Hansel’s Enchanted Fairytale: Fill Me Up With Magic! - Chapter 35
Hansel stood frozen in place as he tightened his grip on her hand and stepped closer. She glanced up at him with stiff, jerky movements.
“Um, about the hand…”
“……?”
Framed by the clear sky, he stood still, gazing down at her with a calm expression. Somehow, looking into those pristine, untainted eyes, she found herself unable to say a word.
There wasn’t a hint of ulterior motive in his gaze. It was simply because she had extended her hand that he had taken it.
“You said you wanted to see the sheep.”
That low voice seemed to snap her back to reality. She quickly pulled her hand away.
“My hand isn’t cold, so there’s no need to hold it. Got it?”
“…Okay.”
Crossing her arms, Hansel hurried toward the fence. She couldn’t understand herself. They had already been so physically close, so why was she so startled by something as simple as holding hands?
Well, it was probably just the sudden contact.
He looked down at his hand, the one that had held hers, for a moment before picking up his pace to follow her.
Hansel approached the fence, her attention fully on the sheep. Thankfully, the sheep didn’t seem to care about her presence, which put her more at ease as she observed them beyond the gingerbread fence.
She leaned forward slightly, hands on her knees, focusing on a lamb nestled in the flock.
“How many are there? And where’s the shepherd dog?”
“They’re not mine, so I don’t know.”
“If they’re not yours, then…”
A single thought flitted through Hansel’s mind—a line from an old record she’d read. It mentioned the Witch of the Gingerbread House setting free a lying shepherd. Though only one line, it had been striking enough to remember.
The story said the shepherd had tricked villagers until wolves took his sheep. After being cast out of the village, he wandered into the northern forest and met the witch. Yet the shepherd survived and returned alive.
But Hansel had been marked for death despite being a regular person. Why had the lying shepherd been spared?
On second thought, the hunters he’d killed earlier were also regular people. What could be his criteria for deciding whether to kill or spare humans trespassing on his territory?
Hansel’s curiosity burned, but she hesitated to ask directly. Would it seem like she was prying too much? She didn’t want to risk making him suspicious.
After some thought, she carefully crafted her question.
“Why are these ownerless sheep inside your fence?”
“They don’t run away.”
“……”
“I feed them.”
Hansel pressed her hand to her forehead, feeling the onset of a headache.
When baking bread, he’d seemed perfectly capable of decent conversation. Perhaps that had been the limit of his verbal ability.
Still, he wasn’t lying. There were about fifty sheep, too few for someone seriously raising livestock. According to the books Hansel had read, shepherds usually managed at least hundreds, if not thousands, of sheep.
Surely someone as powerful as him wouldn’t bother killing a shepherd for so few animals unless the shepherd had done something truly egregious.
“Look at that.”
Hansel froze, her fingers still pressed to her temple. Meeting his gaze, she followed his gesture toward the flock.
When Hansel turned, her eyes nearly popped out of her head. She instinctively slapped both hands over her mouth to stifle a gasp.
“Sometimes the males shove their p*****s into the females’ backsides. Cows, horses, chickens—they all do it.”
“……”
“I used to wonder what they were doing, but now I know, thanks to you—”
“Cough! Cough, cough!”
Hansel was suddenly wracked with violent coughing, practically choking.
Her wheezing gasps caught his attention, and he approached quickly, concern furrowing his brow as he bent toward her.
“I’m fine! Don’t come closer!”
Startled, Hansel took a step back, waving her hands to keep him at bay. Her face was as red as a tomato tossed into a fire.
As she struggled to catch her breath, he kept an eye on her, his gaze heavy with worry. Hansel turned her head to avoid his eyes, only to accidentally stare straight at the sheep couple enthusiastically mating.
She ended up fixing her gaze upward, staring randomly into the sky while still facing the sheep.
Hansel had read plenty about animal mating in Madame Virginia’s Treatise, complete with detailed illustrations. But witnessing it in person, so vividly, was an entirely different experience.
Watching the male sheep mount the female and enthusiastically thrust was beyond awkward. She tried to ignore it, but the movement in the corner of her vision kept drawing her attention.
Why don’t those sheep have the decency to stop?
At some point, she realized she was wrapped in his coat. It had been warmed by his body heat, making it feel as if a warming spell had been cast on it.
Hansel turned to look at him.
He was wearing only a tunic and didn’t seem the least bit cold. Aside from the faint mist of his breath, there was no sign he even noticed it was winter.
“Your coughing’s stopped.”
“Did you give me your coat because you thought I was cold?”
“I heard women need to stay warm.”
“Who told you that? You said you’ve never even met a woman before.”
“When I was seven. My father said so.”
