Chapter 91 - THE CONVERSATION BETWEEN CAT AND HUMAN

The moment she began to cough, she regretted trying to drink the water like a human. She choked because of that and ended up coughing vigorously.

The Prime Minister observed her odd behavior for a moment and monotonously advised her, "Since you turned into a cat, you should act like a cat, Miss Veronica."

'What?' Veronica froze. She even forgot to cough, let alone breathing. She slowly turned toward the Prime Minister, her tail swinging nervously.

"What? Not coughing anymore? Cat got your tongue? Oh, wait. You are a cat yourself." The Prime Minister smirked and rubbed his chin. It looked like he was enjoying her misery. "I had a doubt before but after seeing your reaction just now, I know for sure that you are Miss Veronica."

Veronica became restless. 'Oh no! I made a mistake. What should I do? What will he do? Will he send me to the king? Wait, I'm a cat right now. No human can marry a cat.' Slowly, she calmed down. 'Let's wait and see what he has to say. Then, I will decide what I have to do.'

"It was weird when I saw that everyone was present at the ball but you suddenly disappeared after I entered with His Majesty. Then, there was a cat somehow. It came to the ballroom without letting a single guard notice her. I found it strange. The way the cat was jumping from one place to another, anyone could say it was a trained cat or a spy cat which is quite impossible."

He added, "And then, I caught you. For a second, I thought I was delusional for thinking that a cat was looking like Miss Veronica who suddenly disappeared. I thought I was going crazy from the work pressure. Silver hair or fur and emerald eyes aren't common in this continent, you know. However, the more I observed the more you seemed to be the most different type of cat I've ever seen. You should have acted like a cat if you were trying to hide your identity as one."

"I wasn't trying to hide my identity," Veronica retorted. "Meow!"

"You must have a lot of things to say. Why don't you write them down," saying that the Prime Minister stood up and went over to the study table and took some papers, an inkpot and a quill. After that, he placed them on the tea table before laying down the parchments and hoisted Veronica's cat body to put her there. Then, he gave her the quill and said, "Now, write down what you have to say. How come you ended up as a cat? Is this how you wanted to escape from our king's grasp?"

'This man is too cunning. I don't understand what he is thinking at all,' Veronica pondered. 'Well, there is nothing I can do about it. For now, I have to listen to him. Ahhh! I feel like I have really turned into a pet now.'

She grimaced and reached out her hand to grab the quill. Her paw hung in the midair remembering she couldn't write with her now different forelimb. She sighed and used her mouth to hold the quill. Afterward, she sank the quill brush in the inkpot and began to write, "I did not want to turn into a cat. Someone made me."

Just from writing this much, she was sweating. She didn't think writing with one's mouth was so horrifyingly hard.

The Prime Minister tapped on the table lightly and commented, "I thought you only knew how to speak Synetian language. I didn't expect you to write our language as well. You are more knowledgeable than I thought. I underestimated you."

"Meow!" Veronica felt proud that she was praised for learning his mother language. 'That's right. I'm knowledgeable!' In the temple, all she had to do was work in the morning and read at night. Learning something new was a favorite pastime of hers.

The Prime Minister mentioned, "So, you are saying that someone saved you from our King by making you a pet."

Veronica shook her head. This man was making up all sorts of weird scenarios, making her appearance change look like some kind of royal conspiracy. So, she wrote hurriedly, "Someone didn't like me." She didn't want to be caught up with any royal family drama of any country. She had no interest in being beheaded.

She didn't want him to guess an even more unimaginable conspiracy theory. These royal and their calculative brains.

"Oh, then it means it's because of jealousy." The Prime Minister frowned and mumbled, "You only danced with two men and unfortunately, they were both popular with women. I guess it was a woman who made you like this."

Noticing Veronica's surprised eyes, he assumed what he said was right. He questioned her, "Did you know the lady who did this to you?"

Veronica lowered her head. Feeling sorrow. She slowly nodded with her small head.

"This is surprising. So, the person was from your kingdom, not ours." The Prime Minister picked her up by the collar and sniffed.

"!!!" Veronica was alarmed by his actions and waved her four paws frantically, trying to make him move his face away from her body.

The Prime Minister calmly said, "Relax. I'm trying to find out what kind of magic spell they used on you."

"A magic spell?" Veronica was confused. "Meow?" Now that he mentioned it, her head became clearer. 'Why didn't I think of it before? Of course, it was spellcraft. If it wasn't magic, what else could it be?' She slapped her face with her right paw.

The Prime Minister told her, "No need to hurt yourself. It must be the first time for you to know that humans can be turned into animals using magic. That is why you had no idea what was happening to you. If you ask me, you are rather calmer than other people who were turned into animals. That's why I find you more interesting."

'Well, I always think of how to solve the problem rather than crying over how my situation had turned bad. That's why I can always keep my head cool and get out of any problem that comes before me,' Veronica thought with a bit of pride.

The Prime Minister sniffed once more. He thoughtfully commented, "Hmm, you have a sweet smell of multiple flowers on you. I guess this is the fragrance of your body. However, there is a bitter odor that is mixed with it. The odor is definitely suspicious." He put her down and walked toward his bookshelves. He picked up a book after scouring through his collection briefly once and sat on his chair.

'What is he reading? I want to read it too,' Veronica thought. 'But, can I jump from the tea-table to the reading table in one go or without hurting myself. It looks so high. I never thought there would be a time I would think a reading table is higher than my size after I passed the age of six,' she scowled just thinking about that.

She stretched her hands and legs backward and then flew into the air. She was able to reach a higher position than the table.

'Yes! I almost reached!' Her eyes sparkled. Her body lowered and her hands touched the edge of the table. And then her whole body slammed into the table's backside.

"Ouch!" She winced in pain. "Meow!"

She couldn't keep her balance anymore and fell to the ground. She got hurt on both sides of her body. 'It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!' She growled and squeezed her eyes shut.

"Why are you being so restless?" The Prime Minister got up from the chair and came toward her. He sneered at her, "Did you think, you can jump like a cat just because you turned into a cat now? Even cats need to practice how to jump."

'Oh, shut up! I'm in pain. I don't need you to rub salt on my wound!' Veronica was thoroughly displeased with the way he was making fun of her effort.

He lifted her up and put her on the table. "Were you curious about the spell that was cast on you? You could have just told me," he said.

'Why didn't I think of that?' Veronica wondered. 'Is my brain turning into a cat brain too? Don't tell me I'm going to eat raw rats in the future!' Her face paled as she panicked.

The Prime Minister didn't spare her another glance. He could care less about her nonsensical behavior. He was more curious about her curse. He flipped over some pages and said, "Here it is. Look, this is the magic spell that was cast on you."

Veronica stopped thinking about other things and peeked at the book. However, she couldn't understand what was written. She had seen and learned many languages since childhood but this language wasn't any of that. It was also different from the rest of the languages and there were no similarities. This unique language made her puzzled. She could only see the pictures which left her utterly confused.

The Prime Minister said, "Do you not understand the spell? Well, I'm not surprised. It's written in an ancient language. Only magicians and some highly knowledgeable people can read this language. This language was forbidden after what happened in the Great War."

Veronica thought, 'So, this kind of thing actually happened. But, I wonder why this language is forbidden. I should ask Arthur when I turned back into a human. He reads lots of books. He must know what happened in the Great War that led people to kill each other and then forbade a language that is so important.'

The Prime Minister read a couple of lines and frowned deeply. His expression was grave.

"…" Veronica had a bad feeling about this.

Finally, the Prime Minister opened his mouth and told her the meaning behind her magic spell, "This is bad. This is not just any normal magic spell. This is a curse."