Chapter 12
The duke looked around.
“Let’s get out first. I’ve got questions to ask, but… now’s not the time.”
When I nodded, wiping away sweat and tears, he lifted me into his arms.
But just then, the ground began to shake, and his body staggered.
It wasn’t just us feeling the tremor — the scene outside, visible through the door, was utter chaos.
“The grave is shaking! The ancestors are enraged!”
“Waaah! This is punishment! Punishment for forcing open the tomb!”
The knights nearby rushed to calm people down, but panic had already spread — the escape routes tangled, screams filling the air.
“Your Grace! Please, come out quickly!”
At the sound of Secretary Logan’s shout, the duke quickened his pace.
Then, suddenly, a strange voice echoed inside my head again.
It wasn’t the hazy, muffled voice I’d heard earlier — this time, it was perfectly clear.
[I ask you who dare disturb the rest of the dead. What are you?]
“…The voice again. My identity? I’m Airy?”
“What did you say?”
I had only answered what I heard — but the duke’s expression froze.
It looked as though he couldn’t hear the voice at all.
What? But it was echoing so loudly!
“Huh? You can’t hear that, Your Grace? It’s super loud…”
The voice continued relentlessly.
[I am the ancestor of the House of Eberhardt…]
“Then… the ancestor?”
“Ancestor? What on earth are you talking about?”
“Uh? That’s, uh…”
Wait — am I the only one hearing this?
Every time that booming voice spoke, the ground trembled. So this earthquake must be coming from whoever that was.
The duke must’ve suspected the same — he turned his full attention to me.
“I can hear a voice. He said he’s from the Eberhardt line…! Oh? Oh, what—what’s happening!”
While I was answering, my body suddenly began to glow.
The duke, still holding me, flinched — his blue eyes narrowing sharply.
The strange golden light pouring from my body made my limbs go limp, like a doll’s.
“Airy! Stay with me!”
“Ugh… Your Grace… my body feels weird…”
[This light… it can’t be…! Then you are—! Oh crap, goosebumps. What the—are you a ghost?]
The majestic voice suddenly turned shrill.
What? A ghost? You’re the ghost here, ancestor!
After all the reincarnation nonsense and brushes with death, had I finally ended up with some family spirit stuck to me?
I wanted to snap back, but I couldn’t even move my lips — my strength was gone.
All I saw before darkness closed in was the silhouette of a massive beast forming out of the golden light.
And then, my eyes closed completely.
Eberhardt Mansion — the Duke’s bedchamber.
Only a few people were present.
A child lay sleeping on the bed, watched over by two men.
After a long silence, one finally spoke.
“…Could it be, Your Grace’s nephew is actually a niece?”
“It’s a boy.”
The duke’s tone was firm.
On the day of the carriage accident, the duchess had gone into labor prematurely in a nearby village.
The duke and his secretary had rushed there upon receiving the news — but when they arrived, only the maid who’d delivered the baby was there. The duchess and the infant had vanished.
The maid couldn’t have lied about the baby’s sex — she’d been the duchess’s childhood nursemaid and was deeply trusted.
Besides, she’d later died from guilt and grief, so there was nothing more to suspect.
Yet, contrary to those facts, this little girl had survived inside the tomb — without any holy relic.
And on top of that—
“Then how do you explain the family’s sacred beast?”
Both men turned toward the corner of the room.
There, sitting neatly, was a creature — too big to be a cat, too small to be a lion.
Its fur was a dense, gleaming silver, thick enough to withstand the coldest northern storms.
It had the round silhouette of a snowy owl, making it hard to tell what it even was.
Rustle.
The beast flicked its short ears irritably, as if bothered by their stares.
“According to the retainers, it’s the Silver Lion — the divine beast of the house. Said it looks exactly like the carved totem…”
“…”
The duke remembered the child in the tomb — speaking to no one visible.
‘Ancestor? I can hear a voice. From the House of Eberhardt…!’
She had definitely mentioned the family and its ancestor.
Whatever the beast was, it was clearly tied to the Eberhardt bloodline.
The duke recalled reading the records of the five founding ancestors — a thousand years of lineage filled with mighty figures: heroes, tyrants, saints, and sinners.
But for some reason, his mind lingered on the very first one — the mysterious founder.
‘…Such a strange name, I remember.’
“If you know something, please say it, Your Grace. The suspense is killing me.”
“Until she wakes, we can’t be sure of anything.”
“But… it’s already been three days. I’m worried.”
“Worry about your own face first.”
Logan’s cheeks were both swollen.
He coughed awkwardly and changed the subject.
“Ehem. Mosquito bite. Don’t mind it.”
“Sure. Then when are you actually leaving? You said you’d resign three days ago.”
“What? In a situation like this? Things are just getting interesting! Why would I leave? Ha!”
“…Tch.”
The duke clicked his tongue — disappointed that the man wouldn’t quit.
But Logan wasn’t wrong.
The child’s body had radiated light, and from that light, the sacred beast had appeared.
She’d survived the tomb without a relic, and even summoned the family’s divine creature — the situation had flipped entirely in their favor.
Now, with both men guarding the sleeping child, petitions and requests were flooding in nonstop — audiences, record changes, pleas for forgiveness.
The guilty were scrambling for absolution.
Yet amid all that, the duke’s mind lingered on one question.
Why did you lie about having the ring, Airy? Why?
He hadn’t known her long — only three brief encounters, none with much conversation.
Still, she had risked her life for him — like a moth diving into flame.
He just wanted her to wake up soon, and with that shameless grin of hers, explain everything.
Thunk, slap! Thunk, slap!
Something was pounding on my cheeks — like a fairy kneading bread dough on my face.
“Uuugh, don’t put me in the oven…”
Slap, slap-slap-slap!
[Wake up before I really throw you in the oven, you little mouse-dropping!]
“Ugh…?”
When I finally opened my eyes, a fluffy white lump with bright yellow eyes was perched on top of me.
“Eeek!”
[‘Eeek’? I’m the one who should be ‘eeek’ing! How long do you plan on sleeping? I almost died of boredom!]
“Wha—what the? A talking owl doll…?”
[Owl?! I’m a lion! A lion! What’s wrong with everyone’s eyes?!]
“Huh? A lion…?”
To be fair, it did have a suspiciously fluffy dandelion-like tail — not very owl-like.
But still, it was hard to call it a lion either.
It was too small, too round, too… cute.
As I eyed it suspiciously, the creature shrank back slightly, its voice softening.
[…This isn’t what I really look like, okay? I only ended up like this because the totem I could inhabit was puny.]
‘That voice — the same one from the tomb! The noisy one! Then this must be the ancestor of the Eberhardt family…’
“…The first head of the house?”
At that, its stubby ears perked up.
[Oh! Finally, someone with brains! Not bad for a newborn. You catch on quick!]
“Wow, so it’s true. I can actually hear a chubby owl ancestor talking to me…”
[Hey! You little mouse dropping! I told you — lion! Want a taste of my claws, huh?]
“Anyway, why’d you show up?”
[Why else? Because of you! You broke the seal on the holy ring — that let me manifest. If the tomb hadn’t been attacked, I’d still be asleep.]
“Huh? What are you talking about? I didn’t break any seal. And I didn’t even have the ring.”
What nonsense was this?
Did I rub a lamp or something? Smash a relic by accident?
The only thing I’d done was… hold my breath and maybe burp a macaron.
No, I hadn’t touched any seals!
The divine beast’s expression shifted — it stared right through me, eyes glowing like molten gold.
The sacred, piercing gaze made goosebumps crawl up my arms.
[The light that made me real — that was the power sealed in the ring. You… you died and came back, didn’t you?]
“…!”
I froze in shock.
If nothing else, that part was true — I had died and come back.
How does he know that? Don’t tell me… the ring’s power ended up in me?
If that was true, it explained why I could breathe in the tomb without the relic.
The “lion” puffed his chest like some fortune-teller proud of a hit prediction.
I suddenly felt stupid for being so startled.
But then I saw my reflection in the mirror — and it all made sense.
His eyes — golden.
The gem on the duke’s ring — golden amber.
My eyes — now golden too.
Right. These golden eyes weren’t from the duchess — they came from the ring’s power.
…Then why didn’t you show up sooner?!
I’d cried my eyes out in front of everyone, insisting I was his “daughter”!
Stupid ghostly owl-cat!
My ears still burned from the memory, but I forced myself to focus on the real question.
“About that seal… does it have to be an Eberhardt to break it?”
The divine beast tilted its head.
[Huh? You’re not one of them? The seal isn’t restricted by blood, but… then why were you in the tomb? Did the later generations go mad and offer sacrifices again?]
Yeah, pretty much.
But that wasn’t the point right now.
“It’s not like that. The family’s just… complicated. You’ll see once you hang around. Anyway, I’m curious about the seal. Tell me, please.”
The creature grinned wide, showing rice-sized teeth.
[Ahh, that. I designed it so only someone who’s died and come back could wield my power. And yet you, this tiny mouse-dropping, broke it? Fascinating. How’d you survive? What are you, four? Five? Still in diapers?]
I’m twenty-seven, you jerk!
Mouse-dropping this, mouse-dropping that — it chattered nonstop, circling me like a wind-up toy, firing off questions faster than I could think.
Maybe it was just naturally obnoxious — or genuinely excited.
“Ugh, stop moving! I told you, time went back! I woke up and everything was rewound!”
That finally made the creature freeze mid-step.
[…Wait. You mean when you said you died and came back — you meant you came back to the past?]
I nodded.
At that, the lion-owl thing broke into another grin, tail flicking with interest.
[Oh-ho! So you know the future, huh? Then what age were you when you died? You must know everything that’s coming! So what are you now — the duke’s adopted kid? Secret powerhouse type? What’s your goal, revenge? Divorce?]
Good grief, shut up!
What even is “secret powerhouse type,” and how do you get divorced without ever being married?!
“Hey, First Lord! Forget that — how does resurrection even work? That kind of magic doesn’t exist!”
When I grabbed his mane and locked eyes with him, the amusement faded from his face. He murmured under his breath.
[…So. You really don’t know me. They erased all of my glorious records.]
“Your… glorious records?”
[Yeah. I was the hero who saved the world a thousand years ago.]
“…?”
My dumbfounded stare made the little beast snicker suspiciously.
Then suddenly, as if remembering something embarrassing, he stuck out his tongue and started grooming his mane.
[Ugh, damn beastly instincts… can’t help it! Hiss!]
