/
It was because the cats gathered around me one by one before they surrounded me.
“What’s this? It smells good!”
“Smells good…”
“My nose is refreshed!”
“Sister. Sister stranger, you smell good!”
“Sniff, that feels good…”
Kittens, large and small, sneaked up on me, rubbing themselves against my legs and even climbing on me. I sank down to my seat and held as many cat shapeshifters as I could in my arms.
‘Wow, my God…’
…Was this a dream?
It was like entering a kitten paradise.
I carefully placed the cats in the bag I was carrying, one by one. Then, when I glanced at the knights and waved at them for the extra bags, the knights who had been staring blankly approached and reached out to the cat shapeshifters. It was to help me.
However…
“Haaak!”
“Kyaaaaaakk!”
The cat shapeshifters clung closer to me, alert as if on paroxysm against the knights reaching for our bodies.
It was a difficult situation.
It was obviously a difficult situation, but…
‘…Ah, why does this feel so good?!’
The corner of my mouth kept twitching.
‘The cats like me…’
Oh, my god.
Oh, my god…
‘The kittens I’ve never seen before like me! I’m the only one whom they like!’
Despite the situation, I was so happy.
The cats that came to me and tangled with me were so cute and adorable that they even brought a tear to my eye.
“I’ll do it, so just stay still, everyone.”
After receiving the bag from the knights, I grabbed the baby cat with a full stomach very easily and placed them inside. As soon as the surrounding area was sorted out, cats as big as Coco, who looked a little more wary this time, eventually crept up. These were adolescent cats, even though they were bigger.
“Come here. I’m not going to hurt you, I want to save you. Come with me.”
Enchanted by the smell of me, their eyes widened after they sniffed at me as if they had found something in me.
“Oh, you smell like number 13!”
“What? Number 13?”
They chatted with each other, exchanging cryptic words before one of them asked me.
“Do you know the number 13?”
“Thirteen? What’s that?”
“He looks just like us. He’s got wheat-colored fur and long hair, and he’s been beaten so badly that he was seriously injured…”
It was only then did I realize that number 13 was referring to Coco.
“He lives with me now. Do you want to go meet him?”
I wondered if they would agree.
Could those who would have been trapped while being abused by humans trust humans? It was said that very young kittens didn’t know what was going on in the world, but the ones who were left now were older cats of the same age as Coco.
Quietly, I waited for their answer.
One by one, they sat there staring at me before they soon nodded in a way that made my worries moot.
“I want to go!”
“I want to see number 13!”
“The person 13 followed must be a good person.”
“This person smells good, and number 13 is smart.”
They followed me on their feet and got into the carriage.
Picking them all up, I went back to the warehouse. It was to find the remaining cat shapeshifters. In the meantime, the situation inside the warehouse seemed to be pretty much settled. The slavers were kneeling to one side, bound by ropes, and Avila was busy counting the number of the dog shapeshifters.
Meanwhile, as I circled the warehouse, the cats trotted behind me as if I had become ‘the Pied Piper.’
[ T/N: It pretty much means ‘one that offers strong but delusive enticement.’ ]
When I was done gathering the cats and putting them into the carriage, I turned around and locked eyes with Dimitri, who had been watching me for some time.
A meaningful smile hung at the corners of his lips.
“It seems everyone is intoxicated by the scent.”
He said as if he knew what was going on.
“That scent… what does it really smell like?”
Before, I used to think that Dimitri was holding a clue* by mentioning the scent, but at this point, I really thought that there was really a cause.
[ T/N: It’s an idiom which means, ‘To use something as a pretext to provoke a quarrel.’ ]
‘Come to think of it, Coco and Sasha kept coming up to me from the beginning because they thought I smelled good?’
I thought they were just affectionate cats, but they were both only affectionate in my presence, and they weren’t wary of me in the first place…
Dimitri sighed as if I had only just realized that.
“I’ve said it over and over again. Rowaine has a scent that attracts cats.”
“A scent that attracts cats?”
Muttering the words to myself, I pressed my nose against my body to see if I could smell anything, but I couldn’t smell anything.
“I really didn’t know…”
Our conversation ended just there, as Avila had just come out of the warehouse with the cages containing the dog shapeshifters on a carriage.
Avila stuck out her tongue.
“There are a lot of dog shapeshifters, did you find all the cat shapeshifters?”
“Thank you, Avila. Things have been sorted out here as well.”
As we returned to Blois, I took charge of the carriage with cat shapeshifters as Avila went with a carriage loaded with dog shapeshifters, while Dimitri took care of the slave traders, who were chained together like sausages.
It was time to face the elders.
˚ ･: * ✧ * :･ ˚
When we returned to the mansion, I could see a number of carriages parked one after another in a large garden.
Viscount Villefranc, who was waiting for us at the entrance, came running with his blue hair flying and reported to Dimitri.
“Everyone is waiting in the grand hall. They’re all here except Count Fale, who was said to have passed out drunk at the party, and Viscount Lugo, who was on the brink of death with the flu.”
“Count Fale has been out of his mind since he brought in a mistress. If he’s going to keep doing this, just let it be the reason for the dismissal of the elder.”
Dimitri said dryly as he dismounted and handed the reins to the servant.
“The elderly Viscount Lugo must be in trouble this time. His children are all getting old, but he refused to give up his position because he is full of greed. If he dies like this, there will be a great fight between his brothers over the title.”
Everything Dimitri said was about things I didn’t know.
While they were talking, I guessed from Hael’s outfit that he hadn’t seen blood yet.
‘I guess the elders weren’t having heavy buttocks.’*
[ T/N: ‘Have heavy buttocks’ is an idiom which means ‘To tend to stay in one place for a long time without thinking about leaving the place at all.’ ]
Should I say it was a relief that Dimitri’s order to kill them on the spot if they didn’t show up could be dismissed as a bloody joke?
Dimitri, who spoke briefly with Viscount Villefranc, glanced back at me as I got off the horse.
“Rowaine, would you like to come with me to meet with the elders?”
“Me too?”
“Didn’t Rowaine directly tell me not to leave you out at a critical moment? You can go along if you like, but there are things you need to be aware of…”
He stared straight at me with heavy emotions in his eyes.
There was hesitation in his beautiful emerald glass eyes.
“At this moment, if Rowaine took the lead instead of hiding behind me and revealed that you contributed greatly to this incident, you would have many enemies.”
I could read the concern for me in his voice. He seemed to want me to hide behind him.
‘…What should I do?’
A conflict arose in my heart.
My goal was to live peacefully and safely with my cats.
I had a vague plan to break Dimitri’s curse and, in the meantime, establish my own foundation so that when the contract marriage ended, I could live in the countryside, running a tea shop. However, creating resentment in this way was taking me further and further away from the future I envisioned.
‘…Count of Bilbao will have to pay a heavy price for this, and he will think he has lost everything because of me.’
He may be gnashing his teeth and dreaming of revenge.
Living in a country where security was good and possession of weapons was prohibited, everyone took care not to be the target, where security wasn’t good while carrying a blade around their waist. Later, when I moved out of Dimitri’s shadow and lived alone, I wondered if I would be able to stretch my legs and get a good night’s sleep.
‘At the point of worrying like this, the smart thing to do would be to step back.’
Make no enemies, keep to yourself, and stay out of sight… it was a recipe for longevity.
I knew. I was sure I knew…
“I’m responsible for bringing Coco in the first place.”
Contrary to my vigilant and hesitant head, my mouth spoke of its own accord. It was a strange feeling to hear my own voice, cheerfully confident.
‘…I wonder if I’ll be okay?’
Dimitri, sensing my feelings, made a last-ditch effort to dissuade me.
“Rowaine, I’m not going to hold you responsible for that…”
“No, Dimitri had to pay a big reparation to Count Bilbao for that, and that’s how things had grown as big as they are.”
I interrupted him and went through each point.
“I’m responsible, too, and it pricks my moral conscience that I’m the cause, and I’m using Dimitri as the shield.”
At my words, Dimitri made a face as if he were seeing a disciple preaching the divine doctrine of God to the devil.
“…Why are you looking at me like that?”
“It’s the first time I’ve actually seen someone choose things based on something like morality and conscience…”
“Of course, I’m also worried about myself. How can I live with such a good heart in a world tainted by evil?”
“Did you even know what you were talking about?”
Dimitri gazed at me with a face that didn’t intend to hide the slightest hint of wonder.
I let out a small sigh and mumbled.
“Your head may know, but if your heart doesn’t follow, you can’t do anything about it.”
Sometimes it was better to live with a loss than a pricked conscience. If I ran away now, I’d leave him behind and feel sorry for Dimitri. To me, that would be more painful than making enemies and being stressed out.
‘I can throw my conscience away with people I don’t know well, but I’ve become attached to Dimitri…’
It would be a simple matter if you didn’t feel sorry for someone, no matter how close you were, but the human heart wasn’t as simple as flipping a switch.
‘He has a weary personality, neither too nice nor too bad.’
…At times like this, what could I actually do?
I followed him to the grand hall with a little tearful face.
These relationships are always a problem with affection.