The Crazy Killer Whale’s Favourite Penguin

Episode 20: The Best Incentive (III)

“…….”

As Hanu looked at me with his mouth wide open, I scratched my cheek in embarrassment and added,

“But fortunately, he didn’t say anything even though he knew I’m a penguin. Rather, he seemed to welcome me.”

Of course, it was after he checked my mana that he welcomed me.

Iprus asked, with a serious face as if she was investigating.

“Could Sir Suradel’s taste for penguins be hereditary?”

“No way.”

“Anyway, Lady Lia, whatever you decide, I’m on your side.”

“Iprus…!”

“If you’re going to stay in the Weil mansion, I’ll resign from the Magic Tower and somehow get a job here.”

Then Hanu bowed his head respectfully to me.

“Thank you for hanging out with my little sister, Lady Lia. Thanks to you, she is not pathetically stuck at home. Although she has become unemployed now.”

“I think I’m the older one. And who is unemployed? I haven’t quit yet? Do you know what my salary is?”

It’s nice to see them treat each other nicely as siblings.

I ignored the commotion between the siblings who seemed to be on good terms with one another and continued pondering.

It was a variable that Hanu found out I was a penguin, but it might actually be a good thing.

If I had to take an escort with me every day, it was obvious that I would be caught someday.

In that sense, Hanu was trustworthy in his own way because he was related to Iprus, and he was a pushover who accepted my insistence well.

Although he was a knight of the Weil family, he would not bother to report my identity to Bella and Suradel since the owner of the house, Primo, already knows my identity.

‘Then what is left is…’

With their help, I would be able to make plans to go rescue the male lead at the hunting competition next week.

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤⋆

Time passed quickly and the day of the hunting competition dawned.

Actually, I had hoped that the heroine, Anemone, would give up on helping my dad find me.

But I heard otherwise from Iprus, who has yet to give my dad her resignation…

Far from giving up, they were searching for me with their eyes widened, saying they would rather die than to participate in the hunting competition.

As much as Anemone really respected and followed my dad, she also liked me (as a penguin), so it was understandable.

In the end, I have to save Theodore…

If I could, I didn’t want to get involved.

‘Doesn’t the savior position fit the cliché of beginning an obsession?’

I tried to shake off the blues and think in a positive way.

‘Isn’t that why I’ve fully prepared?’

I was going to eliminate the possibility of him imprinting on me at all.

But before that, a big, unexpected problem arose…

…I was back to being a penguin.

Ween–!

I let out a sad cry and tried to somehow return my body to human form.

In fact, returning to my penguin self was a phenomenon that occurred so often that it happened every other day.

But this particular instance was a little different.

Was it because I was worried that Theodore would die if I couldn’t save him in time, or that he might imprint on me?

Today, this phenomenon happened in the morning, which was rare.

‘What to do, what to do.’

Ween–!

I let out another cry and ran around the room looking for a way out of this crisis.

Soon, the temporarily assigned maid would come in to wake me up.

Usually, I returned to my penguin form around midnight or early dawn, so there was nobody around who would notice.

By the time I woke up, I would already be back in my human body.

Of course, my clothes did not remain as they were, so the maid was embarrassed to see me wake up naked every morning.

Perhaps she assumed I had taken off my clothes from frustration, as she knew that I was born as an animal.

‘Okay, I’m digressing. The important thing is that I can’t go outside because I’m a penguin right now.’

It was then.

There was a cautious knock on the door.

Tok tok tok.

I shouldn’t do this, but I glared at the door with fervent eyes, hoping that the person who knocked on the door was either Primo or Hanu, both of which had already discovered that I was a penguin.

“Lia, if you’re awake, can I come in? I want to see your face before I leave.”

It was the voice of Suradel. I could not have mistaken it.

‘No. Go away. Don’t come in.’

“…Are you sleeping? It’s soon time to wake up anyway, so I can wake you up. Lia, I’ll go in.”

No!

I hurriedly looked for a place to hide and dived under the bed.

Badump.

In the pitch black darkness, I could feel my heart beating madly.

How long has it been?

He must have opened the door and came in, but I started to question the silence that followed.

Ugh, shouldn’t he leave after confirming that no one is here? Does it take this long?

“…Nobody’s here. Did she go out for a morning walk?”

After those words, the door slammed shut.

I let out a sigh I had been holding back and went deeper into the bed.

It was my intention to hide here until I returned to my human form. Pretend to have gone for a walk, as Suradel said.

I turned around, thinking that it was fortunate that the staff worked hard to manage the place and that it was clean under the bed.

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤⋆

Meanwhile, after exiting Lia’s room, Suradel…

His shoulders trembled as he pressed his forehead against the wall. He was biting hard on his lower lip, his face turning bright red.

Ah, he never imagined that he would see such a precious scene.

Since he couldn’t participate in the hunting competition, he just wanted to see Lia’s face and leave.

But the moment he was in front of her room, he could hear Lia’s cry when she was a penguin. So he brought his ear to the door, and heard even the ‘dun dun dun’ of footsteps.

Lia must have gone back to being a penguin.

It seemed that she was embarrassed to have suddenly animalized.

A sense of mischief bloomed in Suradel’s heart. He knocked loudly on purpose.

“Lia, if you’re awake, can I come in? I want to see your face before I leave.”

Then, the thumping sound that could be heard stopped like a ghost, right when he uttered the first word.

Suradel barely swallowed his laughter as he imagined Lia in the room, likely bewildered. He soon continued speaking.

“…Are you sleeping? It’s soon time to wake up anyway, so I can wake you up. Lia, I’ll go in.”

After giving her enough time to hide elsewhere, but not too much, he burst open the door.

When he opened the door, what he saw was a fluffy butt sticking out from under the bed and a black tail feather that looked like a tailcoat tuxedo.

He felt like he had met a cute prey who thought she wouldn’t be seen if she simply covered her face.

An unexpected cute attack made Suradel unable to move for a while.

However, he quickly came to his senses and did what he had to do calmly and quickly.

First, capture this thrilling scene with a magic tool, the photo tool.

And next… He casted a tension-relieving magic and healed Lia, who seemed at a loss by the sudden animalization.

Finally…

“…Nobody’s here. Did she go out for a morning walk?”

As soon as Suradel, who had completed his training perfectly, came out of the room, he thumped his face against the wall.

It was a miracle that I stayed sane inside.

After cooling off for a while, he let out a languid sigh and opened his mouth.

“Our boss, the penguin, takes a lot of work. Of course, that is the most attractive thing.”

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤⋆

As expected of a hunting event held by the great families, the surroundings were crowded with participants.

I followed Bella to the competition’s resting area, looking around curiously before softly asking,

“Madam Bella. May I spend some time by the water nearby? With an escort, of course.”

“The waterside?”

Bella slowly tilted her head, then her eyes curved as she gently stroked my hair.

“You must miss water. Well, unlike us, who have lived on land for a long time as humans, you were born and lived in the water.”

She lowered her eyes for a moment, seeming to be contemplating whether or not to allow me to act alone.

But the worry didn’t last long.

“Feel free to play. I will not restrict you.”

“Thank you.”

I smiled brightly and bowed my head.

Truthfully, I knew that the nearby waterside I mentioned would be allowed because it’s at the beginning of the mountain.

Areas that contained animals that were worth hunting were after the midsection of the mountain or higher.

Therefore, the mountain’s entrance was not a hunting area, and the road was well paved as people often came and went.

Thus, there were no risk factors at all.

Bella’s gaze met mine and she smiled happily.

“Since you have to learn how to freely move between your animal and human form, let’s advance the schedule for going to the Weil family’s estate. Soon you will be able to swim freely at the beach.”

“Oh, you don’t have to do that. I’m very happy staying as I am now.”