Pfft, the sound of a light chuckle came out. I looked warmly at Sugar Prince, who rarely laughed aloud, with content eyes. Even if he laughed sometimes, it was always restrained, so just hearing this faint laugh put me in a good mood.
Sugar Prince and I were currently playing with my tail.
It was a game with me twitching my tail-tip while Sugar Prince tried to catch it with his hands. It seemed silly, but one needed an unexpected amount of concentration to play.
First, I lied down comfortably on my side and stretched out my tail. And as if enticing him, I moved the tip of my tail back and forth. It was no fun if my movements were too regular, so I had to make use of varied movements. I jerked the tip of my tail and suddenly swished it to beat the ground, then I wiggled it in the air and whirled it in an unexpected direction.
Sugar Prince silently watched my tail and suddenly struck. At first, he attacked blindly, but he was quite calculating about it now. He was beside me, head propped up and lying down obliquely, pretending to be disinterested while planning to ambush. Of course, I had already predicted this and wouldn't be easily taken.
If Sugar Prince attacked my tail and failed five times in a row, he would receive a penalty. I would flourish my tail exaggeratedly in the air and hit Sugar Prince's forearm three times, but I never hit hard enough for it to hurt. Even after being struck by me, Sugar Prince seemed to enjoy it. He narrowed his golden eyes gently and smiled.
Conversely, there were also times when my tail was caught. When that happened, I received a penalty. Sugar Prince could stroke or ma.s.sage any place he wanted. As long as he didn't touch my stomach, I would allow anywhere else, but Sugar Prince mostly ma.s.saged my front paws. At first, he only touched a bit, but as he gained experience, I started to become slightly concerned as his finger movements became more generous. He didn't only poke at the plump pads of my feet with his fingers, he even gently stroked the tender flesh between my toes. When he did that, I would instinctively stretch out my paws and tap my tail. Sugar Prince must have enjoyed seeing me like that, since, for the first time, he let out a laugh as he smiled. I was a bit sorry for his damaged dignity, but I felt a bit proud at the thought that I had made Sugar Prince laugh.
Of course, I was unconditionally generous to him, but with one thing, I wasn't. Once in a while, if Sugar Prince's ma.s.sages went too far, I snagged his hand and bit down sharply. Well, although I bit him, I didn't bite so hard as to draw blood. It was more that I held one finger in my mouth and poked at it with my teeth. Poke-poke twice with my right canine, poke-poke twice with my left canine; even though I didn't leave a wound when I bit, I was certain that it was painful. I did it to let him know it would be fun if he kept messing around, but he was absolutely delighted to see my threats. He liked it such an awful lot that I had to reconsider its role as a penalty instead of a reward.
"Your Highness."
A servant came and addressed Sugar Prince. I felt disappointed that our game had been interrupted and looked at the servant with a sullen gaze. The servant was wearing quite a perplexed expression, as if this was the moment before the constipation he held in for ten days was about to burst. He seemed to be worrying 'if let it out now, my a.s.shole will surely tear' while agonizing over whether he should make the last push or not— it was this kind of expression. Once Sugar Prince asked, "What is it," the servant opened his mouth with a trembling voice.
"Imperial Princess Rosemary has requested an audience with you."
At the servant's words, Sugar Prince asked in reply, "Rosemary did?" I p.r.i.c.ked my ears at the unfamiliar name and looked at Sugar Prince.
Who's this Rosemary?
"Elder brother!"
I snorted at the sight of the little louse running in while yelling in a loud voice. When he said imperial princess, I thought a beautiful princess would be coming in and made myself all presentable, but who was this midget? It was a complete disappointment. Only her skirt was flowing, there wasn't any other corner of her that was princess-like. Wasn't a princess supposed to have an elegant face, an attractive bosom, and a slender waist? That twerp didn't have any of those three. That was definitely not a princess. That was just a grade schooler.
"My Ruby doesn't come out from underneath the bed! You must do something about it!"
The grade schooler princess shouted shrilly. Oof. Definitely a zergling child. That terrible volume… the possibility of being anything else was nonexistent. Actually, I was a bit scared. It damaged my pride, but it couldn't be helped. There wasn't a being in the world that could win over a zergling child. Inside a zergling child's brain, common sense like 'you shouldn't recklessly grab a cat's elegant tail' and 'you shouldn't fire a sound wave weapon reminiscent of ultrasonic waves right next to a cat's ears' was nonexistent.
"Did you come all the way here just to say that, Rosemary?"
As expected of my Sugar Prince. As he asked this with his usual composed expression and voice, he looked like a completely different person. It was a wonder how he could deal with the zergling grade schooler so confidently. It seemed that up till now I had been seeing Sugar Prince too weakly.
"To say 'just this'?! This's all 'cuz of elder brother's cat! How big of a shock must Ruby have felt to still be trembling under the bed?! What will you do?!"
The twerp was screeching, launching ultrasonic waves. Don't forget about the intermittent stomping. I tried to somehow cover my ears with my paws. The ranking of things I hated most in the world were first, bugs, second, the sound of nails on a chalkboard, and third, the screeching of twerps.
I continued making my best effort to cover my ears when, suddenly, the twerp looked around and spotted me. The moment our eyes met, I had a sense of foreboding that my ears wouldn't make it out of this intact. Oh, Jesus.
"You-!!!!!!!!!"
…Wasn't there that thing where you fall asleep for a second in front of the TV and wake up to the rainbow-stripe screen? The second you register that screen, the sound of the TV goes beeeep—. It's strangely unpleasant, strangely hair-raising, and strangely frustrating. Even after rus.h.i.+ng to turn off the TV, the beeeep— rings and lingers in your ears. Right now I felt like I was hearing that sound. I shook my head vigorously and scratched at the bedsheets with my claws.
I—I have to get ahold of myself. I can't let my consciousness slip. If I lose consciousness now, I won't be able to escape from the grasp of that zergling chi…
I was using all my energy to try to restore my increasingly hazy consciousness when I suddenly felt a warm touch. I moved my gaze up, and at some point Sugar Prince had come and was stroking my back. He wasn't blocking my ears, but I felt like my high-strung nerves calm down with just the touch of his hand. With the feeling that this was my only means to live, I blindly snuggled into Sugar Prince's embrace. I relaxed in the warmth and rea.s.suring feeling in Sugar Prince's arms.
"Revive my Ruby. You thief cat!"
The twerp glared at me in Sugar Prince's arms and screeched. I nuzzled into my reliable Sugar Prince and opened my eyes narrowly at the twerp, smirking.
Hey, you. Come at me.
The shrimp stomped her feet with a furious expression. But even then, she didn't throw insults or approach me. Even though she shouted as she pleased, there was the impression that she was somehow scared. It seemed to be the proper amount of fear in front of the brother who was much older than her.
Sugar Prince's chest expanded and deflated once as he held and  petted me. It seemed he had sighed. Of course, his much younger sister came to find him and made a fuss, so not being able to do anything about it must have been intolerable. If I had a brat for a sister who came at me like this, I would've started off with giving her a few dozen bonks on the head, but my Sugar Prince was too nice and couldn't do even that. If I had my way, I wanted to chastise the twerp in Sugar Prince's place but… I really preferred not dealing with brats, so that's a pa.s.s.
"I will send the palace doctor, so stop this for now and go back to your palace, Rosemary."
Sugar Prince's words seized even the shrimp's movements. Standing there as if time had frozen, she asked with a prim expression,
"…Really?"
"Yes. So stop this and go back."
At Sugar Prince's affirmation, the twerp held the skirt of her dress and bent her knees slightly.
"Then I will take my leave."
As I watched her give her greeting and walk away bouncily, I thought.
Seriously?
As soon as the twerp left, the room became quiet again. As soon as the overused sound waves were gone, I could feel the room become still in their absence— even beyond the silence. The thought, "did something just pa.s.s by?" pa.s.sed my mind. And so… the twerp barged in and, while bouncing, screamed, screamed again, screamed again, screamed again, screamed again, and continued screaming… but once he said he would send the palace doctor, she acted as if nothing had happened, curtseyed, and rushed out of the room.
…who the heck was she?
I knew it, definitely a brat. Immediately screaming like a murder was being committed, and then leaving after achieving her goal all excitedly, acting like nothing happened. The person doing the screaming should have been exhausted, but strangely I, the one listening, was the only one exhausted. Just how scary a creature was she? A zergling child.
At any rate, Sugar Prince seemed to be thinking the same thing I was. He plopped down on the bed, and a slightly worn expression appeared on Sugar Prince's face. I felt a deep comrades.h.i.+p with Sugar Prince. I also felt a bit sorry for him. For this sort of thing to happen just because I beat up that brat's cat… If I had know that orc-cat's owner was a grade schooler, I wouldn't have laid a paw on it. I could have just avoided it.
Nyaang—
Sorry, Sugar Prince.
I lifted my head and apologized from the bottom of my heart while looking into Sugar Prince's eyes.
I curled myself into a ball on Sugar Prince's chest and closed my eyes.
Normally, it wasn't even time for a nap, but both Sugar Prince and I were currently in an exhausted state because of that twerp. We were in urgent need of a break. After taking a good nap, all our troubles were bound to be forgotten. It needed to be that way. For our mental health.
Sugar Prince's chest expanded slowly and was momentarily still. Afterwards, it slowly lowered. My eyes closed, and I savored the sensation.
I could feel so many things lying on his chest.
Sugar Prince's body heat, the thumping of his heart, the sound of blood rus.h.i.+ng through his veins, and the sound of his breathing was conveyed through the contact of our bodies. Listening to these sounds with my eyes closed in the quiet room, I felt like I was inside Sugar Prince's body, or like I would become part of his body if I stayed stuck like this to him. It was a strangely happy feeling.
There were times Sugar Prince would s.h.i.+ft in his sleep. When that happened, I would sometimes be woken up. I would lift my head to check his sleeping face and lay my chin back down on his chest. There was nothing more comfortable than that state of being half-awake and listening to the pounding of Sugar Prince's heart.
Every once in a while, when Sugar Prince gently stroked my body in his sleep, I would hold onto his hand tightly with my front paws and lick his hand with my tongue. Of course, it wasn't something I did consciously, but in my half-asleep state. When I licked Sugar Prince's fingers in my half-awake state, he woke up slightly as well. Sugar Prince opened his eyes narrowly to check on me and chuckled, then closed his eyes again. I could feel his chuckle through his chest and flicked my tail on Sugar Prince's belly. We laughed gently and fell asleep again.
But today, strangely, I couldn't fall asleep.
It didn't feel like it was because I was taking my nap too early, because I was without a mistake dead-tired. It just felt like my nerves were on edge. What was it. Why was I so nervous? I think I'll flip from frustration.
Hm…
Hmm…
Hmmmmm…
….ah—!
At the thought that suddenly entered my eyes, I slapped my tail on Sugar Prince's stomach.
「Rosemary?」
「Did you come all the way here just to say that, Rosemary?」
「I will send the palace doctor, so stop this for now and go back to your palace, Rosemary.」
Rosemary. Rosemary. Rosemary!!!
Sugar Prince said that twerp's name no less than three times!
I jumped up from my spot and scratched at Sugar Prince's chest. Because of my irritated nerves, I didn't have the time to control my strength. My sharp claws ripped Sugar Prince's night s.h.i.+rt, but that sort of thing didn't matter to me right now. With a sharp voice, I complained at the Sugar Prince who had opened his eyes.
Hisss—! Hiss—!
Hey! Jerk! Why don't you ever call me by my name?!