Chapter 17
“Why, keep touching it.”
“Ah!”
Solitaria looked at her hand, then at Heinrich, and let out a shrill scream. She covered her eyes tightly with her hands, shaking as if to deny the situation and refusing to move her hands no matter what.
After quite some time passed, Solitaria took a few deep breaths and finally lowered her hands from her eyes.
“Aren’t you… aren’t you going out? I need to get ready.”
“For what?”
“More importantly, that… that embarrassing outfit! Please do something about it.”
Heinrich glanced down at his clothes. His shirt was wide open, creating a rather suggestive atmosphere.
Heinrich seemed to enjoy Solitaria’s over-the-top reaction and grinned as he asked her,
“What’s so embarrassing? You’ll have to point it out for me to know.”
“Just…! Just figure it out!”
“Oh, but wolves aren’t as clever as rabbits. If you don’t explain it properly, I won’t know.”
Heinrich played dumb, making Solitaria jump around even more.
Usually, when she was startled, only her ears would pop out, but this time she was so shocked that even her tail appeared. It was hidden by her clothes, but Solitaria fidgeted, worried he might have noticed.
She looked around nervously, just like a puppy needing to go outside.
“Do you need to use the bathroom?”
“No, I don’t!”
With her face red as a carrot and her ears sticking straight up, Heinrich almost added another comment, but stopped.
He figured if he teased her any more, her face might explode.
When Heinrich fell silent, Solitaria peeked at him and let out a huge sigh of relief.
“Now get out, quickly.”
“Should I go out looking like this?”
“You know it’s weird…! Why are you showing it to me?”
“Sol, let’s be real. You were the one who crossed the line. And you were the one who made my clothes like this. You’re so cold.”
While Solitaria opened and closed her mouth, Heinrich gave her a pitiful smile and started to leave the room.
Still completely disheveled!
Solitaria hurried out with the blanket. Watching Heinrich walk slowly, even though he was right in front of her, made her blood boil.
“Are you really going to show everyone?”
“Wow, are you policing me?”
“Put on your clothes properly, right now!”
“You’re the one who undid these buttons, Sol. Or should I undo another one?”
As he raised his hand, threatening to unbutton another, Solitaria panicked. She opened her mouth to argue, then took a deep breath to calm her anger and snapped,
“Pervert.”
With that, she shoved the blanket into his hands and turned away, disappearing into her room.
She stomped her feet to show how angry she was, but it wasn’t threatening at all.
Her ears were still sticking up above her head. There was no way a rabbit like her could scare a wolf. Then, Heinrich suddenly noticed something sticking out near Solitaria’s backside.
“Ah…?”
Heinrich stood there for a while, then finally realized and burst out laughing.
He laughed in front of her door, and inside, Solitaria begged him to stop, but Heinrich couldn’t get the image of her round tail out of his head and kept laughing.
* * *
Not long after, Solitaria’s teacher was chosen.
It was the woman who had annoyed Heinrich that day. The reason she was selected was simple. Her resume was spotless, she had a recommendation from a famous school professor, and she was the only beastkin who met every requirement set by Heinrich and Hirupus.
Heinrich felt strangely uneasy about how perfect she was, but Sophia and Eremus reassured him that they had triple-checked everything, so he let it go.
“I told you, I could just learn everything myself.”
“Didn’t we already finish that conversation? Besides, Sir Raon will be there during every lesson. How is that supposed to be free time?”
“Free time? I only gave you time to study, never free time.”
“…That was a poor choice of words. Please stop glaring.”
Bickering with Heinrich, Solitaria soon arrived at the study prepared for her. Even as they reached the door, Heinrich kept fussing over her.
“If anything seems strange…”
“Sir Raon will be there.”
Having heard it more than ten times, Solitaria grumbled, clearly bored. Heinrich, not trusting her, acted like an overprotective parent, as if he might barge into the lesson at any moment.
“Actually, maybe I should just stay with you. You study, I’ll do my own thing.”
“…Do you have separation anxiety?”
“What if I do…?”
Solitaria decided there was no point in arguing further. She gave him a firm warning.
“Don’t come in. Respect the three-hour lesson time.”
“What if I do come in?”
“I’ll tell Madam Sophia and Sir Eremus everything. I’ll make sure you can’t come near me, and I’ll tell them you sleep in my room at night too.”
“You’d really be that petty?”
Solitaria spun around and disappeared through the door.
“Geez, Master. You should have behaved better in the first place.”
“Raon.”
“Yes?”
“Take off your clothes.”
“Why would you say something so horrifying in broad daylight?”
Raon covered himself, looking Heinrich up and down.
“Give me your clothes.”
“You’re going to go in instead of me? You’ll get caught right away…”
“Sir Raon, aren’t you coming in?”
When Raon didn’t come in, Solitaria opened the door and peeked out. Raon seized the opportunity to tattle on Heinrich.
“Miss! Master told me to take off my clothes!”
Solitaria looked at Heinrich with the same expression as Raon.
“That’s disgusting. Sir Raon, come in quickly.”
“Huh?”
“Master, no matter what, you shouldn’t say that to Sir Raon.”
Solitaria quickly closed the door and disappeared. Left alone, Heinrich lifted one corner of his mouth, thinking about the sly rabbit who pretended not to know why he did it.
He almost wanted to open the door and see her flustered face, but decided to wait.
It might be more fun to give her a break and then pounce later.
“Sol, this is as far as I’ll let you go.”
* * *
“Welcome.”
The woman from before stood up and greeted Solitaria. She was much more polite than the day she’d shown her bold side.
Maybe it was because she was as short as Solitaria, even though she’d seemed so tall next to Heinrich.
“Please, have a seat.”
The woman kindly pulled out a chair for her, then stood in front of her and introduced herself with a bright smile.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Rienna. As I said that day, I’m a sloth beastkin. Oh! I don’t have a family name, since I don’t have a family.”
“Nice to meet you, I’m Solitaria.”
Startled by Rienna’s sudden approach, Solitaria flinched and stepped back a little.
“Oh, did I get too close? Sorry. My eyesight is so bad, I have to get close to tell things apart.”
“Could you step back a little?”
“Oh! Sure, of course.”
Rienna spread her hands to show she meant no harm and took two or three steps back. Solitaria, feeling curious, asked her a question.
“…But why do you smell fishy?”
“Fishy… smell?”
“Are you feeling unwell?”
As Solitaria covered her nose and asked, Raon hurried over and questioned her.
“No… it’s just a fishy smell…”
“Fishy smell? What do you mean?”
Raon sniffed the air, but couldn’t smell a thing and scratched his head.
Rienna smiled and answered.
“I stopped by the sea before coming here. I guess the smell stuck to me.”
“But you’ve been at Hirupus for over a week. Is that even possible…?”
“Oh, I brought some things from there for research and kept handling them. The smell must not have gone away. I heard some beastkin on the continent are sensitive to smells… maybe you’re one of them. I’ll be careful when I come to see you from now on.”
