I Became A Squirrel Seeking For The Villain Chapter 55

‘Is Mariel that precious to me?’

 

I never thought anyone would ask me that.

 

I wagged my tail and remained silent.

 

“…..”

 

When I didn’t respond, Yohan stared at me intently before slowly asking,

 

“Enough that you’d be okay with people pointing fingers at you?”

 

I thought it was okay. If I could protect Mariel, then I really didn’t care.

 

And even now, after learning the full truth, that feeling remained the same.

 

I blinked silently, then lifted my front paw and wrote a word in the air.

 

Yohan frowned and stared at my front paws.

 

“Fa…mily? You did it because she’s family?”

 

Mariel had always been my family. Even before I knew I was truly Yurika.

 

As time passed, I naturally accepted her as my family.

 

As I nodded fiercely, he remained silent for a moment before smiling sadly.

 

“I see, Yurika.”

 

“Kyuung?”

 

“It’s just… I suddenly realized you have people more precious to you than me now.”

 

‘Oh, did I make a mistake?’

 

Right… Yohan had no family left.

 

It would have been even more tragic if Ella and Tezen had been considered family.

 

He was being criticized for imprisoning them in the underground prison—people saying, How could you do that to your family?

 

But that was Yohan’s burden to bear…

 

For me, there was no other way to describe Mariel but as my family.

 

I tilted my head, not knowing what to do, then pointed a paw at Yohan with a determined expression.

 

‘I wanted to hurry and take human form so I could tell him, “Even if it wasn’t Mariel, I still would have acted the same way for you”.’

 

But Yohan, reading my expression and gestures, patted my head as if to say that it was okay.

 

“No, Yurika. Don’t do that for me.”

 

“Kyuung?”

 

“I hate it when you suffer even the slightest loss. I hate it even more when it’s because of me.”

 

As I looked at him with a puzzled look, Yohan continued speaking slowly.

 

“You are someone who is very precious to me. I wanted to say this to you at the duke’s castle, but I never got the chance before we parted.”

 

His voice sounded like a dream.

 

Then, softly, Yohan pressed a kiss to my forehead.

 

“At first, I liked that you could calm my magic. For the first time in my life, I felt like I had seen heaven, even if only for a moment.”

 

“Kyuung.”

 

I’d heard that calming magic was an incredible ability for wizards.

 

And from what I had overheard earlier, I apparently inherited my father’s magic and was quite an extraordinary divine beast.

 

That’s why Theodore still kept spouting nonsense about wanting me back.

 

If that’s the case, then it was natural that Yohan liked me too.

 

Just as Theodore is wary of Yohan, it is natural for Yohan to be wary of Theodore as well.

 

But Yohan looked at me with his deep purple eyes and continued speaking affectionately.

 

“But at some point, I stopped waiting for you just because you calmed my magic. I started waiting simply because it was you.”

 

‘Just because it was me…’

 

‘Regardless of my calming ability, simply because it was me…’

 

That was exactly how I felt too.

 

I had initially sought him out for the sake of my transformation, but in the end, I cared for him enough to personally warn him of danger.

 

Suddenly I had a strange feeling.

 

I had planned to quickly transform into a human, have a conversation, and move on.

 

But instead, overwhelming emotions rushed in.

 

Sadness, revenge, surprise, sorrow, resentment.

 

If I transformed now, I wouldn’t be able to control my emotions.

 

Rather impulsively, instead of immediately transforming into a human, I jumped up and threw myself into Yohan’s arms.

 

“Yurika…”

 

Yohan looked at me in surprise as he caught me.

 

“Kyuung.”

 

I snuggled into his arms and grabbed his collar with my forepaws.

 

He stroked me for a moment and then asked quietly.

 

“…..Are you crying?”

 

Before I knew it, I was crying.

 

As the shock subsided, a quiet sadness immediately came over me.

 

I felt so resentful that my childhood, which I couldn’t even remember, and my past had been completely blown away.

 

I felt sorry for my family, whom I couldn’t meet just because of money.

 

Sienna—no, my mother—had missed me so much. The way she instinctively recognized me touched me deeply.

 

But we all thought it was because my mother was sick, and I even thought it was just a mental disorder.

 

‘My mother recognized me, but I didn’t recognize her.…’

 

I had spent all this time convincing myself it was okay if I wasn’t really the Duke of Medes’s daughter, while others whispered behind my back that I was a fake.

 

Even though I knew the whole truth, I couldn’t even take revenge right away because my father was being held hostage in the temple.

 

All that resentment and anger poured out as tears.

 

Because of my pride, I thought I would never be able to cry in front of others in my human form, but as a small squirrel, I felt safe showing my tears to Yohan.

 

It was as if we were back in the days when we had no one else to rely on.

 

“If you want to cry, then cry, Yurika. I will always be with you.”

 

Yohan stroked the small of my back with a warm touch.

 

“Once you’ve cried enough and returned to your human form, just tell me the names of those who made you cry.”

 

His voice was gentle, but his words were chilling.

 

“I won’t let them get away with it.”

 

There was a fierce energy radiating from Yohan.

 

I cried for a long time, then slowly lifted my head and slipped from his arms.

 

If I remained on the balcony too long, people might start getting the wrong idea.

 

More importantly, I needed to keep an eye on what Rivena and Theodore were up to.

 

We were in a situation where we had to watch each other.

 

So, I quickly transformed back into a human and changed my clothes.

 

The buttons on the back of the dress had to be buttoned up by Yohan.

 

I decided to tell him what I had learned later. For now, we headed back to the ballroom.

 

And when we appeared again in the banquet hall, the people clicked their tongues when they saw Yohan.

 

His face was too flushed.

 

“Yohan?”

 

I blinked at his reddened face, and he rubbed his forehead.

 

“It’s nothing. Please, don’t look at me like I’m trash.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Because I feel like trash too…”

 

* * *

 

‘I have to move quickly. She seems smarter than I thought.’

 

Rivena was a quick thinker.

 

She observed Yurika, who was enjoying the banquet with Mariel while keeping Yohan by her side, and fell into deep thought.

 

‘Using bad rumors like this…’

 

She had deliberately tarnished Yurika’s reputation before the victory banquet, but it had ended up backfiring on her.

 

Instead of trying to stand out, Yurika was focused on dragging Rivena down.

 

Rivena didn’t know how, but it was clear that Yurika had figured out she was from the temple.

 

If she kept clinging to her like this, the plan to frame her in high society and get her expelled from the Medes family could fall apart.

 

‘Then what should I do about this….?’

 

Narrowing her eyes, Rivena calculated her next move and came to a decision.

 

No matter how clever Yurika was, there was no way she could discover that she was the real second daughter of the Medes family.

 

Because that fact is known only to a very small number of people even in the temple.

 

‘If you’re that smart, you must have a lot of pride. I guess I should use that to my advantage.’

 

Rivena turned around without any hesitation.

 

‘Now that the situation had shifted in Medes’s favor, there was nothing more to gain from this banquet. It was time to prepare my next move.’

 

* * *

 

‘What?’

 

While I was chatting with Mariel about this and that, I frowned as I saw Rivena sneak out of the banquet hall.

 

‘She’s leaving already?’

 

The reason I came out to the banquet hall without even having time to explain to Yohan was because I was curious about what Rivena and Theodore would do next.

 

Whatever they were plotting, I intended to stop them.

 

Of course, the advantage was already in my and Mariel’s hands.

 

Who could ignore sisters who have a war hero and a crown prince as partners?

 

Even though I have a bad reputation as an adopted daughter.

 

‘Then there’s no reason for me to stay here either.’

 

In fact, after overhearing the conversation between Rivena and Theodore, my mind had already drifted away from the banquet hall.

 

It didn’t seem like I would be able to enjoy the splendid banquet comfortably.

 

Besides, it wasn’t like there was anyone here who particularly liked me.

 

“Sister, I’m tired, so I’ll go first…”

 

I smiled at Mariel.

 

“I’m not feeling well.”

 

* * *