Chapter 23
Confused by the mention of ‘humans from myth’, Sia didn’t think deeply about the ‘primordial cat’ Cedric had mentioned earlier. While her mind was elsewhere, several people suddenly bustled into the room.
“Oh, you’re just in time.”
“Pardon?”
“You’re to take her measurements.”
“Yes, understood.”
Sia saw that she was now surrounded at a careful distance by several people.
They didn’t look like the regular staff here. Seeing the measuring tapes in their hands, she guessed they were probably from the tailoring room.
“T-Then, please excuse me.”
There were about four people surrounding her, but only one of them actually approached Sia.
As if it were some kind of penalty game, the others pretended not to notice.
Even the one who was taking her measurements was visibly trembling, hands shaking, breath ragged—clearly wanting to get it over with as quickly as possible and leave.
‘Huh, so they don’t even want to touch me, is that it?’
Watching them, Sia felt a creeping sense of discomfort rising up from her toes.
People who covertly looked down on her and kept their distance.
No… Memories of being openly discriminated against surfaced, and her expression darkened.
She still didn’t know why she’d been brought here, how that man knew she wanted to be a cat butler, or why she was suddenly being told to serve as a human butler.
But she could imagine what sort of childhood that man must have had.
Even though she was a guest of someone so important, she was being shunned just for having black hair.
No matter how remarkable he seemed, could he really have endured such rejection?
If anything, she, who looked easy to treat badly, might have received only light contempt compared to him.
Someone who clearly held an unignorable status here would surely have been ostracized even more.
They couldn’t drive him away or push him out, so people must have openly avoided him instead.
Though the world and environment were different, she knew what it was like to be rejected in the very place where you should feel most at ease, where you ought to be able to trust others.
Just like she had been…
After finally gaining peace in a tiny one-room apartment as an adult, Sia no longer wanted to endure such unfairness.
Besides, did she really have to put up with this, in a world that wasn’t even her own?
“Huu…”
With a deep sigh, Sia opened the mint candy tin she’d brought in her pocket, just in case.
That morning, she’d filled it to the brim with catnip before changing clothes.
She dipped her fingers in to get some catnip on them, then, as soon as she pulled her hand from her pocket, she grabbed the wrist of the woman who was taking her measurements.
“Kyaaah!”
The woman, who had been trying so hard not to touch Sia, screamed in terror.
The tape measure, flung aside, lay coiled on the floor like a snake.
Watching the woman flee, Sia smiled with satisfaction and spoke.
“Oh dear… I ended up touching you, didn’t I?”
Even without further explanation, everyone else in the room backed away in shock.
Sia brushed the leftover catnip from her hands and, tossing her hair over her shoulder, looked at Cedric.
“Looks like they really don’t want the job.”
Dazed by the even stronger version of that enchanting scent from yesterday, Cedric nodded blankly and belatedly replied.
“Ah… My apologies. I’ll contact a different boutique.”
“By the way, how should I address you?”
She’d heard his name yesterday, but Sia had also noticed other staff calling him ‘Head Butler’, so she deliberately asked.
Titles mattered a lot.
When she was a new hire, a senior had once tricked her into using the wrong title for the team leader, and she’d gotten scolded harshly.
Looking back, it was clearly just to mess with her, but as a newbie, she’d just accepted it as her mistake.
She’d spent most of her life as a pushover.
Determined not to be like that here, Sia stared at Cedric with burning eyes, demanding an answer.
“Just Cedric is fine…”
“I can’t do that. I have to learn the job from you.”
“But, Miss, you’re Master’s guest…”
“I’m really sorry, but…”
A more pressing question popped into Sia’s mind than Cedric’s title.
“What is the Master’s full name?”
She’d just realized she didn’t even know the name of the mysterious man who had brought her all the way here.
Sia’s expression turned serious, and Cedric looked truly flustered.
In all his years as a butler, maintaining composure, this was one of the rare moments he’d been caught off guard.
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