The Villainess Wants To Be A Sidekick

Chapter 12: The Puppy’s Secret

I rushed forward and caught the puppy out of reflex. If it were a wild animal with any sort of energy left, it would have reacted as soon as I touched it. He would have bitten me or run away, but the puppy was so weak he did not even have the stamina to respond to me properly.

Fortunately, I could still feel his pulse, and his small body didn’t seem to bear any signs of trauma or major injuries. It was hard for me to notice upon first glance, since he was covered with so much fluff, but I realized when I touched him that he had been suffering from malnutrition. His body seemed more skin and bone than flesh.

I withdrew a plate from the picnic basket that I had packed for the sandwiches and poured some water onto the shallow dish. The little pup stuck out his tongue instinctively.

Among the foods I had prepared for today’s outing, ham seemed the most harmless choice for the puppy. Still, I slightly hesitated feeding some to him since I worried that the salt would hurt him further since he was in such a terrible condition… but I wanted to try to feed him at least just a little.

I cut some ham and smashed it into tiny pieces, which I then raised to the puppy’s mouth along with some water. He licked his mouth several times but had no strength to swallow. Afterward, he squeaked at me weakly.

If only I could use healing magic, then I would be able to do more for the poor thing. Unfortunately, with my mana element, I wasn’t able to cast any healing spells. I needed to get to the tower as soon as possible.

Before I went back to the institute, I wrote a brief message saying, “Don’t worry about me and have a good time enjoying yourselves. I had to hurry back to rescue a malnourished dog that I found.”

 

Well, I wasn’t really lying, because something really did come up. I couldn’t just leave the puppy in such a state.

Anyway, I carefully left the note on the blanket and held the puppy tight in my arms. Then, I ran straight back to the tower.

When I burst into the medical office, I found a researcher who was on duty this weekend as an emergency medical officer. She looked at me in surprise as I stood there holding the puppy while crying. After assessing the puppy’s condition, she quickly gave me a healing spell and some food that could be fed to him as a substitute for proper food in the meantime.

I returned to my dorm afterward and laid him down on my bed. Perhaps he was too exhausted from his lack of energy, but he fell asleep rather quickly after the healing spell was cast and had been sleeping soundly since.

Now that the puppy was safe, I turned my attention to making sure he would have plenty to eat later. I wanted to feed him as soon as he woke up, so I carefully prepared and trimmed some groceries I bought, placed them in a tightly sealed container, and put the food away in a cool place.

As I finished cleaning up after myself, I heard a rustling sound coming from the bedroom. I washed my hands and ran back to check if the puppy had finally awakened.

“…?”

Instead of the cute, little, gray puppy I had rescued before, a handsome boy with long, silver hair was laying down on my bed. Upon noticing my presence, he glanced warily at me and pulled the sheets up over his body.

A pair of furry ears—the same color as his silver hair—decorated the top of his head.

I know this scene. I’ve seen it before, but in a different context.

 

Never before had I ever come face-to-face with a boy with animal ears, but his face was somehow already very familiar to me. Still, I had to ask.

“Who, who are you…?”

I stared at him, dubiously. The boy replied to me while flicking his ears.

“… called Jean.”

Jean?

One of Velkina’s target characters? That Jean? The one that I called Whitey because he is a white, almost silver, wolf in his original form?

Ah, but you’re not supposed to be a boy. You’re supposed to be a young man, right?

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I had also played Jean’s route in <Arlandast Saga> before, but not once did I ever see him portrayed as a puppy or a young boy. He always appeared in his adult, wolf form with sleek, silver fur. Hence, I supposed it was natural that I hadn’t recognized him as the dusty gray puppy I rescued.

No, it’s true—I really hadn’t been able to recognize him in his puppy state. Right, but… Why was Jean, who was supposed to be a dignified, young man, appearing before me as a boy?

What’s wrong? Did I break his appearance flag?

“You’re not surprised.”

Jean growled lightly at me in suspicion. Despite having recovered enough energy to appear in his human form, he was still panting a bit. His breathlessness indicated that his condition had not yet fully recovered. Oops, I guess I was being too calm about this.

Although things like magic and lake monsters exist in this world, the presence of shapeshifters were not well known among the general populace. Beings like Jean were truly rare, so it must have understandably seemed exceedingly strange to him that I hadn’t screamed or even seemed shocked that the pup I had cared for suddenly turned into a boy with wolf ears. I glanced nervously about the room as I replied to him.

“Oh, well… I’ve heard from my grandfather about your existence. He told me that shapeshifters were real. Everyone said that they were just old fairy tales, but in the back of my mind, I always thought they would exist in real life.”

I blurted some ridiculous story as an excuse because it was all I could come up with at the moment.

But instead of regarding me with suspicion again, Whitey simply answered me briefly.

“Is that so?” he murmured as he buried his chin into the sheets again and curled up into a comfortable ball. Though that kind of gesture was a normal human movement, he somehow looked particularly cute doing it—like a puppy.

“Wait, first of all… Would you like something to eat? I thought you were a puppy, so I only prepared food fit for dogs. Now I’m thinking I should prepare some human food…”

Jean shook his head, “Although I can eat human food, you don’t have to do that.”

Come to think of it, there are many dining events in the game, but I’ve never seen Jean and Velkina eat something together. I guess it was just because the game had been set up to where he didn’t have to eat in front of her.

“So, you’re not malnourished, but you still look very weak…”

I thought he was hungry when he approached the picnic basket. Something was not right here.

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“… Malnutrition would be correct. It’s not food that I need, though. The mana that I had to eat has run out. Shapeshifters live by maintaining their life energy by consuming mana from nature.”

Oh, this was also explained in the game. In this world, shapeshifters were said to lurk amidst environments housing powerful sources of mana since that was the kind of thing creatures like them and other fairy folk tend to do. Jean was able to venture forth on a journey with Velkina without any restrictions because Velkina’s mana in and of itself was already an extraordinary source of nourishment.

“Was the mana in your habitat suddenly depleted?”

“Yes… I don’t know what’s going on, but the Lake of Silence in the north has completely lost all its strength, so the mana that I needed to eat is now gone as well.”

“…”