Chapter 7
There wasn’t even time to struggle.
With my one and only weak point targeted, I went completely limp, pupils unfocused as I stared at Tionis and the thief.
But then—why was it?
The thief, who had sported a scruffy beard and such an ordinary face that it was hard to remember, suddenly stiffened.
And that wasn’t all.
‘…What is that?’
His face began to bulge and warp as if something were about to burst out of it, and then—
In the blink of an eye, he transformed into a sharp-featured young man.
Golden eyes identical to Tionis’s.
Even his hair had turned gold.
Blond hair and golden eyes.
In the books I’d read, those traits were emphasized again and again as symbols of the imperial family.
Just as I was wondering if being grabbed by the scruff had made me hallucinate, Tionis spoke.
“Why is the Fifth Prince personally coming all the way to this harsh northern land to steal items from the Kabelug estate?”
‘…Then he really is a prince?’
I wanted to pass out on the spot, but couldn’t.
My hind legs curled inward as I shrank back, relying on Tionis’s grip to hide as much as possible.
I couldn’t even whimper.
I didn’t know why a prince had been stealing, but if it came out that I’d clawed a prince’s shoulder, I’d deserve execution on the spot.
Thinking about it, Tionis didn’t look surprised at all.
He was so calm it was hard to believe he hadn’t already known the thief’s identity.
“H-How can you see me? This spell should’ve—”
The Fifth Prince didn’t answer Tionis’s question.
Rather, he seemed too shocked to respond at all.
He babbled incoherently, unable to lift his head, and the sweat streaming from his forehead soon dripped heavily onto the floor.
Meanwhile, Tionis glanced down at me.
‘…Why?’
I swallowed hard, nerves tightening.
He wasn’t about to tell the prince that I was the one who scratched him… right?
I’d only attacked a thief.
No way. Surely not.
Whether fortunate or unfortunate, Tionis moved me out of the Fifth Prince’s line of sight—
—and then tossed me into the air.
“Meow—?!”
I’m sorry for scratching your door! But I didn’t have a choice!
A scream escaped me before I could stop it. I covered my mouth with my paws and squeezed my eyes shut.
Poof.
But instead of slamming into the hard stone floor of the corridor, I landed on something soft.
‘Huh?’
Feeling comfort instead of pain, I slowly opened my eyes.
I had landed squarely on Tionis’s bed.
When my body had lifted into the air, I’d felt something wrap around me—
So he teleported me?
‘Whew… I’m alive.’
Letting out a breath, I sprawled across the bed like melting rice cake.
But the tightly closed door was eerily quiet.
Instead, my fangs chattered faintly against each other.
‘What on earth is happening out there?’
Terrifying, gruesome possibilities flooded my mind, making my whole body tremble.
✦ ✦ ✦
After calmly teleporting Marianne away, Tionis drew his sword.
At the sight, the Fifth Prince flinched—but what Tionis did was simply use his sword aura to cast a soundproofing spell over the corridor.
Just to make sure Marianne wouldn’t hear anything.
That was all.
Even so, the Fifth Prince couldn’t shake his fear.
Now he showed clear signs of anxiety, biting his nails loudly.
Tionis’s golden eyes slowly swept over the Fifth Prince, as if piercing straight through him.
A vacant expression.
Blood flowing from his shoulder.
Only after confirming that did relief appear on Tionis’s face.
Fortunately, Marianne hadn’t been exposed.
Tionis spoke quietly.
“Valentia.”
At the sudden drop in his voice, the Fifth Prince jolted and hurriedly snapped back to his senses.
He tried belatedly to yank his arm free, but Tionis’s grip was so strong it didn’t budge an inch.
“Y-You just called me by my imperial name, Grand Duke. Even knowing how closely the imperial family watches you—!”
Overcome with an indescribable sense of dread, the Fifth Prince met Tionis’s gaze crookedly, yet stubbornly forced out his words.
Cold sweat soaked his entire body.
Even so, he refused to admit that he felt intimidated by the Grand Duke of Kabelug.
Without saying a word, Tionis lightly took the black bundle the prince had been clutching and turned it upside down.
Clatter—
What spilled out were unmistakably valuable items.
As the Fifth Prince watched the stolen goods scatter across the floor, his face drained of color.
Meanwhile, the rightful owner—Tionis—remained utterly calm.
“You must have been desperate. It’s obvious.
The imperial family probably decided a Fifth Prince was expendable.”
“…How dare you!”
Humiliated by the blatant disregard, the Fifth Prince trembled violently before finally manifesting a sword and swinging it.
It was meant to be a decisive strike.
Tionis dodged it effortlessly.
“…Tch.”
The Fifth Prince ground his teeth.
One arm was completely immobilized.
And now he understood—he could never win against this man with a sword.
He hadn’t even managed to confirm the item he was ordered by his father to steal.
Worse, his infiltration had been exposed.
Whether his mind had snapped, or he decided he had nothing left to lose, he forgot that he was inside a mansion and took the stance to transform into something else.
At that moment, violent tremors erupted from the Fifth Prince, rapidly spreading as if they would collapse the entire estate.
The only person who could remain standing without even flinching was Tionis.
In an instant, Tionis shattered the nearby window, grabbed the Fifth Prince by the collar, and leapt outside into the garden.
“…Ugh!”
Wracked by the pain and impact of his body slamming down, the Fifth Prince rolled across the ground.
Unable to rise, he barely managed to open his eyes.
In the darkness, only Tionis’s golden eyes gleamed ominously from the shadows of his face.
The prince didn’t even dare breathe.
The sky was pitch black.
Fog began to roll in.
Crack—BOOM!
Thunder and lightning split the heavens as heavy rain poured down.
“A-Ah…”
The Fifth Prince tried to stand, only to slip and fall on his backside like a drenched rat.
He could no longer move, staring upward in a daze.
“Go back and tell them.
If you sneak into my estate again and pull a stunt like this—prince or not—”
“……”
“I’ll cut off your head and hang it at the gates of Kabelug.”
What the Fifth Prince saw that day was a black dragon—
Large enough to swallow the entire Kabelug Grand Ducal Estate whole.
✦ ✦ ✦
‘What… just happened?’
No matter how much I leaned against the door or strained my ears, not a single sound came from outside.
No footsteps either.
Maybe it was sealed off with magic.
‘Just what are you planning to do to the thief to go to such lengths…?’
Remembering how Tionis had once told the butler he’d tear the intruder limb from limb and hang him in front of the estate, I suddenly felt sorry for the thief.
‘Wait—no. That thief was a prince…?’
You couldn’t hang a prince’s head at the gates, could you?
Even a random cat off the street would tell you that was a bad idea.
Then—
Not long after, the entire estate began to shake.
“Meow—!”
Even tiny vibrations feel huge to a small animal like me!
And this one was so massive it felt like the mansion might collapse at any second.
The windows were shut, and there was no way to open the door.
I could transform into a human and leave, but that would mean wrapping myself in blankets—and I really didn’t want to run into Tionis or the prince looking like that, especially if one of them was causing this chaos.
I scurried back onto the bed.
If the mansion collapsed, I’d cling to the soft bedspread with my claws and survive somehow.
As I burrowed into the blankets, Tionis’s distinctive scent unexpectedly filled my nose.
Sniff—
A faint minty fragrance…
It was oddly reassuring, which somehow annoyed me even more.
Boom—CRASH!
The earlier tremors had only been the beginning.
Outside, thunder roared and lightning flashed as rain poured down—suddenly, in the middle of the night.
Even curled tightly under the blankets with my ears folded down, my body trembled.
I was a small creature—barely four kilograms.
Amid all this, a scene flashed through my mind.
A night just like this, rain pouring down.
I was running up a hill to escape my older brother.
Thunder struck—
“……”
Just as the memory tried to continue, I snapped back to reality.
Had something like that happened before?
It felt unfamiliar, yet the images were vivid, as if they were real memories.
‘There was fog… and what I saw was…’
The memory blurred.
‘And after that… what happened next?’
My body stiffened as I stared into space, trying desperately to recall more—but nothing came.
While I frowned in concentration, the door suddenly burst open.
“Marri.”
The one who entered was the very person who had grabbed me and teleported me back to this room.
Tionis.
He sat down at the edge of the bed, then gently stroked my back through the blanket where I was curled up in the middle.
“You were scared. I’m sorry.”
His gentle voice settled over me.
I wriggled slightly and poked my face out from under the covers.
Perhaps he thought I understood his intention—
He tilted his head and smiled softly.
That tender tone.
Those consistent, gentle hands.
I gave up on escaping completely.
From the moment I scratched his door, to when he seized the thief’s arm and then grabbed the scruff of my neck—
I hadn’t seen a single part of it with my own eyes.
They said a cat’s dynamic vision was several times better than a human’s, too.
And what he did to the thief—no, the prince—in that brief moment after throwing me into the room…
I couldn’t know.
And I didn’t want to know.
The instant Tionis entered the room, the thunder, lightning, and torrential rain stopped as if it had all been a lie.
“Marri. Catching a thief—how impressive.”
“…Meow.”
But your eyes are scary.
Really scary.
What’s filling those golden eyes… no matter how I look at it, that’s obsession.
There’s no escaping anymore.
I guess I’ll have to live quietly as his pet cat for now—and carefully search for a way to return to being human.
