The Fox in the Alley Learns How to Be Spoiled by a Knight - Practice Being Spoiled

The evening light slanted into the manor's living room. Outside the window, the leaves of the persimmon tree in the garden swayed in the autumn breeze. The tips of the still-green leaves glowed with a particularly bright translucence. Noel sat in the corner of the living room, knees drawn up between the wall and a shelf. Her silvery-white tail hung limply, curled around her own legs. Her dull golden fox ears twitched faintly, picking up the small sounds within the manor. (*It's quiet.*) The sounds from her days in the rainy alley still lingered in her body. Shouting voices, crying, the shatter of broken bottles. There, silence had been terror itself. Because when it went quiet, it meant someone was holding their breath. But here, it was different. The silence of Alvin's manor was wrapped in walls. Even without sound, the air was calm. "Noel." A low voice came from the entrance of the living room. Noel pressed her back further against the wall. Her ears flattened backward. On guard, the fur of her tail bristled faintly. (*He's here.*) Alvin Crowley. The master of this manor, and a knight of the royal guard. A man chosen among only sixty to protect the royal family and the palace. Neatly trimmed black hair, calm dark-brown eyes. His mouth rarely moved. Old scars ran across both hands. On the back of his right hand, in particular, there was a mark like an old bite wound. A hand that Noel had, over these past two days, covered with new teeth marks again and again. "So you were there." Alvin spotted Noel and stopped. He had rolled up the sleeves of his gray coat, casually exposing the back of his hand and wrist. A white cloth was wrapped around that wrist. Noel flinched. (*That's... where I bit him.*) It had happened last night. In her sleep, she had bitten Alvin's hand again. When she woke, the taste of iron had spread through her mouth. Blood had been seeping from Alvin's wrist. It was a terrible mark. And yet, Alvin now had that wrist wrapped in cloth. (*He's treating it.*) Before, he hadn't even bothered with treatment. The old teeth marks had remained on his skin as they were. But now, there was a white cloth. Something pricked deep in Noel's chest. "...What?" Noel spoke in a low voice. It came naturally when she was on guard. Alvin slowly crouched down in front of her. The old floorboards creaked under his weight. "Today, there's something I want to talk to you about." "...There's nothing to talk about." "I see." Alvin didn't back down. He looked straight into Noel's eyes. His dark-brown eyes quietly reflected the evening light. "Noel. I have a proposal about your biting habit." Noel's body went rigid. (*Biting habit.*) (*He's going to get angry after all, isn't he.*) (*He's showing me the bandage to make me apologize.*) Her heart pounded inside her chest. Her breathing grew slightly shallow. "...Don't come near me." Noel said in a hoarse voice. "Right. I won't come near." Alvin, still crouching, did not close the distance between them any further. "I'm going to place my hand here now." "What are—" "You can bite it. If you feel like biting, then bite. However, if you think you can manage not to bite—" Alvin slowly extended his right palm toward Noel. On the floor, about fifty centimeters from Noel's knees, that large hand was placed flat. The marks of old wounds. Knotted fingers. A rough, hard-looking palm, yet somehow calming in its shape. "Instead of biting, you can lick it." "...Huh?" Noel let out an unintentionally dumbfounded sound. "Lick... what are you talking about." "Exactly as I said. You can lick my hand. It won't hurt me. And you won't taste blood." Alvin's voice was terribly calm. He didn't sound like he was mocking her, nor teasing her. He meant it. Noel was confused. (*Lick?*) (*Why?*) (*Why would I do something like that.*) "No... I don't understand." "I imagine not." Alvin said shortly, and with his palm still extended, waited patiently. (*He's serious.*) Silence. The evening light stretched across the floor, dyeing Alvin's palm orange. "When you want to bite, when you're lonely, when you're anxious—you've been suppressing something by biting. I want you to learn a different way." "...And what good would learning that do." "Your biting habit would ease a little." "...That's not the issue. I just don't want to be a burden to you." "I don't consider it a burden." "Then consider it one." Noel's voice suddenly grew stronger. "If you're treating the wound, that means it IS a burden, isn't it. It hurts, doesn't it. Why—why can you smile like that?" Alvin narrowed his eyes slightly. "The one suffering isn't me. It's you." "No." "It's not wrong. To protect your younger brothers, you've been pretending to be a boy all this time, surviving in the alley since you were seven. Even when you were scared and lonely, you couldn't tell anyone. Biting was your only way of seeking comfort." "...Don't talk like you know anything." "I can tell just by looking at you." "Then don't understand." Noel folded her ears down. Her fox ears flattened against her head. (*I don't want to be understood.*) (*Don't look at me.*) (*Don't touch the places that hurt.*) She was screaming that inside her heart. But for some reason, she couldn't look away. From Alvin's outstretched hand. (*Lick.*) (*This hand. Me.*) The word repeated over and over in her head. "...If you don't want to, you don't have to. There's no rush. I can wait." Alvin said that, and gently placed his right palm on the floor. The white cloth wrapped around his wrist stood out clearly in the evening light. Noel swallowed. ────────── How long had they stayed like that? Alvin never reached out on his own. With his palm resting on the floor, he simply waited in silence for Noel to move. Like waiting in a forest for a small wild creature to approach on its own. Time passed slowly. She could see the grain of the floorboards. There was a dusty smell. The fireplace was not yet lit. Autumn air flowed coolly into the room through the gaps in the window. Noel tried to steady her breathing. (*If I'm going to bite, licking is better.*) (*There's no blood.*) (*He won't be hurt.*) (*...Then.*) Her heart was pounding violently. Even so, Noel slowly leaned her body forward. She placed her hands on the floor, getting on all fours. Her silver tail puffed up with tension. (*I'm getting closer.*) (*Right now, I'm moving toward an adult's hand on my own.*) In the alley, an adult's hand had always been something that grabbed her. A hand for selling her off. A hand for hitting her. A hand for dragging her away by force. But the hand before her now did not move. It simply lay there, open, on the floor. Noel brought her trembling nose close to Alvin's palm. ...A scent. Leather, iron, and ash. The scent of a knight. And then, the scent of medicinal herbs. From the cloth on his wrist, a faint bitter smell drifted. (*He's applied medicine.*) (*He's properly treating it.*) Her chest pricked with pain. But right now, she didn't have the composure to push that pain away. Softly, she extended her tongue. Noel touched her tongue, just barely, to the base of Alvin's index finger. ...No taste of iron. Warm. Just warm—the taste of skin. The rough texture of hard skin lingered on her tongue. (*So this is what licking is.*) Noel's mind went blank. She couldn't think of anything. Her heart kept pounding. Her lungs wouldn't work properly. Her ears grew hot. Even so, she moved her tongue again. This time, slowly across the center of his palm. "...Are you afraid?" Alvin's voice came from above her head. Without raising her face, Noel shook her head. "I see." A faint hint of relief. Noel closed her eyes. Alvin's warmth seeped through the tip of her tongue. It was completely different from biting. When she bit, she was always afraid. The sensation of teeth sinking into flesh, the taste of blood, and an impulse she couldn't control with her own hands. But now. Something hard and knotted deep in her chest loosened, just a little. (*I hate this.*) (*And yet, it's warm.*) Tears threatened to well up from behind her eyes, and Noel desperately pressed her lips together to hold them back. ────────── "Big brother, that's amazing!" Suddenly, a bright voice burst into the living room. Noel's shoulders jumped, and she pulled her face away from Alvin's hand as if she'd been struck. Turning around, Lyall stood at the entrance of the living room. Bouncy silvery-white short hair, drooping golden eyes. His golden ears twitched as he looked at her. Beside him, Finn stood quietly. "Noel, are you healing Alvin-san's hand?" "N-no." "Amazing, amazing! You're so kind! I can do 'pain, pain, fly away' too!" Lyall came bounding toward Noel. Finn toddled along behind him. "Pain, pain, fly away." Finn reached his small hand gently toward Noel's arm. "...It's not wound treatment, and it's not 'pain, pain, fly away.'" Noel looked down and muttered. Her tail fur was still puffed up. "Then what were you doing?" "...Practice." "Practice?" "Practice at being spoiled," Alvin quietly explained to the two of them. "Noel is a little bad at being spoiled. So she's practicing how to be spoiled properly." "Being spoiled?" "That's right." Lyall tilted his head with a blank expression. "Hey, Noel. Is practicing being spoiled hard?" "...I think it's hard." "Hmm." Lyall grinned. "Then Noel, you're working hard at practicing being spoiled, that's great! I'm cheering for you!" Noel couldn't say anything. Lyall's brightness had been scrambling Noel's heart since their days in the alley. "...Thanks for the encouragement." She barely managed to say that much. Finn plopped down beside Noel. "Finn will watch Noel's being-spoiled practice too." "...You don't have to watch." "You don't want me to?" "...It's not that I don't want you to." "Okay. Good." Finn nodded slightly and pressed his own white tail gently against Noel's tail. Alvin narrowed his eyes. "Noel. One more thing, if that's all right." "...What." "I'll lend you my clothes. You can use them to remember my scent." "...Huh?" "I don't mind." "H-hey. What's this all of a sudden." Noel recoiled. Alvin stood and took a coat from a wooden box in the corner of the living room. "It's a spare coat of mine. Your nose is surely quite sensitive. You're still tense around unfamiliar scents. Getting used to my scent has meaning." Saying that, Alvin gently placed the coat on Noel's lap. Thick gray fabric. Alvin's scent softly tickled her nose. "...What is this. I don't need it." "You don't have to use it. I'm just leaving it here." "Like I said, that kind of thing is..." Noel cut her words off halfway and bit her lip. (*Why does this person always—*) (*Making me go through the trouble of applying medicine.*) (*Even lending me clothes.*) (*What about me is so—*) She didn't understand. "Noel, what are you going to do with this?" Lyall peered at the coat on Noel's lap with great curiosity. "...Nothing." "Are you going to hug it?" "I-I'm not." "Hugging it makes you feel calm, you know. When I hug Alvin-san, I get all warm!" Saying that, Lyall threw his whole body onto Noel's arm, hugging her tightly. "...Lyall, you're hot." "Hehehe." Lyall's warmth seeped into Noel. Noel didn't resist. She pinched the coat on her lap, just a little, with her fingertips. (*The scent.*) She sniffed. (*Calming...?*) (*I don't know.*) But it wasn't a bad smell. Beneath the leather and ash, there was a faintly warm scent. ────────── That night. Her younger brothers were sleeping peacefully in the room upstairs. Noel sat in her usual spot against the living room wall. On her lap, the gray coat was folded. (*What am I doing.*) Alvin sat silently before the fireplace, tending the fire. The firewood crackled occasionally. "...Hey." Noel opened her mouth. "What is it." "That... your wri

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Episode 4

Name: The Fox in the Alley Learns How to Be Spoiled by a Knight
Author: Novelia

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