After returning Azure to the stables, the two checked up on Lunaris again, then returned to the Libra Palace. There, they found the employees acting strangely.
“His Highness has returned!”
“I better call Mr. Cao quick!”
Overhearing such whispers, Arcrayne and his guards tensed up.
“I shall investigate,” said Neil, who’d accompanied them to the stalls. He went up to a nearby maidservant and asked her what the matter was.
“As it happens, a cat has made its way in...” she began. Apparently, they’d opened a window while cleaning; that was how it had slipped in. “I’m so sorry! It’s too quick and we haven’t been able to catch it...”
“Is that why all of you grown men and women are running about in confusion...?” uttered Arcrayne in exasperation, relaxing his guard.
“Good thing nothing serious happened,” added Neil, tension gone from his face.
“Now, why don’t we go take a look at that nasty cat’s face...?” said Arcrayne, looking in the direction of sounds of a disturbance. He headed there with the rest of his group.
“What did the cat look like?” asked Estelle.
“It was white, with blue eyes,” replied the maidservant stopped by Neil earlier, who’d ended up coming with them given the circumstances. She was ghastly pale—perhaps she was too awed from speaking to Arcrayne.
“Neil, could it be the cat you’ve been feeding in secret?” asked Arcrayne with a glance, making the guard freeze up.
“So you knew...” he replied.
“You’ve been feeding a cat?” Estelle asked him, looking up at Neil on an impulse.
His eyes began to wander awkwardly. “I found it when it strayed into the garden at the end of last year... It was emaciated, so I took pity on it...”
“I overlooked the matter because it’s just a cat. I know you and the cook have been looking after it. I also know you’ve been talking to it using baby words, which is a little creepy.”
“Aaargh, please stop!” cried out Neil as the prince divulged his secrets in a matter-of-fact tone.
“Cats are cute, so anyone would do that,” interceded Estelle on Neil’s behalf.
“Exactly! Cats are cute.” He nodded several times.
“I wish you had told me about it too.” Estelle looked up at Neil reproachfully.
“It was a secret...” replied the guard with a pitiful look on his face.
Suddenly, they saw Haoran running with a basket from across the hallway, accompanied by a maidservant. He seemed to have noticed Arcrayne and his group too. As they approached each other, Estelle noticed a white object inside the basket, and once they were close enough, she could tell it was a cat curled up into a ball.
“Your Highness, you have returned!” exclaimed Haoran. “Please accept my apologies for my current appearance. As a matter of fact, we had a terrible intruder running amok...”
“So I’ve heard,” replied Arcrayne. “Is that our trespasser you have there?”
“Yes, Your Highness. It finally quieted down just moments ago.”
The cat was making itself comfortable in the center of the basket. Just as they’d been told, it had blue eyes. They were beautiful—the light blue color made them look like glass beads.
✦ ✦ ✦
As Arcrayne stared at it, the cat glanced up, then gave a big yawn. Doing things at its own pace was very catlike of it indeed.
“Neil, I get the feeling this cat looks suspiciously like the one you’ve been feeding,” said the prince.
“It probably is, yes...” replied Neil. He was drooping his shoulders—perhaps he felt guilty.
“I’m surprised you managed to catch it, given how much of a racket it seems to have made. Was it you who got it, Haoran?” asked Arcrayne.
“No, Your Highness, nobody really caught it. It ran amok for a while, and before I knew it, it was lying down in this basket. It did not budge even when I lifted the basket.” Haoran directed an amazed look at the cat.
“Um!” began the maidservant who’d been with Haoran. Not only was she terribly pale, but trembling too. “I-I apologize. When I was cleaning the exhibition room, this cat... I-It was me being careless, but... This cat began to run around and...a vase...b-broke...” She began to weep quietly partway through.
“I must apologize for this too, Your Highness,” added Haoran. “A Yang flower vase has broken.”
“Which one?” asked the prince.
“The white porcelain one with grapes and vines painted all over it in blue.”
“Oh, that one...” Arcrayne frowned. After thinking for a short while, he addressed the maidservant. “I’m not going to hold you responsible for it, so no need to cry. Are you hurt?”
“N-No, not at all!” she replied.
“Good. I want to see the situation myself, so can you take me to the exhibition room?”
With the prince smiling at her, the maidservant’s eyes widened and her cheeks flushed.
“R-Right this way,” she said.
“One moment, Your Highness. What should I do about this heinous criminal?” asked Haoran.
“You can let it go.”
“Understood. I shall let it outside. Though I suspect it might return in the future...”
Haoran directed a chilly look at Neil. He seemed to know the guard’s secret too.
“If it keeps coming to the garden, why not keep it at the palace officially?” suggested Estelle.
“Let me think about it...” uttered Arcrayne, his face somewhat sullen. He watched Haoran leave with the cat in the basket.
Maybe he’s not an animal person? wondered Estelle. But then why was he so fond of Azure? Were horses an exception?
She tilted her head in puzzlement.
✦ ✦ ✦
The exhibition room was like a museum decorated with works of art in Arcrayne’s possession.
As the maidservant led Arcrayne inside, he saw the broken flower vase on the floor.
“Well this is broken quite badly...” he said, kneeling and reaching out to pick up a shard.
“Your Highness, you might injure yourself. Please leave the cleanup to us,” Neil stopped him quickly.
“Don’t throw it out, even the smallest shards. The Yang Empire has a way of repairing these, if memory serves.”
“It can be repaired?” asked Estelle, prompting a smile from the prince.
“I don’t know, but no harm in trying.”
“I’m so sorry...” uttered the maidservant. It was painful to see how badly she was shrinking.
“Don’t worry about it; I wasn’t all that attached to this vase. I feel like I bought it out of obligation at some point.”
Judging by how he appeared to be thinking hard about the matter, the vase didn’t seem to have been important after all.
Apparently this room was filled with things Arcrayne had bought, inherited from his parents, or had presented to him by nobles, foreign ambassadors, and the like.
Suddenly, a cameo brooch displayed in a glass case caught Estelle’s eye. It had the letter M engraved into its white rose. The brooch was so beautiful that it was clear at a glance it had been made by a skilled artisan.
Was it there before...? wondered Estelle. She didn’t remember seeing it when Arcrayne had shown her around back when she’d moved to the Libra Palace.
“Lord Arc, this cameo was not there before, was it?”
“Oh, this was found among my mother’s things when I had a room prepared for you.”
That explained why it hadn’t been here before.
“Mother wore it often, but I thought you might not find it easy to wear since it has an initial. That’s why I put it there. Still, if you like it, you can have it.”
“Um... It is not that I like it or not—there is just something that bothers me...” Stopping there, Estelle neared Arcrayne and whispered in his ear. “I see mana in it. It might be no ordinary brooch.”
Estelle whispered so that only the prince could hear because a maidservant was present, and she hadn’t been told about Estelle’s power.
Arcrayne opened his eyes wide.