“Ah.”

A sound, half-groan and half-breath, slipped out of the child’s lips along with steam.

The pitch-black eyes still stared fixedly at him. That unusually persistent gaze traveled one by one over the boy’s black hair, his gleaming nose bridge, red lips, and the Adam’s apple that had just begun to jut out like a fruit.

Then, staring again into his pale gray irises, the child suddenly lifted a finger. The motion seemed aimed to jab straight into his eye, and Yuri squeezed his eyes shut and shouted.

“Wh—what are you!”

He reflexively shoved it away, but instead of rolling off, the heavy head landed with a thump right on his collarbone. From the hiss of annoyance, the beast seemed just as frustrated.

That bizarre head covering again. Why the hell was something like this in Winter Castle? Even trying to think rationally, he couldn’t understand it at all.

The child was quick, purely aggressive, and now he could see—the nails were absurdly long.

So it strangled me with those maple-leaf claws.... [N O V E L I G H T] Yuri’s eyes narrowed.

“Who the hell are you, trespassing on private property...”

When the child’s head tilted, Yuri quickly reached out. To keep it from fleeing, he tucked its head into the crook of his elbow and wrapped an arm around its waist.

It ended up exactly like cradling a nursing infant, but Yuri remained perfectly calm.

Setting aside that it had attacked him, first and foremost he had to bring it back to Winter Castle and find its parents.

“Where did you come from? What’s your name? You’re human, right?”

Black hair poked out from under the mask, the same as his own. However grotesque it looked, the arms and legs were intact, and each hand and foot had five fingers and toes. Human, undoubtedly.

So someone had stripped this child so thinly and shoved a mask over its head as some kind of twisted prank.... Heat surged strangely in his chest. How dare they, in the Prime Minister’s estate?

“Hey, kid, talk to me. Who did this to you?”

He asked gently so it wouldn’t be scared. The eyes meeting his widened round.

From the start, the child had twitched warily yet stayed pressed in his arms, frozen, holding its breath. The posture was so stiff it was almost funny.

“Why can’t you speak? Don’t tell me you don’t understand Russian?”

He stroked its backside as he asked again, and suddenly came a harsh, rattling sound, grrr, grrr, its rough breathing.

With a strange premonition, Yuri touched the nape of its neck. The skin beneath burned like fire.

“You...”

It wore nothing but some flimsy patient’s gown or sleepwear, barefoot. In Russia, dressed like this, you’d freeze to death in no time. Yet this thing had climbed a tree just to eat falling snow.

Yuri dropped the questioning for now, unzipped his fur coat, and grabbed the icy feet with one hand.

Just like his parents used to, he rubbed the soles—and suddenly the child flailed as if in seizure.

“Wait, hold still...!”

It slashed at Yuri’s face with its nails, feral.

“Ugh, wait, I’m not trying to hurt—!”

But it lunged again, smacking his cheek hard, slap, slap. The quiet stillness from before had all been a setup for this moment, and the switch in stance was breathtakingly fast.

As his frozen cheek was struck again and again, pain exploded as though shards of iron had been ground in. In an instant one side of his face split and swelled red.

Fuck, this beast brat, really doesn’t listen for shit....

“Finished hitting me?”

At that, another slap spun his head sideways.

“Ah, not yet?”

Forcing down his irritation, Yuri let out a hollow laugh. Had it lain limp in his arms like a dead animal just to see how he’d react?

Is this thing even human, really?

And yet the cunning of it pleased him somehow. When he laughed, disbelieving, the child faltered again. Those round eyes lingered long on the boy’s lifted mouth, the corners sharp and clean.

“What the hell am I supposed to do with such a badly raised brat like you?”

As he chuckled in exasperation, a crimson fingertip tapped his lips.

Yuri twitched his brows and, letting it all go, lay back on the slope.

But then, seeing how small and cold it looked, he shoved it inside his fur coat and hugged it close—and fuck. This time it punched him in the solar plexus.

If it could do this barehanded, then put a branch in its grip and it could pierce a throat. The thought, sudden, chilled his guts.

“Where did you come from? If you answer straight, I’ll let you go.”

“――”

“Shhh, hold still...! I’m not trying to choke you to death, okay?”

But the child only shrieked, still mistaking his hold for harm.

“Fine, fine, I told you, I’m not trying to hurt you!”

“Aaahhh!”

“Wait—hey, kid, don’t head-butt me!”

This little thing was driving him insane. His pride stung bitterly, but once it began thrashing, half his size or not, he couldn’t overpower it. He hated to admit it, but he lacked the strength.

What the hell was he supposed to do? He’d never handled, never calmed, a raging animal. In riding lessons he’d been put only on perfectly trained horses. A wild one never even entered the stable.

Then, fleetingly, his father’s touch came to mind. The memory was old now, but the moments of love were etched into his body. Gently, Yuri patted the child’s narrow back.

“A blizzard’s coming soon.”

Thump, thump. As he tapped and stroked rhythmically, the child’s struggling gradually ebbed.

He’d once heard that pressing harder, holding tighter, calmed an agitated subject. Sometimes his grandfather embraced his raging grandmother from behind to restrain her during injections.

“I really don’t understand, but if you’re lost out here, I’ll find your parents.”

“......”

“Come down with me. I’ll take off this mask, feed you. You looked hungry.”

“......”

“A child can’t survive alone in the woods dressed like this.”

With the kid tucked inside his fur, his belly bulged as though carrying young.

So instead of capturing a beast, I end up with this... Yuri let his strength go, head sagging against the slope.

The child squirmed inside the soft fur, curious. Curled instinctively, sucking its thumb, it looked so primal that Yuri muttered low.

“But kid, you were trying to die, weren’t you.”

“......!”

The small body jolted in his arms.

“If not, then why were you on the tree branch closest to the cliff?”

In a flash, the child jerked its head up to glare at him. What—so you understand Russian after all.

Yuri lifted his brows carelessly. In return, those marble-like eyes spilled thick, silent resentment. The boy, recognizing that raw emotion, gave a wry laugh.

“Sorry, but you can’t do that in front of me.”

First, get it back to Winter Castle. Strip off that hideous mask, wash it, warm milk.... Then...

“――!”

At that moment, a clear whistle rang from afar. Like a bird’s cry, it went on and on, calling.

The child, who had been slumped in a daze, suddenly sprang upright.

In the blink of an eye it wriggled free of his fur coat. Hesitating, glancing sidelong at Yuri, then it bolted into the forest, impossibly fast.

“Wait!”

Yuri shouted after it, stunned, but it didn’t look back.

Whether returning home or running away, he couldn’t know. It only vanished, pale, into the snowstorm.

Cold wind rushed into his empty stomach. He truly felt as though he’d been possessed.

Am I insane?

If I told someone I saw a faceless, four-limbed, running child....

Would anyone believe me?

***

“You were mistaken.”

Grandfather shook his head firmly.

He could’ve glossed it over, but had let slip too much. Instead of saying he’d just taken a fall, he’d confessed to seeing something strange in the forest.

In truth, he’d been dazed ever since he came back empty-handed. Even beaten-up and failed in the hunt, Yuri didn’t care about his grandfather’s gaze today.

It was like I’d been carrying a young inside me. The first time he’d ever felt that way, Yuri sat blank, like a screw had come loose.

Maxim’s sharp eyes roamed over his grandson’s disheveled state before he clicked his tongue.

“When the mind is weak, one is often ensnared by hallucinations. Yuri, I see your body has shot up, but rein yourself in.”

“Sir?”

“With a body suddenly grown, many things will seem new to you. But reckless passion always breeds disaster. Especially in minors like you, lacking self-control. Abuse it, and your head grows dull, your actions impulsive, your dignity lost.”

What the hell is he talking about? Yuri frowned.

“Dariya worries because you linger in the bathroom so long.”

Grandfather’s brow furrowed in disapproval.

“Masturbate in moderation, Yuri Solzhenitsyn.”