CH 63

“…This, this… you thug penguin!”

“Thank you for the compliment.”

As soon as Jerome arrived on land, he quickly wore the clothes he had earlier entrusted to Hanu and got angry at me.

He must have had a hard time moving not one person but two to land.

“You, how did you know that I was captured by a smuggling ship?”

He clenched his head as if he had a mountain of questions he wanted to ask.

“No, why the hell did you save me before that?”

“Are you dissatisfied with being saved? Why are you so angry?”

As I calmly squeezed out the water that had seeped into my clothes, Jerome hit his chest in frustration.

“That’s not it, I’m a shark demibeast!”

“Mhm. And I’m a penguin demibeast.”

“I’m not asking you to introduce what kind of demibeast you are…!”

I laughed and mischievously ruffled his hair.

Unlike me, his hair was dry and smooth thanks to his transformation into a shark and coming to land.

“Don’t try to figure out why, just say ‘thank you for saving me’.”

“…….”

Jerome pursed his lips and stared at me. He looked like he didn’t know what expression to make.

After a while, he finally opened his mouth.

“…Thank you.”

“What.”

I was smiling heartily at the bashful Jerome when suddenly something came to my mind.

“Oh right. This.”

I handed Jerome the dagger I had taken from the man who had handed Jerome over to the stowaway ship earlier.

Jerome’s pupils trembled as he looked at the dagger in my hand. He appeared as if he had been stabbed.

“Isn’t it yours, Jerome?”

He turned his head and avoided my gaze.

“Throw it away. That’s trash.”

“Huh.”

Taking out the dagger from the scabbard and examining it, it was too well-forged to be considered trash.

“It looks new, so why throw it away?”

“Ah, throw it away anyway! I don’t want to carry such a terrible weapon again!”

“Ah. If that’s the case, you should have told me earlier.”

I patted Jerome’s back merrily. Somehow, it felt like I was edifying a youth who had gone down a bad path.

Tuk.

The dagger was thrown on the sandy beach.

“Please, Sir Hanu.”

“All right.”

Hanu, who had been brushing his wet hair, drew a sword from his waist and raised an aura.

Then, as easily as slicing a radish, he broke the dagger in half.

Suk.

Jerome raised his eyes in disbelief.

“…Hey, Penguin. That person is an aura user?”

“The Weil knights are all aura users. It’s the minimum requirement for joining.”

Hanu’s calm reply provided a rough answer.

“That’s what he says.”

Seeing Jerome’s reaction, it seemed like a great achievement, but well, I was a stranger to swordsmanship, so it was only now that I was a little surprised.

“…Hahaha. Hahaha!”

As though he had lost his mind, Jerome suddenly burst into laughter.

Hanu and I quietly exchanged glances and whispered.

“Did he drink too much seawater? He seems insane.”

“But isn’t it natural for sharks to drink sea water?”

“Does everyone become crazy if they are by your side?”

“It seems like a credible hypothesis…”

“So you’re saying Sir Hanu is crazy? Isn’t mad cow disease a bit serious?”

“That is a racist statement.”

Jerome explained why he laughed at us. There was a somewhat deviant shadow on his face.

“It’s just… I knew it was nonsense, but it made me laugh again, having grown up all my life swearing to get revenge on the killer whales.”

He grinned and held out his hand to me.

“Thank you, Penguin.”

Instead of holding his hand, I put my hand on Jerome’s shoulder with a drawn-out smile.

“Jerome. I have a precious name, ‘Lia’. Wherever you go, don’t make the mistake of calling me ‘penguin’. Call me by my name.”

Got it, subordinate?

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤⋆

Ever since I had Jerome on my side, I had been looking for the raccoon demibeast with him.

After that day, Jerome changed actively and brought information I had asked about from here and there.

…It didn’t help much, though.

Iprus seemed to have fully recovered from her cold and she could join the search.

So… I was going to go out today to find the raccoon demibeast when a small problem arose.

In that I succeeded in changing into a penguin while practicing animalization with Suradel as usual.

I succeeded in turning into an animal which I wanted so much, but the reason it was a problem was that I, who turned into a penguin, couldn’t change back into a human.

“Wheeng. (Damn it.)”

Suradel begged me not to go outside until I became human again, but I couldn’t.

Sooner or later, I have to go back to the center, but I haven’t even met the owner of the notebook, let alone the raccoon demibeast.

Ever since I was born in this world, I have lived as a penguin.

It meant that there were more days of living as an animal than days of living as a human.

I couldn’t stop just because I went back to the penguin in a situation where every day was precious.

So I hid in Hanu’s chest and secretly went out of Weil Castle… 

Jerome, who saw me for the first time as a penguin, uttered without warning.

“Wow, it looks really scary.”

I swung my wings and hit Jerome on both cheeks.

“Ahh!”

He rubbed his tingling cheek and clicked his tongue at the unexpected attack.

“Your personality is also dirty.”

“Yueeng. (What to do.)”

“Who would be friends with a thug like you? I should be nice and do it, shouldn’t I?”

The mouth of Jerome as he called himself a friend twitched.

Enraged by Jerome’s remarks, Iprus blocked his way with the momentum to hit him with her parasol at any moment.

“This cheeky…”

I shook my head, telling her to be patient.

“Ween. Weeeng weeng. (Leave it. He must be excited because it’s the first time he is making friends.)”

“But, Lady Lia!”

Iprus gazed at me with an expression full of eagerness to correct that cocky bastard’s way of speaking.

Stunned by her energy, Jerome hid behind me and muttered,

“Is that the maid you talked about?”

“Wheeng. (Yes.)”

Because he hid behind me, a penguin, his body wasn’t covered at all, but he mumbled that he felt relieved just being behind me.

“…Hey, didn’t you say she is pretty and smart?”

“…Cheuk!!!”

It was then.

Something popped out of the pocket on Iprus’ chest.

It was a cute field mouse that looked like a fairy.

The field mouse gasped, baring its teeth, as if it was very angry at something.

It was an insignificant threat.

“Jack! I told you to stay quiet!”

Embarrassed, Iprus tried to hide Jack, but Hanu’s eyes rolled over at the word ‘Jack’.

“Where do you dare to go now?”

“Kkyu?”

“There is no use in putting on such an innocent face. Don’t use your cute appearance to satisfy your dirty desires!”

Although self-proclaiming that he did not love his sister, Hanu snatched Jack from the pocket of Iprus’ jacket and stuffed him into his pants pocket.

But it seemed that Jack didn’t like it, so he started to run wild in his pocket.

“Chiiik! Iiiiik!”

“Can’t you stay still!”

While they struggled furiously, I asked Iprus.

“Wueeng woeeeng? (But why is he in animal form?)”

Iprus blinked meekly and replied as if it was natural.

“Oh, rather than a disgusting and ugly human, I prefer a cute field mouse.”

Unknowingly, I sent Jack a sad gaze; he was still struggling in Hanu’s pocket. 

The other day, I heard an urgent sound from inside Iprus’ room, so I thought they were dating again, but I guess they weren’t.

‘He’s going through a lot too.’

I sighed and looked around the chaos.

Jack didn’t care that I was a penguin. He was just screaming.

Hanu was seriously fighting against the field mouse.

Iprus was looking for an opportunity to hit Jerome.

And Jerome was clinging to my back as if that would make him invincible.

No matter how much I thought about it, it seemed that there were no normal people around me.

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤⋆

Even though I ventured out with the body of a penguin…

I, who had gained nothing today, sulkily jumped into bed.

“Weeng…”

Iprus went to inform Bella that I had gone to bed early so she wouldn’t question my lack of dinner.

I was at a loss at the thought of turning back into a human.

Not being able to do humanization freely, which everyone else could, was more nerve-wracking and tiring than I thought.

Going back to human form was truly a problem, but I also didn’t know that finding a raccoon demibeast would be so difficult.

At this point, I wondered if I should grab Jack, the head of the information guild, and threaten him to find the raccoon demibeast.

Sooner or later, the killer whales would head back to the center.

But as long as I couldn’t find the raccoon demibeast, I couldn’t get out of here.

What excuse should I make to Bella to stay at the Weil family territory?

As I buried my face into the blanket, thinking about this and that, I heard a familiar voice from the door.

“Lia, are you in?”

“Weng.”

Suradel must have accepted my cry as a sign of permission, and soon opened the door and entered the room.

“Lia, it looks like you went outside today with Sir Hanu’s help.”

I slowly raised my head and looked at him.

“…Ween? (Did you see it?)”

“How strange.”

Suradel quietly spoke, his eyes narrowing.

“Even though I’ve been seeing you everyday for years, going out and about… it’s so easy for you to give yourself up to Sir Hanu.”

“Weh…”

Come to think of it, it was true.

Why did I only put up an iron wall against Suradel?

Before I even had time to think about the question, Suradel mumbled with a very sad expression.

“Lia, let me touch your belly.”

…Ah, that’s why.