Since there was no small table in Hadel’s room to set and eat breakfast on, it had to be eaten on the cart.

Breakfast consisted of savory corn soup, roasted vegetables, bread, and a bit of fruit.

‘Kyaa! Fruit!’

Where did they get the fruit from when there were only birch forests all around?

‘It’s so crunchy. And sweet.’

The apples and grapes were so delicious that I was completely captivated. I smiled happily at the sweetness, which felt different from sugar.

‘Gasp! This isn’t the time to be eating like this!’

Belatedly remembering his words about fattening me up to skin me, I rolled my eyes to look at Hadel.

Hadel, who had been watching me with his chin resting on his hand, pushed a small plate of corn soup in front of me.

“Eat this too.”

“…Kyu.”

The temptation of the food was too great to resist. Cautiously approaching the small plate, I soon buried my head in it and drank the soup.

And with a completely burnt-out appearance, I patted my swollen belly and thought.

‘No matter how hungry I am, I should eat in moderation…’

The food was too delicious to refuse.

* * *

If only that had been the end of it!

After that, whenever Hadel thought I might have forgotten, he would say things like this:

“You’re not gaining weight well.”

“When will you ever grow?”

“Do ferrets usually not gain weight this easily?”

How frightening!

Every time, I could only freeze like ice.

‘Why is he so obsessed with fattening me up?!’

Surely he’s not begrudging the food that goes into my mouth? Is that why he’s trying to fatten me up as quickly as possible?

‘Even if you want to fatten me up, give me at least a month! Asking morning and night every day is too much!’

With him constantly doing this, even the plain water I used to drink easily felt like it was getting stuck in my throat.

‘I really should leave before that fellow gets too excited about skinning me!’

Just as I would make such a resolution…

“Today we have pound cake.”

Another food would ensnare me.

In the end, I would grasp the pound cake with both paws, nibble on it determinedly, and make this promise:

‘…I’ll postpone the escape until tomorrow.’

And so one day became two days, two days became three days, and on one such day…

Except for Hadel’s abnormal obsession with my belly fat, my life satisfaction was higher than ever before.

Delicious food, a dwelling with no threats.

Above all, what made my heart happy was the warm bed.

‘Ah, so warm.’

In the forest, no matter what I did, my whole body felt frozen, but here it was always warm. It was all thanks to the heat Hadel emitted.

‘These days, I don’t even have nightmares.’

Since opening my eyes as a ferret, I had been plagued by strange nightmares that were forgotten upon waking, but perhaps due to the good sleeping arrangements, I no longer had such strange dreams.

“Kyuuu…”

Ah, it feels so good.

It’s only natural that bad dreams disappear when it’s this warm and comfortable.

‘I don’t want to get up.’

Though I had woken up, I deliberately dawdled and kept my eyes closed, enjoying the warmth.

But the sense of incongruity I felt even in my half-asleep state eventually forced me to open my eyes.

‘Huh? Today it feels even smoother and warmer…’

And it felt like something was holding me tightly. I couldn’t move an inch.

‘Eh? And what’s this? Why is my vision still dark even though I’ve opened my eyes?’

And it wasn’t just someone holding me…

“Are you awake?”

“Kyu?!”

Hadel’s voice had always been low and deep, but today it resonated much more. As if it were echoing inside a cave.

Yes, it had to be that way.

Hadel’s voice wasn’t being heard through my ears, but was being transmitted through his skin.

More precisely, because I was stuck to his bare chest where his voice was coming from, I felt his voice being transmitted through his bare skin rather than hearing it through my ears.

But the part that really surprised me wasn’t his voice.

‘Why am I inside Hadel’s shirt!?’

The fact that I had my head buried in Hadel’s bare chest as he lay in bed wearing clothes.

The fact that I had wriggled and crawled into the loose shirt he used as pajamas!

‘T-t-then what I’m feeling now is Hadel’s bare skin?’

No matter how warm it was, this was going too far.

‘I need to get out first!’

Flustered, I flailed about searching for light. But I couldn’t find the exit hole at all.

‘Is it here?’

Hadel, if you’re awake, help me. Why are you just lying still? I can’t even tell which way is up or down right now.

With Hadel lying down and me lying down too, I should be resting my head on his chest and clinging to his abdomen, but strangely, I was wrapped around his waist like a belt. So after rummaging through various parts of his shirt, I was finally able to poke my head out of the shirt.

‘Phew, that was close.’

Of course, it was because of embarrassment. Honestly, clinging to his bare skin like a spider felt quite nice. It was warm, and was his abdomen all muscle? It was so hard, like lying on a stone bed…

“Kyu?”

“Huh.”

“No, why is there a ferret there…”

What kind of situation is this now?

I was just thinking about how nice Hadel’s embrace felt, hard and warm like a stone bed, as I poked my head out of the shirt, but…

Numerous gazes suddenly poured down on me. I was so startled that I froze up, unable to even attempt to go back in.

‘Why are there so many people sitting here now? Where is this?’

Come to think of it, the scene unfolding before me was quite different from Hadel’s room. Atop a hard mahogany desk, numerous documents were neatly stacked.

‘Documents? Is this an office?’

But I definitely fell asleep in the bedroom, so why am I in an office? And inside Hadel’s shirt at that.

“Kyu kyu?”

When I made a sound, Hadel pressed down on my head with his index finger as usual. But.

‘He’s wearing gloves?’

He always touched me with bare hands, but now he was wearing stiff gloves, which felt strange.

‘Why is he wearing gloves? And why was I inside your stomach? Did you deliberately put me in there and bring me, or did I crawl in there myself?’

“Kyu kyu kyu kyu kyu?”

I was really curious about the intermediate process of how a ferret ended up rolled into his shirt, so I asked eagerly.

And of course, Hadel couldn’t understand what I was saying. He grabbed me with both hands and pulled me out as I was poking my head out of the shirt.

Then he lifted me high in front of his vassals, like lifting a baby lion. What the! How embarrassing!

“This is the creature I’m raising. Its name is Kyu Kyu. Everyone, remember it well.”

“Pardon?”

“Ah, understood.”

Though they blinked their eyes in bewilderment, the vassals bowed their heads. Thanks to that, I wanted to hide in a mouse hole.

‘Why are you showing me off in front of so many people like this?’

Who shows off a ferret like this?

‘I’d rather be rubbing against your bare skin. That would just be a matter of enduring my own embarrassment.’

Thinking he had shown my appearance sufficiently to everyone, Hadel set me down on the desk. As soon as my feet touched it, I tried to scurry under the desk, but.

“No. Stay seated here.”

Because Hadel pressed down on my tail, I couldn’t escape.

‘Ah, this is really embarrassing.’

I don’t know when he brought it, but Hadel pulled out the large cushion I had been using as my bed. I stared blankly at Hadel in disbelief, then realized that everyone was looking at me again.

‘I guess the meeting won’t resume until I sit here!’

I didn’t know how to behave, suddenly elevated from a mere wild animal to this level of treatment.

When I quickly curled up and sat on the cushion, Hadel’s gaze turned back to his vassals, and the halted meeting resumed.

I leaned against the cushion and looked at the documents on the desk.

‘As I suspected, Hadel is indeed royalty.’

I had been unsure since everyone called him “Your Highness the Grand Duke,” but looking at the signature, it was certain.

After writing his full name like that, he wrote his position, and Hadel wrote Prince, not Duke. The Grand Duke title he held meant he was direct royalty.

‘Huh? But Hadel only signs. Someone else writes the long sentences.’

Near Hadel, opposite me, there was a small-built man holding a pen and busily writing, and when Hadel called, he would write it down. As I tilted my head at this strange sight, I understood the situation a beat later.

‘Ah, he’s having someone else write to avoid setting the paper on fire.’

Even those huge, uncomfortable gloves weren’t enough, so he only signs and doesn’t touch anything else.

I felt anger rising at his excessively cautious behavior. I glared at the documents with narrowed eyes.

‘Is his magic really overflowing this much? It seems even worse than me in my younger days.’

Of course, when I was young, I burned many things too – skirts, gardens, I caused a lot of trouble. But I never felt this kind of oppression or had to control myself like this.

‘No, he’s more pitiful than me. At least I could freely shoot flames on the battlefield, but Hadel has to just endure.’

This is completely like putting a chain around a beast’s neck and telling it to endure because it’s a beast.

‘Ah.’

Only then did I realize how I had been able to meet Hadel alone in the forest at first. It had seemed strange that a Grand Duke, a direct royal prince, had entered the forest alone without even one guard.

‘So this was the reason he had walked into that pitch-dark deep forest on his own two feet, unable to even ride a horse.’

Only by depleting his flames could he maintain even this level of life.

I couldn’t even begin to imagine that pain. I gazed at Hadel with sympathetic eyes.

‘Poor thing.’

I bit your finger out of jealousy without knowing your circumstances. Please forgive me.