chapter 87
They won’t give up on me?
Why?
I couldn’t bring myself to ask. I only blinked blankly, and then Lord Ferdinand quietly spoke first.
“The House of Aymond has inherited mental-type abilities for generations, hasn’t it?”
Mental-type abilities included illusions, brainwashing, memory manipulation—many variations.
There was a time when many surrounding noble families came to Aymond to request assistance.
The reason this was spoken of only in the past tense was simple.
Because from my father, Logan Aymond’s generation onward, our abilities deteriorated rapidly.
Everyone avoided mentioning it, but my father, Logan, was known as the least gifted head of the Aymond family in history.
His ability was to create illusions—yet they lasted for barely a second.
It was so short it might as well not exist.
And I, his daughter, inherited his incompetence.
The ability I possessed wasn’t even worthy of being called telepathy.
All I could do was communicate with animals.
Why would they want someone like me?
The whole situation felt impossible to accept.
…Huh?
A memory struck me like lightning—the memory of a book I’d once read in the marquisate’s warehouse.
It was about the first head of House Aymond, Lyssette Aymond.
Though not publicly known, the first head of Aymond was said to possess the ability of “Word Manifestation”.
The power to give force to spoken words and make them reality.
The “Covenant,” an unbreakable vow, was also among her powers.
With that ability, Lyssette mediated unity between herbivorous and carnivorous beastkin, and for that contribution received her marquisate.
Maybe…
Maybe that was why they wanted me.
Because Lyssette Aymond had been an albino squirrel—just like me.
But I was nothing more than a squirrel who could do absolutely nothing…
As those blue eyes came back to mind, I flinched without realizing it.
A large hand settled gently on my back. It was Lord Ferdinand.
“Don’t worry, child. I’m right here behind you.”
I may look like this now, but once upon a time, I was a fiend who dominated the battlefield.
Lord Ferdinand rubbed his nose awkwardly.
“Chuu-hoot.”
I clasped my tiny hands together and laughed lightly.
Over the past few days I’d learned something—Lord Ferdinand was a bit of a clumsy grandpa.
But his overwhelming strength and the decades of experience behind him were unquestionable.
“And it’s not just me. There’s that brat Koenig, and that girl Yeloise. You’re not alone anymore, so don’t be afraid.”
“Chuut!”
I’m not scared at all!
I nodded vigorously.
“Of course, you do need to build some strength in case of emergencies.”
Lord Ferdinand suggested we start by practicing how to transform back into human form.
“Chuuu…”
But… I’m a beastkin without mana.
It felt like I was hitting a wall right from the start.
“Chut.”
I pouted a little as I looked at him, and the wrinkles at the corner of his eyes deepened—he seemed to be guessing what I meant.
“You’re saying you have no mana?”
“Chuut!”
That’s right!
“Hah, what’s there to worry about? You have that bracelet now, don’t you?”
To be precise, it was the crystal filled with Koenig’s mana.
“From what I can tell, thanks to that crystal, some of the mana that used to completely dissipate is now accumulating in your body. For now, you can try operating mana through this. Over time, you might accumulate more.”
“Chuut!”
I’ll do my best!
I threw up both of my short arms. Lord Ferdinand chuckled and gave me a high-five.
And so, for a whole week—
I began intense training under his guidance.
But who could’ve known this would lead to trouble?
The Next Morning
“Lord! Lady Cherry is—!”
Gerard’s near-screaming voice sent Black Dragon Fortress into chaos.
The fortress’s mascot—the squirrel—had collapsed.
“This is all my fault. I pushed the tiny baby far too hard.”
Ferdinand blamed himself, but this wasn’t like the minor muscle aches she had complained of recently.
“Chuuut…”
Unlike usual, when she would constantly whine in pain, Cherry didn’t move at all—she looked dead.
Only the faintest, threadlike breaths proved she was still alive.
“How is Cherry-Cherry?”
Yeloise asked urgently, but the fortress physician only shook his head.
“There is no particular abnormality in her body.”
This was already the tenth time he had examined her.
Her breathing and pulse were slightly slow, but not dangerously so.
To be more precise—
“She is in a sleep state.”
“A sleep state?”
Yeloise frowned.
They had already called her name dozens of times and shaken her.
But Cherry didn’t even twitch. Her body simply drooped, breathing shallowly.
Ferdinand, Yeloise, Koenig—all three wore expressions sharp enough to kill.
“It is… as I mentioned before. Black Dragon Fortress is not suitable for a squirrel to live in.”
The physician spoke hesitantly.
Squirrels are animals vulnerable to cold—cold enough to hibernate in winter.
Keeping a squirrel in the perpetually chilly Black Dragon Fortress was like planting a cactus in frozen mountains.
And—
“Winter is approaching. Lady Cherry’s body may have entered hibernation early.”
“Hibernation? Do you mean she’s fallen into a winter sleep?”
“Yes… Normally, hibernation lasts from October until March of the following year—about five months. However…”
“What now?” Yeloise snapped.
“Let him speak,” Ferdinand said, calming his granddaughter.
“Typically, squirrels enter hibernation after eating enough food. But Lady Cherry showed no such signs. And… this doesn’t seem like a natural winter sleep. If something goes wrong—”
The physician licked his dry lips.
He couldn’t say the words “It could be life-threatening.”
As the family physician who had served the Kreuz line for generations, he knew their temperament well.
When enraged, they were demons wearing human skin.
They had grown gentler recently thanks to one soft, fluffy sheep beastkin—but that was entirely because of Cherry.
And now Cherry herself was in this condition.
The physician bit his lips to hide their trembling.
As expected, the shouting came soon.
“So what are you saying happened to my baby!?”
Ferdinand finally exploded.
“At worst… she may not wake from hibernation.”
The physician bowed deeply.
A suffocating silence blanketed the room.
“Then… what should we do?”
The one to speak was Koenig.
Koenig, who had silently remained at Cherry’s side all this time.
His fingers fidgeted nervously with the blanket.
Even his low body temperature might harm her right now.
“First, you must keep the surroundings warm.”
“Anything else?”
“You should prepare snacks nearby in case she wakes. And she needs absolute rest.”
“…Understood. Stay prepared to examine her at any time. You may go for now.”
“Yes, sir…”
When the crowd finally left the room—
Koenig carefully lay down beside Cherry.
“Fine… I’ll worry only as much as a squirrel’s tooth.”
He muttered harshly, but nothing went the way he wanted.
A mountain of paperwork awaited him, yet he couldn’t focus on anything.
All he could do was stay by Cherry’s side.
If he left even for a moment, it felt like she might disappear.
It wasn’t a baseless fear.
After all—everything about the situation was strange.
How could her breathing be so faint, yet her scent still fill the entire room?
What in the world was happening to his squirrel? Everything was infuriatingly unclear.
“Say something… anything, Cherry.
