How To Survive As a Villain on the Verge of Death

She spoke quickly before Bayan could say anything dissatisfied.

 

“I’ll give you ten meatloafs every day.”

 

The cat lowered his head as if sighing and spun around on the spot, following his tail. She turned to Terrence with a triumphant expression. Terence also seemed very surprised.

 

He asked her with admiration.

 

“How did you train him like this? They say cats can’t be trained.”

 

“I didn’t train him!”

 

Now, did he think she trained a cat to lie? Terrence was not a person who easily trusts anything. Anyway, she was astonished at how he looked at her. This time she pointed to the floor and spoke to Bayan.

 

“Write letters on the floor.”

 

Then she turned his attention to Terence.

 

“Tell him anything.”

 

Terence looked at her with a puzzled look in his eyes.

 

“Even if you don’t do this, I already know the princess’s abilities.”

 

Then the cat raised his paw with a resigned expression. The round front feet move smoothly across the floor. The cat’s paws moved around to create clear letters.

 

[I know the princess’s abilities.]

 

Terence, who was watching, was startled. That was natural. No matter how genius she was at animal training, she couldn’t teach letters to a cat. Even if you could give a hundred steps and train a cat to pick up objects, it was impossible to teach it to read letters. In fact, that was impossible for any animal. In this world, there was no choice but to destroy animals with such intelligence.

 

“Is this really a divine beast?”

 

The cat dictated his words again with its paws.

 

[I’m truly divine…]

 

Terence stared blankly at the cat’s paw writing on the floor.

 

She said confidently, “Look at it.”

 

“Are you clear now?”

 

Terence seemed to believe her only then.

 

“It was truly a miracle.”

 

Terence looked at the cat with a face full of admiration and surprise.

 

“What abilities do you have?”

 

“…Unfortunately, he doesn’t have any special abilities yet. All he knows how to do is communicate with me.”

 

Other than that, it was just like a normal cat. She explained to Terence how she came to pick up Bayan from the temple and the identity of the necklace.

 

“I had no idea this necklace was a sacred item. I thought it was an old gem passed down in the family.”

 

Terence looked at the amethyst around her neck with eyes full of surprise.

 

“If the princess learns how to use her holy power, this divine beast will be able to use other abilities as well.”

 

“Yes, that’s right.”

 

She didn’t know when that would happen. She didn’t bother to say that her holy power class was hopeless because she felt ashamed.

 

“He is still good at what he is asked to do, so it will be helpful. I decided to secretly spy on the priests here again today.”

 

Terence agreed, observing the cat.

 

“If he looks like this, you can easily use him as a spy.”

 

[You two look good together.]

 

Ignoring the cat’s scolding, she sat down with Terence and asked him about what was going on outside the temple.

 

“Is there any progress in the work of the Count Parmes family?”

 

Terence updated her on the progress of the investigation.

 

“After three days of interrogation, the count’s servant confessed that he had met the culprit, a priest, and delivered the count’s secret letter. The secret letter was not found, so we do not know its contents.”

 

“If it was such an important secret letter, it would have been burned a long time ago.”

 

She would have destroyed something like that as soon as she received it.

 

“There was a strange amount of gold in the priest’s home. I found out that it was gold that came from the upper part of the count’s house. That is enough justification to arrest the count.”

 

“How did it turn out that it was gold coming from the top?”

 

“The purity of gold distributed throughout the empire varies slightly depending on the place of production and processing.”

 

Terence continued his explanation with a sarcastic expression.

 

“After investigating the source of the gold purchased from the Count Parmes family over the past few years, it was found that most of it matched the gold discovered. Since it is such a large amount, it can only be assumed that it came from the count’s family.”

 

“Wow, that was really sloppy.”

 

Didn’t those people even have a concept of money laundering? It seemed like he didn’t even consider that he would fail. She guessed he thought of course he wouldn’t get caught.

 

‘Well, if I hadn’t seen the premonition, there would have been a fire and injury… It might have been difficult to catch the culprit.’

 

Even if there had been something suspicious, it would have just been dismissed as a fire accident. By dawn, all the incense in the incense burner had burned off and there was no evidence left.

 

“Is there any chance that Count Parmes will be punished as the true culprit?”

 

“I’m not sure about that. He is so strongly denying it. He said he was insisting that the servant had planned it.”

 

“This is really funny.”

 

Did he plan to do it himself and pass it on to his servant? He was a shameless and foolish person, befitting the Empress’s brother.

 

“Even so, punishment cannot be avoided.”

 

“I guess so.”

 

Even if he didn’t order it and his servant planned it alone, he wouldn’t be able to avoid responsibility because of the strangely large amount of gold that came from the priest’s house. The Empress must be a bit upset by now, as her family, the Count family, have also been implicated in this incident. She would be waiting for the Emperor to return as soon as possible.

 

“His Majesty the Emperor will be busy sorting out this matter as soon as he returns.”

 

Terence thought the same thing.

 

“The Emperor will not be able to do anything until the wedding.”

 

Hearing that, she felt a little relieved. Anyway, nothing would happen until the wedding.

 

* * *

 

The area around the temple was still going crazy, but her lodgings were quiet. Bayan had been wandering around the temples and overheard conversations since morning, but she could not gather any useful information. The only information we found was that the captured priest and priestess usually had a bad reputation.

 

[It is said that he was arrogant, believing in the nobles who were his patrons.]

 

Thanks to this, the priests didn’t seem to feel too bad about it. That’s good. If you always openly revealed that you were receiving support from the Count family, no one would suspect that the Count was the real culprit in this incident.

 

“Anyway, good job.”

 

She gave Bayan a lot of meatloaf and warm milk. It looked like a cat, but she didn’t know if it could drink milk, although it didn’t seem to cause any problems. Because it was a divine beast, it must be different from an ordinary cat.

 

The next day, she received a letter. It was a letter from Diane. Diane sent her a letter saying that she was feeling better now and asking if she could go with her to the Grand Duke’s mansion and check out the banquet hall for her wedding. Eve had nothing better to do, so she accepted.

 

Exactly two hours later, Diane came to her dorm.

 

“Princess!”

 

Diane, dressed in her light gray street clothes, ran towards her.

 

“Miss Diane. Are you okay now?”

 

“Yes, don’t worry. Everything has healed.”

 

Her expression was very bright, but she looked even paler and thinner than last time, perhaps because of her illness.

 

“I was really surprised to hear the news of the temple accident. I can’t believe something like that happened after I went back…”

 

“That’s right. I’m glad no one was hurt.”

 

In fact, she sent Diane home early because she knew there would be a fire. That’s when Diane noticed the cat lying on her chair.

 

“Oh my, he’s the same cat I saw last time. Can I touch it?”

 

She looked at the cat, Bayan, for a moment and then answered.

 

“Well, how gentle is it?”

 

Fortunately, Bayan obeyed and fell into Diane’s arms. Instead, he looked at Eve with his eyes narrowed and his ears turned to the side, but she averted her gaze.

 

“As expected, it was the cat raised at the temple?”

 

“I don’t think so. I think it was a stray cat without an owner. I picked it up from the garden and took care of it, and then I fell in love with it and decided to raise it.”

 

She briefly explained the circumstances that led to me picking up the cat and caring for it. 

After hearing her story, Diane looked deeply moved as she hugged the cat.

 

“The princess really has a warm heart.”

 

That’s not it. Actually, she just picked it up because it’s a divine beast… Diane seemed genuinely moved by my her good deed.

 

“This poor cat will be happy to find a good owner like the princess.”

 

Bayan pursed her lips and looked at her.

 

“…Oh no. I just let the maids raise him…”

 

Diane listened to her, hugged the cat, and stroked its neck.

 

“Shall I take the cat to the mansion too?”

 

“Well.”

 

‘Did he want to go with her?’ 

 

Shelooked at Bayan, the cat, and asked an unspoken question. Bayan nodded his head slightly, seemingly invisible. She confirmed that Bayan agreed and answered Diane.

 

“That would be a good idea. Even cats would get bored if they stayed at the temple.”

 

Cats usually get stressed when they go out to unfamiliar places, but she tried to take Bayan with her. Fortunately for Diane, she didn’t seem to know much about cats.

 

Diane told her the news about Terence, sounding a bit disappointed.

 

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