I Don’t Care About the Story, I Want a Cat ～Transmigrated into an Otome Game～ - Chapter 7

The Tea Party was Safely Concluded 

She thought she heard a high pitched scream coming from somewhere, but Amy’s mind was too focused on something else to pay it any mind. 

… There were so many girls surrounding him, so why did he suddenly come here!? Don’t you usually start talking from the person closest to you? Or, if not that, then shouldn’t you follow the family status? Anyways, he really does look exactly like the picture!… 

At this point, Isabel had quickly recovered and had reverted back to her usual wide grin. In contrast, Amy sat there blinking repeatedly in surprise. The Third Prince, Edward, sat there calmly as if there was nothing out of the ordinary about him appearing at their table. He greeted them politely.

Amy and Isabel returned the greetings, when the elderly maid started explaining the circumstances to them.

“In consideration of everyone’s safety, it was decided to change the plan to talk to each family one by one, by visiting their respective tables. Since this table only had one young lady and her mother, His Highness decided to start from here…”   

Amy looked around to see everyone was excitedly going back to their tables.

After listening to the maid’s reasoning she could agree with her. It would be difficult to guard the Prince in such a crowd. He could be pushed or stamped over. It would be a huge problem if he got injured.

Amy sighed in relief once she’d understood the reason. Edward brought the conversation back to their earlier topic.

“It looked like something had caught your attention.”

“Ah, um, there was a beautiful bird over there. It had very pretty blue feathers; it was perched on that branch over there…” 

Amy pointed to the branch swinging gently in the lush foliage. Edward smiled gently at her and continued the conversation.

“Do you like birds?”

“I like birds too.”

“You like birds ‘too’? So does that mean you also like other animals?”

“Yes, I also like dogs and cats. I like all kinds of animals.”

Amy was relieved that their conversation was focused on animals. She wasn’t very comfortable talking to strangers or new people. But if it was about animals, even Amy wouldn’t shy away from the conversation. Rather, she actually enjoyed it.

It turned out the Prince was also fond of animals as he started talking about the dog he kept as a pet.

Amy was starting to get more comfortable in her manner and speech, perhaps a bit too comfortable for someone who was speaking with a member of the Royal Family 

Today’s event was specifically arranged to meet the candidates in person… official representatives had actually gone to the respective houses and conducted interviews with the candidates, but that wasn’t enough to judge the candidate. For you can’t know someone unless you meet them personally. And so, today’s event was set up to meet and see the personality and characteristics of each candidate.

Which was why Amy was told to behave in a proper manner as much as possible. 

This led to her being anxious that she might act too casual and be seen as disrespectful to the Royal Family. Amy couldn’t get rid of the idea of the ‘Bad End for the Villainess’ from her head, and so she voiced her concerns to her parents. They told her to just follow what the other person would say, but most importantly, do whatever felt comfortable to her.

Her father had told her that even if the worst came to pass, and she was accused of blasphemy or being disrespectful, the bad end scenario from the game wouldn’t come to pass. Their family would not be ‘broken up’ nor ‘exiled’ so she shouldn’t worry too much.

Currently, the punishment for the crime of blasphemy was house arrest or a fine. In the worst case scenario, it was the stripping of your noble title. You couldn’t be executed for it. And as for stripping off the title of nobility, even if it happened the Northland family wouldn’t suffer much for it. Even if their lands were seized, as long as the tenants were well protected it didn’t matter, her father had told her. 

Her father could change his job to an international technology researcher, and as for her brother, he could still be an adventurer regardless of noble status. At any rate, they were commoners in their past life. If their nobility title was stripped they would merely return to being commoners. Her father had proudly declared that there was no problem if she ended up incurring the displeasure of someone.

Thinking more on it, a casual and comfortable attitude would actually be more convenient for her, Amy realised, especially since it would be judged as ‘lacking aptitude to be a Princess’. This could be a good way to disqualify herself from the candidate position for something other than her appearance. And so she had decided to go to the meeting without any pretenses.

“Speaking of pets, I heard you received a cat from Duchess Coverdale.” 

“Ah, yes! He’s a really cute cat.”

“I see.”

“But, he gets lonely very easily. Even now I’m worried about him. I hope he’s not crying.”

Edward’s face which had been smiling pleasantly turned into an understanding face. Amy’s words could also be taken as her saying she wants to go back home as soon as possible, but she had spoken honestly from her heart. For some reason, he didn’t find it offensive at all.

“U-um, how come you know about this? Could it be that something like the transfer of cats has to be reported to the Royal Family……?”  

There had been no monetary exchange between the Northland and Coverdale families during Tiger’s adoption. The Duchess had even taken care to make sure the exchange of the cat will not be associated with bribery or connection.

“I genuinely want someone who will love and look after these cats in the way they deserve. I’m not someone who would demand payment after hoisting an unwilling cat onto someone… I can’t do something like that to these cats.” The Duchess had said.

She had looked exasperated as if she had experienced this situation before.

This was why Amy was skeptical about why the transfer of a mere cat would be reported to the Prince.

“No, it’s nothing like that. I’m actually childhood friends with Alexander Coverdale; I heard it from him.”

Amy was inwardly surprised to find out that these two capture targets were friends with each other. But the Amy of this world could agree that it made sense. It was only natural that the Third Prince and the son of a Duke would become playmates especially since they were close to each other in age. They must meet frequently. It wasn’t that strange when she thought the topic of Tiger’s transfer must have come up in their conversation.

“It seems you’ve also met him before.”

“Yes I’ve met him about two… no three times. I met him in the garden of the Coverdale house when I went to see Tiger, ah, Tiger is the name of the cat. He seemed to be home on a small break from school.”

Alexander could be a bit too confident and overbearing, but his good upbringing made up for it; he was the type of person who held no ill will towards others. She had been too flustered, after realising he was a capture target, on their first meeting, but she could now talk easily with him.

He would approach Amy, even though he wouldn’t play with the cats, and randomly give her pastries or sweets. But, since everything he gave her was delicious, she readily accepted them.

The eclair from the day before had been really good. It had a thin layer filled with the perfect amount of rich cream with a delicious vanilla scent. The chocolate on top was also… she suddenly remembered she was sitting in front of the Prince and shook herself out of the daydream with a small cough.

Tiger was used to Alexander since he had lived with him for a long time, so he would let the boy stroke his fur as Amy and Alex sat down to drink tea. 

“What do you talk about with him? Perhaps you talk about cats?”

“Ah, actually, Alex prefers to talk about my brother…” 

For a moment, an awkward atmosphere settled on them when she called him ‘Alex’, but Amy, whose mind was still in the Duchess’ cat room didn’t seem to notice.

So Alexander wanted to hear about her brother in exchange for the sweets. It looked like her dual sword wielding brother was quite popular among his juniors at school. 

“Ah, Lord Harold is often talked about at the Palace too. The Royal Knights and Magicians are already fighting over who will recruit him after his graduation.”

“Is that so? He’s just like a normal brother to me though……”  

Amy hadn’t known he was this famous. She was a bit surprised. Isabel was still smiling calmly with no change in her expression so it seemed like she was already aware of Harold’s fame.

Certainly his sword skills in dual swords, and his magic prowess in battle magic, both would be quite sought after by the knights and magicians, respectively.  She knew that all of this was the result of his passion for adventure games, but she wasn’t sure if he actually wanted to pursue it as a career.

But if that happened then it would naturally divert from the setup of the ‘otome game’. Could it be that this really was a different world which merely resembled the world of the game… however the Prince sitting in front of her brought back the image of the opening illustration in her mind.

As expected, she couldn’t let down her guard yet.

She brought her hands around herself in a light hug and felt her fleshy upper arm squish under her fingers. This flesh was the armour for protecting her, and the source of magic that could allow her to keep pets without any worries.

“…… I should put on a bit more weight.” 

“I’m sorry, what did you say?”

“Ah, no, it’s nothing. Anyways, the dog that Your Highness is keeping_”  

“Ed.”

“Eh?”

The prince laughed at Amy’s blinking face. Amy was lost for words as she realised his slightly melancholic smile looked just like the illustration from the game.

“Please call me Ed, not Your Highness.”

“Eh, but, um…… sure. Ed.” 

His expression didn’t change much when she addressed him by his name, but his bright grey eyes seemed to sparkle with happiness. Amy felt herself become flustered once again.

They spent the rest of the time talking amiably, mainly about animals, until the maid reminded him that it was time to move on to the next table. The Prince left their table with that. The tea party passed quickly after that and ended without any incident.

Amy immediately went to Tiger’s room when they arrived back home. As soon as she opened the door, Tiger came running up to her as if he had been waiting for her to arrive. He was so cute she couldn’t bear it.

She sat down and hugged him close in both arms as she charged herself.

“I’m back, Tiger! I’m so sorry for leaving you, you weren’t lonely were you? Ah, I’m exhausted…… I’m tired but…”

… It was surprisingly easy to talk to him. Perhaps it was because neither of them had brought up the subject of the engagement. 

When she’d first seen him she had been so shaken to see he looked exactly like the game illustration. However, after actually talking to him, he was quite polite with a gentle manner just like a Prince should be. He wasn’t scary at all.

On top of that, he had listened enthusiastically to her talk about Tiger, and had happily told her about his dog and his horse. She had found a fellow animal enthusiast in him, and hadn’t felt any repulsion or unpleasantness from him. 

… There was one thing she noticed though. It was his smile which seemed to be tinged with a hint of sadness.

The Prince was only 13 years old; he was just a middle-schooler in terms of her past life. He should be laughing in a more carefree manner, and yet his smile was nothing like the one she remembered from her class fellows when she was in middle school. Even Alexander, who was also a high ranking noble, didn’t smile like this.

Amy’s heart felt constricted when she thought that it might be due to his Royal status which made him constrict himself to this extent. 

“I wonder what it is……”  

Tiger meowed lovingly as he nuzzled her hand. Amy picked up his front paws and placed them on her lap.

She submerged her hands on the soft fur of his head and gently massaged him at the base of his ears… her heart softened at Tiger’s pleased expression as he purred lightly. 

Tiger’s mouth looked like it had come straight from a painting; he looked like he was smiling when he closed it. Amy placed a finger on the tip of his mouth and felt the corners of her mouth lift up in a smile.

“Hey, Tiger, I hope Ed can smile more naturally in front of the girl who will become the princess.”

Princess… it certainly won’t be her. There had been lots of beautiful girls at the tea party today, girls who would be more suited to be a Princess. It had seemed like he had spent a longer time talking with the other girls than he had with Amy.  

We probably won’t talk to each other again, she thought.

While she felt relieved, there was a part of her that felt disappointed, but she was fine with that. She would just sleep engulfed in Tiger’s soft fur and things will be back to normal tomorrow. 

As she thought so there was a knock on the door and her mother, Isabel came in.

“I’ll ask Mrs. Callagher to come tomorrow. We’re going to take measurements in the afternoon.”

“Eh?”

“I should have asked her to make a riding dress before. But I didn’t think you’d need one so soon.”

“Wait, what are you talking about? Riding? As in horse riding? Yes, I do like horses too but…?”

Confused, Amy hugged Tiger’s body closer to her, his soft black fur tickling her neck. Her mother laughed, an amused look on her face.

“Don’t you remember? You promised to go riding with His Highness.”

“…… What!” 

“You did. When you were saying goodbye to him.”

“Unfortunately, I have to leave now. Well then, we can talk about Vintus next time*”

(TN: The literal translation is ‘As for Vintus, at another time’ with no specific verb which makes the phrase very vague but can be inferred as him inviting her for a ride. I added the verb ‘talk about’ to make it less confusing in English, but still vague enough for Amy to misunderstand.)

“Yes. Thank you very much.”

And that had been it! Or so she’d thought but ‘Vintus’ was the name of the Prince’s horse… Amy finally realised the casual remark she had said in response had turned into a confirmation for their next plan.