🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 08
“……!”
He had only been standing there, but Gary jumped as if he had been caught doing something wrong.
“Oh! It’s the Tower Master!”
The person who came out of the room was Neya. She wore a bright smile, as if she had completely forgotten everything that had just happened.
“Why are you upstairs instead of staying with Mom?”
“Huh? No, I just…… what were you doing?”
“Ah!”
As if suddenly remembering, Neya responded in a clear voice.
“I came to get tea and a teapot for the princess!”
“……Princess?”
“I’ll be right back!”
With that shout, Neya rushed down to the first floor.
Gary watched her blankly, then let out a laugh.
“So bright.”
Far from being gloomy, she was as energetic as ever.
Gary didn’t particularly like children, but seeing Neya like that made him feel like he might start liking them. That kind of resilience could only come from a child’s pure heart.
‘More importantly, what’s this about a princess?’
Was she playing with dolls or something? Curiosity getting the better of him, Gary quietly opened Neya’s room door.
And inside the room, Shane was sitting properly in a dress, holding an elaborate toy teacup.
“……”
“……”
Silence settled between them as their eyes met.
Then Gary spoke.
“Puhahaha!”
It was an unmistakable burst of laughter.
“Don’t laugh.”
“Oh my god. I can’t believe I’m seeing something like this in my lifetime!”
Despite Shane’s protest, Gary clutched his stomach and burst into laughter. He even wiped tears from the corners of his eyes.
“The mighty Shane playing dress-up tea party. It actually suits you, man.”
“Be quiet.”
Shane’s face had turned slightly red, clearly embarrassed.
“You’re surprisingly merciful when it comes to children, aren’t you?”
“…Not really, but I can’t win against Neya.”
“Can’t win against Neya?”
Gary tilted his head, confused.
But before he could figure out what that meant, the door burst open and Neya appeared.
“I brought the teapot—oh! The Tower Master is here too!”
Neya clapped her hands, looking delighted.
“I actually needed a princess from another country! Would you like to join us too, Tower Master?”
“What?”
Gary stared blankly, then quickly waved his hands.
“No, I’m not really someone with that kind of free time to play these kinds of—”
“You don’t want to?”
Neya looked up at him with pleading eyes.
“……”
Faced with those shining eyes, Gary couldn’t say a word.
So this is what Shane meant by “can’t win.”
The meaning of those words finally hit him painfully.
A while later, Azure, who had been drinking alone, glanced at the clock and frowned.
‘Did he fall into a toilet or something?’
It had already been over thirty minutes since Gary left his seat.
He wasn’t even that drunk yet, so where could he possibly have collapsed? Azure stood up to look for him and headed upstairs.
As she walked toward the bathroom, she suddenly stopped.
Neya’s room door was slightly open.
“……”
Feeling a strange sense of unease, Azure opened the door.
Inside the room were two men wearing dresses. They even had ribbons that Neya had personally tied in their hair.
“……”
“……”
Shane and Gary froze the moment they saw Azure.
Only Neya was peacefully asleep, using Gary’s lap as a pillow.
The room was filled with cold silence.
Then Azure’s face twisted in disgust.
“…You perverts.”
At that, Gary snapped.
“What’s wrong with me wearing a dress!”
“If you defend it like that, it only makes it sound worse!”
Shane scolded Gary, but Gary didn’t care.
The one who stopped the chaos was someone else.
“Hmm……”
Apparently disturbed by the noise, Neya frowned in her sleep while lying on Gary’s lap.
At the same time, both men fell silent as if synchronized.
Seeing Neya sleeping while holding a teacup tightly, Azure quickly understood the situation.
Her gaze shifted back to the dresses the two were wearing.
With a displeased expression, she said to Shane:
“I told you to throw them away. Why did you keep them?”
“They were expensive. I was planning to sell them later.”
“……”
“You were going to throw them away anyway, right?”
“Do whatever you want……”
Azure clicked her tongue and turned away.
“Gary, take that off and come down quickly.”
After leaving those words, she shut the door.
Gary stared at the closed door for a moment, then fiddled with the hem of the dress he was wearing.
“So that’s why Azure gave these dresses away so easily. She was just throwing them out.”
“When I came here, the servant packed them and brought them. The princess told me to throw them away.”
“They look fine though. Why?”
The dress had once belonged to a noble house’s princess, meaning it was extremely expensive. It was also well maintained, appearing wearable for several more years.
Shane understood why she wanted to discard something so intact.
“Since she won’t be wearing them anymore, she probably doesn’t want to see them at all.”
Azure could no longer participate in high society. In noble circles, she was practically already erased.
She knew that well herself, which was why she didn’t want the dress lying in her closet. She didn’t even want false hope.
“You’re keeping it to sell it later?”
“You really believe that?”
Shane replied flatly.
“I am a noble, you know. I don’t need petty money like that.”
Shane, despite currently doing odd jobs around Azure, was originally the son of a count family—one of a prestigious lineage.
He looked over at Neya, who was sleeping, and gave a bitter smile.
“I just thought the princess has very unpredictable moods. I was keeping it in case she wanted it back later.”
“……”
Gary quietly looked at him.
Soon, Azure’s loud voice echoed from beyond the closed door.
“Hey! If you don’t come out soon, I’m drinking everything by myself!”
“Ugh, that drunkard……”
Gary sighed deeply, exhausted.
Even though he had grown somewhat close to Azure as a drinking companion, he still didn’t like her.
Yet somehow, despite that dislike, the strange sense of shared understanding had brought them close.
Even while joking and arguing, Gary never truly thought well of her.
What she had done was something that deserved lifelong criticism.
Gary brushed Neya’s hair as she slept on his lap and muttered:
“This kid ended up coming to Azure of all people.”
“Yeah.”
“So does that mean Neya has to live with Azure forever? That’s harsh.”
“What can we do? She’s still a princess. It was a legal adoption, so there’s no loophole.”
She wouldn’t be formally recorded in the family registry, but she would still be bound to that household for life.
That was the fate of a cat-shifter like Neya—neither fully human nor fully cat.
Gary looked at the sleeping child and spoke quietly.
“That’s unfortunate.”
His voice was filled with pity.
He moved the doll from his lap and carefully placed Neya’s head down in its place before standing up. The dress he had been loosely wearing slipped off his body like it was shedding away the moment he stood.
Fixing his clothes, he said:
“I know you still have feelings for Azure, but you don’t need to worry about her feelings.”
His tone was unusually cold.
“You know better than anyone that she doesn’t even deserve redemption.”
“……”
Shane silently stared at him.
“Take good care of Neya.”
With that, Gary left the room.
Watching his dramatic exit, Shane thought:
‘He forgot to take off the ribbon.’
On Gary’s back hair, the pink ribbon Neya had tied earlier was still hanging loosely.
He must have liked it, Shane thought, and let it go.
