Chapter 78
“Isn’t this a proper reconciliation?”
“Reconciliation?”
Did we reconcile?
It felt like we did, and yet not really… It was a confusing feeling.
“You even made a knight’s oath, Your Grace!
That’s not something you just do to anyone!”
Rona yelled, getting overly excited.
“Well, that… um?”
It felt like we reconciled, and yet not really.
We didn’t fight, so maybe it wasn’t so bad?
Most importantly, he was smiling.
He smiled as he made the oath to me.
That caught me off guard.
“….”
I covered my heated face with both hands.
In that moment, his gaze, his voice, his warmth, the sound of the wind…
I remembered everything vividly.
Even if I were to leave this mansion later, I felt like I wouldn’t forget.
* * *
Thud, thud.
Footsteps echoing in the corridor reached my ears.
The door opened with a creak, and Rona approached me with an excited expression.
“Madam, they caught the cat!”
“Noir?”
I hastily got up, and the book I was reading fell, hitting the top of my foot.
“Ouch!”
The sudden pain made me involuntarily groan.
“Oh dear, are you okay?”
“They found Noir?
Really found him?”
As I sat down and rubbed my foot, Rona sat next to me and started rubbing my foot as well.
“I’m not sure about that, but anyway, they caught a cat, Madam.”
As she rubbed my foot, I stopped unconsciously.
Did I mishear something?
“….What about Amoide?”
“Yes.”
“How did it happen?”
“Well?”
In response to my puzzled question, Rona answered with an even more puzzled expression.
“Let’s go check it out first.”
I straightened up my slouched body.
“Ouch.”
“Be careful!
Should I carry you?”
“No.”
I shook my head.
Although my toes hurt, I could still walk.
“Let’s go quickly.”
* * *
“You caught Noir?
Is the injured place okay?”
I barged into the room noisily, bombarding Amoide with questions as soon as I saw him standing in the middle of the room.
“Are you badly hurt?
Is there anywhere else hurting?
Have you been starving?
Oh, where did you find him?”
“….”
Amoide barely moved at the sound of me entering, showing no particular reaction.
“Amoide?”
Approaching, I placed my hand on his arm.
Only then did Amoide slowly turn towards me.
“Ah…”
I dropped the hand that had been resting on his arm without realizing it.
Only now did I truly see his condition.
From head to toe, Amoide was covered in injuries.
His head was a mess, as if someone had torn at it, and his face was full of scratches.
But that wasn’t all.
There were cuts and bruises on his arms, hands, and chest.
His shirt was torn to shreds in places.
And through the torn fabric, his chest muscles were clearly visible.
I raised my hand to cover my eyes.
“Why are you like this?”
He asked, frowning.
“It’s nothing.”
I slightly opened my fingers and looked at Amoide.
His face between my fingers was filled with discomfort.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“I don’t know.”
He replied with an expressionless face.
I couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
“Is this because of Noir?”
I approached him and examined his wounds closely.
The cuts varied in depth, some deeper than others.
Some were dried with scabs, while others were still oozing blood.
“What on earth happened here?”
It seemed like Noir had fought back with all his might.
It looked like he had scratched and clawed at Amoud as if he were a scratching post.
The scratches and marks looked quite painful.
“How did this happen?”
These injuries couldn’t have happened unless he had tried to catch a resisting cat himself.
“Why did he do it himself?”
I couldn’t understand.
What were all those servants for?
“He caught it with his hands?”
“Then did he catch it with his feet?”
Oh, really.
I almost got angry at the oddly twisted answer, but managed to hold onto my composure.
“Well… we need to treat him quickly. Did you call Raymond?”
I asked cautiously.
His eyes sank a little deeper.
“Thank you for worrying about me after the cat.”
“….”
His words left me speechless, so I bit my lip in silence.
Entering the room to see him in such a state and immediately asking about the cat’s well-being left me with nothing else to say.
“I’ve always worried about you.”
He replied in a subdued voice.
“Well, you’re welcome.”
For some reason, I found it intimidating to meet his gaze.
His head drooped endlessly downward.
“Let’s start with treating the wounds…”
The sound trailed off into the ground.
“Aren’t you curious about the cat?”
The voice from above sounded a bit softer.
“I am.”
I lifted my head subtly to look at him.
‘Is he… no longer angry?’
No, I’m not sure if he was angry in the first place.
“Where is it now?”
“The maids are bathing it and drying its fur.”
“And the wounds?”
“I told them to be careful with the injured areas. Don’t worry.”
He said it as if it were nothing to worry about.
“I had to trim the fur in the injured areas because blood and fur were stuck together. It was quite dirty from rolling around in the chimney.”
“It was like that when I first found it.”
I chuckled involuntarily.
If it weren’t for the freshly cut fur, it probably would have looked even dirtier.
“But it doesn’t seem like the cat you were looking for.”
“…What?”
“It doesn’t seem like the cat you were looking for, anyway.”
“Impossible. It had an injured leg.”
Is there another injured cat wandering around the estate?
“It was a black cat.”
“…Yes. Its fur was completely black.”
“But it doesn’t seem like the one you were looking for.”
He replied bluntly.
“What do you mean?”
“The cat I caught has white fur.”
“Oh.”
“It has snow-white fur, like snow.”
He demonstrated the fluffy texture with his hand.
“So it’s not Noir…”
My legs felt weak, giving way beneath me.
“Are you alright?”
Amidst my staggering, Amoide quickly grabbed hold of me.
