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Meow!”

‘Mari!’

“Did you sleep well?”

‘Yes!’

I sat on the cushion and waved my front paw, returning Mari’s greeting. Mari, who had given off an impression of being cold and rational, was surprisingly expressive in a way I hadn’t expected. Or maybe not.

It could also be that, after only seeing faces full of malice, even a neutral expression felt overly emotional in comparison.

During the week I’d been staying here, I’d grown close to several beast-kin in the mansion, and the first one I bonded with was Mari. Well, she was my personal maid, so maybe that was only natural.

“You’re as adorable as always today.”

‘Thanks for the compliment.’

I purred as I leaned into Mari’s hand.

Looking pleased, she gently stroked my head.

After petting my fur a few times, she placed her palm in front of the cushion.

Mari had learned that I was scared of dangling from someone’s grip, so she had changed her method—now she simply lifted me on her open palm.

Thanks to that, I no longer had to endure the terrifying experience of being suspended in someone’s grasp.

I glanced at her hand once, then naturally hopped onto it.

Being lifted while standing on her palm felt like riding a glass elevator—so it didn’t feel particularly scary.

Maybe it wasn’t heights I was afraid of, but just being grabbed and lifted.

Unlike a glass elevator, though, this had no walls at all on any side, which was a problem.

One wrong move and it was death, basically.

Still, unlike when I first came to the mansion, I wasn’t really scared anymore.

“Lady Cat, will you be going for your garden walk today as well?”

‘Mm-hmm.’

I still needed to find that hidden escape hole I couldn’t find last time.

From the very first day I regained my sanity, I’d been searching the room and garden thoroughly for an escape hole. But somehow, there wasn’t a single gap in the room.

…Do rooms normally not have holes? Well, if there were holes, the person who built this mansion would’ve lost their head. Or maybe the one managing it would’ve. Anyway.

As I stood on Mari’s palm, she carefully lifted me and walked out of the room.

Compared to her clumsy movements at first, this was a huge improvement. The first time she tilted her hand by mistake, I truly thought I was going to die from falling. So many thoughts flash through your mind in that split second.

Anyway, since there was unfortunately no escape hole in the room, I had recently given up searching indoors and started walking in the garden instead. More precisely, I was searching for escape holes in the garden.

It felt like a good idea to at least know where one was—for my future comfortable life.

‘Life is unpredictable after all.’

If things looked dangerous, I needed to run.

“Lady Cat, how about soup today?”

Mari whispered softly while holding me.

‘Sure. Sounds great.’

I nodded.

…Not that I was just eating and relaxing, of course. This was important work for my future (finding escape holes).

Though honestly, if life continued like this, I wouldn’t mind giving up on everything—rich unemployed life or whatever—and just becoming the white tiger who brought me here’s pet cat.

Three meals a day, snacks, sleeping when I wanted, waking when I wanted. Going out for walks when bored.

And best of all, no owner ever came looking for me.

Oh. Now that I think about it, this actually sounds pretty good.

Is there even a better job than this? I don’t think so.

“I’ll lay you down here.”

‘Okay!’

I inhaled the fresh scent of grass and nodded happily.

“Lady Cat.”

I wasn’t sure where the voice came from, but someone was calling me quite close.

I turned my head and looked around. No one there?

Aside from Mari, there were no beast-kin nearby.

And there was no movement in the bushes either.

Well, normal staff wouldn’t hide in bushes anyway. Only when sneaking through escape holes or squeezing between shrubs would someone do that.

Then, something black suddenly dropped from a tree above me.

‘Eek!’

Startled, I looked forward—and saw a man in black clothes standing in front of me.

Wait, is it normal for people to just drop out of trees like that?

I looked up at the man holding a shovel and pruning shears.

…Do gardeners usually jump out of trees?

The servants of the Simond household definitely didn’t do this. Ha. Maybe the Simond household was just wrong…

‘…Or is this some regional difference I don’t know about?’

I was once again reminded how many different kinds of beast-kin existed.

‘Mari, who is that?’

I looked at her with questioning eyes, and she answered calmly, as if this was familiar.

“A gardener.”

The man flinched while looking somewhere, then turned back and startled again.

Realizing his behavior probably looked strange, he scratched the back of his head awkwardly and smiled.

“Yes. I’m the gardener. Haha.”

I see. But no matter how you looked at it, jumping down like that didn’t exactly scream “normal gardener.”

Maybe I was mistaken.

‘Well, if Mari’s maid outfit is black, maybe gardeners wear black too.’

I sorted my thoughts and looked back at him.

“Lady Cat, it’s an honor to meet you.”

‘Hello.’

I waved my paw in greeting. The gardener tightened his grip on his shears, and the blades snapped shut, causing a branch caught between them to fall to the ground.

“May I offer you a gift?”

‘A gift?’

I looked at him with sparkling anticipation.

Reading my expression, he approached and placed a flower on my head.

Mari watched the cat with a flower on its head with satisfaction.

“You’ve put a flower on Lady Cat’s head.”

Mari… that wording sounds weird…

I looked at her with a subtle expression.

Thankfully, she didn’t seem malicious—maybe she was just being figurative.

“Indeed. A flower on her head. How adorable.”

The gardener clapped with a serious expression.

Hey, could you two stop seriously saying I’ve got a flower “on my head”…? That sounds weird no matter how you look at it.

To be precise, the flower is just sitting there!

I desperately hoped no other beast-kin would misunderstand me.

I just wanted to live quietly without attracting attention and eventually become human.

“Lady Cat… what should we do? I feel like my heart can’t take it.”

Mari looked at me seriously, her face stiff.

That was the kind of expression someone would make if they truly believed their heart was about to stop.

Mari, please don’t say things like that with a straight face.

No matter how many times I saw it, I could never get used to her saying things like that so seriously.

I turned away from her intense stare.

‘I’m sorry. Even for you, I can’t accept statements about hearts not surviving said with a straight face.’

I sat on the mat, curling my tail around myself.

“Lady Cat…”

“Lady Cat…”

As if expecting something in return, both Mari and the gardener stared at me with shining eyes.

Well… it is only right to return kindness when receiving a gift.

But… I don’t really have anything to give.

In this cat body, I couldn’t even make a flower crown.

And I couldn’t just pick flowers from the garden either.

‘Maybe they just want to see me walking around with this flower?’

People who give gifts usually want to see how the recipient uses them.

Honestly, I didn’t know how I got to that conclusion either.

‘Should I just walk around with the flower on my head?’

I stretched my short legs and stepped forward like a runway model.

An elegant cat walking gracefully.

Behold. This is catwalk.

‘Oh. This is actually kind of fun.’

It’s surprisingly addictive.

I felt like I was getting into character as a model. Stretching my legs made me feel oddly elegant.

So I got fully immersed and wandered around the garden.

But in reality, I was just a tiny fluff ball walking around with a flower on its head, pretending to be graceful.

Mari watched with satisfaction.

‘Our little cat, who used to just sleep all day, is now walking on her own in the garden…!’

Her heart swelled with pride.

But then, sounds of people inhaling sharply came from everywhere.

‘That sound again.’

I stopped mid-step, startled, and looked around nervously.

“So cute I could die.”

A dazed voice came from somewhere.

“Should we… eat it…?”

“No… let’s destroy the mansion… yes, destroy it…”

Rustle—

Bushes began to move.

CRASH!

At that moment, a window shattered and part of the mansion wall cracked.

I froze in place like a stone statue, mouth open.

Plop.

The flower fell from my head.

‘What is that…’

‘They said they’d destroy the mansion—and now it’s actually breaking… is that even possible…?’

‘I don’t know…’

I silently concluded in my mind.

“Myaa…”

Mom… everyone here is weird…

I lost track of time while wandering around the garden with the flower on my head, playing until late, then returned to my room. Spending time with the gardener and Mari had been unexpectedly fun.

‘Maybe I was just happy being with beast-kin who were kind to me.’

Everyone working at the Cadelion mansion had been visibly friendly toward me.

‘Why are they all so nice to me?’

I tugged at a slightly protruding cushion with my paw.

After coming inside from the cold, my whole body felt sluggish.

Lying limp inside what seemed to be a cat bed, my body felt heavy like water-soaked cotton.

And the cat bed itself was cozy.

Just the right size for me.

Grrr—

Even my stomach was doing its job diligently.

I had just eaten, and I was already hungry?

“Meow!”

‘Chocolate cookies!’

I spotted cookies on the table. Of course—chocolate cookies were the best when my energy was low.

I dragged my heavy body toward them.

‘Ah… if only I had telekinesis… why are those cookies on the table?’

I probably couldn’t even finish one. Maybe I couldn’t even take a bite.

…Still, maybe I could manage one bite.

I remembered how, when I first arrived, I had tried to eat something and kept retching until I collapsed without even moving a finger. After struggling with sheer willpower, I could finally eat a little now—but those memories still lingered.

Life was tiring.

But no matter how exhausted I was, hunger made it impossible to sleep.

Like usual, I climbed onto the table with difficulty and reached for the ownerless cookies.

Crunch, crunch—

“Looks like we’ve got a little thief cat.”

Then a teasing voice echoed from inside the room.