Intermission: International Cat Day: A Follow-Up, Follow-Up
ALYSSA let Amy into the Third Prince’s private quarters. Amy stood idly a few steps away from the door, looking around awkwardly.
“Lady Amy, His Highness will return shortly, so please feel free to take a seat as you wait.”
“Oh, right…” said Amy, but she remained standing where she was.
Amy had officially become Edward’s fiancée, and he had asked her to stop by his quarters when she came to the royal riding grounds.
Today was the first day she had visited his private quarters, and it seemed as if they had just missed each other. Her hesitation to sit in his room without him present may have just been a lingering feeling of politeness from her previous life, but she did certainly feel awkward.
This is Ed’s room…
It was the first time she had ever been in the room of a boy her age, throughout both of her lifetimes.
With it being the royal palace, maids like Alyssa would naturally be stationed in the room as well, but the only other boy’s room she had been in was Harold’s, so Amy was understandably on edge.
Furniture that looked very old and historic were arranged throughout the huge room, and the walls were decorated with beautiful landscape and historically themed paintings. Amy decided to look at them while she waited.
Starting at one end of the room, she slowly went down, looking at each painting, until she reached the area closest to Edward’s desk. He had told her that he didn’t have a lot of administrative duties yet, but that desk was probably where he wrote inspection write-ups, reports on his magical tools research, and letters to Amy…
Edward’s ink and pen were arranged neatly beside each other, and there were two rectangular objects decorating the desk, propped up like pictures.
Amy gasped.
“Lady Amy? Did something happen?”
“N-No, Alyssa, it’s nothing!”
The rectangle that caught her eye was a small painting of a dog that looked like a slightly lop-eared shepherd. From the dog’s features, Amy could tell it was probably the dog Edward had when he was quite young.
That painting was great—perfectly fine.
It was the other painting next to it that was the problem.
It was a painting of cats… Edward loved animals, so it wasn’t exactly strange that he’d have a painting of a dog as well as a painting of a cat close at hand.
But one of the cats inspired a severe sense of déjà vu in Amy…
Wait… No… Wait, what?!
A chubby, black cat with a red ribbon around its neck was comfortably lying down on a pillow. Gold peeked out from the cat’s blearily opened eyes. The way they were sleepily rubbing them with their front paw was incredibly cute.
A beautiful brownish-gold cat was nestled closely beside the black cat, standing straight and looking down at them. This cat had a silver handkerchief tied around its neck, the same color as its eyes.
Amy suddenly had a flashback to that Cat Day at Alexander’s house, when the Duchess of Coverdale had dressed them in those cat costumes…
I…I’m imagining things…right?
But then, Edward and Alexander had worn cat ears that were the same color as their hair on that day…
Yes, those brownish-gold ears…
Even though the painting was indisputably of cats, the gold one vividly reminded her of Edward… It goes without saying that Amy saw herself in the black one.
“Oh, Amy! You came.”
“E-Ed?!” Amy yelped.
Amy held both hands over her mouth to prevent a strange sound from escaping it as Edward walked into the room.
“I’m really sorry. I was suddenly called away. You could have sat down while you waited, you know.”
“I-It’s fine… I was just looking at the paintings, and, u-uh…”
Amy was acting a little suspiciously and pointing her finger at something on his desk.
“Hm? Oh…that painting,” he said when it came into view. His smile widened. “Cute, isn’t it? I had the painter Alec’s family hires paint it for me.”
“Th-The one Alec’s family hires…?!”
That means it’s really…!
Amy’s head was on the verge of spinning, but Edward looked at her and the painting with unfiltered adoration.
“I’m very productive with my writing when I work here.”
“Y-You should…put it away…” Amy stammered, reaching for the painting.
“I can’t,” he said with a smile, closing his hand around her outstretched one.
Amy, already red and teary-eyed, could for a few moments only open and close her mouth soundlessly.
“B-But—”
“They’re just cats, right?”
“…Yeow…”
In Amy’s flustered state, her response accidentally came out more like a cat’s meow than the “yeah” she had intended.
Edward stammered, unable to speak.
Th-That’s not fair! he thought, flushing bright red himself and looking at the ground, only making Amy even more flustered.