The head maid asked with surprised eyes as she cleared away the empty dishes.
“Your Majesty, will he be alright? He ate quite a lot during the day too…”
“Who knows. Maybe he has a beggar in his stomach. Or perhaps he’s in a growth spurt.”
Adrian rested his chin on his hand and looked at the fox. Only after thoroughly licking up even the last meat crumbs did the fox lift its head. Its mouth was covered with juice that had dripped from the strawberries.
‘Phew, I feel like I can live now.’
Its stomach was bloated full again, but this time it was a pleasant fullness. A stomach filled with real food felt substantial. With this, it had the strength to fight Adrian’s curse all night.
***
It was time for bed. Adrian set the fox down in the middle of the bed and changed clothes. The fox settled on top of the blankets. As the soft mattress embraced its body, its taut stomach seemed to relax a bit.
‘Ready.’
The fox licked its front paws and made a solemn vow. It had filled its stomach, and Adrian seemed to be in a good mood. Now all that remained was to wait for the curse to become active in earnest.
The lights went out. As darkness filled the room, Adrian’s breathing changed to a regular rhythm. He pulled the fox close and trapped it in his embrace. A firm arm pillow supported its neck. The fox familiarly burrowed between his armpits.
How much time had passed? The moment came when Adrian’s heartbeat slowed and his muscles relaxed. The fox’s closed eyes snapped open.
Slowly, slowly.
As if it had been waiting, black heat haze rose from Adrian’s solar plexus. Thanks to the fox steadily eating it, it was small and faint, but it coiled like a snake, trying to strangle Adrian’s neck.
‘Where do you think you’re going.’
The fox smacked its lips. Its stomach was too full to want to eat anything, but this wasn’t a meal—it was cleaning. Cleaning to make Adrian pristine. The fox carefully lifted its head, opened its mouth toward the dark smoke, and gulped it down.
“……”
As soon as it swallowed, the fox’s brow furrowed.
The taste was strange. The fishy metallic taste from yesterday remained the same, but mixed with the sweet taste of the steak and strawberries it had eaten earlier, creating a terrible combination. Its stomach churned. With its stomach already full and forcing more in, its esophagus was having a rejection reaction.
‘Urk…’
It felt like throwing up. But it couldn’t spit it out. If it did, it would return to Adrian. The fox forcibly opened its throat and swallowed down the dark mass.
Gurrrgle.
It felt like a small explosion had occurred in its stomach. The orb spun madly, spewing out heat. As the energy from food and the malevolent energy from the curse rushed in all at once, the orb began to go berserk.
‘It’s hot!’
The fox opened its mouth wide and panted. Its stomach boiled up like a furnace. This was on a different dimension from simple indigestion. A scorching heat that felt like it would melt its joints swept through its entire body.
There was too much energy. It had eaten a lot to break down the curse faster, but it had backfired. The small fox’s body wasn’t a vessel that could contain this enormous power. The orb instinctively sought a solution. Creating a hole to pour out the energy on the verge of exploding. In other words, transforming into human form and forcibly burning off the massive energy.
Crack.
Its spine screamed. The joints of its hind legs twisted bizarrely, trying to lengthen. The skin beneath its fur stretched taut.
No.
The fox bit down hard on the blanket. Adrian was right next to it. If it transformed into a human here, it was all over.
But it wasn’t something it could endure. Terror flooded in at the sensation of its body swelling up on its own. The fox pushed away Adrian’s arm and tumbled down below the bed.
Thud.
As soon as it hit the carpet, it crawled under the bed. A narrow, dark space. It smelled of dust. But it couldn’t pay attention to that. The scorching heat enveloping its entire body was threatening to melt away its reason.
‘It’s hot, too hot.’
The fox—no, the beast whose form was collapsing—scratched at the floor. The orb inside its body screamed. The pure energy obtained from food and the murky toxicity extracted from the curse mixed together and ran rampant through its veins. It was out of control.
Crack.
Its spine twisted with a grotesque sound. The joints of its hind legs forcibly straightened and stretched. It wasn’t the smooth sensation of when it had transformed into a human before. A terrible pain like bones being smashed with a hammer and forcibly fitted back together struck its brain.
“Grrruuugh…”
The groan that leaked from its mouth was neither a fox’s cry nor a human voice. It was a rough, low growling like scratched metal.
Its body swelled up. The narrow space under the bed quickly filled. Its back pressed against the bed slats, crushed. Its skin stretched so taut it felt ready to burst.
‘I’m transforming.’
It couldn’t stop it. The transformation that had already begun swept over its body like a waterfall. Its snout shortened and the bridge of its nose flattened. Its tailbone shrank and burrowed into the flesh of its buttocks.
Something was wrong. There wasn’t the smoothness it had felt when transforming into a complete human form. Something in its body rattled. Instead of the fur seeping into its skin, it stood stiffly on end, and each finger joint thickened arbitrarily.
How much time had passed? The noise of bones colliding and rough breathing subsided.
The fox lay sprawled. A damp liquid, whether sweat or some fluid seeping from its body, soaked its entire body. It panted and opened its eyes. Though it was in darkness, the nocturnal beast’s vision remained.
The first thing it saw was its own hand.
‘…What is this?’
Its breath caught. It wasn’t the human hand it remembered. The slender white fingers were nowhere to be found. Instead, there was a massive hand, gnarled like tree roots, before its eyes. The back of the hand had coarse black hair sparsely dotting it, and the skin was discolored a dark red as if burned.
Most horrifying of all were the nails. Instead of neat nails, yellowish, sharp hooks like a mixture of beast claws and human nails were embedded at the fingertips.
‘Monster.’
That was the only word that came to mind.
The fox groped its arms, its legs. Where smooth skin should have been felt, only rough fur remained. Its muscles were grotesquely swollen, and its joints protruded hideously.
‘Disgusting.’
Its breath caught. More than the stones the villagers had thrown, more than the arrows the hunters had shot, its current appearance was more frightening. Even without looking in a mirror, it could tell. Right now, it was a perfect monster.
It was because it had eaten too much curse. The rotten meat had mixed inside its body and ruined the transformation.
Just then, the mattress swayed greatly. Adrian had tossed and turned. The fox, lying flat on the floor beneath the bed, covered its mouth, unable to even breathe. Terror came flooding in like a tidal wave.
If Adrian saw this form? He would surely be horrified. He might draw his sword. No, more terrifying than that would be his contemptuous gaze. Imagining his cold eyes looking down as if at an insect made its heart shrivel.
‘I have to hide.’
If it stayed here, it would be discovered. The moment Adrian woke from sleep and looked under the bed, everything would be over. The fox moved its body, its jaw trembling. Its joints creaked like rusted hinges. Because of its increased bulk, its shoulder touched the bed frame.
Creeeak.
The sound of scraping wood tore through the silence.
Above the bed, the sound of Adrian tossing and turning could be heard. The mattress swayed and the sound of springs being pressed rang out above its head with a thud.
“Mmm…”
At Adrian’s sleep-talking, the fox lay flat on the floor without even breathing. Its protruding spine touched the cold floor, making its body cold.
Please, please don’t wake up.
Fortunately, Adrian’s breathing became even again. The fox swallowed a sigh of relief and carefully crawled out. It was an awkward posture, neither crawling on all fours nor walking on two legs. As it led its heavy body out from under the bed, cold air struck its sweat-soaked skin.
Where should I go?
The balcony was closed. Opening the door would make noise. The wardrobe? If it hid there and got caught, there would be no excuse. The fox’s gaze, frantically sweeping the room, caught sight of the bathroom door.
‘There.’
There, it could lock the door. It could prevent Adrian from entering.
The fox limped toward the bathroom. Rather than walking, it was closer to an injured beast being dragged along. The fox, moving awkwardly, finally grasped the bathroom doorknob. What would have been easy to turn with human hands—its dulled fingers wouldn’t obey. After repeatedly slipping and fumbling, the door finally opened with a click.
The fox tumbled inside. And hastily closed the door and locked it.
Click.
Only then did the strength leave its legs. It sank down onto the cold tile floor. Rough breathing filled the narrow bathroom. It could see the large mirror hanging above the sink. It thought it shouldn’t look, but its body rose on its own.
“……”
A strange monster was visible in the mirror.
Dark red skin, stiff hair sprouting sparsely, grotesquely swollen muscles, and eyes emitting a beastly gleam. Its mouth was dirty with saliva and foam, and its eyes were filled with terror.
Is this me?
It was neither the fox Adrian had found cute nor the boy. Just a terrible hybrid.
Tears welled up. The emotion it felt now was closer to despair than sadness. The orb still raged madly, spewing heat. There was too much energy to control.
‘I have to go back. To being a fox.’
The fox closed its eyes and concentrated. It gathered its scattered energy and tried to shrink the forcibly elongated bones again. Get smaller. Please get smaller. But the orb wouldn’t listen. Instead, as if in rebellion, it spewed out even hotter heat.
Urk.
Its stomach twisted. The fox crawled toward the toilet and dry-heaved. Nothing came out. It only felt the black energy burning its esophagus.
That’s when it happened.
“Fox?”
Adrian’s voice came from beyond the bathroom door.
