After Michelle's explanation, Mare was still a bit wary of the white fox, but she was no longer staring daggers at her. Seeing the situation, the white fox purred gently, and a cold, white fog enveloped her body. It lasted there for a while, and when it dispersed, instead of a white fox, a young child was standing in front of Michelle.
The young girl was dressed in a light white dress, and she looked to be six to seven years old. Mare instantly became cautious and stepped in front of Michelle as if to protect her, but Michelle only smiled a bit, clearly intrigued. "You have high enough cultivation to shape-shift?" she asked in surprise. "You were just born so how is it possible?"
The young girl huffed pridefully. "Of course my cultivation is high enough! I'm a Divine Snow Fox!"
Hearing that, Michelle raised a brow. "A Divine Snow Fox..." she mumbled in though. In the memories she received after she woke up in her current body, she didn't find anything about Divine Show Foxes, and all she knew about Snow Foxes was that they were nearly enctinct and very agile.
What Michelle didn't notice was that the moment the young girl mentioned being a Divine Snow Fox, Mare frowned deeply.
"Do you have a name?" Michelle asked after a while.
"No! I was just born!" the young girl shook her head.
"So can I call you Snow from now on?" Michelle asked as a smile slowly formed on her face.
The young girl nodded. "Sounds nice."
Mare remained silent, her frown remaining in place as she observed Snow. Suddenly, she decided to speak up. "Foxy brat, are you aware that you are now my master's contracted beast? You have to listen to her from now on!" her tone was serious as she spoke. She didn't want anyone to endanger Michelle, and since Snow was a Divine Snow Fox, if she wanted to, she could break out of the contract she had with Michelle, and that would harm Michelle. That was something Mare refused to see.
Hearing what Made said, Michelle glanced at Snow and concealed a smile. Just from Snow's expression, Michelle could tell that she would never betray her. And her guess was right, because Snow nodded.
"On my spirit and soul, I, Divine Snow Fox by the name Snow, swear to never betray my master Michelle, and to never try break out of the contract between us!" Snow knelt down as she swore. The moment she finished, a beam of light shot down from the sky and covered her for a while, as a proof that her oath was heard.
Seeing that, Michelle smiled a bit. "I hope you don't regret your oath, Snow, as I want to be a good master to both you and Mare. Now, we should get going..." she said as she looked at the horizon. Sun was already high up in the sky, showing that noon was nearing. Michelle only told the Archduke that she would stay out overnight, so she though that she should return before noon.
Both Mare and Snow didn't complain and followed Michelle as she used her strange footwork again and rushed through the city. At first, Michelle wasn't going at her highest speed, but when she saw that Mare and Snow had no trouble keeping up with her, she started slowly speeding up until she reached the peak of her speed.
Around noon, they of them reached the Archduke's mansion and Michelle led the two into the mansion after reverting to her original appearance.
The servants were all surprised when they saw their Young Lady leading two girl into the mansion, one who was very young and one who was clearly a beast with human form, as she had visible scales on her neck. But no matter how surprised the servants were, they dared not to be disrespectful to the two as they were led into the mansion by the Young Lady.
As Michelle walked through the mansion, when the servants saw her, they all respectfully bowed their head for a moment before continuing with their duties. The only one who approached Michelle was the head butler.
"Welcome back, Young Lady. Did you enjoy your outing?" he asked with a gentle smile, his face wrinkled by age.
Looking at the butler, Michelle nodded slightly. "Very much so. I achieved everything I wanted." Michelle decided to put on a smile as the butler was someone who looked over the original Michelle since she was a baby, and he was like a second father for her. At the moment, Michelle maybe feeled a bit guilty for taking away the person the old butler cared about so much.
But being an assassin in her past life, Michelle perfectly concealed any traces of feeling guilty and smiled happily like the original Michelle would.
But to her surprise, the butler saw through her, and patted her shoulder. "Young Lady, this servant knows. Don't worry about it." He smiled softly as he spoke. His eyes reflected a bit of pain as he was clearly sad that the original Michelle died, but he wasn't planning on blaming Michelle for.it or treating her differently. Since the Archduke said that she will be his daughter, than the butler will treat her the same as the original Michelle.
Seeing the butler's expression, Michelle knew that she had nothing to worry about, and she was thankfult for that. "Thank you, head butler." Her smile widened a bit.
The butler only nodded a bit before turning his attention to Mare and Snow. "If I may ask, who are those two Young Ladies?"
Hearing the question, Michelle glanced at Snow and Mare. "They are my contracted beasts," she said calmly. "Mare is a Jade Serpent," Michelle motioned her hand towards Mare. "And Snow is a Snow Fox."
Michelle smoothly lied about what species they were, leaving out that Snow was a "Divine" Snow Fox, and that Mare was a "Venom" Jade Serpent, both of them having the bloodline of a sovereign of their kind.
It wasn't that Michelle didn't believe the head butler to keep a secret. She indeed didn't want the news to spread, but the reason she didn't tell the head butler and wasn't planning to tell the Archduke about their true identities was because she didn't want them to come to harm.
She was sure that the strange man, Alexander Terce, knew about Mare's identity, and probably even Snow's, so she didn't want to bring any trouble to the Archduke and the head butler who took care of her since the moment she woke up in the new world. Because it was clear that if Alexander Terce wanted to, he coud stir up trouble that would be enough to destroy the whole Archduchy if not the whole Empire.
In this situation, she chose the way of protecting them by their own oblivion. Because if they didn't know anything about Mare and Snow, Michelle hoped that Alexander Terce wouldn't have any reason to harm them.
Thinking about Alexander Terce, Michelle remembered the kiss before he disappeared, and just the thought of that enraged her, so she decided to think about something else. And the best thing to think about while annoyed was destruction, so she decided to think about the plan to get revenge on the Crown Prince and his lover.