Learning the Ways of the Night from the Wolf - Chapter 7 - Metamorphosis1

Perhaps pleased by Tina’s response to her warning, the Countess left the room with the corners of her lips curled upward. The servants who had filled the room filed out after her in quick strides, as though there was nothing left worth seeing.

Only one maid among them stayed behind to provide Tina with the bare minimum of care. But the young-faced maid wore a deep scowl, her entire demeanor broadcasting how little she thought of the role she’d been assigned.

“Get up. You need to be washed.”

The maid hauled Tina to her feet with hands full of irritation. She shoved her straight into the bathroom, scrubbed her down roughly, then sat her right back on the bed under the pretense of drying her hair.

It was hardly the way one should treat the lady in one’s charge, but Tina was accustomed to such treatment, and her mind was preoccupied with something else entirely, so she kept silent throughout. She only opened her mouth when the maid asked, purely out of perfunctory obligation, whether she needed anything.

“U-um. Could you bring me some water?”

“What?”

Nerves had pitched Tina’s voice unnaturally high. But fortunately, the maid — her face twisted in a scowl — seemed more fixated on the fact that Tina had actually dared to give her an order than on any trivial detail like her tone.

“There’s water right by your bed.”

The maid retorted, practically glaring at Tina.

“N-not this. Something warm.”

Tina said, mustering her courage. But despite her effort, the maid only scrunched her face further and showed no sign of complying. In the end, it was Tina, growing desperate, who had to hastily add:

“They said the apothecary is coming soon. I just want to keep warm until then.”

Fortunately, this seemed to do the trick. The maid glared at her for a long moment, then left the room.

‘Is she gone?’

The moment the door closed, Tina pressed her ear toward it, listening for any sign of presence beyond. Once she confirmed the footsteps had faded into the distance, she immediately pulled back the blanket draped over the bed.

Beneath it was a small animal, drawing faint, shallow breaths. Tina had been terrified that something might have gone wrong in the short time she’d left the small body lying on the bed. She pressed her ear close to the creature’s body, and only after confirming that its heart was still beating did she let out a sigh of relief.

‘Thank goodness no one noticed.’

Tina thought to herself. Borrowing a coat from the workers had been the right call after all. The coat they’d lent her was old and riddled with holes, but it wasn’t so far gone that it couldn’t conceal a small animal.

Besides, the estate’s servants had been scolded on account of the commotion she’d caused the day before, so they harbored nothing but resentment and irritation, and had no inclination whatsoever to look closely at Tina now that she’d come back in one piece.

Thanks to that, Tina had been able to lay the small animal she’d found at the bottom of the cliff on her bed without anyone noticing.

“Don’t worry. They say someone’s coming soon to treat us.”

Tina said softly, gently stroking the wheezing little body.

“It’ll be all right.”

Tina murmured, as if to herself.

But the apothecary who arrived at the estate a few hours later was of little help in fulfilling Tina’s wish.

“Ah… so, my lady? I did bring medicines that should be effective, but…”

The swarthy, middle-aged man couldn’t hide his bewilderment, plain for anyone to see.

He’d been asked to come treat someone and not even a proper physician being summoned, just a common apothecary, so he’d assumed he was headed to some small commoner’s village. Being led instead to the annex of a grand estate had left him confused, and what bewildered him most was that the patient was a young woman whose wretched appearance didn’t match this imposing estate at all.

“This one should help bring down the fever if you take it before bed. And this one will help with the swelling in your leg…”

He fumbled through his explanation under the watchful eyes of the servants. And when the maids began pointedly glancing at the clock to signal that too much time was being wasted, he left with a hurried “You’ll need to take the proper dosage on schedule if you want a swift recovery,” and quickly departed the estate.

‘If only I’d had a chance to speak with him.’

Tina watched the man’s figure recede through the window and swallowed her disappointment.

She had planned, if the servants left the room, to show him the small creature hidden in her bed and ask for some suitable remedy, but with the maids standing behind her the entire time with their arms folded, she hadn’t even had the chance to open her mouth.

Translation Notes

[1] Chapter title: “Metamorphosis” – The Korean title 변태(로코) carries a deliberate double meaning. 변태 (變態) literally means “metamorphosis” or “transformation,” referring to the beast’s transformation into human form at the chapter’s end. However, in modern Korean slang, 변태 also means “pervert” a reference to the scene of a naked man standing over a sleeping, scantily clad woman. The parenthetical 로코 is Korean internet shorthand for 로맨틱 코미디 (romantic comedy), functioning as a playful genre tag. The title essentially reads as both “Transformation (Rom-com)” and “Pervert (Rom-com).”