The Grand Duke’s Fox Princess

Episode 53: Precious Things (I)

But Eristella made up her mind.

‘I must go back. To my original self.’

Heinricion drew a magic spell. He cast the spell around the magic stones placed in equal intervals.

Light filled the space and enveloped Eristella.

How long has it been?

Eristella slowly opened her closed eyes and looked down. At her own body. But…

…Uh?

Eristella had imagined.

Wouldn’t her arms be visible, along with long fingers?

Wouldn’t it come back like that? It should…

‘It’s the same.’

Eristella’s eyelids trembled.

‘Why am I the same?’

‘Is it a failure?’

[It’s okay. None of us have ever tried something like this. Maybe next time.]

Eristella spoke bravely. It would be a lie if she said she wasn’t disappointed, but it couldn’t have worked out from the start.

“It doesn’t seem like there will be an immediate change.”

But Heinricion did not give up.

“It’s not perfect as it’s a study of rare cases.”

Heinricion continued to speak while closely examining Eristella’s condition.

“Something will probably change. Let’s wait a little longer. If there’s really nothing that changes, we can approach it in a different way. There must be a way.”

Eristella agreed.

Going forward, they would find complementary points to the magic spell, then try again.

Hence, for the time being, let’s stay as a fox like she is now.

*******

In fact, their attempt did not fail.

The day passed without any change. However, precisely at the time when the boundary between ‘today’ and ‘tomorrow’ met. 

At midnight, changes began to appear in Eristella.

The sensation of something shifting spread throughout her body… Before she knew it, the figure of the fox had disappeared.

She was back to her normal self.

In the form of Princess Eristella, not a fox.

It seemed that this was the time constraint that Heinricion said.

It wasn’t that the magic was invalidated, it was just waiting for this time.

The moment Heinricion saw Eristella’s golden eyes, he grabbed her hand.

It wasn’t a fox’s jelly-like paw, but long, slender hands.

“You… Are you back?”

Eristella carefully scanned her body, bit by bit.

Then she turned to look in the mirror.

“I guess so. Wow, I…”

That was then. The white cloth that was hanging over Eristella’s shoulder slipped down slightly.

What’s revealed underneath was…

Oh right.

Eristella said, hastily pulling the cloth back over her shoulder.

“My clothes…”

“!”

The startled Heinricion’s eyes popped wide open. Then, as if embarrassed, he quickly shut it tightly.

After a few seconds, he realized that Eristella was wrapping her body in the blanket.

She became a human from a fox’s body, so of course, she was undressed.

“H-Hey, wait a minute…”

Heinricion was visibly self-conscious and flustered.

“Clothes to wear… I’ll bring them to you soon.”

As though he was running away, Heinricion left the room to get some clothes. Although quite some time has passed since then.

‘Why isn’t he coming?’

For some reason, Heinricion hadn’t returned immediately.

‘What the hell are you doing?’

As Eristella was grumbling, she heard a careful knock on the door.

‘Maybe it’s someone else? What should I do?’

She thought she should hide, so she tried to hide behind the sofa, but the door opened. And Heinricion came in awkwardly.

“I was surprised. Why did you knock…”

However, Heinricion was not looking at Eristella.

He turned his head thoroughly, stepped next to her, and held out the clothes he brought.

“Put this on for now.”

Eristella took the clothes from the arms that were sticking out and unfolded them.

Her head tilted. There was something strange about the clothes, even after she thoroughly examined them.

“This is not a dress?”

Eristella looked at Heinricion. It didn’t matter if it was a simple activity suit instead of a dress. But that wasn’t the case.

“I think you gave it to me by mistake.”

Thus, she asked him to bring something else, but he didn’t move much.

As soon as she wondered if there was any problem, Heinricion’s lips parted awkwardly.

“I only have this in my dressing room…”

“Oh…?”

Eristella’s gaze turned from Heinricion back to the clothes in her own hands.

It was Heinricion’s clothes.

“You suddenly asked me to bring clothes. So I brought my clothes in a hurry.”

Come to think of it, that’s right. Eristella realized belatedly. He couldn’t help but bring her his own clothes as she abruptly returned to her original form.

This fact also surfaced in Heinricion’s mind late, and he took a while to return because he was contemplating what to do.

“Even if it’s uncomfortable, try it on.”

Eristella stared at Heinricion’s clothes, which looked large at a glance.

‘This is really unavoidable.’

“Just turn around for now.”

“Uh, uh…”

The body of Heinricion, who had already turned, became tense with a strong will to not look back.

Suddenly, his ears were burning red.

Eristella gently lowered the cloth. She paused for a moment, looking at the unfolded clothes, then she put them on without hesitation.

“You can turn around now.”

Heinricion moved at Eristella’s signal, and hardened.

A big shirt that looked like it was going to fall off at any second, and pants that were folded several times, yet barely secured to the waist.

The excess fabric was so generous it gave the impression that she was covered by a coat.

It was when Eristella was about to fold the sleeves of the shirt that had even hidden her hands, which was cumbersome to do with one hand.

Heinricion swiftly approached, neatly folding the sleeves without saying a word.

“…….”

Eristella stared at the moving hands and sleeves, her arm limply extended.

“This one too.”

At Heinricion’s soft words, Eristella reflexively stretched out her opposite arm.

Afterwhich, Heinricion naturally went down on one of his knees and folded her pants that were sweeping the floor.

To be honest, Heinricion had thought hard and brought the clothes he wore as a youth, but even those were too big for Eristella.

‘It’s really loose.’

Seeing that figure, there was a subtle silence between Eristella and Heinricion.

‘For some reason, I feel like my mouth is dry.’

“Put up with it for now. I’ll figure out what to do in the future.”

“Yes.”

Preparing a dress could be done as soon as the day dawned.

However, in reality, it was not that simple.

It’s not known under what conditions she would return to her original form, making it tricky to prepare an extra dress.

Plus he had to hide the fact that it’s for Eristella. He must find a way to casually order a dress.

When he thought that this situation might unfold again, Heinricion’s eyes turned dark.

‘For my own sake, I have to find a way by tomorrow.’

Heinricion desperately vowed.

But anyway, that was a later matter. Right now… 

“Now what?”

Heinricion asked Eristella, who had returned to her original form after a long time.

“I want to go out for a bit, but… I might run into someone else.”

As of now, it was better to hide the fact that Princess Eristella has returned.

“I think it would be better to just rest today.”

“Yes, do that. You must be tired from being nervous all day, so just go and sleep.”

“Yes.”

The two turned their bodies in the same direction. And just like that, their eyes met.

Realization came at the same time. Where the two of them would sleep.

After crossing one hurdle, another hurdle awaited.

“How will I sleep?”

In the meantime, Eristella had been in fox form, so Heinricion didn’t mind using the same bed.

“Are we going to sleep together like this?”

But, in front of him right now was ‘Princess Eristella’, so sleeping together like before…

Eristella and Heinricion shook their heads at the same time.

‘This isn’t it.’

‘It’s crazy. How can we sleep together!’

The problem was, he didn’t have a separate room arranged for Eristella.

Unless she fully returned, she had to hide. So they needed to solve the problem in this room.

A suffocating glance passed between the two. They were just waiting for the other to open their mouth first.

“I’ll sleep over there.”

Eristella pointed at the sofa, about to turn around.

In a flash, Heinricion moved first. He picked up one of the pillows from the bed and walked to the sofa.

“I will go.”

He lay down with determination, but his long legs protruded from the sofa.

The way he crumpled himself up on the sofa looked so uncomfortable that Eristella licked her lips several times.

‘But what should I say?’

‘That I should sleep on the sofa because I’m shorter?’

It didn’t look like he would listen.

‘Or that we should both sleep on the bed? Just lying down together, nothing will happen…’

‘How do I say that…’

In the end, Eristella just stared blankly at Heinricion’s back, and didn’t say anything.

Slowly, she quietly climbed onto the bed and closed her eyes.

“…….”

“…….”

It was a silent night because they didn’t know what to say to the other.

Eristella raised her head several times in the middle, glanced at Heinricion, and bit her lips, but couldn’t find the words and so she closed her eyes again.

Heinricion also got up several times and stared at Eristella, who was asleep in his bed.

But he couldn’t get any closer, so he gazed from afar, and then buried deeper into the sofa.

The sleepless night passed slowly.