I Don’t Care About the Story, I Want a Cat ～Transmigrated into an Otome Game～ - Chapter 28

Conversing at the Lounge

The excitement around them calmed down soon after, and the group were just talking casually when Leticia brought up the topic of the tourney once again.

“Prince Jahar, are you really going to participate in the tourney?”

The kingdom of Bakur was known for its warriors and martial arts and it was customary for the Royal Family to be skilled in sword fighting. For that reason, it wasn’t surprising for Jahar to participate. But, while there was no age restriction, it was a given that younger participants would be handicapped since their physical strength and magical power would naturally be lower than that of an older participant. So it wasn’t common for someone of Jahar’s age to participate. 

Leticia wanted to confirm if he could participate in this sense but Jahar’s answer surprised all the girls present.

“That’s right. Ed and Alex will also be participating this year.”

“What?”

Amy exclaimed in surprise. He hadn’t mentioned anything about this in his letters, nor did he say anything when she’d run into him the other day. She looked questioningly at Edward, he just smiled apologetically, confirming Jahar’s statement. 

“I didn’t mean to keep it a secret, I just never found the chance to mention it.”

It was tradition for the members of Royalty to participate in the tourney while they are still at school. 

Even the First and Second Prince had participated when they were enrolled in the Academy, but Amy didn’t know that since she was never really interested in it, and there was a large age gap between her and the first two Princes. The first and only time she’d attended the tourney was when her brother had participated in it. 

“I may not be strong like my brothers, or Harold, but I’m not weak enough to be defeated easily.”

“But, Ed, what if you get injured……”

The Second Prince was also the Knight Commander, the leader of the Imperial Knights. His bloodline did play a part in him getting the role, but he wouldn’t have been able to lead them if he didn’t have the necessary strength and skill. Being a member of the Royal Family meant you had to be skilled in fighting or battle magic. But Edward had never shown an inclination for fighting, and didn’t have an intimidating aura like his brothers so Amy couldn’t help but feel worried. 

The tourney did have rules and regulations, but the competitions in it involved actual fighting; participants would receive a lot of injuries in them. 

“Don’t worry, both Ed and I can handle ourselves. Besides, if anything happens to us there is a healing magician team there to heal us…… speaking of, maybe you’ll be there as well, Amy?”

“Ah, yes. I was just recently informed by Sir Dion to help out with the healing this year.”

Amy confirmed Alex’s guess and nodded along. 

“Is that so? Then I have nothing to worry about when I participate.” Ed smiled.

“Ed, that doesn’t mean it’s alright for you to get hurt!”

“Are you good with healing magic, Amy? It’s rare to see for someone your age.” Jahar chimed in.

Even though they were from different Kingdoms, the extent to which magical power could be grown was the same in both Kingdoms. Healing magic in particular was difficult to master, and it was usually learned after reaching adulthood. Not many people could practice it at Amy’s age. 

Leticia seemed to perk up with pride when Jahar praised her friend, making Amy smile in pleasure.

“Did you start learning by yourself?”

“Yes, because I wanted a cat.”

“A cat?”

Amy froze, she had accidentally blurted out the part about cats. She had learned healing magic so she could keep a cat. But people wouldn’t understand how that could be the motivation for her to learn it. So she quickly rephrased it with the more ‘normal’ version of why she started learning magic.   

“Ah, no, um, my brother is an adventurer so he gets injured a lot. I just wanted to help heal him.”

“Ah, I see. I have heard talk about this ‘Dual Swordsman of Rudusia’. I didn’t know Harold Northland was your older brother.”

“It is an honour that you have heard about him…”

She had never thought her brother was so well known that even the Royalty of a neighbouring kingdom would know about him. Amy felt surprised at this revelation. As soon as Harold’s name was brought up, Alexander leaned forward, his eyes shining with excitement. 

“Where is Harold right now?”

When Alexander was a child his dream was to be an adventurer, but he couldn’t fulfill it due to his high social status. 

He had to make do with just listening to stories about other adventurers. But if he wasn’t the son of a Duke, he would have wanted to join Amy’s brother’s party. 

“I have no idea, Alex. He could be anywhere right now.”

The last time they’d heard from him was before Amy enrolled in the Academy. Her brother always did things at his own pace and would often fail to contact them. 

“That sounds just like Harold. Aren’t your parents worried?” Edward added his own question.

“They’re not worried. They think that if we don’t hear from him it means he’s doing well.”

Her brother, who hadn’t returned home for a while now, was off hunting monsters along with his two friends, Gilbert and Nicholas. 

Adventurers weren’t like normal travellers or tourists. Unlike ordinary travellers, they fell under the jurisdiction of the Adventurer’s Guild which had branches everywhere, in every Kingdom. So, an adventurer could enter and leave a Kingdom, and stay there, without special papers or permission from the border. So it was very common for them to travel from country to country as they hunted monsters. From the letters and souvenirs Amy’s family received, they could tell that Harold too was getting accustomed to this travelling lifestyle. They would also hear news about her brother’s party from time to time, it seemed like his party was quite skilled and they were slowly rising in the ranks of adventurers.  

Her parents and grandfather were not too worried because they could contact the guild to trace his footsteps and find his whereabouts if they wanted to get in touch with him. The family was also used to long absences after staying in Warram for so long. It was common there to not come back for months when they went out to sea. 

There was also another reason for her brother to travel so much, and that was to look for new members for his party. 

They were only a three member party right now and often had to recruit temporary members from among the locals.

Their party was strong when it came to offense, but Harold wanted at least one permanent member who specialised in support and healing. Although Harold and Nicholas could use magic they were not good at healing.

Their name had become well known throughout the land so there were many people who wished to join their party. However, Harold’s standards were too high so they hadn’t been able to find someone suitable yet. 

It was because in their past life, her brother had a really good in-game support companion in his hunter game. He didn’t know that person in real life. He had met them by chance while both of them were playing solo, and they had decided to team up since then. 

Although the avatar was a cute cat girl, their level had been the highest value with a plus. They could set traps in the right places just by reading the first move of the opponent, and were highly skilled with their weapon. They were also exceptional at locating enemies and would often fight with high ranking monsters. 

Her brother had been so impressed by their abilities while fighting a high ranking opponent, he had asked that person to join him on the spot. 

Amy still remembered how excited he had been when he’d told her while shouting, “I’ve found a great guy!” 

That was one of the last memories she had from her previous life. 

AFter playing together for a while, her brother had received a message from the support player that their real life was getting busy so they wouldn’t be playing for a while. Her brother had been devastated at that. 

Amy didn’t remember if they ever did play together after that or not. But she knew that even now, that person was the ideal support member of a party. 

It was important for adventurers to find good members for their parties, but there was no guarantee that her brother could ever find someone like that player from his past life. And even if he did find a person with exceptional skills like that, that person might already be part of a different party. 

Harold knew that but he still didn’t give up on looking for that kind of encounter in this world, and this was why he hadn’t come back home in so long. 

Well, Amy thought, it’s fine for Harold to keep looking until he is satisfied. Earlier, she’d muttered out how she learned healing magic to help heal her brother. And even though her brother wasn’t here, she decided she would work hard by herself to improve. It was like her mother once said: they got a second life so they might as well make the most of it. 

Even now, she would sometimes feel worried when she thought of the game from her past life, but, compared to before, Amy felt more and more positive about this life.

She had spent a lot of time practicing magic so that she could keep a pet, and also as a means to separate herself from the game. On top of that, she would sometimes help out the Duchess of Coverdale with healing her rescued cats, or go visit the animals in the Palace. Thanks to that she had met a lot of people and, little by little, started feeling like she really did belong in this world. That this world was real, with its own people, and not just a game.

Whenever she went back home she had Tiger waiting there for her. The time she spent with Tiger was irreplaceable for her, and seeing him always calmed her down. Whenever she’s with Tiger she would forget all about her worries about the Otome game, and being a villainess. 

However she still hadn’t gotten over her doubts and, looking at the three men in front of her, she let out a small sigh. 

While Amy was thinking about this, Rosalind was telling Jahar about Posha and other animals she had healed back at her country estate. Growing up with animals, she was also skilled in healing magic.

“If you get injured at the tourney you can just ask me or Amy to heal you, Prince Jahar.”

“Ah, of course. Though it would be better if I don’t have to get healed at all.”

“That’s right, you shouldn’t burden Amy. Earlier today, she used too much magic and fainted.”

“Stop it, Lettie! I was just a bit hungry and felt light headed for only a second.”

Magic training or sword fighting classes focused a lot on practical skills so there was a high chance of getting injured if one wasn’t careful during practice. If an injury wasn’t big enough to go visit the Medic then Amy would offer to heal it if she happened to be nearby. But even a small cut could be a burden on one’s magical energy. So healing multiple people, even if they had small wounds, could add up to be a considerable energy expenditure. And so she had overworked herself with healing others today.

“Liar, even now you look like you’ll fall over any moment.” 

“But Amy’s healing magic is very effective, and it feels very relaxing to get it. So I can understand why people would ask her to heal them.” Rosalind added. 

Amy was surprised to hear this. “Really? I can’t really tell……”

It was rare for someone of Amy’s age to have the skill she had in healing magic, but there had been instances in the past when people who came from a lineage of strong magic users showed exceptional skill at it. Amy’s mother’s side of the family had a strong foundation in magic so this much shouldn’t be too surprising. However, Amy was a bit different from other healing magic users. She didn’t know it yet but she had the rare ability of ‘Celestial Healing’.

It had always been felt by Tiger and other animals but the first among humans to notice it was Sir Dion. It was during training, when Amy was practicing healing magic on him, he felt that the magical force at work was slightly different than normal.

The power of celestial healing was considered a blessing from God. Those who received this divine blessing had a strong political and religious influence so they were always in high demand from various institutes. If it was revealed that Amy had been blessed by it, she would be hounded by all sorts of people from the Royal Palace, the magicians, and the various Temples to join them. 

There was also another matter. Amy was currently a candidate for the Third Prince’s fiancee. But, since her status as a candidate hadn’t progressed much in all these years, she might receive more proposals of marriage from Royalty of other kingdoms, or even from among some of the nobles in Rudusia. Some people might even try to use force to marry her. 

If that happened, her life would change completely. She wouldn’t be able to attend the Academy like now. The Northlands and Sir Dion, all of them were worried about what would happen to Amy, who was still a minor, if this news got out. 

Fortunately, at this point, no one could tell she had the ability of Celestial Healing unless they were a very high ranking magic user like Sir Dion. So, after consulting with her grandfather, they had decided to keep this ability a secret from everyone, including Amy herself.