“Hey, you squirrels, get away from her. You’ll wake her up.”
“Squeak...”
I woke up to the sound of Van’s gentle voice and my squirrels’ sad squeaks. Light was pouring in from the window. Apparently, I had been out cold since yesterday afternoon. My awakening this morning was turning out to be quite pleasant.
“Mille-Feuille! Are you awake?!”
“I am.”
“Are you hurting anywhere?”
“I’m fine. What about Parfeil?”
“Bunny is in stable condition. She’ll be fine once she gets some rest.”
“I see. That’s good to hear...”
According to Van, Parfeil had already woken up, eaten some food, and gone back to sleep. A doctor had already examined her and said that she’d recover after a full day’s rest. Her wound apparently wouldn’t leave a scar, perhaps because a recovery scroll had been used on her immediately. It was no longer causing her any pain either. I felt relieved once I heard all this.
“I was so surprised that you all showed up out of nowhere,” I said.
“Lady Madeleine looked panicked when she came to talk to me.”
Parfeil and I had been getting late in coming back, so she had apparently decided to talk to Van directly. I wondered how she’d dealt with the servants who had been blocking the way to him.
“She came in with such vigor that my knights were shocked. I thought she was a quiet girl, but she’s quite reckless when she knows you’re in danger.”
“Yes, she is. I’m proud that she’s my best friend,” I gloated.
Van pouted in response to my compliment for Madeleine. “But I was the one who rescued you!”
“And I’m very thankful for that, Van. I’m grateful from the bottom of my heart,” I replied.
“And?”
“Um... And I’m proud that you’re my husband. Does that satisfy you?”
“Yes, it does.” He nodded, pleased.
Is he really satisfied with a line that he practically made me say? Ah well, he’s smiling, so it’s fine.
I tried to get up, but Van tugged on my arm and pulled me into his tight embrace.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” he whispered into my ear.
“I’m sorry for making you worry,” I replied.
I’d thought that he would be upset at me, but he just kept me in his arms. After a while, he released me.
“It’s quite a feat that you managed to find us,” I said.
“Mille-Feuille, you know I’ll find you wherever you might be,” Van replied.
“And just how exactly are you able to do that?”
“From the scent trail of your mana, of course.”
According to Van, he could detect my scent easily while I was close to him, but it became weaker the further I was. However, it was much easier to detect while he was in dragon form.
“I just sniffed around and found your trail,” Van said proudly, even though his method of finding me was exactly the same way a dog would.
“If Madeleine had been just a few seconds late in telling you, we would’ve been goners.”
“Indeed. Should I call the young lady in?”
“Yes, please do.”
“Okay. But get some rest for the rest of the day,” Van advised me before leaving the room.
A few moments later, Madeleine entered.
“Millefie!!!” She ran over to me and gave me a tight hug. “I am so glad that you’re okay!”
“I wasn’t hurt at all. I’m sorry for worrying you.”
Madeleine tightened her embrace in reply.
I patted her back to soothe her. “I’m really sorry for causing so much trouble,” I said.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m just glad you’re fine.”
It seemed that Madeleine had gallantly faced off against the servants of House Noisette. The servants had refused to budge despite Madeleine saying that she wouldn’t leave until she saw Van, so she’d tackled a man larger than her and managed to enter Van’s room.
“I went into the Dragon Duke’s room without even knocking, but I have no regrets because I knew you were in danger.”
“Madeleine, I can’t thank you enough.” She had saved my life. We would’ve been bear food by now if it hadn’t been for her.
“Oh, but weren’t you hurt back there?” I asked with concern for her.
“Yes, but I’m fine, as you can see! I have been training, after all!”
“You were training?”
“I am! Do you remember when I bumped into the Lord Dragon Duke and fell over? Since then, I’ve been thinking that I should get stronger!”
Madeleine had talked to her fiancé—my brother—and had asked him about ways of training her own body.
“I ran laps around the mansion, pulled on ropes tied to trees, splashed my feet around in the bath, and practiced how to land falls safely on my bed before sleeping,” she explained.
“That’s quite a serious regimen,” I said, impressed. I had imagined her training to have included more ladylike activities such as dancing or playing a heavy musical instrument, so I was surprised at the intensity she’d described.
Even more shocking was that my quiet and bookish brother had been the one to suggest it. Apparently, he had wanted to solve his lack-of-exercise problem too, so he had already been trying out a number of those techniques. I had never seen him work out before. Perhaps that was a side of him that he only showed to his fiancée.
“It seems that my training has borne fruit since I no longer get thrown aside when bumping into people,” Madeleine said with a flush as she talked about the results of her training.
“Madeleine, that’s amazing.”
“I’ve also put on some muscle lately, so I added some more exercises and have been working out for longer in general as well.” Her goal was apparently to be strong enough to protect me.
What’s going to happen if she becomes all burly and muscular from her training? If that happens, I’ll be sure to complain to my brother.
“Anyway, I heard that a White Bear had just been hunted down in the area, so why did such a huge one show up to attack us?” I wondered.
“Apparently, that wasn’t actually a White Bear that you encountered.” Madeleine relayed what she had heard from Parfeil after bringing her food. “It was probably just an albino giant bear.”
“You mean it was a regular bear? Not a monster?”
“Yes. The Lord Dragon Duke also agreed with Parfeil’s assessment.”
“But its fangs were as sharp as knives!”
“So I heard. Apparently, some townspeople in Diamant have fallen victim to it as well,” Madeleine said.
That particular violent bear had been known as one of “the Burrowless” as it didn’t hibernate in its burrow in winter and would attack and eat people instead. Even White Bears feared that creature.
“Parfeil seems to have fought it assuming that it was a White Bear, which backfired on her,” Madeleine concluded.
“I see...”