Chapter 36

Aethlyn realized that her mother occupied very little space in her memories. She had even fewer thoughts of her than she did of her stern stepmother, Janet, and whatever fragments remained were nothing more than disjointed images.

The problem was that Aethlyn wasn’t the only one like this. Even though today was the anniversary of the late first wife’s passing, Aethlyn’s father, the young Duke Wintercrown, was out hunting with fellow mages and nowhere to be found. The servants, too, treated Aethlyn with their usual cheerful and pleasant expressions.

Everyone had completely forgotten. That today was Thalia’s death anniversary.

Now, nine years later, try as she might, she couldn’t find a single trace of Thalia Wintercrown anywhere in this mansion. It was as if a person by that name had never existed in the first place. Feeling even more gloomy at the thought, Aethlyn muttered to herself.

“How futile.”

Truly, it was all so futile. The life of her mother, who had lived far away from her birthplace of the House Anfante and met her end here in the House Wintercrown.

The life of a mother whom no one properly remembered felt terribly hollow and pitiful.

‘…I will never end up like that. I’m never leaving this place.’

Aethlyn resolved herself. She would never leave Belmoral here. She would become the head of Wintercrown and carry on the glory of her ancestors.

Normally, that determination alone would have cheered Aethlyn up in an instant. But for some reason, a corner of her heart remained chilled. She asked herself. Why am I acting like this?

‘Is it because of entering the Magic Academy, after all?’

In half a year, Aethlyn was scheduled to enter the Magic Academy in Estaria, the capital of Esta. There was still the final entrance exam left, but acceptance was practically guaranteed already. And once she stepped foot in there…

“I suppose I’ll be saying farewell to this scenery for a while, too.”

“Still, feeling homesick half a year before enrollment is a bit much.”

Pfft, Aethlyn pouted her lips. She resolved herself once more. This time, she muttered it aloud.

“Pull yourself together, Aethlyn Wintercrown. You’re not a child anymore. If you want to become the head of Wintercrown, you need to act the part.”

Then, she raised her left hand and reached out toward the lake.

[Boreas.]

With her chant, the circuit on her left hand emitted a soft blue light, sending gentle ripples across the surface of the water.

As Aethlyn was passing the time by playing around with minor magic by the lakeside, something intensely alien and ominous brushed past her ears.

‘Grrr?’

It was the low cry of a beast. And not a small animal like a fox or a badger, but the low growl of a fairly large beast of prey.

Aethlyn pulled back her gaze from the water’s surface and cautiously turned around. The moment she turned, she froze in absolute shock.

“…What in the…?”

Before her stood a colossal black beast. A creature with fur darker than the deepest shadow, contrasted by piercing yellow eyes. In the bright lakeside setting, the spot where the beast sat looked pitch-black, as if it were swallowing up the light.

Looking at it, half-resembling a wolf and half a wild dog, Aethlyn swallowed hard.

‘At that size, it might even be a magic beast. Something like a Cerberus.’

Its size was certainly too massive to be a regular beast living in the forest. It radiated an oppressive presence even though she was still quite some distance away.

Anyway, if this sudden apparition truly was a magic beast, she had a serious problem on her hands. Unless she handled it with the utmost caution and deliberation… Aethlyn would be done for.

‘Should I use a binding spell first? Or straight to crush magic?’

Though she had never fought anything as huge as that with crush magic before.

Just as Aethlyn was weighing her options for how to deal with it, something she couldn’t possibly have imagined happened.

Whimper.

The unidentified black beast let out a remarkably bizarre sound. It was a noise similar to the screech of a rusted iron gate hinge. One of Aethlyn’s eyebrows naturally arched upward.

“What is this?”

Whimper. Groan.

After the beast continued to make strange noises, it slowly wagged its exceptionally thick tail from side to side.

‘Getting hit by that tail looks like it would leave a bruise.’

Sweat formed within both of Aethlyn’s palms. She couldn’t understand at all what the creature in front of her was planning by acting this way, and that made her afraid.

That was only natural, as Aethlyn had never taken much interest in animals or magic beasts.

Of course, thanks to Aethlyn’s father, the young Duke Wintercrown, who loved hunting, there were plenty of horses and hunting dogs at the ducal estate.

Yet Aethlyn had remained indifferent to all of them. While she knew how many horses were in the stable and how many hunting dogs were in the kennel, she didn’t know their individual personalities or names, nor did she care to find out.

The same went for magic beasts. To Aethlyn, such grotesque entities were things whose traits could simply be understood through text on a page. Unlike some eccentric mages, she had never once taken a personal interest in magic beasts themselves.

Yet, facing this bizarre living creature right before her eyes, Aethlyn realized something. There were definitely facts that could not be grasped through books alone.

‘Why is it making such strange noises and acting in such a bizarre way?’

To the bewildered Aethlyn, it began to slowly draw closer.

“D-don’t come closer.”

Aethlyn muttered in a faintly trembling voice. Her usual calm demeanor was nowhere to be found.

The beast paid no heed to Aethlyn’s desperate plea and slowly approached her. Thud, thud. The heavy sound of paws crushing the wild grass echoed.

“I said, don’t come closer!”

Aethlyn thrust her left hand straight out and let out a shrill cry. Only then did the creature’s steps come to a halt.

“Right. Right, stay there. Good dog.”

The moment the words ‘good dog’ left Aethlyn’s lips—

Pant, pant.

Just when she thought there couldn’t possibly be any more surprises, an even more bizarre thing happened. After stopping for a moment and lazily wagging its thick tail from side to side, the dog suddenly lowered its body flat. Flattening itself entirely against the ground, it rolled over onto its back and exposed its black belly toward Aethlyn.

“…What is this?”

No matter how clueless she was about animals, the situation clearly seemed to be taking a strange turn.

‘Is it lacking any intent to attack?’

No, this wasn’t just a lack of intent to attack. It was quite literally a gesture of ‘surrender’.

Whimper.

Lying on its back with its belly exposed and wagging its tail, the creature took it a step further and grinned foolishly up at Aethlyn. Aethlyn shook her head inwardly.

‘Smiling? What kind of beast smiles?’

Just look at those white teeth, the kind that looked like a mere graze would deal a fatal wound. Terrifying teeth that locked together like a misaligned iron saw.

‘Pull yourself together. Aethlyn Wintercrown.’

Aethlyn struggled with all her might to rein in her rapidly loosening wits.

Yet that effort to assess the situation as ‘objectively’ as possible was being swiftly neutralized in front of this gentle-faced, dog-like animal.

A dog-like animal. Yes, truly, the creature was like a gigantic dog. A thought suddenly crossed Aethlyn’s mind.

‘Come to think of it, I think Ben used to have a dog about this size.’

She recalled Ben the gamekeeper’s dog, which had passed away from old age long ago. Since she had been so young when it died, her memories were hazy, but it seemed roughly similar in appearance to the creature before her.

‘Could it be the same breed?’

Aethlyn asked with a voice full of doubt.

“…Are you an actual dog?”

It was a remarkably foolish question to ask, as if a beast could answer. Yet Aethlyn was dead serious, because she had the distinct feeling that the animal in front of her understood human speech better than she expected.

And her intuition hit the mark.

Woof!

The dog let out a light bark while still lying down. Its thick, broom-like tail swished back and forth repeatedly, brushing against the lakeside reeds.

“Ah. You startled me. Gave me a fright.”

Contrary to her scolding words, the corners of Aethlyn’s lips kept curling upward. Making a mockery of her internal warnings to keep her guard up, for some reason, the creature in front of her felt strangely endearing.

‘It really must be a dog.’

For one, there was no way it could be a magic beast. If it were, it would have attacked Aethlyn long ago.

The probability of it being a wild animal like a wolf was also slim. Aethlyn recalled the encyclopedia she had read.

‘Wolves travel in packs, they said. This one is all by itself, and it doesn’t look like it strayed from a pack.’

Thus, Aethlyn found her answer. It was a dog! And a very, very large dog at that!

“Hey, dog.”

Whimper.

“Where did you come from?”

At that, the dog tilted its head as if to say it didn’t understand what she was saying. Witnessing that clumsy cuteness, she grew even more certain that it wasn’t a wild animal, but a domesticated dog.

“…It’s definitely someone’s pet.”

The problem was that there were no other villas or houses anywhere nearby. From the lakeside all the way across the forest, the entire area belonged to the House Wintercrown. It must have gotten lost from afar and wandered all the way down here.

‘What should I do?’

In truth, the proper course of action was clear. She could simply hand everything over to Ben the gamekeeper and walk away. He would figure out how to find its owner. There was no need for Aethlyn to go out of her way to bother with it.

Yet for some reason, she felt drawn to care.

No matter how much it was a beast that couldn’t speak, it was a creature that had already been touched by human hands. A thought occurred to her.

‘Since it wandered into the Wintercrown estate, I should take some degree of responsibility.’

And gripped by that notion, she ended up committing a bizarre act unlike anything she had ever done in her life.