Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 106
Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 106
This was reality?
It felt like a blackout-drunk night where the shameful memories snapped off clean and then flooded back all at once.
Varg, you idiot! You big dumb oaf!
‘N-now wasn’t the time.’
Varg bolted upright again as he replayed the countless things he’d just done, every one of them excused as ‘it’s just a dream so it’s fine.’
He felt like the only way to get this feeling across was to slam his head into the ground!
Just as he was about to drive his skull into the still-hot stone slab—
“Oh, but what’s this?”
With perfect timing, Lion tossed the Minor Lunar Essence to Varg and asked.
Snap!
Varg caught the essence purely on instinct, then quietly dropped to his knees on the floor and whimpered out an answer.
“It’s, well, something I made…”
Probably because it was reality and not a dream, he had no idea where to start or how much to say.
Had he already mentioned he was beastfolk, just a moment ago?
“It’s…”
“Mm. Take your time.”
The young master of House Asteri really did seem to be a kind person.
His drooping tail gave a low, gentle wag below.
“The truth is, I’m a wolf beastfolk… so I can create Lunar Essence. It’s, well, it’s my most special ability.”
He added that he’d wanted to repay him somehow no matter what, and bowed his head deeply.
“You were surprised, weren’t you? Because I’m beastfolk…”
From what he’d heard in rumors, some humans in the world didn’t like beastfolk.
So even if the young master was a good person…
“You know what?”
“Sir?”
“Your tail’s been out for a while now.”
“Gasp! No, why is…!”
Varg hastily bundled his tail away, tidied it out of sight, and clamped both hands down on his wolf ears to stow them, too.
“I’m sorry! I was supposed to hide them!”
That was one of the tricks he’d picked up in order to live among humans.
Other ones included fetching a thrown disc and bringing it back… ah, ack, now wasn’t the time to be thinking about that.
“I already accepted your apology, so don’t worry. And I got a pretty orb out of it, too.”
“It, it pleased you?”
What a relief. He didn’t hate it after all!
Varg swallowed down the feeling that his ears and tail were about to pop back up, got a little carried away, and took one more step forward.
“Shall, shall I make more for you?”
“You can make more?”
“Well, lately I can’t just whip one up on the spot, but I can still make plenty. About one a week…! No, I absolutely want to make them for you!”
Varg meant it.
He’d given him such delicious food, and on top of that, let his mistake slide.
It was enough to make him think he clearly had to repay the kindness.
No, honestly speaking, he even felt something like the urge to pledge loyalty!
“…”
Watching that, Lion gave an awkward laugh.
Of course, being able to receive a supply of Lunar Essence was as welcome as could be… but.
‘I think this is Nature’s doing?’
There was no way a wolf beastfolk would charge in this blindly just because someone fed him a couple of meals.
Chances were the spirit’s energy had played some kind of positive role.
After all, Varg clearly knew that Nature was a spirit, didn’t he?
But…
‘Turning this down is really awkward.’
Of course, if he only looked at it materially, it was tempting to go “Oh, really? Thanks!” and accept.
However.
The part about not being able to create Lunar Essence as easily as before.
‘It’s definitely the Eclipse Symptom.’
If even producing such a small essence took a whole week, the disease had probably crept up on Varg without him knowing.
The more Lunar Essence he made, the faster the illness was likely to accelerate…
‘The fact that he doesn’t know that suggests he hasn’t had other beastfolk around him since he was little.’
On top of that, Varg seemed to want to repay the kindness by any means just now.
Even if he refused, would that guy really stop making essences?
He’d obviously leave one somewhere in secret and vanish.
Then nothing would get solved.
Lion mulled it over for a long moment, then thought of one approach.
“Then how about this? You make essences, and in return, I’ll make you something tasty.”
“Pardon? But you already…”
“I’m the type who likes giving. What do you want to do?”
Varg hesitated for a second at those words.
The type who likes giving.
‘He’s just, just like me?’
It was only because the circumstances weren’t there yet that he couldn’t provide for others—Varg liked giving things, too.
…Of course, he also liked receiving!
But at the very least, he wanted to do what he was capable of.
Maybe that was why he could fully empathize with what the young master meant.
“Understood.”
Varg nodded with grim determination.
“Then come to the forest secretly every night.”
“Yes, sir!”
Lion extended his hand, and Varg placed both of his hands on top of Lion’s, then pulled himself together, gave a light clasp, and greeted him.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”
“Yes. Young master!”
Varg rushed back to the knight order.
The way he dashed off was remarkably fast—definitely a wolf beastfolk.
“Hmm.”
Lion folded his arms as he pictured Varg, who had vanished from sight.
‘If my theory is right…’
Perhaps he might be able to resolve Varg’s Eclipse Symptom.
Of course, he still wasn’t certain…
‘Still, I have to try.’
Lion returned to the mansion together with Nature.
* * *
The first thing he needed was a Moonflower.
And while the best possible place to grow a Moonflower was inside the labyrinth, Lion didn’t enter right away.
‘I’m short on materials.’
He could make Moonflower nutrient tonic from the Lunar Essence Varg had given him.
But the amount was too small.
If it stopped growing partway, nothing could be more disastrous.
On the day Lion had fed Varg the sausage, Nature,
who had returned with him, staged another pantomime on Lion’s bed.
To sum it up: Varg’s Eclipse Symptom was extremely serious, and it was approaching pretty fast.
‘If you had plenty of time, maybe, but give up.’
That was the gist packed into the resolute gaze as Nature beat its wings decisively.
“Because it takes way too long for the Moonflower to mature?”
“Ppeep.”
It nodded as if to say that was right.
‘Hmm…’
Lion thought for a moment.
Right. This whole issue was because he was short on Lunar Essence to make Moonflower nutrient tonic.
‘Is there a way to obtain it from the outside?’
House Asteri could probably somehow acquire another beastfolk’s Lunar Essence.
But compared to those with Solar Essence, the beastfolk population that possessed Lunar Essence was much smaller.
Which meant that, no matter what, it would take quite some time…
“If Varg goes berserk in the meantime, it’s over.”
If Solar Essence had been required, he probably could have gotten it easily.
He could have asked for help from the lion beastfolk kingdom, the place where the sun never sets and Solar Essence was generated.
…Oh. Wait.
“That’s right! Why didn’t I think of that?”
Lion shot up from his seat.
The lion beastfolk kingdom where the sun never sets!
The fact that the sun never sets meant that the power of the sun was that strong.
In that case, he just needed to make the Lunar Essence strong, too.
“Nature.”
“Ppeep?”
“I think I might be able to duplicate Lunar Essence.”
“Ppeeeep?”
“Let’s go.”
Lion scooped up Nature and hurried off.
His destination was none other than his grandfather’s office!
* * *
“This concludes the irregular report.”
Knight Commander Rickson finished his regular report standing before Petrick.
“Mm.”
Petrick nodded once, concisely, as he signed the report without any further comment.
“What became of that wolf pup?”
“Varg is…”
“No hope?”
At Petrick’s question, Rickson bowed his head deeply.
“The onset of symptoms is growing stronger. It seems he won’t hold out much longer.”
“And you have yet to find a solution.”
“…We are leveraging the magic tower and even beastfolk connections, but they say the Eclipse Symptom cannot be halted.”
Rickson furrowed his brow as if in some pain.
Varg was a wolf beastfolk they had rescued just one month prior on Petrick’s orders.
The red wolf tribe, one of the Hero’s allies, had been wiped out by the war, when word came that a rare red wolf beastfolk had been spotted at a slave merchant in the criminal underworld.
And Varg truly was a red wolf beastfolk.
He had lived doing his utmost to hide his tail and ears in order to blend in among humans, but the Eclipse Symptom had amplified his feral nature and he’d been dragged away.
“…”
Petrick let out a sigh inwardly.
‘Is there truly no way?’
Petrick, too, wanted to save that pup called Varg.
No—if possible, he intended to save him by any means necessary.
Wasn’t he the bloodline of ‘that druid,’ of all people?
Red wolf beastfolk were rare.
‘But there is no way.’
There wasn’t even time to devise a way.
Not for himself—for Varg, that child.
Strength surged into Petrick’s grip on the pen for an instant, then eased.
If they could not save him…
‘I will have to choose.’
Not as Petrick trying to save a comrade’s family, but as the head of House Asteri, Marquis Petrick Asteri.
Should Varg show signs of going berserk, Petrick would personally step forward and dispose of him.
He had to.
Saving one child could not justify the innocent people here dying one after another.
And he did not want to make that child commit a sin.
He did not want to leave him to rampage in all directions as a mere slaughterer under the name of a rampage and then let him die in the most agonizing way.
‘Truly distasteful.’
His mouth tasted so bitter it was nauseating.
“Family Head…”
Rickson caught something in Petrick’s reaction and hastily spoke up.
“Varg is a child of gentle heart.”
If he were an ordinary knight commander, a knight protecting the family head, he ought not to say such things.
At least, he shouldn’t add to the burden.
But pity stirred in him.
Perhaps it was because it reminded him of his own son who had died young.
Wasn’t this a case of dying without properly experiencing the world?
At the very least, he wanted to give him as much time as possible.
Shouldn’t he at least get the chance to mingle with others, to live among them, and make one good memory?
In the end, unable to endure his anguished feelings, Rickson entreated him.
“Though he possesses great power, he is afraid of harming people and has instead shrunk back. I wish for that child to live in the world just a little longer. So I will search for a way to prolong his life to the best of my ability.”
It was a plea to grant him just a little more time, if possible.
“…”
Rickson went down on one knee.
“Should that child show signs of going berserk… I will handle it personally.”
A long silence descended.
Both Petrick and Rickson knew.
This was not something that could be resolved by clinging to a wish.
Under normal circumstances, Petrick would have coldly refused the plea.
But…
‘It’s not easy.’
As the time spent living with Lion and his family grew longer, hesitation kept creeping into these thoughts.
He knew full well this would lead to a greater calamity later on, and yet.
Just as Petrick was about to firm up his heart, which was on the verge of being swayed by sentiment—
Bang!
The door flew open.
“There is a way!”
Lion had arrived.