059 – Lies
“Pet!”
“Yes?”
“Follow me.”
“…I haven’t fully recovered yet, so would it be alright if I received some assistance?”
The pale vampire issued his command for me to follow.
I had recovered to some degree, but walking on my own two feet was still impossible.
So I requested permission to be aided by another hostage present.
Drag, drag, drag…
In the end, I could not avoid the fate of being dragged along by the scruff of my neck.
*‘My human rights…’*
If it had been a doppelganger, it might have railed, ‘I’ll have you know, I’m chummy with your boss!’ while insisting on assistance.
Of all the beings to drag me away, it just *had* to be a vampire.
Without so much as a whimper of protest, I was hauled away like a sack.
“Ugh…”
I was dropped unceremoniously on my backside, my nape throbbing from the rough handling.
“Oh, Lord. Did you summon me?”
I was now face-to-face with the Lord, whose head was bowed low.
“Come to think of it, why is he like that?”
But.
For the Lord, the leader of all vampires, to be hanging his head like this, meant…
…that someone even higher was present.
I thought, ‘Finally! Is our talking cat Isabella awake, then?’ and craned my neck upwards…
‘…That’s not Isabella.’
A woman with snow-white hair and a face that could curdle milk was glaring down at us, a storm brewing in her eyes.
Subtly, I lowered my gaze again, a cold sweat beading on my brow as I met the Lord’s eyes.
“…Should I, perhaps, kneel too?”
Whoever she was,
the Isabella I knew was not such a terrifying being…
“M..Mother, you see, I can, e-explain everything…”
The moment the Lord spoke, the realization struck me.
The presence exuding that overwhelming sense of dread was none other than… Isabella Lilith…
—
Isabella Lilith (■■■)
[Abduct] – Activated
[Eavesdrop] – Designate target (Max 1)
[Sleep] – Activated
[Stealth] – Activated
[Silence] – Activated
—
“Wow…”
Was it because I had only ever seen Isabella’s wrath as a cat?
Or was it… because this was the first time I’d seen Isabella seriously enraged?
Whatever the reason, it was clear the Lord was about to get a serious scolding from his mama.
“I recommend analyzing the floor patterns.”
I passed on a little tip for surviving maternal reprimands.
“…”
Isabella slowly descended towards us.
And as the white-haired woman floated down to the ground…
“…Isabella?”
I saw that her eyes were glistening with unshed tears.
“Why are you cryi-ack…”
Isabella’s tears flustered me so, I lurched to my feet to comfort her, but…
Even after using eight whole scrolls of healing, my bones weren’t yet perfectly knitted together.
“Just a moment…!”
I lay back down on the floor, enduring the pain.
In the blink of an eye, she had walked right up to me…
And effortlessly scooped me up, heading toward her private chambers where she had been sleeping.
“Uh…”
Having always been the one to embrace Isabella and carry *her*,
To be the one being carried like this, it felt… peculiar.
‘Could it be that I’ve secretly been a pet all along?’
Just as I was beginning to wonder if I was truly the master,
“…”
Isabella, having entered her chambers, closed the door, ensuring no one could see inside…
“Ooh…”
Transformed into the small cat I originally knew her as.
“So, this is how Animagus magic works?”
A cat, covered the clothes she had been wearing like a shell, emerged from the pile of discarded garments.
And at the same time…
*Myaong… Myaaong…*
As she rubbed her face against my side…
I understood.
“I’m alright.”
Isabella was trying to hide the fact that she was crying from me.
*Myaaong… Nyaaong…*
She was desperately trying to conceal her sobs, wailing as a cat as she often did.
*Pat…pat…*
Gently stroking Isabella’s head, I kept silent alongside her, as if to comfort her sadness.
A few minutes passed like that. Or maybe it was hours.
Eventually, Isabella’s voice became hoarse, unable to even produce a proper wail, and she let out a weary sound.
“Ugh… it’s cold.”
Slowly leaning against the wall, I embraced Isabella tightly, so she could nestle comfortably in my arms.
“Ow, that hurts…”
“Now you finally talk to me.”
“…”
“It’s okay. I’m used to this level of injury by now.”
“…Liar.”
“Ah, come on. It’s a white lie. Just pretend you don’t know.”
“…Okay… I understand.”
“Thank you.”
*Pat… pat…*
I toyed with the idea of a playful spank, but the image of the platinum-haired, golden-eyed beauty kept flashing in my mind, leaving me only able to stroke her hair.
“…What caused the injury?”
Isabella’s voice was finally clear, the tears seemingly completely subsided. So, truthfully…
“As I was descending the ramparts, a massive spell suddenly came hurtling towards me, and I had no choice but to fall.”
How could I possibly speak the truth?
*‘You see, someone with a leg in a cast should take the stairs one at a time, but I got impatient and started bounding down… only to slip on the ice on the steps in this frigid winter, of all things?’* How could I possibly say that?
If she were to hear that truth, Isabella-ssi, who had been sobbing so heart-wrenchingly just moments ago, would surely burst out laughing.
“Cast a spell…? At their master?”
“Yes. A massive spell… Isabella-ssi?”
“Hm?”
“…Where are you going?”
“To gather all the children who can use magic and find out. To find out who cast a spell at the ramparts.”
“…And if you find them?”
“I’ll give them the same treatment.”
Judging by the tone of Isabella-ssi’s voice…
It was clear that giving them “the same treatment” didn’t mean making their body the same as mine. It most certainly meant binding them to some rampart and blasting them away with Isabella-ssi’s magic.
Therefore…
“…I slipped.”
“Hm?”
“The spell was just a lie out of embarrassment… I slipped… I should have died, but I was lucky enough to fall onto a carriage and ended up with a full-body fracture.”
Lest my lie cause someone undeserved harm, I had to tell the truth.
However…
“…A lie.”
“Pardon?”
“Are you seriously expecting me to believe that right now?”
“Regrettably, this time it’s true.”
Isabella-ssi didn’t seem to believe my words.
“…Why are you protecting them so much?”
“Uh… what do you mean?”
“Tell me honestly… I can resolve anything. I can take revenge, whatever the master desires…”
“What I desire is simply to sit here like this, embracing Isabella-ssi tightly.”
“…Fool.”
“Indeed. A careless, foolish me, I’m sorry.”
“No, that’s not what I meant!”
Judging by her flustered appearance…
Now, it seemed almost certain she was back to the Isabella I knew.
“Come quickly. I want to pet you.”
Mya, Myaoong…
Hugging the cat close once more, I began to explain everything that had happened while Isabella-ssi had been asleep.
…
How much time had passed?
How much time had slipped away?
Starting with how the war between vampires and humans had actually begun because of us.
I recounted all the adventures until the moment I met Isabella-ssi here again.
“Haaam…”
Before I knew it, fatigue was creeping in.
“Tired, Master?”
“I think I’m a little tired.”
“Let’s sleep together!”
As it happened, this was Isabella-ssi’s chamber.
And the memory surfaced of Isabella-ssi saying she wanted to sleep in her chamber with me, back then.
“Shall we?”
To recover my aching body, I collapsed onto the spot, sinking down.
“Sing me to sleep.”
“Aah~ Our Isabella-ssi drifts off. Drifts into slumber~.”
As I sang Isabella-ssi to sleep as she asked, I started to doze off…
Grrrrumble…
“…”
I’m hungry.
Grrrrrumble…
“Ah.”
I thought I was enduring it well.
But the loud sound coming from my stomach made me realize.
That with this level of hunger… unless I was on the very brink of collapsing from exhaustion, I could never fall asleep.
“…What to do?”
I turned my head slightly to look at Isabella-ssi, who was already fast asleep.
Isabella-ssi had already journeyed to a world where my voice couldn’t reach.
‘I need to go eat quickly.’
Deciding to eat a quick meal and then fall asleep again.
I carefully raised myself up, and taking cautious steps, opened the door to the chamber…
‘I need to sleep quickly.’
I shut the door again upon seeing thousands of vampires kneeling before the chamber.
Casting Scry on Isabella-ssi and then Sleep on myself.
“Scry, Sleep.”
…
Krrrrr…
“Ughh…”
The battlefield sounds coming from my stomach woke me.
Didn’t know how long I’d slept, but I seriously needed to put something, anything, inside me.
“Seriously gotta eat something…”
Crawling, barely able to move, I opened the door to my bedchamber, all to get something in my stomach…
“You’re awake, are you.”
“Uh… what’s going on?”
“We are punishing the doppelgangers who disrespected Milady.”
I could see hundreds of doppelgangers being executed, one by one, by the vampires.
Of course…
“…Where did Lord go?”
“Lord… is in ‘conversation’ with his mother…”
“My son has gone to converse with his mother?”
“He was dragged away…”
“Hmm…”
Didn’t know what exactly was happening.
But meddling in someone else’s child-rearing wasn’t polite.
So I silently prayed for Nephelia Lilith’s well-being.
“Uh, tell them not to kill that one.”
“…Pardon?”
“That doppelganger friend. I promised I’d save him, you see.”
“Understood.”
I calmly began watching the execution of the doppelgangers who had disrespected me.
“Ah, bring that friend here.”
“Shall we spare that one as well?”
“I’ll kill him myself.”
“Immediately, Milady.”