VIP Chapter 285: The Spring of the Beast-Eared Maid (9)
The previous chapter was blocked so fast… It was blocked at noon after being published at midnight. I’ll edit it again.
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Holding a thick volume of “History of Magic,” Will sat by the windowsill, wrapped in a thick blanket and sweater, gazing at the snowy scene outside.
Winters with heavy snowfall were not uncommon in his memory.
The Entak Empire was a realm with distinct seasons, and almost every winter, such snowy scenes could be seen, with thick layers of snow accumulating on the pavilions in the courtyard.
However, this year’s winter had arrived a little too early.
Thinking this, he tucked his feet further into the blanket and wrapped himself even tighter, taking refuge in the cozy room.
Previous winters…
What had he been doing then?
He turned the pages of “History of Magic” one by one.
Perhaps the book was truly boring and obscure.
Most of the books in the study had been taken away, and only this one remained.
In fact, even though he had read the contents before, he couldn’t recall much of it. The only thing he vaguely remembered was that, apart from a few passing mentions of “mythology,” anything concretely recorded began about five hundred years ago.
How strange.
Why was it that sitting by the window, flipping through books, he wasn’t enjoying it as much as he used to?
The stories written within had become uninteresting before his eyes.
He used to really like this book because it was filled with details about the “story” that he was curious about, which the original author hadn’t written, like a kind of spoiler that intrigued him.
But now…
Why?
Why did reading this book feel as boring as a history textbook he’d flip through when he couldn’t sleep? Events described in bureaucratic language, messy and hard-to-remember names—and the names of magic mixed together…
As Will was thinking this, his thoughts were suddenly interrupted by Iaar:
“Young Master, please try this today. It’s roasted sweet potato that Iaar just baked.”
The steaming roasted sweet potato seemed to be battling the cold air outside the glass window as it was brought to him.
“Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve eaten this much before.”
He picked up the roasted sweet potato, but it was too hot. He juggled it between his left and right hands for a while before peeling off its skin.
“Because the Hysterm Family probably wouldn’t have chosen sweet potatoes as a staple food before. Even if we ate them, it would be in sliced platters.”
Iaar also brought a sweet potato and sat on a wooden chair placed by his windowsill.
She also brought napkins so he could place the peeled sweet potato skin on his lap.
“Everyone seems to say that roasted sweet potatoes have a very ‘wintery’ taste.”
“It truly does have a wintery taste.”
Will smiled. In truth, it was a distant memory for him as well.
The winters here were spent in a warm room, watching the snow outside, with Iaar by his side, reading books he found interesting at the time, writing what he believed to be meaningful words, and enjoying warm and somewhat luxurious meals, passing days one after another.
“However, Iaar actually hates winter.”
Iaar, who had just put a piece of sweet potato in her mouth, suddenly changed the subject and said this.
“Why?”
“Iaar doesn’t seem to have ever told you the story before coming here…”
Because I actually know everything—Will thought to himself. He had reread the details written in the “character profile” many times, and could even imagine some of Iaar’s inner thoughts.
He had always felt that he didn’t need to hear the story from Iaar’s mouth again.
Because he already knew it from a more objective perspective.
But…
“Then tell me. This book is too boring. I’m listening.”
Will closed the book and looked at Iaar’s serious profile and her perked ears as he spoke.
“When I was abandoned, it seemed to be the end of summer. The weather in the forest was still hot. But it gradually grew cooler.”
Iaar smiled, set aside a piece of sweet potato, and fed it into Will’s mouth, which had not yet been completely peeled.
At this time, she did not refer to herself as “Iaar.” That was understandable, as Will remembered that name was given to her upon her arrival at the Hysterm Family.
“I neither remember what I went through before nor why I was in the forest. But as I hugged my tail and couldn’t warm my body, I thought that if it got any colder, I wouldn’t be able to cope.”
“The border forests do get colder faster.”
“I didn’t know… because I had never experienced it. I just felt that this world would keep getting colder and colder, and there would be no more times when I could walk barefoot in the stream.”
She huddled closer.
“…Later, I learned that they called it winter. After returning, the most frequent thing I heard was probably, ‘She almost didn’t make it through the winter and wouldn’t see the spring.'”
Will remained silent at this moment.
His skin felt the cold outside the blanket, and he knew very well that the cold Iaar had experienced was much deeper and more severe.
“However, none of that happened. That winter, it was you, Young Master, who kept Iaar.”
Her self-address changed back to “Iaar” once again.
She became the respectful yet somewhat childish and adorable maid in Will’s eyes, who always referred to herself by name.
“And so, Iaar learned that after winter, there would be increasingly warm days waiting for Iaar.”
“From then on, every day for Iaar was a spring where she knew that ‘the cold would leave, and the weather would become warmer and warmer.'”
Will watched her as she spoke, unconsciously swallowing the sweet potato herself.
“Mmm… mmm mmm!”
But she seemed to be choking a little, so Will patted her back.
“Alright, alright, eat slowly. There’s no need to treat past events as if you’re still starving.”
“It… it’s because it’s too hot. A dog… a dog’s tongue can’t handle something this hot… that’s why I swallowed it in one gulp.”
She looked up at Will with teary eyes.
For some reason, although he had the answers in previous tests, Will was puzzled at this moment—
Had she truly…
Had she truly “blackened”?
Or perhaps, had he slowly… slowly accepted this cloying relationship where she seemed unable to leave his side, both physically and mentally?
And so, with each passing day, he was also gradually becoming unable to leave her?
“They often say that dogs are very loyal creatures that recognize their masters. Although… although Iaar should be a wolf, being the Young Master’s dog isn’t impossible either.”
She repeated the words she often used to say.
“Woof~”
Then, she squinted and smiled, her tail wagging behind her.
“Wait a moment, I just realized something.”
“Hmm?”
“It seems that always asking you to refer to yourself as ‘Iaar is the Young Master’s dog’ might… might be a little misleading?”
“But… didn’t the Young Master mean that originally?”
Will seemed to recall.
He had wanted… Iaar to become as strong as that comical canine who had died before.
He hadn’t wanted her to be his dog, had he?!
“However, speaking of that, Iaar… I haven’t gone out since coming here. After the snow stops, there’s a place I suddenly want to go see…”
“!!!”
Iaar’s ears perked up as if she were highly alert, and her eyes widened as she looked at Will, waiting for him to finish his sentence.
“Let’s go pay respects at the grave of the dog, who might be the beginning of all this.”
Will seemed to recall the “Quest System” he had written page by page from that day onwards, his own “fate” of death that he was determined would not change, and the three “losers” who had gathered around him through various coincidences—
Now that he had returned to the starting point, perhaps it was time to go back and see.
Author’s Note: As expected, you shouldn’t drive on recommendations (?)
