Cat K

"b.u.t.terfly!!!"

Calix quickened his steps upon hearing the shouts from the garden.

His heart jumped at the ominous feeling that pa.s.sed through his mind. No matter how stubborn that cat was, he felt uneasy leaving it in the room all by himself and regret lingered in his mind.

"What"s going on?"

As he arrived at the fountain in almost a run, several maids were hovering around the fountain. Calix ran to the fountain with a sense of urgency.

"B-b.u.t.terfly did…ink…the fountain…"

One maid spoke while pointing at the fountain. Seeing the completely blue-stained fountain water and the cat inside with its head c.o.c.ked, Calix let out the breath that he was holding.

Nyaang—

The small animal looked at Calix, and its eyes sparkled as if it was happy to see him. Without hesitation, Calix waded into the fountain and picked the small body up into his arms. The blue water in the fountain and the water soaking the cat"s body permeated his clothes. Calix walked toward the bedchamber, holding the small, docile body in his embrace.

"Y-your Highness. Please forgive us. We have not yet finished cleaning."

As soon as he arrived in front of the bedchambers, the head servant trembled as he spoke. At the strong smell of ink wafted over from beyond the door, Calix looked at the creature in his arms. When their gazes met, the animal opened its eyes roundly and meowed, nyaang. It was as if it was bragging.

Upon entering the room, it was completely filled with the smell of ink as well as blue ink marks.

It was a mess of cat pawprints stamped all over the white marble, with evidence of rolling scattered here and there, ink splatters, and marks that looked like something was brushed with a tail. The bed sheets piled on one side of the room were also filled with blue stains. It was a scene enough to make the head servant"s face bright blue.

Calix looked around the room filled with evidence that the small animal had run and rolled around, and lowered his gaze to his arms. The cat was looking up at him with eyes full of expectation. With what idea had it made the mess this time? He couldn"t easily guess what thoughts were going on inside the small head at all. However, he couldn"t help but think positively about it, seeing as how it was in a good mood. Ever since the day before yesterday, it had been throwing a fit and feeling gloomy.

Calix stroked the cat"s small head with his finger.

"It looks like you enjoyed yourself."

Nyaang—

The cat replied with a content expression. Calix chuckled lowly and stroked the back completely saturated with ink.

"Your Highness. The bath has been prepared."

At the words of the servant that had come up to them, the cat"s eyes sparkled. Jumping down from Calix"s arms, it cried and urged, Nyaang, nyang. It seemed to have wanted to bathe quite a lot. Then again, the animal who refused to bathe if the water was not heated had gone into the cold fountain, so he could understand. Calix began walking, following the daintily stamped blue pawprints along the floor.

The cat who had jumped into the steaming bath sat atop the platform and started purring. Blue water spread out from the area the purring cat sat. Calix grasped the tail, which was especially producing a lot of ink, and scrubbed it clean. The cat stirred the ink coming from its body with its paw and splashed around. It looked like it was having fun, and Calix felt relieved.

There was still a scab on the ear of the splashing cat.

The wound on the small animal"s ear was an eyesore. Right now, its wounds had healed, and it was playing, but when he first saw its injured appearance, he turned cold in an instant.

The cat was small enough that he had thought it was a kitten at first.

There was no way it would be left unscathed with a cat many times bigger than itself as its opponent. When it had come desperately to him, staggering and collapsed on its side, even while knowing the maids" faces were blue from his own unrestrained fury, his entire attention had been on the cat"s faint breathing. Although left exposed, the animal was unharmed by his violent rage, and even while unable to conquer the killing intent, the black eyes looking at Calix had no trace of fear or hesitation. In the end, the cat burrowed into Calix"s embrace.

How proud it was, painfully trying its best, standing on its feet even with its small body covered in wounds. That night, his heart ached as he listened to the sounds of the curled-up cat whimpering as it suffered.

It was merely a small cat. He himself couldn"t even understand how lovely and dear it was to him. Merely its black eyes full of trust, the voice that whined for what it wanted, the soft black fur, without an ounce of fear or hesitation, even its small body that allowed itself to be held, there was nothing that was not endearing about it.

With every pa.s.sing day, he wondered if any one existence could be so endearing. And something he could be absolutely certain about was that even if it had white fur instead of black, even if, instead of its small body right now, it had a large body and a different appearance, it would still be endearing all the same. As long as this cat would look at him with these black eyes, nothing would change.

Calix lifted the purring cat to eye level, and pressed his lips carefully onto its small head. The cat closed its eyes tightly as soon as his lips touched it. It blinked slowly, as if it was startled. Looking at his eyes intently, it tilted its head to the right and to the left. Looking at it doing this, Calix let out a low chuckle. After meeting this little one, he had been laughing more often.

"I will use the feather to play with you once we get out."

At Calix"s words, the cat meowed, showing its adorable canine teeth. Calix pressed his lips to the small head again.

Once he realized that he adored it so, the feeling spread frighteningly quickly. Calix didn"t try to rather restrict it and just silently let it loose.

Just when would this small cat fill his heart and fill it once more? Be it otherwise, it was a greedy creature and definitely wouldn"t stop before filling his heart entirely. Calix was confident.

Big thank you"s to Amy and Joyce for the donations!

Cat K has reached almost 1,000 readers on NU, so next chapter there will be art things from both me, itikky, and Cat K"s editor, KagamiTL! (I mean, there"s probably a few stragglers out there reading Cat K too XD) Look forward to it! Don"t forget to rate Cat K and leave a review ! I swear I read them all!

Here’s some pictures of my cat, Tikky!