Maeve asked, "What do you want?"
Avery looked around and set eyes on Maeve. She said, "I need a cat."
Avery knew Maeve had a cat. But she didn't know where it went.
Maeve was confused. She didn't know what Avery was thinking. But she ordered anyway, "Go and get me, Diamond."
Diamond was a grey Persian cat. The big brown eyes were shining like diamonds. So it was called Diamond.
The guards looked all over for it. Finally, they found it on the balcony in Maeve's room.
When they found Diamond, it was sleeping. I was upset being alarmed. So it showed the teeth at the guards. Not feeling enough, it reached sharp claws and scratched the guard's face.
It didn't stop getting mad until they took it downstairs and saw Maeve. It meowed at Maeve and went to her arms.
Maeve said, "Honey, do they annoy you? I'm sorry. Mommy asked them to take you here. I want you to do me a favor."
Maeve grabbed Diamond and kissed it. Diamond meowed again and licked its claws with the tongue.
Maeve asked, "Your Highness, what do you want Diamond to do?"
Avery didn't approach Diamond seeing the scratches on the guard's face. She said to Maeve, "Will you ask them to reach their hands out and let Diamond smell them?"
Maeve asked, "Smell their hands?" She felt fresh about the idea.
Avery said, "We all know dogs have developed a sense of smell. But few know that cats are more sensitive to smell. But cats will go wild if they smell anything they hate."
Avery kept saying, "It was hard to remove the smell of snakes in hands. They can wash them with soaps. But there will be residue in my fingers. Cats hate snakes. So I want Diamond to smell their hands."
Avery guessed that the snake's smell wouldn't disappear if they handled snake meat within the last half hour. So she chose to let Diamond find the culprit.
Although snake meat wasn't fatally poisonous if Avery punished whoever did it to send a warning to others, whoever wished her harm might put something more in her soup.
Maeve asked the maids to reach out their hands, including Yuki. She asked the guard to hold Diamond and smelled everyone.
The maids were not sure whether Avery could really find whoever did it in this way.
Yuki frowned. She wanted to hug Diamond when it came to the kitchen earlier. But Diamond went away. Normally, if Diamond saw her, it would come over and rest on her laps. But running away from Yuki made her wonder if it smelt snake smell.
The guard started from the one on the left. Yuki was the last to be checked. There were 20 or 30 in front of her.
Yuki got nervous and put her hand in the pocket...
Diamond smelled the hands lazily. It didn't seem willing, for it kept meowing as a protest. But apart from that, it didn't reject the job too much.
The maids who passed the test got relieved. Whoever failed looked at Diamond with pleasing looks. Diamond never saw something like this before. But it could sense they were trying to please her.
And it looked prouder, like saying, "You stupid men."
It was Yuki's turn soon.
Yuki, hesitating, reached out to her hands. She said, "Diamond, you're such a good cat today."
Yuki acted first to please Diamond. It lifted up eyelids, rolled its eyes, and meowed. It approached Yuki's hand and smelt. It sneezed and put its claws against Yuki's hands. There were three scratches in Yuki's palms.
Then Diamond got wild.
It struggled to get off the guard like smelling something it hated. Then it ran away.
Yuki was speechless.
Avery smiled, saying, "It looks like Diamond hates Yuki's smell. What more do you want to say?"
Yuki turned embarrassed. She clenched her fists, saying, "I..."
Yuki couldn't say anything to defend herself. She looked at Avery's smile and wanted to tear it apart. Yuki held back the rage, and said, "I don't believe a cat can tell the smell of snakes. You did so to mess with me."
Avery answered, "Miss Black, you know well whether I did it or not. Diamond is close to Yuki, but why is it scared of her?"
Avery raised the question nobody could answer. Nobody could explain, including Yuki.
Maeve said, "Yuki, tell me, did you do it?" They couldn't tell Maeve's look. But her tone was alluring and tough. She said, "If you really did it, admit to it, and I won't blame you."
Yuki was guilty. She bent over and said, "Maeve, I'm just mad because Avery always gives me a hard time. She bent over and said, "Maeve, I'm just mad Avery always gives me a hard time. She doesn't deserve it...So..."
Maeve was slightly disappointed. She asked the maid to bring over the snake meat soup.
The soup had Avery and Evan's spit. Maeve felt hard to let Yuki drink it because George drank it before. Maybe Maeve would drink it if they didn't agree whoever did it drank it. After all, George's spit was in the soup.
Yuki watched as the maid delivered the soup bowl to her. She shook her head nonstop, saying, "No. I won't drink it. It's filthy. Can I change it to another bowl?"
Avery said, "Yuki, do you want to go back to what you said?"
Maeve was unhappy seeing Yuki being reluctant. She ordered the guard to open Yuki's mouth and forced down the soup with Avery's spit.
Yuki coughed a lot, and a lot of soup was splattered on her chest. But she was forced to drink it all.
Avery approached Yuki with satisfaction. She sniffed and smelt something fragrant. She smiled, saying, "Do you know why Diamond went wild?"
Yuki covered her chest. Thinking she drank Avery's spit, she wanted to throw up. But she was afraid Maeve would be mad. So she closed her mouth tightly. She tried as hard as she could to hold back what was about to come out.
Yuki said, "I don't know, nor do I want to know. Just stay away from me!" Yuki said with disgust. She didn't want to see Avery for one second.
Yuki thought Avery only had a pretty face and was dumb. After several rounds with her, she realized Avery was brilliant.
Avery smiled gently, "Actually, cats can't tell the snake smell if you wash your hands.'
Yuki asked, "Then why..." She realized she would be admitting to it that she replaced Avery's soup, so she shut up.
Avery asked, "You want to know why Diamond went wild? You have to ask yourself."
Yuki said, "Ask me? Bitch! Don't play any games!"
Seeing Yuki started swearing regardless of her image, Avery smiled. She said loudly, "Someone is guilty and applies perfume on his hands, trying to cover the snake's smell. But who knows what cats hate is not the smell of snake, but perfume?"
Boom-
The second Avery finished talking, Yuki's mind turned blank. She changed her look instantly. So was she being set up?