‘What a waste of time.’
The audience with Duke Bark was different from what he expected. Adrian had greeted him with some hope, but that expectation shattered before even the first words ended.
The Duke’s words were outwardly disguised with goodwill and concern, but the conclusion of that content was clear. All arguments were ultimately focused on securing his own interests. In the end, Adrian rose from his seat before his remarks even finished. He judged there was no need to listen further.
The corridor leading to the study was quiet. In that stillness, Adrian’s thoughts naturally, perhaps inevitably, flowed to one being.
‘What is it doing right now?’
It was probably asleep, engulfed in full-bellied satisfaction. Imagining the small fox breathing peacefully with its pink belly swollen from eating its fill exposed to the sky, with a face that knew nothing of worldly worries, a faint smile spread across Adrian’s lips.
But soon another possibility came to mind.
‘No, perhaps it’s causing trouble again…’
The commotion caused by that small creature had never once remained at a trivial level. Spilling the inkwell was routine now. Running through every corner of the room scattering black fur everywhere, and one day it had even bitten a cushion and scattered feathers throughout the entire room.
It was definitely a headache. But compared to spending time with nobles, cleaning up the fox’s accidents was nothing. No, it wasn’t simply nothing.
Reading the calculations hidden behind the Duke’s hypocritical smile and staying on edge to not show even an inch of weakness was quite exhausting.
On the other hand, the chaos the fox caused was pure. There was no calculation, no malice, no hidden intentions in it. It was merely commotion created by curiosity, mischief, and unavoidable instinct.
Adrian quickened his steps. He wanted to hurry back to his room and stroke that troublemaker on his lap. The moment he turned the corner of the long corridor leading to his quarters, unexpected commotion rang out in a space that would normally be quiet.
‘What’s going on?’
This place had never been this noisy. Frowning, Adrian quickened his steps further. People had gathered in front of the study door.
Next to two guards whose anxiety was evident stood a brown-haired maid with crossed arms looking down at them as if they were pathetic. Behind the maid, a young maid stood with both hands clasped together, looking around with frightened eyes, fidgeting restlessly.
“…It was too fast!”
When the guard shouted in an excuse-making tone, the brown-haired maid let out a big sigh as if displeased.
“Even so, does it make sense that the Empire’s guards can’t even properly catch one fox?”
“Miss maid, if you’d seen it yourself, you couldn’t say such things. Though small in size, it was so quick. Who would have known it would suddenly fly to the curtain like that!”
“You still should have caught it! There weren’t just one but two of you.”
As the maid raised her voice and pressed them, the guards kept their mouths tightly shut with their heads bowed. An awkward, heavy silence flowed in the room.
“B-but isn’t now not the time to be arguing with each other like this?”
Then, the young maid barely opened her mouth with a trembling voice filled with fear.
“We need to find it quickly before His Majesty returns. If he finds out about this…”
Her words suddenly stopped.
Everyone’s gazes turned to one place in unison. The guards and maids turned deathly pale and froze like stones on the spot.
Cold golden eyes were piercing through them.
“Y-Your Majesty!”
They hurriedly knelt and bowed their heads. No excuses, no explanations. Before the Empire’s ruler, all they could do was only silence and obedience.
Adrian’s gaze passed over those prostrated on the floor and headed toward the half-open study door. The scene leaking through the door gap was not of a familiar space. It was chaos and destruction itself.
He strode inside. The moment he entered, the sound of something crunching came from under his feet. It was a piece of the broken bust. He lifted his foot from that piece and slowly swept the interior.
The shattered bust of previous emperors, the carpet covered in honey, the torn-to-shreds Empire law book, documents scattered without room to step, curtains torn as if seen in a ruined house.
But Adrian’s eyes didn’t linger on any of it. He passed by as if uninterested in that mess and thoroughly swept through the study and bedroom. Not on the plush cushions, not under the desk, not behind the curtains, not on the bed.
The black ball of fur that should be in his room was nowhere to be seen.
“Explain.”
It was a voice cold as ice, not even containing anger.
“Th-that is… there seems to have been an intruder, Your Majesty! So while we were checking…”
“No! The fox that Your Majesty is raising… that fox…”
The guards’ voices tangled together. Adrian’s gaze stabbed sharply at them. The mouths of the guards who had been rambling closed. Cold sweat flowed down their foreheads.
“Speak properly.”
At the coldly sunken voice, the guards exchanged glances with each other. No one readily came forward at the anger felt from him. Eventually, the brown-haired maid spoke instead.
“Your Majesty, when the guards rushed over after hearing a loud sound from the study, the room was already in this state. There were no traces of intrusion, and instead that fox was up on top of the bookshelf.”
The maid paused briefly then continued.
“Worried the fox might fall and get hurt, they tried to bring it down, but whether the creature was severely frightened, it ran away avoiding the guards. They pursued but it had already disappeared. We are deeply sorry, Your Majesty.”
“It ran away?”
Adrian’s voice dropped even lower.
“Yes, Your Majesty. It went outside… its current whereabouts are unknown.”
When the maid finished speaking, silence flowed. It was a suffocatingly heavy silence. Those prostrated didn’t dare even raise their heads.
Adrian’s hand moved slowly. He picked up the fox’s black fur near the door. The soft ball of fur in his hand crumpled powerlessly.
“Find it.”
Just one word. At those words, the entire palace began to move. Dozens of attendants and guards scattered holding torches and lanterns. The sound of combing through every corner of the garden, empty corridors, even warehouses, rang throughout the entire palace.
However, the fox could not be found.
***
Under the dark night sky, flames shot up.
Humans seized by madness rose with weapons. Sickles and pickaxes. Things that should have been farming tools had transformed into instruments of slaughter. The stench of blood lingered at every blade’s edge.
‘Catch that woman!’
‘Offer the sacrifice!’
Shouts and screams tangled together. Someone wailed, someone laughed madly. Before disaster, humans had become beings worse than beasts.
A woman was running through the center of that madness.
Clutching something wrapped in swaddling clothes tightly to her chest, she ran without rest. What she held, why she was so desperate—it was unknown. But one thing was clear. She was a sacrifice. A being that must not survive.
‘Got her!’
A rough hand shot out and grabbed the woman’s arm. Nails dug into her flesh.
‘How dare a sacrifice try to escape? After you ran away, disease started spreading. God is clearly angry! Atone with your life!’
The sickle in his hand flashed. The blood-soaked blade glinted coldly in the moonlight. The woman twisted her entire body resisting. At that moment, the swaddling clothes she was holding slipped from her hands and rolled onto the ground.
‘Kkyiing… nng…’
The woman’s face turned ashen and the man’s hand stopped in midair.
That was not a baby’s cry. It was a beast’s.
The man, holding the sickle, looked down carefully at the swaddling clothes sprawled on the ground. Black fur showed through the gaps in the cloth. It wasn’t human. It was a black fox cub.
‘A beast? What beast… you, don’t tell me…’
The man’s voice cracked. The light of realization soon crossed his eyes as he looked back and forth between the woman and the fox.
‘She… gave birth to a beast! This woman gave birth to a beast! A monster! A monster!’
The face that had been burning red with rage now twisted with disgust and contempt. It was no longer a human expression. It was the appearance of fear, hatred, and madness completely devouring one human.
He raised the sickle. The sharp end flew toward the woman. In that instant, the woman’s black eyes and the fox’s eyes met.
And…
“…Gasp!”
Eyes snapped open. The heart pounded savagely, painfully.
A dream?
Fortunately, it was a dream. But that dream—no, nightmare—was too vivid.
The fishy smell of blood seemingly remaining at the nose, ear-splitting screams, and the blade roughly swung at a woman. Though the woman’s face was blurry, there was a familiarity as if seen somewhere in the distant past. Even the appearance of the black-furred fox cub she was holding tightly in her arms…
Was that me?
If so, was that woman my mother?
The fox had almost no memories of its parents. It only had fragmentary memories. Even those were blurry. If she really was its mother, why was she being chased? Had she committed a crime? What did sacrifice mean?
Thoughts mixed chaotically. Kkeung. Groaning, the fox turned its gaze to the surroundings to shake off the complicated thoughts and nightmare.
The world was entirely submerged in deep darkness, and the sound of thick raindrops pounding the leaves rang noisily in its ears.
This wasn’t Adrian’s bedroom. It wasn’t his warm, comfortable lap either. The place where it hid its body was under cold, damp bushes. The chill of the dirt floor seeped through its belly to the bones.
Hungry, cold. And scared.
