Chapter 22.2At the moist and tender sensation, my entire body grew restless. Yesterday, in the midst of blindly smashing into him, I wasn"t able to feel that sensation. After withdrawing my face, I slowly opened my eyes.
The view in front of me was suddenly pitch black. The room that I had been able to see well until just a while ago was now completely buried in darkness. Lifting my hand and feeling all over my face, my fur had suddenly disappeared completely, and I could feel smooth skin. I spread both hands in front of my eyes and looked over them as I laughed hollowly.
"What kind of c.r.a.p is this… It really worked."
There was no doubt that the witch-hag had grown up reading too many fairy tales.
Blinking my eyes a couple times, I gradually became more accustomed to the darkness. It was significantly different from when I was a cat; to the degree that I had to pay more attention when looking around. As I lowered my gaze, I could see Sugar Prince deep asleep underneath me. I looked at Sugar Prince with renewed eyes.
Yesterday, I had been so surprised that I hadn"t been able to pay attention, but now that I looked at him, he was still larger than me. When I was a cat, the fact that he looked much bigger than me could be attributed to the fact that I was so small, but even now, when I had turned back into a human, he still looked big. Originally, his wide chest, shoulders, and arms were merely comfortable, but looking at them now, they were oddly annoying. Why the heck was this guy so big?
I turned my head to look behind me as I sat on Sugar Prince"s chest.
Heol. Why were his legs so long? His feet were waaaaaay over there. I turned my head to the side, looking at his arms. They were also ridiculously long. I secretly compared it with my own arm, and the difference was obvious. This couldn"t be. It seemed that my eyes had become weird since I had been a cat for so long. Between two guys there shouldn"t be such a difference.
I spread my fingers and measured the length from my armpit to my wrist. One hand. Two hands. Three hands.
This time I began measuring the length from Sugar Prince"s armpit.
One hand. Two hands. Three hands. Four… hands… Five…
I silently closed my stretched-out hand. Height was not everything, so there was no need to obsess over it. Of course. Of course.
Anywho, I was sitting atop his chest, but it seemed this guy didn"t think I was heavy at all. If it was up to me, I would jump up and down until he went, urk, but I had to resist. Since it would be trouble if he woke up.
I carefully got down from sugar Prince"s chest.
As I was about to get down from the bed, I looked at Sugar Prince"s face again, and pettiness suddenly welled up inside me. No, this was not just pettiness. This was a sense of rivalry between two men. Height was not everything, but I couldn"t help getting angry.
I pushed up the tip of Sugar Prince"s nose with my finger and made a pig nose. No matter how good looking this guy was, he looked ridiculous with a pig nose. I looked at Sugar Prince"s humiliating appearance and soothed my anger. And I pressed a degree harder while grumbling.
"My name is K. K. Guy that doesn"t even call my name."
After making a pig nose until Sugar Prince"s nose turned red, I felt refreshed on the inside. I removed my finger and felt invigorated.
I took out the clothes and shoes that I had hidden away and looked at them. I couldn"t celebrate an early victory. I had gone through so much suffering to bring these clothes for my body. I felt like I could definitely never do such a thing twice. Even so, I was still alive today because that angel big sister carried them for me.
I rummaged through the clothes and put them on one at a time, but they were a complete pain to put on. I couldn"t tell which side was the front at all, so I took them off and put them back on repeatedly. There were so many b.u.t.tons that I was b.u.t.toning until dawn was on the horizon. I roughly did up a couple of b.u.t.tons on the shirt and put on the shoes. Bouncing a little where I stood, it was quite comfortable. The fact that the size also fit approximately seemed to indicate my good fortune.
I stood in front of the mirror on one side of the room. I wasn"t as neat or proper as the n.o.bles that came and went in the palace, but I was still quite handsome. If the maids had dressed me, it would"ve been perfect, but this much was the best that I could do by myself.
When I got up close of the mirror, I could see my face. Nothing seemed to be different from what I remembered. My skin didn"t seem to have gone bad, and there weren"t any cat hairs left here and there, either. I spun coolly in place, winked at the mirror and, bang, shot once at the mirror. And I said:
"Heh. That was kind of cool."
It was something I always did before leaving the house, but, today, it was somehow a bit embarra.s.sing. Usually, after doing this, I would go right to gramps and show off my outstanding appearance and fashion, but today there wasn"t even anybody to show it to. The thoughts of home that I had buried tried to sneak into my mind, but I pressed them down again firmly.
I turned my body away from the mirror and looked around the room.
I had put on clothes and shoes. What should I do now?
There was a mountain of things I wanted to do, but I had to deal with the most important thing first: find a way to get back right away.
The curse had already been partially lifted, and the rest could be dealt with by finding the witch-hag. In contrast to when I was a cat, I had, to some extent, a chance of being successful in my human state. The problem came after that. Since the witch hadn"t brought me here, I had no way of finding out how to return. The best way to find a way home would be to look in this palace. First, I would search the palace for a way to go back while steadily preparing to find the witch-hag. Then, once I found a way back, I would immediately chase after the witch-hag and completely break the curse.
To accomplish all that, the very first thing I needed to do right now was learn how to read and write. I would have to know the local language in order to scour the library and find even the smallest hint. It was easy to talk about learning how to read and write, but it wasn"t such a simple task. If I wanted to be at the level where I could search the library on my own, I would have to study Spartan-like for several years for it to be possible.
I resisted the depressing thoughts that were invading my mind.
It was true that it seemed hopeless, but I had at least succeeded in returning to being a human. Somehow, I would be able to do the rest. If it was impossible, I could try seducing the humans working at the library.
Yes. That seemed good. I was worrying about learning another country"s language for nothing when I could coax a capable human to do it for me. I didn"t know why I couldn"t think of this before. Such a simple thing.
As I giggled at my own mood, which had improved in the blink of an eye, I flung open the window.
Thank you to everyone who has waited so patiently for the past couple weeks! I had been busy with APs and final projects and senior year stuff, so I apologize for being absent. Lmao it"s actually been so long that I forgot what TLing a chapter each week felt like. Anyways, I am now an adult! Sort of. I"m technically not an adult by age, but I DID graduate from HS this past Sat.u.r.day, so yayy!! You guys probably don"t know this, but my original plan was to update more frequently once summer break started so that I could cover more ground on Cat K, but, unfortunately, this was not to be… Turns out I have an intern/volunteer thing for the entire summer. Which is good for my resume, I guess? But it also means I can"t go much faster… That, and I have to wake up at 5:30 every morning to catch the bus T.T Please bear with me for the rest of the summer, and thanks to Xuan and Lorettelala for the coffees!
Here is a picture of Tikky wearing my graduation cap!