The flavor of the cookie, which I hadn’t tasted in so long, spread inside my mouth.
“So yummy!!!”
It was a hard, rustic-style cookie baked with acorn flour, and the people of the royal palace would’ve laughed it off as despicable. Compared to the capital, the Renard domain was impoverished. Sugar and butter were considered luxury goods, so they weren’t used much even by House Renard itself.
Yet right now, I found this simple cookie tremendously tasty. A mix of nostalgia and joy struck me, and my eyes welled up with tears. Liam wiped away my tears with his finger, looking a little surprised.
“Is it really that tasty? Well, enjoy as many of them as you like.”
I nodded, and Liam turned to one of the maids.
“Bring the cookie platter here,” he ordered. “And get some for Lord Reineke as well.”
Shortly after, the maid brought the plate and placed it on my knees. Another plate of cookies was put before Lord Reineke. A golden glow emanated from it, which the fox absorbed.
“Let’s eat together,” Liam said quietly, taking one of the cookies from the platter for himself. “It is tasty, isn’t it?”
“Yes! Super tasty!”
Now that I’d had one, I couldn’t stop myself. As tears fell down my face, I hungrily stuffed my cheeks with cookies. I demolished them in no time at all. Meanwhile, Liam continued petting my head. It felt heavenly.
Soon enough, my tummy was full, and I felt nice and warm in Liam’s lap. I started to become sleepy.
No... I can’t fall asleep...
While I swayed slightly, trying to stop my head from drooping, a couple entered the parlor. The sharp-featured man with the same purple hair and eyes as Liam was Marquis Renard. The silver-haired woman lingering behind him was the marquise. She was petite and delicate, with kind, light-blue eyes. The woman was frail from her illness, looking like she might fade away to nothing at any second.
I hurriedly put the cookie platter on the table, jumped off of Liam’s lap, and curtsied. The couple, Liam, and the maids all stared at me as I performed the proper greeting despite being a poor orphan.
“Humph!” Marquis Renard’s intense gaze bore into me. His expression was stiff. Just like in my past life, it seemed like the marquis didn’t think highly of me. This was exactly why I’d tried so hard to win his favor back then.
But the reason he adopted me was—
My thoughts were interrupted by the marquise, who suddenly rushed over and hugged me. I felt all the air drain out of my lungs.
“Lulu! You came back! Lulu!!!” she cried. Lulu was the name of the marquise’s dead daughter.
My heart clenched with pain. This had happened in my past life too. The marquise called me “Lulu” because she thought I looked like her daughter. The marquis reluctantly brought me in as his foster daughter because she had developed an almost pathological attachment to me. I’d been desperate to not be abandoned again, so I’d styled my hair into pigtails like Lady Lulu had and did my best to behave like I was really her. But by doing that, I felt like all of the marquise’s love wasn’t actually aimed at me. I’d believed that if I tried my best and became useful to the family, they would one day love the real me. Yet in the end, the reverse happened, and House Renard fell into misfortune.
“Mother, this isn’t Lulu. Lady Lune has fox ears and a tail,” Liam said calmly.
The marquise’s grip on me loosened, and she carefully looked me over.
She might be disheartened if she realizes I’m not her daughter...
I trembled and held on to my fox ears, which had drooped down to the sides. The woman stared at me for a few seconds, and tears brimmed her eyes. She must have been thinking about Lady Lulu.
“You’re right...” she mumbled. “It’s not her. Lulu is... Th-That’s right... Lulu’s dead... I don’t want to believe it, but...”
The woman burst into tears, and the marquis wrapped his arm around her shoulders. Even now, he was expressionless.
“My son told me everything,” the man said to me. “I understand that you have a contract with the Great Lord Reineke, and that he wishes for us to raise you as our daughter.”
He was speaking politely to me precisely because I had a contract with a spirit. In this land, magic was necessary to create such contracts, so anyone who could was worthy of respect. Not to mention, I was an orphan who could never have learned such things at an academy. It seemed the marquis saw this as proof that I had a special talent when it came to magic. All the more so because my contract was not with some nameless spirit but the Great Lord Reineke himself—the very spirit who guided House Renard.
However, the marquis’s expression was cold. It was obvious he was only doing this out of obligation.
The marquise gasped upon hearing his words.
“That’s right! I’m sure Lord Reineke sent this girl to us in place of our late daughter! That’s why her hair and eyes are the same as Lulu’s!”
I shook my head firmly. “I’m just a simple orphan! You don’t need to treat me like your daughter! I’d be happy to stay here as a maid instead!” I insisted.
If they adopt me, the marquisate might reach the same terrible fate as before!
“Simple orphans don’t have fox ears or tails. And I cannot ignore Lord Reineke’s words,” the marquis asserted.
I fell silent. He had a point. If I resisted, I’d be going against Lord Reineke’s plan. My ears drooped to the sides and my tail hid between my legs. The fluffy sensation of it against my inner thighs gave me an idea.
“But with these ears and this tail, surely nobody will believe that I’m your daughter!” I exclaimed with a wild huff.
“True,” the marquis admitted, placing a hand against his chin. “You are the contractor of the Great Lord Reineke, who guided my ancestors in founding House Renard. It was foolish of me to think it suitable for you to merely be our daughter. Forgive me. Please, use us as your servants.” He lowered his head before me.
I quickly waved my hands in rejection. I didn’t want them to worship me like a spirit, and there was no way I’d treat the marquis like some sort of servant. Compared to that, even being adopted into the family was the better option.
“Please stop, my lord! I myself am not a spirit! I’m just an orphan. I can’t possibly think of you as my servant!”
“Lady Lune, are you displeased with House Renard? Your wish is our command, so please... I beg of you...” the marquise addressed me with tearful, imploring eyes.
“I... I’m not displeased!”
“Then why are you rejecting us?” she asked in turn.
I knew I couldn’t just flat-out deny them any longer. In my past life, the marquise really had cared for me as though I were her daughter. Besides, I couldn’t bear to trample on the hope of someone who was sickly and dying.