CSTB Chapter 1

<Chapter 1>

Sigh… really…

Life on the streets… what a joke.

[No way, those jerks again?!]

There wasn’t a single moment she could let her guard down.

Rose, who had been gracefully walking along the snow-covered wall, suddenly stopped and crouched low, preparing to leap.

She had spotted enemies trying to snatch her food bowl.

[Tsk! Don’t even think about it! That’s mine!]

There was no time to hesitate. A moment’s pause and she’d lose her precious food.

[I said back off!]

Before using force, Rose, always the “gentlecat,” gave a warning. Then she sprang into the air.

All eyes turned to Rose.

Hmph. You fools. Can’t take your eyes off me, huh? Impressive, right?

Watch and learn. This is how Rose—who conquered this entire neighborhood in just a month—throws a proper kick!

Mocking the would-be thieves, Rose twisted midair with elegant flair, stretched out her right leg, and struck.

Her paw landed square on the back of the head of the biggest black cat among them, sending him flying.

[Aagh!]
[Run!]

Even the cats who hadn’t been hit scrambled away in terror.

[See? Told you to scram. How dare you eye the fish I claimed first?]

Standing tall in front of the fish she had heroically protected, Rose let out a proud, smug laugh.

[Wow… You beat Spotty! That’s amazing!]
[He’s like a total gangster…]
[How are you so good at fighting?!]

Praise poured in from all directions. Rose basked in her glorious victory—until…

“Ugh, what’s with all these noisy cats again? Is it that cat again? Shoo! Get out of here! Ugh, look at those creepy eyes. Gross!”

A woman came charging with a broom, and Rose, fish in mouth, was forced to flee in the most undignified fashion.

Now, why exactly did Rose end up fighting like her life depended on it over a fish and running away with it in her mouth?

“Is that the cat that’s been hanging around lately?”

“Yup. No idea where it came from, but it’s always fighting with the other strays.”

It’s because Rose… was a cat.

The “leg that struck with deadly accuracy” was actually her hind paw, and all those “threats” she made? Just her meowing.

[You’re so fast!]
[So cool!]

All that praise? Yep—from other cats.

‘Sigh… where do I even begin explaining this?’

“See you tomorrow.”

“Thanks for your hard work, Jaehee.”

It had been another uneventful, ordinary day.

Except for one thing—it was Wednesday, and she’d failed course registration so badly that she had classes straight from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

There hadn’t even been time for a proper meal, so she scarfed down a triangle kimbap between classes and barely made it through her part-time job. She was finally heading home when…

“A cat?”

She spotted a white cat on a quiet main road.

It was a Ragdoll cat, with soft, fluffy white fur and chocolate-colored markings around its ears and tail.

‘Ha! With all the online cat videos I’ve watched, I can recognize breeds in my sleep.’

The cat looked like a plush toy—groomed to perfection, its fur practically shimmering.

“Did it run away?”

It didn’t look like a stray. Someone must be out there looking for it.

But then, the cat suddenly darted into the road.

“Hey! That’s dangerous!”

And then… Rose did something incredibly stupid.

If only it hadn’t been Wednesday…

There was a reason she remembered the exact day this all happened.

Had her brain not been fried from exhaustion, would she have done something so reckless?

To save the cat, Rose ran into an eight-lane road.

Thud.

She was hit by a bus heading toward the nearby station.

No matter how many times she replayed it, it was beyond dumb.

“Mroww! Hiss!”
“Hiss! MROWW!”

Ha… After struggling so hard through life, I die like this? What a joke…

Just as she was fading away, she heard the sound of cats fighting nearby.

‘Seriously, guys? Can’t you not fight when someone’s dying here?’

She chuckled bitterly… then opened her eyes.

‘Huh?’

The world around her had changed completely.

Cold stone roads, brick buildings, and people with all sorts of hair and eye colors bustling through the streets.

The heavy-webnovel-reader inside Rose screamed: This is reincarnation into a novel world!

Of all times—why now?!

But still—

‘This might be my chance to meet a cool male lead and turn my life around!’

She was hopeful—until…

“Look, sis! There’s a cat passed out here!”

“Oh wow, you’re right.”

“I think its name’s Rose. See the name tag? Looks like someone owned it.”

Rose had reincarnated into a cat. A stray, no less, abandoned without a home.

‘Of course. Like my life would ever go smoothly.’

She tried to accept it…

‘But seriously?! If I got reincarnated, couldn’t I at least be a maid or something? A cat?! I’m a cat?!’

She tried. She really did. But the frustration bubbling inside was too much.

‘This crappy life… even in another world, it’s just as crappy!’

Rose flailed her paws in the air, whining like a toddler throwing a tantrum.

‘A cat? Fine. Whatever. But couldn’t I at least be some noble family’s pampered cat?’

Her parents had died in a car crash when she was little. Her only remaining family—her grandfather—had passed away during her senior year of high school.

She did whatever she could to survive, avoiding anything outright criminal. Eventually, she got into college, scraped by on scholarships and part-time jobs.

‘And now I’m a stray cat. In another world. Great.’

She raged for a long while, rolling around dramatically.

Then she flopped to her side and stared blankly into the air.

‘When was life ever easy?’

As if cursed by misfortune from birth… there wasn’t much she could do about it.

Still, Rose picked herself up on all fours with gritty resolve.

‘When life sucks, what do you do?’

You endure.

If nothing else, she had learned that much.

She wasn’t easily broken. She was used to surviving on her own.

‘Maybe this cat ran away from home too.’

She wore a collar with a pendant that looked like gold. Clearly, she belonged to a wealthy noble family.

Rose decided she’d survive—no matter what. She curled her paw—her “fist”—in determination.

Surely her rich owner would come looking eventually.

But that dang owner never showed up.

[Next!]

And that brings us to now.

At the end of a narrow alley in some market district, Rose sat atop a stack of wooden crates, pyramid-style, looking down on a gathering of cats.

She looked like a king surveying her domain.

And that’s because—she was.

The neighborhood cats worshiped her.

They brought her offerings of food.

[Hey! No cutting in line!]
[I wasn’t! I was here first!]
[Hmm. Fine then.]

Rose didn’t even need to scold them herself.

Her second-in-command, “Tuxedo,” handled all that on her behalf.

‘This isn’t exactly what I planned…’

She’d figured out where to find the freshest fish, the best sunbathing spots—and within a month of waking up here, she’d completely conquered the district.

Rose, the cat queen of the streets.