“Ah! I’m the…”

I’m the duck that ran away from that room.

Bestia couldn’t voice her inner thoughts. Instead, she lightly tapped her mouth… no, her lips with her hand for speaking without thinking.

“Hmm. Anyway, this is not the time for me to be like this.”

Duke didn’t pay much attention to her hitting her own mouth with her hand. There was something more important.

“Have you by any chance seen a duck?”

“A-a duck?”

“Yes. That quacking duck.”

The duck was what mattered to him now. The emperor’s duck that he had lost while being distracted. In his decades of palace life, it was the first time he had made such an embarrassing mistake. Duke rubbed his wrinkled forehead with his hand.

“Oh my. To lose a duck that His Majesty cherishes so-“

“Um… I am that duck.”

“What?”

And Bestia interrupted his muttering. It was the moment when the footsteps of the guards were heard from the end of the corridor. With a chill running down her spine, there was only one option.

“It’s true. I am that duck. The duck with motion sickness.”

Bestia decided to become a duck again to survive. No, she didn’t know how to become a duck yet, but she thought Duke might know. If asked why, she could only say it was like grasping at straws.

“You are… the duck?”

“Yes. Um… But. I need to become a duck again. Could you help me?”

After exchanging glances, the two people in the corridor moved to a different location. It was Duke’s office. Bestia poured out her situation in detail.

“Oh my… Hearing it all, it does seem that you are indeed that duck.”

Duke only opened his mouth after the entire story was finished. He nodded his head, but still wore an expression of disbelief.

“I’m telling you, it’s true. Grandfather Chancellor, you left me here and talked about taxes with some man, didn’t you?”

Bestia pointed to the place where she had been as a duck.

“That’s right. Fortunately, we corrected the error midway.”

“Meanwhile, I was wandering around thinking of escaping, and then I met His Majesty.”

“Oh my. In that Memorial Hall?”

As if cross-checking, Duke voiced what he had heard. He was trying to confirm if Bestia’s story was consistent.

“Yes. It was terrifying. He immediately started talking about prison!”

Bestia didn’t notice his intention. The chilling image of Caenian she had encountered in the Memorial Hall came to mind again. A chill ran down her spine. Shivering from the creepy feeling, she wrapped her arms around herself.

“I see… So you want to avoid danger by becoming a duck again.”

“Yes… I thought if he gets distracted by the duck, he might forget seeing me.”

Only then did Duke nod in acknowledgment. Bestia nodded with a gloomy face at his words. Things had gotten too complicated.

She had intended to go home as soon as she returned to human form, but now…

To think she had to become a duck again to survive!

“Will you help me? Please. You saw the guards patrolling, didn’t you?”

“Hmm…”

“His Majesty was very angry. If he can’t find me, I think he might really issue a wanted order.”

Recalling Caenian’s frightening face, Bestia made a tearful expression. She desperately needed to become a duck. Until just a moment ago, she had wanted so badly to become human, but now it was different.

The only way she could think of to calm the emperor’s madness was to become a duck. Unless Duke had a better idea, that is.

“I might really end up in prison. Grandfather Chancellor…”

Not only were her eyes brimming with tears, but she also clasped her hands together. Her pitifulness was further emphasized.

“Hmm…”

Duke, who knew Caenian’s personality all too well, remained silent. Caenian Ruvan was a man who possessed half of the former empress’s generosity and half of the former emperor’s cruelty.

After a long while, Duke finally spoke.

“Putting everything else aside, the problem is that you entered the Memorial Hall of all places. That’s the place His Majesty cherishes the most.”

“Sob… I didn’t know anything.”

“Yes. That couldn’t be helped.”

Bestia’s shoulders slumped, dejected. If only she could turn back time.

“…Yes. I should have just stayed quietly as a duck. If I had known things would turn out like this…”

She had made things worse by getting excited about going home. Nothing had gone as planned today; it was a complete mess. Seeing Bestia on the verge of tears, Duke made a bitter expression.

It felt like seeing his long-lost granddaughter. Although they looked different, the atmosphere they gave off was similar. Bright, clean, and pure. That kind of image.

“Alright. I’ll help you.”

Duke decided to trust Bestia. Caenian had shown special attention to the duck, not knowing it was a beastman. So, the duck’s sudden disappearance would also be a problem. He couldn’t just say he had released the duck on his own for the treatment of its motion sickness.

“Beastmen can originally change their form at will.”

“Gasp! Really? Then why can’t I…”

“That’s naturally acquired as you grow… Huh, listen to the end of what I’m saying. You’re a duck beastman, aren’t you?”

“What? Why does it matter that I’m a duck beastman?”

Tsk tsk.

Duke clicked his tongue and gestured to Bestia, who had interrupted him. At his action, Bestia closed her gaping mouth.

“Well, you see. It’s been decades since I last saw a duck beastman…”

Duke closed his mouth, facing the blinking girl. His deepened forehead wrinkles and furrowed brow were filled with anguish.

Generally, all beastmen changed their form according to instinct. It was said that their mental strength was determined by how well their reason controlled that instinct. Sometimes, there was even a competitive psychology that more intelligent beastmen stayed in human form longer.

However, not everyone changed form solely on instinct. Each had their own unique characteristic. For instance, in the case of black pelicans…

“We black pelican beastmen are weak to salty sea breeze. No matter how much we try to maintain our reason. Sometimes on days when we’re not feeling well, we suddenly transform just from eating food that’s too salty.”

“But I didn’t eat any salt?”

“You’re a duck, aren’t you? You didn’t listen to me properly.”

“Sob…”

Bestia immediately became dejected. She felt sorry for Duke and grateful at the same time. She missed Aesop and Garnet who would be waiting for her at home.

How long would it take for the emperor to forget my face? Would four days be enough?

I hope I don’t have to stay here for more than a week?

She regretted not thinking before acting. She should have run away as soon as she changed from a duck to a human. How stupid of her to stay and incur the emperor’s dislike. It was terrible.

I absolutely can’t be marked as a wanted person!

No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t gauge when she would be out of the emperor’s attention. Bestia hung her head low. She felt like crying. Her rushed emotions gradually subsided. But at that moment, Caenian’s face came to mind.

The tears welling up in his eyes.

The strong scent she felt up close.

The hand that gripped her wrist tightly.

Thump thump, bang!

“Ah!”

“That’s right! I had that!”

The woman, still unaware of her own feelings, made a foolish sound. It coincided with Duke closing the book he was reading.

“What is it?”

Bestia looked at Duke. She immediately forgot what she had just recalled. Right now, the matter of life and death was far more important, so she quickly forgot about the unknown emotion. And in Duke’s hand, who had opened the drawer with a meaningful face, was a small bead.

“After hearing your whole story, whether it’s because I’m old or not, I overlooked something. Your characteristic is probably fear.”

“What? Fear?”

“That’s right. You should be able to transform when faced with an extremely fearful situation.”

Bestia received the bead from Duke. Her curious blue eyes reflected on the transparent surface of the bead. At that moment, a bright light burst from the bead.

─ Quack! (Aah!)

The bright light dazzled her eyes, and her palm felt as if it had been struck by lightning. Natural stimulation raised her fear.

─ Quaaack! (What is this!)

And so, Bestia, feeling fear, turned into a duck in an instant.

“Ho ho, it’s our family heirloom. A transparent salt bead.”

─ Quack? (Heirloom?)

“Seeing that you don’t know what it is, it seems you never had the chance to inherit an heirloom.”

─ Quack. (Not at all.)

“I see. That bead is the salt bead heirloom of our black pelican beastman family. I’ll lend it to you for a while.”

─ Quack? (Will this help me?)

“Of course. It will amplify your fear and help you change form when needed.”

Every beastman family had an heirloom. Most were in the form of beads, which could be used to receive help from ancestors when needed.