BL: The Northern Grand Duke’s Hamster (Novel Translation)

"Who's dead!"

The situation was that the servant who came in to clean up the study seemed to mistakenly think that I was dead.

It seemed that he was worried that I would be hungry while cleaning the study, so he brought me food, but when the food only piled up and didn't shrink at all, he concluded that I was dead.

Even more so now that I was stuck in a corner, waiting for him to leave.

He didn't want to touch the corpse of the demon beast with his bare hands, so he shook my whole house. Thanks to this, the ice that escaped from the water bowl flew in and hit me in the face.

—Whoops! (Oh!)

I let out a small scream, and the hand that had been shaking the house stopped.

"...What, you've starved for days, but you're still alive? Does this make sense?"

My disgruntled gaze was directed at the rice bowl that had spilled out all its contents in the mess.

Kyle used to put things in for me to eat as a snack when he was bored, but these days, I had been a human for a long time, so I hadn't had to touch them.

'I didn't expect anyone to check this.'

Apparently, I'd been living too poorly lately. I scratched the bridge of my nose in a bad mood.

The servant hurriedly turned on the light in the room and looked into my house. Then, as soon as he saw me sticking my head out, breathing, he looked relieved and sorry.

"...I'm sorry. The house has been destroyed."

Okay. If you destroy other people's lives, you should be sorry.

I looked up at him with a smug look. Even if he couldn't understand the words, he could understand my emotions, and his eyes became more apologetic.

The man sat down and threw away the nuts that had become soggy after a few days, poured in new water, and fluffed up the sawdust.

I stuck to the slide so as not to interfere with his cleaning, and after he was gone, I grabbed a new cashew nut and put it to my mouth.

—....

It was given to the Northern Archduke's companion demon, so it was undoubtedly the highest quality.

But I didn't feel anything. Only a trembling and stuffy sensation lingered on my tongue. I lost my motivation after one bite, so I put down the cashew nut from my hand.

'...Come on, Kyle.'

I miss you.

Three days later, news came that Kyle had arrived.

I had nothing else to do, just chewing nuts brought by the servant to pass the time, and I jumped up at the news.

Of course, if I showed up right now, it would arouse suspicion, but even if I showed up late, I couldn't avoid suspicion as long as I came back intact.

But it was better to get it over with early. I also thought of a suitable excuse. In fact, I missed Kyle for all the reasons.

As soon as the servant left, I 'summoned' him, took out a warm cloak from my inventory, and wrapped it lightly around myself.

"Ugh...."

There were minor issues, but it was okay. No, it should have been okay. I tried to ignore the uncomfortable sensation and hurried forward.

More than anything, I missed Kyle so much. And I wanted to prove it to him. I'm fine. Perfectly fine. So, don't worry.

"You came back earlier than you thought? The new mine is quite far from the territory."

"That's what I said. Even if you just went there, it's a speed that you can't explain. If you had solved the problem, you wouldn't have had to come back in a hurry...."

Standing in the middle of the buzzing crowd, I saw Kyle and the others approaching with the sound of the ground rumbling. A cool breeze swept over my body as I strode forward.

No matter how northern it was, it felt cold today. Maybe it was because, unlike hamsters, I wasn't wearing a thick fur coat. It was still summer.

As I was trembling and shrinking my shoulders, several young people who recognized their faces approached me and greeted me gently.

"Oh, Magister."

"Did you come out to greet me? For some reason, you didn't go with me this time, did you?"

"Hey, how does the magician get to such a rough place? Even though I only picked out the strongest miners and took them away, when they came back, they all fell ill."

It seemed that the news from the Templars had not been transmitted to the outside world. Maybe that's why people didn't think my existence was so suspicious.

Meanwhile, Kyle got off his horse and looked at the crowd. A look of soberness yet eagerness swept over us.

Just looking at it made a corner of my heart ache at will. I called out to him, holding back the desire to run through the crowd at any moment.

"Your Highness."

At that moment, our eyes met like a lie.

It was a long distance. So there was no way he would have heard my voice. Even so, miraculously, our eyes did not take a single inch away from each other.

Kyle's face twisted. It seemed that he was holding back a certain feeling that was indescribable. He told James to do something, and then he strode up to me.

His red eyes seemed to boil. His lips pursed silently and then tightly closed. I couldn't say anything. I just stood quietly and waited for him to come to me.

Kyle pulled me in and hugged me. It was warm. I smiled lightly with my forehead resting on his shoulder.

"Everyone else will see it."

"It doesn't matter."

"If rumors spread that the loser of the North is boiling over a cunning man...."

Kyle hugged me tighter, answering in a hoarse voice.

"...It doesn't matter."

I could feel how anxious he had been all the way here.

Even though I knew that I could always escape at least once thanks to 'Import', he was so anxious just because Knox might have done something terrible to me in the meantime.

It was his affection that I realized in a rather selfish way.

"I'm glad you've been waiting for me."

"I don't think I'm fortunate. Who is so forced to come back? Who is going to kill you?"

"No one died."

"If you've confirmed that you're fine, don't do it next time."

I glanced over Kyle's shoulder at the knights.

They barely stood there, their faces pale as if they were about to vomit. Some of the knights standing in front of me turned even paler when they saw me.

"Stop falling now. There is a mountain of work to be done. And after putting out the fire in a hurry, you have to make excuses for your situation."

I patted him gently on the back to soothe him. However, it stopped at the attempt.

"...Ugh."

"Shu?"

Suddenly, a sharp pain arose around my elbow, and it quickly went up to my shoulder.

The tingling sensation stiffened my body with bone-piercing pain, and a sound of pain leaked out of my mouth.

I was confused by the unstoppable reaction, and Kyle felt something was wrong and pulled me away from his arms.

My arm was a little uncomfortable. It was a fact that I realized as soon as I 'recalled' him as a real person.

However, it wasn't like this until before. Obviously, when I first changed my clothes, it was a little uncomfortable to move my arms up and down, but now my body wouldn't listen to me, as if I was completely paralyzed from the shoulder down.

I tried to force my right arm to move a little more to reassure him, but all I could do was feel a pain like a squeeze in a frozen muscle. Cold sweat seeped out from my forehead.

"Stop."

Kyle realized that I was overdoing it, so he said in a low voice. Then he thought of something and quickly rolled up my loose sleeves.

I could see the pale marks between my wrists and elbows. The traces of a large hand squeezing my arm and letting it go looked like a brand.

"Brand of frost...."

I didn't have to look at who left it. Just before it disappeared, Knox left a stigma on me.

To track me?

Or was it to hurt me as I moved away?

More important and urgent than the intention of those who were already far away was the fact that the stigma progressed quite quickly.

Kyle's face contorted terribly, and then he tightened the hand that was holding my left shoulder.

"Wizard."

"..."

"Call all the mages of the estate!"

"Your Highness, please calm down first."

I quickly raised my hand, wrapped it around his cheek, and patted him.

"I still have a lot of time left. And I'm sure it's okay."

"Is this the arm of a good person now?"

Kyle looked genuinely angry. He wanted to pick me up and go up to the castle right away, but he seemed to be holding back because there were so many eyes to see.

"...You don't have to argue. First of all, go to the castle. Come here."

He habitually tried to wrap his arm around my shoulders, then clicked his tongue and stretched out his arms to wrap around my waist and pull me tightly. He had come in such a hurry that the cool smell of leather, wind, damp earth, and ice mixed from him.

It was when I was trying to calmly match Kyle's stride.

"Your Highness."

Before I knew it, James was looking at me with a stiff expression. His characteristic sharp eyes glanced at me up and down.

He didn't usually like me that much, but when I compared him to his current gaze, he used to look moderate and gentle.

That's how much he was now....

"You better be careful of magicians."

He was suspicious of me.

As if that wasn't enough, James drew his sword. As if he had encountered demon beasts on the way, he pointed his sword at me, stained with dark red blood and green essence, and said in a hostile voice.

"You may have colluded with the wizards. I hope you will take him away and pursue him immediately."

"Put away the sword."

Kyle growled.

"I told you to get rid of it, James Russell."

"..."

"He's injured. I can't move my arm at all. I was poisoned by frost, and if I continue like this, my life could be in danger in a few days."

Kyle's voice had no pitch, and it felt like he was reading a book written in words that were terribly cruel.

"Do you still want to interrogate me?"

James thought about it for a moment and then took a step back. He still didn't look at me, but he didn't violate Kyle's choices and orders.