The white cat that swore vengeance was just lazying on the dragon king's lap -v1c11 Home Visit
After the event with the 2 thugs and the suspicious man, I checked myself into an Inn and called it a day.
The next day, I headed to Klaus's place and was greeted with the figure of the 2 individual I met yesterday.
The possibility of meeting the same person two days in a row in this busy capital was close to slim.
Yet here they are. My face went stiff when our eyes met.
"Ugh…" -Ruri
"Hehehe, what a coincidence, young lady."
"The way you left yesterday was quite something."
The smile both of those men gave me was giving me gooseb.u.mps. I promptly turned tails and ran.
Throwing out insincere apologies to the people whom I b.u.mped into while running, despite being under the same situation as yesterday, I was unexpectedly calm.
This time around, I entered into an alley with no people on purpose.
The entire road ahead was just a straight line. However, the moment I reached the corner at the far end of the road…
"Aa? Where did she disappear to?"
"We were right behind her the whole time. There's no way we would lose sight of her! Find her!"
The men were causing a scene on the road.
I was observing the situation behind a small box.
(thisisbadthisisbad)
I wore the cat transforming bracelet the moment I made the turn into the corner and hide behind some wooden boxes.
Once I've confirmed the voices were gone, I jumped on top of the wooden box and gave myself a pat of relief.
Thanks to their acute sense of smell, demi-humans are able to differentiate the odor emitted by humans and demi-humans.
So it stands to reason that the men chasing me knew I was a human from the get-go.
I kept the bracelet within easy reach just for a situation like this. n.o.body would've guessed that a human would turn into a cat and hide behind a small box.
The concealment magic infused in the bracelet was one so strong that not even demi-humans with their superior senses were able to see through it. It would be better to say that I've actually become a 'cat'.
I could actually feel the obsession of the creator.
Thanks to the cat-tify of my outward appearance down to the body odor, I was able to protect myself just like that.
This was a technique I thought of in case I was gonna get into a situation not unlike what I just encountered. To think that I would use it this early…
(I might b.u.mp into them again. Better for me to take cat form as much as possible while I'm in the capital.)
With that in mind, I resumed my journey to Klaus's place in cat form.
In my current form, I can't hide the fairies like how I did with a robe. So I had them follow me at a distance.
Upon arrival at Klaus's place, instead of a standard looking house you would come to expect a normal person to have, what the eyes behold was a large mansion.
Looking through the thick front door, the actual entrance to the house itself could be seen at a distance. At first glance, it would be hard to imagine the whole structure of the house.
Just how huge is this place I wonder?…
I was definitely not expecting this since we are talking about Chelsea's son here.
Self-sufficient Chelsea that lives quietly in the forest, THAT very Chelsea.
What's even more surprising was the tiger that was standing in front of the thick door.
… That's right, standing there was without a shred of doubt, a tiger.
The tiger that was
covered in yellowish-brown fur had a large physique and fierce looking cat eyes with a thick looking paw that could easily send anybody away flying if punched with.
If it wasn't for the fact that he was wearing normal clothing and was standing on both its feet, one would mistake him as a normal tiger.
Excluding a small faction in the beast man community, most of them are actually quite gentle. Anybody who doesn't know that would run the moment they saw the tiger.
The tiger was probably the gatekeeper.
Ignoring the stares he was giving, I started approaching him. However, I was troubled with my current cat appearance.
Only just now that the reality of not being able to return to human form dawned on me.
It's a good thing that I was able to transform into a cat, and turning back into human form is a simple matter of removing the bracelet that has resized to fit snugly on my wrist.
Here comes the problem: It doesn't seem that I'll be able to do that anytime soon with my squishy cat paw pads.
Although fairies are beings that could come in contact with things from the natural world and magical powers, I couldn't ask for their help while I was in the middle of the street.
If I were to ask for the help of those eager-to-please-me fairies, forget about just one, the whole lot of them would come flocking to me in a heartbeat.
There's also the method of asking the tiger in front of me to help me with the removal of the bracelet, but I was heavily against that.
I wasn't courageous enough to extend my weak looking cat's arm that was even smaller than the finger of the tiger that was in front of me. His huge arm could probably easily break a stone.
My bracelet would definitely be shattered into pieces…
Conversations could be done telepathically, so there's no rush for me to return to human form. The problem in that is whether the host would agree to meet with a weird cat.
(I would definitely send such suspicious individual away.
A cat that could speak… Hmm, but there are demi-human from the cat race, so something like a talking cat shouldn't be that uncommon)
While having such internal monologue, without noticing, I was already standing in front of my destination in no time. Upon seeing me standing frozen in place, a worried fairy approached me.
They probably knew that coming in drove wouldn't be a good idea, so it was only the one representative.
『Ruri, not entering~?』
『Oh no, I'm entering. I was just deep in thought. Hey, my bracelet. Could you… ah, someone is coming out.』-Ruri
Since the fairy came at a good time, I was thinking of having him remove my bracelet. However, before that could happen, a well-dressed person emerged from within the door.
The gatekeeper tiger gave a bow respectfully and gave his greeting to the person.
I wasn't sure if it was the owner of the house, but he was definitely a resident of this house.
He had scarlet colored straight hair and light yellow colored eyes.
However, looks could be deceiving for demi-humans. So in truth, he could very much younger or older that that.
When I first laid eyes upon this person, I somehow instinctively knew that he's Chelsea's son, even though his appearance is nothing like Chelsea's.
While pondering on why I thought that was the case, noticing that our gaze met, the man walked towards my direction.
However, instead of me, he was aiming his sight at the fairy that was beside me.
"That's quite a rare combination, a fairy and a cat. What are you doing in such a place?"
Because he was sending that line of questioning at the fairy, I b.u.t.ted in.
『Ah, I'm the one here to see you.』-Ruri
At first, The man showed a slightly shocked expression when I telepathically answered him. However, he quickly gave a smile and take up a kind demeanor akin to talking to a small child by squatting to my height and concentrated on me.
As I thought, even if it's kinda uncommon for a cat to be able to express its will in this world, it's not something that would cause havoc or anything.
"Are you here for something?"
『Are you Chelsea's son, Klaus? My name is Ruri. I was asked to run an errand by Chelsea-san, thus my visit today.』-Ruri
"Ahh, yes. I'm Klaus. So you're Ruri? It's true that my mother told me that she would send me a helper…" -Klaus
Klaus gave a doubting gaze.
To proof that I was telling the truth, I opened up my alternative s.p.a.ce in front of Klaus.
A letter came dropping out from the opening, which Klaus promptly caught and gave his confirmation about my ident.i.ty after seeing his mother's writing on the front of the letter.
"This is my mother's handwriting alright.
I apologize for the rudeness. You're welcome to enter my home." -Klaus
Before anything, I really wanted to have my bracelet removed. However, since I've missed the chance to do that yet again, I followed behind Klaus in my cat form.
I had trouble deciding on where to sit after entering the room, but Klaus kindly pointed out a big sofa which I then jumped onto and sat in the middle of.
Soon after, someone which I presume was working as a servant in this mansion appeared with a plate. He placed the plate on the table in front of me and promptly poured milk into it. Right…
I regretted not turning back into human form when I had the chance.
All the while, Klaus was reading the content of the letter I gave him with a frown on his face.
After some time has pa.s.sed, he rubbed his temple and gave a sigh while looking at me.
"May I ask a few questions?" -Klaus
『Yeah, please go on.』-Ruri
"How long did you know my mother for?" -Klaus
『About 2 years, give or take.』-Ruri
After that, he continued to ask me a few more questions which I answered honestly.
Most of it was concerning life in the forest and the general wellbeing of Chelsea. Halfway through, I pa.s.sed Klaus the herb that Chelsea had requested me to give him.
"Lastly, in my mother's letter, she mentioned that your magic power attracts fairies. But there is only one fairy beside you…"
『Oh, I asked the rest of them to stay away from me. If too many of them gather around me while I was on the street, there will be a huge commotion.
I could call them over if you like.』-Ruri
Excluding the one fairy that is currently with me, I could feel the presence of other fairies anxious to know whether it was their turn to be beside me or not right now from outside the window.
Since Klaus was interested anyways, I gave the okay to the fairies outside after receiving his permission. Then, the fairies came pouring in into the room one after another, filling the whole place in an instant.
Upon seeing the army of fairies that overtook his house, Klaus straightens his body in shock and gave a dead eye look.
As for me, since I wasn't expecting this many of them to gather here, I gave out a weird fake smile that caused my mouth to twitch uncontrollably. My cat whisker was making a dance on its own, going up and down, up and down.
Other than the usual fairies that had followed me from the forest, it seems that the fairies that were natively from the Capital joined the ranks of my fairy minion. Mayhem ensues.
『Wah, so this girl is Ruri? Nice to meet you』
『It's a white cat~』
『She smaller than rumored, though?』
『Her magic power is so comfortable~』
Because the fairies were all stating their opinions all at once, it was very noisy.
And because they were telepathically sending their thoughts, the action of me cupping my ear does not help at all.
As I was covering both my ears with my paw, I could see that Klaus was doing the same thing as me with his hand.
Although we know that this action in itself was useless, we still did it nonetheless.
『Everybody, stop, STOP~!! My head is splittinggggg』-Ruri
After saying that a few times, the fairies finally quieted down.
It would be bad if the same thing happened again, so I asked that the fairies from the capital to leave the room, and only the ones that accompanied me from the forest to stay.
After both I and Klaus gave a sigh of relief, we continued with our conversation.
"Fairies are indeed attracted to your magic power." -Klaus
After accepting the truth in front of him, Klaus pause for a thought. He then resumed the conversation with a serious face.
"If that is so, I won't be able to look after you here." -Klaus
I was fully prepared to make this place my home for the duration of my visit here. Upon listening to the rejection Klaus gave me, I can't help but ask him for the reason.
『Eh?! Why is that?』-Ruri
At first, I thought the reason was because the fairies semi-tortured him with the barrage of questions a while ago. But Klaus said that that was not the case.
"I'm sure you've heard this from my mother, but your existence is something really rare. Be it in the Dragon Kingdom, or any other country for that matter.
The security over here is seriously lacking… A better place would be the castle." -Klaus
『There's really no need to go that far for me in my opinion…』-Ruri
This is the castle the Dragon King is living that we are talking about.
Just the thought of staying in this huge mansion alone was already overwhelming enough for me. I would definitely not be able to relax at all if I were to stay in the royal castle.
"No, If it was up to me, that wouldn't even be enough. The thought of anything happening to you is something I wouldn't dare think about." -Klaus
"I will first go over to the royal castle to ask for the permission of his majesty. I'll be back real soon, so please don't leave this house no matter what!" -Klaus
Without even waiting for my answer, Klaus left the house in a hurry.
『Ah, before that, could you help me with my brace…』
The sound of the door closing finished my sentence.
(What should I do…)