The White Stoat Princess - Chapter 31

Just as the butler had silently handed me over to Prince Saedel, the subordinates quietly returned me to Hadel.

Hadel, who had heard through the butler that I had been kidnapped by Saedel while bathing, reportedly rushed out without even drying himself to find me. True to that, water was still dripping from Hadel’s hair when he found me.

Still, I couldn’t forgive Hadel. I crossed my arms and turned away sharply.

“Kyu.”

Go away. I’m not in the mood to talk to you. I won’t talk.

When I responded with a cold attitude, Hadel bowed his head politely and apologized.

“I’m sorry. I won’t leave you with the butler again.”

“Kyu.”

I still won’t talk to you.

I turned sharply in the opposite direction again. As I sat with my back to Hadel like that, I suddenly felt my anger rising.

“Kyu kyu! Kyu kyu kyu!”

This is all Hadel’s fault!

‘I’m just a ferret, but he was acting strangely embarrassed. He got self-conscious on his own and let me be taken by Prince Saedel.’

After venting my anger at Hadel, I slumped back down in my seat, exhausted. Hadel, who had persistently followed me, let out a groan.

“Kyu kyu, don’t be angry. I was wrong.”

“Kyu.”

“I promise I’ll never do it again.”

“Kyu kyu.”

Hmph, I don’t believe you.

‘After acting so strangely today, you say you’ll never do it again? You’re not someone who can suddenly change your attitude. I don’t believe it.’

I’m not sure if I want to praise Hadel’s sincerity or if I dislike him saying he’ll change his attitude. Anyway, I was in a bad mood and continued to be petulant towards Hadel.

After earnestly trying to soothe me for a while as I sulked, Hadel suddenly let out a deep sigh and ran his hand through his hair.

“Huh.”

‘Oh? Why suddenly?’

Although I had been sulking at Hadel, when he suddenly became serious, my heart skipped a beat.

‘Is he angry? Because I kept kyu-ing?’

But I was angry too! Knowing how scared I was with Saedel, to give him another chance.

‘And it’s because he was being conscious of me being female.’

Where is there such a foolish thing? As I was pouting my lips again and being irritable, it happened.

Hadel’s hand suddenly grabbed my body. I looked up, wondering why he was doing this all of a sudden.

-Chu.

Hadel’s lips touched mine with a kiss. Not expecting him to kiss me first like this, I froze with my eyes wide open.

‘Wh-what? What is this all of a sudden!’

Even after our lips parted, I didn’t change back into a human. Of course, it was a quick, light kiss where only our lips touched briefly. There wasn’t even time to absorb mana.

“Haa.”

Hadel sighed again. From his expression, as if bearing all the world’s anguish, I guessed what he was thinking when he kissed me.

‘Ah, he thinks we can’t communicate, so he’s trying to make me turn human.’

In a situation where we need to resolve our feelings, it would be much better than kyu-ing with a ferret.

It was a use of kissing that I had never thought of before.

Hadel, who had sighed, brought his lips close to me again. His lips approached more slowly than before. I quickly closed my eyes, mentally prepared this time.

-Chu.

As our lips met, mana flowed into me like hot lava. Starting from my lower abdomen, the heat spread throughout my body. I shuddered.

‘Ugh, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this feeling no matter how many times.’

The feeling of lost mana being replenished was really good. But having to rely entirely on someone else for this process was very embarrassing. It felt like sharing all the intimate secrets inside me.

‘Ah, I’ve become human.’

At some point, Hadel’s hands that were holding my body came to embrace my waist. The short white fur changed into lush pink hair.

‘To become human, we need to keep our lips together for more than a minute.’

Thinking this, I slowly tried to separate my lips from Hadel’s.

“Huh? Mmph!”

At that very moment, Hadel’s strong arms pulled me even closer to his body!

I opened my eyes wide in surprise.

‘Why doesn’t he stop kissing even though I’ve become human?’

I could see Hadel’s neat eyelashes up close. Seeing him with his eyes gently closed, focusing solely on the kiss, a corner of my heart tingled.

‘Hadel…’

As if noticing my gaze, Hadel’s eyelids slowly opened.

The moment I read the deep emotion flickering in his blood-red eyes, I pushed Hadel away with both hands.

“Hadel!”

It felt like I had suddenly come to my senses.

Until now, our kisses were just acts to exchange mana, nothing more, nothing less. Hadel was always in a daze, and I only pressed my lips against his to ease his pain.

But this contact was clearly different. It was a strange feeling, tingling from the palms of my hands to the tips of my hair.

‘What is this.’

As I bit my lower lip at this vague, peculiar sensation, Hadel, who had stepped back a couple of steps as I pushed him, smiled bitterly.

“…Even like this, you probably won’t feel anything.”

“What?”

But that emotion disappeared very quickly from his face, and Hadel facing me had his usual indifferent expression. He slightly turned his head and said in a small voice.

“I should now keep your clothes in my room too.”

“Eek!”

Only then realizing that I had forgotten I wasn’t wearing clothes, I quickly grabbed the nearest blanket, wrapped it around my body, and shouted.

“Don’t look! I’ll punish you if you look!”

At my scream, Hadel shrugged his shoulders and replied in a nonchalant voice.

“Didn’t you freely look at me when I was naked?”

“I was a ferret!”

“What kind of logic is that.”

At Hadel’s words, I belatedly realized that this conversation was the same as one we had before, just with our positions reversed.

That past when Hadel was embarrassed, but I was indifferent, wondering why he was being so conscious.

‘Ugh, I see. So that’s why Hadel kept chasing me out of the room.’

I thought I was just a ferret so why care, but to Hadel, it clearly felt like showing his body to the opposite sex.

Yes, this is how it felt. I understand well that it’s embarrassing and flustering.

‘But isn’t it too much to make me turn human just to let me know this!’

I glared at Hadel and muttered.

“…Petty.”

“What?”

Hadel’s eyebrows curved greatly. You think I’ll be flustered if you make that expression? I shouted loudly.

“Hadel is petty, stupid, an idiot!”

I don’t want to talk to Hadel. I opened the window of Hadel’s room. As I naturally stepped onto the windowsill and went outside, Hadel leaned his body out the window to block me and asked.

“Where are you going?”

“What good would it do you to know!”

When I answered sharply, Hadel sighed heavily like before. Then he turned around abruptly and muttered.

“Do as you please.”

No, I’m turning away angrily like this, but instead of stopping me, he’s going back into his room?

‘Hadel, you idiot.’

With my back to Hadel, I hopped and quickly entered Hadel’s study. The long blanket wrapped around my legs was uncomfortable, but I could enter easily as I had come and gone several times already.

The study was quiet and dark as always. I rolled up the blanket like a cocoon and crawled under the desk.

‘Ugh, the human body is more uncomfortable.’

When I was a ferret, it wasn’t uncomfortable at all to curl up under here, but now it was stuffy. My shoulders touching the carpet felt hard, and the cold rising from the floor felt more intense than when I was a ferret.

‘Oh my, how pitiful.’

Tears welled up involuntarily because it was cold and uncomfortable. I cried because I didn’t know why I had to be like this.

It seems I dozed off while whimpering like that.

I opened my eyes again because of a presence flickering in front of me. I don’t know how I was moved, but I was lying down using Hadel’s thigh as a pillow. Above my head, a page turned with a rustle.

‘Huh? Hadel?’

The fact that Hadel was turning pages of a book meant this was Hadel’s study. Hadel, who felt fear in controlling fire, only read books in his own study.

‘But there’s no such soft sofa like this in the study.’

There is a hard sofa without cushions that would be fine to leave out in the rain, but that’s it. It’s not for nothing that I curl up and sleep under the desk.

And the blanket covering my body wasn’t the thin one I had wrapped around myself and run away with, but a fluffy down comforter. I felt touched and wiggled my fingers.

‘Did he bring the blanket for me? And offer his thigh as a pillow because there wasn’t one?’

So he knew I was hiding in the study.

From the moment I realized Hadel’s consideration, my heart started beating with a pleasant thump. I slightly opened my eyes and secretly observed Hadel from below.

‘Wow, look at that jawline. I thought it was sharp before, but it looks even more solid and clear from down here.’

His neck is thicker than I thought, and his eyes are large but slanted sharply like a wolf’s.

Just then, Hadel’s gaze turned towards me. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying not to show that I was awake.

His fingers gently touched my furrowed brow. The careful touch, as if handling cotton candy, spread a ticklish sensation across my entire face.

After looking down at my face for a moment, Hadel muttered in a small voice.

“…Fool.”

At those words, I almost forgot I was pretending to sleep and nearly pouted my lips.

‘Who’s calling who a fool.’

You said you didn’t care earlier, so why are you here yourself?

‘Hadel is the real fool.’

Completely forgetting how upset I had been earlier, I closed my eyes with a peaceful mind. Sleep came washing over me like waves.