Chapter 27
With a dazed look on his face, Nox couldn’t answer right away. He’d sensed since yesterday that their conversations kept missing the mark in a strange way.
Did she mean something different by ‘cat butler’? Or was she referring to cat-type werebeasts?
If that was the case, then was she not a cat-type werebeast after all?
Other guesses he’d already made began to pile up in his mind, one after another.
Nox’s persistent, silent gaze made Sia tense up. She was certain she’d made some kind of mistake, but had no idea what it was that had offended him.
She’d thought the pressure she’d felt from him yesterday seemed a bit less today, but she’d been wrong. The sight of his heterochromatic eyes splitting vertically in a strange way was both frightening and so beautiful she couldn’t look away.
For a moment, neither of them said a word.
“I did it, Miss Sia!”
Just then, Cedric came out of the kitchen with a delighted face, carrying a tray with a glass of delicious-looking tomato juice.
“Please try it, Master!”
Nox’s gaze was drawn to the bright red liquid set before him. He’d never seen it before, and it made him feel oddly uneasy. It was probably the strong tomato scent.
“What is this?”
“This is tomato juice, made on Miss Sia’s suggestion.”
“Tomato juice?”
Only after Nox’s gaze, which had seemed to stick to her, finally moved away, could Sia breathe again. Even knowing he was a cat-type werebeast, whenever she noticed such external differences, she felt a sense of dissonance.
Among all the cat-type werebeasts she’d met working at Karin’s shop, the most overwhelmingly intense presence belonged to Nox. None of the others had ever made her feel so tense.
She figured it was definitely because he was a duke—the sense of pressure was on a different level. Watching to see if Nox would try the tomato juice, Sia looked on with an expectant expression.
“You were the one who suggested this?”
At Nox’s question, Sia answered,
“Yes, since you don’t like salad, I thought of something that would be easier to eat. The tomatoes here are truly delicious, as befits a local specialty. So I thought that if you had them as juice, they might suit your taste, Lord Nox.”
He hadn’t wanted to drink it as soon as he heard ‘tomato’, but her words swayed his heart like a reed in the wind.
She was thinking about him…
Other than Cedric, no one had ever considered him before. Nox stared at the tomato juice, then drank it down in one go.
“…Hm.”
He’d thought tomatoes were just tomatoes, and that making them into a liquid wouldn’t make a difference. But to his surprise, the juice was tastier than expected. He’d struggled to eat them when sliced, but as a drink, it went down smoothly.
Seeing the change in his expression, Sia breathed a sigh of relief and smiled.
“I’m glad it suits your taste.”
“…Does it look that way?”
“Pardon? Do you not like it?”
“No, it’s not that…”
Nox couldn’t quite put it into words. From earlier, he’d felt as if he was being repeatedly hit by some invisible hand.
Suddenly, she was calling him by name.
She even noticed facial expressions that Cedric himself could hardly read.
And she had that mysterious plant powder.
Everything about her was suspicious, from start to finish, yet he didn’t find himself doubting her. Suspicious, but not suspicious. What a contradiction…
“If you like it, how about having juice made from vegetables instead of salad from now on? Not just tomatoes, too. If you make juice with other vegetables and fruits, you’ll be able to enjoy them deliciously and healthily.”
“…Let’s do that.”
At Nox’s affirmative reply, Cedric grinned in disbelief. Sia felt proud, as if she’d accomplished her first task as a personal butler.
That’s right. Even if he’s not a cat, he’s a cat-type werebeast, so it’s basically the same thing, right? Time to apply all the skills she’d learned from videos.
Recalling things that would appeal to cat-type werebeasts who reacted to catnip, Sia spent a long while after lunch diligently reading through the childcare-log-disguised documents.
***
It had already been a week since she’d come to the ducal manor. In that time, she’d been busy memorizing the layout of the mansion, gardens, and back gardens. The back garden, in particular, was huge, as it connected to the ducal family’s private mountain.
Cedric said there was no need to learn every corner, but Sia figured she at least needed to know the basics, or else she’d end up getting lost.
This was especially important for her. Because of her hair color, the other staff wouldn’t come near her. So, if she got lost, there’d be no one she could ask for help.
“Come to think of it, what about Cola? And that odd-eyed black cat…”
She worried that, having been suddenly brought to this place, her pet might be looking for her.
“I’ll have to ask if I can go out sometime.”
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