Engaging with the Plot: A Former Cat’s Attempt to Save Her Now Temporary Fiancé Volume 2 (eBook)

Usagi Hoshimi (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025
250 Seiten
J-Novel Heart (Verlag)
978-1-7183-0554-0 (ISBN)

Infos

On the hunt for clues regarding Felix's curse, Lucille seeks out the Great Sage Elios in the capital, only to discover that he's actually the sweet little boy who was Lilybell's last owner! Curiously, he's managed to stay alive since their tragic parting and seems to be intricately linked to Felix's curse.

And now, as Lucille prophesized, it's time for Elvira-Felix's fated heroine-to take center stage. What is the true nature of the Leeuwenhoek curse? Will Elvira be able to lift it? And how does Felix feel about all of this?!

Textauszug

Chapter 4: The Fated Heroine Arrives at Last!

Three days had passed since we’d returned to Leeuwenhoek from the capital.

“Ahhh, nothing beats lying down on grass that smells like the sun.”

I was sprawled out on my usual sunbathing spot on the lawn, relishing in the peace and quiet. It was a welcome change from the hubbub of the capital, where I’d had my hands full with distributing medicine and attending Prince Edgar’s soiree.

But more importantly...

My thoughts returned to the boy I’d found cowering in Lady Mina’s room. An enormous amount of mana had been running rampant around him, and with fearful eyes, he’d whispered, “Lilybell?”

“He called me Lilybell. I’m sure of it.”

No one else seemed to have heard his quiet word, and the ensuing chaos had prevented me from probing for information. The boy had lost consciousness right after saying my name. While Prince Edgar had been carrying him out of the room, Lord Felix had deactivated his magical barrier and promptly fainted as well from overspending his mana.

Before I had even been able to process my shock, we’d already arrived back at Leeuwenhoek with Lord Felix. It wasn’t like we’d had any other option, really—according to Sir Kain, Lord Felix recovered easier at home since the curse deeply linked him to his territory.

Sure enough, Lord Felix’s condition had quickly stabilized once within Leeuwenhoek, though he was still on bed rest, just in case.

“Argh, I can’t do this! If I keep thinking about this by myself, my head’s going to explode!” I yelled, pushing myself up.

The cats who had been lying on top of me went tumbling down.

“Meooow!”

“Oh, sorry. I’ll sunbathe with you longer next time, okay?”

Although the kitties usually meowed happily even when they rolled off of me, today, they voiced their complaints. My trip to the capital had put them in something of a bad mood. Jack, Mars, and Michelle had been especially distraught upon my return, clinging adorably to me as if to say, We won’t let you go anywhere ever again!

They just won’t leave me alone, tee hee!

As I petted them, I thought, Next time, I should give them the secret weapon I made! It was a dish that Hinako had whipped up back in my Lilybell days, claiming, “All cats love this, so I know you will too!” For some reason, despite its suspicious, mushy appearance, I’d found it irresistible. When presented with it, I’d found I’d already lapped it all up before I’d realized. What a blissful yet terrifying experience that had been!

I wasn’t sure what the dish’s name was. I vaguely recalled Hinako calling it “Churu” or something along those lines, but my memory was a blur because being in its presence had sent me into a daze. Now that I was human, I had a stronger resistance to it, though. As such, I’d been able to concoct something very similar based on what I could remember of Hinako’s recipe. It really was a strange dish—it was almost like it was enchanted with a powerful temptation spell, yet unlike the real thing, it didn’t cause any harm to the body.

“Heh heh! You wouldn’t normally be able to find a high school girl who can make Churu, you know? Thank your lucky stars that I’m your owner, Lilybell! Ahhh, you’re just so smol and adorable!”

Hinako would often say such things, and every time, I would brush her off. She would then cry, “Oh gosh, you’re also adorable when you give me the cold shoulder!” and I would merely sigh in response. But deep down, I’d truly respected her and believed she was a genius.

“Anyway, I should get going!” I said, finally working up the motivation to get up.

I quietly sneaked off the manor grounds.

◯◯◯

“That’s the story,” I said. “Maouldoth, do you know anything?”

“About what?” the dragon grumbled.

Maouldoth had immediately sensed my arrival in Leeuwenhoek and had sent me a telepathic message saying, “Shouldn’t you be greeting me when you come back? C’mon, where’s my greeting?” I figured I’d grant his request and get his opinion on the whole ordeal at the same time. After all, he was the only one I could consult with on such matters since only he knew about my past life as Lilybell.

“I told you, I went to see Great Sage Elios!” I exclaimed, exasperated.

“And you ran into a kid having a mana outburst who looked an awful lot like someone you know?”

“Yes, that’s right. So you were listening!”

“Yeah, but I don’t know what you’re trying to get out of me by asking if I ‘know anything.’”

Admittedly, my question had been worded too vaguely. “I’m talking about that boy,” I clarified. “Do you know what happened to him after I—after Lilybell died?”

I was asking because the child I’d encountered in the capital bore a striking resemblance to that boy.

The next voice I heard did not belong to Maouldoth.

“Oh, are you talking about me?”

Startled, I turned around and saw the very subject of our conversation smiling behind me.

“Th-The great sage, Sir Elios...” I stammered.

Prince Edgar’s rueful words played in the back of my head: “I’m sorry for my poor judgment call. I wasn’t expecting the great sage of all people to cause a mana outburst...”

That’s right—standing before me was Sir Elios in the flesh. And although Prince Edgar had been correct in saying that the great sage would surprise me, it actually hadn’t been the fact that Sir Elios was a small child that had shocked me. Well, in normal circumstances, it probably would’ve, but in this case, what had surprised me was that the great sage was the spitting image of someone I knew very well. Uncannily identical.

Sir Elios’s smile broadened as he continued, “‘Great sage,’ ‘sir’... There’s no need for such formalities, Lilybell.”

Is Sir Elios really that same boy I once knew? Is he Lilybell’s final owner...? That orphan?

⦿⦿⦿

“I told you, not yet! You’re still pale as a ghost! There haven’t been many monster sightings lately, so you should take this opportunity to rest,” Kain said, sighing and glaring at me.

I’d been confined to bed ever since returning to Leeuwenhoek.

“But I’m perfectly fine now,” I insisted.

“Your ‘I’m fine’ isn’t reliable. Even Lu asked me to keep an eye on you to make sure you take it easy.”

“Lucille...”

Picturing her in my mind inevitably summoned the image of the Great Sage Elios by her side. Back at the capital, on our way to see him, Lucille had suddenly darted off for some reason. Given that Sir Elios had not been informed of our visit, I’d decided to continue onward with the crown prince just in case—that way, in the event the great sage intended to depart, I could prevent him from leaving so Lucille could meet him.

As I closed my eyes, I recalled what had happened when the prince and I entered the room. There had been a small boy standing there, facing the noble lady who had been subjected to a rebounded curse. My first thought had been, Is this really the great sage? Isn’t this just a child?

Upon our arrival, the boy had flinched quite noticeably before slowly turning toward us. The right thing to do would have been to greet him first. Regardless of his appearance, he was still a great sage who had been privately summoned to the royal castle to lift a curse. Not only that, but he was the one I—or rather, Lucille—had been wanting to meet.

However, everything had happened so suddenly that I’d had no time to say a single word. The moment the boy had laid eyes on me, his lips had trembled. “Why are you...?”

Then his mana had begun to run rampant, and I had only managed to glimpse the fiery mixture of anger, sorrow, and hatred in his eyes.

“Why would someone of Sir Elios’s caliber have a mana outburst?!” Prince Edgar had exclaimed. “I’m sorry, Lord Felix, but you’ll have to find a way to endure this!”

“Eeeek! Wh-What is it this time?!” Lady Mina had shrieked.

I’d quickly deployed a magical barrier, while the crown prince had pulled the noble lady under his wing. Since the room had been designed for confinement, it had fortunately been equipped with defensive spells, preventing damage to the outside.

However, within, an enormous amount of mana—as expected from a great sage—had overflowed from the boy’s small frame. To make matters worse, it appeared our mana was incompatible, so my mana had been rapidly draining away.

Just as I’d begun to panic that my barrier wouldn’t last much longer, Lucille had shown up to save the day.

“Don’t worry. It’ll calm down soon.”

Looking divine, like a saint from a story, she’d embraced the cowering and groaning boy. Her beauty had stolen my breath away. And for reasons unknown to me, I’d also felt a tightening sensation in my chest, separate from my worry that she might get injured, defenseless as she was amid the mana outburst.

The tempest of mana had quickly come under...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 10.11.2025
• Reihe/Serie: Engaging with the Plot: A Former Cat’s Attempt to Save Her Now Temporary Fiancé
• Illustrationen: Qi234
• Übersetzer: Minna Lin
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Fantasy
• Schlagworte: Cats • female protagonist • Magic • Nobility • Reincarnation • Slice of Life • villainess
• ISBN-10: 1-7183-0554-0 / 1718305540
• ISBN-13: 978-1-7183-0554-0 / 9781718305540