The Cat Who Weeps in the Dark - Chapter 82

“Did you hear the rumors? Katie’s completely fallen out of His Highness’s favor.”

“But I thought Prince Damian was quite fond of her. What happened?”

“Fond? Please. He was just toying with her because she’s pretty. You know she moved to the Western Palace, right? Rumor has it she tried cozying up to Prince Helion and got caught. Guess she got too arrogant after playing in His Highness’s good graces.”

The gossip that had set the Dawn Palace ablaze spread to the Dusk Palace in an instant—like wildfire.

Hundreds of servants populated the palace. Not all knew Katie, but thanks to Damian’s influence, most did now.

The scorn directed at her grew by the day. In their stories, she was a harlot who’d lusted after two men and lost both.

Stripped of the powerful’s favor, she became public enemy number one.

What had begun as “accidental” pranks soon turned into deliberate persecution. No longer did flowerpots or wastewater “slip” from windows—now, they were hurled outright.

Katie dodged the truly dangerous attacks but let the rest hit. Avoiding every projectile would’ve been exhausting, especially when it wasn’t just one or two people targeting her.

‘Endure it. Reacting would only give them what they want.’

Katie kept whispering to herself as if brainwashing herself. She believed that if she endured long enough, her tormentors would grow tired and give up first.

But this time was an exception. The malice around her had coalesced into something solid, and those wielding it truly believed they were in the right.

The palace servants found it disgraceful that a knight like her served as a royal guard—and the knights agreed. They rallied together, declaring they could never accept such a harlot as one of their own.

The result? Katie was summoned to the back of the palace, in front of a long-abandoned storage building. A place rarely visited, its atmosphere bleak and desolate.

“I can’t tell if I’m looking at knights or street thugs.”

Katie let out a heavy sigh. They called her the disgrace of knighthood, but in her eyes, it was the opposite.

The ones who should truly be ashamed were standing right in front of her—a whole mob ganging up on a single female knight.

They held an assortment of weapons. Not swords, perhaps, but everything from iron pipes to wooden clubs.

“Last chance, Katie. Leave the palace quietly while we’re still asking nicely. You don’t deserve to stand as Prince Helion’s guard.”

“And since when do you decide that? I was personally recruited by His Highness.”

“A mid-rank like you has no right to stand where even high-rank knights can’t!”

So this was it. The filthy rumors that started with Damian were just kindling. But even the driest wood won’t burn without a spark—and the spark had long been smoldering in their hearts.

The knights weren’t jealous of Katie because of some newfound loyalty. They didn’t envy her for Helion’s favor—they simply couldn’t stomach that someone like her, with no noble lineage and the wrong gender, had climbed higher than them. That she might actually be better than them.

Back when she hid her strength in the Eastern Palace, things hadn’t been this bad. They mocked her but left her alone, drunk on their own petty superiority.

‘Don’t pick on the weak.’

‘Can’t bully a lady.’

A dismissal disguised as manners. But ironically, that dismissal had protected her. After all, no fool wastes energy envying someone they see as beneath them.

But ever since she became a royal guard, that had changed. The knights outwardly praised her achievements while secretly waiting for any chance to tear her down—a cowardly, ugly sentiment.

“I have no intention of leaving. So you should give up.”

“What did you say?! Even His Highness probably wants you gone!”

“Doubt it. Stop deluding yourselves and face reality. My shift changed—I wasn’t dismissed. The Prince hasn’t cast me aside, either.”

Even she had to admit her words were perfectly logical—but that was the problem. They were too honest. The knights erupted, frothing at the mouth.