Suddenly everything blurred before my eyes, and my perspective lowered as if I was falling. I closed my eyes feeling dizzy and opened them again to find:

“Kyu!”

Oh, I turned back into a ferret again.

Buried in Hadel’s shirt, I was crying again, making kyu kyu sounds.

Though he didn’t show it, Hadel seemed to have been tense too because his hands felt lighter and more comfortable as he picked me up. He gently stroked my back and whispered the rest of his earlier sentence.

“You’re like family to me.”

“……Kyu.”

You really do like me.

‘It’s like a cat that doesn’t like being touched suddenly enjoying my company.’

Touched by Hadel’s words, I trembled. Seeing this, Hadel’s eyes widened.

“Why are you crying, silly?”

“Kyu?”

Crying? I’m crying?

Indeed, as Hadel said, the fur near my eyes was soaked.

But how could I not cry! He called me family.

‘I thought I’d never have a family again.’

I thought I would die lonely, neither a ferret nor a human. But Hadel reached out to me first.

As family.

In that moment, I flung myself at Hadel, clinging to his arm. My short and plump arms could only reach his arm.

‘I’m sorry for acting tough! I really like you too!’

“Kyu Kyu! Kyu Kyu!”

I cried out as much as I wanted. Hadel wouldn’t understand my words anyway.

‘I’m glad I don’t have to leave Hadel’s side.’

For the first time since I woke up as a ferret, I felt thankful to the gods.

Despite my worry about Sae and his group causing a ruckus in protest, the day passed quietly.

In the deep night, when even the birds were asleep, darkness enveloped the Grand Duke’s castle.

But Hadel, who was always so methodical and punctual, couldn’t sleep and tossed and turned. It was unusual for him.
Forcing his eyes shut and squirming in bed, Hadel eventually got up. Roughly running his fingers through his black hair, he muttered a curse.

“Damn.”

Swearing didn’t suit Hadel at all. Rubbing his dry eyes, he let out another sigh.

“Can’t sleep.”

His body was tired. It was natural, given the forced manipulation of mana and the nerve-wracking standoff with Sae.

But closing his eyes only made him tense, and his nerves were so on edge that sleep was impossible.

Hadel turned his head to look at the pillow next to where he had been lying.

“Kyu…”

There lay a sleek, white ferret sprawled out, belly rising and falling as it slept.

Its limbs, structurally unable to cling to the bed, occasionally quivered in mid-air. Watching this, Hadel sighed.

“Phew.”

The reason he couldn’t sleep was precisely because of this ferret. He sighed as if wishing the ground would swallow him up.

‘Why does it keep crawling into my bed?’

The white ferret, which he named Kyu Kyu, crawling onto his bed was not a new occurrence. He had even been careful not to accidentally crush the ferret in his sleep.

‘But it’s different if that ferret is a woman named Marian.’

A woman who could speak and think was now sharing his room, disguised as a ferret.

‘It all makes sense. Clinging to me whenever I stirred up mana, and how I always felt refreshed after an episode of mana overproduction.’

She had been secretly visiting and kissing him in his sleep when he was in pain.

‘Ugh!’

Imagining Marian sneaking up to kiss him in his sleep, Hadel’s restlessness grew, driving sleep even further away. He clutched his head in frustration.

Then Marian’s defiant shout echoed in his ears from earlier.