

Liche’s and Zigbert’s eyes met. Unlike the unshaken green eyes, a tension lingered in the silver eyes.

Placed in a situation akin to revealing to an Esper that he was Letium for the first time.

Anxiety. If Zigbert knows, then Duke Serdiya will know, and if so, perhaps even Duke Gerwer will know someday.

What he feared the most was Blake and Deon knowing about it.

“You’ve deceived me all along.”

“……That’s why I hate humans.”

Even knowing that he had been hiding the fact that he was Letium, would the two still consider him family?

Serdiya’s Espers were sensitive. Zigbert, noticing Liche’s quickened breathing and slightly raised body temperature, spoke.

“I can, swear.”

Straight and honest eyes. Zigbert looked intently at Liche, as if engraving her image in his eyes.

You’ve shown your nerves.

“Sorry. It’s not that I don’t trust you……. Zigbert, will you make a promise with me?”

“Promise. Yes.”

He nods his head without even knowing what the promise is.

For a moment, Liche thought of Zigbert when he was in wolf form and unconsciously reached out to stroke his head.

“Ah.”

“?”

She stopped her hand when she realized what she was doing.

Naturally, Zigbert, who had leaned his head towards Liche’s hand, tilted his head.

“No.”

Although young, he was the heir to the Serdiya Dukedom. Liche thought that stroking the head of someone a year younger like this might make him feel bad.

Zigbert instead leaned his head into Liche’s palm as if to ask why she had stopped.

The sight of him slightly closing his eyes and purring, just like when he was a wolf, made Liche inadvertently laugh.

In the softened atmosphere, Liche brought up the content of the promise.

“We’re friends, so from now on, we’ll keep each other’s secrets.”

“Yes. For life?”

“For life.”

“Good.”

It seemed as if an invisible tail was wagging from Zigbert.

“But where did you get the clothes?”

“Borrowed.”

“Did you ask?”

Zigbert shook his head. Then, saying he would return the clothes, he jumped out of the window.

[You’ve let out a sigh of relief?]

‘Yes.’

Liche had a firm feeling that Zigbert would not speak of it.

As she walked down the hallway again, she felt something and turned her body, starting to sprint.

[Why, why that? ……Damn. Run! Contractor!]

Python, who was confused by Liche’s actions, also hastily shifted his stance.