Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 223
Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 223
The two people who possessed animal-like senses specifically toward Lion Asteri detected something from his recent actions.
“Wouldn’t it be better to restrain him?”
Clarentia spoke up first.
“That is not a good method.”
“Because it would break Lion Asteri’s freedom.”
Rickshel shook his head firmly.
“Elder brother will achieve his goals by any means necessary. If we confine him to protect him…”
“You mean he will become even more secretive and the situation will worsen.”
“Yes. Instead, watching his every move would be more efficient for his protection.”
“Reasonable.”
One thing the Bydantis family had learned through their intelligence network was that Lion Asteri was far more meticulous than expected.
‘I didn’t know that when I met him in the Bydantis territory, though.’
She had only thought of him as considerate, attentive, and a little— no, quite peculiar.
To put it nicely, he was kind. To put it coldly, he seemed like someone who could not take care of himself.
Like this pudding served as dessert right now.
Of course, that was separate from his intelligence.
That was why she had thought of bringing him to the Bydantis territory to protect him directly and seek his counsel.
At least she was confident she could protect Lion Asteri if she kept him right in front of her.
‘It was a miscalculation.’
The Marquis of Bydantis aimlessly tapped the syrup-laden pudding with the broad side of a small spoon.
The pudding wobbled but returned to its original shape.
‘He is more versatile than I thought, and he hides a great deal more.’
The Labyrinth, magic, alchemy, Spirit Art.
And Divine Power and curses.
He seemed to enjoy only playing without a care in the open, but he did not easily reveal what he was hiding inside.
‘Seeing how he is even with his beloved family…’
It must be his fundamental nature.
The Marquis of Bydantis started to cut the pudding with the spoon, then stopped.
To dig into its inside, she would have to mess it up as she pleased, and she did not want to.
Just as Lion Asteri had waited for her… this time, she had no choice but to circle around him.
And to do that…
“Then we shall proceed as planned until then, and now we must decide on the attire to wear as partners at the Emperor’s Birthday celebration.”
She had to build a strong alliance with Rickshel, the Asteri before her.
“Yes. To prevent my brother from standing out at the party, the two of us must shine the brightest. So I have prepared a costume. …How about this?”
“I do not like it. Let us commission Lion Asteri instead.”
“Understood. Then next…”
The two began to quickly cut through the pile of issues with extremely direct conversation.
…It might not be the direction Lion had hoped for, but they certainly got along well.
* * *
“If I slip out now, they’ll have a nice, cozy conversation, right?”
Lion tapped his full stomach lightly as he left the dining hall.
He had eaten a bit more than usual, so he was quite full.
To the point he wondered if he should do some light exercise before bed.
Just as he had that thought and stood before his door.
Scratch,
scratch, scratch.
Patter, patter, patter, patter! The sound of tiny front paws scratching at the door reached him.
The insistent focus on one spot was unmistakably Pooch’s work.
‘What is going on?’
Normally, Pooch should have been asleep by now.
After all, Pooch’s daily routine was to race around energetically all day, eat dinner until its belly was round, then fall asleep with that bulging belly exposed.
‘Is something wrong?’
Lion, still with a puzzled expression, quietly opened the door.
Then…
Fwoosh!
Pooch burst out of the room with a fwip.
He came out so fast that he tried to slow down, only to tumble head over heels on the corridor carpet and scramble back up.
“Whoa.”
Before Lion could catch it, Pooch sprang up, shook itself with a brisk fwup-fwup, and stood proudly. It rose onto its hind legs, jumped toward the awkwardly bent Lion, and wagged its tail.
It was pretty cute, but…
“Oh my. That is bad for your hind legs.”
Lion supported Pooch’s bottom and scooped it up.
Of course, as a demonic beast, he was incomparably sturdy compared to other pets, but he could not help worrying anyway.
“Were you a good boy? Were you bored?”
“Kying!”
Pooch sniffed Lion’s body, which smelled of food, eagerly, then indiscriminately licked his face.
This behavior was like usual, but it still felt a little strange.
“Why are you in such a good mood today?”
He was definitely acting different from usual.
Wondering if he had caused an accident, Lion glanced into the room, but Nature came out of the cuckoo clock house attached to the wall— no, its own house— and shook its head as if to say it did not know either.
It meant no accident had occurred.
“Then why…”
Could he have grown during that time and his energy level increased?
That was a possibility.
When Lion first saw him, he was barely the size of a newborn Maltese, but now he was already the size of a full-grown one.
On top of that, even while acting cute, he would pause and stare off in one direction.
And furthermore…
‘He is emitting mana, is he not?’
Occasionally, when Lion used mana, Pooch had emitted mana as if resonating, but this was the first time it moved on its own like this.
“Did your energy really increase? Want to go for a walk?”
“…!”
Pooch, having picked up on the word ‘walk’ like a ghost, squirmed in Lion’s arms before landing lightly on the floor, then immediately ran somewhere with quick little steps as if telling Lion to follow.
“…”
But that was toward the Labyrinth, not the garden.
There was no reason he could not follow, so Lion walked as Pooch guided him.
When they entered the Labyrinth together, Pooch was already running off somewhere with a pitter-patter.
His feet were so swift and light that the small body had already gotten quite far ahead.
Along the path he ran, lush blades of grass were pulled up and fluttered lightly through the air.
Lion slowly followed after Pooch, enjoying the cool night breeze.
‘A walk at night is pretty nice, actually.’
Moreover, with a companion demonic beast running in front of him and the sensation of the nesting Nature stirring and fidgeting on top of his head, his body naturally relaxed.
‘Come to think of it, I was pretty busy today.’
From dawn, he had set up a canopy to collect dew and picked fresh sprouts.
He had used a Warp Scroll to visit the Asteri provincial territories.
He had obtained pomegranate wine and finished dinner with a well-matched pair.
Well, he had been told to be wary of the First Prince, but he did not need to worry about that right now.
‘And I do not need to avoid him, either.’
In fact, if the First Prince picked a fight first, Lion planned to welcome him with open arms.
Well, he would think about that when the time came.
“But how far are we going?”
At that, Pooch spun around twice in place, then slipped into a thicket laden with Pungent Fruits.
“Hm…”
He clearly meant for Lion to follow.
A normal person would have said, ‘Even so, this is a bit…’ but…
Shhk.
Lion naturally dropped to his belly and crawled forward into the thicket.
“Phee-yoo.”
He heard Nature’s sigh of resignation behind him, but Lion just chuckled.
“It is the first time Pooch has called me like this. So let us just endure it a bit.”
He figured it could not be far.
It was his first time traversing between the thickets like this, but he knew the Labyrinth’s geography like the back of his hand.
However, Lion’s expectation was unfortunately wrong.
Because Pooch did not stop!
“Huff, puff.”
A high crawl through the thickets, twisting and squirming his whole body to avoid all kinds of branches, even lying flat and inching through gaps under fallen logs!
Rolling around so much it reminded him of his army days, even Lion started to wonder, ‘Is this really right?’
Just as his stamina inevitably ran out.
“Pwah!”
The long, long obstacle course ended, and he finally arrived at a spot spacious enough to stand up.
“Oh, boy…”
He should never again casually think about exercising!
Lion barely stood on trembling legs, catching his breath as he looked around.
It was definitely far from the cabin, as the surroundings were pitch dark.
Lion focused mana into his eyes.
In the darkness, his purple eyes began to glow faintly, and only then did he see his surroundings clearly.
Indeed, despite having wandered through the forest countless times, this area was new to him.
“What is here that made you bring daddy all this way?”
Ignoring Lion, Pooch was digging fiercely between the roots of a tree.
‘Between the tree roots?’
Now that he thought about it, the first time he found Pooch was inside a tree hollow.
Could demonic beasts like going into trees?
‘But that was not in the Beast Taming knowledge…’
Then there must be a reason he was brought here.
If not, Pooch would not have brought him all the way here.
‘Should I dig with him?’
Lion followed Pooch’s lead and gently dug between the roots with his hand hoe.
It had been a long time since he had dug like this, ever since his first fall into the Labyrinth, and he felt a rush of nostalgia.
Compared to back then, his digging speed and technique had improved by leaps and bounds.
Back then, had he not used every ounce of strength just to dig up one reward chest?
‘Why does this make me proud?’
Thinking that, he dug absently with the hoe.
Tick—.
A dull sensation of something striking the metal tip.
“Huh?”
In the moment of bewilderment.
Pah-bah-bah-bah!
Pooch’s front paws visibly sped up!
“Huh?!”
He was so fast that not only his face but half of his body was about to be buried in the ground.
And, sure enough.
Flail, flail.
“Kyee, kying!”
His short hind legs kicked at the air and the ground as if he were stuck.
“Oh dear.”
Lion quickly grabbed Pooch around the middle and pulled it out backward like a carrot.
Now filthy and covered in dirt, Pooch shook itself with a fwup-fwup the moment Lion pulled it free.
The ground Pooch had dug up must have been full of moisture, as clods of mud fell on Lion’s face like a fine drizzle.
“Sheesh. When we get back, you are getting a bath first…”
Sparkle!
Mid-scolding, Lion spotted something sparkling in Pooch’s mouth.
It looked like… an uncut gemstone.
If it was a gemstone found in the Labyrinth, it would be quite valuable… but!
That was not important to Lion, Pooch’s owner.
Because there was something he considered far more important!
“What are you eating?!”
Is it not a pet owner’s duty to snatch away whatever their pet is suspiciously chewing on?!
Lion swiftly pried Pooch’s snout open and took out the contents.
Plop, roll, roll, roll…
The precious-looking raw gemstone thus clattered coldly onto the ground.