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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 80
Chapter Title: Animal Diplomacy
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I could feel a comb slowly working through my purple hair, which was as tangled as the matted fur of an unwashed dog.
Washing my face, bringing me food, combing my hair… this was just like…
“…Mom?”
For some reason, it felt like I might have had a mother like this in my second life…
At my thoughtless mutter, Kivrin’s voice dropped sharply.
“I’m going to be angry.”
“Ah, I’m sorry! It was a slip of the tongue!”
Only after apologizing ten times was I allowed to hear the rest of the story.
It had started with the head butler reporting Marquis Ingram’s suspicious activities. Then, the maids had rushed to testify about what they had seen and heard.
It was the natural outcome.
He should have paid them on time.
“Sh-shall we go now?”
“Yes.”
I finished my preparations and stepped outside.
The center of the commotion was the main hall.
Marquis Ingram was surrounded by the very servants he had ignored.
*Rebecca isn’t here.*
*Is she with Sabrina?*
“The well is contaminated, and the horses can barely stand on their own. This is the first time I’ve seen anything like this in my twenty years of service. Have you no shame before your predecessors? If they could see you now, they would be more humiliated than anyone!”
The servants’ reactions fell into three categories.
Some condemned Marquis Ingram, while others, terrified, pleaded with him.
“I-I’m quitting… I don’t even need my back pay, just please let me leave this place, please?”
And a few others just hurled insults.
“You trash!”
As the servants’ voices grew louder, Marquis Ingram roared.
“Silence! How dare you ungrateful wretches forget the grace I’ve shown you all this time!”
But the heated atmosphere did not cool down.
My gaze shifted.
*Ah, there’s Cesar. And Mother is here too.*
I had thought Kivrin wouldn’t come alone, but I never expected Mother to accompany him.
With her long, platinum-blonde hair flowing down her back, she stood as regally as a monarch who had come to conquer a castle.
I hurried down the stairs.
Marquis Ingram was now blaming the servants and begging Winter for mercy.
“I was deceived, too! Investigate them! They must have been ordered by a faction trying to slander me!”
The marquis’s head butler turned away as if there was nothing more worth watching.
Winter’s lips parted slowly.
“It’s truly strange. Why does everyone think I’m more patient than Rick? The sight of them begging me, deluded into thinking I’ll stop him, is just laughable.”
Winter’s sighing voice echoed through the main hall.
Even in that moment, Marquis Ingram, unable to completely shed his pride, seethed.
I stepped onto the final stair and entered the main hall.
It was pointless to wonder if I should acknowledge Winter here.
Having spotted me, she was already gesturing for me to come closer, as if asking what I was waiting for.
I scurried to her side.
Winter caressed my cheek, checking my complexion.
“You poor thing. Your face looks so worn, probably from spending a whole day in such a shabby place.”
The marquis’s castle wasn’t *that* bad… but whatever.
I meekly entrusted my face to her touch.
“I missed you, Mother.”
“I missed you too, my dear.”
Only after scrutinizing me to her satisfaction did Winter send me over to Kivrin’s side.
“Leave before Rick arrives. It won’t do for you to witness such an ugly scene.”
“Yes.”
The Marquis Ingram, who was soon to become an ugly scene himself, flinched.
“D-Duchess? N-no, Mistress of the Crescent Moon Castle!”
No amount of flattery now would make Winter bat an eye.
Cesar gave me a slight nod in greeting.
I returned his greeting and left the main hall.
The ducal carriage was waiting for us.
I asked Kivrin.
“What will happen to the marquis?”
“He’ll… do anything to avoid d-dying…? But he’ll die in the end.”
Kivrin muttered indifferently.
He still sounded as if it had nothing to do with him.
I climbed into the carriage and looked out the window.
The scenery rushing by weighed on my mind.
When I had asked Emil if nature had any chance of recovering, even belatedly, if the magic circle was removed, he had been skeptical.
And that was despite the fact that if the same thing had happened in the novel, this discovery was several years early.
If the novel hadn't been discontinued, would this part have been covered?
What solution would my sister have proposed?
…No, my premise was wrong.
There was no way my sister would have cared about something that didn’t make money.
This land would have simply been left in ruins.
“Sigh.”
The divine power bestowed by the empire’s state religion could heal the injured, but it couldn’t restore nature.
That meant you’d have to pour in manpower, and when my sister crunched the numbers, there was no profit in it at all.
Just as I was shaking my head, the carriage suddenly stopped.
I thought it was temporary, but it showed no signs of moving again.
*Hmm? What’s going on?*
Through the window, I could see the ducal knights murmuring among themselves.
Leaving Kivrin, who was frowning slightly, I stepped out of the carriage.
The coachman, who had been anxiously talking with the knights, approached me.
“Young Madam.”
“What’s the matter?”
“Well… I think you need to see for yourself.”
It was no wonder Kivrin was frowning.
After all, right before our eyes, the cute rabbit I had seen before was busy carrying something with its animal friends.
The road the carriage needed to pass through was filled with pretty pebbles, rusty gold coins, shoes, and discarded jewels.
*Don’t tell me they gathered all this to make a deal with Kivrin?*
“It looks like they’ve gathered to see the Young Lord, don’t you think?”
“This isn’t the Crescent Moon Castle. How did they know to find him here? It’s strange.”
The knights conversed among themselves.
Just then, the rabbit hopped over to me.
“Gasp, so cute.”
It was completely different from the squirrel that had been wary of me and only liked Kivrin.
Following the rabbit, an incredibly adorable feline creature approached.
Its fur was so fluffy, it was as cute as the cat doll Rebecca had given me.
*Can I pet it?!*
I cautiously bent my knees.
As if magnanimously granting me permission for this one time, the animal thrust its head forward.
It was only a matter of time before I became addicted to the feel of its coarse yet soft fur.
*Is this heaven?*
*Do I deserve this much happiness?*
“Isn’t that a carnivore?”
“Then why isn’t it eating the rabbit?”
“And don’t they all have strange expressions… like they’re gloating?”
I was so focused on the purring of my new animal friend that the knights’ words didn’t even register.
Just as I was completely engrossed, Kivrin, who had reluctantly stepped out of the carriage, muttered.
“…How cunning.”
“Cunning?”
“Th-they must have figured out… that I cherish you, Cheria.”
What was he talking about?
Kivrin didn’t explain further.
Instead, as if he had changed his mind, he said he would help restore the Waning Moon Forest.
After that, without anyone even asking, the animal friends began to clear the road on their own.
The knights sat down to watch.
“These animals are incredibly smart.”
“I think they’re smarter than I was as a child.”
Kivrin himself showed no interest in the items being neatly stacked, so I asked.
“Are you planning to not accept the goods because you appreciate their effort?”
Kivrin’s gaze slid toward me.
“They do seem to have observed with great e-effort. You, that is.”
“Huh? Me?”
The goal was to persuade Kivrin, so why was I involved?
A single assumption flashed through my mind.
“Don’t tell me their plan was to use me to weaken your resolve, Young Lord? Just like Father?”
So that was why Kivrin called them cunning!
“I-if it makes you happy, Cheria, then I’m happy too.”
The animal, which had been submitting to my touch for a while, let out a small cry.
It licked my finger as a farewell, but all I felt was a sense of betrayal.
“No wonder… This is the first time an animal has ever shown this much interest in me.”
“Ah, you m-might be getting a lot more of it from now on.”
“I have no intention of becoming your weakness, Young Lord…”
Kivrin let out a soft laugh.
“You’ve never once been my weakness. O-on the contrary, it’s thanks to you, Cheria, that I-I’m becoming even a little bit kinder.”
He just wouldn’t give me a chance to feel upset.
“How are you going to restore the forest? Is there a chance you could get hurt?”
I remembered the time Kivrin had burned his hand while driving away the demonic beasts.
