Chapter 46

Chapter 46

“Don’t do that again. Or I’ll really get mad!”

The child’s voice rose, her face fierce.

“Okay.”

“Hmph!”

“I’m sorry…”

“I’m forgiving you because I’m nice. But you have to play with me today.”

“Alright.”

“Good. Let’s go. Follow me!”

Luckily, Shion’s temper cooled quickly. She sprang up from her spot and vanished through the door outside.

I glanced back at the Duke and nodded toward the child, signaling I’d go play with her.

“I’ll be back.”

The Duke replied, and I followed the child out of the office. The translucent shape of the girl scampered out into the garden. I chased after her. Playing with her again—it made me feel like I’d finally returned fully to Cuvershaiden, the mansion of ghosts.

“Unnie, have you seen the cat that lives in the garden?”

Shion stopped mid-run in the center of the garden and asked.

“No? A cat?”

I’d never seen a cat. The Duke keeps no animals. Maybe it’s a stray that wandered in. Or maybe the servants are hiding one.

“Yeah, there’s a cat! Let’s find it and play together! It’s always hiding.”

“Sure. Let’s.”

Now I was curious which cat had moved in. I like animals, and cats are pretty cute. If I find it, I’ll give it a good pet.

We wandered the garden, searching for the hidden creature. But after a long while, there wasn’t even a paw print.

“Shion, what does the cat look like?”

“Black and this big! A bit skinny, but still really cute?”

Shion lay flat in the middle of the garden, lifting both hands. Still on the ground, she adjusted the gap between her palms to measure the cat’s size.

“Where is it? Is it even here?”

“I don’t know. Guess it’s hiding well.”

The child answered with a shrug. She’d already given up on finding it, just rolling around on the lawn.

Hey… you’re the one who wanted to find and play with it….

In the end, we never found the cat, not until it was far too late. I went to bed nursing a sullen sense of defeat, and the next day, I finished my meal a little early and headed out to the garden to try again. A stubborn fire had caught in me — I was damned if I wasn’t going to lay eyes on that so-called cute cat at least once.

But as I was deep in my search, a familiar white carriage rolled onto the garden path. It rattled along, the eagle crest on its side catching the light, and came to a stop right in front of me.

“Laura!”

The carriage door swung open, and there was the young marquis. His smile was clear as a bell, and he shook his bright brown hair loose as he jumped down from the carriage in one easy, fluid motion.

“It’s been too long! Laura!”

“Hello, Young Marquis.”

“How long has it been? I heard you went to Krentis with Illiaje, but when he came back, you weren’t with him. I was starting to wonder if you’d quit.”

Quit? That’s what the maids were saying, too. “Hey, you too, huh?”

“Ah. No. Nothing like that.”

“Good. Well, I’m glad you’re here. I missed you!”

His voice rose, bright and giddy with genuine joy. Then he bent slightly at the waist and extended a hand toward me, as if I were his lady.

My hand hovered over his palm — then I froze, mid-motion. A thought had struck me.

*Wait. I just finished eating, so it should be the maids’ break right now.*

I snapped my head toward the manor. A cluster of heads, packed tight against the window, ducked down in an instant. Ann, caught off guard, met my eyes for a frozen second before she flinched and vanished behind the wall.

*Just as I thought. A full-blown spectator sport.*

I narrowed my eyes, then turned back to the young marquis. At last, I laid my hand over his, still hovering awkwardly in the air.

“Have you been well?”

“Without you here, just so-so.”

He pressed his lips firmly to the back of my hand, then drew them away slowly.

“I had something to talk to you about, actually. I’m glad I got to see you.”

“Talk to me about?”

“Yes. Shall we go inside first?”

He answered with a soft smile.

“Ben.”

The Duke’s voice cut through the air from a distance. Without thinking, I pulled my hand out of the young marquis’s grip and hid it behind my back.

“You’re here, but you’re not coming inside?”

The Duke closed the distance between us, his voice flat and even as he asked.

“What’s this? You came out to meet me yourself? I was about to head in.”

The young marquis shot back with a smooth, easy grin.

And that was the moment. Without a rustle, a cat popped out of the bushes and landed between us, settling in as if it owned the place. It was a hefty thing—black fur, blue eyes. The very cat Shion had mentioned, I was certain.

“Ah! A cat!”

I shot my hand out to grab it.

“Laura?!”

The Duke’s voice came through like he meant to stop me, but it was already too late. My hand was already descending past the cat’s head—and a moment later, it passed clean through the skull and hit the ground.

Huh? What the—

“Aaaagh!”

I yanked my hand back, heart slamming against my ribs.

A ghost. It was a ghost! A damned animal ghost, right in front of me—and they weren’t exactly common!

“Eeek! A ghost!”

Flailing wildly, I dove behind someone’s back. I had to hide—me, the world’s biggest coward, reduced to cowering.

No wonder I’d never heard a single cat story since working at Cuvershaiden. If it were really living here, the ladies-in-waiting would’ve mentioned it at least once. No, the reason it never came up was simple: the cat was dead. After all, who else in this place could see souls like that besides the Duke and me……!

“That one just wanders the garden. It’s harmless.”

The Duke spoke, his voice almost soothing, as if trying to calm my rattled nerves.

“Hnggh… y-yes……”

Thank goodness it wasn’t an evil spirit. I peeked out from behind my cover and took another look at the cat. As if nothing had happened, it scratched the back of its head with a hind paw, then slunk back into the bushes and disappeared.

Phew… it’s gone.

“I kinda feel left out, since I can’t see it.”

Then the back in front of me suddenly spoke. I blinked back to reality and realized it was the young marquis. I’d apparently hidden behind him.

“There was a soul here, wasn’t there?”

He turned to face me, asking the question outright.

“There was… but it’s gone now.”

“Can a cat’s soul wander around too? Not just a person’s?”

“Well, animal souls are rare to see, but one was here. That’s why I didn’t even realize it was a ghost.”

“Hmm.”

The young marquis stroked his chin, as if mulling it over. He seemed to be trying to wrap his head around something he couldn’t see.

“Let’s head back in now.”

The Duke cut between us, his voice firm.

“Right. Let’s go inside.”

The young marquis shrugged in reply.

“Then I’ll have them prepare some tea. Your Grace.”

I headed into the manor ahead of them, made my way to the kitchen, grabbed the tea they’d prepared, and rushed back to the office. As I stepped inside, I saw the Duke and the young marquis seated across from each other on the sofas, deep in conversation. Carefully, I set the teacups down in front of them.

“Thank you, Laura.”

The young marquis cracked a faint smile in my direction.

“Not at all.”

I answered with a smile of my own as I slipped back into my seat.

“You’re looking well, Illiaje. Not too busy these days, I take it?”

“Busy. But I can carve out some time.”

They slid into casual talk soon enough. I flicked a glance at the two of them within my line of sight, then pulled the madam’s notebook from the desk drawer and set it on the tabletop.

‘There’ll be something about that cat from earlier, won’t there? She’s a Cuvershaiden ghost too, after all.’

I riffled through the notebook’s pages—and on one leaf, I spotted a bold subtitle that read *The Black Cat*.

Just as I thought—something about the cat ghost was in here!

Eagerly, I ran my finger down the page and began reading the lines.

*A cat brought in by the blond child.*

Then I froze mid-sentence.

“Huh? Wait—what? If you mean the little blonde kid, are you talking about Shion? Shion brought that cat here?”

“According to the child, she said she found it at Neo Street’s second alley. But the day the child brought the cat home, I went to check that street myself. No one there knew anything about a black cat.”

“Well, it’s possible—not many people would pay attention to a stray cat wandering the streets. That makes sense, I suppose…”

“And so I couldn’t gather any more information about the cat.”

“Wait—what? Huh?”

I narrowed my eyes, leaning in to read the notebook’s entry again, more carefully this time.

“I couldn’t gather any more information.”

“…Any more.”

“Ahh, Madam, you’ve glossed over it again this time, haven’t you? Please write your diary in more detail!”

This meant I’d have to gather information from scratch again, like bashing my head against a wall, and help the soul ascend.

“P.S. Ordinary animal souls rarely linger in the land of the living. Why hasn’t this cat’s soul moved on?”

“Yes, that’s what I’m wondering too, Madam!”

“Animals rarely linger in the land of the living after death. Perhaps because their souls are pure, they usually don’t leave behind grudges.”

‘But then why is that cat wandering the Cuvershaiden garden?’

I covered the notebook again and slid it back into the drawer, thinking. It seemed best to ask Shion about that cat first. Maybe I could get information the Madam had missed.

“Illiaje, you received an invitation from the Imperial Castle, right?”

Once the notebook disappeared from view, the Young Marquis and the Duke’s conversation drifted back into my ears.

“Yes. Why?”

“Actually, that’s why I came here. Good thing Laura’s here too—works out well.”

“You need something from my secretary?”

“Yeah. I’ve got something to say.”

Come to think of it, what did he want to tell me?

I lifted my head and looked over at the spot where they stood. The young marquis turned almost immediately, meeting my gaze.

“Laura. Would you like to accompany me to the Crown Prince’s birthday banquet?”

“What?”

His proposal made me blurt out in a dazed voice. It was that unexpected, that disconcerting.