MFTR 86

~Chapter 86~

 I Must Have Been Hated

‘A sly bastard?’

Annette, who had been too distracted by Cardin’s skillful hands to think straight, perked her ears back up.

“Click. During the subjugation, you were clinging to our princess the whole time, and now you’ve even chased her all the way here.”

‘Clinging to me?’

She tilted her head.

She was sure Zeon and Luke had come to visit, but she couldn’t figure out who he was talking about.

To get more clues, Annette studied Cardin closely.

The eyes that were usually curved in a smile were now coldly stiff, and a faint irritation flickered in the blue of his gaze.

‘I think this is the first time I’ve seen that look.’

He felt like a stranger, and Annette blinked her big round eyes, forgetting to even wonder who exactly he was so worked up about.

“It’s a relief that Her Highness didn’t run into the royal knights,” Samuel sighed in relief and asked.

“Shall we reconnect the communication crystal to His Majesty the Emperor?”

“Forget it.”

Cardin waved his hand irritably.

“They sent those men to the Grand Ducal Castle as if they were a gift. What good words do you think I’d hear? It’s better not to say anything at all.”

“But earlier you complained enough to make it sound like you were resentful…”

Muttering under his breath, Samuel nonetheless braved Cardin’s sharp glare.

“You knew Hayworth would send someone anyway, Your Highness. And how could Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress have possibly known that the very person would be carrying the item they requested?”

“……”

Cardin didn’t like his defense, but still fell silent.

He knew well enough that the Emperor and Empress had requested the sword called Lubellino from Hayworth out of goodwill toward Annette.

“But it’s also true they didn’t have to send them all the way here.”

They could’ve just summoned him directly to the capital.

Sending Zeon and Luke to the Grand Ducal Castle despite knowing Annette’s condition was most likely a prank to see Cardin flustered and cornered.

〈That knight, Zeon Millard, was it? He seemed to make a fine impression. You said he was once the princess’s companion?〉

Remembering the Emperor’s words, which were clearly meant to provoke Cardin, Samuel could only close his mouth.

Silence fell over the study. Annette, the only one still listening, tilted her head.

Apparently, Zeon and Luke had brought some gift from the Emperor and Empress, but from the conversation alone, she couldn’t tell what it was. She rolled her eyes round and round in thought—

“Grrooowwll…”

“……!”

A sound slipped from Annette’s throat, completely against her will.

Frozen in shock, she stayed rigid as Cardin tapped her little nose and chuckled.

“Are you feeling good?”

“……”

A crushing wave of humiliation swept over her.

‘This is why I never revealed who I really am!’

If Cardin found out she could turn into a cat, she could already imagine the disaster that would follow.

She had already been seen as a child once—there was no way she could let herself be seen as a speechless animal too…

“Hmm? I said, are you happy?”

Cardin lightly tapped the kitten’s bottom as if teasing her.

“Meoww! (No, I’m not!)”

Annette spun around to face him, horrified.

For some reason, he looked pleased, grinning warmly as if proud of her, and kept patting her hindquarters.

Even though she had become a cat, her feelings were still the same—Annette turned pale.

‘K-keeping this a secret really was the right choice, wasn’t it?’

At least if he knew this kitten was her, he wouldn’t dare behave so rudely!

Conflicted and flustered, Annette swiped her little paws frantically, but Cardin only thought she was playing. To him, it was like amusing himself with a cute little kitten.

“Your Highness, how will you be taking dinner?” Samuel, after checking the clock, asked carefully.

Cardin pretended nonchalant as he admired the soft, pink paw pads of the cat.

After a pause—

“I should go down. I have to discuss whether to accept Hayworth’s request with the princess.”

The unexpected answer made Samuel’s eyes widen.

Considering that Cardin had bolted the moment the fifth-floor room was mentioned earlier, his willingness to dine with Annette now was no small act of courage.

“Truly? I was certain you would avoid it again.”

“Quiet. And didn’t you once say this—”

Cardin leaned back smugly in his chair.

Annette, finally freed from his touch, retreated just enough not to fall off the desk and looked up at him.

“What do you mean, Your Highness?”

“You said yourself the princess isn’t really a child—how much could she possibly enjoy playing with a stuffed toy? And even if she liked dolls, you claimed she wouldn’t actually press its belly.”

“Eh?”

Samuel blinked in confusion at the sudden topic.

Only Annette guessed where this was going, and she ducked her head.

Cardin tilted his chin proudly and smirked.

“Do you know why the princess went to the annex? Because she was worried the magic stone in the doll would wear out too fast, so she went to check on it.”

That was how inseparable she was from the doll—how much she listened to his voice. His expression was one of arrogance.

“So your advice on romance is worthless.”

“Ugh… Is that true?”

Samuel bit his lip in dismay. That had been his carefully considered advice to regain Cardin’s trust!

But unable to give up, he insisted,

“Still, using a doll to confess—no matter how I think about it, it’s not a good choice!”

“Meow? (Confess?)”

Annette’s head snapped up.

At the same time, her eyes met Cardin’s, who had been glancing down.

He casually scratched her cheeks as he said,

“What’s so bad about it? If the princess keeps listening to my voice, doesn’t that mean she’s… at least not against me?”

He wanted to say it meant she had feelings for him too, but when it came to Annette, he never felt confident enough, so he spoke more cautiously.

Samuel understood his wish to confirm the princess’s feelings, but still objected.

“A proper confession should be made face to face—”

“Ha. Who doesn’t know that?”

Cardin gave a short laugh.

“Of course the confession will be done properly.”

“Eh? Then the doll…”

“That’s just like a surprise gift.”

(Though in truth, he also intended to gauge her feelings by how often she pressed the doll’s belly.)

‘Ah, come to think of it…’

He recalled leaving without checking how many times she’d pressed it because Larisa had been there.

‘Surely she hasn’t pressed it close to a hundred times already…?’

For a moment, cautious hope flickered in him, but he shook his head bitterly.

‘No, that’s impossible. It’s only been a few days since I gave it to her.’

Especially since the princess had been angry and hadn’t even come out of her room—why would she have wanted to hear his voice so often?

Feeling crestfallen, Cardin began to worry that maybe Annette’s fondness for the doll had just been Larisa’s exaggeration.

Meanwhile, Annette was growing equally serious.

‘A confession… through a doll?’

What on earth did that mean?

She didn’t fully understand, but soon thought positively.

‘At least he really does plan to confess!’

She had worried he might never say anything.

Whether it was confessing his feelings, or explaining how he had once disguised himself as a mercenary to meet her, or even some secret from their very first encounter—whatever it was, the fact that Cardin wanted to bare his heart sincerely thrilled her.

‘Once I return to normal, I need to check that doll right away.’

Since she didn’t know when he might confess, she resolved firmly to be prepared.

For the first time, she felt a little satisfaction about being turned into a cat.

But only for a moment.

“Then I’ll be informed right away when the princess comes down to the dining room,” Samuel said.

Annette’s eyes went round.

There was no way she could appear in the dining room in her current state!

Cardin had finally mustered the courage to have dinner with her, and now this unfortunate timing…

Annette burned with frustration while Cardin, oblivious, gently stroked the soft fur on her head as if brushing back her bangs.

“I’ll show you your master soon. Be good, okay?” he whispered.

“Meooww… (No, you can’t…)”

Not long after, the atmosphere in the study grew heavy.

Naturally, this was because Cardin’s plan to dine with Annette had been foiled.

〈Her Ladyship’s personal maid, Larisa, has sent word from the dining room. The lady will be taking a quiet meal in her chambers tonight.〉

Hearing this report, Annette breathed a sigh of relief—yet her heart felt complicated.

She was glad Larisa had managed to make an excuse for her, no doubt fretting anxiously. But she also felt a pang seeing Cardin’s visible disappointment after hearing the servant’s words.

For his sake, Annette let him keep touching her without protest.

Then, after staring blankly for a while, Cardin muttered in a gloomy voice:

“As expected… running away earlier must have made the princess hate me.”