02. The Beast’s Lair

“Kale!”

Having climbed the stone stairs with difficulty, Olivia discovered Kale trapped in a huge cage and approached the bars. She called his name loudly as he lay on the floor, gripping the prison bars. Surely I’m not too late? Looking at Kale’s face, which looked thinner and paler than before, Olivia’s heart dropped. She carefully grasped Kale’s hand through the bars. Thankfully, she could still feel warmth. Olivia swallowed a sigh of relief and massaged his arm, which she could barely reach, to help him regain consciousness.

“Ol… ive?”

“Kale. Are you conscious?”

As if her desperation had reached him, Kale, who had been lying on the floor, opened his eyes and slowly rose. Though his cracked lips and weak complexion showed he wasn’t in good condition, it was a tremendous relief that he didn’t appear to be injured or wounded anywhere.

“I came looking for you because I thought you would have gone to this forest searching for herbs that could save Ricky.”

“Ah, ah! Ricky! What about Ricky?”

“Ricky is fine. I checked his condition as soon as I arrived and treated him well, so he’s healthy now. All that’s left is for you to return and welcome him. Your mother is very worried too.”

First, I need to get him out of this cage. Trying to explain the situation to Ricky, she examined the prison bars here and there, but couldn’t find anything that looked like a door. A prison without a door? Confused, Olivia fumbled with the bars, searching for a way to open the cage, not noticing the shadow looming over her.

“Ol, Oli, ve……”

“Kale. Do you remember how you got in? A door, or maybe a hidden lock?”

“Be, behind, behind you……. Aaaaargh!”

CRASH! Suddenly, something heavy struck the cage violently. At the deafening sound, Olivia clutched her head and collapsed to the floor. Kale, terrified and crawling backward, screamed and fainted when a large beast’s paw swung at him in front of his eyes.

The growling sound of a beast came from behind her. Olivia, sitting on the floor, trembled as she slowly turned around.

“Grrrrrr.”

A low, rough growl like sharp metal scraping against rock and a sharp energy that felt like it was stabbing into her flesh overwhelmed Olivia. Though she wanted to faint like Kale, Olivia barely held onto her fragile mental thread with the adult responsibility of protecting a child like Kale.

“H-h-hello?”

The enormous beast wrinkled its nose at the absurd greeting that seemed hard to believe came from the mouth of a frightened human. As he approached with heavy steps, she retreated, feeling the floor behind her, though there was nowhere to escape. She was clearly as terrified as the unconscious human, yet the woman, who didn’t look particularly strong, stared straight at him without avoiding his gaze. Had her eyes frozen from shock? The beast stared at Olivia with a somewhat contemptuous look.

“I’m not a bad, bad person, I just want to talk, a little, with you, if that’s okay?”

Doesn’t that terribly trembling voice and reckless audacity to request a conversation seem mismatched? Faced with this novel reaction he’d never encountered before, the beast’s mood gradually shifted from irritation at the intruder’s appearance to bewilderment. With just one swing of his hand, the human before him would be torn to shreds immediately, yet in this situation, she casually asked for a conversation. No, what’s more surprising than anything was her astounding imagination to think she could converse with a beast in animal form.

Unable to know what the beast was thinking, Olivia took hope in the fact that he hadn’t attacked her immediately and was just looking at her with a somewhat dumbfounded expression. She quickly knelt down and looked up at him obediently.

Of course, even this, from the beast’s perspective, looked like she was offering herself up saying ‘Please eat me,’ bringing a second wave of bewilderment. So, contrary to his initial plan, the beast finally spoke first.

“What are you?”

“Ah! Thank goodness. I can understand you.”

Worried that the beast might be in a different category from animals and communication might not be possible, Olivia was momentarily greatly relieved that she could understand what the beast was saying.

But her briefly positive expression amid the serious situation made the beast even more dumbfounded. A strangeness beyond bewilderment, like facing an unknown life form. The beast raised his large front paw toward Olivia’s head.

“Ugh!”

Seeing her squeeze her eyes shut and shrink her neck, she seemed genuinely scared. The beast halfheartedly tapped Olivia’s head with his large hand as she crouched down and trembled violently. She is human after all…… After confirming Olivia’s identity again, the beast roughly rubbed his palm on the floor, disgusted by the human trace on his hand.

Though the beast merely touched her lightly, Olivia felt a heavy impact that made her neck stiff. Still, he didn’t seem intent on killing her, so after the weight pressing on her head disappeared, she cautiously opened her eyes again. He’s not trying to kill me right away. She needed to convey her sincerity before he changed his mind.

“First, I sincerely apologize for both Kale and myself entering the mansion without permission.”

“……”

“We absolutely had no intention of harming the Duke……”

As Olivia was apologizing politely to the beast, she belatedly wondered whether the beast she was facing was actually the Duke. She had naturally assumed he was, but as they talked, she realized there were many differences from the description in the legend.

First, though imposing, the figure before her resembled a giant beast, animal, wild creature, or large wolf rather than the terrifying and disgusting monster described. He didn’t give the impression of being repulsive or unpleasant.

And the fact that he didn’t attack her immediately despite approaching threateningly, and that he was an intelligent being capable of conversation, made her think he was somehow different from the ruthless duke who supposedly went mad with a love for slaughter.

“……Are you the Duke?”

“No.”

The question came with her head tilted to the side, and his reflexive denial sprang forth. This was an instinctive aversion—if this strange human was looking for the Duke, his intuition told him it would be better not to get involved. The beast already knew that while dealing with bad humans was one thing, strange humans only brought more trouble the more you engaged with them.

“I am the guardian who ensures that the human trapped in there doesn’t escape.”

“I see.”

So you’re the Duke’s subordinate. Olivia quietly muttered to herself. Of course, the beast heard everything, so whether it was truly a soliloquy is questionable, but he didn’t comment and merely waved his front paws dismissively with an annoyed expression.

“If you leave this forest right now, I’ll overlook it once. After all, you haven’t stolen anything yet.”

“Then what about Kale……”

“That one is not possible. I cannot simply release someone who touched the garden.”

“By saying Kale touched it, do you mean……”

“He was caught trying to steal the linthes flower from the garden.”

Olivia squeezed her eyes shut and opened them at the expected answer. The explanation from the page spread on the desk came back to her vividly. Finding the linthes flower to save Ricky was certainly praiseworthy, but if it happened to be a crop the Duke was ‘growing’ in his garden, she couldn’t deny that it was theft, as the beast said, and had nothing to say. I should have come earlier. The bitter regret she had chewed over many times welled up again.

“Kale did that because his bird was so sick and he wanted to heal it somehow, couldn’t you forgive him just this once?”

“Did the bird die then?”

“What?”

“I asked if the bird died because he couldn’t take the linthes flower.”

“No, but……”

“So there was a way to save the bird without stealing the flower. Yet that human still stole from the Duke’s garden?”

“That’s—!”

The words ‘Isn’t that too results-oriented?’ rose to her throat, but Olivia tactfully kept her mouth shut. But still! However, she couldn’t hide the ‘I have a lot to say’ expression blooming across her face. The beast read the faint trace of dissatisfaction on her sullen face and narrowed his eyes.

“If that flower was for saving the bird’s life, I’ll give up that human if you give up the bird’s life in exchange. Since the flower was for the bird’s life, it seems fair to receive the bird’s life as payment, for balance, don’t you think?”

“……”

“If you refuse this too, then what you want is for me to release that thieving human without any compensation. Asking for forgiveness unconditionally shows a lack of conscience.”

Though she wanted to refute him somewhere, everything he said was increasingly correct, leaving her speechless. The theft was a fact, and it was also true that forgiveness depended entirely on the other party’s heart and couldn’t be forced.

“So you’re saying he must pay a price appropriate to the crime committed?”

“Yes. And let me clarify again since you seem to be confused. I already said I cannot give that one up, but you are free to go. If you insist on being imprisoned together, I won’t stop you either.”