Chapter 39

Ziiiiip—

Standing on tiptoe, I proudly crossed out the sentence [Try ding-dong ditching] with a crayon.

It meant I had successfully completed an item on my bucket list.

In my previous life, I never got to try it because of moral concerns, but now there’s actually someone volunteering to be the victim of a ding-dong ditch...!

Now then, what exactly was ding-dong ditching?

Also known as ringing someone’s doorbell and running away.

An ancient children’s game completely devoid of civic awareness, where kids rang strangers’ doorbells before fleeing for their lives.

“Kyaaa—!”

My heart was pounding so hard that my legs started bouncing against the floor on their own.

It was a little childish, but I’d always wanted to try it.

Nowadays I could let small regrets slide by, but why did childhood regrets cling so stubbornly?

In my previous life, when I was an elementary school student, I used to watch other children playing outside through the window.

Back then, I had stayed cooped up in my room because I was constantly watching my relatives’ moods.

But now I can play proudly!

Ahem.

Having steeled my resolve, [N O V E L I G H T] I entered the third castle and stood before a massive door.

This was both the bedroom and office of Knox, the aide to the Duke of Kreutz who apparently had to work twenty-four hours a day.

Knock knock—

The moment I knocked with my tiny fist—

“...Uuugh, yes. Who is it?”

I could hear someone stumbling toward the door as though he had just woken up.

“At this hour, even the maids wouldn’t be coming... Who could it be?”

Knox even muttered the perfect monologue to himself before opening the door—

“Kyaaa, it was ding-dong ditching!”

I stuck my tongue out at him and bolted away at full speed with my teeth clenched.

“No, y-you little...!”

I could feel the flabbergasted Knox yanking off the hood of his pajamas and chasing after me.

The thrill gripped all five senses like riding a roller coaster.

This part where you ran just barely ahead of being caught.

This was the most thrilling and fun part of all.

Patter patter—

I zipped down the corridor and reached the castle entrance, then quickly hid behind the open gate and peeked my head out.

“...Knox?”

Knox was nowhere to be seen.

Don’t tell me this was a ding-dong-ignore...?

Ignoring the child who rang the bell and ran away.

To a child performing ding-dong ditching, that kind of emptiness was basically a death sentence.

No way.

Knox?

After I’d run all the way here?

Pouting from sheer indignation, I stomped my way back.

“...Knox! You promised to play with me! ...Huh?”

As I retraced my steps, I found a giant man collapsed in the middle of the corridor.

Knox, still dressed in pajamas, was lying face down while holding his white pajama hood in one hand.

“Knox?”

Shuffle shuffle—

I carefully approached him with tiny baby-crab steps that erased all sound.

“Got you.”

“AAAH!”

The long arm that had been motionless like a corpse suddenly grabbed my ankle, and I jolted so hard it felt like I’d been electrocuted.

“Haaah. Haaah—.”

This was exhilarating.

Ding-dong ditching was fun even if you succeeded, but getting caught was fun too.

Of course, in my previous life, getting caught for real probably would’ve ended at a police station.

“Are you satisfied now?”

Still sprawled on the floor, Knox tilted only his head upward to ask.

“Yes! Totally! Bucket list complete!”

“That’s wonderful news.”

When I gave him a thumbs-up, the corners of his expressionless mouth lifted ever so slightly.

“Hooah. That was fun. Sir Knox, let’s do it again.”

“...Excuse me?”

With the stamina level of a five-year-old, I felt like I’d need to do this at least five more times before being fully satisfied.

“Do it again. It’s fun.”

“Then how about playing hospital?”

“Hospital... what?”

Roll.

Knox flipped over from his face-down position and sprawled out flat like a starfish before turning his head toward me.

“I’ll be the patient. The young lady can be the doctor.”

“......”

Looking at Knox, I muttered,

“Seeing you lying in the hallway like this, I think you’re less a patient and more a corpse, while I’m the undertaker.”

That was when—

“Young lady! Young lady! Oh my, there you are!”

Mai was searching for me from far away.

What’s gotten into Mai? She’s usually so calm.

When Mai’s voice rose like that, it usually meant something good had happened.

“Mai? What is it?!”

After solemnly placing the white pajama hood back over Knox’s face, I stood up.

“The kitten you brought has woken up!”

“What?!”

I’m coming right now, kitty.

“Kitty!”

Crying out for a tiny precious lifeform, I sprinted out of the castle.

***

“To think the young lady would be this happy. I’m glad the kitten recovered... Hm?”

Watching Aisha run off innocently, Mai suddenly noticed something beneath her feet while walking down the corridor.

At the tips of her heels lay a man with a white cloth covering his face.

“A-a dead body. Knights! Knights!”

Thanks to Mai’s dramatic reaction, knights came to retrieve Knox in place of Aisha, who had apparently taken on the role of undertaker.

“...Please just kill me instead.”

“Pardon?!”

“...Never mind.”

Surrounded by knights and Mai, Knox simply closed his eyes.

This was the price of scheming against a child who only wanted someone to play with her.

***

Meanwhile.

The moment I entered the main castle and opened the infirmary door, the physician Delta greeted me with a warm smile.

“Welcome, young lady.”

“Where’s the kitty?!”

Proper etiquette meant greeting him first, but the words flew out before I could stop them.

Ah. Darn. That wasn’t very ladylike of me.

“Hello, Physician Delta.”

After smiling sweetly and greeting him properly, I immediately returned to the important matter.

“So where’s the kitty?!”

“Hoho. I knew you would be happy to hear it. Right this way.”

With a kindly smile, he guided me toward a secluded corner near the fireplace.

Warm air filled the infirmary thanks to the fire crackling inside.

A rattan basket sat atop a thick rug.

Inside the basket, which had been stuffed with warm blankets—

Purr.

A tiny kitten no bigger than both my palms combined was curled up like an ammonite while sleeping soundly.

Cute.

So cute I could die.

The breath escaping behind my hand grew increasingly shaky.

“Is it all better now?”

“Of course. Completely healthy now. It spent quite a while wandering around the infirmary trying to catch rats before finally falling asleep just now.”

“Since it’s sleeping, would it be hard to bring it to my bedroom?”

“Hard? Isn’t this your kitten, young lady?”

The physician carefully lifted the sleeping kitten.

“It’s still young, so it sleeps a great deal. Minor movement won’t wake it easily. Hurry and take it to your room.”

“W-wow....”

The moment I carefully gathered the kitten into my arms, it rumbled softly before burying its head against my chest.

It had already been such a tiny thing when I first found it at the circus.

But back then, its fur had been filthy and its eyes crusted over.

Now, perhaps because it had been bathed, its fur was bright white and there wasn’t a trace of eye crust left on its closed eyes.

“Let’s go to big sister’s room, little baby.”

Holding the puffball carefully in my arms, I slowly walked down the corridor.

I still hadn’t gotten mister’s permission to raise the kitten, but—

Just in case, I already added “raise a cat” to my bucket list, so I’m sure he’ll allow it.

It was while I was carefully walking along that—

“...The Alosinis in the north were acting strangely. It was...”

I heard the sound of people gathering around some serious report.

What was that?

Turning my head, I noticed the door to what looked like a meeting room had been left slightly open instead of fully shut.

Voices spilled out through the crack like a radio broadcast.

“What do you mean by ‘strangely’?”

Oh. Mister’s in there too?

Serious matters were serious matters, but being happy to hear his voice was a separate issue.

Curiosity getting the better of me, I pressed my ear against the wall while still holding the sleeping kitten.

“Well... even I had trouble believing it when I first heard...”

“What is it? Stop dragging it out and speak.”

“T-the monster spoke.”

The moment the man confessed that, the meeting room fell eerily silent.

And so did I.

No, more than shocked—I went blank, like I’d been struck in the back of the head with a blunt weapon.

“...What did it say?”

After a long silence, mister finally asked.

“It was at the level of baby babbling. Things like ‘Uwaa-uuh,’ or maybe... ‘Ah. Alive.’ Something like that.”

“Are you certain it was a monster?”

“It was definitely an Alosini, a four-legged beast-type monster. Its eyes were purple too.”

The knight’s answer plunged the room into silence again.

Some people coughed awkwardly, clearly unable to believe it.

And I froze stiff from the shocking story.

The original story had changed again.

Monsters speaking.

The novel The Sword of Judgment was about the male lead unifying the two kingdoms, but the most important keyword in that entire story was “monsters.”

Because the incident began when Calypse, who guarded the north, abandoned his resolve and ignored the collapsing ice barrier.

The protagonist killed Calypse and became the new ice barrier himself, slaughtering the monsters.

If monsters could speak, then the original story definitely would’ve mentioned it.

But I had never seen anything like that.

Which meant there was only one conclusion.

Something I had done unconsciously had once again created a butterfly effect and derailed the original story.

What did I even do?

I was deep in thought when—

“Myaaa-uung.”

A tiny adorable cry escaped from the kitten waking up in my arms.