Chapter 47

“Arthur, are you okay?!”

“Waaah. Waaaah!”

Aethlyn tightly embraced Arthur, who was sobbing with his face a mess of tears and snot. With trembling hands, she checked the boy’s face and body from head to toe.

Thankfully, there wasn’t a single scratch or scrape anywhere.

“…Hah.”

What an immense relief. It was a relief, and then some. Exhaling a sigh of relief, Aethlyn pulled Arthur even closer. Arthur wept toward Aethlyn with choking, hiccuping sounds.

“I-I’m sorry, big sister. I-I just wanted to win… I was wrong.”

“No. I lost.”

“Big sister, I’m scared…”

At the rare sight of her younger brother acting so vulnerable, Aethlyn shook her head quickly.

“Arthur, you won this match. It’s all over now, so let’s head back.”

Gradually, Arthur’s crying subsided, and Aethlyn’s heart began to calm down as well. However, one issue still remained. Clutching Arthur tightly, she turned her head sharply and glared at the dog. The dog was standing in an awkward, half-crouched position right where it had been shoved away, nervously reading Aethlyn’s expression. Blinking its amber pupils, it wore a face that seemed to say, ‘I don’t know anything.’

Why did that look appear so infuriating? A burning rage flared up inside her chest, and simultaneously, a freezing cold remark escaped her lips.

“You really messed up.”

Whimper.

“Don’t act all pitiful!”

Thinking rationally, there was no way the dog could possibly understand what she was saying just by being scolded. Yet Aethlyn couldn’t remain calm right now. The thought that it could have left an indelible scar on the House Wintercrown made her head spin. She spat out sharply.

“Arthur almost got badly hurt because of you. If things had really turned out that way… I would have…”

Aethlyn bit down on her lower lip until it was on the verge of splitting.

“If that had happened, I wouldn’t have had any choice left either!”

If Aethlyn couldn’t bring herself to do it, Janet, Ben, or Arcan would have stepped up to execute it. And Aethlyn wouldn’t have been able to say a single word against it, forced to simply watch the dog’s final moments.

Just imagining it made her stomach churn as if it were burning up.

“You idiot…”

While Aethlyn was soothing the terrified Arthur, the dog crept a little closer toward the two of them with a submissive posture.

Twitching its nose, wagging its tail continuously, and projecting with its entire body the plea: ‘I was wrong, please forgive me.’

Witnessing that piteous and desperate demeanor, the anger that had been blazing until just moments ago began to give way to a sorrowful emotion.

‘Without even truly understanding what it did wrong.’

Yet, seeing the creature watching her nervously, a faint sense of guilt welled up inside her.

‘That child was just trying to protect me in its own way. It thought Arthur was attacking me.’

Therefore, the fault didn’t lie with the dog, but with herself for failing to properly train it in the first place. Aethlyn blamed her own complacency.

It was truly complacent, beyond all measure of complacency. She shouldn’t have ignored her stepmother’s warning. She should have been more cautious and better prepared.

If so, what would be the best course of action now? Should she hand it over to a professional for training after all?

No. Aethlyn thought to herself. First, let’s get this situation under control. She raised her left hand toward the dog creeping closer to her.

“Don’t come any closer. Stay right there.”

The dog stopped dead in its tracks. Aethlyn pointed a finger toward the direction of the mansion and commanded.

“You, go back to the house for now.”

It must have been her imagination, but for a moment, an absolute silence seemed to fall. Pointing more clearly toward the mansion, Aethlyn spoke.

“On your own. You can find your way back, right?”

Aethlyn wasn’t just talking blindly. The dog already knew the vicinity of the Wintercrown estate inside and out. Sometimes it wandered around the surroundings all by itself, too.

Aethlyn planned to send the excited dog back first, and then return to the mansion together with Arthur.

Right at that moment, however. The dog, which had been doing nothing but whining piteously in front of Aethlyn just a second ago, suddenly bared its sharp teeth and let out a growl.

Grrrr.

It was a threatening warning sound, completely different from when it acted spoiled. That low, heavy vibration pierced straight through Aethlyn’s body. The problem wasn’t just that. The look in the creature’s eyes had also changed. The yellow irises that had been droopy and dejected just a moment ago were now suffused with a sharp, piercing light.

“……”

It was precisely when she was gripped by an indescribably creepy sensation. The dog suddenly lunged toward the two of them. It was so fast, like a flash of lightning, that there was no room to dodge at all. Instinctively shielding Arthur, Aethlyn ducked her head.

‘No.’

Is this really the end? She couldn’t process a single thought. Not even a revolving lantern of memories flashed past behind her tightly closed eyes.

One second, two seconds passed like that.

“……”

Despite the time passing, the expected agony never came.

The dog hadn’t attacked the two of them; it had simply leaped right over them. When Aethlyn frantically lifted her head in dismay, the creature was already gone, having dashed away into the pitch-black forest. It completely vanished from sight, as though it had never existed in the first place.

Only the scent of the tree fruit crushed by Aethlyn and Arthur lingered densely all around.

Six hours later.

“I knew it’d come to this.”

Late at night. Ben the gamekeeper grumbled endlessly as he roamed through the dark forest. This wasn’t his usual daily night patrol. Serving as proof of that, he was accompanied by other servants this time around.

Right beside him were Paul and Andrew, hall boys of the mansion. Holding lanterns in one hand, the two of them were shouting out into the empty air.

“Here, doggy! Where are you?”

“Come on out, buddy!”

Hearing Andrew and Paul shouting, a sigh rose all the way to his throat.

‘What kind of idiotic…’

It was truly nothing short of a foolish situation.

Six hours had passed since that ‘beloved pet’ of hers vanished. Aethlyn was completely out of her mind. Not a trace of her usual calm and precocious demeanor could be found anywhere.

Ben recalled the way Aethlyn had pleaded with him.

“The deeper the night gets, the more dangerous it is for the dog. Please find it quickly. I’m begging you.”

‘…That fellow is the dangerous one, Young Lady.’

He had wanted to snap that at Aethlyn, who described a dog the size of a calf like some frail little pet, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Because Aethlyn looked as though she was about to burst into tears right then and there.

Who could possibly shake their head no in front of a trembling girl with tears welling in her eyes? Ben had no choice but to nod in silence, and the other servants were no different.

In the end, they had been roaming around the dark forest for hours.

Ben grumbled again.

“What’s such a big deal about one stray mutt disappearing anyway?”

Apparently, though, he had muttered to himself a bit too loudly. Andrew, who was walking ahead, whipped his head around and shot back with an offended voice.

“Ben, isn’t that a bit harsh?”

Amused that a rookie who wouldn’t normally even dare speak to him was acting like this, Ben let out a hearty laugh.

“What’s wrong with what I said? It’s just some stray dog that rolled in from parts unknown. It wasn’t even raised here since birth.”

“What does that matter? It’s the first creature Lady Aethlyn has truly opened her heart to.”

Paul chimed in again.

“That’s right. Besides, it was really smart and good-natured. Everyone’s already gotten super attached to it.”

“Are you guys idiots? Attached, my foot. Is it a person?”

“Honestly, more than ol’ mister…”

Paul saved Andrew from a fatal slip of the tongue. He struck the fellow’s back and muttered:

“Hey, Andrew. Shut up and watch your step. Don’t go tripping over yourself for nothing.”

Had they wandered for another hour like that? Paul let out a massive yawn. Unable to watch any longer, Ben nudged the kid.

“Ouch. What?”

“You, head back to the mansion with Andrew.”

“Pardon? But…”

“Just hand one of the lanterns over to me. You two have done enough for today, so report back.”

The two of them exchanged glances. Their fighting spirit, vowing absolute loyalty to Lady Aethlyn, had withered quite a bit in the face of their exhausted minds and bodies and the temptation of a soft bed.

“Stop jawing and go back. From here on out, it’s easier for me to move alone.”

It was the truth. The artificial forest planted by the House Wintercrown ended right here, and a primeval forest was about to unfold ahead. From this point onward, a completely different world—a whole different game—would begin. Dragging two amateurs around would only make them dead weight.

Showing the belt fitted with his shotgun, Ben threatened them once more.

“I’ve got this, after all.”

As always, showing once was faster than ten words. The moment they saw Ben’s gun, the two noisy, talkative boys nodded and headed back to the mansion without another word. Having sent the two unsightly boys on their way, Ben let out a sigh of relief. And then he set off walking through the forest once more. This time, adopting a tense posture and expression completely different from just a moment ago.

‘Finally, I’m alone.’

In truth, Ben had been waiting for this exact moment. The moment he could go out searching for the black dog all by himself. The black dog—no, wait.

‘A werewolf, that is.’

A cracking sound echoed from his jaw as he unconsciously clenched it tight. The single suspicion that had gripped Ben for the past few days and refused to let go was now fully coming alive.