Chapter 158…………………………………………
Ayla stood in front of the sink, meticulously finishing the lathering of her hands with soap before turning on the water. Cold water poured from the smoothly turning faucet.
Ayla let the clear water wash away the soap bubbles from her hands.
‘Aslan has been acting strange lately.’
He had been acting off ever since he asked if they could skip the wedding.
After talking with Minerva, he seemed to have returned to his normal self, but for some reason, in Ayla’s eyes, Aslan seemed to be forcing himself to act cheerful.
He kept his distance from Lloyd, and although Ayla tried not to show it, she felt a subtle unease around him.
It wasn’t just because she had been unwell and bedridden, causing trouble; it felt like a longer-standing resistance that had built up over time.
Ayla instinctively sensed it.
That was why she was now spending time in the bathroom, just washing her hands.
‘I wonder if he’s talking things over properly with Dad.’
Seeing Aslan unable to take his eyes off Lloyd suggested there was something he wanted to say.
Now that she had stepped aside, she hoped he could have a good conversation with Lloyd.
‘And with me too…’
Soon, they would truly become a family.
They had shared joy together that day, yet for some reason, Aslan suddenly started acting strange.
Honestly, it made her feel a bit hurt.
It was almost as if he had suddenly made everyone uncomfortable.
No matter how selfish he could be, this was too much.
Pressing her hands, now free of soap but still wet, into a handkerchief, Ayla let out a deep sigh.
Lloyd rubbed his eyes reflexively, and his vision quickly cleared.
Suddenly blurring like that—he had been overworking lately with the Grand Duchy affairs, succession matters, and business.
Feeling as if he had almost lost consciousness, Lloyd held his throbbing head and tried to recall what he had been doing.
‘Right, Aslan.’
Alone together, Aslan had said he wanted to talk.
Lately, it seemed he didn’t like Lloyd, and now he would scold him again if he didn’t focus.
Lloyd gathered himself and looked at Aslan, who should have been right in front of him.
But the Aslan who had been there moments ago had disappeared.
“…?”
Where did he go?
Aslan had always loved escaping.
So Lloyd, without a doubt, assumed Aslan had distracted him and slipped away somewhere. He jumped up and looked around.
“Aslan! Aslan, where are you!”
Meow.
It wasn’t Aslan who answered, but a cat.
There shouldn’t be a cat in the royal palace.
The sound hadn’t come from the window—it was right nearby, from the very spot where Aslan had been moments ago.
Lloyd turned his eyes and finally noticed a cat sitting below, looking up at him.
“…A cat?”
Where did this cat come from?
Judging by its appearance, it didn’t seem like a stray.
Its long grayish-brown fur was perfectly groomed, soft and fluffy, not tangled or matted.
And its pale green, glassy eyes—slightly arrogant and aloof.
It looked exactly like Aslan.
“Aslan…?”
Lloyd called Aslan’s name again, pretending not to be crazy.
This time, he directed it at the cat.
Meow.
Once again, the cat let out a high-pitched meow, as if it had been called by name.
An impossible thought flashed through Lloyd’s mind.
Aslan’s hair completely gone.
A cat where Aslan should be.
Reaching that conclusion, Lloyd awkwardly smiled, avoiding the persistent gaze of the cat.
“Really… there’s no way that’s Aslan, right?”
Even Aslan couldn’t possibly perform a trick that turned him into a cat.
Though his jumping skills and occasional odd behavior sometimes resembled a cat, that was as far as it went.
Cats often imitate whatever—or whoever—they like, whether it’s a person or even an inanimate object.
But Lloyd had never once imagined that Aslan could literally be a cat.
Common sense didn’t allow it.
Lloyd forced himself to look away from the cat.
First, he thought he should leave the room and find Aslan.
At that moment, he felt a tiny hand grab his pants.
“Mister.”
At no other time had Aslan’s voice sounded so frightening.
There was clearly no one else around.
Lloyd creaked his neck as he turned, and below him stood Aslan—looking exactly like the cat he had just seen—frowning in dissatisfaction.
“I’m telling you, it’s me! Why are you ignoring me?”
“…What?”
“That cat is me!”
“…Huh?”
Lloyd doubted his eyes again.
In the blink of an eye, the small human hand holding his pants had turned into a furry cat paw.
“…Hah.”
When a person is too shocked, they lose their words.
Lloyd had been surprised and scared many times before, but nothing compared to this moment.
Aslan—the daughter of Minerva—was a cat.
How could this be?
Did Minerva know?
A storm of questions paralyzed his thoughts.
“Dad, are you done yet?”
At that moment, Ayla appeared from the bathroom, tidying her handkerchief.
Seeing Lloyd looking like he had seen a ghost and Aslan looking calm, Ayla couldn’t help but sigh.
“Aslan, were you teasing Dad again?”
Could this even be called teasing?
It certainly had been startling.
Lloyd could barely speak.
Seeing this, Ayla, thinking he had gone too far, let out a sigh.
“Aslan, you shouldn’t play tricks.”
“I wasn’t playing.”
Aslan’s serious expression felt slightly different from usual.
Probably just her imagination, right? Ayla thought, seeing Lloyd pale as a sheet, though her instincts told her otherwise. She dismissed it casually, her protective mechanism kicking in.
“Then what were you doing?”
“Do you want to see too, Ayla?”
Was he about to show her the trick he played on Lloyd?
Or maybe it was some kind of stunt.
Aslan had shown so many amazing feats before—somersaults, high jumps, climbing trees in three seconds—that Ayla couldn’t help but feel excited.
Though she was slightly worried about Lloyd’s continued paleness, she nodded.
And then Ayla had to rub her eyes.
“…Huh?”
Every time she blinked, Aslan’s form changed.
From cat to human, back to cat.
Over and over, as if proving he really was that cat, Aslan switched repeatedly between human and cat.
“Uh… Aslan?”
Her voice trembled involuntarily.
Only now did Ayla fully understand why Lloyd’s face had gone so pale.
‘Is that… magic?’
She knew tricks like pulling a pigeon out of a hat or making a flower appear from an empty handkerchief.
But turning from a human into a cat at will?
That kind of magic was unheard of!
Ayla looked at Lloyd, who nodded with his eyes tightly shut.
It was a silent confirmation—they weren’t imagining it.
They both looked at Aslan, expecting an explanation.
Aslan returned to human form, her expression unusually dry as she met their gaze.
And she confessed.
“I’m actually a cat.”
“…What?”
“Mom knows too. I was her cat, and I wished to become human.”
“….”
No words came now.
Though it seemed impossible, everything made sense.
Why she sometimes wanted to catch birds, climbed trees so well, jumped so high, acted whimsically like a cat, groomed herself, scratched trees—all of it!
It made sense.
Even her extreme lack of common sense as a human now fit.
It was astonishing she had been so openly cat-like, yet no one realized it before—but then again, thinking a person could be a cat in the first place was irrational.
Yes, this was completely unrealistic.
Lloyd felt as if his mind were about to explode.
“Ah… Dad?”
“Lloyd!”
“Mi… ne… rva…”
Ah, so my head really is about to explode.
When had Minerva returned?
The last thing Lloyd saw before fainting was Minerva’s sweaty face as she hurriedly grabbed him.
