“But, you’d just come to my room and then leave,” Nina described. “How’d you run into my mom?”
“I was waiting in your room like usual, but you never showed. I had a bad feeling. I opened the door to your room and looked out, which is when she saw me.”
All right. So that was when Aida found him and knew he wasn’t a typical cat.
“Your mother was worried about you. She asked me to tell you it was okay not to work so hard all the time,” he relayed.
Aida was so concerned about Nina that she would say something like that to a cat that wasn’t a cat that came out of Nina’s room. She felt happy at that. And embarrassed. And like there was a warmth deep in her heart.
“Then I promised your mother that I wouldn’t let you be alone, that I would treasure you.”
“Why?!” The story had been heartwarming until it took a far too sudden turn. “What would my mom even say to that?! Hearing something like that from a cat-human she only met for the first time!”
“She asked me to.”
“But why?!” Nina was terrified by Aida’s flexibility in adapting to the situation and quick decision-making to the point where she asked a person who looked like a cat to watch over her daughter.
“Your mother told me you hadn’t returned home yet even though you didn’t have work that evening. I checked with Dino, then went to the academy,” explained Edmund.
So that was how it happened. She felt like she should have put two and two together sooner, considering she’d already thought about how Aida was the only person who knew when she was supposed to be home or at work.
“I am grateful to you for saving me from the shed,” Nina slowly began, “but that has nothing to do with this. My mom must have been thrown for a loop; she can’t seriously have believed a cat was…”
Her voice trailed off as something Aida said flitted through the back of her mind: “Nina, your mother has a prediction for you. You’re going to meet an absolutely wonderful young man who will treasure you.”
Maybe…just maybe, she was talking about Edmund then?
Considering Aida was no less a cat lover than Nina was, she definitely would have had a positive first impression of someone who could take the form of such a beautiful cat.
“B-But you can’t turn into a cat anymore!” argued Nina.
“Would you let me be with you if I could?” asked Edmund.
“Uh…” Ed in white-cat form was far too fluffy and tempting to give an outright no to.
Edmund smiled weakly, seeing Nina falter. “Unfortunately, I can’t turn into a cat anymore. Please accept this as a substitute.” He took her hand and placed it on his head.
“It’s impossible to describe what cat-Ed’s fur felt…” Nina faltered. Her hand touched Edmund’s silver hair, sparkling in the sunlight. It wasn’t quite the same as a cat’s floof, but its firm feel was silky to the touch, which…
“You don’t seem to dislike that,” Edmund lightly joked, snapping Nina back as she started obsessively stroking his hair. She jerked her hand away, and he continued, “I’m going to keep my promise to your mother. I won’t let you be alone.”
“And that’s why you want to ask me to ma…marry… Ugh, you don’t have to go that far, do you? We could just be regular friends. But it’d be kinda weird for people from such different social classes to be friends.” There was usually no way a commoner and the son of a duke would even meet.
“If we were only friends,” argued Edmund, “then someone else might steal you away.”
“No one’s gonna steal me away; no one’s ever stolen me!” she protested, quickly regretting saying something so embarrassing.
“Does that mean I’d be your first?”
“Don’t say it that way! It just sounds wrong when you say it that way! And everything’s out of order!” It was true that Nina had never had a boyfriend before, but she was pretty sure that wasn’t the right way to say that.
Edmund didn’t seem to think he needed to change that, however. He actually looked like he had an idea. “I see… You would prefer if we follow the standard order for these things?”
“No, that’s not, it’s not really what I mean…” She felt like they’d been talking past each other for a while now. What could she say to make him understand?
“I suppose first is this then: Nina, will you be my girlfriend?” he asked.
“Aren’t you supposed to start with being friends?”
“We have essentially been friends this whole time. I think it’s okay to skip that step.”
He held out his hand, a serious look on his face, causing Nina’s mind to whirl. Why was she so uncertain? It wasn’t like she didn’t like him. “Uh, how about we put the brakes on things a little and just be really good friends…?” She placed her hand on his, then he placed his other hand on top of those and gently squeezed. His cool hands felt nice against hers, which were burning hot.
“…It seems I have no choice but to compromise,” he exhaled. “All right, so the proposal is we be more than just friends, but not quite boyfriend and girlfriend?”
“That’s not quite what…” she started, but Edmund grabbed her left hand and pressed his lips against the back of it. “Too fast! Everything’s moving too fast! We’re friends!”
She jerked her hand back, and Edmund shrugged in exasperation. “What is the issue after all this time? You have taken a good look between my legs, after all,” he reminded.
“Huh?” Now that he said it, she remembered she did look down there when he was a cat to confirm his sex. But that was a cat. That cat was Edmund…meaning what she looked at was Edmund’s… “No, b-but, that was a cat! A cat!” she shrieked.
“That was my first time experiencing such a forceful attempt to examine me. You are bold, Nina. And you’ve kissed my ear, and we have already slept together.”
“Don’t say it like that! You keep saying things, and they sound wrong the way you say them!”
He made it sound like Nina looked between Edmund’s legs even though he didn’t want it, kissed his ear, and shared a bed with him.
Which was all true. But it wasn’t the truth. They were all horrible accusations.
Edmund watched Nina turn bright red with annoyance and sighed. “Please accept the fact that I have no intention of giving up on you.”
Having that beautiful, seductive smile turned her way left her stumbling to get any words out. “…Is this…some sort of raffle, too?” If not, there was no way a duke’s son should be saying these things to a commoner.
“It is,” he responded.
A feeling of relief washed over her, but at the same time, her heart ached.
Why? Why did it hurt like that? Maybe she was tired from Edmund saying all these weird things to her.
“The heroine is you, Nina,” he continued, Nina nodding along. “The employer is me. The contract length is the rest of our lives. The contract conditions are to live happily ever after… Do you have any objections to these terms?”
Nina froze, no longer nodding. “That’s basically…”
“Nina, will you marry me?” he proposed with a huge grin, and Nina sighed.
“If there’s a provisional contract, and I can check the details of the contract and employee benefits, then…I’ll consider it.”
Edmund laughed. She’d said something similar to him once before. That laugh made her smile too.
“Very well,” he complied. “We’ve established a provisional contract. I look forward to working with you more, Nina, a heroine for no one but me.”