Chapter 37: The Little Fluff Ball
Ryan pushed open the door to Room 207. Warm light and the fragrant steam of food greeted him at once, filling the room with a cozy warmth.
Cosette was already standing by the door, waiting.
Her hair was arranged especially neatly today. Two braided plaits hung over her shoulders, tied with dark blue ribbons that matched the color of her dress. Her maid uniform had been carefully ironed, and the apron strings were tied behind her waist in a proper bow. Beneath the skirt, white stockings wrapped around her calves, and her black leather shoes had been polished until they shone.
She stood on her tiptoes, the tips of her shoes lightly tapping the floor. The mont she saw Ryan return, her eyes lit up and the corners of her lips curved into a smile.
Just as she was about to speak, her gaze suddenly jumped to Ryan’s shoulder.
There, nestled comfortably, was a small tuft of cyan fluff that rose and fell gently with its breathing.
“Huh?” Cosette let out a soft cry, her eyes widening. “Master, what… what is that?”
Ryan walked into the room and casually closed the door behind him. He moved to the desk, where dinner had already been laid out—steaming soup, toasted bread, and a pan-fried steak.
He answered casually, “Sothing I got during the practical class. You could say it is… a contracted spirit.”
“A contracted spirit?!” Cosette’s voice rose half an octave. Her bright eyes sparkled with amazent and admiration. She followed Ryan to the table, her gaze glued to the ball of cyan fluff. “Master really contracted a spirit! That is amazing!”
She leaned closer, trying to see it more clearly.
At that mont, her gaze dropped slightly and landed on Ryan’s waist.
The academy uniform there had been torn open. Along the edge of the rip were faint, darkened bloodstains that had not been fully cleaned.
The smile vanished from Cosette’s face instantly.
“Master!” Her voice suddenly beca anxious. She reached out but did not dare touch him, her fingertips hovering in midair. “You… you are injured?! Here! Your clothes are torn, and there is blood!”
Only when she shouted did Ryan glance down.
His thoughts had been elsewhere earlier, and only now did he notice the tear at his waist. He casually tugged at the ripped fabric of his coat, revealing the wound beneath, which had been hastily treated with a few strips of cloth torn from the lining.
“Oh, this.” He spoke as if he had only just rembered. “I ran into a bit of trouble in the forest. It is nothing serious.”
“How can it be nothing serious?!” Cosette’s face turned pale with worry. She spun around and ran toward the small room. “I will get the dicine box!”
“There is no need—”
Ryan had not even finished speaking before she had already dashed inside. Monts later she ran back, clutching a small wooden dicine box, moving with surprising speed.
Cosette knelt beside his legs and carefully began untying the cloth strips that had been used as a temporary bandage. They were already sowhat dirty.
She bit her lower lip, bracing herself to see a grueso wound.
But when the cloth was removed, the skin underneath revealed only a shallow scratch. A thin layer of dark red scab had already ford over it. It still looked a little red, but it could hardly be called a wound anymore—more like a light scrape from sothing sharp. There was not even any swelling.
Cosette froze, her fingers suspended in the air.
She clearly rembered that there had been quite a lot of blood on her master’s clothes.
Ryan also looked down at the faint scratch and frowned.
He had treated the wound himself and knew exactly what had happened. The wolf’s claw had definitely cut deeper than this. At the ti it had burned painfully.
Now it looked like this…
His gaze drifted toward the cyan fluff ball on his shoulder. The little creature was sleeping soundly with its tiny head tilted to the side, looking utterly innocent as if none of this concerned it.
Ryan roughly guessed the reason.
It was most likely related to this little thing—or perhaps to the gemstone that had been burning hot against him the entire way back, the Erald Wind Oath.
“See? I am fine.” Ryan pulled the torn edge of his coat back into place, covering the faint scratch. “There is no need to fuss over it.”
Cosette remained kneeling there, looking up at him. The worry in her eyes had not fully faded, though confusion now filled most of it. She glanced at the unbelievably shallow scratch, then at Ryan’s calm expression, and finally down at the dicine box in her hands.
“…Are you really alright?” she asked softly.
“Yes,” Ryan replied firmly. “It barely broke the skin. Put the dicine box away.”
Only then did Cosette slowly stand up. After hesitating for a mont, she closed the box and returned it to the cabinet. When she ca back, she could not help glancing again at Ryan’s waist, but the coat now covered everything.
Ryan had already sat down at the table and picked up a spoon to drink the soup. As the warm food went down his throat, the tension that had been tightening his nerves all day finally loosened a little.
“Mm.”
He responded absentmindedly, then looked up at Cosette, who was still standing beside him with a slight frown.
“You were about to say sothing earlier, were you not?”
He clearly rembered that she had sothing to say when he first ca in.
“Ah! Right!” Cosette suddenly rembered. Her attention finally shifted away from her master’s injury. A hint of pride mixed with anticipation appeared on her face again. She clasped her hands behind her back and puffed out her still slender chest as her voice beca bright.
“Master, today… the ten characters you asked to morize—I have learned all of them! I can recognize them and write them!”
Ryan paused with the spoon halfway to his mouth and looked at her.
“So quickly?”
He rembered that not long ago this girl had been practically illiterate, unable to recognize even the full alphabet.
He had expected that morizing ten characters a day would take quite so effort for her.
Cosette nodded vigorously, her cheeks turning slightly rosy.
“It is true! Master, I… I think I have started to understand the thod. The first few were difficult, but once I rembered them, the rest beca easier to learn.”
Her voice lowered slightly but remained clear.
“And… today I even morized two extra ones…”
Ryan set down his spoon, took a clean sheet of paper from the side, and handed her a charcoal pen.
“Write them for .”
Cosette took the pen and drew a breath. Bending over the table, she carefully wrote the ten characters, along with the two additional ones she had learned.
Her handwriting was still sowhat childish, and a few strokes were slightly unsteady. But compared to the crooked scrawls she had written at the beginning, it had already improved trendously.
Each character was written with firm determination, carrying a sense of effort and a desire to prove herself.
Ryan watched quietly. After she finished, he asked her to read each character aloud and explain its aning. Cosette answered them all correctly, only stumbling slightly once before imdiately correcting herself after Ryan reminded her.
When the little test ended, Ryan picked up his spoon again and continued eating. A faint smile curved his lips.
“Not bad.”
He said it briefly. Then, as he often did, he reached out and gently ruffled Cosette’s hair.
The mont his palm touched her hair, Cosette’s body trembled lightly. A warm sweetness spread through her chest, and she could not help narrowing her eyes as a satisfied smile blossod across her face.
At that mont, the cyan fluff ball on Ryan’s shoulder moved.
It first shook its fluffy body. Then the pair of erald-green eyes that had been closed the whole ti slowly opened.
At first the gaze was still a little dazed, as if it had not fully awakened yet. But soon it beca bright and clear. Its eyes turned curiously, first looking at Ryan beside it, and then at Cosette across the table, who was smiling happily.
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