Episode 11
Amoide again seemed upset by what I said.
“I told your mother I’d keep you healthy. She put you in my care because she had faith in me.”
“She trusted you?”
He seemed to be surprised.
“Yes, because you are my husband.”
“Stop talking about me being your husband…”
He stopped talking and looked around with his blue eyes.
Then, when he looked at the maids, workers, and gardeners, they all turned away at once.
Some even hid behind trees.
It wasn’t hard to see that there were a lot more people than usual in the yard.
I didn’t miss that strange thing and paid close attention to it.
“Are we done now?”
He looked very unhappy about being forced to walk in a way he didn’t know.
“No.”
I decided to walk with Amoide only on roads with lots of people.
He made funny faces and did funny things, but that was enough.
The point was to show everyone how Amoide and I were going on with our relationship.
“From now on, you have to walk with me at set times every week.”
“What?”
He looked surprised by how I just answered.
“Isn’t it just this once?”
“No. I said the same thing to Mother. I would like to be more involved in your life. I’ll make sure you’re healthy.”
I wasn’t sure if I should say that with such confidence, but there was no reason not to.
“Who decided that?”
He laughed as if it were silly.
“It was decided by your wife.”
Then he looked at me with cold eyes. It made me feel cold all over.
It seemed like the saying ‘you can kill someone with just your eyes’ was made for this kind of circumstances.
He seemed very upset when I took him for a walk.
When things were like this, it seemed like running away was the best thing to do, no matter how far it was.
“Where are you going?”
“Where am I going?”
I must not have noticed that I was taking a step back.
He lifted his foot when he saw me moving away slowly, and I turned to run.
It was all done on the spot.
That moment, awooong!
From somewhere came the deep, angry cry of an animal.
“…”
The sudden noise instantly broke the tension between Amoide and me.
Amoide, who had been looking at me, looked around in surprise, and I did the same, trying to find where the sound was coming from.
“Your foot! Yo… your foot!”
I finally figured out where the sound was coming from and pointed at his foot while shouting.
“Foot?”
Amoide looked down and followed where my finger was pointing.
“Tail, tail!”
The tail of a hairy animal was moving around under Amoide’s foot.
Awoooong.
The beast’s cry became more sad, as if it could hear my words.
“Noir!”
I ran over to Amoide and grabbed his foot.
“What are you doing?! Take off your feet, now!”
His eyes moved along the long tail he was standing on, and he finally took his foot off the ground.
“What is it?”
“What do you mean by ‘what’? That’s a cat!”
I yelled at him when he looked like he didn’t know what to say.
“Noir, are you okay?”
“Is that what it’s called, Noir?”
“Noir is not an ‘it’!”
“What kind of animal is it? Are you raising it?”
“Noir’s a cat. You don’t know what a cat is, do you?”
I got angry again and bent down to look at the cat whose tail had been stepped on in a cruel way.
Meow, awoooooong!
As I tried to look at the spot where Amoide had stepped, I heard a loud cry and was scratched on the hand by a paw with sharp claws.
“Ouch!”
I saw Amoide jerk as the cat pulled away from my scratched hand.
What, does he have a phobia of cats?
There was no problem on the tail that was stepped on, thank God.
I touched it because I was afraid it was broken, but it wasn’t.
“…It’s a mess.”
I laughed when I heard him muttering behind me. I could picture the face he was making even though I wasn’t looking.
While I was sitting, I turned around and looked at him.
Then I tried to look as cheeky as possible and asked, “Your Grace, are you showing off your grown-up manners right now?”
When I said his name, his face immediately turned down.
“What is that look?”
It’s too bad that such a pretty face can only be used in this way, right?
I slowly moved away from his angry face.
After looking at me for a moment, he let out a big sigh, brushed his hair back, and sighed again.
“Careless contact with wild animals can spread diseases.”
“Diseases? Ah…”
Dark ash got all over my hand, but I could just wash it off.
“Where did it get this ash from…”
The dark gray ash on the black hair made Noir look like a ball of rolling dust.
I heard a loud protest when I tried to wipe its face with my hand.
“Don’t move for a second.”
I took hold of Noir, who was struggling.
“Recognize this cat?”
“Don’t you know? This is a house cat.”
Our talk kept going as I fought with Noir.
He was behind me, so I couldn’t see what face he’s making.
“I had no idea.”
He answered in a dry way.
“I had no idea there was such a big, dirty cat.”
I couldn’t help but feel upset by what he said.
“Only because it has black fur. Noir has a very cute face if you look closely.”
I quickly turned around and put both hands on Noir’s head to show him.
Awooooooong.
The cat hit my hands with its back legs when I had its face in my hands.
“Did you say ‘Noir’ (black)?”
“Yes. Doesn’t it fit?”
“It seems a little over the top.”
“Noir’s name used to be ‘Chimney’, but that was too much, so I changed it.”
“It looks like it came down a chimney.”
Because it had all black fur, the black cat had more refined and beautiful pumpkin-colored eyes.
I saw the cat for the first time around the time I remembered my past life.
When the dark cat came up to me, I was sitting in the yard and going crazy like a mad woman.
The cat lay down and looked up at me with its eyes the color of a pumpkin.
Even though it couldn’t have been planned, even that made me feel better back then.
Also, stroking the cat’s fur—no, its belly—brought a lot of comfort.
“Doesn’t someone own it?”
He kept giving the cat a disapproving look.
Such an attitude.
I heard a click in my head.
“I guess we just have to take care of it.”
Why is it such a big deal to feed and care for one cat in such a big house?
“…I see.”
“Do you dislike cats?”
“I don’t know why I should like them.”
His answer was as dry as always.
“Yes, you’re right.”
I gave a careless nod and put my hand out toward the cat.
“Today, let’s wash you. Day by day, you’re getting darker. Oh, my, has your belly grown even more?”
I grabbed its side, which was much heavier than when we first met.
“Ouch!”
As soon as I tried to pick up the cat, a sharp pain made me let go.
Awoong.
The cat’s body was heavy, but it landed on the ground lightly. It then ran into the trees.
“Did you forget your injury?”
He frowned as he looked at me and walked toward me.
I knew I should back up because of how angry he looked.
“Why are you acting like that?”
“Are you crazy?”
“What?”
I shot back with anger. Why did he call me an idiot all of a sudden? It’s rude to everyone who hears it.
“…!”
He took my hand in his and held it up to look at it closely.
“How can someone forget that their hands hurt?”
Huh? His point of anger seemed a little off.
“You also forget about your own pain and are quick to get angry.”
“…” It’s my hand, not his, that hurts. Why is he so mad when someone else is hurting?
As I was thinking, we looked at each other.
His eyes were still fierce, but they were not as hard as they used to be.
…Even though it was not very much.
“Clean your hands.”
He got a handkerchief out of his pocket and threw it to me. As soon as I got it, Amoide quickly grabbed it back.
Did he just hand it to me and then take it away again?
It was a strange thing to do. Just as I wasn’t paying attention, he started to use the cloth to wipe the dirt off my bound hand.
I felt strange as I watched the scene. He may have been afraid of putting too much weight on me, so his touch was surprisingly light. I thought he was done cleaning my hand when he said, “Over here, too.”
I put out my other hand without any shame. Before he could say anything, I said quickly, “This hand hurts, so I can’t clean the other one well.”
“….”
He sighed reluctantly and then carefully cleaned the other hand.
“Many thanks.”
He let go of my hand and roughly brushed his hair back as I laughed happily.
“Let’s go inside.”
Amoide put the now-dirty cloth in his back pocket and started to talk.
“I’m still walking.”
I answered with no big deal.
“Still…?”
He had a blank look on his face as he looked at me.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve been outside, so let’s stay out in the sun a little longer before we go inside. Still, there are places to go…”
I looked over his shoulder and stared at something far away.
Let’s go in that direction.
I pulled him along by grabbing his arm. He tried to shake my hand, but when he saw that the hand holding his bandaged arm was the one holding my hand, he gave up softly.
Wow, this works pretty well, doesn’t it?
