CHAPTER 14
“Mooom! I want to go to the academy!”
“No.”
“The academyyyyy!”
Eyes open or shut, indoors or out, regardless of time or place—
Aslan would grab the hem of my dress whenever she got the chance and throw herself on the floor, making every kind of fuss imaginable.
“Let me go to the academy!”
“I said no!”
It didn’t take long for my voice to rise.
I asked the sprawled-out Aslan,
“Why do you want to go to the academy so badly? Do you want to study?”
Aslan sprang up and answered,
“Ayla said I should come with her!”
“That’s it?”
“Mhm.”
…Honestly, I could understand. But still—wanting to go to the academy just because of that?
I wasn’t belittling Aslan, but the Imperial Povace Academy wasn’t some place just anyone could attend. I gently tried to explain why she couldn’t go.
“Aslan, Povace Academy is a place only the best students can get into. But you don’t even know how to read yet.”
“I’ll learn!”
“…Even if you do, you’re still only five. You can’t enroll until you’re at least seven.”
“Then let me go next year! I can study until then!”
“There’s still something important left to consider.”
Still? Aslan looked like she was asking that with her face.
And unfortunately, this was the most important reason of all.
“The academy is in the capital.”
“I know. Ayla told me.”
“Then do you also know that Mommy can’t leave this place?”
“…!”
Aslan’s mouth dropped open, clearly unaware of that part.
Well, I had only just told her.
I carefully explained everything Aslan would lose if she enrolled in the academy.
“Even if you pass the entrance exam, I can’t go with you. Even if you came back here every school break, you’d only see Mommy for about 3 years out of the 13 you’d be at the academy. Is that really okay with you?”
“3 years out of 13…”
Aslan counted on her fingers and looked up at me, as if this was just too much.
She was only five years old, after all. The idea of 13 years at school probably shocked her—but realizing she’d only see me for 3 of those years? That shook her even more.
I asked her one last time,
“Do you still want to go to the academy?”
Aslan looked frightened.
“I…”
“It’s okay, Aslan. If you truly want to go, I’ll respect your decision. So… do you still want to?”
Aslan lowered her head.
After scaring her this much, surely she wouldn’t mention the academy again.
But I was wrong.
“Mommy is…”
“Hmm?”
“Mommy is stupid!”
“Aslan!”
Tears welling in her eyes, Aslan turned and ran from the room.
I reached out to stop her—but caught nothing.
“Aslan…”
All I could do was look at the spot where she’d just been.
And regret.
Regret that, in trying to protect my own desire, I’d been too harsh with my daughter.
* * *
Aslan sat on the swing, puffing out her cheeks like laundry hanging on a line.
“Mommy’s stupid.”
When I was a cat, she let me do whatever I wanted.
Becoming human was a mistake.
‘I just… wanted to protect Mommy.’
Minerva had saved her when she was dying on the roadside, wrapped her in love and care.
Aslan had thought long and hard about how to repay that love.
And she realized—
The Minerva who seemed so strong and unshakable was always afraid of something unknown.
She could feel it.
So she wanted to grow up quickly and protect Minerva.
But as a cat, there was so little she could do.
Minerva always made wishes to the sky before bed.
So Aslan believed the sky granted wishes.
She always wished alongside her:
‘Please let me become a person so I can protect Mommy.’
And eventually, she became human.
She grew, she could do more.
She thought Mommy would be happy.
‘But Mommy… looked like she wanted me to go back to being a cat.’
Sniff. Her nose stung.
“Does Mommy… not trust me?”
Ayla had said:
“When you go to the academy, your parents will be proud of you.”
But when Aslan mentioned the academy, Minerva got flustered and angry.
‘How do I get Mommy to be proud of me?’
Maybe if she got bigger and stronger?
Like that man she saw before…
“Ah!”
That’s when it hit her.
She had a great idea.
* * *
Aslan stayed stubbornly on the swing near the sapling outside my room window. Even when Flora brought her sweets, she refused them.
Watching that broke my heart.
“I’m a failure as a mom…”
Jane tried to comfort me.
“You couldn’t have known, miss.”
“But Aslan doesn’t know I’m stuck here by choice.”
“…”
I wasn’t clearing my name because of my own selfishness. Because I didn’t want to go back to the imperial palace.
I’d already tasted true peace—and I knew I could never sleep peacefully again in that palace full of poison and treacherous siblings.
Even if I had to live here cautiously, watching out for the original plot, it was still a hundred times better.
Because here, everyone around me was truly mine.
‘But I didn’t expect Aslan to want the academy so badly.’
Could she really be that desperate for a friend? All because of Ayla, whom she met just once?
If I returned to the capital, I could give her anything she wanted.
If I could just let go of my own selfishness.
‘…Maybe I should at least talk to the emperor.’
Despite the overwhelming evidence, the emperor still believed I’d been framed.
That’s why I hadn’t been executed, even after being accused of trying to harm Mars. He’d used his authority to imprison me with assets instead.
‘So he wants me to come back.’
Wants me to clear my name—with his support.
But doing so would cost time, emotion, maybe even my life. Not even an emperor could overturn a verdict once declared.
‘More than anything… I don’t want to go back as a princess.’
I couldn’t risk Mars, that lunatic, finding out about Aslan.
No. Sending Aslan to the academy was absolutely out of the question.
‘The moment I contact the emperor, I’ll be pulled right back into the original story.’
The academy’s not an option.
After thinking it through, I realized what I could do now for Aslan.
“She needs a friend.”
The biggest problem was that Aslan’s entire world revolved around me.
As a cat, that was fine. But as a person, she needed to learn and grow independently.
Still, she was too young to be apart from me.
So the best solution was for her to have a friend nearby.
Jane agreed.
“Yes. She’s at the age where she needs friends.”
“…A friend, huh.”
Ayla was the only one that came to mind.
But it wasn’t like the original story where their relationship was bad. Maybe it would be okay?
In The Academy Survival Story, Leona bullied Ayla solely because Ayla was Cassius’s lover.
Leona couldn’t stand to see the imperial family happy.
But I was still alive now. There was no reason for Aslan to harm Ayla.
Still, I was bothered that Idd Mente—who wasn’t in the original—had suddenly appeared as Ayla’s father.
‘First, I should call Aslan and talk.’
She was sitting outside in the harsh sunlight, not even wearing a bonnet…
Just as I thought that and looked out the window—
“…Aslan?”
She was gone from the swing.
I murmured in confusion,
“Did she go back to her room?”
I hadn’t heard her return, but I checked her room through the connecting door anyway.
As expected, she wasn’t there.
‘Maybe the playroom?’
I hurried to check.
Empty.
That’s when a bad feeling hit me.
At that moment, Jane approached with a letter and saw me coming out of the playroom.
“Miss, what are you doing here? I brought a letter—”
“That’s not important right now! Aslan is missing!”
“What?”
Clatter. Jane dropped the silver tray.
With a pale face, I dashed out of the room and shouted,
“Aslan!”
“Miss, what’s wrong?”
All the staff looked shocked as I passed them. Their faces went from confused to—
Realization.
Yes. That. That look.
Aslan had…
“Aslan ran away again! Find her!”
Aslan had run away again.
