If you traced back the Leadon family lineage, you would find they’d been a family of bureaucrats since the founding of the empire, where they’d served as the first emperor’s private secretaries. Since then, they’d produced ministers for four consecutive generations.
Catalan had no aristocrats and was a centralized state where the emperor was the sole authoritarian ruler. As such, although the Leadons were a distinguished, powerful family equivalent to the leading aristocrats of other countries, they maintained their social standing on their own merit rather than inheritance.
Of course, the family held immense fortune, and their main residence had been constructed in a rich neighborhood near the palace. Moreover, the magnificent mansion and grounds were so spacious that they overwhelmed even the other luxurious houses around them.
There were also three separate, detached buildings on the estate grounds, and the servants lived together in the biggest one. A steward who’d served the family for generations lived with their child in the middle house, and Zen currently resided in the smallest one.
Zen hadn’t been chased out of the main building because he was a failure. If anything, his family adored him for it, true to the idea that a person was cuter the less capable they were. There was a respectable reason he’d gone out of his way to clean out that former storeroom and begun living there.
Returning home, he called out to his roommate, who he considered family. “I’m back, Keel. It’s a little early, but let’s have lunch.”
When he did so, Keel, who’d been curled up on the floor in the middle of the room, immediately raised his head. To describe what he looked like in plain terms, he was a wolf big enough to carry a person on his back. His coat was pure white, and because Zen and the servants meticulously brushed his fur every day, it was shiny, silky, and fluffy. Of course, there was not a single flea on him either.
Sleeping was like a hobby to him, and even now, he let out a big yawn as if to tell Zen that he didn’t need lunch yet and to let him sleep a little longer.
However, Zen didn’t hold back and sat down next to him, stroking his back and speaking as he gently combed his fingers through his fur. “About what Yohia called me over for—I’m being demoted. I didn’t expect to get so lucky. I’m going to be sent to a do-nothing job in the countryside.”
Keel opened his eyes wide like his drowsiness had been blown away. Then, to celebrate Zen’s good fortune, he nuzzled against him.
Keel was much smarter than the average human, and he completely understood not just Zen’s words and personality, but also his position, circumstances, and situation.
Therefore, when Zen asked him, “You’re going to come with me, right?” he resolutely wagged his tail against him as if to say, Of course I will. You don’t even have to ask.
“Thank you! I’ll never be lonely no matter where I go so long as I have you.” Zen smiled ear to ear and threw his arms around Keel’s thick neck.
He lived in this house because he wanted to live with his best friend. Indeed, it was forbidden for Keel to go to the main building.
Zen’s mother was severely allergic to animal fur. In spite of that, she was a hopeless person who loved dogs and cats so much that once she was near one, she’d continue burying her dripping, snot- and tear-soaked face into their fur, which was why they had to keep Keel separated from her. Keel himself didn’t want to get drenched in snot either.
At any rate, Zen and Keel had already been friends for twelve years. Their relationship had started from a certain event.
Back then, Zen had been a member of the Guards Bureau under the Ministry of Justice’s Police Agency and had been given a secondment as a centurion (the commanding officer who directed a hundred guards on the field). It was the job of the guards to make patrols around the clock and take on criminal cases to protect the public order in the imperial capital. Zen had been enthusiastic since it was rewarding work.
However, the veteran guards who’d worked their way up were cold to Zen. At the time, he’d still been a new bureaucrat who’d passed the civil service exam a mere two years prior. Not to mention that he’d spent the previous year at the Ministry of Works’ secretariat—a position considered completely in the back offices and totally unrelated to the kind of fieldwork required at the Guards Bureau. It would’ve been odd if the officers had trusted him.
As a result, they often ignored his orders, and their silence pressed him like they were telling him to act as an obedient figurehead only.
At a loss for what to do, Zen chased after unsolved cases every day by himself. Then, one day, his perseverance with his investigations bore fruit. He succeeded at pinning down a crime syndicate’s base of operations that dealt in a forbidden slave trade marketed toward the rich in the imperial capital. It was located at a storehouse in Monk, a satellite city of the imperial capital.
The criminals were an endlessly inhumane bunch who’d kept innocent young girls and boys in cages like animals. Zen couldn’t help the anger he’d felt while infiltrating the base.
He found Keel at the same time, locked in a cage. Back then, he hadn’t been nearly as big as he was now and had looked like an average large-breed dog you’d find anywhere. Zen thought it strange, wondering why a crime syndicate had gone out of their way to capture him.
However, Keel’s intellect had already been higher than a normal human’s. When his keen nose detected Zen, who’d sneaked inside, he barked and thrashed loudly inside the cage to distract the watchmen.