There was even clean water and boiled chicken breast waiting inside the cell.
It’s not scraps. It’s actual food.
Treatment this good could only mean he was still inside the house where Aisha lived.
Why he’d been locked in a cage, he didn’t know—but.
Chomp. Chomp. Chomp—
He was hungry, so he ate the warm chicken first.
Then drank deeply from the water, and settled onto the blanket to think.
Did Aisha bring me here?
Warm sunlight came down through the narrow window. There had been no sunlight like this at Ahili Circus.
Bars and all, this place was practically a cozy home for a cat.
His real home, of course, was inside Aisha’s blankets.
For now, I’ll wait and see. Aisha might come looking for me.
The last time he’d been in his human form, she’d scolded him plenty—but when he was a cat, Aisha handled him with nothing but care.
He folded himself into a loaf and sank into thought.
He thought about Aisha’s arms.
He remembered drifting off in the warmth of her body heat, curled up listening to the sound of her heartbeat—how sleep crept up on him without his noticing.
But right now, he couldn’t go to Aisha.
Yeah. So that’s what “losing something” means.
He suddenly remembered one of Aisha’s lessons and nodded to himself with great conviction.
Aisha’s arms. Lost.
But she’s not dead—which means I can get her back.
Picturing the moment he’d work his way back into her embrace, he stretched all four legs out long and waited patiently for her return.
But—
One day passed. Two days passed.
Even a week passed—and Aisha did not come.
What came, with cheerful cooing and petting, was only a knight who brought fresh water and warm chicken breast.
…Is Aisha not coming?
The cat was beginning to find it strange.
Could she have lost track of me? Is that why she can’t find me?
That wasn’t it.
He listened well. He was always obedient and still—
Hrrmf…
He couldn’t hold back the sound that welled up.
At last, unable to hold back, he wept—or did something very close to it—and scrubbed the tears away with the back of his paw.
And then it struck him.
Did she abandon me?
Abandon.
That word was one the workers at Ahili Circus used when they talked about sick animals.
When the workers said abandon, the sick animals would quietly disappear not long after.
It meant death.
Aisha is abandoning me?!
In an instant, the cat’s fur stood on end, and his violet eyes trembled with something close to terror.
That can’t be right? I haven’t been in human form—I should be in Aisha’s arms by now.
Something—he didn’t know what—had suddenly seized him with cold dread.
Should I escape from this cell?
The truth was that the cat could leave whenever he pleased.
Humans had a tendency to underestimate feline flexibility.
The reason he hadn’t escaped from Ahili Circus then—or from this cell now—was purely a matter of food.
If he left, he might not find anything to eat.
Roll—
The violet eyes spun in indecision.
He was sitting in another loaf, sinking deep into thought—when—click click click.
The faint sound of footsteps came from somewhere not too far away.
It wasn’t the usual knight.
“Who’s that? Why is a maid coming all of a sudden?”
The person in the cell next door spoke up, blunt as ever. A maid’s voice replied with a smile.
“I’m Rose, a newly hired maid. Working the dungeon is a job nobody wants to take—so as the newcomer, I volunteered for the unpleasant duties.”
“You’ve got a loose tongue.”
“Thank you for the compliment.”
The maid answered as if by rote, passed bread to the man in the neighboring cell, and came to a stop in front of the cat’s cell.
“Eat up, little one.”
With a pretty smile, she offered fresh water and chicken breast.
If the usual knight had come, he would have padded over eagerly and dug into the meat at once.
But the cat sat with his tail wrapped neatly around his front paws and studied the maid with a flat, unblinking stare.
Something’s off.
She had no smell.
It was exactly the same as the man who had tried to abduct Aisha.
The cat watched the maid’s retreating back as she left.
He was young and growing, and hunger came fast—but despite the tempting smell of the meat before him, he held himself back with considerable effort.
And then—
“G-good heavens. That maid was a spy from House Foss?!”
From the neighboring cell came the sound of the man inside sobbing.
“So it is. I bought that potion from them—so this is a matter of… well, client relations. No, that’s not it. Duke Foss. Never would have guessed he’d be so reliable. So if I just trust that maid and wait, I can escape from this place?”
The cat pricked his ears, then lost interest almost immediately.
Duke Foss, potions—it was all words he didn’t know.
Yaaawn—
Noisy.
But shortly after, something clicked.
The knight who always came to him had never spared so much as a glance for the man next door—he’d toss the bread through the bars without a second thought.
But that maid—
She was awfully kind to the man in the next cell.
When he had snuck around the estate nestled inside Aisha’s arms, the knights had always been gentle with Aisha.
So would the maid be gentle with Aisha too? That was the question.
She had no smell—and the man who also had no smell had tried to abduct Aisha.
Conclusion:
The maid named Rose was likely working with him. And there was a strong chance she intended to do something to Aisha.
What to do, then.
Kill her?
But if I drink her blood and become human, Aisha will start in with all her lecturing again.
Still—a little lecturing and then making a run for it was surely better than letting Aisha be abducted.
That way, he could eventually find his way back into Aisha’s arms.
She’s not gone. I just lost her. Which means I can find her again.
For the first time in a while, the cat’s eyes shone with a clear and certain light.
He waited quietly at the front of the cell until evening came.
“Hey there, Rose. I’ve been waiting. So when exactly can we escape?”
“Please be patient.”
“Ha. Fine.”
“Good evening, little cat.”
The maid broke off her exchange with the man next door and reached her hand inside the cell to offer the water and meat—and in that instant—snap—
Without hesitation, the cat launched himself at her.
The small but razor-sharp teeth that broke the skin sent the maid’s vision blurring into darkness, and she crumpled.
“T-this kitten killed a person! Guards! Someone look over here! A person is dying!”
The man next door let out a bellowing scream and went into a full panic.
Should I kill that one too?
The boy—who was already a boy now, in the space between one breath and the next—glanced at the man with little interest.
“A-a-a person. He turned into a person. The c-cat turned into a p-person—”
Thud.
But the noisy man helpfully fainted on his own, which was exactly what the cat had hoped for.
The problem was that the footsteps of knights who had heard the man’s screaming were getting louder and closer.
With absurd strength, the boy ripped the iron bars from the window and was nearly out—when he noticed the blood smeared at the corner of his mouth.
Better wipe that clean.
Aisha had been startled when she first saw him, after all.
He climbed back down the wall and scrubbed his mouth thoroughly on the fallen woman’s apron.
By the time the knights arrived—
“…What in the—what is this…”
—the boy was long gone.
________________________________________
Main garden—not there. Kitchen—not there. Dining room—not there. Storage room—
Scritch—
I crossed out the word storage on my tear-blotted paper and let out a sniffle.
“She’s not here. My baby is nowhere.”
It had been days since I started searching, and my baby had vanished as thoroughly as smoke.
Could she really have run away?
No. Impossible.
She always listened to me. She was always so still and—
Hnngh…
I couldn’t hold it back any longer. Tears spilled over, and I scrubbed at them with the back of my hand.
Just then.
Knock. Knock. A quiet, careful sound at my bedroom door.
Who would come this late at night?
I’d been trying to wipe my face with the back of my hand, but I’d been crying so long that the tears refused to dry—my whole face was a wet mess.
Scrub, scrub, scrub—
I finally used a handkerchief to clean up, and opened the door with my eyes swollen into puffs.
“Who is it?”
And there—
“Meow.”
—stood an enormous man. Wearing a white cat plushie mascot head over his face, dressed in a full cat suit.
He wiggled the fingers of his right hand at me.
“……”
“……”
A brief silence.
“…Father?”
“Tch. You figured it out already.”
Looking flustered and caught, Calypse gave up and pulled off the plushie head, his hands still bundled in fluffy cat-paw gloves.
I offered him an honest review.
“Your meow was too deep.”
“I know. I regretted it the moment it left my mouth.”
At least we agreed on that.
“Consider me very lucky that’s the worst of it,” he muttered.
________________________________________
