I Don’t Care About the Story, I Want a Cat ～Transmigrated into an Otome Game～ - Chapter 25

Making More Friends

Amy and Rosalind were chatting happily about their cats when they were interrupted by a high pitched voice that came from beside them. 

“Did you see her? She’s eating more of those desserts.”

“I can’t stand it. She can’t even control her eating and yet she dares to be friends with His Highness.”

“Honestly. I wonder if she’s ever looked at herself in the mirror.”

They had been feeling someone staring at them from the next table for a while now. Taking a peek at them, Amy found three young ladies dressed in ostentatious clothes sitting there. She had never seen them before so they were probably newly enrolled in the academy.  

There weren’t a lot of female students in the Academy. Amy had come to know the few dozens of ladies who attended here pretty quickly. She had been pretty impressed by Rosalind’s sharp memory. But Amy herself was a high schooler in her past life with about 150 students in her grade. So it was not difficult for her to familiarise herself with everyone here, especially since people here also had distinctive features such as hair colour or eye colour. 

The three girls’ disdainful gazes were also falling on the tea set placed on Amy and Rosalind’s table. 

This lounge doubled as a coffee shop and provided various refreshments like cakes, macarons and fruits. Rosalind was only sipping on tea but Amy had a tart, very similar to engadiner, placed in front of her. It had a golden crust rich in butter and was stuffed with caramel and nuts of different kinds. It didn’t look like it but it had a high amount of calories in just one slice. 

It had been four years since Amy had first gone to the Palace at the tea party for the Third Prince’s fiancee candidates. Despite these years, she hadn’t been able to drop out from the list of fiancee candidates and, in fact, was the only person left on that list. Amy had her own reservations about that, but she knew there were many other noble families and young ladies.  

More than anything else, the difference in status between the Royal family and a Count’s daughter was too great after all.

“I wonder if she can dance properly with such a heavy body.”

“Imagine if she stepped on her partner’s toes. I’d feel bad for the guy.”

“He’ll probably be heavily injured.”

Amy knew very well who they were talking about.

Amy could understand their view though, because she was also one of those people who thought that people who belonged to the Royal Family of their Kingdom should be good looking. She agreed with them: there were so many other Fiancee Candidates so they could have easily picked someone better looking. 

“Well, that’s true.”

“Geez, Amy!”

Rosalind glared at Amy who was nodding along to the girls’ conversation as she gazed off nonchalantly in the distance. She had become used to the backbiting she experienced after she started interacting with Edward, and now it was nothing but background noise to her.  

Not getting the reaction they were expecting, the young ladies on the table next to them kept bad mouthing Amy in a bored looking way. 

Amy had expected this kind of talk to occur when she’d first decided to gain weight but, honestly, the first time she’d heard it had been quite shocking. She froze up in surprise at the malicious words targeted towards her. It wasn’t as if she had chosen to become a fiancee candidate, but she couldn’t go and complain about it either.  

However, after a while she came to understand that these ladies didn’t have any resentment or ill will towards Amy herself, but rather they didn’t like the Amy who was a ‘fiancee candidate’.

Moreover, most of these people were girls who Amy had never met before. They’d decide they hated Amy without actually knowing what she was like as a person. 

So usually, after interacting with her a number of times, their feelings of hatred would tone down as they got to know the real Amy. There were also times when some of these girls ended up becoming friends with her. In fact, all of the students that had harbored ill feelings towards her when she’d first enrolled into the academy, had now changed their opinions of her. 

From this, Amy had realised it was more effective to just let them be rather than confront them head on. Their resentment would slowly fade away. Though she would be lying if she said the backbiting didn’t affect her at all.

Besides, even if she was a good looking person with perfect looks, she still wouldn’t be liked by everyone. At any rate, Amy was content the way she was, she didn’t care if the large majority of people hated her as long as she had her family, friends like Rosalind and Tiger to be with. 

Speaking of Rosalind, she felt a bit sorry for her. Just because she was sitting with Amy she had to suffer through the words of the girls on the next table. 

“Sorry for always making you put up with this, Rosalind.”

“You’re not the one who should be apologizing. It does make me mad to hear them talk about you like this, but if you’re okay with it then I don’t mind.”

“……. Oh, so you guys were here!”

Rosalind and Amy were both leaning forward, talking to each other in small voices when a third voice descended on them from above. The dignified and noble voice, that Amy had become well familiar with ever since entering the academy, had come from a young lady that had just now approached their table from behind them.  

“Eh, isn’t that…”

“No way, it’s the daughter of Marquess Elphinstone….!”

The three young ladies who had been making snide remarks since earlier seemed to be in shock, and there were whispers arising all around them as well. Before Amy could turn around, Rosalind called out to the lady. 

“Oh, Lady Leticia!”

“I was walking in the garden below and happened to see you girls sitting here by coincidence. Don’t you have any consciousness as ladies? The sun is shining so brightly today and yet you both are sitting here in the open. What if you get sunburned!?”

Amy couldn’t help but feel awed at her ladylike mannerisms. She had a lace fan pulled up to her mouth as she gave them a side glance. 

It was to be expected that Amy would be so starstruck by Leticia. She looked like she had just stepped out of a painting with her lovely face, blue, jewel-like eyes and shining blonde hair curled into perfect ringlets. What’s more, her curls were completely natural. 

She had a slender figure and was dressed in an empire waist dress which was simple in terms of decoration, but you could tell at first glance that it was of the highest quality. Her heels were of the latest fashion and together with the dress, and her dignified posture, made for a beautiful appearance. She reminded Amy of an opera singer from her past life. 

She closed the fan with a snap and even the fingertips that were gently holding the fan oozed so much elegance and charm, Amy could see roses blooming behind the lady. She seemed to sparkle, and not just because of the sunlight streaming in through the leaves, but because she just seemed to have an aura like that.

With the sudden appearance of the beautiful lady, sighs of wonder and admiration could be heard from the surrounding tables. 

Even the young ladies on the next table were looking at her with admiring gazes, their behaviour completely different from how they’d gazed at Amy. 

“Ah so you girls were having tea by yourselves…… good to see you girls having fun.”

Leticia let out a cold remark as she gave a contemptuous glance at the plates laid out in front of Amy and Rosalind. The three girls on the table beside them gave each other self satisfied smirks as if saying ‘see, I told you so’.

“See, Amy. I told you we needed the extra seat, didn’t I?”

“You were right, Rosalind! Lady Leticia ended up finding us, just like you said.”

Before an attendant could get to them, Rosalind got up and pulled out the extra chair on their table while Amy gestured to it with a smile. They both looked like they were happy to see Leticia. 

Amy noticed Leticia seemed to be a bit out of breath. She probably knew I was being talked about and rushed to get here, Amy thought. It was very sweet of her but Leticia would never admit to it. 

Perhaps she could guess what Amy was thinking, Leticia opened up her fan again and fluttered it about restlessly as she looked at the faces of the two girls sitting before her. 

“Wh-what are you talking about?”

“We didn’t see you in the morning class, so we went to look for you in Madam Tory’s class. Righ, Amy?”

“Yes. But you weren’t there either, Lady Leticia. We thought you would definitely be at Sir Dion’s magic lesson but we couldn’t see you there either. Then Rosalind suggested coming here since this place is easy to spot from the garden.”

“Wh-what are you saying? It’s not like I went to the garden because I wanted to see you girls… Y-you went to Madam Tory’s class too… to look for… me…..?”

Everyone’s eyes were on Leticia, nodding along to her. But the second half of her sentence, she muttered to herself in a small voice. 

“Is that so? Ah how sad… it looks like we were the only ones who were looking forward to seeing Lady Leticia, right Rosalind?” 

“Don’t be disappointed, Amy. I’m sure Lady Leticia will have tea with us. We still have that unfinished discussion about Bakurnese as well. Isn’t that so, Lady Leticia?”

“I-it can’t be helped! It’s not like I’m not busy or anything but… I can make some time. People from the Elphinstone family are pretty generous after all.”

Leticia cleared her throat and sat down gracefully on the offered chair, her face tilted down. From between those golden ringlets, Amy could see her cheeks were dyed bright red and a pleased smile was on her face. 

The three ladies looked shocked at this development. Meanwhile Leticia, who had regained her composure, gave her order to the attendant. 

“I’ll have the tart as well.”

“Ooh then we’ll be matching, Lady Leticia!”

“Haha, what good friends you both are.”

“No, it’s just that I heard cot seeds are good for restoring magic energy. That’s it! I don’t particularly want to match with Amy or anything. You should eat more too, Amy!”

Amy gave a bright smile at that. 

“Lady Leticia, you’re so kind.”

It looked like she was concerned when Amy had gotten exhausted after using too much magical energy in a previous magic lesson. 

Hit with the full blunt of Amy’s sincere smile, Leticia let out a choked cough, her face turning red. 

“Uh, anyone would be worried! It’ll be a bother if you faint in the middle of a lesson, after all!” 

“Yes. Nevertheless, thank you.”

Rosalind was watching the interaction between them. She suddenly spoke up, sounding like an older sister. 

“Don’t worry, Lady Leticia. This is Amy’s second tart.” 

“……. I guess it’s fine then. Anyways, didn’t I tell you to stop addressing me so formally like that. Have you forgotten?  

Amy and Rosalind looked at each other at Leticia’s admonishment. Then they both smiled and said together, “Yes, Lettie.”

Leticia let out a satisfied smile when they called her by the nickname before quickly fixing her expression to her usual cool face. Behind her, the three ladies were sitting in shock with their mouths gaping wide. 

Lady Leticia Elphinstone, a Marquess’s daughter was quite popular among the noble young ladies in the Academy…… and she was one of those girls who had been snide to Amy at first but had ended up becoming a close friend of hers.