1. The Silver Beast That Lives In Baltion Castle

Snow fell heavily on the slope of a treacherous mountain.

A woman covered in wounds stood there alone.

“Haah.”

As she exhaled anxiously, white breath billowed out.

Where was this place?

Why was she standing here in such thin clothing?

She couldn’t understand anything.

When she came to her senses, she was already here, and all she could see was a large gray castle beyond the hill ahead.

The snow-covered castle looked desolate, old, and lonely.

Had she been trying to go there?

Even that was confusing.

Her mind was as white as the snow field.

‘Who am I?’

She tried to calmly recall who she was first.

〈……Sha. My only……〉

“Ugh.”

But at that moment, incomprehensible scenes tangled wildly in her mind.

Suddenly, everything started spinning dizzily.

〈……I’ll take this.〉

An unknown voice reached her. The woman unconsciously clutched her head and squeezed her eyes shut.

It was as if an unpleasant echo was ringing from afar.

‘So-someone took something from me.’

Thump, thump.

Her heart began to beat rapidly in an unpleasant rhythm.

Who had taken what?

Just as she tried to recall more, the woman suddenly lost her balance.

“Urgh…!”

〈You should be forgotten now. Forever.〉

Thud.

The woman’s flowing golden hair scattered across the snow.

Her chest burned hot, and her head throbbed as if it would burst.

She felt an extreme physical pain that came so suddenly.

She couldn’t think of anything beyond wishing for this torturous pain to stop.

“So-someone… pl-please he-help…”

As she gasped, finding it difficult even to speak, she felt death approaching.

Deep loss and fear flickered in her moist pink eyes.

Crunch.

But then, she heard small footsteps from somewhere.

“…?”

A long shadow fell from above.

It was a shadow with pointed ears.

When she barely managed to lift her head, she saw something standing against the dim sky, its back to the sun.

Blocking the gray castle, it appeared on the hill and looked down at her, seemingly hesitating to approach.

But when the woman dropped her head again, it slowly came closer.

With light and elegant footsteps.

Crunch, crunch.

A beast with fur whiter than snow.

Its black eyes, filled with curiosity, gazed at her as it came closer.

‘A… fox?’

It was a sacred and beautiful animal.

When their eyes met, it felt as if she might already be in heaven.

Perhaps because of this, the woman was overwhelmed by an inexplicable feeling that she might have come here to meet this being.

The woman used all her remaining strength to utter words emerging from her deep unconscious.

“Gi-give me… the spirit… st-stone… pl-please…”

Thump, thump, thump.

Now the sound of her heart, which seemed about to burst, echoed in her ears more loudly than the words coming from her mouth.

‘What am I… saying…’

Not knowing what she was saying, she reached out toward the fox and finally surrendered to the distant sensation.

Plop.

As the focus disappeared from the woman’s eyes, her hand, which had been reaching toward the fox, fell limply.

“……”

The fox looked down at the woman who had closed her eyes with a pale face for a moment.

Tap.

Its furry, thick front paw lightly touched the woman’s hand.

Tap, tap.

She didn’t move at all, clearly unconscious.

The fox cautiously circled around her, as if wary, as if exploring.

Sniff, sniff sniff.

Sniffing diligently.

“…?”

But as if it recognized the scent, the fox tilted its head from time to time.

After circling around for a long while, the fox looked at the woman’s body, which was being covered with snow, as if troubled.

Sighing just like a person.

⁕⁕⁕

Today was an unusually cold day.

The villagers at the foot of Baltion Mountain used to say on days like this, ‘The ice mine is thoroughly angry.’

But Jerome Taylor, who lived in the gray castle, kept muttering something else instead.

“Please stop snowing already.”

He shivered in the intensifying snowstorm and reached for the open window.

After enduring the cold briefly to ventilate, it was now time to close the window and draw the curtains.

“When will you be able to control your power again? Ugh, it’s cold. Ugh.”

Ventilating the first floor while the master was out and then carefully drawing the curtains.

This was the most important morning routine that Jerome, the castle’s caretaker, performed every day.

It was to ensure that even if someone looked in from outside, they couldn’t see anything inside.

Clank.

“Your Highness Evan?”

Jerome perked up his ears at the sound of the castle door opening.

His master usually spent several hours out when he went for a walk, which was strange.

He hadn’t been gone for long yet.

Jerome naturally grabbed a nearby mop handle.

His master always came in proudly leaving four footprints, so this tool was necessary.

No matter how much he begged him to return to human form until he washed up after coming in, he absolutely refused.

Saying that even a moment’s energy spent on unnecessary humanization was a waste.

He didn’t seem to care at all about the excessive consumption of his only servant Jerome’s physical energy.

“Why are you back so—”

But what entered the castle wasn’t the silver ball of fur he had expected.

Jerome’s eyes widened at the sight of someone walking upright at this hour, and he threw down the mop handle and rushed over.

The beautiful man who roughly shook off the snow accumulated on his silver hair with a nod of his head was indeed Jerome’s master, Grand Duke Evan Baltion.

But the unknown someone in his arms was…….

“Wh-what are you bringing in?!”

“She collapsed near the castle.”

“She collapsed near the castle? In this weather?”

“Yes.”

Jerome followed his master, who had returned to the castle carrying an unknown woman like a princess.

This made no sense.

After that incident five years ago, Evan had been cold and indifferent to everything, yet now he was personally bringing someone into this castle.

Could she be someone he knew?

Although his master lived almost in seclusion both in the capital and here, Jerome cautiously asked, just in case.

“……Who is she?”

“How would I know? Ask her when she wakes up.”

As expected.

There’s no way this unsociable and prickly man would know any woman.

Jerome’s gray eyes shook with even more confusion.

‘If you don’t know her, why are you taking her to the guest room?!’

The woman’s body cradled in Evan’s solid, sturdy frame looked only delicate.

Her long blonde hair hung limply between her thin robe, and her face, even at a glance, was extremely beautiful, but also equally pale.

Moreover, her arms and legs had many scratches and cuts all over.

“Is she dead?”

“She’s still breathing.”

Evan was as impassive as usual.

Jerome couldn’t understand why this human—no, this beastman—who was particularly colder than frost toward women, was acting this way.

When he was young, maids who mistook him in his true form for a puppy forcibly put ribbons on him, and when he grew up, he was plagued by women who aggressively pursued him after seeing his humanized face.

Just a few months ago, didn’t some village woman sneak into the castle and cause a commotion, saying to Evan, ‘If you don’t marry me, I’ll take my life right here’!

He barely managed to drag her out, but later she pretended to be sick, and even pretended to have lost her memory, causing him real suffering.

‘This woman also seems like one of His Highness’s stalkers. Is she just pretending to be unconscious? When did she even see His Highness? I’ve been more thorough with covering the windows since that incident.’

Jerome glared at his excessively handsome master with narrowed eyes.

“Your Highness. Please cover your face properly when you go out! Women get enchanted and cling to you when they see your face! If we get another stalker like before, I’m the one who suffers!”

As Jerome continued to grumble beside him in a disgruntled voice, Evan reprimanded him with a face that said he was being noisy.

“That village woman was let into the castle because you said she brought potato soup. Just when I had humanized.”

Baltion was a barren land where it was winter every day.

The only edible thing here was ice wine.

Most food ingredients had to be supplied from other warm regions, and cooking them was also Jerome’s responsibility.

Jerome, who had been suffering for years under his master’s picky palate despite not being a chef in the first place, jumped up with an indignant face.

“That! That was because Your Highness threw the dish away saying you couldn’t eat my cooking anymore, so I had no choice but to procure food! And if we’re going to let someone in, shouldn’t it be when you’re humanized! Which form should be hidden? What are you saying?”

Ignoring Jerome lightly, Evan scanned all the guest room doors in the corridor with his eyes and asked.

“Are any of the guest rooms usable?”

He asked because all the doorknobs of the guest rooms he had glimpsed were covered in cobwebs.

It was natural that unused areas weren’t maintained, since only Evan and Jerome lived in this huge castle.

“Ah? Well. It’s been a while since I cleaned them since Lord Benjamin hasn’t visited lately.”

“What do you do properly? Can’t cook, can’t clean.”

At Evan’s muttered words, Jerome deflated and pointed somewhere behind him.

“Th-then, shall we put her in my room for now?”

“No need. I’ll put her in my room and stay in the study for a while.”

Evan headed to his room with the woman in his arms.

Jerome tilted his head once more at the sight.

He’s even giving up his own room?

Did he really eat something wrong?

⁕⁕⁕