With a far more careful touch than before, she stroked the hobby horse, and then felt the ear give a slight click.
Click.
“Huh?”
The hobby horse’s eyes glowed faintly.
Ailien held her breath and this time pressed the hobby horse’s back.
The light grew a little clearer.
As if by instinct, Ailien ran her hands over the hobby horse.
Then, from the hobby horse, an unbearable amount of light poured out, and it soon became tiny stardust and scattered.
“Whoa.”
Ailien, gazing at the pouring stardust, stuck out the tip of her tongue.
“It doesn’t taste like anything.”
Ailien smacked her lips in disappointment.
Just then, the chest of the hobby horse popped open with a click, and from within, a round, transparent crystal orb slowly floated up.
And then.
“Huh? Who’s laughing?”
Ha ha ha ha.
She heard the laughing voice of an unfamiliar boy. It was a laugh similar to the one she had heard when Ailien rode the hobby horse earlier.
Quite naturally, there was no one around.
“What the, is Kai laughing?”
For Kaius, the voice felt a little higher, though.
Just as Ailien fell into thought, the crystal orb from the hobby horse’s chest flew over and slipped neatly into Ailien’s heart wand.
Then this time, a pink light burst out from the heart as if fired. The powerful force emanating from the wand made Ailien take a step back, and at that very moment,
“No!”
The light headed straight for Kiki.
Kiki closed her eyes gently, as if it were only natural.
The pink light vanished, and a pale pink mist wrapped around Kiki.
Ailien sank to the floor.
“Did Lili shoot Kiki?”
As she muttered in bewilderment, Didi came over and chattered busily, chirp, chirp.
Just as a cluster of walnuts was about to form on Ailien’s chin, the mist vanished without a trace.
And in its place.
“Damn it. Walking on two legs makes me feel like I’ve devolved.”
A girl with black hair was standing there.
The girl awkwardly flailed her arms and legs as if they were not her own, and the way she tried to keep her balance looked precarious.
Ailien, standing opposite her, was frozen in place, only blinking her eyes.
Where the pale pink mist had been thick just moments before, there had definitely been the black cat Kiki, who nagged a lot but was always by her side.
‘But who is that?’
Lili thought she had shot Kiki. Her heart had dropped in alarm. And now suddenly some strange child had appeared?
Ailien’s large eyes wavered uneasily. She had thought the girl was a stranger, but somehow those prim, upturned eyes resembled Kiki’s, so she slowly approached.
“Chirp, chirp!”
Didi chattered earnestly as if trying to tell her something, but unfortunately, it did not reach Ailien’s ears at all.
Ailien, who had come close to the girl before she knew it, brought her small, soft white nose near the girl and sniffed again and again.
Familiar, cozy, the scent of fur well dried in the sun.
There was no doubt about it.
Ailien opened her eyes wide and shouted.
“It’s Kiki!”
“……Just who is the beast here.”
The girl, Kiki, who had been tensed up, finally relaxed her guard and let out a sigh.
“Kiki, why did you get so big? Where did your fur go, and why do you have hair? Your tail! Where is Kiki’s tail, the one Lili loves most?”
Ailien circled Kiki as if she could not believe it, pouring out questions. Neither the perked-up ears nor the swishing tail were anywhere to be seen.
There was only a girl with a pouty face standing there.
“Quiet. It’s not like I wanted to be like this.”
Kiki said, roughly ruffling her own hair. It was the first time hearing her in a human voice, but that blunt way of speaking was unmistakably Kiki.
“The seal Marilyn placed on me was briefly undone because of that damned hobby horse.”
“A seal? The hobby horse?”
Ailien tilted her head. Kiki, whether as a cat or a person, only ever picked out difficult words.
“Yes. After all, looking like this will make it easier to protect you here, ah, eek!”
As Kiki, about to take a step, wobbled greatly, Ailien beside her reached out her short arms and steadied her.
In the crescent-moon eyes gazing at Kiki, a lake glistened.
“Lili protects Kiki?”
“No, I should be the one protecting you.”
Kiki cleared her throat and quickly returned to her place. Didi, on Ailien’s shoulder, looked at her with a pitiful gaze.
“Then are you going to stay human forever and ever?”
Kiki, who had been glaring at Didi, turned her yellow eyes toward the heart wand in Ailien’s hand.
“The ‘power of memory’ dwelling in that hobby horse touched me. I’m still weak, so it’s hard to maintain for long.”
The explanation was still difficult, but Ailien, relieved by the fact that the girl before her was Kiki, smiled brightly. It was simply fascinating that Kiki could now stand on two legs and meet her eyes.
When Ailien reached out her hand, Kiki bent down as if it were only natural. She had to stoop quite a bit more than expected, but it was no trouble at all.
The child, as if she had been waiting, carefully fiddled with Kiki’s black hair. It was much softer than cat fur.
“Now you can talk with Lili?”
“We understood each other before too.”
“But like this, hm? Like this, huh?”
At Kiki’s blunt answer, Ailien furrowed her brow and raised her hand. Then she tapped her thumb against her other four fingers and mimicked the shape of moving lips.
“Good grief.”
Didi chattered cautiously from the side, as if to say that Kiki was probably just as naggy as ever, but unfortunately it did not reach Ailien.
“Hey, hey.”
“What.”
“But why didn’t you say anything when you came here?”
“What?”
“And Didi is just squeaking right now.”
“What are you talking about?”
Kiki let out a hollow laugh.
“Can’t you hear that Didi is holding back her squeaks because you told her not to make a peep?”
“Gasp, Didi!”
Ailien, as if she truly had not known, lifted Didi from her shoulder with both hands.
“I’m truly sorry! Lili was a bad baby who couldn’t understand Didi’s feelings!”
“Chirp, chirp.”
“You can say squeak-squeak!”
“Squeak squeak!”
Didi hugged Ailien’s cheek tightly, as if genuinely happy. Seeing the two, who resembled each other, carrying on like that, it was rather cute.
A faint curve crept onto Kiki’s lips.
* * *
Calisto’s mood was not good.
He did not know how the rumor had spread, but several of his retainers who had heard that he had brought a child to the Ruventain Grand Ducal House came rushing over.
Currently, the noble society of the Tamne Empire was divided into two axes. The traditional faction, which flaunted centuries of bloodline, and the emerging force that had won titles through sword and blood in the Human-Demon War—the new faction.
Immediately after the war, the Emperor made an unconventional decision. He bestowed titles en masse upon the knights who had distinguished themselves on the battlefield. On the surface, it was a righteous decision honoring the continent’s heroes, so even the traditionalist nobles had no choice but to applaud outwardly. The more the number of nobles increased, the more the pride of the traditionalists was slashed to pieces.
But that did not mean the newly titled new faction was in a good situation either. Most of them were nobles in name only, with no foundation.
However, in the territory of the Ruventain Grand Duchy, it was the exception. The new faction here, with enormous spoils of war, came to possess enough prestige to stand shoulder to shoulder with the traditionalists.
Among the Grand Ducal House’s retainers, the traditional faction could not help but feel resentment.
“If you let just anyone into the castle, the family’s dignity will fall!”
As expected, all the retainers who had rushed over, sensing this was their chance, were of the traditional faction.
Calisto coldly looked down at the retainers who were bulging their veins before him.
He knew well that the family dignity they were invoking was nothing but a hollow shell.
“You must not leave a precedent of accepting a child whose roots are unknown as a member of the family. I am telling you this because I am concerned that a misunderstanding might arise that the threshold of the Grand Ducal House has been lowered.”
It was enough to make one laugh hollowly.
“Even if she is a child Zeronias personally took in and raised?”
So she could not be called just anyone.
At those words, the retainers shut their mouths as if by agreement, but a few still looked full of discontent.
After issuing the order for them to leave, Calisto found himself, without realizing it, walking toward ‘that room.’
Just the thought that Ailien was in that room made his mood much better.
It felt as though the warm body heat of a child would soften even the air in the room.
“She was definitely here.”
Peril, who had guided Calisto, trailed off as he looked at the empty room.
And well he might, for Calisto’s face as he looked at the desolate space was not normal.
