— Quack! (Your Majesty!)

A white ball of fur bounced on Caenian’s lap.

— Quack? (Did you know?)

Something like a yellow spatula jabbed at the air.

— Quaaack! (Bonobono!)

Blue eyes like the sea turned toward the red-haired man.

— Quaaack! (He’s a beastman!)

The duck didn’t match the magnificent imperial throne at all. The cute duck alone among elegant decorations kept quacking.

— Quack! (The temple incense must have gone bad!)

Her throat hurt because Caenian wasn’t acting like himself. She felt strange without his usual attention. She felt empty without his hand stroking her head.

— Quack! (Are you even listening to me!)

She chattered despite knowing he couldn’t understand because she felt frustrated. Bestia was suspicious of the Bonobono beastman she knew only by name. Not knowing what he was looking for in the records archive made her even more dubious.

Could Ren be a spy from somewhere?

Her instincts from her escape room game days at the academy were tingling. Some might ask what games were doing at a place of academic learning, but they were education disguised as games.

A new concept for developing deductive reasoning, analytical skills, and quick thinking.

— Quack, Quack! (There’s a spy in the imperial palace! And he’s the emperor’s pet!)

Duke, Potters, everyone thought Ren was an animal. Only she knew his real name was ‘Ren.’

Clench.

— Quaaack! (I’ll protect the imperial palace!)

Beastmen also have a duty to protect the Empire as imperial citizens!

The first thing she learned at the academy was patriotism. Bestia clenched her fist with surging patriotism. The small plump tips of her wings curled pathetically. Even amid all this, her eyes were on Caenian.

Tilt.

Usually when she did this, he would rub her cheeks saying she was cute…….

— Quack? (Hey. Your Majesty?)

“Hmm.”

Bestia stared up at Caenian. He seemed not to notice her gaze, only staring into the distance. He let out something like a sigh, and that was it.

His black pupils never once held the white duck. It was behavior unbecoming of a duck enthusiast.

“Hmm.”

Caenian exhaled longer than before.

I should have gone for a walk instead.

Feeling stuffy, he looked at the large open window, but nothing changed. The imperial palace garden appeared before his eyes. The green lakeside, the sunlight turning the water surface golden, and—

‘Your Majesty, if you would grant me permission to access the records archive……’

He also recalled the woman who was bold despite her station. The brow that had been staring into space slightly wrinkled.

“…Absolutely not.”

There were thorns in his words, accompanied by a click of his tongue. The records archive was an uncomfortable space. A place where unwanted past was buried. Most of the terrible records had been erased, but that made it even more painful.

All because of me alone.

Just going near that place made him feel like he could hear the screams of those who died innocently. Like a grave without a corpse.

“Hah.”

His breath burst out like it was being squeezed from a sense of shame. Those who died during Ruvan III’s reign of terror had no actual graves. Everything turned to ash in bright red flames. Carried by the wind, it had blackened the sky.

“Even if not everything, some of those events must be scattered throughout the records.”

He couldn’t let a mere lady from a completely ruined family see the imperial shame.

If the former emperor were alive, her head would have been cut off immediately.

Snicker.

“…She’s lucky. That woman.”

Caenian imagined something that could never happen and laughed. A sound like air escaping came from between his handsome lips. By the way…….

“Was that the end of it?”

The image of the woman whose plea he had rejected appeared before his eyes. He had been trying hard to ignore it, but the walk had opened the floodgates. Thinking about the woman called Betty made his head hurt. But his stuffy feelings eased somewhat from suppressing his nerves.

“That’s not like her. Making people sick of her is that woman’s specialty.”

Caenian decided to prioritize his physical health. Mental suffering had been like a friend since he was young.

The pressure of being the heir to the throne and the thirst from unreceived affection. Plus the guilt over what the former emperor had done.

“Anyway, things have been strange lately.”

As he said, things were indeed strange. Hadn’t she visited every day to recommend new pets? Take this raccoon. Take this cat. Hippos, giraffes, she had listed all kinds of animals.

And then her expression would stiffen at just the mention of ducks… Betty has family and friends? Anyway, she’s good at making people feel small.

“…I thought we were friends.”

His voice, unbecoming of an emperor, echoed through the vast hall. In truth, he had accepted the duck as more than a friend. He fell in love the day she showed him her wing dance. He felt more than friendship between animal and human.

Something like imprinting.

It wasn’t like a baby duck finding its mother duck, but rather like a mother finding her baby. Betty was the baby, and he was the mother.

A child who wasn’t loved grew into an adult just like that. Since he couldn’t seek his parents’ love now, he found someone to pass it on to. That was Betty, the baby duck whose life he had saved.

“I wonder if Betty considers that woman a friend.”

If I become friends with her, would Betty accept me as a friend too?

— Quack? (Who am I supposed to consider a friend?)

His monologue continued like an outburst of dialect. Bestia, who had been watching Caenian, blinked her eyes.

She couldn’t understand at all.

Several days later.

“How are you going to search through all those books alone?”

“……”

“You’ve been in the imperial palace for over 10 years, right? And you haven’t even gone through half of it? Seriously?”

“……”

The records archive was noisy. Despite no response, the persuasion continued.

“If you tell me what you’re looking for, I can help you look, you know?”

“……”

Bestia’s strategy was alliance. She planned to extract information from the suspected spy and then backstab him. A spy deceiving a spy. Thinking it was a plausible tactic, she held her head high.

But why isn’t he saying anything?

“Hey! Bono… Ren!”

Despite threats to kill him or not bring her anymore, Bestia would be cheerful again after just one day.

“Hah.”

Ren, with considerable shadows under his eyes, sighed. It’s just one beastman added to the same daily routine, yet his fatigue had doubled.

“Shut up a bit.”

“How can you tell a duck beastman to cluck!”

“…You. Seems like you don’t want to come in here again?”

“If I tell His Majesty to stop giving you gold coins weekly, who loses more?”

“……”

Hehe. Bestia laughed with a cute threat. Of course, it was cute to her, but the expression of the viewer was rotting away. Ren roughly tousled his black hair as if his insides were noisy, then glared at her.

What are you going to do if you look at me like that?

If you’re unhappy, go tell His Majesty!

The woman with her blonde hair neatly tied in a single ponytail stood her ground. She even crossed her arms and stood with one leg forward.

“Vulgar.”

“Huh?”

Ren shook his head at her unrefined appearance.

Do I avoid dung because I’m afraid of it? No, because it’s dirty. Of course, I avoid ducks because they’re noisy.

“How did you pass the etiquette exam?”

“Ah. Did I seem too common?”

“To the bone.”

“Tsk… Can’t help it. Even though I attended the academy, I grew up in a commoner’s home.”

Bestia quickly became sullen at the sharp observation. Her enthusiasm to uncover Ren’s identity—whether he’s a spy or a friend—completely vanished.

Plop.

“If a woman received a separate title, she must have been incredibly elegant, right?”

“As the head maid of the empress’s palace, she would have been.”

“I want to see what she looked like.”

Her attitude of sitting next to him, resting her chin on her hand and muttering, was quite friendly. She sighed heavily as she flipped through the records with her fingertips.

“Let go of your attachment to the past.”

Ren said this to Bestia. As a bonus, he started reading his book again as if he wasn’t very interested. So he didn’t notice Bestia glaring at him with narrowed eyes.

You’ve been searching here longer than me, what are you talking about?

After cursing him thoroughly in her mind, Bestia soon turned her eyes back to what she was reading.

“Harael of Runda, tiger beastman.”

That’s when it happened.

Ren, who had been acting like he wouldn’t answer, casually dropped a comment.

“Huh? Harael? Why the royal family of the Kingdom of Runda? And what’s this about a tiger beastman?”

“……”

Bestia immediately asked back. Her expectations were off. She had thought he was trying to dig up the emperor’s weaknesses or imperial secrets.

Maybe he’s not a spy?

While she tilted her head in confusion, there was still no answer.

“Tsk. You only say what you want to say.”

She was being ignored again. Bestia, pushing out her lips, decided she wouldn’t say anything either from now on. For a while, only the sound of turning pages continued.

“Yaaaawn. I’m sleepy.”

Then, when the candle had shortened to half its original length, Bestia wiped away tears from yawning and stood up abruptly.

“But do we have to do this at night? You could become human and come during the day, you know.”

It’s not like you’re an owl beastman.

“And this is a library. Couldn’t we check out books?”

That makes sense, right?

Ren, who had been turning pages, stopped his hand.