บท 9: The Cat

Mattheus blinked owlishly at the question. His mouth parted in surprise, not expecting such an inquiry.

"Well… General Grant was dying. If I didn't do anything when I had the ability to help…"

Somehow, the already grumpy-looking marquess turned even more surly at his reply.

Such an expression directed at Mattheus caused him to automatically turn apologetic, even if he had no idea why Illarion Snowe was being like this. "I'm sorry?"

"Hn. Stay here. You are not to take a step out of this room barring a life or death emergency. I need to head to the kitchens now."

"Ah, yes, of course."

"Your brother might arrive before me. If not, I will escort you back to the Crown townhome personally. There will be guards at the doors."

"I understand," Mattheus replied.

As soon as Illarion figured Mattheus meant it, the older of the two turned around and swept toward the doors again. Every movement of the marquess was smooth—that is until he was stepping out of the door and a blur of dark-gray darted in around his boots.

Both men stared at the Duchess's cat who walked inside the room as if it owned the place.

With a small frown, Illarion only shook his head and left to no doubt interrogate the kitchen staff, closing the door and leaving a transmigrator and a princess's pet in the room.

Mattheus stared as the rather large blue cat with long fur and plush tail hopped onto one of the couches before primly sitting down. Then, he brought himself back to the present and sighed as his feet directed him to sit at the couch opposite the Duchess's pet cat.

How did the night end up like this?

"… System," he sighed out.

There was a beep as he mentally navigated the window to the Quests Menu.

It had updated the questline.

[Have Brunilda realize your true identity.]

That was checked off.

Mattheus was not sure how Brunilda realized but he was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He supposed all he needed to do was actually reunite with Brunilda to complete the quest.

"Hmm…"

Pale-gray eyes focused on the cat across from him that just so happened to be owned by the Duchess.

"You're going to be the perfect excuse for me to talk to your owner, kitty," Mattheus announced.

He paused a bit, recalling the order Illarion gave about not leaving the room. It also brought to mind the crowd he just recently left that maybe, probably, saw him heal General Grant.

"Should I hope Edgar manages to come before the marquess returns? But it's not guaranteed…"

Mattheus stood up again and started pacing as he tried to figure out a solution.

As for why he was trying to rack his brain at all even if the answer was obvious, maybe he was a little bit intimidated by Illarion Snowe.

No matter how Mattheus tried to come up with a compromise, it always came back to the cat.

The cat was the key.

Mattheus circled back from his walk around the room, heading straight for the rather noble-looking cat with vivid green eyes. He squatted down, telegraphing his movements. While he was unsure if the cat was just docile because it was a pampered cat of a noblewoman, he nonetheless was able to pick it up with ease.

It was soft and silky, along with being surprisingly leanly muscled for a lap cat.

He was going to carry the cat out when he left—that was the plan. It would mean he would have to personally go to the Duchess. All other options of leaving without seeing her tonight brought too great a chance for the Crown family to restrict him from going and only forwarding his sentiments instead.

Mattheus looked down at the pretty cat. "I'm catnapping you, kitty."

Green eyes just stared back, almost as if judging him but cats really did do that well as a species. He was going to miss all the cat memes from his old world—

A rather big paw for a domestic cat slapped his right cheek. Thankfully, the claws were sheathed but that bat was a bit more than a love tap.

"Ou—"

"Idiot."

"—ch…?"

Mattheus blinked, needing a moment before his brain caught up to the situation.

The man might be excused for his next actions, considering the talking cat, for half-tossing said cat back to the couch in unpleasant shock.

The cat landed on all fours, unaffected and still rather prim.

'It just talked—she just talked?' Mattheus thought with rising anxiety.

If the cat understood human language, he was so screwed. What incriminating things did he say to an audience he thought would not be able to reveal his secrets?

Did he reveal he wasn't actually the original Mattheus Crown? Did he mention Brunilda by name?

"Stop panicking," the feline chided.

He laughed nervously. "So, when I said I was going to catnap you, I actually meant taking a nap with you while I wait. Hahaha…"

The cat just gave him a look again. This time, he realized it was actually judging him. Hard.

"Do I sound that different?" the cat sighed.

What?

Now that it was brought up, that voice was familiar—oh my god, was that—"Brue?"

"Theo," the cat's tone was deadpan.

Mattheus's brain blue-screened at the realization Brunilda was before him right now. As a cat instead of the Duchess that looked like her doppelgänger.

"… You're… a cat," he pointed out the obvious, voice faint from disbelief.

"Way to state the obvious."

"I thought… well, I thought you—I mean the Duchess was you."

"Yeah, I figured. I don't know whether to be offended or understanding. There is an uncanny resemblance, I guess."

"But… you're her cat instead?"

An annoyed noise. "And? You're suddenly white."

"I mean. Do you know how it happened? It just seems like there was a mistake…?" Mattheus was suddenly reminded of how they left their world and the thought that maybe the transmigration was targeted only at him if this was a misaim of some sort.

"Hm. Tell me how you arrived first." Brunilda got up and hopped up until she was balanced on the back of the couch instead of its seat.

"Uh. Well." Mattheus winced as he recalled his circumstance. "I woke up in the middle of the woods. I'm pretty sure the Original was dead considering the remnants of a headshot in the clearing."

She cocked her head to one side. "That might explain my circumstance then. Assuming this is a world where we have a so-called soul-twin, or just a local version of ourselves, you had no issue because the body was already empty. While Sophily was still alive. I got shunted to a dying—maybe already dead—cat near her carriage. She was coming back from one of her charitable excursions in one of the poorer areas when she decided to nurse me back to health."

Mattheus looked a bit bemused. "Is the Duchess as much of a bleeding heart about cats as you are?"

"Who knows. Her carriage was the one that ran this body over. Make what you will of that."

Oof.

"Wait a minute. It's been less than two weeks but you look fine."

Brunilda sniffed. "I spent the first few days swaddled in bandages before I figured out how to manually trigger my abilities. I might look fine but I'm still a bit injured."

At her admittance that she was still hurt—which honestly made sense if she wasn't miraculously healed like how he came to be in that clearing all those days ago—Mattheus automatically reached out.

Brunilda glimmered silver and gold as he blanket healed her but he was not able to observe the fey-looking sight when he immediately felt woozy.

"Thank you, Theo. Are you alright?"

Mattheus was leaning heavily against the back of the couch before he twisted and practically fell onto the cushions. "I'm Mattheus Crown now," he absentmindedly corrected. "I guess healing General Grant and you were too much for me?"

Though that didn't sound right either. But Mattheus didn't have the energy to spare for his brain to think about it any deeper.

"You feel better?" he tilted his head until he could see the dark-blue feline again.

Brunilda did a full-body stretch. "Like a reborn cat back to nine lives again after being whittled down to three."

Mattheus heard the purring and didn't think much about it until remembering the cat was his former housemate. At that point, he silently wondered if one of her skills actually could be used for telepathy. Brunilda had never really explored Weighing of the Heart much in their old world, considering the possible extreme consequences of it being used on another person. Her abilities had a lot of passive perks though, so he wouldn't be surprised if she could do a form of telepathy.

Considering her title Guardian of the Scales though, Mattheus did not want to know how she did it at all. It was probably creepily invasive.

He pulled up the System and saw new sections unlocked. Because the quest prompted him to add Brunilda, he didn't even have to go to the Friends tab to figure it out. Considering the trial reuniting with Brunilda had been (ironically involving way more studying than he'd thought), it was very satisfying hearing a slight jingle of that quest being completed and being removed from the list.

"Oh? Your System still works?" she asked.

Mattheus paused and looked at the cat in confusion. "That sounds like yours doesn't."

"It's corrupted. Maybe because I'm a cat?"

Before Mattheus could ask what exactly she meant by corrupted, the doors opened and a concerned Edgar strode in.

"Mattheus! Are you okay?"

The younger Crown froze. He just realized that things got a lot more complicated with Brunilda being the cat. After all, keeping the Duchess's cat temporarily was easily explained but basically stealing her cat was probably lèse-majesté.