JSOML 18

Chapter 18

A light breeze rustled the plane tree leaves.

At the end of his gaze as he looked back was the owner of the sword, Ian. His boots, which had been repeatedly touching the ground and lifting, finally drew closer to Lery.

Lery’s head was filled with question marks.

‘How did he get here?’

Ian’s entire body was drenched in sweat, and his collar was haphazardly undone.

He wiped the beads of sweat forming on his skin and retrieved his sword. The thicket he hastily scanned contained nothing.

“……What the hell.”

Ian looked down at Lery with a nonchalant expression. Then he carefully picked Lery up.

“Ha. You again.”

His sigh filled the silent space.

Ian had been on his way back after reporting on the knights’ group training session. As he was passing through the garden, cooling his sweat-dampened back in the cool air,

“Kyaaak!”

A threatening cat cry rang out. The only cat that could be in the imperial palace was obvious without even looking.

‘If something happens to that little brat, the Crown Prince’s tears won’t dry up.’

Just imagining Theodore’s despairing face gave him goosebumps. Ian had thrown his sword because he didn’t want to see that sight.

“Was it a bug?”

“……Myaaah. (……It was a viper, you idiot.)”

Do you think I’d be afraid of something so trivial?

Lery’s eyes narrowed into triangles.

At the sharp retort, Ian’s eyes also grew long and slender.

The once-docile cat seemed to have grown by leaps and bounds into an imperial street thug.

He clicked his tongue and set Lery down on the bench.

Lery’s fine fur shimmered like snow crystals in the moonlight. The ribbon tied around him was comical, quite unlike a troublemaker.

He bent his knees and brought his eyes level with Lery’s.

“What’s wrong with you, really?”

For someone so pretty-looking.

“Bored?”

He lightly tapped Lery’s plump cheek.

“For someone no bigger than a mouse’s bell, you sure are…….”

Annoying.

The latter part was almost inaudible, but Lery heard it loud and clear.

“Myaang! (What do you mean I’m a troublemaker!)”

“You’re well-fed, you know.”

“……?”

“I should tell them not to give you snacks anymore.”

Hah, really. Do you think I’d be controlled by snacks at my age?

Lery’s temper twisted at his words, which sounded like he was scolding a young child.

Ian, on the other hand, let out a snicker.

Whether he knew he was being scolded or not, his sulky expression was amusing. It looked like a flood of spite would pour out if you poked him.

He gave Lery’s small head a light thump with his fist. Immediately, Lery’s face crumpled like a squashed tin can.

“Mi-yaaang! (That hurts!)”

“Hey. Thug.”

Lery’s lips twitched as he bared his small fangs.

Ian ignored him and gently pressed Lery’s paw pad. On cue, adorable little claws popped out.

“You should have scratched me with these.”

“Myang. (Don’t touch me.)”

“What are you going to do with these anyway.”

Lery responded with a wicked smile instead of words.

‘What am I going to do? Give you a thorough beating, of course.’

And he delivered violence in proportion to the number of exclamation marks. The indiscriminate assault left Ian’s chest tingling with a spicy sensation.

[SYSTEM: Skill ‘Lethal Nyah Punch’ has been used!]

[Skill ‘Lethal Nyah Punch’ has been used!]

[Skill ‘Lethal Nyah Punch’……!]

Lery’s punching didn’t stop.

Ian couldn’t hold back his laughter, finding the soft sensation trivial. When had violence ever been this cute and endearing?

“……Marquis Serpeon?”

Just as he was delighting in his vengeance, Sonia’s voice reached them. Sonia’s face bore an indescribable subtlety.

Only then did Ian’s grinning face quickly return to its usual composure.

Ian, his face flushed like a strawberry, fumbled with his lips. He felt like he needed to say something in his defense.

“Well…….”

As he hesitated, Lery trotted over to Sonia. Then, pointing at him, he said,

“Myaaang! (Sonia, he hit me!)”

He’s bullying me, teasing me, and everything!

Sonia looked back and forth between the tattling Lery and Ian. Caught off guard by the unexpected combination, she couldn’t assess the situation.

Meanwhile, Ian, who only wanted to escape, sprang to his feet.

“Then.”

He abruptly offered his greetings and fled as if running away.

Sonia and Lery, left behind, bit their lips as they watched his retreating back.

His once-proud gait was nowhere to be seen; his stumbling, awkward walk was quite a sight.

“Hahaha!”

Only after even Ian’s afterimage had disappeared did laughter fill the garden.

And so, the kindness that had been meant for Lery turned into a bundle of laughs.

* * *

The next day, unlike the busy people of the Crown Prince’s palace, Lery was lying sprawled on the windowsill like a melted slime.

Pompom had tugged at Lery’s ears and tail, insisting they go out for a walk since the weather was nice, but Lery firmly refused and chose to stay behind.

He needed time to think by himself.

‘He turned from a viper into a human.’

Above Lery’s head, the silhouette of the man he’d encountered the previous night floated up in hazy wisps.

From his broad, white back to his arrogant smile.

The man had clearly transformed from a viper into a human and disappeared in an instant. Moreover, he could understand Lery’s words perfectly.

‘No matter how I think about it, it’s suspicious. It feels like he’s the same kind of being as me. The original owner of this body that I saw in the memory clue also transformed the same way.’

Lery wrinkled his pink nose as he recalled the memory clue he’d seen through the system window not long ago.

In the replayed scene, the young Lery had also transformed from a cat into a human.

‘He seems to know a lot about me. Oh, and his appearance was as unfamiliar as a foreigner’s too.’

Moreover, the fact that he had an exotic appearance different from the Sentineo citizens he’d seen so far bothered him the most.

Jet-black hair and crimson eyes were extremely rare here.

‘The important thing is that man knows how to become human.’

That the man knew a method that even Lycaon and the system, whom he’d desperately prayed to without response, didn’t know.

Lery firmly pressed his lips together as if resolved.

Instinctively, he judged the man to be dangerous, but he seemed to hold the key to the method of becoming human, so he desperately wanted to meet him again.

‘Maybe he’ll come back?’

Before they parted, the man had seemed about to say something, so Lery had a feeling they might meet again.

‘When that time comes, I absolutely have to ask him how to become human.’

Having finished his thoughts, Lery nodded his head. Then he stretched his body out like a rice cake and yawned.

Grrrrrrrr.

Suddenly, Lery’s now-thin stomach let out a loud growl.

‘Oh dear. No matter how deep in thought I was, I shouldn’t have skipped a meal.’

Lery let out a hollow laugh and padded over to his food bowl.

Recently, he’d been eating three meals a day plus snacks without fail, but today he’d been so lost in thought that he’d skipped a meal, leaving him ravenous.

‘Ah, my mouth is watering.’

Sniff sniff.

Before sticking out his tongue, he buried his nose in the bowl, and the savory smell of cat food made his head spin even more.

Lery, as if accustomed to it, brought his face close to the piled-high kibble.

But just then,

[SYSTEM: Congratulations! You have found a memory clue about the cat ‘Lery’!]

[Synchronization continues. Currently 25% synchronized……]

A system window appeared above Lery’s head.

As Lery blinked slowly, a black-and-white video, now feeling more familiar than before, began to play with a crackling sound.

‘Lery, this is a gathering of kings and successors from various nations. I hear there are children around your age as well.’

‘……I don’t need other friends.’

‘Why do you think that?’

‘I like being alone.’

‘But Mother, Father, and your nanny are always by your side, aren’t they?’

‘That’s true, but…….’

‘Mother hopes you’ll meet many different people and have many different experiences.’

Inside a carriage heading somewhere, a middle-aged woman spoke to young Lery in a gentle voice, as if soothing him.

‘How strange……. Why does my heart feel this way.’

The moment he saw the video, Lery felt an inexplicable longing for his mother surge up.

Even though he knew intellectually that she was a person unrelated to him, strangely, his chest felt warm and tight.

But before he could savor the longing, the scene shifted from the carriage to a garden.

And there, three small children, including Lery, were facing each other, huffing with anger.

‘Give it back!’

‘What’s your problem! This is mine!’

One of the children suddenly snatched a doll from another child’s hands.

That child threw the doll far into the bushes, and the child who’d had the doll stolen began to cry bitterly, overwhelmed with sorrow.

Young Lery watched the scene in surprise, then calmly approached the child who’d thrown the doll and spoke in a gentle voice.

‘Pick up the doll again. You shouldn’t bully someone younger than you.’

‘I don’t want to.’

‘Did you forget what we said about everyone getting along? Hurry up.’

‘Because you keep talking to only that kid. Annoying.’

At that response, young Lery looked dumbfounded, and unfortunately, the memory of the past ended there.

[SYSTEM: A portion of the memories about the cat ‘Lery’ has been transmitted.]

“Myaa……? (Is this a memory from when I was little……?)”

Lery steadied his dizzy mind and sat up straight.

Regaining his composure and looking around, Sonia, who had gone on an errand, hadn’t returned yet, and Jack was still lost in dreamland.

It seemed not as much time had passed as he’d thought.

But Lery felt as if a long time had passed while watching the video.

‘And…… those children…….’

Lery slowly organized the memories that were gradually seeping in from the video.

‘I don’t know how I’m remembering all this, but…… I…… no, the original owner of this body was eight years old when the Peace Treaty Conference was held on the continent.’

Among the memories connected through ‘synchronization’ was a memory of the ‘Peace Treaty Conference’ of the Arcana continent when Lery was eight years old.

Lery, who was the princess of the ‘Rubio’ kingdom, also participated in it and met children her age there.

‘Yes. But…… the peace treaty became meaningless.’

Because a great war had broken out on the Arcana continent.

He wanted to remember more, but unfortunately, the connected memories ended there.