Naturally, the Duke sat in the most prominent seat, while the rest sat facing each other in a row. Jack sat in the spot furthest from the Duke.
Having seemingly heard something in the carriage, Jack sat quietly at the end, barely noticeable, and no one, including Lord Elais, even glanced at him.
Lord Elais seemed surprised to see Carol suddenly become a bird, but soon remembered something he had forgotten and carefully began to speak after taking his seat.
“Come to think of it, I recently learned a bit more about mixed-blood beastmen and wanted to share it with Miss Carol.”
This was a topic that had slipped Lord Elais’s mind as he had been postponing it, having too many things to discuss with Carol.
“Yes?”
“I have an acquaintance who has been gathering information for a long time, and it seems they’ve collected enough data to draw statistics now.”
“About what?”
Kevin asked first, in place of the surprised Carol. Lord Elais took a sip of the wine that had been served to wet his throat and continued.
“About the difficulties in humanization or beastmanization compared to regular beastmen.”
“Isn’t that exactly about Sis?”
Dylan looked at Carol in amazement. While they had their own guesses about unstable humanization, they never thought they’d be able to hear about it objectively.
‘There are many people like me.’
More than learning about herself objectively, Carol was struck by the fact that there were other mixed-blood beastmen who had experienced the same difficulties as her.
“There’s an emotional curve, they say. When you’re in a good mood, the curve rises, and when you’re in a bad mood, it falls.”
“Yes.”
Carol replied, following Lord Elais’s explanation in her mind.
“They say that when the curve reaches its peak or when emotions fluctuate greatly, it becomes difficult to humanize.”
Carol listened to Lord Elais’s explanation calmly. It wasn’t particularly surprising. It only changed what she had been guessing into certainty.
Kevin and Dylan remained silent, perhaps recalling the time when Carol had been unable to humanize for a long time in the North.
Meanwhile, Louis glanced at Carol.
“…Then what happened just now?”
Although Carol was in her bird form and it was difficult to read her emotions, she didn’t seem to be in a particularly bad or good mood.
At Louis’s question, everyone’s gaze suddenly turned to Carol.
“Are you curious?”
When the Duke asked in return, Louis hastily shook his head.
“I must have misspoken.”
Though they didn’t say what had happened in the carriage, Carol pecked the Duke’s neck with her beak, feeling as if it had been revealed.
“Your beak is quite sharp,” the Duke said, stroking Carol’s head.
“Sis’s beak really hurts,” Kevin said empathetically, and Louis followed up,
“I underestimated the small beak and ended up with a big nose injury.”
Fortunately, the atmosphere flowed better than expected.
Perhaps due to the comfortable atmosphere, Carol felt she might be able to humanize before the short meal ended.
“Duke,” Carol said, and the Duke stood up abruptly as if he had been waiting.
“Excuse me for a moment.”
The Duke moved quickly to prevent the same mishap as before.
He immediately headed to the adjacent room. Luckily this time, he was able to reach the room before the transformation.
Creak.
Carol slightly opened the door and stretched out her hand.
“Duke.”
“Hm? Ah.”
The Duke, who thought he had handled it calmly, seemed actually flustered as he belatedly handed over the dress he had brought.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Carol greeted him while putting on the clothes. Earlier, she thought she couldn’t be more embarrassed, but now she felt even more so.
Trying to act nonchalant, Carol continued,
“I’m glad nothing like last time happened.”
“Indeed. It’s fine when it’s just me, but we should be careful.”
“But you were the one who first…!”
Didn’t you kiss me? I was trying so hard to hold back!
Carol started to flare up but soon realized what she was about to say and swallowed her words. The Duke chuckled softly.
“You’re right. It’s my fault.”
“…Don’t tease me.”
“I’ve been caught.”
Carol, now fully dressed, flung the door open and glared at the Duke, who easily admitted to teasing her.
“Let’s finish our meal first.”
“Alright.”
But the moment she stood at the door, the smile on Carol’s face instantly faded.
From inside, Jack’s voice, who had been quiet all along, was heard first.
“So this is the inconvenience of being a half-beastman.”
“It doesn’t happen often,” Louis intervened to smooth over the situation, but Jack, perhaps disliking how he had been cowering earlier, spouted nonsense in a louder voice than before after the Duke had left.
“Half-beastman, they must have had it tough. You real beastmen don’t have to deal with this, right?”
“I just want to finish my meal.”
Dylan was already fiddling with the returned scabbard. Kevin grabbed Dylan’s wrist and warned Jack, whose words were increasingly crossing the line.
But Jack felt extremely wronged.
He hadn’t said anything wrong, just gave advice out of concern, but suddenly the Duke showed his displeasure, forcing him to cower, which he couldn’t understand.
Carol hadn’t done anything, and earlier she didn’t even know what had happened as she was busy buying a dress.
And it was the Duke, not Carol, who had pressured him, but Jack wasn’t interested in figuring out whose fault it was in such detail.
After all, if it weren’t for Carol, none of this would have happened.
“I didn’t say anything because the Duke was here, but isn’t the Duke being deceived?”
At a glance, his face was so full of sympathy that one might mistake him for an old acquaintance of the Duke.
“Deceived? What nonsense are you talking about?”
Louis, who had been quiet, was the first to speak up. Though Louis thought he had answered calmly, he forgot his manners and spoke informally to someone he had just met.
“Does she change like that at random times?”
“No,” Kevin answered coldly.
Jack exaggeratedly nodded his head at Kevin’s response.
“For something like that, the Duke seems to know she’s a beastman.”
“…”
“Does the Duke just find it interesting that she’s a half-beastman?”
The Duke was about to enter the room as if he couldn’t listen to those words anymore, but Carol stopped him.
“Wait a moment.”
Carol hugged the Duke’s waist to prevent him from going in. The Duke looked down at Carol who was hugging him, forgetting his anger.
“…Why?”
“Just wait a little longer.”
Carol thought that simply entering now would only increase the antipathy. If she entered with the Duke, it was obvious that Jack would stop talking.
She wasn’t foolish enough to just listen quietly, but she wanted to know where this hostility came from.
‘What on earth did I do wrong?’
She wanted to know why she had become the target of anger when the Duke had also just met him for the first time.
She felt her blood run cold.
Due to Carol’s intervention, the two of them ended up hearing more of the conversation inside from in front of the door.
“Jack! You’re really out of your mind.”
Lord Elais raised his voice, unable to contain himself.
“Father!”
But Jack also raised his voice as if he wouldn’t back down. Lord Elais muttered in a voice tinged with surprise and regret.
“I really can’t understand why you’re acting like this.”
“When I couldn’t even eat properly because of beastmen, how can I feel good seeing them living in luxury here?”
“How is that a reason to attack my sister?”
Dylan asked, as if he couldn’t understand the reason. The sponsorship had been going on since their parents’ generation, and if anyone had received more support, it was Kevin and Dylan, not Carol.
Although she did receive a scholarship at the academy, most of the expenses for attending were sponsored by Lord Elais.
Jack looked at Kevin and Dylan, then quickly turned his head away.
“At least ask the Duke for some compensation for all the sponsorship you’ve received so far.”
He gritted his teeth as if he couldn’t bear to see them frequenting such nice places in the capital and living in luxury.
“My sister and the Duke are meeting because they like each other. Who are you to talk as if she needs to pay a price?”
“When Father was adding money for your sister to meet the Duke, I was living a hard life without money at the sword academy.”
His voice, filled with anger, was full of malice.
“They called it sponsorship grandly, but it wasn’t even that much money.”
