Chapter 77

Chapter 77

Just then, as an underling approached a nobleman and whispered something to him, the man who heard the news became furious and told the others.

“It seems that the Count of Charlerois’ hordes are already offering their wealth to the Duke and wagging their tails.”

“How superficial is that man? Ha.”

“Such an opportunist*. Tsk, tsk.”

[ T/N: ‘; here is used at a person which means someone who changes one’s opinion/character for benefit. ]

As an eerie silence descended for a moment between those who let out reproach-filled sighs, the next moment, someone coughed and stood up.

“I have an important appointment tomorrow, so I’ll… see you soon.”

With him leading the way, the rest also rose from their seats, at the same time, with unsolicited excuses piled up on the table.

“Hhm, now that I’m older, moving around at dawn is tiring after all.”

“I’m going to leave, too, since we’re in the mood to disperse. We’ll meet again soon.”

“Alright, let’s do that.”

And so the carriages scattered, each with their own excuses, but soon they met again in Blois’s garden, laden with gold and silver treasures that had been raided from the family’s treasury.

“H-ha, this guy! Didn’t you say you were going home…!”

“Didn’t the baron say he had an important appointment, too?!”

“No, did the Count come as well?”

“Ha… I recently made an investment in an imperial business…. things would get complicated when you’re in the eyes of the Emperor.”

Lining up in front of Dimitri’s office, they kept accusing each other and making feeble excuses—to apologize for the disrespect of the past, to pledge their allegiance anew, and to beg to see him just once.

At the same time, the head of the Council of Elders, Count Schdental, grew nervous when he heard the news that the turncoats were already flocking to Blois precipitously. He summoned some of the most prominent members of his council to devise countermeasures.

“Tsk, tsk, the loaches make the whole puddle murky*.”

[ T/N: It’s an idiom which means, ‘For the misdeed of a person to have a negative influence on the whole group or many people. ]

“Those gathered in Blois right now couldn’t even be called loaches, Count Schdental. They were the ones who would turn their backs on us if things went wrong, anyway.”

Count Schdental’s eyes narrowed, and he gritted his teeth.

“I need to see Madam Elbas. She hasn’t brought me any news since entering Blois…”

The reason Madam Elbas went to Blois was to find a good lead for Count Schdental. However, instead of delivering information that could destroy Dimitri, he hadn’t heard from her for several days already.

“Perhaps she was in some kind of bad situation?”

“I was worried since Madam Rosanne was going with her…”

Contrary to Dimitri’s assumption that Rosanne, Cayetana, and the elders were all one team, Rosanne was a difficult being, even among the elders. The elders knew that she went to Blois, even with her frail body, to monitor Cayetana’s behavior.

Count Schdental muttered.

“I don’t know what that old woman is thinking.”

The morning after I rescued shapeshifters from the slave traders, I ran to shapeshifters, the cats I had brought to the annex, as soon as I woke up.

“It wasn’t a dream!”

Numerous kittens who followed me were purring and frolicking in the front yard of the annex. As soon as they spotted me, they would come running while chuckling like fairies, or chattering cheerfully in light, clear voices.

“Hi! Good smell!”

“I slept on a fluffy blanket!”

“I ate a lot!”

“I played outside!”

“It’s so spacious here…!”

Everyone was clearly excited.

‘Since they’re kittens, they don’t have a concept of territory yet, so they seem to be having fun.’

After living in cramped conditions, the kittens were happy to be able to go outside, eat lots of delicious food, and sleep on soft blankets.

I counted the cats again.

‘One, two, three, four… twenty-one.’

Among them, except for seven cats that seemed to be around Coco’s age, they were all kittens.

‘The situation is better here since the slave traders were mainly dealing with dogs, but Avila…’

My tongue trembled when I thought about the number of dogs that seemed to outnumber the cats by more than double.

Since Dimitri refused to let the dogs into the mansion, they had to stay outside the mansion in cages overnight. Fortunately, Avila seemed to have found a suitable vacant building near the Blois mansion by walking around all morning, and I heard later in the morning that she was planning to rent the building.

‘I have to go help Avila later.’

Even though I had attached a lot of people to her, I was curious and worried about how things were going. Would the sharp-barking dog shapeshifters follow Avila well? In addition, since there were so many young puppies there, I wondered if she’d be able to control them.

‘I’m sure Avila has plenty of magically imbued shapeshifters items, so she’ll be alright…’

Anyway, what should I do with all these cats…?

As I thought so, I glanced around at the cats and noticed the same shackles around their necks that Coco had been wearing before.

‘I’ll have to ask Dimitri to remove the shackles later.’

The kittens hugged my legs and began to climb up me like climbing a tree, and I sat down on the floor with a scream as I didn’t hate it. Although I needed to plan what to do next, this right now, this was too… this place was so…

‘Ah, it’s heaven…’

Watching the fluffy kittens wriggling and purring with their tiny bellies full made me feel so ecstatic.

“Do you guys have any pain anywhere?”

When I asked, the cats answered in their own way.

“It doesn’t hurt!”

“There’s a hair monster! Waak!”

“Hey, that’s my tail…!”

“Come fight with me!”

“Let’s compete!”

Did… they answer?

‘Distracting and cute…’

Suddenly, I remembered Sasha and Coco, who were supposed to be here. As I searched for them with my eyes, I could see them in the middle of the cats not far away.

“I’m the captain here! Listen to me carefully in the future, or I’m going to beat all of you up. If you want to know how my fists taste, go for it. I’ll show you the real thing!”

Sasha was punching the air and vigorously training the newcomer.

“I’m about to become a great cat who will make a pact with the devil! Haha! Don’t mess with me, mwiss. Look at me in the eyes!”

‘She still has lingering feelings for the devil.’

Coco, on the other hand, was gnashing his teeth, wary of kittens less than half his size.

“Don’t come closer, prrt! Don’t come near me! Get lost!”

“Number 13, Wow, number 13!”

“Number 13! Don’t you remember me?”

Even though the cats who remembered Coco approached him gladly, Coco remained vigilant.

“I remember, but get away from me! Remembering and playing together are two different things!”

[ T/N: I CAN’T STOP LAUGHING THIS CHAPTER, BUT COCO TAKES THE CAKE LOL ( ) ]

Coco, one of the more sensitive cats, simply found them annoying.

“Leave me alone. If you want to talk to me, come to me individually. Ugh, don’t touch my body…!”

Keeping wary of the cats who kept rubbing against him, Coco eventually took refuge on the wall. Even so, he seemed to be snooping on his new friends on the wall, probably not wanting to leave this place.

It was truly such a peaceful moment.

I laid on the grass with my cats and enjoyed the sunshine, and as I was doing so, someone cast a shadow over my face.

When I opened my eyes halfway, blue hair caught my attention.

“Viscount Villefranc?”

“Madam Rowaine, His Excellency has called for a tutor to help you deal with the cat shapeshifters.”

“Really?”

Sprawled haphazardly on the grass, I dusted myself off and stood up, pretending to be as nonchalant and unembarrassed as possible. Then, a man who had been standing behind Viscount Villefranc calmly approached.

“Nice to see you. It’s called Esca. Dimit… I came because I was asked by the Duke to take care of the cat shapeshifters.”

Saying so, he handed me a letter from Dimitri.

There was a brief description of rude and violent content.

The lack of sincerity was dribbling from the cursive handwriting.

While I read the letter with a smile on my face at first, when I saw the contents that were close to threats, I froze before barely lifting my creaking neck and glancing at Esca.

“Oh, it looks like Dimitri sent you a letter asking you to take care of the two cats I brought.”

I was worried about what the man in front of me was thinking when he came here.

‘I don’t want to force him to be a tutor.’

I checked him closely to see if I could notice any signs of displeasure.

He was a pale-skinned man with long, flowing silver hair that draped neatly over his shoulders. With his entire body covered with a long white robe that started from his neck and ended at his ankles, his calm expression and appearance gave off a rather ascetic impression.

In addition, the blue eyes that had sunken coldly or the sacred manner of speaking reminiscent of a hermit monk who was reclusive in the mountains had a spell that made the viewer nervous by itself.

He must have noticed that I was nervous because his robot-like face soon curved into a slight smile.

“I’m an old friend of the Duke.”

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