Yellian, unable to contain their frustration, wildly threw punches into the air with their paw while dangling from Leonard’s hand. Leonard, witnessing this, let out a hollow laugh in disbelief.
“Why on earth! Why all of a sudden! Why did I turn into a cat! What’s the problem, seriously!”
Leonard let Yellian huff and puff as much as they wanted. He knew it wouldn’t take long for them to tire themselves out and become docile again, as if nothing had happened.
“Enough, let’s dry you off.”
“Is drying me off important right now?! I’m this angry! What good is drying me off! Take this, take that!”
Yellian kept throwing punches into the air, but no matter how you looked at it, they just seemed like a cat flailing around. Leonard calmly picked up a towel.
“Argh, be gentle, be gentle! Handle me with care, I said!”
Yellian protested in their own way as Leonard roughly wiped their fur. Of course, it had no effect. As Leonard continued to mess up their fur carelessly, Yellian couldn’t help but lose their temper.
“Hiss!”
“……What are you doing right now?”
“Gasp, what did I just do?”
Knowing that cats hiss when they’re angry, Yellian was shocked at the fact that they had acted like a cat in a fit of rage, while Leonard questioned this strange behavior he was seeing for the first time.
Though he didn’t know exactly what Yellian had done, Leonard could tell it wasn’t an action born out of happiness.
“I can’t believe I hissed!”
I’m not even a real cat!
While Yellian was dazed with embarrassment, Leonard wiped their fur with a stern expression. Thanks to that, much of the water was removed, but it revealed a rather monstrous, unkempt appearance.
Leonard shook his head at the ugly cat he hadn’t seen in a while. When their fur was fluffy, they were somewhat cute, but he couldn’t help but marvel at how they became so unattractive when wet.
“Have you gained weight?”
“What did you say?”
“Your belly is quite round.”
“How could you say something so harsh!”
At Leonard’s comment, Yellian huffed in anger. Even so, they couldn’t help but look down at their belly, and sure enough, it was round and plump.
Of course, it wasn’t noticeable at all when they were human, but as a cat, it was embarrassingly obvious that they looked chubby.
Even after leaving the bathroom, Leonard kept vigorously wiping Yellian with the towel. Each time, Yellian let out dramatic cries as if they were dying. Of course, it had no effect.
“That should do it.”
Finally, when Leonard let Yellian go, they hopped off his lap and moved as far away from him as possible to start grooming themselves.
Wait, grooming? Yellian was once again struck with immense shock at this instinctive cat-like behavior they hadn’t meant to do. They weren’t even a real cat, so why did they keep acting like one! Yellian failed to realize that these inexplicable actions were due to the instincts of a feline humanoid.
“Meow-meow-ow.”
Right on cue, Steamed Gamja approached. Yellian, feeling cheered up at the sight of Gamja, instinctively raised their tail straight up and quivered with excitement. They were undeniably a cat.
“Gamja, what’s going on? Your big brother turned into a cat again.”
“Meow-ow.”
“Obviously, I can’t understand a word you’re saying. Well, I’m not a real cat, so that’s only natural.”
Yellian grumbled in a tone that sounded both wronged and exhausted. Since they had turned into a cat, they thought it might be nice if they could at least communicate with real cats.
But no such sweet miracle existed. In the end, Yellian lay sprawled on the floor, suppressing their boiling irritation as best they could.
“Ahh, don’t do that, Gamja. Your big brother isn’t a cat.”
Unaware of Yellian’s feelings, Gamja started diligently grooming their still-damp fur. Yellian didn’t particularly like it, yet ironically, they couldn’t help but let out a contented purring sound.
“Why did I suddenly turn into a cat? When will I turn back into a human!”
Of course, since there was no longer a need to hide the fact that they were a talking cat, Yellian didn’t have to watch their words around Leonard or Elton.
Still, as someone who was originally human, Yellian found it far more convenient to live as a person than as a cat.
“Can’t you be quiet for a bit? You’re unusually noisy.”
“Imagine if you suddenly turned into a cat, Leonard! Could you just calmly accept reality!”
Yellian protested loudly in a squeaky voice. Perhaps because their body was smaller, their voice sounded insignificant.
Leonard felt it was utterly pointless to argue with a tiny furball squeaking in such a small voice. So instead of responding, he simply kept his gaze fixed on the documents.
“……Stray cats are disappearing, huh.”
As Leonard indifferently flipped through a few pages of the documents, his expression turned quite serious. He had heard from Elton that stray cats were disappearing, but he hadn’t expected it to be written up in a report.
It was worth checking whether this was happening only in the area he managed or if the same phenomenon was occurring in other regions as well.
Leonard immediately instructed Elton to send letters to other regions to confirm the safety of the stray cats.
With an unusually serious expression, Elton took the letter from Leonard and quickly left the room.
“Leonard, are stray cats really disappearing?”
“Yeah, it seems so.”
“Whose doing could this be……. Who on earth would kidnap those small, cute cats?”
Yellian muttered in a dejected voice. Leonard felt a bit sorry for them, but he nearly burst out laughing. Yellian, who was literally a cat themselves, calling other cats ‘small and cute’ struck him as absurdly funny.
Unaware of Leonard’s thoughts, Yellian remained disheartened, thinking about the missing cats. They didn’t want to think negatively, but they couldn’t help imagining bad things happening to the cats.
Come to think of it, back in South Korea where they used to live, there were plenty of crazy people too. They’d torment innocent cats, abuse them, and even terrorize the people who took care of them.
Wondering if there were crazy people everywhere, the thought that someone here might also be harming cats made Yellian feel uneasy.
“I’ll investigate this thoroughly, so don’t worry too much.”
“Really?”
At Leonard’s words, Yellian asked in a slightly brighter voice. Noticing the subtle change, Leonard nodded, feeling relieved. He didn’t forget to pat Yellian’s tiny head either.
“I’ll investigate thoroughly and resolve this as quickly as possible. If there’s someone to punish, I’ll make sure they’re punished, so don’t worry about that either.”
“Okay……!”
Feeling much better, Yellian nodded, and a faint smile appeared on Leonard’s lips as well.
* * *
“By the way, can I come along too?”
“If I leave you behind, who knows what trouble you’ll cause.”
“Trouble, you say! Do you think I’m a real cat or something?”
Inside the speeding carriage, Yellian grumbled in a voice laced with dissatisfaction.
On the third day after turning back into a cat, Leonard woke Yellian up early in the morning, saying they had to go to the imperial palace.
Still half-asleep, Yellian literally did a cat-like face wash. Leonard struggled to hold back his laughter as he watched Yellian rub their face with their tiny paws.
He had felt it before, but thanks to this one, he learned that cats could look puffy too. Yellian’s face, just woken up, was swollen, making their eyes appear smaller than usual. They looked so silly and dazed that Leonard had a hard time stifling his laughter.
“But why are we going to the imperial palace? To see His Majesty?”
“Ah, we’re going to receive the prize for the hunting competition. His Majesty the Emperor has decided to reward my lord for slaying the dragon.”
At Elton’s reply, Yellian nodded. Back then, things were so hectic that they hadn’t even thought about the prize, but now that they considered it, winning the hunting competition and even slaying a dragon that the subjugation team couldn’t handle made receiving a reward only natural.
Though it wasn’t something for them personally, Yellian couldn’t help but hope it would be something good. They placed their two front paws on the carriage window frame, stood on tiptoe with their hind legs, and gazed out at the scenery with an excited expression.
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