Chapter 16

“What do you have there in your hand?”

“Oh, I thought the prince would like it,” Sir Janiche replied, swaying the blue bristlegrass gently. I was caught off guard, unable to muster a response. The thing is, the prince preferred stocking balls over blue bristlegrass!

“It’s almost time for lunch, and Miss Daphne isn’t coming, so I thought I’d take the prince to eat with me.” Sir Janiche explained, pouring out his words as if making excuses. As I listened in silence, he continued.

“But I couldn’t locate where the prince was hiding. I searched high and low until I stumbled upon him here. However, as soon as he caught sight of me, he let out a scream and transformed into a dog.”

“He didn’t transform into something big like last time.”

“Yes, luckily he didn’t. But he’s crawled under the bed, refusing to come out.”

“So, you went outside and plucked the blue bristlegrass?”

“Yes,” he nodded with unwavering confidence. Yet it seemed that his efforts yielded little reward.

“I warned him that Miss Daphne might get angry, but he remained silent. You see, it’s the prince’s fault,” Sir Janiche justified himself.

Suddenly, my eyes caught sight of the prince’s discarded clothes in one corner and the fingernail-sized footprints that led from there until they ended near Sir Janiche’s bed.

I sighed and bent to my knees, wondering how many loads of laundry these men were planning to give me. I bent down to check under the bed, and sure enough, I saw a small body curled up in a ball with a floppy white tail.

“Prince,” I called out.

“…woof!” The prince disregarded my call, refusing to meet my gaze. Yet his tail, previously affixed to the ground, suddenly shot up.

The prince’s attempt to hide his trembling tail was in vain. An overwhelming sense of relief washed over me. I instinctively reached out, attempting to lower his elevated tail, and called out to him once more.

“What are you up to down there, Prince? Trying to befriend cockroaches, perhaps?”

“…!”

Startled, the prince turned his face toward me. His small snout, positioned just below his slightly widened nostrils, turned to me.

Emitting faint whimpers, he attempted to shield his face using his front paws. It was undeniably adorable, but what caught my attention first were his front paws, tinged with a shade of gray. I lowered my body even further, extending my hand beneath the bed.

“Come here. Are you hiding because you’re afraid of Sir Janiche?”

“…I am not scary.”

“But you certainly seem scary. I’ll tell Sir Janiche to leave. Now, please come out.”

“Why should I leave?”

The Sir Janiche I had known before the regression certainly did not possess such a temperament.

Yet, ever since I began to be friends with the prince and spend time in his company, Sir Janiche seemed to grow sullen on a daily basis.

I nudged him. He stared at me in disbelief, then made a half-hearted attempt to come out of the room.

“Look, Your Highness. I have defeated Sir Janiche.”

Upon hearing my words, the prince opened his round, watery eyes hidden beneath his fluffy white fur and looked at me with a mixture of surprise and trust.

I could feel an indescribable sense of reliance directed toward me. The prince, without a doubt, was depending on me.

The reason I could say that was because the prince had slowly approached me, sneaking into my hands. Due to his small stature, he appeared to be walking lightly, and he gently brushed his furry body against the palm of my hand.

I cautiously embraced the prince.

“Woof[1]!”
[1] Barking in Korean is wang, and can also mean King.

“Yes, prince. The prince is the one who will be the next king.”

“Not exactly; His Majesty has chosen the Princess as his next heir….”

“Sir Janiche, please be quiet.”

“Fine.”

After pulling the prince out of bed, it was a piece of cake. I barely managed to hold him, who was so small in my arms, and stood up.

As I gently stroked his back, the prince looked at me with trembling eyes. He was still in a frightened state. He hesitantly nestled his face in my arms, shivering all over, as if wary of the surrounding environment.

“Oh my, how adorable… I mean, what will you two do now? How can he have lunch in this state? I even brought scones with raspberry filling.”

“Listening to you makes me hungry.”

You’re always hungry, Sir Janiche.”

Sir Janiche shook his head. I left him behind and stepped out into the corridor, carrying the prince, who was dirtied beyond imagination.

The prince looked around nervously as he realized that the location had changed.

“Don’t worry. I’m right here with you.”

Before we headed to his room, I realized the prince was perhaps still on a treasure hunt. Otherwise, there was no way he would be found at the end of the corridor, considering his current appearance.

It might be best to teach him many things as soon as possible. It would be troublesome if he got dirty again while I was away.

“Woof, woof!”

As I walked along the corridor with the prince, he suddenly started barking fervently, causing me to turn around. In the distance, Sir Janiche, who had been following us at a certain distance, stopped in his tracks and quickly changed directions, pretending to be busy with something else.

“What’s the matter? It’s just Sir Janiche; he means no harm.”

“…That’s true. Why does he dislike me so much?”

“Sir Janiche, calling him a monster despite him being so cuddly and adorable is perhaps what’s done it.”

Other than that, I couldn’t think of any reason. I shrugged my shoulders and asked the prince. He raised his fur and barked in response.

It was amusingly dog-like behavior. Although he was truly a puppy at this moment.

“I will take back that statement. How can I seek forgiveness…”

“Ask him when he turns back into a human, Sir Janiche. Apart from that, what should we do about this? Both of you need to wash up before having lunch. I brought raspberries and scones.”

“How about I take the prince with me to wash up, and we can get acquainted?”

“Woof!”

The prince didn’t seem to like that idea.

It wasn’t a cute whimper; it was a loud bark, and I knew he shouldn’t have said that. I hadn’t been able to communicate with the puppy-turned-prince, but now I could get a general sense of his likes and dislikes.

When I shook my head silently, Sir Janiche grew impatient and turned the doorknob of his bedroom, which happened to be next door.

“I’ll go wash myself then, and I’ll meet you in the dining room.”

The prince often transformed into a dog without warning; perhaps due to his frequent transformations, Sir Janiche’s own dejected expression mirrored that of a dog’s with its tail and ears drooped.

“Your Highness, what would you like me to do? Shall I give you a bath?”

“Woof, woof!”

I couldn’t tell if he liked it or not. But most likely, it meant he didn’t. As soon as I made that judgment, my stomach made a grumbling sound.

It seemed that I had used up all of my energy on the journey to the palace. I took the prince and headed towards the bathroom.

“Sir Janiche has a bathroom attached to his room, but I don’t have one. This is where I bathe every day.”

“….”

“First, I’ll fill the bathtub with water, so if you transform back into a human, you can bathe by yourself. If not, I’ll help you.”

A dog couldn’t wash itself. In truth, I wanted to see the prince, in his dog form, soaked in water like a wet mouse. But there was no other choice.

I started filling the bathtub with water. I realized that the bathtub was deep, and if he didn’t transform back into a human, he would never be able to bathe without my help.

I waited for a while as the water filled up. The steam started to blur my view. However, the prince just lightly tapped the surface of the water with his front paw, as if testing it, and showed no signs of reverting to his original form.

Well, there was no other option. I quickly picked up the prince.

“Just let me bathe you.”

“Woof!”

“Why? You like being clean, right?”

And naturally, the prince resisted. Of course, it was of no use. The prince in his dog form was weak. I closed the tap and tested the temperature of the water, then I plunged the prince into the bathtub.

He kicked his legs and scratched the sides of the tub, crying as he tried to climb out. And I poured water over his soaked body.

“Woof! Woof!”

“Just wait a moment; let me lather the soap.”

“Argh! …No, I don’t want to! I don’t want to!”

Just as his small body became even smaller due to the water, a cloud-like vapor rose, and I withdrew my hand that was about to grab the soap. At the same time, his long arm suddenly reached out and grabbed my wrist.

“I-I told you… you’ve been doing this all along. Why, why are you doing this to me?”

“I- I just….”

“And sometimes you pretend to understand me!”

I had never seen the prince so indignant before. His silver eyebrows were tightly furrowed as he glared at me, and his hair was drenched, sticking to his cheeks and shoulders.

His hand unconsciously gripped my wrist tightly, with blue veins bulging on top. I suddenly realized that I had been treating the prince, who clearly had the body of an adult, too much like a baby.

“Your Highness… can’t you control your transformations yourself? It would be easier to bathe a dog. You can use less water too.”

“I-I can’t! If I could do that, I would have done it earlier.”

“I see,” I replied, fixing my gaze on the ceiling. The bathtub, which had been a perfect fit for me, seemed quite small to the prince. He hesitated for a moment, still extending his upper body forward.

“I-I can bathe by myself. I’ve been bathing alone all this time; why suddenly…”

“Well, Your Highness, even when you were a dog, did you wash yourself with soap?”

“Well, not really.”

The prince was speechless. He mumbled for a moment, then suddenly straightened his shoulders as if realizing his current state. He withdrew his hand from the bathtub and closed his eyes tightly.

“I’ll… wash myself! Get out!”

“Alright. Your clothes to change into are outside, so please bathe quickly and come to the dining room.”

I needed to prepare lunch. As I stood up obediently, the prince opened his watery eyes and stared at me. But as soon as our eyes met, he flinched and buried his head in his knees, making a strange sound.