“Look at that. It has such an understanding expression about maintaining palace order!”

─ Quack? (Me?)

People standing around Caenian also breathed a sigh of relief at the long-awaited banter. Duke exchanged glances with one of them. It was Potters.

“Your Majesty, please receive the duck from the Chancellor. It’s been 36 minutes and 18 seconds.”

“Oh, Sir Potters, as expected of my reliable guard. If only you had been guarding the Memorial Hall as well.”

“Didn’t you once tell me not to come near because my footsteps were too noisy?”

Potters chimed in with Duke’s words. The two were quite in sync. Caenian smiled with satisfaction at his words, while Potters kept a straight face. But whether he did or not, the emperor’s eyes were only on the duck. He stretched out his arms towards the duck.

“My duck! Come here!”

Duke responded by placing the duck on the floor.

“Your Majesty, please look. It has become very healthy.”

─ Quack quack? (Do we really have to do this?)

Bestia looked back at Duke. Duke nodded and even gestured. It meant for her to walk.

─ Quack….. (Sigh…..)

“Duckie!”

Soon, one of the cute duck feet rose in the air. The moment Bestia took a step, Caenian also stood up abruptly.

Tap! Tap!

The duck that had been languishing started walking vigorously. The duck that had been limp until 36 minutes and 18 seconds ago was no longer here.

Only a cute duck walking energetically, waddling along!

“Yes! That’s right! Come here. My duck!”

─ Quaaack. (Why am I yours.)

“Coochie coo. Well done! Just a little more! That’s it!”

─ Quack….. (You were acting like you wanted to kill me earlier…..)

Caenian’s gaze, his actions… everything was overwhelming. Bestia wanted to stop walking. It was uncomfortable going to someone who showed different faces when she was a duck and when she was human. But to preserve her duck life for now, this was the only way!

But why was this office so wide? Why were her legs so short? Why was everyone staring at her as she waddled? Bestia’s throat was parched, but she still walked hard.

“That’s right! You’re almost there! Well done, well done, well done. My baby, my baby, my baby.”

She got closer and closer to Caenian. Caenian was fidgeting with excitement. He even clapped his hands, so pleased and excited. He had no idea that the woman he had threatened to throw in prison was this duck.

What kind of behavior is this?

Has the emperor gone mad?

Does His Majesty have a duck f*tish?

The people around were red-faced trying to manage their expressions. Potters, who couldn’t hold back his laughter until the end, burst out laughing. He quickly covered his mouth, but cold gazes were directed at him.

“Sir Potters.”

“I’m sorry, Your Majesty. There was dust in my nose…”

─ Quack! (Arrived!)

Bestia, who had just arrived at Caenian’s feet, quacked.

“Duckie! I am so proud of you!”

Caenian quickly hugged Bestia. It was a critical moment.

“Phew.”

Potters wiped his startled chest. If Bestia hadn’t arrived at the right time, who knows what he would have heard. It was terrifying just to imagine.

“Let’s see. Is your motion sickness better?”

─ Quack. (Of course.)

“Your neck strength has returned, your eyes are bright. Your bottom…”

─ Quack! Quaaack! (You pervert! Where are you trying to look!)

Caenian’s gaze was serious as he examined various parts of Bestia’s body. He lifted her wings, opened her beak to look inside her mouth. Finally, when he lifted her tail, Bestia flapped.

“Duckie! Thank goodness! Thank goodness! To see your originally prickly yet cute nature again!”

Caenian smiled broadly at that lively reaction.

─ Quack? (I’m prickly?)

Who’s making a calm person, no, beastman prickly?

Bestia opened her beak in disbelief. She couldn’t understand Caenian acting so familiar when they had just met today. Why was he paying attention to a mere duck when he must have many people around him as an emperor?

Besides, I remember you saying you’d throw me in prison earlier, you two-faced person!

“Chancellor! Excellent! How did you cure the duck’s motion sickness in just 30 minutes? What did you feed it?”

Bestia quacked in Caenian’s arms. Meanwhile, Caenian bombarded Duke with questions. His hand was constantly stroking Bestia.

“That’s a secret, Your Majesty.”

“What? I am the emperor, Chancellor. To think you’re hiding something from the emperor. I’m disappointed in you in many ways today.”

“Hiding? Not at all. It’s just that this is our family secret, and it could be dangerous if too many people knew…”

“Chancellor, are you saying I’m a dangerous person to you?”

“Your Majesty, I am the last black pelican beastman in this empire. You know what I mean.”

Duke looked straight at Caenian as he spoke. A moment of silence fell.

─ Quack? (What’s this?)

Bestia raised her head. The hand stroking her head had stopped. As she looked back and forth between Caenian and Duke, the atmosphere felt strange. Duke’s gaze was not that of a servant towards his master.

“I shall take my leave now.”

“…You may go, Chancellor.”

Suddenly, Duke bowed. When he raised his head, the fiery look in his eyes was gone.

Did I see wrong?

Bestia tilted her head. She was sure she had seen anger in his gaze towards Caenian.

“Hah… How bitter.”

After Duke disappeared, Caenian let out a long sigh. With a few hand gestures, the rest of the attendants also left. Potters also disappeared, reading the mood. Now only Caenian and Bestia remained in the office. Silence fell.

“Strange things keep happening today.”

─ Quack. (Me too.)

“Duckie, you wouldn’t know.”

─ Quack? (Know what?)

The silence was broken after a while. Caenian opened his mouth. Unlike his energetic voice until now, it was a heavy bass. Bestia was taken aback.

“You… yes… I envy you.”

─ Quack? (Suddenly?)

What’s this? This unexpected melancholy?

Bestia blinked her blue eyes. The face she had to crane her neck to see was dark. Caenian, noticing her gaze, raised his hand.

“Duckie, I am the emperor of this Delta Empire. A being responsible for correcting the past, leading the present, and showing a better future to the empire’s people. That’s how I learned about my role.”

Right in front of her was the face of a deeply troubled man. Their eyes met. The cheerful and authoritative demeanor was nowhere to be seen. The energy he had shown when grabbing her wrist was also gone. Her gaze went to his slightly furrowed brow and deep eyes. Bestia sat quietly on Caenian’s hand.

“Does that mean you want me to continue?”

─ Quaaack. (If you have something to say.)

“Ha, here I am doing all sorts of things with a duck I can’t even communicate with… Well, since it’s come to this, I’d like you to listen to me. Bonobono doesn’t even lend an ear to my words anymore.”

─ Quack? (Bonobono?)

“You see, I hated my father. I disliked the former emperor who plunged the empire into terror, claiming to protect me.”

Caenian let out a bitter laugh and started talking to himself. Bestia listened quietly. Her curiosity about the being called Bonobono in his words was quickly forgotten. She couldn’t ask anyway since they couldn’t communicate.

“I have almost no memories of spending time with my father. He was busy, you see. He was sensitive and always trembling with fear of something I didn’t know. He only said he loved his young son with words.”

─ Quack. (I see.)

“So, I was always hungry for attention and love. Yes. I didn’t understand those feelings well then, but as I grew older, I came to understand. People might say what could a prince possibly lack, but…”

─ Quaaack….. (Love…..)

Bestia made a sound as if she was squeezing it out. She empathized with Caenian’s words. It wasn’t that Aesop and Garnet gave her less love. It just meant that she herself had been thirsty for identity and a sense of belonging. For her real parents, real family.

“Why does your expression look sad? Hmm… Anyway. I needed someone to share love with, and I found them. That someone was animals.”

─ Quack? (Animals?)

“The former emperor rejected beastmen and was suspicious of animals too. Saying beastmen and animals were just a hair’s breadth apart, he started by catching everything he saw.”

─ Quack! (Eek!)

“And eventually… even the squirrel that helped me when I got lost playing alone in the vast palace garden was killed by my father’s hand.”

─ Quaaack! (That’s too cruel!)

A chill ran down her spine for a moment. Bestia let out a loud quack. Her fluffy down stood on end. She blinked her wide blue eyes. It meant how could someone kill an animal in front of a child.

‘Don’t trust any animal! Caenian Ruvan! You are my bloodline who will step on the beastmen!’