<Possessed by an Imperial Damned Cat>

“The look in King’s eyes when he looks at his son the Crown Prince seems unusual, doesn’t it? The appearance of his son the Crown Prince that I saw today closely resembled his wife the Empress’s beauty. I felt my heart sinking, wondering if something was going to happen to him.”

What does that mean?

When I opened my eyes, I saw red roses blooming in abundance in a well-manicured garden, giving off a strong scent, and I saw women walking on the paved path.

“Hush. What father in the world would harm his child, it’s just so……. Since the King treats him as the successor who must shoulder the burden on this empire of Huppert, he is probably going to treat you more harshly than others…..”

The woman in the blue dress answered as if to warn the woman in the green dress who had previously raised the topic, but ended up trailing off as if she was unsure of herself.

Huppert Empire? Sounds like that’s exactly what the words I just heard.

As the warm sunlight was hitting down on the garden, and under the shade of their parasols,  the steps of the maids holding parasols were moving busily as each handful illuminated the hem of the soft silk dresses of noble women under the shade of the parasol.

“More than that, I’m afraid the King doesn’t look too well to have been recuperating.”

“I just thought he looked colder. Oh, and he has grown quite a bit taller since I last saw him, hasn’t he? When he came into the luncheon room earlier, he was taller than most full-grown men. I wish Majesty could have seen that.”

“Indeed. It would have been even better if the King’s empress Elyse had been with us.”

The sight of the noble ladies walking bitterly away became more and more distant.

‘Empress Elyse’. Oh, please.

I kept my eyes closed, overcome by a strange feeling.

Beyond the vast gardens, the palace, showing off its grandeur, stretched out as if it would cover the sky.

I wondered if I was dreaming, but when I opened my eyes, I saw a landscape I had never seen before, waiting for me.

Was the truck that hit me earlier a reincarnation truck?

Ha!

The sudden rush of adrenaline made my mind explode with internal joy like a firework, and the rosy future ahead was ecstatically pictured.

My life is finally coming to light.

No matter which character I possess, I know the future in the novel, so I can live well.

The kitten I saved before I died has brought me good luck.

“Meow!”

At that moment, the nape of my neck is grabbed and my body is lifted into the air.

I instinctively scream.

“Myaaang!”

Huh? What is this?

Why does my body keep floating like this?

“Myahh……?”

I try to open my mouth again, but it’s weird.

Was that a sound that came out of my mouth?

As I tried to wiggle my arms and legs in an attempt to get him to let go of my neck, something warm touched my buttocks.

My flailing legs touched the floor and I quickly steadied myself.

“…….”

No, not on the floor, but it was…on the palm of a human hand.

So I’m sitting on a human hand right now. My whole body!

“What……. what is this?”

What I wanted to ask the person in front of me said the same thing.

I raise my head up to see a man with his back against the dazzling sunlight, staring down at me like a backlit shadow.

His dark hair glistened sharply in the sunlight, and the epaulettes of his jacket were so flashy that they seemed to sting your eyes.

My body stiffened as I caught sight of his slowly narrowing brow.

I try to raise my voice in a hurry to answer.

“Meow…….”

All that came out was a strange crying sound.

What is happening to me?

“…….”

Bloodshot eyes beneath jet-black hair stare at me in silence.

The quiet surroundings and the even more silent within were intense and scrutinizing.

“No way.”

A man’s low voice came out from his lips as they quivered.

A faint smile, as thin as the wind, tugged at the corners of his mouth.

As if someone had discovered something interesting in the midst of boredom, a chill rushed under my ribs as my eyes suddenly narrowed.

“Your Highness, is something wrong…….?”

“Nothing.”

A voice called out over the man’s shoulder, and he cut it off with a quick reply.

The polite voice had just called this man Your Highness.

The man called the crown prince turned around with a slight twist of his head.

“Let’s postpone the hunting until later.”

The sound of several footsteps that were approaching suddenly stopped.

“I don’t feel well.”

A lie!

He didn’t look sick at all, judging by his broad shoulders and the hard build I could feel through his jacket.

“I must return.”

When he lowered his gaze to mine again, the crown prince’s red eyes were loose and somehow creepy.

I could hear the clatter of his horses as he turned to leave.

The Empire of Huppert. Empress Elyse and the crown prince in front of me.

?The imperial family was the only bloodline with red eyes in the Huppert Empire. In that family, And in that royal family, the only person who inherited Empress Dowager Elyse’s ebony hair was the emperor of this great empire, Killian Günther Reinhardt.?

This must be the novel.

Why am I reincarnated here…….

The reflection in the clear-eyed red eyes was sadly, a fluffy furry thing.

In a world where I could be a villain, a heroine, or a passing extra, I’m not reincarnated as a person, but as…….

Gripped by an unbearable sense of foreboding, I slowly looked down at my hands.

White, fluffy fur covered my hands and the paws that were no longer hands at all.

My mouth was dry and my throat was burning, and I instinctively tried to moisten my mouth with my tongue, but I felt the fur touching on the tip of my tongue.

Does that mean I’m now…….

turned into a cat?

My head snapped to a halt as if I’d been slapped across the back of the head.

Wasn’t a cat the only animal this empire had ever exterminated?

A shiver ran down my spine and my eyes began to burn.

The Huppert Empire kills cats as soon as it finds them, that’s the rule.

As if drawn by a magnet, I glanced up at the crown prince, who was still staring down at me with his impassive eyes.

“……It’s a cat.”

Well, I just found out.

Isn’t it unfair to recognize a cat so quickly after exterminating them and only learning about them from pictures for hundreds of years?

* * *

The original “Souls Encroached by Darkness” was something I reluctantly started reading after a friend recommended that I read it, given my aversion to gothic fiction.

The novel delicately describes the male lead’s obsession and madness towards the female lead, so while reading it in print, you might think, ‘Oh my god, does this make sense?’ But in the end, I thought, ‘What should I do? Hmph, I don’t know!’ and made me hope that the main characters will come true as soon as possible.

The main setting of the story is the great empire of Huppert, the most powerful nation on the continent of Demete, a country where the southern protagonist Killian Günther Reinhardt reigned as emperor.

Not long after its founding, this huge empire received an oracle: cursed cats would destroy the empire.

It goes without saying that the citizens of the empire are scouring the entire empire to kill the cat.

For hundreds of years afterward, not even the letter L of a cat could be found in this empire, and surprisingly, once the cat disappeared, the empire continued its history, enjoying great prosperity and peace, as interpreted by the oracle.

Therefore, in this empire, cats have been taught for hundreds of years to be vicious animals and to be killed as soon as they are found.

In such a world, I am held in the hands of the crown prince who will soon be the master of the Huppert Empire.

Shoot-

he sound of the wind blowing past the fresh green leaves captured my fainting spirit.

“…….”

My head was turning so white I forgot how to breathe, but Prince Killian was watching me without even flinching.

My whole body is rigid with fear, and I felt like I should be bursting into tears-but I’m a cat, but there was no trace of sympathy or mercy on his face.

He’s going to kill me, isn’t he?

Killian was portrayed as a mad tyrant who would never exist again.

I had been entrusted with the destruction of an empire because of a cat, and there was no way the crown prince who would inherit it and would let me live.

Still, it was unfair.

Even though cats brought destruction to the empire hundreds of years ago, I have never participated in what the cats did.

Besides, I was trying to save a cat and got hit by a truck and died.

If that’s not enough to make this reincarnation a reward for the cat, then I don’t know what is… F*ck you, human being! 

I really wanted to hold the crown prince’s hand and beg him right now.

Your Highness, there’s a human in here, a woman who’s a cat on the outside, but human in her consciousness!

I know the future, Your Highness! This empire is doomed, and it’s going down in flames!

“Meow!”

I scrambled to my feet in panic, but my claws got caught in the silk lining.

The crown prince quickly put me in his jacket pocket.

I could feel him getting on the horse, walking at a leisurely pace without any haste.

Where is he going?

My heart pounded out of my small body and my eyes grew wide, but there was nothing I could do.

Suddenly, there was only one thing I could realize.

I guess they’re planning to kill me somewhere other than the garden where everyone can see it… … .

* * *

The place the crown prince brought me was, unexpectedly, his bedroom.

I’m not sure if it was his bedroom, but it was a bedroom nonetheless, with a bed, a couch, and a table.

“This is quite different from what I’ve seen in the books.”

Killian said as he watched me sit down at the table.

He seemed intrigued to see a cat that had long since disappeared from the world.

I instinctively crouched down, not knowing what to do with my trembling body, when Killian’s fingertips, which were leisurely tapping me using a table on the back.

“Eek.”

I fell flat on my face, my nose pressed against the table, but I quickly pulled myself up to a sitting position and shivered again.

With news about psychos ruthlessly murdering cats running rampant in my head, Killian, who had been leaning back in his seat, leaned his upper body forward to look at me.

I caught a whiff of his luxurious scent, and before I knew it, his face was right in front of me.

If the ultimate beauty created by God were alive, would it be like this?

Beneath his black hair, his delicate eyebrows and long eyes made a strong impression, and the red pupils within them gave off an aura of grace and mystery.

The high, sculpted bridge of his nose and tightly pursed lips exuded an indescribable aura, and his slender jawline gave him the youthful appearance of a boy on the threshold of adulthood.

At that moment, Killian’s index finger tapped my mouth.

It was like he wanted me to open it.

I opened my mouth slightly, like a person possessed by something, or rather, a cat.

“Your teeth haven’t grown under your jaw yet.”

What? What is he talking about?

Cats aren’t mammoths. Why would their teeth grow under their chin?

“And the claws aren’t threatening at all.”

His fingers grabbed my skinny, pinkish paw pads and he rubbed them together with his thumb.

“Is it because you’re still a baby?”

Killian looked back and made eye contact with me.

“I’ve heard you have a knack for hiding your evil side and bewitching people.”

His slow, vivid red eyes bore into mine, and he ran his fingertips through my hair.

“I suppose it had a point.”