I Don’t Care About the Story, I Want a Cat ～Transmigrated into an Otome Game～ - Chapter 38

Your Feelings Show Up on Your Face

Isabel came down the stairs, preparing to go out, when she spied Amy in the garden through the windows. 

What caught her attention was the fact that her daughter wasn’t looking at the flower beds, the gardener had worked hard on, and neither at the blue sky with not a single cloud in sight. Rather, her gaze was fixed intently on her hands. She was clutching a thin piece of paper that Isabel had become quite familiar with. It was a letter from Prince Edward. 

Fukuta, the messenger bird that brought these letters, had retired from official service and thus didn’t get a chance to fly long distances anymore. It seemed like Amy and Edward were working hard to solve the bird’s lack of exercise by sending each other letters on a daily basis. 

At first, Amy had worried over what to write in the letters. But she now wrote with the same ease she had when exchanging messages with someone on Twitter or Line in her previous life. 

However, right now, she was looking down at the letter with an indescribable expression on her face. Her brows were furrowed down and her lips pinched into a thin line. 

Isabel handed her bag to her maid and, telling her to wait in the entrance hall, made her way outside to her daughter. 

“Amy.”

Amy looked up with a start at her mother’s arrival. 

“Ah, hello, mother. Are you going somewhere? Um, Fukuta just arrived a few minutes ago and Tiger has gone off to play with him.” 

“I can see that.”

Apparently she hadn’t even noticed her mother approaching her. Flustered, Amy quickly folded up the letter and pointed to the garden as if to change the subject. 

A white owl was sitting on his favourite branch on one of the trees, and Tiger had begun to climb up the tree’s trunk. 

Tiger normally didn’t show interest in anyone other than Amy, whether they were a person or an animal. But whenever Fukuta came to visit, he would go over by himself to play with the bird. 

Amy didn’t know the reason why they got along so well but she was happy to see the two different species getting along so well. 

They didn’t do anything in particular. But Fukuta would occasionally stop grooming to look at Tiger, and then they would suddenly look away from each other. It was adorable.

“Fukuta is here to visit and yet you still look so serious. Is there something wrong?”

“Eh?”

“You look lonely.” Isabel said, glancing at the letter in Amy’s hand. 

Amy flushed and hid the letter behind her as she asked, “I’m not lonely”

“You looked lonely to me.”

Amy blinked her eyes in surprise, looking like she really had no idea about this. 

“Really?” She asked. 

“It’s ok, I know there are some things you can’t say to your parents easily. It’s as people say: you can try to hide your feelings but your face cannot help but show them…” 

Her mother finished meaningfully. Amy, recognising her meaning, mumbled out in a fluster. 

“Th-that’s not it! I’m going horse riding again next week, I was just thinking about that.”

“Is that so?”

Amy went to the Royal stables regularly. However, after starting the Academy it had become difficult to visit as freely as she did before so she had to schedule visits in advance. 

It was fun to interact with Fenti and Vintus who had become quite fond of Amy. She would catch up with Marvin and the others and check up on the horses and the messenger birds there. 

Amy continued speaking, wringing her hands in nervousness. 

“Um, and… Prince Edward was finally free after a long time. We were supposed to ride together but he said he suddenly had something come up so he couldn’t come as promised.” 

“Ah, so you were looking forward to seeing him after so long but now you feel disappointed that he won’t be coming.”

“N-no, that’s not it! He was supposed to introduce me to a new horse, that’s why I’m disappointed.”

“Hahaha, whatever you say.”

No matter how much Amy tried to explain herself, Isabel just nodded along with a knowing face.　

“Sure, let’s just leave it at that.”

“Mother_?”

Isabel pinched both of Amy’s cheeks, which had begun to turn red, in her hands. Then she let out a satisfied laugh at Amy’s blank look.

“Hahaha, your cheeks are so soft, it feels good to pinch them~”

“Wh-whar awu you dwoing?”

“I’m glad. You seem to be close to him.”

“Wha- w-wiv who?”

Isabel finally let go of Amy’s cheeks and shrugged as she turned her face away.

“Oh, look at Tiger. He’s still playing with Fukuta!” She said.

“Hm? Oh did you mean Tiger? Th-that’s right! We’re really close to each other!!”

Amy followed her mother’s sight to see the two animals were facing each other, perched on one of the branches. 

Tiger’s long tail swayed leisurely behind him. Fukuta’s eyes trailed after the swaying tail, his neck bobbing from side to side. 

Amy didn’t know what they were doing but they looked incredibly cute. 

“You think I was talking about Tiger, hmm, Amy?”

“Mother…… are you sure you have time to be talking to me?”

“Ah, I need to leave. I’m going to be a little late today so no need to wait up for me tonight.”

“Ok.”

“And Amy, don’t think too hard on it.”

“Eh?”

Instead of replying, Isabel caressed Amy’s cheek once again, with a reluctant  expression. Then she smiled and left, leaving behind Amy who let out a sigh of relief. 

For some reason, Amy had thought that her mother had been talking about her and Edward earlier. 

Amy didn’t have any experience when it came to love or romance.

On top of that, the number of friends of the opposite gender she had could be counted on one hand. Even in her previous life, she had never dated anyone. 

Feeling her cheeks heating up, she brought her hand to her face only to feel the letter she had folded up earlier. 

Although Amy and Edward were attending the same school, they were enrolled in different years, and their classes were different so they rarely saw each other at the Academy. 

Edward lived in the Academy’s dormitory, and was usually busy with his official duties. While Amy volunteered with the veterinarians on her days off so they didn’t get many opportunities to meet outside of school too. 

It had been four years since they first met, and Amy had come to grow fond of him as a friend but, in the end, he was still a capture target. 

The more distance they had between them the better it would be. She’d even thought it would be good if they had a falling out and stopped talking to each other. 

That’s why she should have been relieved when she got his letter saying he couldn’t see her at the stables. And yet her mother had asked her ‘what’s wrong’……… Amy didn’t have a good poker face like most nobles. 

Her feelings must have been apparent on her face.

She hadn’t lied when she’d told her mother that she was looking forward to seeing the new horse. But maybe that wasn’t the only thing that disappointed her. 

Amy felt this realization come onto her. 

The letter in her hand made a crunch sound as she clenched her hand tightly. She immediately loosened her grip and opened up the thin piece of paper.

Edward’s neat handwriting filled the page with the words ‘to my dear friend’ written on the top…… how long had it been since they started exchanging letters?

She looked at the letter again and with a silent apology for mistreating it, folded it up carefully. 

It wasn’t that black and white.

She still couldn’t rule out the possibility that this really was the world of the game, and the current events were just a deviation in the main plot. If that was the case then he could still be ‘captured’ by the heroine in the future. 

Despite that, her heart moved everytime she received a letter from him, or the disappointment she felt when he told her he couldn’t see her, that was all real for her. 

I wonder if my doubts will be cleared up if I can just identify the heroine…… though I’m scared to meet her, Amy thought. 

Tiger was still playing with his friend. 

Amy put the letter in the pocket of her dress and straightened her back as she stepped under the blue sky.