I Don’t Care About the Story, I Want a Cat ～Transmigrated into an Otome Game～ - Chapter 26

Cats, Princes and Friends from Another Kingdom

“So, you want to know about the Kingdom of Bakur?”

Amy nodded eagerly at Leticia’s question.

“There are lots of people from other Kingdoms in my grandfather’s territory, but I rarely see anyone from Bakur there.”

“Your Grandfather’s territory is Warram right? If so then yeah there wouldn’t be many Bakur people there.”

Bakur was an ally Kingdom to the South, further inland. It was a landlocked Kingdom with no sea so trade was conducted by land. So it was to be expected that it had little connection with Warram which was one of the major seaports of Rudusia.

Amy didn’t know much about the neighbouring kingdoms, all her knowledge was limited to the books she’d read at home, or what she’d recently learned in her classes at the Academy. But there were two things she really wanted to know about Bakur.

“Yes. Besides, no book can beat your knowledge, lettie, since you’ve actually lived there before.”

Marquess Elphinstones had served as a foreign minister in Bakur, similar to a diplomat in Amy’s previous life. 

Bakur was a Kingdom rich in natural resources, and had been an important trade partner of Rudusia for many years. Recently, when welcoming the Crown Princess of Bakur, the Marquess had been sent there with his family to take care of various interests there. 

It was last winter when Leticia returned to the Capital after her father’s duty was complete. Leticia had enrolled in the academy at the beginning of this year, around the same time as Amy.

“I can’t imagine what it must be like to live in a place surrounded by deserts. I’ve always seen nothing but meadows and greenery around me. Maybe it’s like that but with sand.” 

Amy had conjured up an image of Arab countries from her previous life when she thought of Bakur. But Rosalind, who had never seen a place like that, couldn’t help but compare it to her own family’s country estate. 

This world was not as advanced when it came to communication, in terms of video recordings or broadcasting, so it was hard to understand the state of affairs in different places. 

“I’m sure you have pretty big meadows in your family’s territories but the desert is even more vast. I was surprised when I first saw it. Even the sun and the wind are completely different here.”

“If that’s so then their dresses must be different too.”

“Yes, they cover themselves with a veil on their heads.”

Both Amy and Rosalind pictured Leticia wearing the dress from the foreign country. They were sure she would look beautiful in anything. 

Amy was curious about their dressing but there was something more pressing she wanted to ask about. She leaned forward in her seat. 

“Um, is it true that everyone in that kingdom loves cats?”

“Amy, I’ve never seen anyone more obsessed with cats… Well, it’s true. The King and Queen also like them and they must have tons of cats in the Palace.”

Leticia shrugged her shoulders and looked at Amy in amazement. Her obsession with cats was quite obvious right now. Well, it’s not like Amy was trying to hide it or anything.  

“Wah, really!? What about you, Lettie? Did you have a cat too?”

She had read about the kingdom’s love for cats in one of her books. There were various reasons behind it: the founder of the kingdom had been a cat lover, and cats were considered to be good omen in their religion. 

Amy had been so excited when she found out it was actually true. Her head was filled with questions about the cats in Bakur. What kind of lives do they live, what kind of breeds do they have, what colour of fur is common there, typical names or the preferred diet… there were tons of things she wanted to know. 

“Yes, we did have a cat over there. But we couldn’t bring her back with us so we had to leave her behind when we moved back here.” 

Both Rosalind and Amy were speechless at Leticia’s words. 

“Ah…….”

“That’s a bit……..”

Amy’s eyes welled up with tears. Spotting the wetness in her eyes, Leticia became flustered. The surface of the tea in the cup she was holding shook a bit, signifying how taken aback she was. It was a rare sight to see Leticia, who always portrayed perfect coolness, get flustered like this.

“W-wait a minute, Amy, why are you crying!?”

“Because… to leave her behind is so…. uh!”

If she had to leave Tiger behind somewhere… just thinking about it made her chest constrict in pain. She clutched at the pendant hanging from her neck as her tears started to fall in earnest. 

Her tears fell down onto the tablecloth. Rosalind quickly brandished her handkerchief and wiped at Amy’s eyes with it. 

Leticia became even more flustered at the scene and tried to explain herself to Amy. 

“The temperature and the environment is completely different here. We couldn’t just bring her with us forcefully, what if she’d fallen ill when she came here?” 

“Yeah. you’re right…. but…”

“Besides, it’s not like we just abandoned her back there. I gave her to a friend, and I receive weekly letters from him, updating me on her health.” 

Leticia looked away awkwardly after saying that. Rosalind noticed the tips of her ears, which were peeking out from among her golden ringlets, were dyed bright red. 

“Lettie, did you perhaps leave her to Prince Jahar?”

“Y-yes, how did you know?”

“Ah, Prince Jahar is Lettie’s fiance right?”

“Ah, you’re wrong Amy! I never agreed to the engagement, he just declared it by himself!”

Bakur was a kingdom full of smaller states so it had many different royal families. Prince Jahar was the second Prince of one of these states. He was also the cousin of Princess Sameen who had been married into the Rudusian Royal family. 

If you applied their political situation to Rudusia’s aristocracy, then Princess Sameen’s parents would be the Royal family with Prince Jahar’s parents being equivalent to a Grand Duchy from a branch of the Royal family. 

It wasn’t uncommon for members of the Royal family in Rudusia to marry royalty from another kingdom. This time too, although the marriage of the Crown Prince was based on a political match, he had been childhood friends with the Princess of Bakur and they had been corresponding with each other for years. It had been a cheerful marriage with bards all over the Kingdom singing their blessings on the couple. 

On the other hand, there were nobility like Prince Jahar who had fallen in love at first glance with the daughter of a foreign minister. He had pursued her relentlessly, even convincing the Marquess to agree to a betrothal against Leticia’s will.  

The Prince had been pushing to get married, but Leticia’s father had postponed it with the reason that the prince was still young, he was younger than Leticia, and that he wanted to let his daughter have an education back in her home country. 

Jahar’s father had visited Rudusia on many occasions before, he was famous for his Oriental beauty. It was said that Jahar took after his father, while his older brother took after their mother. 

The engagement between such a handsome foreign Prince and one of the most beautiful young ladies of Rudusia had quickly become a hot topic of gossip among the commoners. There was even a novel published called ‘The Domineering Prince and the Beautiful Lady’ that had gotten very popular in the Capital. 

The lovers in the novel overcame misunderstandings and conspiracies and swore their love for each other in a city of sand, but are now living in different Kingdoms, spending their nights crying under foreign skies at the memories they made together… the long awaited reunion of the two: find out in the next volume! That’s what the book was about. 

But as Leticia said earlier, her parents had given their permission but Leticia herself hadn’t accepted the proposal. However, it was true that children of aristocrats generally didn’t have any freedom in choosing their marriage partners, and marriages were decided by their parents. In that sense, the marriage between Leticia and the Prince was ‘final’. 

“Umm, so he’s holding your cat hostage……?” 

“No, it’s not like that. I did ask him to look after her. In fact, he was the one who gave her to me in the first place.” 

“Ah.”

“I see.”

“Wh-what? I had never had a pet before so it was really hard for me to look after her at first. He just gave her to me out of nowhere!”

Amy wondered if he had one sidedly forced this act of kindness on her, but Leticia seemed like she suddenly remembered something and her cheeks blushed bright red; it looked like she hadn’t really mind receiving the cat.  

It didn’t matter if it was a love marriage, or a marriage of convenience, Amy just wanted to see her friends marry happily. She had herself grown up with the values of this world where arranged marriages were the norm, but she still thought it was important for the individual to be happy when it came to marriage.

Leticia had struggled to raise a cat when she first got it from her fiance, but she still raised it with love and affection.

“……..It’s a love that is brought together by a cat.”

“Oh, you’re right, Rosalind! How shall I put it, it’s like the Prince is a black cat and Leticia a beautiful white cat?”

The main characters in Amy’s mind were both cats. It was just like Amy to imagine a scenario with no human cast. 

“Wait, don’t tell me you girls are going to start this too!”

Leticia protested with her face blushing deeply at their words. All the girls in the room were looking at her with warm eyes, even the three ladies on the table next to them sat with their hands clutched to their chests as they looked at her with shining eyes. 

Leticia was a dignified young lady, beautiful enough to have a novel based on her, but she only showed her real expressions in front of her friends…… it gave her an air of cuteness.  

Leticia had quickly gained popularity among the students of the academy. And though they sometimes looked at Amy and Rosalind with jealousy for coaxing out her real expressions, it wasn’t that noticeable. 

“Anyways, if you want to talk about this then you should just go to someone’s house on your day off. Besides, we don’t have much time to talk at the Academy.”

“Oh, then please come to my house. Tiger is a bit shy of strangers but he’s a well behaved cat.”

“Ah, Posha is really cute too. She can be a bit mischievous but is friendly.”

“M-my Mimi has a really elegant coat, and she’s very pretty.”

Leticia had gotten caught up in their conversation, boasting about their cats. Amy quickly picked up on the name of her cat.

“Your cat is named Mimi? So cute! Did you name her yourself?”

“Ah, the one who named her was_”

“_Me.”

A voice suddenly interrupted from behind them startling Amy and Rosalind as they swivelled in their seats to glance behind. 

A young man had stepped up onto the terrace from the garden below. He was dressed all in white in what appeared to be a foreign dress. A similar whote scarf was tied around his head, held in place by a black ring. 

Looking at him, Amy was reminded of clothes that Arab people used to wear in her previous life. 

He had dark brown skin and black eyes with a strong gaze in them. She could tell he was younger than them from his height and facial features but it was hard to detect any weakness or childishness in him with the imposing way he carried himself.

“Prince Jahar! Why are you here!?”

Ah, as I’d thought it’s him! Amy thought. 

Amy was still reeling from the shock of his sudden appearance. In front of her, Leticia looked equally flustered as the Prince smiled satisfactorily down at her. He walked to her in a smooth, flowing motion before taking her hand and placing a chaste kiss there. 

Shocked screams and gasps rose from all around them at this action. 

“Mimi is being looked after carefully back at home. You can come visit her whenever you like, Lettie. Of course, you can go to see her right away if you want.”

“Wh- wha-”

Leticia’s blush spread down to her neck as Jahar’s face came closer to her to check on her. 

“If I knew you loved her this much I would have brought her along with me. But… I’m a bit jealous.”

“～～uh!”

He was whispering sweetly in her ears but his voice carried over even to where Amy and Rosalind were sitting. What kind of vocal cords did he have? Maybe it was a specialty of the Bakur Royalty? 

Speaking of voices, the otome game’s characters had voice actors as well. But Amy had never paid any attention to them. She now wished she had listened properly to their voices. 

There were two things Amy wanted to know about Bakur. The first was related to cats. And the second was whether or not the Bakur Prince was one of the capture targets from the game. 

Pictures were still not common in this world, and it was hard to tell what someone looked like from a painting. 

From the clothing she remembered from the game and the trade relations Rudusia had with others, she had guessed one of the characters to be from Bakur. On top of that, if she took age into account then either one of the Prince brothers would fit the image. Since the brothers were said to look completely different from each other, she could guess it must be Jahar; he looked similar to the illustration she had seen in the game. 

However, the capture target in front of her wasn’t gazing lovingly at the ‘heroine’’ but rather at her friend Leticia. Even Amy, who wasn’t very experienced when it came to love, could tell the way he was looking at her was full of affection. 

Maybe I was wrong about the capture target, she thought. But… 

Leticia’s eyes landed on hers with a pleading look in her face. She couldn’t help but feel sympathy for Leticia who was being teased in front of so many people. But Amy couldn’t think of any way to help her. 

The usual afternoon atmosphere at the terrace had been broken, but Amy and Rosalind couldn’t do anything as they sat with their hands clenched together.