I Raised the Beast Well

Translator/editor: ruby

“Ack!”

After Belinda’s shriek, Aymon rubbed his cheeks against the back of her neck and sighed. His breath hovered over her skin.

Belinda pushed the black beast away, her shoulders trembling with a tingling sensation.

「Should I just eat you up here and now….」

He slowly sniffed around her chest as if he wanted to remember her scent; it would be gone for a long time.

***

Looking back at the palace, Belinda waved from the carriage. No one would see it, but still.

Aymon would be in the Shinsu forest, visible behind the imperial palace, probably rolling around in a flower bush.

I miss him already.

To this degree, it was like a disease. She should have been tired of being stuck with him since she was a kid. But as time passed, she only enjoyed it more.

He was cute when he licked her toes like a pervert and when he cheekily bit her shoulder, saying that his teeth were itchy.

They’d even met yesterday and rolled around to their hearts’ content…

Belinda sighed as she looked back in the direction of the palace, which was no longer visible.

I should’ve just asked him to come with me.

The more she thought about it, the more regretful and anxious she felt.

Aymon was so cool. His overwhelming body as a leopard and his handsomeness as a human made her flush just by looking at him.

Thanks to them being childhood friends, she could hold on to the ridiculous argument of “You shouldn’t be a playboy”……

Everyone was trying to find a mate like crazy, and it was even the breeding season.

Belinda sighed.

“What’s wrong, Belinda?”

Mazetto asked, lying on a handkerchief and playing with her ring.

He leaped up, asking again.

“Huh? Why are you sighing? Do you think Mazetto will take your ring? Hm?”

He chirped, looking like he was really going to ask for it.

Belinda laughed. He was cute. He was a cute animal, just like Aymon, so why did it feel so different?

She shook her head, scratching Mazetto’s chin, who’d hopped onto her knees.

“Keep the ring, Mazetto.”

She wasn’t interested in jewelry in the first place, and except for the ring that Aymon gifted her, they all just felt like mere belongings.

No matter how expensive they were, she always felt burdened by them, like they didn’t fit her – even after all her time as a princess.

“Really? Can I have it? Can I?”

“Yeah. Really.”

“Thank you! You’re the best! My favorite!”

He raced over her shoulders, making a fuss in her hair.

It was amazing that one could win a sparrow’s heart with jewelry. Belinda scratched his chubby belly, eliciting laughter.

The carriage stopped for about twenty minutes whenever they found a place to rest. Now, they were in front of a large lake with a field of wildflowers.

As soon as the carriage stopped, its door burst open. Few people could open a princess’s carriage without even knocking.

“Lucy! Are you all right?!”

Lart, who was one of them, asked.

Lucy’s face had begun to turn white a few hours ago, probably because of the carriage’s rattling on the bumpy mountain paths.

After discovering this at a rest stop, Lart began making a fuss, saying that they needed to slow down and take a smoother path. He even tried to move to Lucy’s carriage but eventually shut up after a scolding from the Emperor.

Belinda glanced at Lucy and Lart, holding a sleeping sparrow in her hands. She wasn’t the only one observing the two of them.

The prince clinging to a princess’s maid was quite an intriguing scene. The eyes of the nobles traveling with them were all focused on it.

“Don’t you need to lie down?”

Lart asked, looking into Lucy’s eyes while stroking her back. There was no hesitation in brushing her hair behind her ears; it was a natural touch that neither Lucy nor Lart seemed to care about.

Belinda tilted her head.

How long have those two been so close?

Their touches and looks were strangely different from before. There was a heavy, deep emotion in Lart’s eyes.

Oh well, I guess it was while I was with Aymon.

Stretching out over the grass, Belinda blew her thoughts away.

A black butterfly fluttered by her, making her think of Aymon.

Her beautiful black leopard.

***

“Snow! Snow! Belinda! There’s snow!”

Mazetto shouted, sticking to the carriage window. Every time he tapped his beak against it, he could see his breath.

After a few days of travel, they arrived at their resort on the Gerban Peninsula, met with the beautiful sight of the sun setting over the white snow.

“Mazetto. Come here.”

Mazetto flew over to Lucy’s hand and was soon wrapped with a small wool cloth.

“A gift. In case it gets cold.”

“But Mazetto doesn’t get cold… I fare well even in winter….”

Mazetto looked down at the clothes, moved, and dug into her hair.

“Lucyyyy!”

Belinda leaned down.

“Didn’t you say I was the best when I gave you the ring, Mazetto?”

“You’re the best, and Lucy is the best! Mazetto likes both of you very much!”

While Lucy patted the sparrow in white wool, Belinda looked out the window with a smile.

The white building they’d be staying in for the next few weeks was passing by. There would be nothing different about this vacation.

She stepped out into the snow in her thick fur coat and looked at the ice sculpture out front. She wished she could soak her feet in the water. The endless white cold just bored her.

Having to travel with elegant nobles was even more suffocating; she had to pay careful attention to every one of her gestures.

Even the way she grabbed the hem of her dress had to be graceful in order to not be ridiculed as a half-blooded princess.

She felt like she was being controlled by an invisible string.

In the semicircle glass building, Belinda drank tea, staring at the raging snowstorm outside.

It was unbelievable that they could have tea parties in this weather. Belinda again realized how much luxury the imperial family could enjoy.

Lart and Lucy were sitting opposite her, Lart with a worried expression over Lucy saying she felt too sick to eat her cookies.

“Then I’ll eat all the cookies!”

Mazetto buried his beak in the cookies with an excited face. As Lucy smoothed down his feathers, she felt someone approach from behind.

Lart looked up but didn’t respond, even though he knew who it was. Belinda didn’t turn back either.

The only people who could visit them were the royal family and the high-ranking nobles who traveled with them. Unless it was the Emperor or Empress visiting, Belinda, a princess, had no reason to turn around first.

“I greet the noble royal family.”

Belinda turned around belatedly, recognizing the owner of the high-pitched voice.

The Duke’s brother and sister, both with soft, brown hair, were standing there. Their eyes were, as expected, full of the dignity and confidence unique to high-ranking nobles.

Duke Ruberos DeHill, the older of the two, bowed and spoke audaciously.

“I hope I haven’t interrupted your good time.”

Belinda didn’t say anything, while Lart grinned and gave a relaxed reply.

“What is it?”

“I stopped by because you seemed to be having fun in here.”

Duke DeHill naturally gestured to his sister, Claire DeHill, to sit in the empty chair.

They had been close to Adelai and Lart since childhood, so they had a calm attitude.

As soon as Claire sat down, the duke turned around to look at Lucy.

In contrast with his tender eyes towards Lart and Belinda, he shot her a stark, arrogant look.

There were no chairs left at the table.

How dare she? How could Lucy, the daughter of a count who had no power at all, have a good seat, but not the duke?

The quick-witted Lucy leaped up from her chair and stepped behind Belinda as if it had always been her rightful place.

When Duke Ruberos took the seat next to him, Lart’s eyebrow shot up.

Duke DeHill.

He had two exceptional children, including Ruberos DeHill, whom everyone had high expectations of because of his combat skills, and Claire DeHill, who would undoubtedly be the next Empress.

Claire DeHill, who’d known Lart since childhood, was a beautiful and intelligent woman who rivaled even the current Empress.

No one doubted that she would be the next Crown Princess. With her power and wealth, she was the perfect candidate.

That conviction began to crack when Lart dedicated his prey to a maid, a humble daughter of a count, at the hunting competition – to Lucy Herb, the only person willing to take the role of the half-blooded princess’s maid.