Chapter 14: A Huge Cat

“As always… it’s so big…”

The three siblings have come to Joshua’s house.

The mansion of Palace’s most wealthy merchant has an area and level of luxury that even the feudal lord’s mansion cannot match.

The drawing-room we passed through was inside a mansion, and the tea served was marked with the Royal Emblem of the Imperial Household.

“I have kept you waiting! Emma-sama!”

Joshua enters in high spirit and naturally pushes William, who was sitting next to Emma, aside to sit.

“Joshua. This black tea is delicious.”

A steady Emma laughs as she drinks her third cup of tea.

“That’s a relief! I will prepare it as a souvenir for you.”

Joshua smilingly gestures at the maid.

“Joshua, we are here today for a request.”

Emma stares at Joshua intently.

“I accept!” answers Joshua with a bright smile.

“You haven’t heard the request, you know?”

William is exasperated and retorts.

“There is no way I can refuse a request from Emma-sama!”

Emma’s request is a reward to Joshua. After he saw Emma’s popularity at the last tea party, he realized he can’t take it slowly to woo her and be petty.

“A cat?”

Having heard Emma’s request briefly, Joshua is surprised.

“So you do like cats? Emma-sama? … I will present it to you right away! How many do you want?”

“Joshua… What we requested is… to introduce us to a merchant who deals with cats…”

George is also exasperated and retorts. We can’t have our father’s birthday present to be given by Joshua.

“But… one cat price can buy a house, you know?”

“Ughh”

Joshua can buy it, but it’s too expensive for the three siblings.

“There are no companies in Palace that deal with selling cats, so if you think about contacting then transporting, wouldn’t the time be not enough?”

In reality, it’s hard. There is even no concept of keeping a cat in a countryside area like Palace. It’s because right now, cats are luxury goods for nobles who don’t have any worries over food, monsters, or money.

“Even though before (in Japan), we can just adopt a stray cat…”

Emma misses her past life. Especially since our parent’s house is in the countryside, there were many stray cats, and when I noticed, those cats already became my pets*. Even though we are in the countryside too, the lack of cats here is a severe problem for the Stuart family.

(*T/N: This sentence is about when you often feed stray cats food, they will come to your house again and again. So they became your ‘pets’ without you noticing.)

A world without cats is like a bubble tea without bubbles.

“Stray cats… Ah! There’s a rumor about stray cats.”

Joshua starts talking more about it.

“From a few years ago in the Skyte territory, there were sightings of cats one after another. It was said that it had escaped from a mansion somewhere, but there was nobody who claimed to be the owner. It was even said that the cats went hunting for monsters in groups?”

“But… cats are expensive, won’t it be captured by someone?”

There is no way people will leave a cat that’s worth one house alone. It’s likely to make more money than finding buried treasure or winning alone in gambling.

“It seems that the cat is particularly huge and nimble, so no one can catch it.”

A cat that can hunt monsters surely can live without being caught by humans.

“A huge… cat.”

Emma’s eyes shine.

A huge cat… What a wonderful phrase.

I want to fluff it.

“Skyte territory… is very far, nee-sama.”

William looks at Emma’s shining eyes and reminds her.

For the time being, we asked Joshua to get us a cat catalog, then went home.

The three siblings were never given pocket money, but if there is something they want, they will ask it to father, so our father will buy it and he will be happy to do so too. But it’s different now.

The three were discussing how to raise money on the carriage returning home, but couldn’t come up with a good idea.