Chapter 44
Roze was smiling, but she hated that her vision kept blurring, so she forced herself to hold it in.
“Isn’t she amazing?”
She couldn’t stop her lips from pressing tightly together.
There was no way—absolutely no way—that Roze could have ever received orders from Duke Raymond.
“And earlier this morning, I was bored and looking out at the garden, and oh my! Lady Christina didn’t miss a single flower. Isn’t that amazing?”
Roze was so sincere about trying to connect Christina and Noah that it almost made one suspicious.
But flowers, desserts, whatever…
Right now, Noah’s eyes saw only Roze, dressed in a fine gown with her hair tied into twin braids.
Roze, who looked exactly as she had as a cat, only humanized, had always been pretty.
Even the pale yellow dress she wore yesterday, bright enough to make one think spring had arrived, suited her perfectly.
But this pink dress suited her even more.
They say everyone has a color that fits them like magic—Roze’s must have been pink.
And if even a borrowed dress that was a little loose looked this good on her, how breathtaking would a custom-fitted dress of her own color be?
Roze, who stood out enough to make him look forward to it, also carried a sweet scent, maybe because she’d just bathed.
“I’m going insane.”
“Huh…? Why insane, No—no, Your Majesty?”
That fragrance was sweeter than the blueberry cake sitting on the table.
The thought that one day he would have to present Roze before others made his blood boil.
Especially imagining men staring at her with those kinds of eyes—his veins felt like they were about to burst.
“Your Majesty, please try this. Blueberries from our estate are famous for being sweeter than anywhere else.”
“Leave it there. I’ll eat it later.”
“Oh… Your Majesty doesn’t like sweets that much. He always eats properly first, then enjoys dessert slowly. Isn’t that right, Your Majesty?”
Even so—Roze could never belong to anyone but him.
Looking at her trying to cover up what was clearly a rejection, Noah found himself wanting more than to simply keep Roze in the imperial palace forever. He wanted to hide her away somewhere no one could ever see her.
“There’s no reason why not.”
“…Pardon?”
“What did you say, Your Majesty? I didn’t hear you.”
Noah wondered—what reason was there not to? Roze was his, after all.
“Oh! And the lady loves cats too!”
At Noah’s murmur, Roze tilted her head in confusion, then went right back to talking about Christina.
Her bright, innocent eyes—eyes that could never guess what Noah was thinking—made him bite his lip.
Was she really going to follow after that crazy man?
Back then, the reason Noah and Melissa had been confined only to the annex wasn’t merely because nobles looked down on their different hair and eye colors.
The late emperor had loved Melissa.
Even though he was more of a bloodline supremacist than Duke Raymond, he accepted the brown-eyed Melissa because of that love. He adored her so much he brought her into an empire that despised foreigners.
But at parties, if Melissa so much as made eye contact with someone, the emperor looked ready to gouge their eyes out.
Melissa had fortunately enjoyed the emperor’s obsession with her.
But Roze—was not the same.
“You’re just like His Majesty, aren’t you? Haha.”
Saying such things with a laugh, Roze was a free-spirited cat.
That was why she couldn’t even bear staying in the bedroom for a few days—she kept trying to escape. Even now, Noah suspected she was itching to death.
“I didn’t know you liked cats.”
“…Huh? M-me? Yes! I love them! So, so much!”
Then how could she possibly… follow after that madman?
“I never heard Duke Raymond kept cats.”
Noah was willing to do whatever Roze wanted.
If she didn’t want to share his bedroom, he would allow it.
If she wanted him to grow close to Christina, he was even willing to do that.
“Unfortunately, Father dislikes cats. So he doesn’t keep any, but he does take care of the strays that wander into the garden.”
“Lady Christina, didn’t you also have a cat visit your room before?”
“That’s right! Lately, there’s this clever cat that finds its way to my room. I even named him Black, and he responds to it. I secretly commissioned a painter to capture him… Shall I bring it next time?”
“A cat that responds to its name, hm? That does sound interesting.”
But still…
“I’ll definitely bring it! It’s exactly like him—the painting shows a black cat with magnificent golden eyes.”
If Roze wanted Christina by her side, that wish…
“I saw him briefly when I was still a cat. He’s big and imposing, really handsome. He must be a tomcat, right?”
“Ah… y-yes, I suppose he must be!”
That was the one wish Noah could never grant.
Even if people said he resembled his father—
The only one who could be at his side, forever, was Roze.
Since Noah only looked at her no matter what Christina said—
‘She needs to actually get him talking, or he’ll never notice her!’
Roze knew this wouldn’t be easy. With the hunting festival approaching, she had to somehow push the two of them together. So, as a last resort, she threw out:
“Oh! And the lady loves cats too!”
—cats.
Before Noah returned, Roze had tried asking Christina all kinds of things to see if they had any common ground or shared interests.
—No! That’s not it!
—Hm? What’s not it?
—Ah… haha. Nothing. Just talking to myself, Lady Christina.
—Talking to yourself that loudly? You scared me.
Including things she knew thanks to her past life and the original story, she found that the two of them had nothing in common.
Still, Christina seemed like a good person, so Roze kept pushing herself to be hopeful, asking questions—until finally she found one thing.
But… was it really a “shared interest”?
Other than Tuxedo, who snuck in after her to the garden, and Black, whom she’d met once, she hadn’t seen any other cats around.
‘Wait—what if it’s not cats in general, but just me she likes?’
Even after bringing it up, Roze wasn’t sure. But thankfully, Noah reacted to it. After that, the two managed to keep talking without her forcing it.
“Cats are so cute! They pretend not to like being touched, but if you smack their butts a bit, they roll over right away.”
“I see.”
It was more Christina chattering and Noah responding with short answers than a real conversation, but still—a response was progress.
‘The ice is broken. Now, Christina, use your charm to captivate Noah!’
Roze told herself it would work out somehow, but deep down, she worried—what if the hunting festival came with no progress?
‘Still, this life’s luck really is on my side.’
The way things were falling into place as she hoped made her feel good.
“Well then, shall we go?”
After that, Noah left for work, and Christina left the study too.
Roze then gave her dress to Evelyn, pretending she needed the fit adjusted, and borrowed a maid’s uniform again.
—Why the bonnet too?
—My hair’s too long—it just gets in the way. I wanted to pin it up a bit.
Borrowing the bonnet raised some suspicion, but in the end, Roze managed to disguise herself without being caught.
When the quarters grew quiet, Roze slipped out the study window.
Luckily, the garden only ever had people in it at set times. She had already figured out that mornings were busiest, so she could move freely now.
‘Lucky!’
Another thing helping her was the lingering feline instinct in her body.
Sitting on the window ledge, she looked down. The ground was farther than she expected. She wondered how to get down safely—but realized she didn’t need to worry.
‘At worst, I’ll break something, right?’
Of course, a broken ankle would be troublesome, but it wasn’t like she’d die.
With that in mind, she hung from the sill and dropped down lightly. To her surprise, she landed gracefully.
Her catlike senses were still intact, at least a little.
Walking through the garden, she waited near the front entrance, watching for a chance to blend into the people passing by.
“Tuxedo! You’ve been gone lately—did you get yourself a girlfriend in the meantime?”
Nearby, Tuxedo was strolling with a female cat.
He hadn’t shown himself for days—Roze thought he might have gone back to the marketplace. Apparently, he had been quite busy with other affairs.
