Side Story 1 - Hina And Fenrir

‘—Your magic power tastes terrible.’

Fenrir sighed while licking his lips.

“…Hina just got her magic drained and then insulted — why? I seriously don’t understand.”

Clinging weakly to a pillow on the bed, Hina complained resentfully.

According to Fenrir, he had only taken “a tiny bit” of her magic power, yet her body felt unbelievably heavy. Standing was impossible, and even sitting was exhausting.

(Just how much does Lord Fenrir eat? If this keeps happening every day, Hina’s going to shrivel up…)

She shuddered at the thought, but Fenrir ignored her and frowned.

‘Hmm. Truly the worst flavor in history.’

“Did you even listen to Hina? Why would you kick me while I’m down???”

‘Well, bad magic or not, a Holy Maiden is still a Holy Maiden… You’ll improve with effort.’

Fenrir looked at her with pitying yet encouraging compassionate eyes. Lacking the energy to retort, Hina collapsed face-down into the pillow. She was grateful there was a bed nearby to fall onto.

(Seriously… what is this. I thought once I awakened as the Holy Maiden everything would become easier…)

—At first, she thought being reborn as the heroine of an otome game wasn’t bad. Even starting as a village girl, a Holy Maiden was still a Holy Maiden. She believed she would eventually marry Isaac, the hero she liked most, and become a princess.

(But it’s totally different! Nothing goes the way I imagined!)

She was bullied as a witch in the village, made her parents cry, was rejected by Isaac, another Holy Maiden appeared, and in the end even Kana abandoned her — the only girl who had been kind to her in her previous life.

When she was slapped in the palace, she finally realized it.

“Then what does Hina have left…?”

Becoming the Holy Maiden separated her from her parents. She once thought their kindness was natural, but only after losing them did she understand how patient and loving they had been.

(Mom, Dad, I’m sorry… I want to see you…)

The moment she thought that, heat welled in her eyes. Tears overflowed endlessly.

Seeing her sobbing, Fenrir — who had been eating cake as a palate cleanser — panicked. He swallowed the cake, perked his ears, and watched her. Realizing she wouldn’t stop crying, he approached slowly with cream still on his mouth.

‘I-I’m sorry. I said too much.’

She wasn’t crying because of Fenrir’s words, but she lacked the energy to explain.

As she silently sobbed, something large and fluffy pressed against her left side. Looking sideways, she saw it was Fenrir lying beside her.

‘H-here. How about this? Humans like “fluff,” don’t they? My fur is the finest — praised by past Holy Maidens. I’ll lend you my chest just this once.’

He kept pushing himself closer insistently. His tone was slightly annoying, but Hina accepted it silently.

She buried her face into the thickest fluff between his back and belly. The impact made Fenrir grunt, but she ignored it and inhaled deeply.

Immediately she was wrapped in a warm sunlit scent like freshly dried bedding. The soft fur was warm and gentle, her head sinking endlessly into it — just like the cotton clouds she dreamed of as a child. Yet the faint warmth of his stomach reminded her he was alive.

For a while she remained buried in the gently rising and falling fluff.

Annoyingly, the fluff truly had a soothing effect. Before she noticed, her tears had stopped. Fenrir must have sensed it too, speaking gently.

‘…I do not know your circumstances well, so I cannot truly understand why you cry.’

But, the Sacred Beast said quietly.

‘From my perspective, you have lost nothing… rather, it has not even begun.’

He laughed to himself. Hina frowned.

“…I will lose something. At least, I know I’ll lose you, Lord Fenrir.”

‘Oh?’

Fenrir turned toward her in surprise.

‘So you believe you will lose this battle?’

“….”

Hina didn’t answer immediately. Fenrir provoked her.

‘I didn’t expect you to be so timid. You were quite spirited before.’

“…Because my opponent is Kana-chan.”

Gripping Fenrir’s white fur, she hid her face in his fluffy belly.

“Kana-chan is amazing. She’s better than Hina at studying and work, yet still strives higher. And when she’s there, the atmosphere softens. Even the girls glaring at me change their expressions once Kana-chan steps in.”

‘I see. She has such a skill.’

Fenrir narrowed his eyes admiringly. Meanwhile Hina recalled their past life.

(I was happy to become Kana-chan’s childhood friend…)

But Kana hadn’t felt the same.

The startled look Kana showed when discovering Hina. The eyes that agreed to requests while troubled inside. Kana looked at her the same way even now — that’s how Hina realized Cordelia was Kana.

She also knew Kana suffered whenever involved with her. If Kana helped, jealous boys made things worse.

So she thought keeping distance was best for both.

—Yet despite that, she died dragging Kana into it.

“And then I copied her completely… the worst.”

She slapped Fenrir’s stomach in frustration. Fenrir groaned.

‘You really…’

“Now I’m doing Healing Gatherings too, and the newspaper clearly copied Kana-chan! It’s awful!”

While she was stunned from being scolded, her sponsor uncle advanced everything on his own.

Even if she wanted to cancel it, as a former PR worker she knew how impossible retracting a release was.

So she desperately practiced Holy Magic — but it was difficult. She assumed she could use it easily, yet it required extreme effort, like an old sports manga.

A sparkling-eyed girl gripping a tennis racket, crying while clenching her teeth… She imagined that scene countless times during training.

“There’s no way Hina can win. If Kana-chan awakens as the Holy Maiden, Hina wasn’t needed at all!”

Her emotions surged and she cried loudly again. A large tail repeatedly brushed her head — apparently meant as comfort.

‘I do not know why the gods chose both you and Cordelia.’

The tail continued patting her.

‘But the king said a Holy Maiden has a noble heart. Rotten or not, you are one… though quite close to rotten. Still, believe in yourself.’

Hina laughed mockingly through tears.

“Hina? Noble? Impossible. Everyone would laugh.”

‘At least I believe it.’

Fenrir leaned closer and licked her face with his large warm tongue, grooming her like a mother dog.

“…Sticky.”

‘Hmph. I am comforting you. Endure it.’

After she accepted the “comfort,” Fenrir finally lifted his head.

‘Your standards are strange. If you greedily chase everything, you will fail. First accomplish what lies before you. Results will follow.’

“…If I try hard, will I be chosen?”

‘Unlikely. I predict you’ll abandon the first Healing Gathering.’

“What!? You said you believed in me!”

‘Precisely because I believe, I know.’

“You’re impossible to understand…!”

Trembling in anger, she clenched her fists. Fenrir laughed.

‘Results do not matter. Your effort does. —Is that not so, Holy Maiden?’

With a soft thump of his tail, Fenrir spoke calmly. Muttering she didn’t understand, Hina buried her face back into his fur.