8. Cat Fortune-Teller
Walking along the market street toward the general store.
Since the Crown Princess selection ball wasn’t far off, dress boutiques were booming.
Every boutique had beautiful dresses on display. In front of the most luxurious boutique, a number of people had gathered. A dress hanging in the showcase caught Lina’s eye.
“Dante, look at this! The whole dress is like gold!”
Lina spotted the dress everyone was staring at and her jaw dropped. It wasn’t particularly to her taste. It was just that the dress itself was so extravagant and imposing.
The fabric dazzled as if thinly shaved from real gold. It was as hard to look at properly as staring straight into the sun. It was the kind of golden dress only a queen would wear.
“What kind of person would wear something like this?”
Overwhelmed by the dress’s majesty, Lina muttered to herself.
“…It must be Estelle’s dress.”
Beside her, Dante murmured. For some reason, he seemed subdued. He looked cool-headed and even tired.
“…The lady His Highness the Crown Prince will select will be Lady Estelle, won’t it?”
“But of course. Lady Estelle is…”
People began talking about the Crown Prince and the duke’s daughter. Lina, who rarely had the chance to hear such talk, pricked up her ears.
“Let’s go, Lina.”
But Dante strode through the crowd. He wore a stiff expression as if he disliked the bustle.
“Huh? Dante, wait for me!”
Lina had no choice but to hurry so she wouldn’t lose him.
“Oh? That dress is prettier!”
Chasing after Dante, Lina let out a cry of delight. In a small boutique, she’d found a dress she liked. It was a simple cotton dress with a small floral print on an ivory base.
“You like that sort of thing?”
“Yeah, it’s pretty.”
Dante imagined Lina with her pale-pink hair down, wearing the displayed dress. A pleased smile bloomed on its own.
It somehow felt very Lina-like that she liked cute, dainty styles.
“Then shall we go in and try it on?”
He wanted to tell her to buy that one and a few more besides. No—to buy them for her.
The reason he kept wanting to help Lina, surely, was only to help her settle quickly into her new job. That must be it.
He just wanted to help her step firmly into reality, leaving behind the baseless dream of becoming rich.
“No, it’s fine.”
“What? If it’s pretty, you should go try it on. Why just look from there? Come on, let’s go in.”
“No. What’s the point of going in when I’m not going to buy it? I’ll just get looked down on for nothing.”
Dante sighed and urged her several more times, but Lina adamantly refused.
“Besides, I don’t know how to dance, and I don’t know court etiquette either. If I go, I’ll just embarrass myself.”
Dante let out a deep sigh and nodded.
“Whew, it can’t be helped. Thank the Mother God you met a boss like me. I’ll teach you.”
“You will, Dante?”
“Yeah. From now on I’ll teach you ballroom dance and basic etiquette every day. Dance and etiquette are worth learning.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah, you may as well learn swordsmanship from me too.”
The moment he said it, he wanted to smack his own mouth. What was he blabbing, when he was so busy—and it wasn’t even what he meant to say. He could hardly believe himself.
“…All right. Thank you.”
He suddenly wondered: had he ever been this generous to anyone? The answer was “no.” He had never even approached his own mother with such ease. Ever since he’d met Lina, things kept taking odd turns.
There was no helping it. He couldn’t take back what he’d already said. Just a little—he’d help her just a little more, for a very short while. This would really be the last time.
“By the way, those flowers look like statice. It’s just the right season now.”
“Statice? Ah, I can see that. It looks like the flowers were drawn one by one.”
The flowers painted on the dress couldn’t be said for certain to be statice. But since Dante said so, Lina saw them that way too.
“Statice blooms by the sea, so there should be a lot along the southern forest coast. Shall we go hunting over that way sometime?”
“Really?”
“Sure. If you buy that dress, I’ll teach you properly how to dance there later.”
“Wearing the dress?”
“Yeah. You’re going to buy it, right?”
“Uh, uhm…”
Going to the seaside to see flowers—somehow it felt less like work and more like making a date, and her heart fluttered.
In Lina’s mind, she pictured herself dancing with Dante in a field full of statice.
Even in just a shirt and trousers, Dante looked handsome like a prince. But Lina was always dressed simply and plainly.
Still, if she wore a dress and danced in a beautiful seaside field… could she look like an elegant young noble lady too? Would Dante think she was beautiful then?
“…Why? What are you thinking?”
A pleasant low voice tickled Lina’s ear.
“No, nothing…”
A faint blush rose on Lina’s cheeks.
After parting with Dante, Lina was on her way back to the boutique where the statice dress was hanging.
“Huh? That cat?”
At the market entrance, a cat was running somewhere. Wasn’t it the very cat that had led her to the cemetery?
Just then, the cat spotted Lina and stopped. Its yellow eyes gleamed meaningfully, and it slowly opened its mouth.
Did it have something important to say? A bead of sweat dropped from Lina’s tense brow.
“Meow.”
The cat washed its face with its paw…
“Haa…”
Lina’s tension collapsed into futility, and she sighed.
“What am I going to do. I must really be crazy. Thinking a cat would talk… Am I really getting auditory or visual hallucinations these days?”
She’d mostly been fine since she quit being a gravedigger, so she’d felt relieved.
“Let’s follow it.”
Lina decided to trust her instincts.
Following the cat brought her to a shabby alley. Small-time vendors had their goods spread on the ground for sale.
It was an old shopping street with an atmosphere that would put nobles off entering at a glance. Among them, an antique shop stood out the most. Old weapons, magic tools, books—the faint smell of mold and rust greeted customers.
“…?”
Going farther in, she saw a blue-striped tent. The tent was small, the size to feel crowded with two or three people inside. On the cloth covering the entrance, a golden sun and a silver moon rolled their eyes.
“Hello…?”
Swallowing, Lina lifted the cloth at the entrance. As soon as she stepped in, the cloth slipped down. The inside of the tent immediately grew dark.
‘…I can’t see anything.’
Her eyes slowly adjusted to a small light. The tent’s interior came into view. Somehow, the small space was filled with mist. A sweet, sugary smell hung in the air.
“Wow…”
From floor to ceiling, candies of every color were stored in various jars. It was definitely a candy shop.
The only peculiar thing was that the counter was so low it would bump your knees—if that was really a counter at all.
In the center of the counter table, a large amethyst jar glowed with a faint light.
“They’re all candies?”
It was hard to distinguish the shapes and colors of the candies. The tent was dark, and the jar’s faint light was the only illumination.
But the darker it is, the more the other senses develop. Strawberry, lemon, orange, grape, melon… The scents wafted as if the candies had just been made.
Open drawers were also packed full of different candies.
Looking from the candies in the drawer, Lina shifted her gaze—and jumped.
“…!”
She’d made direct eye contact with the shopkeeper at the table. Lina’s mouth fell open on its own.
“Y-you’re…?”
The shopkeeper sat on a chair that seemed better suited for a doll. It was a black cat wearing horn-rimmed glasses. It even wore a hooded mantle luxuriously embroidered with yellow stars.
“Welcome, child.”
Lina blinked rapidly, unable to speak.
“That can’t be.”
She immediately backed out through the tent flap.
“Where did that cat go?”
The black cat with yellow eyes she’d followed had vanished without a trace.
Thinking she must have seen wrong, Lina lifted the tent flap and peeked in again. The bespectacled cat averted its gaze and sweated profusely.
“…”
“You! You’re that cat from before, right? When did you put on clothes?”
Even with Lina sticking her face close, the cat didn’t budge.
“A-ahem! What are you talking about, meow? To look upon the great Lord Rube and not offer a greeting—how discourteous, meow!”
The cat’s line of sight was aimed at Lina’s chin, not her eyes. Since it wouldn’t meet her gaze, it felt like it was deliberately looking elsewhere.
“I knew it! A black cat with yellow eyes!”
Lina pressed her hand to her forehead and backed away. She stepped out of the tent and quickly turned to walk off.
“Crazy. I’m crazy. I’ve finally gone mad.”
Startled, the horn-rimmed-glasses cat dashed after her, patter-patter-patter.
“W-wait, meow!”
“Eek!”
Lina, equally shocked, sprinted at full speed.
“Drat! Meow!”
Unable to catch up, the cat pulled a jawbreaker from its pouch.
“Stop right there, meow!”
The jawbreaker drew a splendid arc and flew straight at its target.
Snap!
Contrary to its looks, with the force of a stone, it struck Lina’s head with terrifying impact.
“Argh!”
Lina sprawled out full-length and skinned her knee. Immediately after, the cat of monstrous strength grabbed her and dragged her back into the tent.
“This must be a dream. It’s definitely a dream…”
Sitting awkwardly, Lina began mumbling denial of reality.
“Now, now, shall we start over?”
Adjusting its horn-rimmed glasses, the cat spoke in an adorable voice.
“Welcome, this one is Lord Rube, meow. I don’t receive visitors every day, so you ought to treat me accordingly.”
Rube had the voice of a kitten but spoke like a bent-backed old granny. Lina couldn’t quite process the situation.
Is it just my imagination that this cat is talking like a person? And why do I have a lump on my head the size of a king candy?
Rube rolled its yellow eyes cutely.
“The wisdom of the cat clan, which has continued for a thousand years on nine lives, is condensed within this amethyst jar.”
Lina looked down into the amethyst jar said to hold a thousand years of wisdom.
Inside, it was deliciously packed full of jawbreakers…
“You may have only one thing divined, so think carefully and ask.”
It was a cat fortune-teller
