Chapter 6
“Rih…t. Are you laaughing at me right now?” (Richt. Are you laughing at me?)
“You’re annoyingly quick to catch on.”
You’re the one who gave it to me!
Annoyed, my glare naturally sharpened.
At that, Richt—looking especially radiant today, perhaps because of his perfectly tailored formal attire—reached out toward me with smiling eyes.
“Yernian.”
“…Whu.” (What.)
“You look especially pathetic today.”
Recently, more and more of my baby hair had been falling out, leaving the crown of my head bare. He gently stroked it before pulling his hand away.
As we left the bedroom, Richt’s blue eyes never once left the top of my head.
“Wha’ you lookin’ at.” (What are you looking at.)
“The door’s about to close.”
“Huh? Door?”
It was Mir, who had been following a step behind us, who answered my question.
“Ah, yes. Around this time, the fontanelle starts to close, Your Majesty. It’ll probably be fully closed within half a year.”
“Then why does the hair keep falling out so often?”
“…That’s also part of the natural process of losing baby hair. It’ll soon start growing in properly. As I’ve said many times, humans grow more slowly than beastfolk, Your Majesty.”
Is he really a beastfolk?
At this point, I was starting to wonder if Mir was actually a human disguised as one.
As if thinking the same thing, Richt let out a short laugh while walking down the corridor.
“Why not just go down to the continent and live there?”
“I appreciate that you value my knowledge, but I’ll have to decline. Staying by Your Majesty’s side is the best place in the world for me.”
“…Should I just kill you?”
Richt muttered in a chilling tone as we reached the garden lined with evenly spaced lanterns.
I recalled the information I had gotten from Alice just a few hours ago.
‘The banquet is being held in the annex palace.’
I’d heard they had remodeled an entire annex—the second largest after the main palace—into a banquet hall.
When I heard that, I almost screamed.
‘Why go that far?’
The closer we got to the annex, following the line of brilliant lights, an unexplainable sense of dread crept up my spine.
Without realizing it, I grabbed tightly onto the ornate gold embroidery on Richt’s formal wear.
His gaze, which had been quietly tormenting Mir, shifted straight to me.
“Yernian. What is it?”
“……”
“Is something wrong?”
Hesitating, I still couldn’t meet his eyes as I asked,
“…Are there a lotta beastfolk there?” (…Are there many beastfolk there?)
Richt narrowed his eyes and glanced at Mir.
Quick-witted as ever, Mir began listing off the situation inside.
“The heads of the nineteen noble families representing the Cat Clan have all attended Your Majesty’s summons, along with their households. There should be at least over a hundred.”
What? Over a hundred?
My mouth fell open in shock.
I had no idea what Richt was planning to do in a place filled with over a hundred beastfolk.
“How many heirs did they all pop out…”
“Your Majesty! Please watch your language in front of the princess!”
Ignoring Mir’s scolding, Richt lifted me up to his eye level.
“Yernian.”
“……”
“Look at me.”
I reluctantly loosened my grip on his clothes and met his gaze.
His blue eyes, sunk in darkness, felt like a calm lake whose depths I couldn’t read.
“Are you afraid of beastfolk?”
After a moment of thought, I shook my head.
“No.” (No.)
“Then?”
I’m afraid of the unknown goal you’re trying to achieve through me.
I swallowed the words I couldn’t say and lowered my gaze.
After watching me for a long moment, Richt slowly began walking again.
Near my ear, his voice—softer than usual—fell gently.
“Don’t worry. As long as you stay quietly by my side, no one would dare touch you.”
Rather than reassuring, his words sent a chill down my spine.
Was it just my imagination, or did that sound like shackles, binding me to remain by his side forever?
Pressing my lips together, I subtly put some distance between us. A low, pleasant chuckle scattered into the warm night air.
At the same time, two beastfolk guarding the entrance of the massive annex bowed sharply toward Richt.
“The one and only master of the Cat Realm, and the head of the Cat Clan—His Majesty Richt El Persian—has arrived!”
…What? Persian?
Hearing his full name for the first time hit me like a freezing shock.
Before I could sort out my chaotic thoughts, the closed doors opened. The soft melody that had been leaking through the gap abruptly stopped.
“We greet the noble leader of the Cat Clan.”
Beastfolk lined up on both sides bowed toward Richt. Their gazes, mixed with curiosity and shock, brushed past me.
But I was too stunned to properly feel even that.
‘Persian?’
‘Persian’ was the name of the family those people who kidnapped me had desperately tried to eliminate.
That’s why I remembered the name clearly.
I had only vaguely assumed it was one of the powerful families dominating the continent.
‘But why would humans target… beastfolk?’
Why would they aim for the royal family of the Cat Clan?
The more I tried to think, the more my head spun.
“Hic.”
A hiccup escaped me without warning, and Richt—who had been walking leisurely as if on a stroll—stopped.
His puzzled gaze landed on my flushed face.
“Yernian? Why does your face look like—”
“…Hic.”
In the silence, my hiccup echoed loudly.
The beastfolk who had been bowing now openly glanced at me.
‘No ears.’ ‘So the rumor that the leader brought a human is true.’ Their whispers pierced my heightened hearing.
“What’s wrong with her?”
Richt frowned slightly and looked back at Mir.
“I think Her Highness the princess is quite startled. She’s even hiccupping.”
“…Hiccups?”
I desperately covered my mouth, trying to stop them.
“How do you stop this?”
Watching me struggle with mild annoyance, Richt urged Mir.
“Usually, giving lukewarm water or pinching the soles of the feet—”
I tapped Richt’s shoulder lightly as he stopped in the center of the banquet hall.
“What? You want me to pinch your feet?”
“Hic. J-just go already.” (Hurry.)
The stares stabbing into my cheeks had felt like thorns for a while now.
Only then did Richt seem to notice the gazes directed at me.
“Everyone, lower your eyes.”
Startled by his cold voice, my hiccups stopped instantly without needing any remedy.
And then, not far away, I met the gaze of a child glaring fiercely at me.
‘The Fourth Prince.’
It was the red-haired cat who had attacked me in the garden yesterday at dusk.
Even today, his eyes burned with hostility toward me.
Beside him stood the Third Prince, Noha, wearing the same absent, unreadable expression as before.
Noha wasn’t looking at me or Richt, but rather staring blankly at a long table near the platform.
A fountain pen, blue yarn, a jewel-encrusted sword, a pink pocket watch, and…
The one thing Noha couldn’t take his eyes off was a pendant made of layered golden chains forming a star.
‘What are those?’
No matter how I looked at them, I couldn’t find any common thread.
At some point, Richt had stepped onto the platform and sat casually on the throne, placing me on his lap.
I stared blankly down at the beastfolk gathered below. Every single one of them was strikingly beautiful—it almost made me wonder if all beastfolk were like this.
Among them, a man who appeared to be middle-aged stepped forward.
“So the rumor that you brought a human baby into the Cat Realm is true, Your Majesty.”
“As you see.”
“Surely today’s banquet isn’t for that human child?”
“It is.”
At his calm confirmation, murmurs spread among the crowd.
The middle-aged man pressed his forehead and let out a deep sigh.
“Your Majesty, this is not something to answer so lightly. Please explain your exact reason for bringing a human here and holding such a banquet.”
“An exact reason…”
Richt’s blue eyes slowly slid toward me.
My heart pounded as I clenched the frills of my dress tightly.
‘Please.’
Don’t do anything.
But once again, Richt did not grant my wish.
“Yernian El Persian.”
“…?”
“This is the name this child will use from today.”
With his quiet declaration, silent shock spread through the hall.
I turned to him, my face pale.
‘Is he out of his mind?’
Changing my surname to Persian meant accepting me—a human—as a member of the royal family.
The nobles of the Cat Clan, having reached the same conclusion, erupted in protest.
“This is absurd! You would bring in a human child with no ties and make her part of the noble royal family?!”
“No matter if you are the ruler, Your Majesty, you cannot act so arbitrarily without the council’s approval!”
Exactly!
I couldn’t become a member of the Persian family like this. It was obvious I would end up facing those people who were obsessed with destroying them.
The thought alone made me nauseous.
Clenching my trembling hands, I struggled not to cry.
‘You must not cry.’
I couldn’t lose this rare opportunity to gather information because of tears.
I forced myself to stay composed, focusing my eyes.
Unfortunately, I didn’t know much about “Persian.”
Those people had been careful with their words around me, since my hearing had sharpened after I lost my sight.
All I knew was that they had tried to take down the powerful Persian force using the magic curled up inside me.
‘Why would humans target the royal family of the Cat Clan?’
Lost in thought, I looked down at my arm peeking out from under my dress sleeve.
Instead of the frail arm covered in needle marks and bruises from my past life, I now saw a slightly chubby, pale arm.
‘In this life…’
I won’t let them run wild as they please.
Now that my existence had been publicly revealed, it was highly likely that news of me would reach their ears.
‘Running away isn’t an option anymore.’
Even if I changed my face with magic and escaped, they—and their pursuers—would chase me down.
I couldn’t live again in constant fear of being captured after finally regaining this time.
‘If that’s the case…’
This time, I’ll strike them first.
Just as my eyes gleamed with a cold determination far beyond that of a child—
Richt, who had been silently listening to the nobles’ outrage, finally opened his mouth.
