“I don’t care how cute you are or how much you look like Sir Yuri! Some things one must never say!”
“I’m only telling the truth! Ugly, ugly, uglyyy!”
“Once isn’t enough? Four times?!”
Blue stuck their tongue out at her.
What a sassy little…! Brigitte’s clenched fists trembled.
“Now, now, what’s all the racket?”
“Sir Yuri!”
“Master!!”
Brigitte hopped back in bed at Yuri’s visible annoyance, while Blue sidled up to him cloyingly.
“Master, that girl is harassing me! She beat me to a pulp!”
“You shouldn’t be bothering an invalid.”
Yuri glowered at the spirit grasping his legs but otherwise ignored Blue’s complaints. On the surface, they looked like two adorable brothers playing around innocently.
But the reality is revolting!
“Sir Yuri, that is not true! I’m the one being harassed!” she protested fiercely.
Yuri looked at her and sighed. “What are you thinking, trying to compete with a spirit?”
“Master! You believe me, don’t you?”
“Sir Yuri! Please believe me!”
They continued their desperate appeals, while Yuri watched them suspiciously. Finally, he turned to Blue and said, “…The pâtissier is making something with sweet potatoes in the kitchen.”
“Sweet potatoes?!” Blue’s face lit up. The next instant, the child had dropped to all fours and taken on a lupine form—a fenrir.
It’s h-huge…!
Brigitte looked up in awe at the enormous wolf, their jaws releasing icy puffs with each breath.
“I’m going down there!” the wolf said in the same excited, childish voice, before striding jauntily out of the room.
The beast quickly disappeared down the hallway, as if they didn’t even remember their spat with Brigitte.
Sir Yuri certainly knows how to handle that spirit.
He rounded on her then, like a parent about to scold a naughty child.
“Brigitte, you’re not well. Stay in bed and rest.”
Ouch! Embarrassed, she crawled under the covers. “But Blue was…” She stopped, slapping her hand over her mouth.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m sorry…I gave your spirit a nickname without asking you first.”
“That’s fine. They seem to like it.”
They do?
She wasn’t so sure.
Yuri walked over to her and without warning shaded her eyes with his hand.
“You’re still flushed.”
Coolness radiated from his palm; he was using ice magic to soothe her fever. She let her eyes close.
It’s so nice…
With his hand still there, he said, “I’m thinking of going home tomorrow.”
“Of course… Thank you for staying for so long.”
“I did it because I wanted to.”
He had stayed by her side for three whole days. The day before, his attendant, Clifford, had come to check on her, too. She was very glad the cottage had a room for honored guests. There weren’t many servants, but all of them were excellent. They had welcomed Yuri and Clifford hospitably in her stead.
“Rest well this week, all right?”
“I don’t have any plans for a while, so I’ll be fine… Although next week Kira and I are going to Nival’s summer estate.”
They’d made the plans for the end of the summer, and Brigitte was excited. After all, she was as good as disowned from her own family. She hadn’t been to the Meidell domain in eleven years, and she had never been on a trip by herself. She remembered playing around the family’s grand villa…but the memory was very hazy.
“Ah,” Yuri said, nodding coolly. “Then I’ll go, too.”
…What?
Brigitte stared at him, wide-eyed. Then, after the words had sunk in, she shouted it aloud. “What?!”
“Peep!” the chick spirit chirped, hopping up from the blanket.