Fostering the Male Lead

“Is this voice… His Highness, the Crown Prince?”(Leonard)

“You haven’t changed at all. Are you still living like a carpet knight*?” (Sihael)

[*The actual word also means a man of the military class who has not passed the examination for an official post or an idle youth of the gentry.]

“This is crazy!” (Lanoa)

Like the blind Shim* who regained his sight, Lanoa opened his eyes wide and suddenly ran to the bed.

[*Shim Hyeon is a character from The Tale Of Shim Chong. He is the blind father of Shim Chong.]

When I was wondering what he was doing, he yanked the blanket and wrapped it around my body.

“Don’t look!”

He yelled at Sihael and then got mad at me.

“Why are you standing like this in front of a man?!”

“What am I supposed to do if you can see how drenched I am while giving a bath?”

“Didn’t I tell you?! All bastards are wolves!”

“Ah, rightly said. But you were the one who gave him to me knowing he was a wolf!”

“Because I thought it was a real wolf!”

Why are you getting angry at me? Weren’t you the one who forcibly tossed Sihael over to me because you didn’t want to take care of him?

We were fighting and growling at each other like dogs. Leonard grabbed the back of both of us and pulled us away from each other.

“Rosetta, get changed and then come down to my room. Lanoa, don’t make noise and come down after washing your face.”

Maybe because he was the firstborn, he dealt with us younger siblings as naturally as flowing water.

It had been almost a year since we had seen each other, but I didn’t feel any discomfort at all.

“Alright. Brother, then would you help Your Highness dry his fur? He might catch a cold if he’s left like this for so long.” (Rosetta)

“Yes, Leonard. It’s cold.” (Sihael)

“…Okay, I’ll do it.” (Leonard)

Leonard paused as he looked at Sihael’s damp fur. There was a brief pause before his answer. He had never once dried anyone’s hair, but soon after, he nodded.

“Then I’ll go.” (Rosetta)

“Rosetta Katzel! Wear something black! No matter what, black, understood?

Lanoa’s words echoed behind the closed door.

* * *

I simply wiped my body and changed my clothes.

I wanted to take a shower, but I quickly gave up that thought in consideration of the people waiting for me. Marina and two maids helped me quickly dry my wet hair. I finished my grooming as soon as possible and walked to Leonard’s room.

Since it was the first time I had come to Leonard’s room, I cautiously knocked on the door. The door opened revealing a pale Lanoa welcoming me. Seeing his pale and bloodless face, I realized something had happened in the meantime. Just then, a warm wind blew past Lanoa.

‘I didn’t think they would really help Sihael dry up.’

I was really looking forward to the rare sight of Leonard drying Sihael’s hair. I imagined Leonard’s face hidden behind Lanoa’s back. He must be looking so embarrassed right now. As evidence of that, Leonard’s way of combing could be seen as awful.

I wanted to watch this up close, but Lanoa stopped me.

“What?”

Lanoa grabbed my shoulder and whispered, looking at Leonard behind his back.

“Hey, did you tell him about that?”

“About what, ah…”

Now that he realized that he had hunted the Crown Prince of this Empire, sweat dripped from his forehead. Due to the circumstances, I lowered my voice.

“No, I didn’t. Hus Highness doesn’t even remember anything, so don’t make it difficult for me by talking nonsense.”

“Of course, I’ll never do it!”

At that moment, Lanoa’s face slowly began to come alive.

No matter how much he lived like a rascal, he was scared of the consequences of something as big as shooting a bullet into the Crown Prince’s body.

Lanoa patted me, gesturing that I did a good thing, but I slapped away his big hand and went into the room. In the meantime, Leonard stood up wiping off the sweat on his forehead, perhaps because he had dried all of Sihael’s hair.

My eyes fell on Sihael, who was standing behind Leonard. He no longer looked shaggy in any place. The soft silver fur that had been matted and dirty before had now regained their original color and also smelled good.

Although Leonard’s attempt was clumsy, thanks to his meticulous personality, there was no place that wasn’t dry, but there was only one place where he made a mistake.

Eye booger.

I asked while removing the booger he had missed.

“Did brother Leonard do a good job?”(Rosetta)

“He couldn’t even clean my eye boogers. He’s hopeless.” (Sihael)

“Oh no, then he is disqualified as your groomer.” (Rosetta)

Sihael and I made fun of Leonard by mixing jokes and facts together.

“Everyone, gather here. Your Highness, you too please come here.”

Leonard, who pretended not to hear our jokes, turned around and gathered us. When I sat across from Leonard, Sihael naturally sat down next to me.

Lanoa had no choice but to sit next to Leonard, but his gaze on Sihael was wicked. Even knowing Sihael’s true identity, he was still behaving like that.

Was this guy… out of his mind?

I turned to Sihael when I suddenly thought of something.

“Your Highness, don’t you mind if Lanoa knows who you are?”

“We have to stay together for a while, so there’s nothing we can do about it.  And it’s not any other person, it’s the Katzels. So I trust you.”

“Don’t trust us.”

Lanoa, who replied bluntly, whined as he was smacked in the head by Leonard for being rude.

“Now let’s talk about what happened.”

It was Sihael who spoke first to Leonard’s question. He briefly explained the situation of losing consciousness after being attacked by the empress, to the story of drinking my blood and as a result regaining his consciousness back.

“So you’re saying you consumed Rosetta’s blood and your consciousness came back?”

“Not only that, but my wounds also healed as well.”

Then, three pairs of eyes of different colors turned towards me.