The Cat Who Weeps in the Dark - Chapter 67

“Don’t just stand there. Come here, Kitty.”

“I’m more comfortable here.”

“If you only do what’s comfortable, you’ll never get anywhere. Hurry up.”

Helion called Katie over as if summoning a pet. When she reluctantly took a small step forward, he let out a quiet laugh and patted the spot beside him on the sofa.

“You were quick as lightning when killing assassins, but now you move like a snail. Come here before I drag you over myself.”

“Yes. I’m coming.”

She didn’t know exactly what would happen if he came to get her, but it certainly wouldn’t end well. After spending most nights perched on his lap instead of a bed or chair, Katie quickly moved to the sofa and sat down.

“I’d love to leave everything to Cheche and be done with it… but this time, my life is on the line. I can’t.”

Helion draped his arm over the back of the sofa where Katie sat. He bent his elbow, twirling a strand of her hair around his finger.

“Then you should trust him even more. Sir Cheche is a reliable knight.”

“You never truly know a person’s heart unless you cut them open and look inside. I’ve been betrayed more than once by that kind of trust.”

Cheche hadn’t always been his captain of the guard. The current royal guard was the result of Helion’s countless trials and errors—people he had meticulously vetted.

But he couldn’t be sure those trials were truly over. And Helion wasn’t the type to gamble on uncertainties.

“By now, you must have realized it too. The imperial family wants me dead.”

Katie flinched slightly before nodding with a troubled expression.

“Yes. I’ve started to notice.”

Even now, she found it hard to believe. Parents trying to kill their own child—how could such a thing be possible?

But unless the emperor or empress were involved, it made no sense for so many assassins to keep coming.

They struck without regard for day or night, seizing the slightest opportunity to slip past the guards and send chills down their spines.

Even after Katie made her secret deal with Helion, nothing changed. The guards stationed outside were quietly removed—not visibly, but on average, two or three assassins came and went each night.

This would be impossible without the guards’ complicity. And the one who commanded those guards was the emperor, the master of this empire.

“On the surface, this diplomatic delegation is here for peace. But in truth, it’s an alliance of people who want me dead.”

Helion spoke playfully as he twisted a lock of her hair between his fingers.

“Isn’t it absurd? The rulers of two nations collaborating just to kill one man.”

Even if she now knew the emperor and empress wanted Helion dead, that didn’t mean she could accept such an outrageous claim.

If the kingdom truly wanted him dead, they wouldn’t bother sending something like Acto fruits as a gesture of cooperation—they would have used the spies already embedded in the palace to eliminate him.

Just as insulting one’s family was distasteful, so was slandering one’s homeland. Katie forced herself to smooth the frown threatening to crease her brow.

“That’s… an excessive assumption, Your Highness.”

“Which part?”

“The part where you claim the kingdom has come to kill you. The kingdom suffered greatly in the war. Harming you would only reignite it—they wouldn’t want that.”

“You speak as if you’ve peered into the kingdom’s very heart.”

“The people of both empires suffered equally in the war.”

Helion chuckled softly and muttered, as if to himself:

“Right. Beastfolk are human, just like us, after all.”

“…What?”

Katie’s eyes widened at the unexpected words. Sensing her gaze, Helion tilted his head slightly—until then, he had been focused solely on her hair.

Golden eyes locked onto hers. As always, Katie found herself unable to look away.

Hypnotic. Those shimmering eyes, molten like liquid gold, concealed their owner’s thoughts completely while laying bare the secrets of whoever met them.

Every time she faced them, she felt as though she’d been stripped naked, her innermost self laid bare before him.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“My… my expression? Ahem. What do you mean, Your Highness?”

Katie’s throat tightened uncomfortably, and she let out an awkward cough. Unable to endure his gaze, she averted her eyes—only for his face to draw closer.

“That’s the look of someone moved.”

“No. It’s just… I found it strange that you’d call a beastfolk human.”

She turned her head away entirely, avoiding him. Katie was skilled at controlling her expressions—burying all joy, anger, and sorrow beneath a stoic mask.

But her eyes betrayed her. The eyes are the window to the soul—that saying didn’t exist for nothing. Even her spy training in the kingdom hadn’t taught her how to deceive them.

Helion was right. She was moved. Since arriving in the empire, she’d witnessed firsthand the hostility its people held for the kingdom. They saw beastfolk as animals, dismissing and despising them.

So why would this man call them human? Coming from someone she’d never expected it from, the words struck her like a physical blow.