Chapter 96
You live in quite a nice room. I suppose that's to be expected from a prince.
Thanks, I guess. Now then, why don't you tell me what happened? How did you end up looking like that?
While Fiene began preparing tea, I asked the question that went straight to the heart of the matter.
In response, Zeke lowered his head, looking grave, and then...
"It all began about six months ago. I met a woman deep in a certain forest."
"I see. You're the one to blame."
"I haven't explained anything yet!?"
"I can tell without hearing the details! You made a move on her, didn't you!?"
"I hadn't made a move yet! She turned me into this before I could!"
Zeke pounded on the table in frustration.
His chagrin was plain from the look of him.
Just how much does this guy like women?
"Sigh... So? Did she do this to you?"
"No. Her little sister..."
"If some bad man started making advances toward her big sister, of course she'd defend her."
"That's not it either! When she made me drink a weird potion and turned me into this, I thought that too! But her little sister actually said I was cuter this way! So that's why I was turned into this cute little bear cub!!"
Zeke started bawling, but since he was calling himself cute, maybe he actually liked his current form after all.
Still, turning a human into a bear cub just because she thought it was cute... What is with that sister?
"What forest did you go to?"
"That... is a secret. I went there for a commission."
Zeke averted his gaze.
For a high-ranking adventurer, he seemed to take that sort of thing seriously.
Clients often ask adventurers to keep jobs assigned to them confidential.
He had risen all the way to S rank, so even if he was a womanizer, he knew where to draw the line.
"The tea is ready!"
"Oh, Miss Fiene's tea! I'll have some!"
"Can you even drink it?"
"Yeah! I can eat, too. The only thing that's changed is my appearance."
"So you're not actually a stuffed animal."
"I only look like one. Hot! Hoo, hoo..."
Zeke grimaced as he tried to drink the tea, then hurriedly blew on it.
I took a sip too, but it wasn't especially hot. So even that part had changed because he was a bear. It could be surprisingly troublesome.
"As for a way to restore your original form, I'll look into it."
"Hmm? Do you have a lead?"
"Silver might know something."
"...You know Silver!?"
Zeke stopped blowing on his tea and looked at me in surprise.
It's not just that I know him—I'm Silver himself.
Well, I couldn't exactly tell him that, so I gave him a vague answer.
"Yeah, more or less. Silver has been helping my younger brother and me in various ways. I'll at least ask him. But don't get your hopes up, all right? If it's a potion, I have a feeling it's outside Silver's area of expertise."
"I'm grateful anyway! That masked adventurer might know something, after all!"
"Then, Zeke, let's make sure we're clear. We'll take you in and contact Silver to find out whether you can return to your original form. In exchange, you'll help us. Is that acceptable?"
"Yeah! No objections. So take this thing off already."
Saying that, Zeke pointed to the collar around his neck.
However, I had no intention of removing it.
"No."
"Why not!?"
"You'll keep wearing it so you don't do anything funny."
"What!? That's cruel! Miss Fiene~!"
With that, Zeke sprang lightly into the air and tried to hug Fiene. Fiene also prepared to catch him, but halfway there, Zeke fell straight down.
"Gweh!!"
"That's why you need to keep the collar on—so you don't do things like that."
"Are you all right, Zeke-san?"
"D-damn you..."
I had made the collar suddenly much heavier.
As a result, Zeke was slammed into the floor.
Zeke somehow lifted his head, glared at me, and bared his teeth like a ferocious predator.
"If that's how you want to play it, then bring it on! Give me the key!!"
Saying that, Zeke ran toward me, closed the distance, and clung tightly to my arm.
He looked more like a koala than a bear.
"How's that? Given up yet!?"
"Given up what?"
"...Huh? It's not heavy?"
"It's only heavy enough to keep you from moving. You can feel the weight, but you were light to begin with."
As I spoke, I kept adding to the weight pressing down on Zeke.
It felt as though a child were hanging from my arm, and Zeke began sliding slowly downward.
Even so, Zeke desperately clung to my arm to keep from falling, but his arms were trembling, so he was probably nearing his limit.
"Damn it... Don't think this means you've won! Someday I'll take back the key and avenge this humiliation, guh!!"
While he was saying that, Zeke's arms came loose from mine, and he was slammed face-first onto the floor.
Even then, he tried somehow to get up, so I increased the weight further for good measure.
"What do you have to say?"
"I'm sorry. Please make it lighter."
"Good."
With that, I removed the weight from Zeke.
However, Zeke leaped at me as though he'd been waiting for that very moment.
"Fell for it!"
"You did."
"Aaaaaah!!?? Gyaaah!"
Having jumped, Zeke was slammed into the floor from an even greater height than before. He let out a strange cry and stopped moving.
Looks like he'll be staying like that for a while.
"Call me when you need my help. Until then, stay put."
"...Yes."
After that exchange, I went back to sorting paperwork, while Zeke crawled laboriously along the floor toward his chair.
Along the way, he tried to peek under Fiene's skirt, so I tripled the weight. He screamed that he'd be crushed, but I left him that way as punishment.
Even as a bear cub, he was an S-rank adventurer. There was no doubt he was a formidable asset, but at the same time, I'd managed to bring a troublesome fellow into the fold.
All I had to do was use him properly.
Thinking that, I drank the tea Fiene had brewed.
■■■
"Hey, kid. I thought you called me here because you had a job for me?"
"Yeah, and I gave you a job, didn't I?"
"Kuu-chan! This bear talks!"
"So soft... It feels great."
"Babysitting is my job!?"
Zeke protested with a slightly frightening, bear-like scowl.
But looking at him being toyed with by Rita and Christa, it was impossible to find him frightening.
Since Rita and Christa happened to come by to play, I tried making Zeke their playmate.
Apparently Zeke wasn't interested in just any woman, and children weren't his type. So even when Christa and Rita touched him, he only looked annoyed. The fact that he didn't get angry meant he probably didn't dislike children.
"Hey, girls. I'm human underneath this, you know?"
"Oh! Rita wants to be a bear too!"
"But you're a bear right now..."
"Hey, listen to me!"
They tugged and petted him.
As Zeke desperately tried to make his case while they did whatever they pleased, the two girls showed no sign of listening.
They're children, after all. Give them an adorable, soft-to-the-touch talking bear cub, and of course they'd want to touch him.
"I'll be done with work soon. Keep him company until then."
"Work, huh... Aren't you called the Dull Prince? I hear you're a useless, unmotivated failure of a prince. Hey! Don't pull me in both directions at once! I'm gonna teeeear!!"
"The rumors aren't wrong. But lately I've had too much to do to remain unmotivated."
"So you could do it—you just chose not to. Must be nice."
"That's the privilege of being a prince: I won't have any trouble even if I do nothing. Since I was lucky enough to be born into this position, I'll let myself be spoiled. Of course."
As I spoke, I took in the various pieces of information Sebas had brought me.
Most of it wasn't particularly important, but the time would come when information like that could prove useful.
From here on, the search for Rebecca would go hand in hand with another struggle for power in the shadows. Information would be vital.
I couldn't afford to neglect this kind of work.
"Working so hard to make your little brother emperor—what a fine big brother you are. Hey! Not the eyes! Leave my eyes alone!"
"I'm not working that hard. I'm just putting in a reasonable amount of effort. If one of the others wins, I might get executed."
"Then just run away. Surely you've got plenty of options."
"If I were alone, I'd run."
Saying that, I looked at Christa and Rita.
If I ran, I'd have to take these children with me. My forces kept growing, and so did the number of people I needed to protect.
It was no longer realistic to run away.
"I see... You're a softy."
"Call it whatever you want."
"Well, I don't hate that about you. But remember this: if you put me to work, I'll do it my way. Don't complain, got it?"
He struck a cool pose as he said this, but Rita and Christa were pulling both his ears, stretching his face into a bizarre shape.
It wasn't cool at all. The contrast was surreal.
"You can handle it however you like. I'll take responsibility, so act freely. I won't complain as long as you get results."
"Works for me. I'll do things my way. Hey! Enough with the ears already! Pull my hands or feet instead!"
"Just don't cause any trouble with women, all right?"
"In this form, that's going to be pretty tough. Still, a guy like me is bound to have one or two women fall for him eventually. That won't be my fault, though, will it?"
Zeke proclaimed this while Rita and Christa held him suspended in midair by his hands.
No woman was going to fall for the current Zeke, that was for sure.
"That's not something I'm worried about, so relax. All right, I'm done. Christa, Rita, what do you want to play?"
"Play with Zeke..."
"Rita wants to play tag! Zeke's It!"
"Bring it on! I'll finish this in an instant! Hey!? Making me heavier is cheating!!"
"They're children. Go easy on them."
"Says the guy who's running away too! That's underhanded!!"
While Zeke lay pinned to the floor under the added weight, I ran away with Christa and Rita.