‘I’m hungry too.’

First, I need to be presentable to appear in front of others before eating or doing anything else.

I clicked my tongue and approached the window, the only place where I could show my face.

‘I hope I can return to my weasel form soon.’

That’s what I was thinking.

But I never dreamed I would encounter someone at the window.

“Huh?”

“…!”

When I opened the window, the wind blew my long hair. I raised my fingers like a comb to gather my hair, and when I looked up, familiar blue eyes that I had encountered several times were staring at me.

It was Saedel.

‘W-why is that man here?’

It seemed he had developed a taste for climbing walls outside windows after trying to catch me last time, as he was once again outside the window, clinging to the wall.

His eyes widened in surprise, then instantly narrowed into a sharp expression.

“You.”

Eek.

I quickly sat down with a thud. And I pressed my back against the wall as if Saedel wouldn’t be able to find me if I stuck to it.

My heart was pounding. Saedel’s voice rang out from outside.

“Wait a moment!”

What kind of ‘wait a moment’ is this again.

‘Is he trying to freeze me again? Saying he feels a flame or something!’

This time there was no way out. The fact that I looked human meant that Hadel’s mana was still in my body.

As I turned pale and breathed heavily, not knowing what to do, Hadel, who had been sitting in his chair, stood up and asked:

“What’s wrong?”

Saedel is outside! He tried to catch me again!

I tried to say those words, but what came out of my mouth was a familiar cry.

“Kyu!”

‘Ah, I’ve turned into a weasel!’

I had never been so glad to turn into a weasel. I almost cried tears of joy. But the voice ringing above my head made the tears disappear, and I shut my mouth tightly.

“Elder brother.”

Saedel had chased me all the way here.

‘This madman actually poked his head into Hadel’s study!’

Hadel, who had been walking towards me to comfort me because I looked strangely pale, also froze with an icy expression upon seeing Saedel.

Hadel reprimanded Saedel in a polite tone.

“It’s not good to see you wandering through windows in someone else’s castle, Saedel.”

Saedel, who would normally bristle at such words, now asked urgently as if he hadn’t even heard Hadel’s words.

“Did you not see a pink-haired woman who was just here?”

At those words, Hadel’s gaze automatically turned to me hiding below. I shook my head vigorously while clinging to the wall.

‘Say you don’t know! Please! Say you don’t know!’

I didn’t know why Saedel was looking for me, but the moment I met him, I recognized the madness flashing in his blue eyes.

Whether he sensed my desperate will or not, Hadel feigned ignorance in a gruff tone.

“There is no pink-haired woman in this castle. You must have seen wrong.”

“That…”

Honestly, I didn’t think Saedel would back down so easily here. Wasn’t he the one who openly showed hostility towards Hadel even when Hadel asked him to hand me over?

But unexpectedly, Saedel staggered back. Sadness spread across his face like ink.

“I see. Of course, …… wouldn’t be here.”

‘What?’

The quiet mumbling was barely audible even to my ears, close as I was to him.

I wanted to ask what he meant, but Saedel disappeared out the window with a leap. After confirming that the shadow looming over my head had disappeared, I let out a sigh of relief and collapsed on the floor. Hadel picked me up.

After carefully closing the window and even latching it, Hadel earnestly implored:

“Don’t poke your head out the window anymore. Don’t go out either.”

“Kyu.”

I wasn’t planning to anyway. If I go out the window one more time, my heart might not survive the shock.

‘But didn’t Saedel just call me Marian?’

I looked back at the closed window with a perplexed expression. Of course, there was no one outside.

That day, Saedel left the northern castle for a while. He headed to a certain tent set up in a forest far from the north.

Not even a handful of sunlight entered the large, wide tent. In that dark place sat a person wrapped in a black robe.

It was so pitch black that someone without keen eyes might pass by without even realizing someone was there. Except for the chair the person was sitting on, there was nothing else inside the tent. Unlike other tents with temporary beds or appropriate luggage, it was somehow a chilling place.

Saedel, who strode in there, stood precisely in front of that person as if this darkness was no hindrance to him at all. And he called out the person’s name.

“Yulnisia.”

Instead of answering, Yulnisia stretched out her hand into the air. Something like light dust embroidered letters in the air.

−What brings you here?

Saedel took a step closer to Yulnisia and said:

“I think there’s something wrong with my head. Take a look.”

Without even grabbing his wrist once, Yulnisia immediately replied.

−There is nothing wrong.

“I keep seeing visions. Today, I even saw Marian screaming in front of my eyes.”

−There is nothing wrong.

Despite the same words being repeated, Saedel kept rambling on.

“It was such a vivid vision. She was wearing a loose white shirt, and her face hadn’t changed at all since then, so I could recognize her right away. In fact, her face had been becoming blurry recently, but it was so clear…”

Saedel’s body, which had been explaining the vision he saw, suddenly stiffened.

“…Wait, white shirt?”

Even after being rebuked by Hadel that there was no such woman there and returning, Saedel, of course, had looked into that place. Though the window was closed, he could see the situation in the study through the glass.

‘Wasn’t there a white shirt fallen on the floor?’

If it were really a vision, there’s no way the shirt would be on the floor. Of course, if even that was a vision, there would be nothing to say.

‘My head has been strange for a long time.’

But if it were real, it was an odd thing. Hadel wasn’t the type to leave his shirt carelessly on the floor like that.

Speaking of strange things, something else came to mind.

“And there was a suspicious weasel. I felt a flame, so I tried infusing my mana to see if it could absorb it too, but that didn’t work. I was planning to ask you to examine it, but those foolish subordinates let the weasel escape and ruined it.”

A strange weasel that could only absorb flame mana. Perhaps it could have been exactly what they needed.

Pacing back and forth and rambling on about various things, Saedel asked Yulnisia:

“When on earth can I meet Marian?”

−…

No sound came from the black robe. Saedel, who hadn’t expected an answer anyway, lightly turned his head.

A polite voice rang out from outside the tent.

“Your Highness, you must return to the capital now. We can’t leave the palace empty any longer.”

“Alright.”

He had already stayed in the north longer than planned. The original purpose of observing Hadel’s condition had long been completed.

‘Still, he seemed much more stable than before.’

It was markedly different from before when flames would burst out uncontrollably according to his emotions. It wasn’t simply due to the maturity of his personality. The mana emitted by the heart Hadel was carrying was originally beyond what he could handle.

‘Either his body has become sturdy enough to handle that heart, or he’s found a way to lessen the burden of the heart.’

Either way, it was good news for him. The more stable Hadel became, the sooner he could advance his plans.

Still, I don’t like that guy.

“Maybe I’ll play a prank before I leave.”

Saedel smiled coldly.

I thought I should pray for him to quickly go up to the capital, but making that thought meaningless, the next morning, Saedel said in a fresh tone:

“I’m heading up to the capital.”

Hadel frowned.

‘They said he wasn’t in the castle last night, where did he go?’

Ever since Saedel tried to kidnap Marian, Hadel had put surveillance on him. But making that surveillance meaningless, Saedel left the northern castle, stayed somewhere all night, and returned early in the morning.

‘He must have had some purpose. That’s why he’s saying he’s going up right after resolving it.’

But not knowing the destination, there was no way to know what that purpose was.

Anyway, since he wanted to drive Saedel out of the north quickly, Hadel nodded without a word.

“Are you leaving right now?”

“Yes. My subordinates will be a little behind me, but the elites and I will go up first.”

“I see.”

Whether Saedel’s order was sudden for his subordinates too, they were now busily dismantling the tents.

As the two princes exchanged dry greetings, the butler grumbled in a small voice behind them.

“I don’t know why he came when no one welcomed him.”

Though it was a small voice, it was loud enough for Saedel to hear. Then the subordinate who had been chattering instead of Saedel when he first arrived laughed and answered the butler:

“Haha, our prince is a frugal person, so he’s grateful even for the northern castle’s humble hospitality, don’t worry.”

The nerve war was fierce even on the last day of parting. Hadel wanted to press his brow but endured it.

‘How tiresome.’

I wish he would disappear quickly. As he was thinking that, Saedel finally grated on Hadel’s nerves.

“Where is that cute weasel?”

“Sleeping.”

“That’s a shame. I wanted to take it to the capital.”

“…I didn’t know you liked animals.”

“I don’t like animals. But I liked that weasel.”

Saedel said with a smooth smile.

“I even gave it a name, Marian.”