I Reincarnated As A Villainess, But Why Did I Become A Cat Butler Instead? - Chapter 264

Chapter 132.2

As I screamed in surprise and fell off my chair with a thud, the door flew open all of a sudden, and Dimitri, the man in question, rushed in the next moment.

“Rowaine! What’s going on?!”

“Oh, I-I’m fine. I just accidentally fell off the chair…”

As I reassured him and struggled to get up, he approached me and helped me.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”

“I-I’m fine.”

Feeling conscious for no reason, I slowly slipped my arm out of his grasp.

I couldn’t look at his face directly. Turning away from Dimitri, I stood up and sat down at my desk. Then, pretending to be busy shuffling through documents, I asked casually.

“What’s going on, Dimitri?”

“….”

Dimitri remained silent.

Feeling puzzled by his lack of response, I glanced up at him discreetly, only to catch him staring back at me with a strange expression in his eyes. I was so startled that I took my eyes off him and stared at the desk again, opening my mouth awkwardly.

“I’m… a little busy right now.”

I honestly felt like crying. When I looked at Dimitri, the scene of the problem I had seen in the morning became clearer and clearer.

I suppressed my emotions as much as possible and parted my lips calmly.

“If it’s nothing urgent, I’d like to be alone. Could you please leave?”

Although I said it calmly, it was actually a very desperate request.

‘Please go. Please.’

Nonetheless, Dimitri is still standing beside me, silently looking down at me. While I pretended to be fiddled with the documents, unable to bring myself to look up, Dimitri finally uttered.

“Did you really… see it? I wanted to make sure.”

‘…Is he really asking me this straightforwardly?’

My mind went blank for a moment, and it felt like all the blood in my body was rushing to my brain.

“W-what, what, what do you mean?”

“….”

“N-no, no! I-I don’t know anything!”

My face felt like it was about to explode with heat, and I felt dizzy. In the end, I couldn’t overcome my shame and eventually chose to run away just like I did in the morning.

“I suddenly remembered something urgent that came up!”

At that, I stood up and ran out of the office.

Embracing a sense of shame.

‘Why am I so embarrassed when I wasn’t even the one who took it off?! Why am I behaving like this?! He might as well advertise it that I’ve seen his important parts! Advertise it!’

̊ · : * ✧ * : · ̊

“….”

Dimitri watched silently as Rowaine ran out of the study without trying to stop her.

His expression was dark.

As if expecting such a situation, he returned to his office with a composed face.

“Did you resolve it well?”

Hyle, who had been tied up and tormented by Shedim, looked pleased to see him return. Dimitri sent Shedim into his shadow without answering, then nodded to Hyle.

“Leave.”

“….?”

Sensing his unusual mood, he quickly left the room.

Dimitri, who was left alone, sat in front of the desk and leaned back in his chair.

“Ha…”

He let out a heavy sigh, lost in thought.

There was no doubt that Rowaine must have been very shocked by witnessing himself transform into a cat. Otherwise, she wouldn’t react so strongly like that.

‘Is it disgusting after all?’

Memories from his childhood that he had forgotten resurfaced, gripping his ankles and crawling stickily up his spine.

“He turned into a cat!”

“Haha, How unsightly!”

“Look at that tail! I can’t believe you’re wearing something like that and pretending to be a human!”

The shame of that day came flooding back.

The despair of that day, when he realized that my very existence was a mockery and that being born like this itself aroused disgust, resurfaced. He thought he was immune to such ridicule. However, seeing Rowaine act like that brought back the trauma that had been dormant within him for so long.

Dimitri couldn’t shake off the nightmarish memories as they consumed him.

‘I didn’t expect this. You knew it would be like this.’

Wasn’t that why he practiced sleeping in a human form? If he had believed that Rowaine would accept him as he was, he wouldn’t have done such practice in the first place.

‘There’s no need to be disappointed.’

All humans treat shapeshifters like that.

He was used to it. Rowaine was just another human, after all, so there was no need to feel hurt even if she hated him.

But… why does it hurt so much?

Dimitri’s face contorted as he bit his lip. He looked like he was about to burst into tears at any moment.

He covered his head with his hands.

‘Did I… have expectations?’

How could he fool himself into thinking he didn’t expect anything when he felt so disappointed?

He admitted.

Perhaps he had hoped that even if he transformed into a cat, Rowaine wouldn’t mind. Maybe he even wanted to be caught by accident. He hoped that even after seeing his shapeshifter form, she would still like him. Otherwise, would he have ever thought of sharing a room with her?

To be honest, it might be too much to ask.

‘D*mn it, how foolish.’

For Sasha, Coco and the shapeshifters at the shelter were the ones she cared for. In other words, she could be seen as the one who raised them, much like pets.

Though he wasn’t like that.

There was a big difference between a lover and a pet.

Even if it was Rowaine, accepting a shapeshifter as a lover could’ve been a different matter. Even though he knew that, then why did he still have expectations?

Dimitri forced himself to ignore his wounded heart.