“For now, call other animals and tell them to take turns watching her. If she needs anything, you may bring it to her within reason.”

— Ah, then perhaps do you have some ointment for wounds?

The cat immediately mentioned additional supplies. Thinking that it would be more troublesome if the wounds worsened and needed treatment later, the beast found some ointment he had already prepared.

“Keep visiting her daily for now, watch her, and report everything.”

— Yes. Oh, can we leave the box tower as it is?

“……Fine.”

When the cats looked at him with sparkling, expectant eyes, the beast reluctantly agreed despite his displeasure. Thinking that they must really like that box tower thing, though he hadn’t seen it himself, the beast dismissed the excited cats.

Time he spent completely alone. He liked the silence that came after the chattering creatures disappeared. Burying his head between his folded arms, the beast stretched out his body again languidly.

“So she can talk to animals……”

From their first meeting, she had tried to converse so naturally—it turned out she had an ability different from ordinary humans. While the beast could communicate with animals due to the influence of the “curse,” he sensed no trace of a curse from that human. She seemed too carefree and positive to be cursed. And she didn’t appear to be a beast-person either. The beast quietly sank into thought for a while, recalling Olivia, who was difficult to figure out.

“I’ll have to see how to use her.”

Though he had imprisoned her because she had so brazenly offered to take the boy’s place, in reality, the human woman wasn’t particularly useful to the beast. If it had been the captured boy, at least his crime was clear, but imprisoning the human woman was partly him following a somewhat twisted impulse to make this positive human, who seemed to have grown up only receiving love, taste the bitterness of the world.

Even now, her relentlessly bright demeanor was indeed irritating, but knowing it was childish spite on his part sometimes made him feel pathetic.

As the beast’s concerns deepened, day by day, the prison at the top of the tower where Olivia was confined gradually transformed into something different.

“Hmm, wait, it’s, it’s heavy. Ugh……”

Olivia, who had been tossing and turning under an old blanket, felt a sudden heavy impact and barely opened her eyes while rubbing her stomach. The rabbit that had jumped onto her body to wake her was looking at her with proud eyes. Are wild animals always this aggressive? Olivia sat up and looked around at the noisy surroundings.

— The wolf couple in the east must have fought because it’s been so noisy for days that I can’t sleep.

— I thought wolves mate for life, so why are they always fighting?

— Exactly. They’re noisy during mating season, noisy when they fight normally—they really should move their den somewhere else, sheesh.

Should I know so much about other couples’ private affairs? Olivia glanced sideways at the squirrel group chattering away with an embarrassed expression. Seeing them cracking acorns while starting their gossip, it looked like they planned to talk until sunset again today. Next to them was a group of rabbits busily preparing carrots, and the narrow windowsill was crowded with birds lined up for a singing competition.

“This isn’t a prison or a room anymore……”

— Yaaaaaawn.

The cat playground made of stacked wooden boxes now hosted not only the black cat and cheese cat from the first day but also their friends—a calico cat and a gray striped cat—each occupying their own spot and yawning lazily.

She was certain there had only been two cats at first, but somehow this prison had become a popular spot for animals. Of course, while she liked animals, from Olivia’s perspective, it was warmer to be surrounded by everyone, even if somewhat noisy and chaotic, rather than being lonely here by herself.

“That’s a pretty blanket today?”

— Yes. You said the previous blanket was too old.

Moreover, the animals visiting this place were good friends who somehow managed to find and bring things that Olivia might need.

“You’re not stealing other people’s things, are you? Oh, I doubt someone’s providing these things.”

At her subtle question, the animals collectively froze and exchanged glances. She waited to see what answer they would give, but they soon simultaneously ignored her words and continued with their individual tasks.

Though the animals tried to pretend they didn’t know, their behavior gave them away, and Olivia fingered the blanket with gratitude. If she had to guess who in this mansion could provide such items, it would likely be that beast—who, unlike ordinary animals, seemed to be the Duke’s subordinate with special abilities.

“Tell them I said thank you.”

— What? What? Who, who should we tell what?

But since neither the beast nor the animals wanted to be discovered, they all firmly played innocent, so Olivia decided to go along with their act.

“Tell the god of fortune who made it possible to obtain these items that I’m grateful.”

When she responded with a joking smile, she could see the animals, who had been tense, visibly relax. I should make good use of what’s been given. Olivia spread the clean new blanket neatly over her knees and picked up a puppy that had been waiting its turn.

“But where do you all keep getting injured like this? You shouldn’t fight each other, okay?”

And along with this marketplace-like noisy scene, Olivia’s new routine lately involved treating animals that kept coming in with injuries. I didn’t expect to work as a healer here too. But in some ways, she was glad to be a healer. The forest had seemed like a peaceful and beautiful paradise, but quite a few animals came with minor injuries.

“I’m running out of the medicine I prepared.”

As the medicines and herbs she had packed when setting out to find Kale were running low, a complaint full of unintentional sadness escaped her.

— This much would heal quickly even if left alone.

“Then should I stop applying medicine?”

— But still! When you treat us, it doesn’t hurt, so keep treating! Hurry, hurry.

When Olivia slightly rolled her eyes and paused her hand applying medicine, the puppy lying obediently on her lap hurriedly licked the back of her hand, acting cute. Oh, come on. I wasn’t really going to stop treating you. Seeing the puppy looking up at her lovingly with winking eyes, Olivia finally burst into laughter and moved her paused hand.

“Anyway, injuries hurt. So don’t fight, and don’t get hurt.”

— We’re not fighting each other.

“But earlier you said the wolf couple was fighting……”

— No, no, not that kind of fighting. If we hurt or kill each other, the master will scold us. He said he’d chase us out of the forest.

The Duke seems to be quite a pacifist. As she picked up various stories about the Duke from the animals, she increasingly thought he might be quite different from the rumors. She had learned many unexpected facts.

The ‘Duke who was cursed for committing ruthless slaughter’ and the ‘Duke who hates animals fighting or hurting each other and declared peace’ seemed too extremely different to be the same person, didn’t they?

After gently patting the treated puppy’s bottom and organizing the empty medicine bottles, Olivia kept tilting her head with a puzzled expression. Then again, he did imprison Kale, so he seems cold, but he didn’t kill him. I really don’t know.

“Then why are you injured?”

— Ah, that’s…

The puppy’s voice, which was about to explain something, was drowned out by a sudden roar. Along with a thunderous roar, the tower shook slightly. Wondering if thunder and lightning had suddenly struck, she looked out the window, but the blue sky was still clear and the sun still blazed brightly.

“Did an earthquake happen?”

— It’s not that, but this will probably continue for the next few days. It might get a bit worse, so just get used to it.

The puppy responded casually, scratching its ear with its hind leg after standing up. Looking around, Olivia realized she was the only one startled by the strange phenomenon. Even though animals are more sensitive than humans to small sounds, the birds sitting by the window and the rabbits chatting seemed peaceful, as if the recent phenomenon wasn’t special. That strange calmness felt rather out of place.

“Is it dangerous?”

— Whether I should say it’s dangerous, or not dangerous…

As the puppy seemed to have difficulty answering and groaned while holding its head, the black cat clicked its tongue, approached, settled on Olivia’s warm lap, and resolved her curiosity.

— The mating season is about to begin.

“Mating season? Who? You all?”

— The, um, beast?

The tricolor cat, uncomfortable with the title “beast,” fidgeted with its innocent whiskers and slightly avoided her gaze.

“Ah, I suppose it’s not strange for animals to have mating seasons.”

Though the beast didn’t appear to be an ordinary animal, he still seemed closer to an animal than a person, so it wasn’t particularly strange that he had a mating season.