I Reincarnated As A Villainess, But Why Did I Become A Cat Butler Instead? - Chapter 287

Chapter 144.1

pan style=”font-weight: 400″>At that time.

Elaine, who didn’t know what had happened to Cadis, was secretly sneaking around the palace as usual. She particularly frequented the area around the Imperial Research Institute, where the imperial wizards gathered. Occasionally, if she were lucky, she would get a chance to enter the library inside the lab and examine the forbidden books related to curses.

She was aiming for that again today.

‘I wonder if the library corridor window will be open again like last time.’

Hiding in a secluded spot, she meticulously searched the area. Then, all of a sudden, she heard a commotion coming from somewhere.

‘Hmm?’

She hurriedly hid herself among the ornamental trees and looked toward the direction of the sound through the gaps between the tree trunks.

“What the hell…! Let go of me…! Ugh! Uhhp!”

An imperial wizard dressed in a robe was being taken away by a palace knight.

‘…What’s going on?’

The wizard was struggling fiercely, thrashing their body from side to side. But with a skinny body that had no muscle at all, the wizard was no match for the knights.

Elaine watched the wizard being dragged away with a serious expression.

‘I think someone was dragged away last time too.’

Lately, the situation at the research institute has been unusual, and wizards kept disappearing one by one.

‘What on earth are you doing, Father?’

Those who disappeared were probably those who, voluntarily or unintentionally, must have known too much about the secret of the curse. What could they have learned that made the Emperor so determined to keep the secret, even at the cost of eliminating such talented people?

Elaine shrank even tighter and squeezed between the branches as much as she could.

She was afraid.

If William knew she was hiding here, he would drag her away somewhere, just like that wizard, regardless of whether she was his daughter or not. And like those others, she would disappear without a trace, just like a mouse or a bird.

She didn’t think they would be alive and well.

While she was quietly hiding and watching the magician being taken away—

‘Huh?’

—Elaine noticed something glinting in the wizard’s hand.

In a desperate flurry, the wizard threw an object they had been holding in their hand.

Something was strange.

‘…Did they just throw that on purpose?’

As if he needed to hide that object somehow while being captured, he threw it somewhere into the underbrush without the knights noticing.

After the knights left, Elaine remained hidden in the same spot for a while before she came out when she was sure it was completely safe. As she searched the underbrush for the object the wizard had thrown, she soon found a blue, diamond-shaped stone with a cord attached.

It was a bracelet.

‘What could this be?’

Could it be a clue to the curse?

An object containing the Emperor’s secret?

Of course, it might be too much to hope for. Still, just in case, she carefully put the bracelet into her pocket.

̊ · : * ✧ * : · ̊

A few days later, a letter arrived from the capital to Avila, who remained in the Blois estate to manage the shapeshifters’ shelter with Esca.

Upon reading the letter, she hurriedly packed her things.

“I’m sorry, Esca, for leaving the shelter in your care alone. I’ll come back as soon as the matter is resolved. Please take care of things!”

Avila left for the capital in a hurry, leaving the young puppy shapeshifters in the care of Esca. As she arrived at the capital, exhausted from passing through several teleportation circles, she rushed to her friend who had sent her the letter without even having time to catch her breath.

“Heidel, I read the letter. What does it all mean?”

Bursting into her friend’s house with a scary demeanor, Avila asked pointedly as soon as she sat down. It was still early afternoon, and Heidel, who must have been sleeping at this time since his hair was a mess, poured water into the kettle with a tired look on his face.

“Sorry, sorry. I feel like I’m about to collapse right now. Let’s have some tea and wake up a bit.”

He splashed his face with cold water and buried his face in his hands.

“As I mentioned in the letter, Senior Tara suddenly disappeared, so I had to handle the tasks she was responsible for. I’ve been staying at the research institute for several days, and I just managed to leave a short while ago. I don’t even know how long it’s been since I’ve been home.”

As the water started to boil, he trudged over and poured the hot water into a teacup.

Before the tea had even steeped, Heidel sipped it slowly and made a face as if he were trying to make do.

“When you said you were quitting your position as an imperial wizard, I thought you were crazy. I couldn’t understand how you could give up such an honorable position that you had earned. But these days, I’ve been envious of you.”

He then pointed to the piles of luggage stacked in a corner of the house.

“What’s the use of making a lot of money? What good does it do if people praise you? Ever since I entered the imperial palace, I haven’t even had time to move into a nice house or unpack the moving boxes I brought when I first came to the capital. Even if you have money, if you don’t have time, it’s all useless…”