chapter 03-
“Meow?”
Pudding cried cutely. I could just bite him, he’s so adorable! So what if he has three eyes? He’s still this cute. I had to give up on having a cat in my past life because of my situation, so I never imagined I’d end up raising one here.
I was going to have him examined separately, but the butler brought holy water and said it would be enough if the cat just drank that. What is this, a world where holy water cures every disease? Then why did they kill all the other cats? What kind of animal ethics does this fantasy world have?
I poured the holy water into his bowl, and Pudding happily lapped it up. But why does he always keep one eye closed? Maybe because of his fur, he just looks like he has two eyes.
Come to think of it, he only opens all three eyes when he’s in front of me. Ah, so maybe two eyes are the default, and the third one only opens sometimes.
The butler confirmed that Pudding had finished all the holy water and left. Is that it? Hooray!
“You drink your water so well. Good boy.”
I sat Pudding on my lap and gently patted his bottom.
It seemed like Pudding thought I was the innkeeper rather than his owner. An innkeeper with free meals and lodging included.
Pudding was a free spirit. I stayed locked up in my room all day like a shut-in, but Pudding went outside constantly like a social butterfly. Still, he always came back before bed and lay down with me. Why does a cat love going for walks so much? Maybe because he used to be a stray?
I decided to put a collar on him so he wouldn’t get into trouble while wandering around. A maid brought me one. It was made of soft fabric, embroidered with the count’s family crest. She suggested I embroider Pudding’s name on it myself. Apparently, the original Evangelin had been good at needlework.
But I’m basically illiterate, and I don’t even know how to sew.
Before I could make any excuses, the maid shoved it into my hands and ran away.
The maid who promised to bring me a book to learn letters hasn’t shown up for days. She said it would only take a day. Is she avoiding me on purpose?
The servants tremble whenever they see me, so I thought I must be some tyrant villainess. But maybe there’s also a setting where I’m secretly bullied. These days, even villainesses in romance fantasies get bullied terribly. When someone transmigrates into them, they usually start by slapping people around to establish dominance. Of course, I didn’t slap anyone.
“Sorry I’m such a useless owner who can’t even write your name…”
I want to learn to read as soon as possible. This careless isekai possession is so unfair.
When I woke up the next morning, I could read.
What is this? A patch update? If it’s some transmigration bonus, why didn’t they give it to me earlier?
I was annoyed, but I decided to be positive. At least I got the upgrade now.
Maybe crying about not being able to read my cat’s name triggered it. Tears streamed down my face. Now I can read and write Pudding’s name!
I picked up a needle. Since I’d learned the letters, maybe I could also handle some of Evangelin’s muscle memory for embroidery.
Yeah. No.
The result was terrible. I wrote “Pudding,” but it was completely unreadable.
Should I throw it away and start over? I hesitated, but Pudding started meowing impatiently, urging me to put the collar on him. This angelic cat!
I fastened the collar around his neck. They say if a cat wears a collar without fussing, the owner is blessed. Maybe Pudding was just naturally calm, because he didn’t resist at all. The size was perfect. I also made the seam weak just in case, so it would break if he pulled too hard.
“Do you like it?”
Pudding walked over to the mirror and looked at himself. Then he meowed, seemingly pleased.
Come to think of it, Pudding knows how to look in a mirror. Are cats in this world extremely smart? Or is my Pudding just special? Well, of course my cat is the best in the world.
Count Rohanson went down to his territory.
In truth, it was closer to running away. He left so hastily that he only packed a few sets of clothes, like someone fleeing in the night. While staying at the mansion, he had been terrified, saying that “eyes” were constantly watching him. Not only the count, but also a maid named Daisy felt the same way. Daisy wouldn’t even open her eyes.
When asked if she wanted a letter of recommendation to serve another noble family, she shook her head and said she wanted to go to a monastery no matter what. She kept her eyes closed and clasped her hands as if praying. It seemed the “eyes” disappeared once she left the mansion, so she would probably feel safer there.
With the count gone, the management of the mansion was left to the butler. The count would handle family affairs from the territory, so the butler had only one responsibility: Lady Evangelin.
The elderly butler gazed out the window at the weeping cherry tree. The pale young lady was strolling through the garden, and a cat followed behind her. That must be the cat she insisted on raising. From afar, it looked peaceful.
But a bright red handprint still marked the butler’s shoulder. Was that cat really an ordinary animal?
His vision swayed. The mansion he had lived in all his life felt like the inside of a monster’s stomach.
He drew the curtains and sat down. A maid sat across from him, drinking tea. Her hand trembled as she held the cup, though she seemed better off than Daisy.
“I hear a cat.”
Hena was the maid assigned to serve Lady Evangelin after Daisy. After what happened to Daisy, no one wanted the position, so the wages were increased. Hena, who urgently needed money, took the job. But even she might not last long. The butler looked at the girl with pity.
A perfectly normal girl had returned after just one day with her mind disturbed. It would be even harder to find another maid now.
The butler opened his mouth to speak, but instead of words, Hena only heard a “meow.” She couldn’t hear what he said, but hoping to give the answer he wanted, she spoke.
“Milady asked if there were any cats. I told her they were all dead. We definitely killed them all, so why do I still hear them?”
Hena had once helped dispose of the cats’ bodies when the count’s family killed them. It felt unsettling, but she volunteered because they paid extra. There had been several sacks full of dead cats lured in by food. They had been silent then. Now, belatedly, they were crying.
The butler couldn’t hear any cat sounds. As he added a note to send to the count, he asked if Hena would like a recommendation letter. It was a kind offer, but all Hena could hear was the sound of cats crying. The butler wrote it down on paper and handed it to her. She shook her head.
If she transferred elsewhere and claimed she heard cats, she would be labeled insane and dismissed.
“I’ll keep working. I can’t hear people, but I can read lips.”
Hena had a younger sibling. For her sick sibling’s sake, she had to continue working.
A reply arrived from the count. He angrily ordered them to make the cat drink holy water to confirm whether it was a monster. Holy water hadn’t worked on Lady Evangelin, so would it work on a cat? The butler wondered, but he obeyed. Holy water was extremely expensive. Only nobles could buy it without hesitation.
When Hena saw it, she was shocked. If they had holy water, her sibling could recover. And yet they were going to give something so precious to a mere cat.
“Do you want it?”
When was the last time she heard a human voice? Hena turned her head, looking around, but no one was there. Only the cat grooming itself.
That cat… was it the one Lady Evangelin was raising?
“I asked you something. You should answer.”
What?
“You want that water. You can have it. I’ll tell you how.”
The cat opened its eyes. Three eyes stared at Hena.
A monster. It’s a monster.
Hena ran. She had to tell the butler. Lady Evangelin’s cat is a monster! Maybe she would get a reward.
But she stopped.
A small reward wouldn’t be enough to buy holy water. What did the cat say? It would tell her how?
She imagined her sibling, healthy and running around with a bright smile. Then she turned back. As if it had known she would return, the cat was waiting.
Hena switched the holy water as instructed. She didn’t know how it had been prepared, but even the delicate patterns on the bottle were identical.
The butler watched the cat drink the fake holy water without any reaction. Unlike with Lady Evangelin, the “real” holy water worked on the cat. Only Hena realized that.
After that, the cat occasionally came to Hena with small requests.
Once, it told her to make sure the young lady personally embroidered its collar. Afraid that the lady might get angry, Hena handed over the collar and sewing set and fled. It seemed the lady truly had taken up the needle for the cat. The cat later proudly showed off the badly embroidered collar.
The young lady had written strange letters on the collar, yet she called the cat “Pudding.”
After spending the day serving the terrifying young lady and the monstrous cat, Hena’s workday would end.
The pay was extremely high. It more than covered living expenses for both her and her sibling. Thanks to that, Hena could stop by the market after work and splurge on her sibling’s favorite foods.
She’ll be happy, right? Hena’s heart melted.
After drinking the holy water, her sibling grew healthier day by day. Just a few days ago, she could barely swallow soup. Now she complained about being hungry.
When Hena returned home, her sibling was sitting by the door.
“Big sister!”
“It’s cold. Were you waiting outside?”
“I missed you. You worked hard. Let’s go inside!”
“Alright. Kanna, stop fussing.”
Her sibling threw herself into Hena’s arms. In that dreamlike moment, she could easily forget about serving the eerie cat and the frightening young lady during the day.
Hena thought she had made the right choice in listening to the cat.
Maybe because she kept the cat satisfied, she no longer heard the sound of cats crying.
