I wasn’t supposed to get involved again!
“Miss, are you okay?”
Lena came rushing in from the next room.
“When I heard the lady scream, I got worried and ran over.”
Lena pulled me up to my feet, unsure of what to do.
The black dog wagged his tail, which was the size of my forearm, innocently from side to side.
His face screamed, ‘how are you? Did you sleep well?’.
I let out a sigh.
At first, I was happy. After seeing the ending, I felt free.
‘Who the hell sent him?’
Seeing Ludwin smiling brightly as if he was in a good mood, I wanted to run away screaming like I did that day four years ago.
‘Besides, they wanted me to take care of him? There’s no way Ludwin could’ve written it himself, even if he came back from the dead.’
No matter how much I thought about it, all I could come up with was that someone who knew his identity had sent him to mess with me.
‘What on earth am I going to do about this guy?’
Yesterday I had no choice, so I let him stay at my house, but I couldn’t leave him like this forever.
After the ending, Ludwin Rivolte was a ticking time bomb.
Since the female lead was married, there was a high probability that the second male lead was already blackened.
Even if I hadn’t bullied Lillian, there was a good chance he’d still be licking his wounds from the heartbreak.
‘I tried so desperately to avoid him!’
I didn’t want to get in trouble for treating the second male lead like a dog when it wasn’t my fault.
I knew he’d be furious at the way I treated him when he came back as a human However, I also couldn’t treat this dog like the Duke of Rivolte. That would be a shortcut to destruction.
In short, if I kept him, my head would be sliced off.
I shuddered, remembering that scene in the original.
‘I can’t do this. Let’s send him back quickly somehow.’
And never see each other again.
The villain must be kept away from the characters!
Now that the story has come to an end, it was clear that would be for the best as he was both the villain and the second male lead.
With that decision made, I sprang into action.
“Lena, go and fetch Sir Balon.”
Soon, Sir Balon, the leader of the knights, arrived in my drawing room.
“Did you call for me, my lady?”
Sir Balon, with his handsome brown mustache, came running, surprised at the unexpected summons so early in the morning.
“Sir Balon, I’m sorry for calling for you so early in the morning, but would you mind taking Lou out?”
“Lou? Ah, the dog you brought with you. The one next to…”
Taking the leash from my hand, he tugged on it, under Ludwin’s watchful gaze.
Soon the thick leash was pulled taut.
“Hmm?”
However, even though the knight commander pulled, Ludwin didn’t move.
“Oh my.”
Sir Balon wrestled with Ludwin for a good thirty minutes, eventually raising both hands in defeat.
“…This guy doesn’t budge, does he?”
Ludwin snorted triumphantly, as if bragging that he’d won.
The sight alone was absurd, but when Sir Balon handed me back the leash on the way out, I couldn’t believe he was getting up to go for a walk.
‘Okay, you’re not going to leave on your own, is that it?’
I decided to try something else.
I summoned the strongest knight in the Dilucia Knights.
“If you are a knight in name and character, you should at least be able to move Lou.”
“A knight among knights! Please leave it to Adein!”
At my words, Sir Adein, a muscular knight, flaunted his muscles and approached to pick him up.
Then Ludwin immediately lowered his stance and growled, revealing his large fangs.
Grrrrr.
‘Just see what happens if you touch me.’
That’s what he seemed to be saying.
Dumbfounded by the fist-sized fangs, Sir Adain stared at Ludwin for a moment, then turned to me.
“Uhh… Lady, if I get bitten, I’ll never be able to be a knight again. Do I still get a pension if I retire from knighthood because of a dog bite?”
He was right, it certainly didn’t look like this would end with a minor injury.
Furrowing my brow, I held up my hand.
“…You can stop.”
There was no way he was going to be able to send the second male lead back.
I had no choice but to give up on this method.
‘Do you not like being touched by other people?’
I looked down gravely at Ludwin, who was smiling naturally in front of me with his pink tongue hanging out.
He didn’t have a friendly personality to begin with, but he was even more likely to lash out after the ending.
I had to find another way.
Just then, a brilliant idea flashed through my mind.
“Oh, yeah!”
I nodded, jumping out of my seat.
‘I received him as a gift by courier, so it might be possible to send him back by courier.’
The Imperial Postal Service doesn’t deliver living things, but someone did anyway, that must’ve been how Ludwin arrived in the backyard of my flower shop.
I don’t know the sender, but I knew where he came from.
I ordered them to bring a large box right away.
“Miss, is this big enough?”
“Yes, it’s perfect.”
I didn’t know where he got it from, but the servant placed a large box right in front of me.
It was only a horse box, but it was bigger, more comfortable, and more luxurious than the one Ludwin had originally been in, more like a small carriage without wheels.
‘It’s got fine cushions inside, so it’ll be comfortable, I’m sure he’ll be happy to get in.’
I clasped my hands in front of my face and looked back at Ludwin with expectant eyes.
“Lou!”
Ludwin’s ears perked up at my call.
I smiled smugly and pointed politely with both hands to the colorful box.
“Here, if you don’t mind.”
Flick. Ludwin’s head snapped to the right.
“Get in.”
Another flick. Ludwin’s head snapped back, this time to the left.
“Won’t you?”
This time, he pretended not to hear me and laid down on his stomach.
“…Huh. Okay, I understand.”
If nothing else, it was clear that he had no intention of getting into the box.
I had the knights try luring him in with something to eat, just in case, but they were met with snorts and literal disregard.
Let’s not mention that the knights went home crying after being humiliated in front of the maids.
The delivery operation failed because the goods were unable to be packaged…
Everything was a failure.
The next day, I looked at Ludwin, who was dozing soundly at my feet again, and furrowed my brow.
‘He was sent here by force and I’m just trying to send him back. Why does he seem so opposed to the idea?’
Why on earth aren’t you leaving my house?
Surely, it’s not my neck you’re after?
I felt creeped out by my useless imagination.
However, I couldn’t send a letter to the Duke of Rivolte telling him that his son was here and to take him away.
If I did that, my family would be destroyed overnight.
‘Duke of Rivolte…’
I sighed and touched my forehead.
The Duke of Rivolte and Ludwin were still on bad terms, even after the ending of the original novel.
While Dilucia couldn’t survive without their family, the Rivolte’s were a kill-or-be-killed kind of family.
Nevertheless, the Duke of Rivolte prioritized family honor.
If the Duke found out that his son was in our house, in the form of a dog, there was a very high possibility he would think that the dishonorable appearance of his bloodline had been exposed and would destroy our house.
I shook my head.
Of course, Dilucia has become more affluent compared to the past, so it won’t float away like a piece of paper, but Duke Rivolte’s influence in the empire was still considerable.
So, I tried to send him back safely.
‘I can’t leave him to someone else, I can’t send him by courier, so the only way left is to go there myself…’
Delucia and Rivolte were at the eastern and western ends of the Empire, and it would take a very long time to get there and back.
‘It’ll take me more than a month to go there and back.’
That was a problem.
The much-anticipated opening of my flower shop was just four days away.
All the promotions and preparations were completed, and everyone even held a party to celebrate the opening yesterday.
“Congratulations, Tyria.”
“Sister, can I bring my friends on opening day?”
“Miss, I will definitely go buy flowers the day you open!”
Thankfully everyone agreed to come that day, the opening couldn’t be delayed.
‘I already saw the ending, why are you putting me through this ordeal, second male lead?’
I almost felt disgusted with Ludwin, who was sleeping soundly at my feet with a carefree appearance, unaware of my troubles.
He looked quite comfortable lying half on his side.
I crossed my arms and looked down at him with suspicion.
I’d been thinking since the first day he arrived that something seemed suspicious.
‘Why are you staying in your animal form?’
From what I’d read in the original story, once a beastman was able to fully assume human form, they almost always stayed in human form. It’s uncomfortable to be in animal form because it clouded their reasoning.
Besides, it’s hard to stay in animal form for a long period of time once they became an adult.
But he’s been in dog form for three days now.
Was there something going on?
‘You’re not going to take care of me when I’m not looking, right?’
That thought itself was frightening.
From now on, I resolve to always keep myself composed, no matter where I am, with a slightly altered mindset.
Whether he knew what I was feeling or not, Ludwin’s chest rose and fell regularly.
‘Goodnight.’
He slept so soundly that I felt bad waking him up.
The way he’d fallen soundly asleep at my feet every night since he’d come here made it seem like he hadn’t slept in months.
I stared at him and finally let out a long sigh.
There was nothing I could do about it.
For now, I have no choice but to keep him with me and find out what happened as quickly as possible.
If he comes back as a human later and tries to kill me, I’ll have to convince him that he wouldn’t go.
I really tried my best to send you back!
At least while he was a dog, he didn’t seem to have any intention of harming me.
‘Okay, let’s just stay as far away as we can and avoid contact, like I’ve been doing.’
I had a hard enough time getting the main characters to get married and seeing the ending. I had no intention of making a mistake now.
Since I was going to be busy for a while with the flower shop opening anyway, I just had to tell the maids to take good care of him.
‘I’ll never get involved with him!’
That’s what I decided.
***
It was late at night when everyone was asleep. Ludwin, who’d been sound asleep in the corner of the room Tyria had given him, opened his eyes.
His golden eyes darted this way and that, on guard, only relaxing when he was sure no one was around.
Ludwin sat up, stretched, and walked over to the window, bathing in the moonlight.
A moment later, he flinched, and soon a pale glow emanated from his body.
Soon the glow spread throughout his entire body, and his black fur-covered body began to change shape.
The black fur disappeared as if it were seeping away, revealing pure white skin. The elongated snout became distinctly human.
Soon, Ludwin was transformed from a large beast into a lean, elongated human.
The light from the transformation soon dispersed in all directions, and he dropped to one knee on the floor, his hands gripping the ground lightly, and let out a deep sigh.
“Whoa.”
