ORCA 5

As word passed from mouth to mouth, it was embellished more than the reality, but the fundamental facts remained the same. The servants wished for the young master to leave as soon as possible. There was nothing else they could do. If they kept this up and someone accidentally crossed him, they might end up having to clean up a corpse in the mansion. It seemed better to suffer through grueling labor than to tremble in fear of suffering a terrible fate.

Adrian lived from morning until night like a soul departed from her body. She worked half-heartedly with glazed eyes. She couldn’t focus on her work because she was busy imagining all sorts of bad things. She could only think about the broken teacup.

The young master’s face as he looked down at her became more terrifying the more she thought about it. Even though he hadn’t chased after her to cause harm, she felt as if she had received a severe punishment.

Because of this, only the easy target, Niah, ended up bearing the hardship by her side. He had to wash dishes all day, take short breaks to do garden work, wash dishes again, and once all that was finished, he had to go to the greenhouse, only to return to the kitchen in time to wash more dishes. There were only three masters to serve, yet food was prepared for every meal as if it were a banquet.

Adrian didn’t scream like she usually did, but she glared at him with sharp eyes from time to time. In the end, he couldn’t even eat properly, just as he had worried earlier. It was because she, who was being spiteful for no reason, had chased him out of the dining room.

All he had eaten throughout the day was half a boiled potato, a strip of bacon with burnt black edges from being overcooked, and half a cup of black tea that had been steeped so many times it had almost no flavor.

Niah lay in his bed in his dark room and rubbed his stomach. He couldn’t fall asleep because he was hungry. He needed to sleep early to wake up early tomorrow, but it felt impossible to fall asleep like this. He hugged his thin blanket and tossed and turned.

He tried to count sheep, but Adrian’s ghostly face came to mind, driving the sleep away even further. His body was exhausted and tired, but his mind was alert, which was agonizing. He desperately craved the half of the boiled potato he had eaten during the day. His stomach growled. Regret washed over him, wishing he had saved it to eat just now. Niah smacked his lips and tried to think about something else.

“I can’t go on like this…”

He muttered softly. It would be an even bigger problem if he wasted time like this and ended up staying awake all night. Niah stood up slowly and went outside. He didn’t want to go to the lake on a night like this, but he had no choice. He walked past the hallway and headed straight toward the door leading to the servant-only stairs.

Moonlight streamed through the window, making the hallway quite bright. Niah opened the door carefully and gripped the handrail of the spiral staircase, moving his feet as slowly as possible. He couldn’t risk letting the sound echo and tipping off the other servants that he was awake.

When he painstakingly reached the first floor, his heart pounded for some reason. Niah hesitated for a long time before slowly opening the door and peeking his head out. He eased his body out, half a step at a time, checking both sides alternately. There didn’t seem to be anyone around.

Sticking close to the wall, Niah stood on his tiptoes and began to walk. Beams of light appeared sporadically along the long, stretched-out hallway. Even though he knew no one was there, he kept turning around to check several times. Walking quickly while being careful not to make any sound, he soon reached the vicinity of the side door that led to the back of the mansion.

He just had to get out there. If he ran, the lake wasn’t that far. As he felt slightly relieved, sudden hunger surged again. Niah clutched his stomach with one hand and pushed the side door handle with the other. The night breeze from the forest blew into the mansion with a whoosh. The wind smelled fresh.

Having safely slipped out of the mansion without being caught by anyone, Niah ran wildly toward the forest. His figure, crossing the low hill, passing the lawn, and entering the forest, looked not like a goldfish, but like a fleet-footed rabbit. As he saw the edge of the lake surrounded by trees, he pushed his legs even faster. Thanks to the large moon in the sky, he was thankful the path wasn’t dark.

Niah didn’t enter the water immediately; he nervously scanned his surroundings first. Naturally, he was the only one who would come to the lake at such a late hour. Still, worried, he circled the lake and moved a little further away from the mansion.

The grass felt soft under his hard shoes. Insects chattered incessantly in the forest. The moonlight rippled along the gentle waves, dyeing the water’s surface yellow. His tension eased, and his heart gradually settled. His breathing, which had become labored from running, calmed down. His pounding heart also returned to its normal rhythm.

The lake was very wide, large enough for every servant in the mansion to get in and swim together. In Niah’s opinion, it was wide enough for the master and mistress to transform into their beast forms and roam the water. He had never actually seen an orca, but since they were surely huge, it meant the lake was enormous.

Therefore, he didn’t have to worry about being caught just because a tiny goldfish like him occasionally grabbed a meal. He could eat his fill of torn water plants or snail meat all night, and no one would know. It would be fine as long as no one saw him coming here.

Knowing that, Niah still stopped completely only after reaching a spot as far from the lake’s entrance as possible. He was too hungry to go any further. Still, at this distance, even if something happened, he would be able to notice it in advance. It was enough distance to prepare a countermeasure, whether it was hiding somewhere or running away.

Standing by the lakeside, Niah fumbled to take off his clothes. His hands were desperate as he unbuttoned them. Without hesitation, he pulled his arms out of his shirt, threw off his pants, and even yanked his underwear down past his ankles in one go.

Niah was soon naked. Since there was no one to see, he wasn’t embarrassed. No matter how bright the moon was, it couldn’t dispel all the deep darkness, but it shone even more brightly on the completely unclothed Niah. His pale body stood out noticeably in the dark night forest.

Niah, who had neatly folded and tidied his clothes, sat on his knees on the ground and put his hand into the water. A chill penetrated deep into his body, but it was bearable. He was in a hurry to resolve his hunger. Soon, with a light splash, small droplets of water sprang up from the surface.

A goldfish with orange patterns on a white background floated in the water. It did so for a moment, then began to flap its fins and scurry around the edge of the lake.

For a human who is not a beastman, transformation is a phenomenon like a mirage. It was natural, as someone who was human suddenly changed into an animal. It seemed even more so because it left no traces behind.

Transformation goes through a process of making what exists disappear and creating what does not exist anew. Not only do hair and limbs vanish, but thick fur also grows all over the body. The physique changes at will, growing larger and then smaller.

Even the clothes being worn permeate into parts of the body. It was a speed that the eyes couldn’t follow because it happened in an instant. To the eyes of an ordinary human, transformation just looks like something suddenly disappearing and suddenly appearing. This was the same when reverting to a human.

Therefore, there is no restriction on transforming without taking off clothes. However, there was a reason Niah took the trouble to get naked. Since there is only “one” existence anyway, whether in human form or animal form, the situations of the two are bound to be connected. Despite the physical gap between human and animal, the physical situation the person is in does not change.

That is why phenomena such as injuries sustained in beast form not healing and remaining as they are even after reverting to human form occur. By the same principle, if one returns to human form after falling into water in beast form, the body is bound to still be damp. So, it was clear as day what would happen if he went into the water wearing all his clothes.

If he returned to the mansion dripping with water, other servants might find out he had been to the lake. To avoid being caught, he would have to wipe up all the water he shed in the hallways and on the stairs, and if he couldn’t sleep because of that, he would definitely be scolded by Adrian for dozing off the next day. He didn’t even want to imagine it.