CHAPTER 108………………………………………..
Lloyd blinked rapidly out of reflex.
Minerva, suddenly noticing Lloyd rubbing his eyes in confusion, called out in puzzlement.
“Your Highness?”
“No… it’s just that something about Aslan right now…”
Lloyd’s gaze was fixed far below the hem of Aslan’s skirt.
What on earth…? The moment Minerva also looked at Aslan’s skirt—more precisely, her calves—she nearly screamed, but managed to swallow it down.
Seeing something surprising on Aslan, both of them were stunned, and Ayla couldn’t help but get curious too.
“What is it, Dad?”
As Ayla’s gaze drifted downward, Minerva hurriedly picked up Aslan.
The tail, which wasn’t completely hidden by Aslan’s skirt, was barely covered by Minerva’s wide sleeves.
It was fortunate that she usually liked wide sleeves.
Judging by Ayla’s puzzled tilt of her head, it seemed she hadn’t seen anything—but Lloyd, who had already witnessed it, muttered with trembling pupils:
“Just now… something like a tail…”
“I-I-I-I’m sure Your Highness must have seen it wrong!”
“Huh? But I definitely…”
Lloyd’s expression was one of injustice, as if to say it couldn’t be.
In times like this, fleeing is the answer.
“You still seem to have a bit of alcohol left in you. I’ll just go talk to Aslan for a moment!”
Minerva dismissed Lloyd’s words as the drunken ramblings of a drunkard and disappeared.
After the storm passed, only father and daughter remained awkwardly at the dining table.
“Dad, what did you just see?”
Lloyd stared in confusion in the direction they had left, then shook his head.
“No, it seems I must have seen it wrong. Let’s continue our meal.”
As Minerva had said, he still seemed affected by the alcohol.
If it were Aslan, she probably just had a duster tied around her waist.
‘…But can a duster really move like a tail?’
It definitely seemed like a tail had suddenly swished out…
Lloyd shook his head lightly to clear it, trying to rationalize.
There’s no way it could actually be a tail.
But considering what he had seen earlier, he couldn’t think completely rationally.
‘Still, there’s no way a person would have a tail. No… but…’
Illogical thoughts kept piling on.
His head started throbbing.
‘I should really cut back on drinking…’
As Minerva had said, he still felt the lingering effects of alcohol.
Come to think of it, why did I even think the Cat’s Eye earrings were related to the storm?
With my memory hazy and even hallucinating, it really seemed like alcohol was utterly useless.
Crazy, crazy, crazy!
What the heck, why did a tail suddenly appear!
My heart felt like it had dropped to my toes and barely stuck back in place.
I hurriedly carried Aslan as if hiding her in my arms and rushed to my room.
Bang! Click.
After locking the door tightly in case someone came in, my fingertips were trembling.
Bracing myself, I slowly turned to check on Aslan.
Something limp, like a duster, hung beneath her skirt.
It was the familiar cat tail I used to see every day just a few months ago.
I held Aslan by the shoulders.
“Aslan, what’s with this tail?!”
“Mom.”
“Hm?”
I hesitated at her call.
Why was I scolding her again?
I shouldn’t be, it was clear that stress had made me irrational.
I quietly waited for Aslan to speak.
She lowered her head and, glancing up with her eyes, finally spoke.
“If I turn back into a cat, will you take me with you?”
“…What?”
I had expected something unusual, but not this.
Come to think of it, Aslan didn’t seem to mind having turned into a cat.
She even reacted as if it were a good thing.
“If being human doesn’t help Mom, and if that’s why you’d leave me behind… then I want to go back to being a cat.”
As soon as she said it, cat ears popped out of Aslan’s head.
I gaped at her, and Aslan, with drooping ears and tail and pleading eyes, asked:
“Mom, should I go back?”
Meanwhile, Aslan continued to transform into a cat.
Whiskers sprouted, her nails grew long.
Her plump hands became covered in fur.
Not knowing how to stop this or what to say, I held her tightly, and she swallowed back tears as she spoke:
“I dreamed that Mom left me behind, calling me Leona.”
“What?”
Leona… that’s her name in the original story.
Aslan had told me before that she dreamed Lloyd called her Leona.
Though my mind was in chaos, I listened quietly to Aslan’s dream.
All of it was from the original story:
Minerva leaving Leona at the palace.
And that they never met again.
“In the dream, I thought… if I had lived as a cat and not as a human, Mom wouldn’t have had to go out and possibly die for me… but…”
I hurriedly pulled Aslan into my arms.
Because she was crying.
Seeing the tears in her big eyes, I realized what I had done.
“No, Aslan. I’m sorry, Mom was wrong.”
Meanwhile, Aslan’s body was smaller than usual.
She was gradually becoming more catlike.
The more she shrank, the faster I spoke.
“I must have gone crazy. I made a huge mistake with you, Aslan.”
Aslan thought I was going to die in a dream.
She only wanted to go with me, but I reacted angrily. There was only one choice left for her.
Aslan had the power to make her wishes come true.
She had become human because she wanted to, and likewise, she could return to being a cat if she wished.
She had long wished to return to being a cat.
She had endured inconveniences and told countless lies to be human.
Honestly, if she returned to being a cat now, we could return to the palace without worry.
Cats cannot be heirs, so the dangers she would face would decrease significantly.
‘But if Aslan goes back to being a cat with this heart…’
I was foolish.
Life isn’t only about surviving.
Just as important as protecting Aslan’s life is protecting her heart from being hurt.
In the original story, Leona’s heart was shattered, and she sought revenge.
Even if Minerva had died in the original, I, while very much alive, had hurt Aslan’s heart.
“I want you to live however you want, Aslan. I’ll protect you whether you’re human or cat. Okay? I’m sorry, please forgive me.”
Sniff “But I’d rather go back to being a cat…”
“No! Mom loves you whether you’re human or cat. But if you go back to being a cat now…”
There were happy memories we could make now that she was human.
Things we couldn’t do with her as a cat.
I could ponder happily how to tie her long hair, take her outside holding her hand, share oily, sweet, and salty food…
I couldn’t teach her, or help broaden her view of the world.
“If you go back to being a cat with a sad heart, Mom… Mom will be too… too sad…”
Sniff, sob.
I heard her sniffle in my arms. Her shrinking stopped.
The fur stopped growing.
Tears pricked my eyes as I hugged her even tighter.
Aslan clutched my clothes and scolded me in her cute, clumsy way:
“Mom, you’re a fool.”
“Sorry.”
“Really, really a fool. A big fool.”
As Aslan cried, her body gradually grew again.
The fur disappeared, her claws and fangs became blunt.
Only when her tail and ears were completely gone did I realize again what Aslan truly wanted.
All she wanted was to be with me, nothing more.
Simple, yet complicated.
“Will you stay with me, Aslan?”
My voice trembled.
But Aslan buried her face in my arms and nodded, reassuring me.
I wiped away her tears and held my young, precious daughter—my daughter so dear it wouldn’t hurt to look at her—in my arms tightly.
