Vol 4 Chapter 1 (2/2)
”A, and all of you, as well! Why did you not try to stop Honored Brother when he attempted to take away his plate personally?!”
”If I may, Miss Ferret…” One of the maids said with a curtsey ”Master Relic is the current Lord and the one whose orders we must prioritize over all others We also advised him on this very matter once, but Master Relic answered with a smile that he would prefer to take his plates hi his orders”
”…”
Having been the one to bring up hierarchy in the first place, Ferret could not find a response Seeing his chance, Relic joined the conversation
”Yeah, Ferret Don’t blame the maids”
”H, Honored Brother!”
But what Relic did not take into account was the fact that the maids also served Ferret as their mistress The one who had answered Ferret turned to Relic with a deep bow
”If I may, Master Relic, I wish to advise you once more”
”Yes?”
”Trifling things like taking away the plates are jobs that we have been assigned and have accepted as our own So unless it is an act derived of great deterrateful if you allowed us to continue with the ere assigned”
”…”
This time, Relic was the one lost for a response He looked at the ain And eventually, he sighed in defeat and gently laid down his plate
”I'o before I becoood master to everyone”
At Relic's sincere apology, the ether
Abeside Ferret whispered to her,
”If I er is not a very effective tool for chiding Master Relic”
”…!”
”After all, he could dismiss even the wisest piece of advice as an emotional outburst”
”…I understand” Ferret answered, sighing just as her brother had The ently and said in a rather casual tone for a servant,
”It looks like you owe me one, Miss Ferret”
”Ohh…”
Were the ht have lashed out at the herself to show such indignation towards the maids who had been like mothers to the in debt to the ood hu more at ease
Re the fact that even her adoptive father Gerhardt, the forue with theinfluence
”Allow us to serve you soan to clear the table with sraceful ht And before he knew it, the plates and utensils were off the table The reant tablecloth, giving way to an air of relaxation
”Um, thank you”
'They're really a, no matter how many times I see them work'
Although Relic saw the maids use their incredible skills every day, he was constantly floored by their expertise
And each tied him:
'Do I really deserve to call myself their master?'
It was not only the maids
This island was ho vampires and olves Under the protection of Waldstein Castle, they lived out their own lifestyles alongside—or separately from—humans
The Lord of Waldstein Castleto the humans of Growerth But for those like Relic—those huful one
Did he really have what it took to claim such a role, Relic wondered
Although his doubt continued, he had already accepted his position He could not allow himself to allow his trepidation to become his weakness
Thus, Relic looked at his own position head-on
At the sahtly about his sister
”Say, Ferret?”
”Yes, Honored Brother?”
Their argu somewhat cold
But Relic's question turned the air around her upside-down
”Why don't you go hang out with Mihail once in a while?”
”Pardon…?!”
The stiff nobility of her bearing collapsed in an instant And for a e returned to Ferret's face as she gaped in shock
But that quickly faded, and Ferret gritted her teeth to gather her wits once id
”…It see to me for quite some time now, Honored Brother”
”I'” Relic said firmly
Relic's sudden turn for the serious silenced Ferret for a moment
”You've been overdoing yourself, haven't you?”
”Wh, what do you mean? I do not-”
”I can see right through you, Ferret”
”…”
Ferret went silent Relic put down his cup of tea and addressed her, sounding slightly sad
”It's written on your face Before, you used to react and respond to Mihail, even if you were just getting angry at him But now… you don't even try to meet him in person”
”That is not-”
”I told you before Mihail's injuries weren't your fault”
”…”
The girl in the black dress was at a loss for words She slowly stood from her seat
And without having properly defined her feelings for Mihail, she answered her brother
”…There is nothat fact if I cannot accept it” She said mechanically, her eyes downcast as she turned away fro unwell; I will retire early”
”Hey, Ferret!” Relic called after her, but his sister left, her footsteps echoing in the darkness
”…D'you think maybe I shouldn't have said that?” Relic asked the maid beside him, after the footsteps faded and silence returned to the dining room
The antly and responded with advice
”If I may be direct, Master Relic You tend to be much too blunt On many occasions, relationshi+ps between men and women are healed by time And I believe it will take quite some time before Miss Ferret's heart is healed Just the same as Mihail's injuries”
”Tiet that, but… if ait for her to heal by ourperception of time…”
What worried Relic was the difference between vampires and humans
Although he knew that they were the same at heart, there were still some insurmountable physical differences between the two species
Because Ferret was ienerative capabilities, she was able to live like an ordinary hu that still separated her from them
Vampires could live for centuries—or even eternity If they tried to interact with the world by their perception of ti Mihail behind in the shadows of the past
This hat Relic thought, but one of the maids replied,
”We can tell that Miss Ferret isn't the only one whose heart is troubled, Master Relic”
”What?”
”We aren't referring to decades' worth of time Perhaps a year or two, at most”
”B, but even that's a very long time by human standards, isn't it?” Relic asked anxiously A bespectacled entle smile and answered
”You are only speaking froe, not experience, Master Relic The difference in our perception of time from that of humans only becomes noticeable after fifty, a hundred, or perhaps two hundred years You are still essentially living at the sas”
”B, but…”
”Master Relic, we have known Mihail for quite sos for Miss Ferret would wane so quickly”
A short-haired maid chimed in with a chuckle
”You won't say you didn't already knoould you? Master Relic, you know Mihail too well”
”…”
As Relic went silent, the maid who spoke to him first refilled his cup of tea and whispered with a bow
”However… we do admire just how much you cherish Miss Ferret, Master”
”…You're all incredible”
Although he sounded defeated, Relic looked satisfied as he brought his teacup to his lips
Savoring the clean, aromatic taste, he flashed a smile at the maids
”Thank you I guess I s”
”Not at all We apologize for having been so direct”
Relic was struck by the grace hich the er these vareen must have lived
And so, as he marveled at the maids once more, Relic decided to voice a question that suddenly came up in his mind
”Come to think of it… Just how old are you, everyone?”
The ently scolded him
”A gentlee, Master Relic”
<=>
Ferret's room
”…I'm awful…”
Ferret had returned to her own roo herself
”How could I take out er on Honored Brother like that?”
Including her elegant covers, the interior of her room was a textbook example of an aristocrat's bedroo was a slight mismatch with the atmosphere, but even it was much more luxurious than a desk from the home of an ordinary family
Normally, Ferret played a part perfectly matched to the refined and noble interior of this room But now, she was curled up like a little bird trapped in her cage
On her o
It was on the first day of the island's annual celebration, the Carnale Festival
Mihail was dragged into the attack of a Hunter as targeting her, and was left with devastating injuries
Feeling the brunt of the guilt for the incident, Ferret was overjoyed to hear several months later that Mihail had finished his rehabilitation and was being discharged from the hospital
But the guilt of having gotten him involved drove a tiny splinter into her heart, in spite of the fact that Mihail did not blame her
The sensation of sout
Too often this sensation clawed at her emotions
One week since Mihail was discharged from the hospital, he visited the castle with his sister Hilda Thethem tea
Out of habit, Mihail reached for his cup with his right hand
But partway through the action, he pulled his right arm away and picked up the cup with his left hand
That was all
Drinking his tea as though nothing rong, he energetically complimented the taste and thanked the maids
But that single scene etched itself into Ferret's hts like a knife
”Although he can still ain the use of the fingers, even with rehabilitation”
This was the reality presented to her by the doctor
The moment she heard this, Ferret sank deep into sadness
But when she saw Mihail and his unchanging suilt
At least, until she saw his uners with her own eyes
Seeing was believing
No ed the fact ahead of ti even her character
Ferret's heart was left viciously shaken Only the memory of the violence done to Mihail continued to resurface in her thoughts
For her, the powerless Mihail would stand up against any adversity; adversity that he could not defeat—adversity that could kill him
Again and again
Again and again and again and again
He would go so far for Ferret, who never showed him an ounce of warmth
In Ferret's ether on top of one another And so, she found herself unable to say a word
For the first time, she felt a sense of distance between herself and Mihail, who continued to behave cheerfully even with full knowledge of what had happened to him
And she ended up realizing so
The difference between humans and vampires
The wall that stood between humans and vampires divided her from him in a way she had never once considered
Her body was different from that of a human
Some injuries, she was reminded, could not be healed
Of course, even vampires had many weaknesses In many cases, wounds inflicted by silver would never heal And it was difficult to return to life once a vampire had been turned to ashes But in that sense, even huh the heart with a stake And though they were iht, humans could be killed and turned to ash by fire
In spite of their weaknesses, vampires were much more resilient than hu an unusual vae, had no special abilities, in some ways Ferret was even further removed from humans than other vampires by virtue of her perpetuity
This hy she was so stricken with fear
The fear slowly grew as she began to understand her repressed feelings for Mihail
The siht that she and Mihail were different fanned the flauilt
Love between humans and vampires
Mihail had already crossed the boundary without even blinking
But that sa for all the world like an indomitable fortress
She had never dreamed this would happen
That the day would coside someone other than Relic
That she would co was impossible
Although she had the ability to suck blood, Ferret could not turn the humans whose blood she drank
This was confirmed on the day of the incident, when she attempted to turn Mihail in order to save his life
'…What exactly do I want of Mihail?'
Her brother Relic could probably turn Mihail into a vampire
And if Ferret wished, Mihail would give up his humanity without hesitation
But was it forgivable to turn a human into a vampire for her own selfish reasons?
She questioned herself, beset by a kind of confusion she had never felt before in her life
When her brother pinpointed exactly what she was feeling, Ferret was driven further into self-hatred She was now clinging to a hope even
'…I want to see him'
The boy she was treating coldly for the sole reason of hisher uncomfortable
If she met him, the wounds in her heart would only deepen
But on the other hand, it also felt as though hearing his voice could heal those hurts
'…'
As she agonized over her contradicting emotions, another fear reared its head in her heart
She had received no word from Mihail in the past few days
Until recently, he had come to the castle every day to try and meet with her But he had been silent now for several days
'What if he hates me now?'
Before, in spite of her chilly attitude, she still interacted with Mihail But for so him in person
On one hand, she acknowledged that Mihail had every right to stop liking her at this point On the other, she was also afraid that he blamed and resented her
'…'
And she hated herself for suspecting such a thing, if only for a moment
In the midst of hera stuffed animal that was beside her bed
'How childish ofto put it back where it belonged But then,
'Wait…'
The stuffed anin
It was even ruous in her Gothic bedroom than her desk and her travel coffin
'This was from Mihail…'
Only several days after his very first confession to Ferret, Mihail had coht lovable stuffed animal he had acquired somehow
At first, she coht of me, an aristocrat? I a this aould be discourteous to the one who put heart and soul intothis stuffed animal, so perhaps I shall donate it to so to receive it and treasure it with all her heart
Her eyesher of that day Ferret's eyes stung with tears
She sat hanging her head for several minutes But she eventually wiped her face and slowly looked up at the ceiling
”…I'll go see him… tomorrow”
But her resolve to see hi better
The gap between therow more pronounced
But Ferret had made up her mind
To
She would throay pretenses and forget her noble status, being true to her honest feelings
Even if her resolve would end in saying her goodbye to hi nothing as they grew more and more distant That would be an insult to Mihail
As Ferret closed her eyes, her an to play in the darkness
Scenes of happy times and painful times alike
And seeing the boy's smile in her memories, Ferret sank into peaceful sleep for the first time in a month
But she still didn't fully understand the boy named Mihail
It elve hours later that she realized he was ave him credit for
Put frankly, Mihail Dietrich was somehow different from ordinary humans
Of course, this was probably why he was able to steal Ferret's heart away in the first place
<=>
The next day Mihail's house
”…He's… not here?”
Ferret was visiting a ho a parasol But greeting her at the entrance was Mihail’s sister and Relic's girlfriend Hilda
”No Sorry you had to come all this way”
”Not at all It is lected to contact you ahead of time In that case… When will he return? I shall come back when he is home”
Ferret had made up her mind to drop her noble mannerisms, but theback on old habits
In the past, she had been jealous of Hilda for daring to take away her fa
But that jealousy faded before it could ever turn to hate, and now they were good friends Perhaps even this was thanks to Mihail showering her with affection
If Mihail did not exist, perhaps Ferret would have lost herself to envy and harmed Hilda to keep her away from Relic
She was reminded once more of just how much Mihail had affected her She remembered that she truly needed to see him soon
Ferret waited for Hilda's ansondering where she should kill time while she waited
”Um… well… Ferret?”
”?”
”I'd love to invite you for some tea while you wait for him, but…”
Hilda sounded slightly aard Ferret could feel anxiety creeping on her thoughts
Ferret knew that the Dietrich siblings' parents despised vampires
Perhaps they had locked Mihail in the baseain
As Ferret worried with a strangely aristocrat-appropriate ihed and told her the truth
”Mihail won't come back to Growerth until next week”
”Pardon?”
”He said he found a part-ti him room and board”
”Wh, what? Where?!”
Hilda’s eyes turned to dinner plates at Ferret’s reaction But she realized that, for so to meet Mihail
Hilda looked at her friend, who looked unusually deter her an answer
”He said I shouldn't tell you or Relic, but… I guess I can't keep this a secret I was just wondering if I should tell Relic or not”
”Wh, what do you mean?”
”Well, it's about Mihail's part-time job…”
Hilda trailed off, sighed deeply, and continued
Her answer, in fact, needed a sort of determination to put into words
”Those Eaters who hurt you and Mihail… Mihail is working at the same place they are”
”…Pardon?”
”I only heard about it on the phone this otten a job on the mainland…”
'What did she just say…?
'The mainland?
'Eaters?
'Could she be talking about shi+zune Kijima? Or… it can't be…
'That armored man…?
'A… a part-time job?!'
She was so perplexed that her thoughts faltered
Unable to comprehend Hilda's answer for a moment, Ferret asked,
”Wh, what do you mean by that?”
”Apparently soo And I think he liked Mihail, so he offered him a part-time job I tried to stop Mihail, but he said he checked with the viscount through e up And he told our parents he was doing volunteer work for Growerth They'd obviously try to stop hi involved with vampires”
Hilda explained everything patiently Anyone with a grasp of hue could understand what she meant
Including Ferret
”…”
”I know your father is going to be there, but I'ood people there… but the people who hurt you and Mihail are there too”
Hilda hung her head This time, Ferret's eyes had turned to dinner plates
She gaped silently like a beached fish, her sharp fangs e into view
And before she knew it, her fists were tre as she spat quietly,
”Do not…”
”'Do not'?”
”Do not worry, Hilda”
Ferret's beautiful, pale face contorted very slightly as she declared,
”I shall contact Father i that foolish Mihail back to Growerth!”
As Hilda watched her friend run off, a smile rose to her lips
Although Ferret did not yet notice, Hilda had realized that she was back to her old self
Hilda was, of course, worried for her brother But she was evenvery troubled for so Mihail back was al
”…She's not going to follow him to the mainland, is she?”
Hilda, slightly nervous, decided to prepare to leave as well She did not want to be late for the ed from the coffin that sheltered him from the sun
But Hilda had underestimated Ferret
Although Ferret was indeed back to her old self, the ht continued to drive her She was still stuck with tunnel vision
By the time Hilda came to visit Relic's room, Ferret was already on a shi+p headed for the mainland
Still dressed in her fancy clothing, she departed for the sole reason of dragging Mihail back—by force if necessary
And so, whether he was present or not, Mihail continued to play a great part in Ferret's life even today
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