Home/I Became the Emergency Food Supply of the Bear Family/ch74

Chapter 74

The Viscount Noirel's seal was clearly and neatly impressed in the wax. The soft texture of the paper met her fingertips. Each word was written in a careful, neat cursive.

「P.S. From now on, I won't seek you out in secret. I don't want to make you uncomfortable anymore. Still, sometimes—truly once in a while—my eyes might wander without my meaning to. When that happens... I'm sorry, but please bear with me.」

The letter ended with that postscript.

Ber's eyes wavered as she traced the page again and again.

The sub-male lead of the Noirel family—the frightening embodiment of obsession, Kaien—to write such a letter. She'd never expected him to humble himself this much, and her feelings grew complicated.

He's changed so much.

The original Kaien had also acted submissive before Einja at times, but there was always an undercurrent of coercion and arrogance.

But this—

He's even promising to be careful with how he looks at me.

Running her fingertip over the letter, Ber fell into thought.

Perhaps she'd been too fixated on the original Kaien.

Curing his lung disease had certainly been a great help to him—but she'd also received his help several times.

When she'd suddenly animalized. When she was being chased by Lorenzo. And today, when he returned her student ID.

Ber's expression darkened.

A wave of guilt washed over her.

She'd been completely terrified at the sight of a "wolf" after so long—but fundamentally, it was different.

Kaien wasn't a White Wolf. He wasn't the wolf from that day.

But I...

I'll apologize for that day later.

Yes, perhaps—

With the Kaien of now, she might not need to be so wary.

Ber carefully folded Kaien's letter and placed it in the drawer.

---

On the morning of the last day of the short spring break.

The Noirel Viscount's Great Hall.

Through the heavy silence that filled the vast space, only the sound of cutlery cutting meat could be heard.

Cutting his meat, Raoul glanced toward the head of the table.

The head seat was empty. No plate, fork, or napkin had been set.

During spring break, Raoul had returned to the viscount's estate. Honestly, he hadn't wanted to come back. With such a short break, there was no point.

Even if he came, he knew he wouldn't get what his mother wanted.

Indeed, during those two short weeks, the viscount hadn't shared a single meal with them.

The viscount had started growing distant from them after Kaien was declared fully cured.

The frail legitimate wife had given birth to an equally frail son and died young. Perhaps foreseeing that future, the viscount had roamed outside even before the child was born. And the year Kaien, the viscount's heir, was born, Raoul too was brought into the world.

He must have been the only wolf beast-person among the illegitimate children. Less than a year after the viscountess's death, he and his mother had been accepted into the Noirel household.

The sole heir, the young viscount, suffered from the same lung disease as his dead mother—barely alive, let alone training in swordsmanship. The viscount himself had even suspected his deceased wife of hiding her illness and marrying him.

The situation was advantageous. Without even trying, his mother could become the next viscountess, and he would someday take the title from his frail "brother."

Yes—everything could have gone as his mother wanted.

But why—even knowing that situation, his mother's ugly acts didn't stop.

She abandoned the boy in the North and, in the dead of winter, ensured no firewood reached his room, making him fall ill.

For Kaien, who suffered from a congenital lung disease, it was a fatal illness. His mother acted as if she wanted the boy dead. Didn't she realize that one day the viscount would tire of her cruelty and cast her aside?

Of course, now he suspected his mother might have foreseen the future, much like the viscount.

But she never expected that lung disease to disappear overnight.

After all the doctors pronounced a miracle and declared him cured, Kaien succeeded in rehabilitation within months. Then he threw himself into swordsmanship and quickly reached Raoul's level.

Last winter break, when Kaien returned home, the viscount had left the dinner table the moment he heard.

It was the first time he'd seen his father look so happy.

"Raoul."

His mother, who had been silent throughout, wiped her mouth with her napkin and turned to him.

"You're preparing well for the swordsmanship tournament, right?"

"...Yes, as usual—"

"Just 'as usual' won't do. Do you even have any motivation? If you want, I'll arrange for another instructor—"

Marinella sighed and fell silent at Raoul's refusal to even look at her.

Silence fell again in the hall.

Raoul chewed his meat with a grinding sound. The juice bursting in his mouth tasted bitter.

---

The summer semester had begun.

The fountains in the Academy garden sprayed water, the trees grew greener, and student activities became livelier.

Every summer semester, the Imperial Academy held a major event.

The Harvest Festival.

The name suited autumn better—but it seems they called it "harvest" to celebrate the students' achievements.

The swordsmanship department held a tournament, the magic department held magical duels, and the General Studies department held research presentations—the Academy would be festive for several weeks.

In the original, Adrian and Kaien had a private duel over Einja.

After Adrian rescued Einja from Kaien's violent grip, their fight—which had seemed over—continued.

Adrian had foolishly challenged Kaien to settle who would dance with Einja at the ball, and Kaien had taken the bait.

The result was bittersweet for Kaien.

Both got hurt in the duel, but Einja only healed Adrian's wounds.

Kaien had watched from afar as the two danced in the hall, then silently faded away, cradling his injured arm—which had sparked sympathy for him.

Well, things would go differently now.

After the boar incident, Einja and Adrian hadn't even crossed paths. And Einja had never even met Kaien.

"What's wrong, Ber?"

At her sigh of hope that everything would pass smoothly, Einja reacted.

"Oh, nothing. I just haven't decided on my research topic for the festival. What about you, Einja—herbalism?"

"Yeah. It's a subject I've been familiar with since childhood, so it's probably the safest. What about you?"

"Right. I wonder..."

Should she draw on her own childhood memories too?

"So this is what you submitted?"

Visiting the General Studies first-year research exhibition, Louis and Ferdinand eagerly began reading Ber's project.

"Let's see. Title: 'A Guide to Communicating with Infant Beast-People.' Communication with pre-humanization beast-people is challenging. Even if parents, nurses, or tutors animalize to communicate, if the child is young, their language will also be clumsy. That's where 'body language' becomes useful."

"Ooooh, awesome! This is it—Ber's cute front-paw and back-paw gestures!"

"The illustration is a bear cub. It kind of looks like Louis when he was little?"

"I know this! I also—want to—learn!"

Louis gestured, looking at the bear drawing in the booklet. Mimicking holding a pen, scribbling, then patting his chest and laughing—Ber felt strangely embarrassed watching him.

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