It’s already been a long time since we met, and now I’m introducing myself.

‘It’s been a long time. I almost forgot my own name.’

It’s natural to forget a name when no one calls you Marian. I was savoring my name that seemed to be mine, yet not mine, when it happened.

As if reading my mind exactly, Hadel frowned and asked this.

“……Isn’t it Kyu Kyu?”

“That was the name you gave me in the first place!”

“Ah, that’s right.”

Hadel nodded as if he just realized. I couldn’t nod back.

‘If it had been a little later, I would have thought my name was Kyu Kyu too.’

Originally, self-awareness is a relative concept. Isn’t there a saying that the opposite of ‘I’ is ‘you’? The self I perceive is how I appear to others, and in the end, the name becomes what they call me.

I wonder what he’s thinking, Hadel, who had been tilting his head for a moment, frowned and asked again.

“Why could you only say ‘kyu kyu’ when you’re human? If you had said something else, I would have noticed your existence sooner.”

Look at this guy. If I could have said anything else, I would have done it long ago. The person who was most frustrated with the ‘kyu kyu’ noises was none other than me.

But I could only make ‘kyu kyu’ sounds. Because.

“I’m a ferret.”

At my answer, the wrinkles on Hadel’s forehead deepened even more.

“Not human but a ferret? Then are you a magical beast after all?”

A ferret that can turn into a human is closer to a magical beast than an animal. Fearing I might unnecessarily get stabbed, I quickly waved my hands.

“No. I was originally human. For some reason I’ve become a ferret now… No, since I can only become human when absorbing mana, it would be more correct to say I’m originally a ferret.”

It sounded strange even to my own ears. Hadel didn’t respond at all, seemingly unable to understand. I added with an awkward smile.

“In my past life, I originally had fire attribute mana like Hadel. So I think that’s why I turn human when I absorb Hadel’s mana.”

“I’ve never heard of such a case.”

“Me neither.”

I lowered my head and cast my eyes down. Though it was about me, talking about death always felt awkward.

“…I think I died from mana overload in my past life. That’s all I can explain about this phenomenon. It’s my first time experiencing it too, so I don’t know everything.”

“I see.”

Hadel cut off my long explanation with a short answer.

‘Does he believe what I’m saying?’

I glanced at Hadel’s expression.

‘You’ll get scammed later if you believe such nonsense, Hadel. But please believe my words. It’s true, I tell you.’

Two conflicting feelings mixed chaotically. If Hadel readily believed it, I would feel uneasy about Hadel’s future and the future of the North entrusted to him. But if he kept doubting and pressing, that would be quite tiresome in its own way.

‘No, come to think of it, even when he collapsed groaning earlier, it seemed like he was deceiving me.’

Am I falling into a trap investigation right now?

I frowned at the strange feeling. As if to scatter my attention, Hadel asked something completely different.

“Then how long can you stay human?”

“Until the mana runs out? I’ll probably turn back into a ferret soon.”

“So you can only stay human for as long as the amount of mana you absorbed from me.”

“Yes.”

It’s difficult to give an exact time since I haven’t experimented with it one by one.

Hearing my answer, Hadel’s eyes narrowed. He asked me in a slightly complaining, lowered tone.

“But why do you keep stealing my lips? Is it mating season as the butler said?”

At those words, I felt like I’d been hit on the head with a hammer. After being stunned for a moment, I immediately turned bright red and burst out shouting.

“What are you talking about!”

What mating season. If it was because of mating season? Does that mean I’m courting Hadel right now!

That’s not it!

“I only did it because I could absorb a lot of mana by kissing! It’s not courtship or anything! I wouldn’t have even thought of absorbing mana if you hadn’t been in pain in the first place.”

“Was there no other way besides kissing?”

“I don’t know. In my guess, there isn’t.”

I don’t want to look for other methods either. It seems like I’d have to try all sorts of things to do that…

‘I can’t do that.’

At my firm answer, Hadel, who had been blinking as if dazed for a moment, tilted his head slightly and asked me.

“What about holding hands?”

“Then I would have turned human whenever you carried me around normally.”

“That would be quite troublesome.”

“Right?”

If I had turned human just by touching anywhere, I would have long been chased as a magical beast and met my end.

‘Maybe Hadel would have been branded a monster too. Since mana is only absorbed when I touch Hadel.’

As I nodded my head as if I had known that would happen, Hadel pointed at me with a look of exasperation.

“Not me, Kyu Kyu, you.”

“It’s Marian, I said!”

If you know the name, call me by it! Don’t call me by that ridiculous name like Kyu Kyu.

Hadel stared at me blankly. Though his face was expressionless, his eyes were warm, so it wasn’t particularly scary. He added softly with a sigh of relief.

“It’s fortunate that you don’t change at any time.”

Seeing him repeat it, he must have really been worried about me. I frowned. I was very grateful that he listened to my words calmly, but strange things were still strange.

“…Why aren’t you surprised? I thought Hadel would go crazy and kill me immediately as a magical beast when he saw this form.”

“Well.”

Well?

What reason could there possibly be, to listen without hesitation to this absurd truth.

It was when I was listening intently to Hadel’s voice.

“Huh?”

Suddenly my vision blurred, and my eye level lowered as if I was collapsing. Feeling dizzy for a moment, I squeezed my eyes shut and then opened them.

“Kyu!”

Ah, I’ve turned back into a ferret again.

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

Though I didn’t show it, I must have been tense too, as Hadel’s hand movements felt much lighter and more comfortable as he picked me up in ferret form. Gently stroking my back, he whispered the answer that was cut off earlier in a soft voice.

“Because you are no different from family to me.”

“…Kyu.”

You, you really like me.

‘It feels like a cat that doesn’t let you near suddenly likes my touch.’

Moved by Hadel’s words, I trembled all over. Seeing me like that, Hadel’s eyes widened.

“Why are you crying, you fool.”

“Kyu?”

Crying? Am I crying?

It was as Hadel said. The fur near my eyes was soaked.

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

‘I thought I would never be able to have a family again.’

I thought I would live and die lonely, unable to become either a ferret or a human, but Hadel reached out to me first.

Family, he said.

At that moment, I rushed to Hadel and clung tightly to his arms. With my short, chubby arms, all I could hug was his arm.

‘I’m sorry for acting tough! I actually like you so much too!’

“Kyu kyu! Kyu kyu!”

I shouted to my heart’s content. Anyway, Hadel wouldn’t understand what I was saying.

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

For the first time since I opened my eyes as a ferret, I thanked God.

I was worried they might come rushing in to protest due to the friction with Saedel, but fortunately the day passed quietly.

In the deep night when even the birds were asleep, darkness fell over the entire grand castle.

But at the time when he should always be sleeping, Hadel tossed and turned, unable to sleep. It was unlike the planned man who always moved at the same time.

After trying to force himself to sleep by squirming, he finally raised himself from his bed. And while roughly running his fingers through his black hair, he muttered.

“Damn it.”

Cursing also didn’t suit Hadel. After pressing his sticky eyes firmly with his fingers, Hadel sighed again.

“I can’t sleep.”

His body was tired. It was natural since he had forcibly agitated his mana and even had a battle of nerves with Saedel.

But when he closed his eyes, his whole body tensed up, and his nerves were on edge, making it impossible to sleep.

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

“Kyuuu…”

There, a white ferret with a slender body was lying sprawled out, its belly rising and falling as it slept.

Its limbs, which due to its body structure couldn’t cling flat to the bed, occasionally trembled in the air. Watching that sight, Hadel sighed.

“Hah.”

The reason he couldn’t sleep was because of that ferret. Hadel sighed as if the ground would cave in.

‘Why does it keep crawling into my bed.’

It wasn’t the first time that the white ferret he had named Kyu Kyu crawled onto his bed. He even had to be careful not to accidentally crush the ferret while sleeping.

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

A human woman who could speak and think was now staying in his room. Wearing the disguise of a ferret.

‘It all makes sense now. How she clung to me happily even when I raised my mana, and how I always felt better after sleeping whenever my body hurt from mana overproduction.’

She must have secretly come and kissed him whenever he was in pain.

‘Ugh!’

Imagining Marian approaching him while he slept and gently kissing him, Hadel’s sleep fled even further away. Hadel clutched his head.

At that moment, Marian’s sharp protest from earlier rang in his ears.