I Became a Cat That Sleeps with an Obsessive Tyrant Every Night - Chapter 26

“Do you remember the oracle?”

At her question, Harrid, who had been standing beside her, wiped his forehead and shrugged, answering instead.

“The one who took a precious life. After passing through eight darknesses, we will face nine nights……”

“I am the seventh. Of the eight darknesses.”

Harrid frowned, not understanding the meaning of Irina’s words.

It was the same for everyone else, including me.

Irina looked down at the prayer and took a deep breath with nervous eyes.

“It was said that a life of atonement is a life in which one cannot move toward the light. In other words, our lives had to remain in darkness.”

A being that should not be discovered by anyone.

A life of being a cat that deserves to die at night, and cannot even rest comfortably.

Did the eight darknesses mean a life of atonement for eight people?

Wait. What if Irina was the seventh…….

“Originally, Vivian was the eighth child…… but maybe not anymore.”

I flashed back to what Irina had told me in the study.

“I told you I’d have something to tell you when I’d finished checking, Your Highness.”

Irina, who spoke to Killian, made eye contact with me and took a deep breath.

“At first, when I returned to the palace gardens, I couldn’t believe it. After Vivian’s death, I opened my eyes and was suddenly back in the past.”

“!”

Everyone froze at her words.

“But there was no sign of Vivian. I thought I had been dreaming, and I searched the garden for her for days.

But it was definitely a return to the past because the events I’d experienced had happened exactly the same, only Vivian was gone.

I went from cleaning Amabile Castle in the villa to being assigned to the main castle, and I was told to change rooms in the maid’s apartment.

Everything happened exactly as it should, only my daughter was nowhere to be found.

“After a frantic search, I came across your Highness and the Count, and…….”

Tears were already forming in the corners of Irina’s eyes as she spoke, desperate to prove that her story was not a fantasy.

“I came face to face with my daughter, who had been stricken with amnesia and had turned into someone else.”

And the future I knew, started to disappear in my head.

As reality changed, so did the future.

I hoped that the future in my head wouldn’t disappear until I entered the library of the royal library and saw with my own eyes what our truth was. Because it was the only clue I had to hold on to.

I had forgotten how I lost my daughter, but I remembered that my child was dead.

“But then Your Highness allowed us to come here, and I think I have a vague idea of what this book in this place we’ve been searching for generations says.”

She soon stretched out her arm and took my hand.

“What if the Vivian I knew was killed and brought back to the past?”

“What if my daughter, who lost her memory and behaved like a completely different child, had a new start in life?”

I was not the eighth person she said I was.

Because now I am in this body, completely different from Vivian.

My whole body became cold as if all the blood had drained from it.

Irina took a deep breath and bit her trembling lip.

“The Vivian of today must be the ninth child.”

Irina brought the book in front of me with uneasy eyes.

Her eyes were filled with fear, sadness, and hope as she looked forward to something uncertain.

“!”

At that moment, as soon as my hand touched the book, light leaked out and the letters began to distort and change.

?To the Child of the Nine Nights.?

As the title on the book’s cover changed, a groan and a sigh escaped from Baron’s mouth as he watched.

He wasn’t the only one in shock.

We were all looking at the book in disbelief.

As we turned the pages, the words of the prayer, which had prayed for the peace of the empire in marvelous words, lost their shape and began to form completely different sentences.

Soon, the book’s preface was filled in again.

?To Aegnis, the great god of Huppert.?

Everyone who was watching the letter that was finally completed immediately took their breath away or became speechless.

?Please take me where I need to be used.

Please give me the courage to burn my life and protect it until it turns into a handful of ashes.

Please guide me so that I can persevere through the burning pain and reach the place God wants me to be.

The truth is sickening and evil is coming.

I desperately ask for strength to fight them.

Grant me the time to endure.?

The letters seemed to have been pressed down with great care.

‘The truth is sickening and evil is coming.’

A cold feeling seeped into the back of my neck, and my rough breathing rose to the top of my throat.

It was as if an invisible warning was coming to me that the secrets hidden were perhaps even more terrifying than I had anticipated.

As Irina and I turned to the next page, the situation grew more urgent, and the neat handwriting read like it had been scribbled in haste.

?Child of the Nine Nights.

They are coming.

Only you will be able to face the truth of this book.

I have torn the original text, disguised it, and entrusted it to Aegnis, the fire god who protects Huppert.?

“!”

Everyone, including Killian, who had been reading, stopped.

Baron swallowed a dry groan and narrowed his eyes.

It matched what was described in Huppert’s cases found in the library.

So now this book was written by the same man who had defaced the original?

Why would he do such a thing to the original text when he seemed to be the one who wanted to protect it the most?

?They were never able to interpret it.

There is no way to hide my regret that I was discovered before they could figure it out, but our best defense from here on out is defense.

My death will take away their time for a while.

I do not know how long it will take for this book to awaken, but I am sending all of my divine power into it.?

“God……power…….”

Killian repeated in a low voice.

?Hopefully, it will buy us some time, enough time to make it safely to the Royal Library.

Child of the Nine Nights.

If you read this book, you will become the one person Huppert has been waiting for, a sinner’s child who has truly repented and is now free to go before the world.

Do not be afraid of a life where day and night have changed.

It is only a sign from the gods to indicate that you are a child of the night, but the gods have planned your freedom.

Your destiny is to save many more.

The future of the empire lies in your existence.

Find the whereabouts of the hidden texts.

The god Aegis will guide you.

The sins of your mother, and those before you, are all forgiven, and you will be free from the bondage of suffering.

I will die and fulfill my duty.

And so,  I would like to ask you one last favor.

Please find the surviving child of my family who is about to die.

Fill that child’s hungry belly and let him or her see the future.

Therein lies the answer to your transformation.?

The author of the book, who had foreseen a disastrous future for his family, had left a note to find a descendant.

Who on earth created this book?

As I questioned, Killian locked his dark eyes on the book.

“……Fabien Nelas.”

Baron, who had been deep in thought at his words, suddenly raised his head.

“Isn’t that the priest who was said to have been murdered in the year the oracle came down?”

?Seventeenth year of the Empire. The emergence of oracles and the incident of damage to the original text.

; The original text was torn and damaged within a week after the oracle came down. A priest was killed in defense of it.?

I remembered that it was listed as one of the events of Huppert that I had seen in the library here with Killian.

The priest who was supposed to protect the oracle damaged it and made it disappear!

No one could guess what had happened that day.

“No wonder he has powers.”

Harrid swallowed dryly as he spoke.

It must have been a great decision, or rather a reckless rebellion against God, for a priest to damage the oracle and burn it. How could he do such a thing… … .”

“If someone was targeting the oracle and it was the last defense he had to take to stop them. A priest can only do so much.”

Baron answered, looking nervously at Killian,

“Your Majesty. The Nelas is a family that has been caught up in a lot of corruption and has now disappeared and while conspiracy theories have been bandied about, the crimes that led to the family’s downfall are hardly negligible. Perhaps we should look into it first, and report back to you.”

“There may be a descendant alive, find him or her first.”

“Do you really think he’s alive? That family had long since collapsed before I was born. Even if there is a miraculous chance that the descendants survive, there is a high probability that over a long period of time, they would have lost their qualifications as priests and turned apostate.”

“I will see to that with my own eyes.”

Killian said in a clear tone, turning away, and Baron nodded in agreement.

“We will find it, Your Highness.”

* * *

Killian, holding me, pushed open the door to one of the balconies that led to the bedroom.

I walked slowly over and leaned against the railing, watching the dawn sky stretch out like blue velvet.

Baron and Harid, who completely restored the messed up library, returned to Wingston’s house in a state of exhaustion.

Before they left, Harrid explained to me that the constellation that appeared at this time was the constellation of Aegnis.

I don’t know because I lost my memory, but it seemed like it meant to find out what it was.

“…….”

In the sky, Aegnis glowed bright and red, like a ball of flame.

The Child of the Nine Nights.

The chosen one of the god Aegis.

I wonder what this all means.

Perhaps I should count myself lucky to be free of the being that would bring destruction to Huppert.

But I was hoping for something more.

Fabian Nelas had told me not to fear the change from day to night. God had planned my freedom.

Doesn’t that freedom mean that I can move around as much as I want?

I secretly hoped my days and nights had changed, but my paws were still full of fluffy fur.

I still needed more information.

“Heh.”

I sighed and buried my face in Killian’s arms.

I could feel Killian’s hands stroking me.

Fabian Nelas, the man who wrote the prayer, must have known all about the darkness of the Atonement and the contents of the oracle bestowed by the god Aegnis.

But he kept it a secret for years, choosing to die so that no one else would know.

Why did he risk his life to tear it up and hide it?

here was a high probability that all the answers lay in part of the oracle hidden by Fabian Nelas.

I felt like I had to dig deeper into this to become a human being.

Lost in thought, I glanced up at Killian.

“Meow.”

I said, patting his arm, and Killian glanced down at me.

I scratched at his shirt as if I wanted to write something down, and he lifted one hand and held it in front of me.