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Join the ServerThe air was thick with both heat and humidity, creating an unpleasant, cloying dampness. A clammy sensation crept up Heinzel’s back, but it was the sticky feeling on his face that truly soured his mood. He instinctively rubbed his inexplicably itchy cheek as he slowly lifted his eyelids.
Directly before him, a puppy was enthusiastically licking his face, its tiny tongue darting out. A black nose twitched wildly, inches from his eyes, as the long, pink tongue frenetically swept across his cheeks and the bridge of his nose. Heinzel finally understood the source of the persistent dampness on his face and reached out to gently push the puppy away.
“Ugh, you’re covered in drool!” he exclaimed, a soft reprimand in his voice. “Shoo! Go on, get away!”
Not only was his face drenched in puppy slobber, but his back and legs felt unpleasantly damp as well. The oppressive humidity, the cold sweat he’d shed from what must have been a nightmare, the moisture seeping up from the ground, and his now-wet clothes were all compounded by the puppy’s persistent whimpering.
“Puppy?”
‘A real puppy,’ he thought, observing its pristine white fur, obsidian eyes, and tiny black nose. Though it possessed a heft that suggested a large breed, its delightfully round, clumsy body unmistakably marked it as a very young pup.
“I suppose you’re why I had such a nonsensical dream,” he murmured.
He couldn’t recall the specifics of the dream, but the cold sweat clinging to him confirmed it had been far from pleasant. Heinzel lifted the puppy to eye level, playfully chiding it, and in response, the little creature whimpered as if vehemently protesting its innocence.
Its glossy eyes and moist, button nose were undeniably cute. Running his fingers through its fluffy fur, he found the sensation far more delightful than he had anticipated.
Having never owned a pet, and certainly never having the chance to touch such a young puppy, Heinzel found the current situation utterly fascinating.
“I seem to recall hearing that it’s not good for young animals to get too used to human touch,” he mused aloud. “Is that true? Should I even be petting it?”
Though he posed the question to the empty air, his hands were already kneading the puppy’s soft form. The plush, yielding sensation was simply divine. He couldn’t identify the breed, but the dense undercoat nestled between its longer hairs made it feel as if he were cradling a fluffy cotton doll.
Heinzel found himself marveling repeatedly, suddenly understanding the universal appeal of keeping pets.
“Wow, just holding it is healing.”
He gently flipped the puppy onto its back and softly scratched its plump belly with his fingers. The little creature wiggled its tiny paws and whimpered contentedly. Even its playful kicks were adorable, sparking an absurd urge in Heinzel to pop it into his mouth and playfully ‘chew’ on it. He wrestled with this peculiar desire for a long moment.
“Hey, how did you get in here?”
‘If this isn’t a dog owned by someone in the ducal family, letting it roam freely could cause serious trouble,’ he mused. He had no idea who the puppy’s owner was, but he couldn’t help but feel they were being incredibly negligent.
“Are you perhaps the Duchess’s puppy?”
The puppy’s panicked yelps seemed to indicate sheer terror at the suggestion.
“Indeed, that woman doesn’t strike me as the type to keep a pet,” he muttered.
‘She treats her own children so harshly; why would she dote on a dog?’ As if agreeing with Heinzel’s internal monologue, the puppy let out a sharp bark.
“I don’t know who your owner is, but if you keep wandering around like this and run into someone unpleasant, it won’t end well for you,” he admonished. “You little rascal, you should consider yourself lucky that I’m the one who found you.”
The sight of its plump, pink belly peeking through the white fur was utterly endearing. It possessed an irresistible charm that made him want to keep touching and gently kneading it.
“Our puppy, where’s your mom? Don’t you have older brothers?”
A single puppy couldn’t simply materialize out of thin air; if it was this small, its mother surely had to be nearby. There would likely be other puppies from the same litter, too. Just the thought of four or five such puppies huddled together, wiggling and squirming, made Heinzel’s chest ache with an overwhelming feeling. He clutched his chest, gasping softly.
The puppy’s black eyes stared intently at Heinzel, a gaze that seemed to perceive him as a dangerous individual. Heinzel briefly reflected on his rather undignified display in front of the small creature.
Gazing back into those glossy, black, glass-bead eyes, he playfully feigned a gentle nip at its moist nose.
“Did you have your dinner, little puppy? Your belly looks rather plump, so perhaps you did,” he cooed. “Or should we go find something tasty together? …I wonder if your owner will come looking for you.”
Heinzel found himself in a serious dilemma, torn between the strong desire to take the puppy to his room and the nagging conscience that urged him to return it to its owner. ‘Still, I am the Duke’s son,’ he reasoned. ‘If I said I wanted to keep a puppy, they might simply let me.’ Startled by the realization that he was gradually growing accustomed to the ‘sweet perks’ of a class-based society, Heinzel quickly reconsidered, chastising himself.
“I don’t know how you ended up here, but let’s get you back quickly,” he said, his voice softening. “The world isn’t full of kind people like your big brother, you know. A nasty man might snatch you away. So, you should go home quietly, shouldn’t you?”
Its fur, clearly well-maintained, gleamed with a healthy luster. It had felt incredibly soft to the touch earlier. Heinzel buried his fingers once more into the cotton-like fluff, savoring the delightful sensation, and a contented smile spread across his face.
“Young Master. Young Master Heinzel.”
He had thought he’d only closed his eyes for a moment, yet it seemed three or four hours had already slipped by. Heinzel gently brushed the dirt from the puppy’s flanks and paws, then, with a touch of reluctance, carefully set it down on the ground, trying to stifle his lingering regret.
“Now, go quickly to your owner,” he urged. “If you keep roaming around like this, you might get hurt, and that would be painful.”
He gave the tiny puppy’s bottom a gentle pat before standing up. The puppy, craning its neck to gaze up at Heinzel, then bounded off like a rabbit, disappearing beneath a flowering tree. Its white ears twitched once among the green foliage before vanishing completely.
“Rosie. I’m here.”
“Young Master, why are you here… no, what happened to your clothes…?”
Rosie, who had rushed from the center of the garden, stared at Heinzel’s attire with a look of utter astonishment. His jacket was rolled up on the ground, his trousers and shirt were smeared with wet dirt, and his hair was disheveled as if he had just woken from a deep sleep. Her surprise was entirely understandable.
“Let’s go to the room. My back hurts from sleeping on the dirt.”
He had intended to sleep in the sun to soothe his back, yet it now ached even more fiercely, causing Heinzel to let out a soft groan. ‘It seems humans accustomed to civilization truly struggle to live in nature,’ he mused. Watching Heinzel nod sagely at this newfound realization, Rosie clicked her tongue in mild exasperation.
****
“No matter how I think about it… I have too little to do.”
He had once considered a life of leisure an unattainable dream, yet now that he was living it, he found it far from enjoyable; instead, it left him feeling profoundly uneasy.
Idleness was tolerable for a day or two, but after nearly a month of a monotonous cycle—waking, eating, passing time, eating, killing time, eating, wasting time, and finally sleeping—Heinzel felt as though he had devolved into a mere creature of habit.
If only he had a computer, or at the very least a mobile phone, he could kill time with the dedication and efficiency of the most perfectly unproductive person imaginable.
While magic seemed to replace most aspects of modern civilization, regrettably, nothing existed to substitute the internet. He mused that if he could somehow implement the internet in this world, it would undoubtedly be an enormous achievement.
Heinzel, lost in these fanciful daydreams, let out a soft puff of air to blow the hair away from his forehead.
“Rosie, let’s go to the library.”
‘The library, which I’ve steadfastly avoided until now, was precisely saved for moments like this,’ he rationalized. Offering this rather flimsy excuse, Heinzel pressed Rosie to follow.
“Are you finally going?”
As if fully aware of Heinzel’s concerted efforts to avoid it thus far, Rosie beamed with delight and began tidying the area. Heinzel’s habitually sprawling or leaning posture always left his seating arrangements in need of immediate attention. With lightning speed, Rosie fluffed the crumpled cushions, neatly placed them back, and then, declaring everything was now in order, began leading the way to the library.
“The ducal residence’s library is truly large. When it was my cleaning area, I was so surprised, it was the first time I’d seen so many books.”
‘It’s only a study,’ Heinzel thought dismissively. ‘Otherwise, wouldn’t they have called it a library?’ Despite his internal skepticism about how “big” a private study could truly be, he kept his thoughts to himself, unwilling to dampen Rosie’s obvious pride in everything related to the ducal family.
“Here it is. Doesn’t it feel familiar?”
“No, it doesn’t.”
Stepping through the door Rosie held open, Heinzel responded with a distinct lack of enthusiasm.
“There are a lot of books.”
“Right? I knew Young Master would be surprised.”
He wasn’t particularly surprised, but Heinzel scratched his cheek and opted for silence, unwilling to deflate Rosie’s evident pride.
While it certainly contained a vast number of books for a private study, Heinzel recalled that in Korea, libraries of this scale were common in almost every neighborhood, with many even larger ones existing.
He hadn’t held high expectations for a study located within a mansion, as opposed to a standalone library building, so its size was precisely as he’d imagined. Nevertheless, he decided to allow himself a moment of admiration; to have a study of this magnitude in a private residence during the medieval era, long before the advent of modern publishing, was genuinely impressive.
‘Yes, this many books in a personal study is quite remarkable indeed.’
Hainzel nodded, his mind drifting to the exorbitant housing prices in Korea. ‘How astronomically expensive are homes these days?’ he mused. ‘To be able to amass such a collection of books within one’s own residence—that’s certainly not something just anyone can achieve.’
“If you’re going to read books, should I leave?”
The former Heinzel must have preferred to dismiss Rosie and read alone. He had heard that the previous Young Master spent the majority of his time in the study, and it was unlikely he would have kept Rosie standing by his side the entire day. Heinzel nodded in agreement with his own deduction.
“Yes.”
“When should I come to escort you?”
“Around dinner time?”
“Just in case, I’ll stop by once in between.”
This was a thoughtful gesture for Heinzel, who had yet to fully familiarize himself with the layout of the mansion. Receiving an affirmative reply, Rosie exited the study, leaving him to his own devices.
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