Preparations for Ruperi's birthday banquet were progressing steadily.
Praten had received help from their parents and advice from Anchina, Ruperi's personal maid.
Although Ruperi had discovered the plan along the way, Praten had instead taken it as an opportunity to turn the modest party into a full banquet.
The surprise party was no longer a surprise, so he had decided they might as well hold it on a grand scale.
Yet the teddy bear, who should have been happier than anyone about the expanded plan, was buried in a bed—no, huddled in the toy corner—shivering.
What could it have been so frightened of? Paul hid silently in the corner again today.
'Why is it acting like that?'
It had begun several days ago.
Paul spent every night gathering power and was so absorbed in it that he even refused Ruperi's requests to sleep together.
As a result, Ruperi had begun sleeping lightly, afraid that the teddy bear might disappear.
- Paul?
Several days earlier, at dawn, Ruperi had seen the teddy bear frozen stiff, with no faint light surrounding it.
Sensing that something was wrong, he had reached out in alarm. But the teddy bear seemed to have become an ordinary doll, only trembling faintly.
- Paul, what is wrong? Did something happen?
His heart had dropped with a thud. He shook the teddy bear again and again, but no letters appeared.
The same thing happened afterward.
- Paul, did something happen yesterday?
It did not answer when he spoke to it.
- Why are you like this? Did something really happen?
It did not look back, even when he fretted over it.
"Paul, please say something. Can you not at least tell me what happened?"
Just as it had for the past several days, the teddy bear was huddled in the corner, its soft body curled tightly in on itself.
At times, a cold aura flowed from it.
Ruperi immediately recognized the aura as similar to the one that had clung to those sinister people before.
'Brother will find out at this rate.'
Ruperi glanced at Praten, seated on the sofa, and Anchina standing beside him.
He subtly shifted to hide the teddy bear and whispered to Paul.
"Paul, your aura is leaking. Brother might notice at this rate."
But the teddy bear did not answer.
Ruperi had no choice but to reach out to it.
But when he drew closer—
"……?"
The cold aura seeped into his body.
The chill that penetrated to his bones made Ruperi's hair stand on end, but when the cold aura disappeared, he let out a breath of relief.
"Paul."
……
"Did something happen that night? You weren't like this even the day before."
……
"Father will find out at this rate. Your aura has been leaking for days."
When there was still no response, Ruperi forcibly grasped the teddy bear and made it face him.
The teddy bear flinched at his touch and looked up at Ruperi.
The beloved red eyes of the teddy bear were thick with fear.
Throb.
"Paul."
[Ah.]
"You are only answering now? Hide your aura first."
[My aura? Come to think of it……]
The teddy bear looked around. As if it had sensed something foreign, it matter-of-factly gathered its aura.
Then it told Ruperi to leave it alone.
[Do not mind me.]
As the teddy bear retreated into the toy corner again, Ruperi felt his chest tighten.
'Why? What happened that night?'
Just when he thought Paul had finally begun showing him his feelings and that perhaps the Kreuz estate had become more comfortable for him, Ruperi's expectations came crashing down.
Meanwhile, Nellis anxiously held her head.
'How did this happen?'
Ever since hearing Gudas's voice a few days earlier, Nellis had been consumed by fear.
Why could she hear her father's voice? Had he discovered where she was while she had been living in the Kreuz estate? Countless thoughts crossed her mind.
She had used the Soul-Exchange Ritual and escaped House Teneris. Why, then, could she hear Gudas's voice?
'It was a Soul-Exchange Ritual. My body should be dead because it was empty of a soul. How can I hear Father's voice?'
Moreover, months had passed since she had cast the spell.
After that long, he would have known that she had disappeared, yet he should no longer have been able to find her.
'No. Would my body decay just because a few months have passed?'
Aplin's body, soaked in poison, could not even be burned by ordinary fire. She had needed to use Elemental Magic: Fire.
Even if it was less severe than Aplin's, Nellis's body, as a Teneris, would also be steeped in poison. It could not decay naturally.
What if someone had found her body in the meantime and used Necromancy on it?
'……!'
Nellis caught her breath.
It had been an oversight. She could not believe she had failed to consider that her body would not decay.
That was why she was trembling in fear that Gudas might use Necromancy to summon her.
'He can't summon me. I exchanged the positions of our souls. How could he use Necromancy to call me?'
But there was the possibility of possession. Even without deliberately exchanging the positions of souls, a summoned soul had no choice but to be called.
Then I would be trapped in an object, bound by every sort of restriction…….
They said knowledge was poison, did they not?
Applications of Necromancy sprang up in Nellis's mind like bamboo shoots after rain, making her even more frightened.
No matter how hard she tried to view the situation rationally, once fear had welled up, it did not easily fade.
Looking into Ruperi's blue eyes did not help either. They were blue like the clear summer sky.
They no longer reminded her of Aplin. They said that feelings changed how things were perceived, and the saying fit perfectly.
'It's not as though I no longer think of Aplin.'
Nellis was a Teneris.
She had been happy to escape House Teneris, but her ties to the family would not be severed no matter how desperately she struggled.
'How can I cut them?'
While Nellis anxiously wrestled with those complicated thoughts, Ruperi's voice came again.
"Paul, can you not just tell me what happened?"
……
"Even a brief explanation is enough. If you tell me, I won't bother you. Please?"
Those words were meant not for Nellis, but for Paul, the teddy bear.
Even though Nellis was inside Paul, Ruperi, the Kreuz family, and the servants could not possibly know that.
What would happen if they learned her identity through Gudas's magic?
'They would burn me. They would hate me with a vengeance.'
A vile person from Miten had possessed a teddy bear, grown close to a member of the family, and secretly eavesdropped on their conversations.
Even on second thought, it was such a sinister situation that Nellis could not make herself think positively.
Several days passed with Nellis floundering in a hellish abyss.
The ones watching Nellis tremble in fear, and Ruperi anxiously watch the teddy bear, were Praten and Anchina, who had come to see Ruperi about the preparations for the birthday banquet.
"Are you sure you did not fight with Paul?"
"They did not fight. Young Master told me himself."
"Then why is he acting like that?"
"How should I know?"
Praten and Anchina tilted their heads in unison.
Given the personality Anchina had assigned to the teddy bear, Paul should not sulk so easily.
'Has Ruperi assigned a separate personality to Paul too?'
As Praten looked at Ruperi in puzzlement, he sensed a cold aura from somewhere.
It was faint but sinister. As he looked around to find its source, his gaze caught on Ruperi.
No, it was coming from the teddy bear beyond him.
'Paul?'
Was a sinister aura coming from Paul?
Of course, the teddy bear did have an eerie atmosphere, but…….
'Ah, it is gone.'
Ruperi embraced the teddy bear. Praten scratched his head.
'It must have been my imagination.'
There was no way a sinister aura could be flowing from a teddy bear.
'In any case, Ruperi's birthday is only a few days away. What should I do about this mood?'
Praten found himself at a loss over how to handle the situation.
***
The day of Ruperi's birthday banquet dawned.
I was still afraid of being summoned by Father, and even when Ruperi tried to comfort me, I could not spare attention for him.
As the banquet drew near, though, a dilemma arose.
'Should I attend the banquet?'
Many high-ranking figures would be attending.
Since it was the birthday banquet for the second son of House Kreuz, influential guests with exceptional abilities could attend and recognize my true identity.
So I decided not to attend, but—
"After days of silence, the first thing you say is that you are not attending? Absolutely not."
Ruperi hardened his face and refused.
There was hurt in his expression as well, but my anxiety was at its peak, and I no longer wanted to court danger.
[There will be a lot of people. I don't want to go.]
"You were looking forward to it too, Paul. You need to come see how it turned out."
[If you take me to the banquet too, people will look down on you.]
"Let them do as they please. Would anyone dare do that openly to a Kreuz?"
Ruperi was stubborn, and I had no choice but to be forced into attending the birthday banquet.