Chapter 84
I thought they would bring in maybe one or two sacks, but the amount of Dragon Burberry turned out to be thirteen.
Watching the servants carry in the Dragon Burberry, the duke spoke in a proud tone.
“With this much, you could drink it every day for a year. I already ordered ten years’ worth, so drink without worry.”
“Th-thank you.”
I replied weakly, intimidated by the mountain of fruit piled up before me.
Eloise, who was watching the scene with me, called over a maid.
“I want to try it today, so prepare just one serving for now and bring it to the playroom on the second floor.”
“Yes, milady.”
“Father, would you like to join us?”
“No. When I tried it before, it wasn’t to my taste. You and Lizette enjoy it together.”
Well, it is a rather unique flavor.
We left the duke behind and went into the second-floor playroom.
On the second day of the Founding Festival, there were events like the imperial procession, but we were told attendance wasn’t necessary, so we decided to rest at the duchy.
I was completely drained yesterday, and besides, the festival lasts five days, so taking one day off was fine.
“Isn’t it disappointing we can’t go watch?”
“It’ll be full of nobles no matter where we go today. I think commoners’ festivities would be more fun anyway.”
“Hm, let’s go together next time.”
“Okay!”
While the maid prepared the tea, I climbed the cat tower and ran on the cat wheel, trying to make up for my lack of exercise.
Honestly, it wasn’t exercise—I was just having fun. Truly, there’s no amusement park better than this place.
After playing for a long time, just when I was out of breath, Sophie entered with a trolley after knocking.
Wait—wasn’t her vacation starting today?
“Sophie, I told you to go have fun during the festival.”
“I’ll just deliver this and leave.”
“You really…”
Sophie smiled and set the teacups and teapot on the table.
The sour aroma made my mouth water.
I climbed down from the crystal hammock and sat quietly next to Sophie as she placed a teacup before me as well.
A white cat was reflected on the shimmering ruby-red tea surface.
“Then, milady, Lady Lizette, enjoy the Founding Festival.”
“Alright.”
“Have a great break, Sophie!”
After Sophie left, I lapped at the tea on the saucer.
Maybe it was because I hadn’t drunk it in a while, or because it was freshly harvested this year—
The sourness felt far stronger than when I drank it in the Empress Palace.
“Hnyaaa.”
“What’s wrong, Lizette?”
Ah—this wasn’t sourness. It was that. Transforming.
A tingling sensation that began on my tongue spread through my entire body.
Thankfully, Eloise was the only one here.
“Hh—nyaak.”
Breathless and in pain, I rolled across the floor.
“Lizette!”
Eloise rushed over, her hands trembling.
I tried my best to control the rampaging mana, but I couldn’t grasp it—it slipped away every time, only making me more frantic.
My white front paws stretched out toward Eloise, growing longer and smoother.
“……!”
Reflected in her widened teal eyes wasn’t a cat—but a small girl.
The bone-breaking pain slowly faded, leaving only a tingling numbness.
My breathing steadied, and with my newly raised viewpoint, I met Eloise’s gaze.
Her trembling hand stroked my head and paused at my perked ears.
“Are you alright?”
“Yeah. I’m fine, Eli. But… this is kind of embarrassing.”
As I curled up tightly, a soft blanket wrapped around me.
The sudden situation silenced the room, replacing the usual coziness of the playroom.
“You said you haven’t changed since leaving the Empress Palace, right?”
“Yeah.”
Eloise gently poked my twitching cat ears.
“Kyaong! Don’t do that.”
“Sorry. You were too cute—I couldn’t help it. I’ll be careful.”
Probably only Eloise could look at my incomplete form and call it cute so casually.
Feeling bad for snapping, I nestled into her arms.
“What do you think caused this?”
“The only thing different from usual is the tea, so that’s the only suspect.”
“Thinking about it… after drinking it in the Empress Palace, I did transform more often.”
“Let’s stop drinking it for now and observe. If you still change, then something else is the cause.”
I agreed and nodded.
Wrapped tightly in the blanket, I recalled how Etienne transformed into a human.
“Eli, when Etienne turned from a wolf into a human, he wasn’t naked like me—he had clothes on. How does he do that?”
“Unless it’s a unique beastkin ability, it’s probably a combination of wood and air attributes.”
“Combining attributes?”
She’d been experimenting with all sorts of magic lately, so she said something complicated.
“Though we call it wood attribute, it actually governs all plants. Clothes come from plants too, so he disassembles the cloth and stores it in the air, then recombines it.”
“Huh…?”
I didn’t remember slacking off in chemistry class in my past life, but scientifically, none of that made sense.
“It’ll be faster to show you.”
Eloise removed a ribbon from her dress and placed it on her palm.
A mint-colored glow wrapped the ribbon, and it slowly dissolved, like it was rotting away.
“You decompose it and trap the particles in the air.”
Tiny specks floated above her palm, barely visible unless you looked closely.
She cast magic again, and the ribbon reappeared.
“Oooooh!”
I squeezed my paws excitedly, and Eloise smiled gently.
To think the cold villainess could smile like that—her expression made me smile too.
“Want to try?”
“Yeah!”
She placed the ribbon on my paws.
Just as I focused all my attention and tried to use magic—
Pop!
“Ack!”
With a rush of wind, the blanket fell over me.
Everything went dark—guess I turned back into a cat.
Blinking in the darkness, I was soon uncovered again.
“Lizette, are you hurt?”
“No. I don’t think it ever hurts when I turn back into a cat.”
I shook out my fur and looked at the ribbon under my paw.
My excitement had fizzled a bit, but I refused to give up. I tried again.
Concentrating on the idea of “disassembling,” a soft sky-blue glow appeared.
Slowly, the ribbon vanished just like Eloise’s demonstration.
Before it disappeared completely—trap it!
“Eli! I did it!”
“Yes, I knew you could.”
Her steady confidence gave me courage and filled me with determination.
Feeling the lingering particles under my paws, I infused mana to reconstruct it.
The shape was a bit different from before…
“Hmm. It looks kind of weird.”
“This is good enough. Next time you turn human, we’ll try making clothes too.”
“Okay!”
For the first time, I looked forward to the day I would transform again.
But throughout the entire Founding Festival, I remained a cat.
Because I didn’t know when I might transform, I even gave up going out to the commoners’ festival!
Sitting with Eloise in the playroom, I glared at the Dragon Burberry tea in front of us.
“Ugh. It has to be this, right?”
“It’s only been five days, so we can’t be certain. Why don’t we observe a bit longer?”
It was tempting, but I didn’t want to keep living anxious and uncertain.
I had already spent too many days worrying.
“Just one more test. If I transform again, I’ll stop drinking it for a month.”
“Alright. Are you ready?”
“Yeah!”
I took a deep breath and lapped the tea cleanly from the saucer.
Unlike last time, nothing happened right away.
“Hmm… maybe it wasn’t—ugh!”
Before I could even finish, my limbs felt as if someone were yanking them apart.
“Kk—nyaaang!”
The pain was so intense that I dug my claws into the floor.
Through my tear-blurred vision, I saw only Eloise, helpless and panicking.
“Kkuh…”
All I could do was groan instead of saying I was fine.
I shouldn’t have drunk the whole thing in one go. I didn’t know the consequences would be this bad.
The sharp, intense pain ended quickly, replaced by a cool, minty aching sensation throughout my muscles—like someone had slapped pain relief patches all over me.
“Oww…”
A pathetic sound escaped me. If it hurt this much every time, I’d rather live my life as a cat.
Smooth marble touched the stubby human fingers where sharp claws once were.
“Lizette, are you really alright?”
“Mm-hmm. Eli, why are you crying?”
At some point she had come right up to me, tears gathering in her eyes.
Seeing her hurting more than I was made my nose sting.
“I’m totally fine now.”
“I’m glad. Next time, if it hurts this much again, we should tell Dr. Etmon—”
“We can take our time deciding that. Only you and Etienne know about this form.”
I really didn’t want anyone else to know.
Rumors had a way of growing uncontrollably, and I wanted to avoid that as much as possible.
