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Chapter 22
“Ugh… this is bad.”
Roser tilted his head to the side, glancing nervously at Noah, thinking that the hole here would surely be discovered.
“Is something wrong?”
Noah’s face somehow looked more exhausted than usual. Roser, having slipped out while Noah pulled the drawer aside, slowly approached Noah’s feet and looked up at him.
Indeed, Noah’s usually sharp gaze had softened, and just breathing seemed to let out a sigh.
“What is it! Did someone say something about my eyes again?”
When a sigh touched Noah’s face, it gave off a decadent charm that, strangely enough, was kind of attractive.
“Who is it! Bring them all here! This time, I’ll make sure they taste my claws!”
Setting that aside, it was intolerable that someone dared touch his precious butler.
“It’s okay! I’m here!”
Now was not the time to be angry; it was time to give him encouragement.
Roser wrapped his body and tail around Noah’s legs as best he could and looked up at him. Perhaps because he was tired, Noah’s expression was clearer than usual. Behind a faint smile, a sigh lingered.
Something really must have happened.
“Hug me already!”
When Roser lifted his front legs and clung to Noah’s legs, Noah seemed to understand and reached out, lifting Roser into his arms.
“Thank goodness…”
Holding Roser, Noah stroked his fur and gradually regained some energy. It was both heartening that the remedy was working and a little bittersweet.
“Don’t you dare bother Noah in front of me again! I won’t even forgive Melissa next time!”
Feeling both relief and anger, Roser rested his chin between Noah’s neck and shoulder. Listening quietly to Noah’s calmer breathing, Noah murmured:
“It must be frustrating.”
Then he looked toward the drawer, apparently thinking that Roser had gone behind it out of boredom.
“Phew… lucky they didn’t find out I went out.”
Indeed, if you didn’t know about the hole, it was hardly visible.
While Roser silently felt glad that he hadn’t caused unnecessary worry, Noah brushed the dust off Roser’s back and continued speaking.
“Still, endure it until we find out who sent you all the way to Ramsdam.”
So that’s why it was just “for a while.” In any case, Noah never let anything involving Roser slide.
“Don’t let yourself be found outside again.”
Even though cats can’t understand words, Noah spoke calmly as if Roser could, stroking his fur.
“Sorry, Noah. But I have to go out again before that.”
Roser knew he couldn’t obey that command. In his heart, he apologized to Noah in advance.
Even if someone tried to separate him from Noah now, he had the confidence to find his way back.
Besides, Noah firmly believed someone had taken Roser far away, but the cat could have accidentally ended up somewhere else on its own.
So he had no intention of holding back in the face of an uncertain danger.
“No more messing with my red eyes!”
Save Noah, then live a sweet life afterward. Achieving that goal quickly was best not only for him but for Noah as well.
“Lady Melissa, you’re here.”
A wide garden with nothing but green grass, no flowers or trees. The Duke of Raymond, with a striking gaze, approached Melissa, who was in the middle of croquet with a few noblewomen behind her.
He was the one who never even showed his face despite repeated invitations.
A hyena of a man.
Melissa, whose lips trembled slightly at his voice, turned around with a perfect smile.
“If you intended to join the game, Duke, you’re late. It’s been going on for a while now.”
“I didn’t come for the croquet game, so that’s fine. May I have a word with you?”
“Of course.”
Melissa smiled at the duke and handed the croquet stick to her maid. She already knew what he wanted to say.
“There’s much dissatisfaction with the proposed tax reform. Even when I try to speak with His Majesty, he avoids seeing me. I thought perhaps you, Lady Melissa, could convey our intentions to him, so I came to ask.”
As expected, the moment Melissa separated from the others, the duke brought up the tax issue.
Melissa silently swallowed the sigh that threatened to escape as she removed her leather gloves and slipped on soft silk ones.
Would Noah even listen to her?
The duke had persistently ignored Melissa’s requests to meet Noah. He knew her words no longer reached him. Yet he came openly asking her to convey his message—he must be desperate.
“I’ll hear you out.”
“Thank you. I knew I could count on you, Lady Melissa.”
Count on me? Ha.
Melissa knew everything about Noah.
From forgiving the maid who knocked over the flowerpot to gifting gloves to the gardeners. From standing against the nobles over the tax reform to the details of the reform itself.
―Mother! Look! I picked these flowers for you!
Evenly sharing the burden of hardship—it was quintessentially Noah. Strictly speaking, the policy wasn’t bad for the nobles if the poor harvest had ended and yields increased. They were just focused on immediate loss.
Melissa had planned to speak to him about it eventually, even if the duke hadn’t come. Your intentions are admirable, even from a mother’s perspective, but you must not turn the nobles against you. At least until the empress was settled, the crown prince born, and no one even remembered the shadow of the already deceased Zion.
But would he listen? Would he even hear her voice?
Melissa wasn’t sure.
―Yes, Mother. I’ll do as you say.
Noah, who had followed her guidance without question all his life, was now trying to break away since ascending the throne.
It was all the cat’s fault. Two years ago, Noah had picked up a red-eyed cat by chance, and gradually became more and more obsessed with it, losing his rational thinking.
Melissa believed it was entirely because of the cat, Roser.
All the changes in her son, who once loved only her, were because of the cat.
<The one with red eyes will lead the empire to ruin.>
The red eyes of the cursed prophecy were clearly referring to Roser, not Noah.
That day, fortunately, Roser wasn’t caught returning from outside, but he couldn’t use the hole again.
[Push a little harder!]
[It won’t budge, Lord Roser!]
Noah had moved the drawer closer to the wall, worried Roser might try slipping between it again. Even with Oliver and his family pushing and pulling, the large, heavy drawer didn’t move an inch.
‘If spring comes and the main characters appear, we’re doomed!’
The villain hadn’t shown up yet, but that didn’t mean it was safe. With every day, only sighs accumulated.
‘Why didn’t I think of this earlier?’
Roser soon found a solution. He would use the bedroom door.
‘Ugh… have I adapted too much to cat life?’
Indeed. Besides windows and mouse holes, there was a proper door here. The fact he had only just realized it was absurd.
Once he understood that the door was a perfect entryway, Roser waited for the bedroom to be empty and approached the door. The handle was far above his head, but after several attempts, he managed to hang on and open it.
‘No need to walk down this long corridor!’
Out in the corridor, Roser immediately opened the adjacent door. Opening the window here would let him go outside. The latch had probably only been changed in the bedroom.
‘Ugh, of all places… the bathroom.’
The next room happened to be a bathroom, making his fur bristle slightly, but Roser was able to follow his plan and exit through the window.
[Oliver!]
[Yes! Lord Roser!]
Curious if calling his name would work here too, he did—and Oliver popped his face out from among the flowers.
So cute it made his heart skip a beat, but Roser spoke nonchalantly:
[Take me to Lady Green’s office!]
The culprit was in his sights. Now, to secure the evidence.
