/
Chapter 111 – I’m The Only One Who Doesn’t Have A Cat
“No, I don’t want to! Pur will do that!”
It sounded like thunder from the sky to Pur, who knew the fun of dressing up Bella, so she didn’t back down easily.
“I’m going to kill that cotton candy!”
Even though she thought it was just words, when Pur rushed to bite Rosanne’s arm for real, Bella ran in front of Rosanne and hit the bear in the jaw to block it.
“Do you want to die?”
“Well, Miss Bella… Then, how about doing it together?”
Rosanne made a pretty good offer, but Pur was reckless.
“If Miss’ naked body is not mine, the clothes she wears are mine!”
“What’s this bear talking about, really!”
Right before Pur became such a troublemaker, Bella made a difficult decision as she pondered.
“Then how about this? Let’s put the cotton candy as Pur’s subordinate.”
“…Subordinate?”
“Yes. So, you should help Rosanne with her work, right?”
Despite if there was a boss who would help a subordinate with their work, Pur just nodded her head, stuck in the word ‘subordinate.’
* * *
Several weeks have passed since then.
Even though Rohan wanted her to break down, to his surprise, Bella was holding up well. Pretty perfect, too.
‘How could this be?’
At first, Rohan’s people did not cooperate with the Crown Princess’ work. It was true that it was hard without someone to help her with anything, so he thought Bella would get tired.
— “Yes, but I have to give her the data.”
However, the nobles, who had been on Rohan’s side for decades, supported her with all sorts of excuses after meeting Bella.
‘It’s clear that that scary woman threatened her.’
Curiously, contrary to Rohan’s thoughts, Bella didn’t say anything.
— “Princess, why don’t you say you’ll kill them if they don’t listen?”
— “If you kill everyone, who will do the work?”
— “Then why don’t you pluck out their eyes?”
The demons next to her were the ones who made all the threats.
Bella just watched until the non-cooperative nobles cooperated. They were more afraid of her and her creepy eyes than the demons’ threats. It was because the ferocious red eyes reminiscent of red blood made the sweltering summer cold just by looking at them.
Obviously, Rohan somehow wanted Bella to give up.
Nonetheless, there were no problems with personnel or financial management in the imperial palace. The most unexpected thing was the limbs that seemed to only cause trouble. Iwer and Jenkins had worked alongside Kiehl as a maid and escort while Bella was in the underworld.
Rohan had also run into them a few times, so he was well aware.
Because the maid and escort do nothing, besides, the maid had become quite a mouthpiece with her attractive looks. It seemed that the current Iwer was rather popular with the ladies. In particular, Jenkins was emerging as Rohan’s new adversary.
“Our princess managed to do this much with only that amount of data, but Lord Rohan still can’t do this much with this much data.”
“….”
“It’s okay, all humans are like that. The Princess surprises you every day. They say that despite being so incompetent, the empire is running well.”
Rohan couldn’t keep himself any longer because of Jenkins, who was good at talking very badly, and the big Zanbar, who was always stuck by his side.
He had no choice but to back off.
‘How can they do it all in such a short amount of time?’
Each time Bella achieved results, she smiled at the bewildered Rohan.
‘Even if he wakes up from death, you won’t know about this trick.’
The secret to Bella’s perfect job was simple.
‘Yes. I just need to ask the person who originally did this.’
Whenever she got stuck, she turned into a cat and came to Kiehl and knocked on the window. At first, she went by asking questions she didn’t know.
— “…Bella, wouldn’t it be better to just stay here? If you come three times an hour.”
Several times a day, she came to his room, and she now sat on the desk blowing her cat fur.
“Bella, even though you’re a cat, you can read the document well.”
“Now I’m more comfortable with this look.”
At first, she was next to Kiehl in her human form, but only one or two people came to Kiehl’s room. She came secretly on purpose to mess with Rohan, so she quickly got tired of switching back and forth between cat and human several times a day.
Furthermore…
— “What are you doing, Bella?”
In her human form, she unknowingly licked her hand with her tongue. She just decided she’d stay a cat.
“Kiehl, then why is the budget eight hundred gold this time and two hundred gold this time?”
“Ah, the event at the imperial palace was canceled at that time.”
Bella listened as she tapped her feet over the documents.
“Even though it was canceled, does it cost 200 gold?”
“Even if the event is canceled, we still have to pay for the work.”
“Oh my.”
The black cat blinked her red eyes and waggled its tail.
“Sorry. You must have a lot of work, too.”
Kiehl smiled happily at the sight of the cat and stroked Bella’s head.
“Because of Bella’s help, there was less work.”
It was true. Now that she was sharing the work he was doing, he finally had ‘free time.’
— “Rio, are you really done with today’s work?”
— “That’s… right. We can finish this this time.”
It was the first time he had the leisure to come to the Imperial Palace, so he wanted to spend all that time with Bella. He was perfectly happy when she came to his room and stayed all day and then went away.
“Bella, do you want something to snack on?”
“Snack? Then, I’ll have tuna.”
“…Really?”
Bella lowered her head and stared at her own feet. How long had she been doing it? She was not even a real cat.
“I usually like tuna. Even when in human form.”
“Aha.”
She never looked for it when she was at the mansion. Kiehl smiled and waved the feathered pen in front of Bella’s eyes.
“…What are you doing?”
“I just want to play with my cat, Bella.”
Bella scoffed.
“Hey, who is the real cat…”
But Bella couldn’t resist the temptation and caught the feather.
Advertisements
“….”
“….”
As he pulled out the pen, Bella bit into her mouth now to hold on to the feather. She glared at the playful Kiehl but was reluctant to let go of the feather in her mouth.
“Isn’t it fun?”
This is why she didn’t like being a cat for long.
“Hng. I want to go.”
“Why are you taking that?”
Bella opened her mouth and let go of the pen, and Kiehl waited and waved the feathers again.
“Play with me.”
Bella glared at Kiehl and knocked small items off her desk with her cotton bat legs.
“….”
Strewn pen, stamp seal, a brooch Kiehl put down for a moment, and so on.
“This is how you should play.”
“Are you getting revenge?”
This time she flicked her tail and tapped her paw on her inkwell.
“Revenge is this much revenge.”
“Are you really going to spill it?”
“After watching you do it?”
“…It’s cruel. It would take hours to rewrite it.”
As Kiehl looked down at Bella with a sad face, Bella took her foot away from the bottle. In the past and now, whenever those eyes shake, her heart weakens.
“N, no. It was a joke.”
“The lid was closed.”
“….”
Bella kicked the capped ink bottle with her foot and jerked away.
“I am going.”
“Where are you going? Are you mad?”
As Kiehl lifted her and gently rocked her body in the air, even though Bella had a very angry face, the cat was cute even when angry. The next moment, he tried to kiss the cat’s mouth, but she reached out with her cotton ball and pressed it against his lips.
“….”
Even if she turned into a cat, she was strong.
“Let go. I’m leaving!”
It was then.
“Your Highness. This is Lady Marianne Merken.”
Although Bella said she was leaving, as was her habit, she hid under the desk and glanced up at Kiehl. Making sure she was hiding, he cleared his throat.
“Come in.”
It was the first time Kiehl had seen Lady Merken since the tea party. Marianne held a long box in her hand.
“Your Highness. How have you been?”
“It’s been a while, Lady. What is it?”
Marianne blushed slightly.
“I came here for work. My father was a little rude.”
After that, Duke Merken never came forward to apologize. Since he was from Rohan’s side, it seemed that he only wanted the Crown Princess’ position to be vacant.
However, Marianne took a different view.
The majority of girls her age supported Bella, and it seemed that this would cut her off from the social circle. She felt after she had bumped into Bella twice that the only way to survive was to quickly admit her defeat.
“Since I am the only daughter, he must have been very upset because I was so pampered.”
“Is that the Duke’s idea or the Lady’s idea?”
“Hoho… my father and I think the same way.”
Saying so, Marianne carefully handed Kiehl the box she was holding in her hand.
“What is it?”
“I made it in a new way, especially this year. I plan to supply it to the imperial palace from next year.”
Upon opening the box, it was a fine-colored wine.
“The Duke’s has one left, so I think it would be good as an apology.”
“….”
“The taste is guaranteed, so if you get a chance, take it with the Crown Princess.”
Kiehl didn’t answer easily. He wondered if this was poisoned out of a grudge.
“Well, I must have misunderstood the Crown Princess too much. Lady Bella even opened a cooking class through her lady-in-waiting and gave a lot, but I didn’t know that.”
It was the first time Kiehl had heard of it.
‘If it’s a cooking class, isn’t it Iwer?’
“It is popular among the young ladies. At first I…”
As Marianne tried to explain her every word, Kiehl cut her off.
“Thank you for this, I’ll drink with the Princess. I will also tell her what you told me.”
Hearing Marianne leave and Kiehl returning to his desk and sitting agian, Bella jumped up and landed on his thighs.
“You want to drink this with me?”
And she looked up at him with twinkling eyes.
“What did Lady Marianne give you?”
His pupils widened to 80% of his eyes, and when she stared at him curiously without blinking, Kiehl smiled softly.
“Bella, you said you were leaving.”
“Oh. Did Lady Marianne give you wine?”
He tried to catch her, but Bella had already turned into a human after running quickly. She then glanced around with the wine in her hand.
“Where is the bottle opener?”
“I don’t intend to drink it.”
Why? You should drink it out of the sincerity of the giver.”
Kiehl held out his hand and slowly approached Bella.
“It’s not even lunch yet.”
He laughed as she hugged the wine to keep it from being taken away.
“Bella, do you want to spar after a long time? If Bella wins, you can take the wine.”
“Great! What will I do if you win?”