Chapter 7 – Captive
Translator: MadHatter Editor: MadHatter
The beast’s ears perked up beside Elias as he jumped to his feet. He stared intently at her beauteous face and unconsciously uttered her name.
“Kitty…”
Even though some time had gone, her striking appearance immediately served as a reminder of who he was dealing with. Her striped white tail waggled, and her gold and silver eyes twinkled. As if to say, “Yes, that’s right,” she purred and snuggled up to Elias. In a gesture not a bit different from the old days, she rubbed her head against his chest.
But it wasn’t as if she hadn’t changed at all. Her appearance, which was still very unpolished when he last saw her, has grown more mature and graceful. Her beauty seemed to be increasingly refined, and he stiffened, momentarily forgetting everything.
Elias was left dumbstruck, but by the time Kitty took his finger and began her sweet-biting mischief, he came to himself, gripped the beast’s shoulder, and pushed her away.
“What in the world… I…”
There, he recalled the moment right before he lost consciousness.
The carriage suddenly stopped. The sound of the noise around him. The open door. The woman with the veil―
“Right, I am!”
The moment he moved his feet to stand up, he halted for a moment as the sound of metal rattling and rubbing against metal rang out. He hastily moved Kitty out of the way and flung off the sheet that had been draped over him. He soon discovered that his feet were fitted with black shackles. It was made of leather and had a sturdy-looking chain entangled in it, which extended under the bed. On closer inspection, the bed seemed to be fixed to the floor, making it extremely difficult to move with human power.
Elias tugged briefly on the shackles with trembling hands as his jaw gaped open. A ruthless “jarring” sound came from the chain.
“What the hell is this?”
He growled in a low voice and caught sight of something moving at the edge of his vision. He instinctively followed it with his gaze and turned his head only to be confronted by a beautiful beast sitting on the ground, looking up at Elias. Both of her white ears twitched from time to time as if reflecting some emotion of hers. He spoke fiercely to her while clenching and pounding his hands.
“Why are you here? Why am I in this mess!”
It was supposed to be intimidating, but the bed was unexpectedly soft and gently received Elias’ hands with a plop.
Elias was met with a meow from Kitty, who was also looking at him. The beast’s tail and ears periodically twitched while the prince glared at her with bloodshot eyes, but he did not do anything but watch and ultimately hugged her head and let out a venomous sigh.
“Enough. It was pointless asking you. You don’t speak a word.”
Meow. As if in response, she nodded more and more. Whether she understood what he was saying or not was unclear to Elias.
He took a deep breath, collected himself, raised his head, and started to drag his legs off the bed.
In the process, he examined the leather shackles and found that he was able to remove them surprisingly effortlessly. Taking a sigh of relief, he wiped the sweat off his face. He did not want to be chained to the bed as he was not a domestic animal.
When he looked down again, he saw that his attire had changed, and he was now donning something that resembled loose-fitting nightwear. It had sleeves that were piled in the front and bound at the waist with a string. There was no particular undergarment. Elias had the faint impression that the fabric was pleasant against his skin and may have been of reasonably high quality. Looking closely, he noted that the sleeves and hem were embroidered with gold thread.
There was a tingling sensation around his neck from something hitting him. Elias felt his complexion growing paler as he probed.
A mirror. I must check myself in the mirror. I hope my bad premonition is wrong.
Sensing that Elias was about to start walking unsteadily, Kitty prepared a pair of sandal-like footwear for his bare feet. These, too, were strangely comfortable for his feet. It was as if they were custom-made for Elias.
He dismissed this as a silly fantasy and stood up to look around the room.
A comfortable bed. A comfortable sofa. The shiny polished table. The colorful carpet…
In general, it gave the impression of being similar to a nobleman’s bedroom. All of the hues appeared to be red-based. There were two tables: one by the sofa for relaxing and one along the wall that seemed a little more functional. There was a small shelf on the table against the wall, but nothing much was found on it. It was practically empty.
Elias abruptly walked up to the edge of the room and flung open the heavy curtains, which were still closed. His face began to twitch once again at that very moment.
There was no window in this room. No, there was a window-like shape beyond the drawn curtains. However, what was projected on it was obviously artificial wallpaper, and it was impossible to tell whether it was day or night, let alone the scenery outside. The lighting that illuminated the room was overall dim.
By the curtains, a thick-looking cable was hung. Elias pulled it without hesitation, causing the artificial walls noisily to transition from a daytime view of a blue sky to a midnight scene of a starry sky. He turned around with an aggravated look and said to the beast at his side.
“Your current master is apparently either full of bad taste or severely lacking in a sense of humor.”
Kitty was grinning.
Elias moved her out of the way as if to eject her before walking to the room on the other side.
There were about three doors on the wall without artificial windows.
One of the doors seemed to be locked and would not open, and Elias was convinced that this was the door to the outer corridor. The heavy door seemed sturdy, and when he looked up he saw something written at his eye level.
…It was likely written in the language of the beasts’ world. Even the knowledgeable Elias couldn’t read it. He glanced at it and then looked away.
The wooden side-opening door opened up to reveal a closet that had been reserved for Elias. It had a variety of clothing hanging from it that were obviously organized for Elias. When he saw the black ones, prominently displayed, and even the ones for going out, he scoffed.
“Do they really intend to let me out with all this stuff hanging up?”
Meow. Kitty meowed behind him. She was mindlessly stroking her fur when he turned to look at her.
The final one led to the bathroom and toilet. The only noteworthy aspect of the bathroom was that it was pristine. The moment Elias opened the bathroom, his expression was wiped off his face. His preferred scent, that of flowers, was permeating the space. It was particularly disconcerting under the circumstances. At the front of the bathhouse, where hot water was constantly being supplied, in what appeared to be a changing room, there were several towels carefully folded on top of each other for wiping one’s body.
At the edge of his vision, he saw a reflection.
After taking a deep breath and making up his mind, he looked into the large mirror.
The tingling sensation on his neck rightly asserted the presence of the restraints. Elias swore when he saw the black leather collar. While the shackles he had just been put into were of a structure that could easily be undone by anyone if they fumbled with the clasp, the neck restraints had a padlock attached to them. This was indeed unlikely to be removed without a key. With a click of his tongue, Elias tried to avert his eyes from the unpleasant sight and suddenly realized that he had just felt the shackles.
He was reminded of the same thing he had felt in the shackles earlier.
The collar had only one hole.
As if it had been made for Elias, it had only one hole.
A shiver shot up his spine. In the mirror, something moved. His shoulders jerked up, and his throat rumbled as he sucked in a deep breath. But as he turned around and glanced back, first trembling and then frantically, he spotted Kitty, who had been following Elias’ search for some time, and an exhale of relief escaped him.
“Kitty, your current master is that woman, isn’t it? What exactly does she want?”
Perhaps after giving up on fiddling with the door that led outside, he spoke to the only one he could talk to. Kitty tilted her head.
“Is that your kin by any chance?”
She continued to smile and wag her tail despite what he said.
After asking a few more questions, the flustered Elias hurried over to the beast and grasped her by the neck.
“I don’t know why you are here, but I believe I sold you to another master. Is she the one behind this ludicrous joke? Where am I? Why am I here? Where are the others? When is this―?”
Elias then caught on to something.
He looked down at his fingers, then raised his voice and thrust the beast away.
Around the neck of the white cat, her gold and silver eyes shining, rested a dingy, color-faded collar. There was a metal fitting and a nameplate on it, K・I・T・T・Y―Kitty, engraved on it, undoubtedly a gift Elias had given her long ago.
But the collar was supposed to have been disposed of when he ceased to be her master. Why would she still be wearing it?
A tremendously ill-omened sensation overtook Elias, and he backed away as Kitty, her face clear, stood up and walked swiftly toward him. She continued on her own way at a steady speed without any more pursuit when he quickly avoided her.
Elias was too disoriented to react. He was confounded and slow to react until he heard her make a clattering noise, and just as the door was about to open and she was about to leave, he finally made his move.
“Wait, wait, Kitty!”
The stunning beast gave Elias a bewitching smile as she left, somewhat suggestively.
Immediately afterward, there was the sound of a heavy door slamming shut and the lock turning with an unceremonious clank.
Elias continued to yell her name while hanging on and banging. There was no response, and he eventually crumpled to the ground in exhaustion and without any strength.
