CH 11

*******

Heinricion was checking the report, but he couldn’t turn more than a few pages, much less read  the report. Wrinkles kept forming on his forehead.

It stung.

Eristella’s burdensome gaze followed him throughout the day.

Ears perking up with pleasure, and tail waving softly as if teasing. How could a cute fox look so sinister?

‘Heheheh.’

Heinricion couldn’t stand its strange laughter.

He didn’t want to mention that he had been frantically searching for Eristella again, so he wanted to pretend to not register anything. But in the end, he couldn’t resist and looked back at her.

“Please don’t make that weird face.”

Even if Heinricion said something, instead of faltering, the fox curved its eyes more blatantly. However, she didn’t make any more strange laughter.

‘Don’t be embarrassed. It doesn’t matter… You were looking for me because you were very worried, weren’t you?’

Eristella was making fun of him, laughing silently at him.

It was when Heinricion, tired of it, turned his head to the other side.

‘Just.’

Eristella’s eyes, which had lost their playfulness, were staring intently at Heinricion. Just this moment, she calmly confessed her true feelings like she had returned to the form of a human.

She knew it wouldn’t be delivered to him, so she could confide comfortably.

‘There was someone who kept looking for me… because he wanted to.’

“……”

‘Thank you, Cion.’

In fact, the reason she smiled as she followed Heinricion was because she was half-teasing him, and half-grateful and happy.

Eristella, who had become a fox and had not been able to visit anyone for half a year, thought that no one would find her.

Heinricion was also involved with her from an early age because she was a princess, and the marriage arrangement was also because of her position.

Maybe he would think it was for the better. So she didn’t expect it at all.

However, he has been looking for her without giving up all this time.

That fact excited Eristella. But she was too embarrassed to tell him the truth, so she tried to put on a casual smile again.

It was then that Heinricion’s eyebrows twitched convulsively as he stared at her.

Heinricion opened his mouth slowly, twisting his face slightly, as if something offended him.

“……You.”

His face slowly moved closer to the fox, and a low voice rang out.

“Did you think I wouldn’t look for you?”

He was rather perplexed. He had no idea that she would think he would not look for her. That touched a corner of his heart.

‘……Is it?’

“How can you think that unless both your body and your intelligence became a fox’s?”

Heinricion murmured very seriously and worriedly.

Thanks to that, the fox’s face, which had been almost touched for a moment, was distorted.

‘This Cion! Then of course you should find me! You knew it!’

‘Still, maybe Heinricion doesn’t hate me that much.’

Once again, Heinricion seemed different.

If she returns to her original form later, she should treat Heinricion well. When Eristella was thinking like that.

‘It’s also very touching. It’s about the size of a bean.’

‘Though, I don’t like beans that much. So what?’

Come to think of it, it’s nothing.

‘I almost thought of doing him a favor out of a grateful heart.’

Eristella smiled coolly. Then she turned her head to look at Heinricion and paused in surprise.

What. Did Heinricion always look like that?

His strong facial features, which gave a sharp impression, had a sense of delicacy that seemed to fall apart when she carefully observed.

Strange. For a moment, her heart raced. It was when Eristella was frozen in shock.

Heinricion suddenly looked at her.

“What are you thinking, why’s your face like that?”

‘No, nothing!’

The fox’s head violently shook from side to side. It looked even stranger, but she desperately denied it because she didn’t want to be caught thinking Heinricion looked cool until just now.

“Actually, now that I think about it…… There’s someone other than me who’s looking for you.”

‘Yes?’

It was an unexpected remark.

“Count Azurdi is also still looking for you.”

The fox’s head tilted.

The County of Azurdi had little contact with Eristella. ‘Why that family?’

“It’s a family with a strong loyalty to the imperial family. Besides, it’s a family that keeps producing wizards, so they must have been concerned.”

There were more people who were worried about Eristella. Heinricion was saying that on purpose.

“Still, I searched the most.”

Heinricion quietly insisted as if it were nothing while sneaking a glance at the fox’s reaction.

But Eristella was not convinced. For that reason, the county had been trying to find her for half a year?

She wasn’t that naive.

Besides, there was something she learned while researching dark magic as a princess. One of them was that the influence of black magic was more widespread than expected.

Among them were many nobles.

However, she still couldn’t figure out which families were involved. Perhaps… 

During that time, Eristella was engrossed in her troubles.

“Your Excellency. This is Rowen. I’m entering in a moment.”

There was a buzz outside the door and Rowen came in. But he was not alone.

The person he was with looked too foreign to be a guest.

It was time to guess the identity of the man with an untrimmed beard, a large-brimmed hat, and a heavy-looking bag in one hand.

“It’s something I prepared because I thought it would be necessary for the fox.”

Rowen placed an object that looked like a long string on the table.

Eristella’s eyes widened in disbelief as she looked closely at the object she seemed to have seen somewhere before.

‘It’s a leash!’

‘I don’t need anything like this!’

“I’ve also hired a professional trainer.”

“Trainer?”

Heinricion asked again as if he had never thought about it.

‘Of course. No matter how much I look like a fox, I’m still a Princess! How dare you think of the blasphemous idea of attaching a trainer to me?!’

“Your Excellency was hurt last time; it needs education.”

Rowen said sharply, looking at Eristella and Heinricion alternately.

In just a few days, Heinricion’s body was wounded here and there by the fox. Rowen couldn’t watch the same thing happen over and over again, so he thought of this.

‘Of course you’re going to send him back, right?’

Eristella sent a signal, glancing hard in Heinricion’s view. Turn down the trainer now and give Rowen a sharp warning.

However, Heinricion never made eye contact with her, and opened his mouth towards Rowen.

“Well, it’s a wild animal, so it might need to be tamed.”

Heinricion nodded his head with a serious expression. 

‘Don’t tell me, you……’

Eristella’s eyes quivered anxiously. Somehow, Rowen’s words seemed to appeal to Heinricion.

‘You’re not gonna leave me with the trainer, are you?’

It was when Eristella’s front paws eagerly stretched out into the air, holding onto her last hope while trembling with betrayal.

“But send the trainer back.”

“Yes?”

“I’m training it myself, so there’s no need for a trainer.”

Heinricion, who had apparently been tempted until now, changed his expression and rejected the trainer with a look of displeasure.

The trainer cringed at Rowen’s glance and took a few steps back.

“Your Excellency yourself?”

“Yes.”

Although Rowen was somewhat disgruntled, he could not disobey the words of Heinricion, so he was forced to send the trainer back.

However, Rowen stood by the side, saying he should see the fox tamed himself.

A long confrontation ensued between Heinricion and Eristella. First, Heinricion reached his hand out.

“Come. Paw.”

‘…….’

“Get down.”

‘…….’

“If you do, I will tell the chef to prepare a special menu for this evening. The best quality smoked beef that is crispy on the outside and moist on the inside…….”

Eristella’s heart began to shake little by little. One of the fox’s front paw lifted slightly toward the air.

Having captured that brief moment, Heinricion quickly grabbed that front paw. It was as if she had raised her paw herself.

The first time was difficult, the second time was no big deal.

“Hand.”

‘…….’

Tak.

Accompanied by a sulky face, a sloppy front paw rested on the palm of Heinricion.

The corners of Heinricion’s lips twitched uncontrollably.

With each try, Eristella followed his words better than the instance before.

Put your hand out, get down, get up — no one had dared to give orders to Princess Eristella until now.

Heinricion waved his hand slightly and ordered once more.

Tak.

In the end, Eristella placed her front paws on the hands of Heinricion.

“Listen to me, okay?”

Heinrich made a quiet signal and patted the fox’s head.

Eristella glared at him with pride, but due to Rowen, who was watching fiercely from the side, she had to lower her head to Heinricion, making a sniffing sound.