“Vivian was originally a human when she was awake, like me, and only became a cat when she went to sleep. That’s how we all are now.”

“!”

The original Vivian walked around as a human during the day, like Irina?

Then why the hell am I……?

I looked up at her in surprise.

The more I listened, the more it sounded like I was hearing something like a thunderbolt.

When the red moon rises, I’ll get pregnant and give birth, and unlike Irina and the original Vivian, I’m a cat when I’m awake and a human when I’m asleep.

What kind of curse is this?

I was so frustrated that I wanted to cry, I flopped down on my furry butt.

Irina, noticing my confusion, gently held my front paw.

“We’ll find a way to get back to normal. There has to be.”

She seemed to want to make things right more than anyone.

If I could be a human when I was awake and a cat when I was asleep, it wouldn’t be easy, but I could live in this world less conspicuously.

But now I was the opposite of that.

I couldn’t help but notice the look in her eyes when she spotted me.

“I’ll be there, I have to be.”

She closed his red, bloodshot eyes and took a deep breath.

She held that pose for a long time as if burying the turbulent emotions that had overwhelmed her.

The tears she’d been holding back seemed to burst as she realized that her daughter, whom she’d finally found, was facing even greater challenges.

As she swallowed her regretful thoughts, Irina’s face showed a mixture of fear and crushing frustration.

“…….”

Come to think of it, she said she only had about a year left to live.

I can imagine the urgency in her mind to find a way to bring me back in that short time.

I stopped focusing on the immediate future and leaned into her hand.

Irina, who, in spite of her fright, had become contemplative as soon as she found me, she was like a mother who had reclaimed her cub.

I can’t begin to fathom the pain she must have felt, living a life of atonement.

Why had God sentenced them to such a terrible punishment?

As she stroked me, her hands were careful but tender as she pondered her thoughts.

I can’t imagine the anguish she must have felt at the loss of her daughter, but I hope I can bring her some comfort.

As difficult as the future might be in this life I possessed, it didn’t seem real to me at the moment.

But Irina was different.

She would have gone through those harsh times and eventually become a mother.

“Are you saying she was like you before she lost ……?”

Baron asked, looking back and forth between me and Irina.

“Yes.”

“Was there an incident that could have been a starting point?”

“That…….”

Irina’s hand hesitantly wrapped around my back, as if she were at a loss for words.

“It’s hard for me to explain right now……. If you give me time to check, I’ll tell you soon.”

What did she mean she needed to check it out?

I had no idea what that might be, but judging by the uncomfortable look on Irina’s face, it had to be something serious.

“The reason I can’t tell you now is because I’m not sure, and I have no intention of hiding anything. Really.”

After she finished speaking, Irina made eye contact with me.

The look in her eyes made me feel suddenly uneasy as if it were me she needed to confirm.

“How much time do you need?”

Killian asked after a long moment of silence.

His expression didn’t show much agitation, but he seemed uncomfortable somehow.

“A month at the longest. Probably less than that, Your Highness.”

Irina replied as calmly as she could, tightening her grip on me.

After listening to Irina’s answer, Baron spoke up.

“If there is anything I can do to help, please let me know.”

Irina paused for a moment, then looked up.

“Then I……. I have one, Your Majesty.”

This was a request for Killian, not Baron.

Her hesitant tone worried me, but I held my breath, wondering what she would say.

“My child. Would it be possible for Your Majesty to keep her as she is now?”

At her request, Killian stiffened and looked at Irina as if he had heard something unexpected.

“I’d love to be able to carry her around and protect her like I used to, but it’s not possible in her current state. If she has to be a cat while she’s awake, she’s bound to be noticed, no matter how desperately I try to protect her, and even if I could keep her at home, I’m sure others would notice if she moved around during the day, and being away from her for even a short time would make her anxious and unbearable.”

She bit her dry lip for a moment, then spoke again, more cautiously.

“I think the only reason she’s been able to stay undetected in this form for so long is because she’s by your side, and while it’s easy for people to pounce on me as a commoner, they wouldn’t dare do that to you.”

Irina was right, Killian’s bedroom was not for the faint of heart.

Sure, there were those like Madame Gisela who would turn up unannounced, but for some reason, the threshold seemed higher than at Irina’s house.

“I come to you with a request. With all due respect, Your Highness, please allow my child to stay with you until she is back to her normal self. If you will do so, I will be loyal to you with my life, though I am sure I am not up to the task, and if you will be so kind as to allow me to see my child every day, I will be able to provide you with answers to what I need to check more quickly.”

Irina took a deep breath and finally finished speaking.

I looked at Killian, not sure what he would say.

“If that’s what it takes to get the answers faster, then so be it.”

His expressionless face seemed to loosen somehow.

Then again, a month seemed like a long time to me, so maybe he was just being amenable to the idea that it could be shortened.

“I’ll have her keep with me.”

He replied casually, lifting the teacup that hadn’t been to his lips in quite some time.

“But there is one thing I need to ask you.”

Sipping his tea leisurely, Killian’s red lips curled as he cast his gaze on Irina.

“The year that confirmed and announced that all the cats had been killed is the same year the red moon first rose. I wonder if the two events are related.”

The announcement that the cats had been exterminated had been made in the twenty-first year of the Empire, according to the book I and Killian had read.

So it was also 21 when the Red Moon first appeared.

“That’s right. My late mother told me that our existence coincided with the Red Moon, and I can only assume that our curse is connected to that event.

Once we reach the age of twenty, we live in this form until we die, Your Grace. We don’t know exactly why, but my late mother told me it’s because cats inherently grow old in this form when they become graves.

Perhaps that’s why we remain in our adult form, and when our children reach adulthood, we fulfill our role as mothers and die.”

Irina’s hand suddenly strokes my face and she smiles sadly.

“I’m glad I found her, and if she’s lost her memory, I’m lucky to be able to tell her now. Thank you again, Your Majesty, for saving my Vivian.”

Irina pressed the tip of her reddened nose against her tear-stained eyes and brushed away a sigh of relief.

After my arrival in this world, Irina would have searched for her daughter, who had vanished in agony.

I felt sorry for her and gently stroked the back of her hand with my forepaw.

Where had the original Vivian, the one she loved, gone?

Had she simply evaporated?

Or does she still exist somewhere?

I looked up at Irina, who was looking at me longingly, and hesitantly took her hand in mine.

I could see the cool, beautiful red eyes watching me from afar deepen in thought.

“Irina Scott. You are to come to the study every day to see your daughter.”

At Killian’s words, I snapped my head up to look at him.

* * *

After Baron’s teleportation, his true nature seemed to be turned upside down.

The Captain of the Royal Guard had inspected all of them after hearing that the Imperial Ministry of Magic had detected magic power.

They had deduced that the center of the palace was the most likely location, but there was no sign of the missing Baron anywhere.

The Captain of the Guard entered Killian’s study, explaining that the last place they would search in the main house was the study and bedroom of the Emperor and Crown Prince.

‘Search the place’

Killian replied leisurely as he strolled past them.

‘……Amazing.’

Killian said with a furrowed brow as he sipped tea on his bedroom balcony.

I looked up at him, sipping juice from a concave saucer, wondering what he meant.

“You have a knack for getting buried so much.”

Killian’s words made me feel like I’d just buried my face in the juice.

I realized my face was soaked, and more juice ran down my fur.

I licked my lips, tongue flicking out, and Killian clicked his tongue and started wiping my face with a handkerchief.

It was still a nonchalant touch, but it didn’t pull back from his reach like I used to.

I don’t know if I’ve grown or if he’s relaxed his grip.

“Here. Eat.”

He set me back down on the table and I began to eat the dessert on my plate.

Starting tomorrow, I will be able to see Irina briefly in the study every day.

Killian had arranged to take me to the study in time for her to clean it.

My head was still full of questions.

What was the obvious reason that a cat like Irina, who had been around for so long, needed to do penance?

Did it really have to do with infant mortality?

And why did I, unlike the original Vivian, have the exact opposite timing of becoming human?

And is there any way to change Irina’s freakish fate at all…….

Since this world is the past of the original, I believed that if I made small changes, the ending would be different.

The curse in front of me was so unfamiliar that my head was spinning.

As I tilted my head in thought, I suddenly noticed the crumbs scattered across the table.

I really need to end this ‘chop-chop’ method of spilling sweets every time I eat something.

“Mmmm.”

Killian giggled as I swiped at the dessert powder I’d sneakily spilled on the table with my back paw.

“You think I won’t see that?”

Killian said, wiping my paw off with a napkin.

I found a comfortable position at the table and sat down, watching as Killian gracefully lifted his teacup and sipped his tea.

As he stared down at me over his teacup, his eyes lengthened, casting shadows in red irises that burned redder than the sunset.

The setting sun sank deep into the arched glass windows of the balcony, casting an orange glow across the bedroom.

A cool breeze ruffled his dark hair.

The corners of Killian’s mouth twitched upward for a moment, dazzled by the brilliant black hair.

“Why.”

He set his teacup down, and our eyes met, and he asked lazily.

I’d been looking up too long.

He sighed languidly, cupped his face in one hand, and nudged my front paw playfully.

A grim smile crept across his half-shaded, sculpted face, and I quickly stepped back, my heart sinking.

“Meow.”

I shook my head and tapped his index finger where he’d touched me, as if to ask me to turn over my palm.

“Hmph, come on.”

Despite his narrowed gaze, Killian willingly turned over his hand, and I put my front paw on his large hand.

There was no point in trying to get him to sleep in the bed anyway, so I decided to try a different tactic this time.

‘In bed…….’