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Chapter 3




Chapter 3
Translator/editor: ruby
“How dare a low-born leave the table before anyone else!”
Blondina sighed. Even a million apologies wouldn’t get her anywhere. The royal family was just too complicated for any commoner to understand.
Then a girl butted in.
“Lart. Stop it.”
She was Blondina’s half-sister and Lart’s twin, Princess Adelai.
Gracefully signaling at her maid to leave, Princess Adelai stared at Blondina quietly.
Rather than the overly emotional Prince Lart, whom Blondina could easily read, the princess seemed to have much more deeply ingrained contempt in her silent eyes.
“You should stop now, too.”
An awkward yet powerful silence settled over them.
Prince Larte shut his mouth, and Blondina, too, was silent.
The twins really couldn’t have been any more different, in appearance or personality – it seemed impossible that they had the same parents.
Adelei glanced over at Blondina, pointing a finger at her with an arrogant smirk.
“Unnie. If you ever insult the royal family, or even Lart, in front of me ever again, I will not stand up for you. This is the last time I’m turning a blind eye to this kind of unpleasant disturbance.”
Blondina was already too tired to care, both mentally and physically. She shook her head with a quiet sigh.
 
“I was just walking. I came here and all of sudden I’m confronted by my angry brother, stomping around and pointing fingers at me. I wouldn’t exactly classify myself as an unpleasant disturbance.”
Princess Adelai’s eyes narrowed.
“Are you saying that Lart is the unpleasant disturbance here?”
Blondina stayed silent.
She knew the answer very well. Still, she decided to hold it in for fear angering the twins again.
What strange twins. Every word I say makes them all angry and defensive.
Their behaviour was definitely a matter of good manners… But, well, Blondina’s father wasn’t the best at educating his children on manners.
You should have been trying to get to know me ever since you abandoned me.
Adelai skimmed through the girl’s expressionless face with a sharp look. There was cold, cold rage flashing in her eyes.
As she saw with Lart earlier, the princess made a mental note of Blondina’s unusual sarcastic demeanor, muttering under her breath,
‘I won’t be letting this go all that easy.’
She bit her lips and tried her best to put on a poker face. Being emotional would never win you a fight.
“Well, Princess Blondina. I mean, unnie. Do your best from now on. Don’t tarnish the values of the imperial family.”
Blondina nodded. No matter which way she looked at it, it was actually the twins, and not her, defaming the imperial family, but she decided to keep her mouth shut.
“Yes, Princess.”
Blondina smiled lightly, again somehow irritating Lart.
“What’s that look on your face? Are you laughing at me?!”
Blondina was quick to return to her usual expression.
Adelai quickly restrained her brother a bit before he got too out of hand.
“Let’s go, Lart.”
The bright colours of Adelai’s dress faded away into the distance as the bickering twins walked off.
Before she knew it, only Blondina remained standing on the grass.
“……weird kids.”
Blondina turned around with a shrug. All she wanted at that point was some rest.
She walked alone to the guest palace – originally a place where nature-loving foreign envoys would stay.
For this reason, unlike the main palaces, they were adjacent to the hunting ground, and the flower beds were replaced by whole fields of flowers.
After the finely laid tulips and rose beds, clusters of trees began to appear here and there.
Blondina’s thoughts trailed off to the twins she had just faced.
She never thought they’d give her a welcome party….
But she never thought they’d hate her so much, either.
“Why are you making such a fuss of me when I’m your father’s ‘embarrassing past’?”
Instead of letting her feelings of injustice take over, she just smiled.
You’re really just gonna treat me like some uninvited guest, huh?
She walked on, letting the lush grass tickle her feet and her thoughts roam free.
Blondina heard a small cry from the bushes a few steps away. She stopped walking and listened for it.
As soon as she heard it again, she started rummaging in the bushes without hesitation.
A small black creature crawled towards her.
Ah…… pretty.
It was an angelic black kitten. It looked like its hind legs had been injured,
His forehead was studded with jewels the same colour as his eyes.
Blondina bent down to examine the cat’s wounds.
“What an amazing cat.”
「I’m not a cat.」
Surprised, Blondina pulled back.
Could it be?
….Magic?
I can’t believe a cat talks to a man….! It must have been a magic cat.
She couldn’t believe it. The palace had already felt mysterious to her, but this was on another level.
“The cat is talking?”
「I told you I’m not a cat!」
“But you’re such a cute little thing, aren’t you?”
「You’re a kid who can’t communicate properly, aren’t you?」
The “cat” slapped the ground with his tail, sending up a flurry of fallen leaves.
Blondina just smiled in surprise.
A child who can’t communicate, huh? Quite a thing to be told by a talking cat.
“Did you hurt your leg?”
「What does it matter to you?」
“I’m afraid you have an injury.”
She picked up one of its legs very carefully, deciding that tending to him was more important than all the questions crossing her mind.
The cat slapped Blondina on the back of her hand with his front paws. It didn’t do much to deter her – rather, she found it very endearing.
The cat was afraid Blondina would call him cute again if he bared his teeth, so he decided to do his best to stay silent.
The displeasure that lingered in Blondina’s mind after the meeting with her half-siblings had disappeared.
“How did you get hurt?”
The cat didn’t answer.
There was a small cliff behind the bushes. A tree was sticking out in the middle, with one branch slightly bent – it seemed to be the thing that injured the cat.
Blondina turned her head back. As she looked at the wound again, she heard a rustling sound behind her.
She looked around to see two cats trying to hide behind a tree.
“Hmm.”
Blondina didn’t take long to realise that those cats were the ones that had done the harm. Their attitudes were exactly like those of the town boys that had chased Blondina into a ditch years ago. She approached them confidently/
“Would you like to come over here for a moment?”
They froze upon hearing her words.
Blondina’s low-pitched voice apparently held the power to tame beasts.
Strangely, there was no need for human speech.
The cats creeped towards her and she hastily bowed.
“Hey! You guys understand me, too?”
「….meow.」
The cat was pretending not to understand her, but she could see from the guilt in its eyes that it was bluffing.
Oh, cute.
She chuckled, but soon regained her seriousness as she thought of the injured kitten.
“Did you guys bother that black cat?”
The cat stole a glance at Blondina before ducking behind the bushes again.
Blondina peered over the bushes.
“You shouldn’t bully your friends, hey. That’s really mean.”
She couldn’t help but see herself and her half-siblings in the same situation.
「Hey, he was the one that bit our tail!」
A nervous voice snapped back from behind Blondina’s back.
「Hey! You guys hit me from behind first!」
「You’re so strong, that couldn’t have hurt you!」
Blondina grabbed the cat’s tail in a hurry, before it could try to hurt the other more.
Moving on an injured leg only causes pain. Blondina knew this very well from her ample experience of beatings from the innkeeper.
“Calm down, cat. If you move, you’ll bleed more.”
「I told you I wasn’t a cat!」
In the meantime, the two other cats took the opportunity to escape.
Blondina screamed after them.
“Are you just going? You must apologize later, huh?”
She heard a faraway meow in response.
Blondina approached the wounded kitty again.
He was still wagging his tail. He must have been angry.
Blondina sat on her knees. She lowered her head to look at the cat, whose expression softened a bit.
“Come with me, cat.”
「No.」
“What are you going to do with that leg alone? I’ll cure you.”
「Why should I follow a stranger?」
“That’s all you need to know? I’m Blondina. Blondina Ryn Athez.”
「I didn’t ask for your name.」
The cat jerked its head away, but Blondina wasn’t about to give up.
“Be friends with me. You don’t have any friends anyway, do you?”
「Who said that?! You disagreeable, saucy man!」
The cat groaned. The girl was right and he knew it, so he was even more annoyed by the comment .
Blondina could tell by the appearance of the cat that he had grown up in the streets just like her.
“Can you be my friend? I’m alone.”
「…….」
The cat flinched at Blondina’s sudden change of tone.
“My mom’s dead and my dad got to know me days ago, but I don’t think he likes me. Even my supposed brother and hate me. I got really angry at them earlier.”
She tried to lighten the mood with a forced smile.
She was trying to instill some sympathy in the cat. She actually didn’t care that much – she’d gotten used to loneliness and bad treatment over the years.
“So please be friends with me. Let’s play together.”
The cat’s ears pricked up again as their eyes met and he unconsciously began wagging his tail again.\n