Don’t Be Obsessed With Your Cat Butler - Chapter 113

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“……”

Nox thought for a brief moment. He still wanted to keep it hidden, but if he deceived the Crown Prince any further here, there would be no telling what the future might bring.

“My apologies, Your Highness. Last time, I wasn’t certain, so I couldn’t report it.”

Anyone could tell it was an obvious excuse, but Louis endured it. One could say it was his way of reflecting on how he had looked down on Nox all this time. In truth, however, he couldn’t hold back because of his anticipation.

“…Are you certain?”

At Louis’s question, Nox glanced down at Sia at an angle. The moment their eyes met, her round pupils widened, and the corners of her lips lifted slightly.

Sensing her silent permission, he gave a small nod and answered in a serious voice.

“I am certain. Sia told me herself.”

“……!”

Louis shot to his feet and stared at Sia with shining eyes. Considering that on the first day he had avoided her gaze simply because of her black hair, it was remarkable progress. Sia put on a cool expression.

To be honest, she was willing to tell the truth, but the Crown Prince had already made a bad impression on her. The way he had stepped back in shock because of her black hair was something she intended to pay back for a long time.

Dylan, who stood beside the Crown Prince, couldn’t hide his surprise either. At the same time, he felt relieved. A human had chosen to take the side of their cat tribe.

“…Your name was Sia, was it?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Do not just stand there, sit down, Duke.”

Unable to hide his excitement, Louis urged them on. He wanted to continue the conversation as soon as possible. Nox escorted Sia to their seats. As she quietly watched him pull out the chair for her, a mischievous thought suddenly crossed her mind.

Nox had clearly said she could do whatever she wanted. In that case, would it be alright to tease the Crown Prince a little more?

“Sia? What is it, is there something on the chair?”

Finding it strange that she didn’t sit, Nox even bent down to check the chair himself. While rolling her eyes slightly, Sia spoke.

“It’s not that, Lord Nox.”

“Hm?”

“His Highness dislikes black hair… so I was worried whether I should dare sit beside him.”

“…Ah.”

At Sia’s words, not only Louis but Dylan, Cedric, Marie, and several other attendants were horrified. Only Nox nodded calmly.

“I see. I almost failed to be considerate of His Highness.”

“Right?”

“……”

Louis was stunned by the exchange between Sia and Nox. The word ‘karma’ echoed in his mind. Not knowing how to react, he froze, and Sia glanced at him.

As if that glance gave him a direction, Louis spoke without thinking.

“That is all superstition.”

“…Pardon?”

The first to react was Dylan. His expression turned strange, as if he had just heard something absurd.

Louis himself was just as surprised, but since things had come to this, he decided to respond boldly. He also wanted to somehow bring the thoughts he had struggled with all night to a conclusion.

Nox and Sia were equally taken aback. As they hesitated, unsure how to respond to the Crown Prince’s sudden change in attitude, Louis spoke again, this time a step ahead.

“I did a great deal of thinking last night.”

As he sat down and opened the topic, Sia had no choice but to take her seat as well. After helping her sit and taking the seat beside her, Nox looked at the Crown Prince with suspicion.

Regardless of how they looked at him, Louis continued.

“According to an old record preserved in our imperial archives, another human arrived about two hundred years before you. Around that same time, as if in coincidence, a catastrophic loss of life occurred, enough to shake the fate of the nation.”

“…What kind of disaster are you referring to?”

Sia was curious. She wanted to know exactly what kind of catastrophic loss it had been. At her question, Louis answered calmly.

“A plague had spread, a dreadful disease that took half the population. Unfortunately, the lord of the territory where the outbreak began belonged to a family in which black hair was inherited through the generations. That family was wiped out by the plague. I believe that is when negative stories about black fur began to spread.”

“……”

“A hundred years later, another plague broke out. A black-haired man who had traveled abroad for official duties contracted the disease there and secretly returned home, causing the outbreak. That incident drove the superstition in even deeper. And since the population of the black cat tribe was already small, they may have been more easily ostracized.”

For the first time, Sia could understand, at least a little, how the people here felt. Of course, that didn’t mean she accepted the unfair treatment Nox had endured.

“Our Empire made efforts to prepare for plagues. We eventually developed a cure and passed down its method of production through the generations. However, the second plague showed completely different symptoms from the first. So when it spread, we were helpless once again.”

Before anyone realized it, everyone in the dining room was listening intently to the Crown Prince’s story.

“The reason our Pelles Empire has a relatively small population for an empire is because of those two plagues in the past. Even so, the reason we have been able to protect such vast lands with so few people is thanks to the existence of outstanding vassals like the Duke.”