Cat K | Chapter 7

Mmmmh—

I stretched out my body to its full length. Rather than being annoyed that I had fallen out of sleep, I felt like my body would melt, dripping like wax. Leaning back my head, I looked up. The calm golden eyes looking at me curved slightly. That was Sugar Prince’s own, shy way of a morning greeting I returned the greeting by opening my mouth in a yawn in his direction.

I was wide awake, but I didn’t want to budge from this spot. Stretching out my body, I enjoyed the brush of Sugar Prince’s hand.

Sugar Prince’s hand was so large that he had to use a single finger to pet my head. It was an inexpressibly pleasant sensation when he started at the bridge of my nose and slowly made his way to the scruff of my neck with a single stroke of his finger. He had first petted my head with his entire hand, but with that, there was the inconvenience of having to fold back my ears every time his hand came down. The first couple times, I let this go, but eventually I batted his hand away when he tried again. At that, he understood and made sure to use his finger to stroke my head.

After stroking my head for awhile, he started stroking my body.

He didn’t need to move his hand very much to pet my entire body. After making his way from the my neck to the base of my tail, he needed to lift off his hand for a moment, and I really detested that brief moment his hand wasn’t on me. It wasn’t very long, maybe 1 or 2 seconds, but I hated it nonetheless. But there was nothing I could do about that, since he couldn’t just brush my fur backwards to go back to the starting point. That would make a mess out of my extreme gloss, super-luxurious, masterpiece pelt.

After stroking my body for a long time, too, Sugar Prince began to timidly have his way with me. With his finger he would gently touch my ears or feel my whiskers. To be frank, I didn’t like it that much. But, knowing it was Sugar Prince’s fingers, I was generous and tolerated it. Of course, if he did it too much, I would flick his fingers with the tip of my tail. If I did that, Sugar Prince would draw back his hand without any complaints.

During Sugar Prince’s morning petting, there was something unbearable, but it was something quite strange.

There were times Sugar Prince’s fingers would brush the place my tail was attached at my rear end. Whenever this happened, a thrilling shock of electricity would run up my spine. I didn’t want to react to this sensation, but my body wouldn’t listen to my brain. My whole body would wriggle, and I would helplessly become intoxicated by that fuzzy, pleasant sensation. Half of me wanted to tell him to stop, but the other half wanted him to continue.

Like that my morning petting would end, and, unsatisfied, I would get  up from the bed. Ah, and when I say bed, I mean Sugar Prince’s chest.

Sugar Prince’s chest was so wide that I could sprawl and roll around all over it. I concluded his chest was equivalent to a queen size bed and used it every night.

Of course, it wasn’t because I had no other place to sleep.

Sugar Prince’s maids seemed to have great fun in presenting me with gifts. Because of this, I had several handmade cushions as presents from the maids. The cushions were very high-class and comfortable, so I did use them fairly often. But at night, I returned to Sugar Prince’s chest bed without fail when I went to sleep. The maid’s thought this was because their cushions were sub-par and stamped their feet at this idea. With the hopes that I would definitely use their cushion that night, they upgraded my cushion. No matter how comfy or luxurious the cushion looked, I had no plans of giving up Sugar Prince’s chest bed, but I would rather not tell the maids that. An upgrade was an upgrade.

Anywho, unsatisfied, I stepped off from Sugar Prince’s chest, and my morning routine began.

The maids came in with a gleaming washbasin.

As Sugar Prince was waited on by the maids, washing his face and brushing his teeth, I did the same beside him. My personal maid Julia wiped clean my eyes and mouth with her hands wet with water. Sometimes some shameful eye gunk gets on Julia’s fingers, but I pretend I don’t notice. After washing my face, Julia presented me with a green lump. Once I chew on the fragrant grasses and spit it back out, my teeth-brushing is done.

After washing up, Sugar Prince got dressed. I sat on my exclusive grooming chair and, instead of putting on clothes, got brushed. Being brushed so sincerely, I wanted to flop down and sprawl relaxedly, but I made a steady effort to overcome my instincts. If I, after merely one stroke of the brush, lied down, my reputation I had worked so hard to build up so far would be immediately destroyed.

All dressed, Sugar Prince looked extremely cool. I’m not saying this because he’s my owner; he’s quite decent. Seeing him all dressed up handsomely, for some reason I felt proud. I then lifted up my chin and went to stand at his side. I looked towards the maids and manservants, bragging to them silently.

Cool, right? This guy’s my Sugar Prince.

As we left the chambers, I walked right at Sugar Prince’s side.

Holding up my chin and with a dignified gaze, people from both sides bowed as we walked past. Sugar Prince probably couldn’t see from where he was, but I could see the faces of the bowed-down people clearly. While they waited for Sugar Prince to walk past, sometimes their gazes met mine. Without much effort, I could tell that the humans’ gazes lingered on my neck. It was understandable. Because a gigantic ruby was hung around my neck. As it was a an imperial item, there wouldn’t be a human who would carelessly touch or steal it, but I was always prepared to make rags of any thief’s face.

Anyhow, I was slowly getting sick of even this collar. No matter how precious or expensive it was, to wear the same collar every single day was tasteless. Furthermore, I didn’t wear clothes, so this collar I wore was all I had as an expression of fashion.

I quickly glanced at Sugar Prince walking beside me.

Even though he did put this collar on me, it seemed he thought his job was done. Apparently, he didn’t know that cats had their own fashion too. If I buried this collar in my secret storage, he would no doubt give me a new one…but that wasn’t so easy. Simon watched me with crazed eyes, waiting for his chance to skin me, and if some problem appeared, my position would be put in danger. I felt like laying low and properly demanding one from Sugar Prince would be the best thing to do.

We entered the dining hall, and the delicious smell stimulated my appetite. My stomach rumbled, asking for food, but I didn’t let it show outwardly. With refined and elegant steps, I got up onto my own private chair.

My seat was right next to Sugar Prince. It was actually proper to be seated at the opposite ends of the long dining table, but I liked to sit next to Sugar Prince. It was so I could be served by Sugar Prince. There were actually servants to serve the meals, but I had no intentions of letting just any man I didn’t know touch my food. Because I am precious.

I lapped up the warm soup that had been cooled just enough, and Sugar Prince cut up my meat. I was touched by how my thoughtful Sugar Prince cut it into exactly bite-sized pieces. I first started chewing on the smallest piece. After about three chews, I got an idea of it. Hm. It was decently cooked today. It passes. Yesterday, the meat had been too well done, and, in my rage, I had sent the dish flying with my front paw. Today, the chef seemed to have taken an extra level of care.

Enthusiastically chewing the meat, I suddenly thought of my home..

At every meal, meats from the ground, sea, and sky* were placed before me. It was a great tragedy if one among those three was missing. If I didn’t eat exactly the right portion, I threw a fit like I would die. Sitting on both sides of me, my mother and grandmother would take turns in taking the meat off the bones and feeding me the meat or fish with their spoons, and the battle was fearsome when one of them tried to have me eat more from them. In order to decrease the conflict between mother in law and daughter in law, I could only be as fair as possible and keep the exact same order, one bite of meat, then one bite of fish. Even if, one day, I wanted to just eat meat or fish, I had to bear with it. Otherwise either my mother or grandmother would be heartbroken, wiping their tears on the hem of their sleeve.

My stomach comfortably full, I called to Sugar Prince, Nyaaong— Looking at Sugar Prince, I tapped my tail on the chair. At that, Sugar Prince cleared away my plate of meat and placed my water dish before me. The manservant who had previously received several blows from my paws wisely stood aside. I wouldn’t trust my water dish to any strange man I didn’t know.

Sugar Prince must have finished his meal, wiping his mouth. I leapt down from my chair and called for him to hurry, Yaaong. He needed to head to work. If it was up to me, I would have liked to laze around all day with him stroking my back. But, alas, one needed to work in order to eat.

 

*     basically referring to all 3 “kinds” of meat, mammal meat like pork or beef, fish/seafood, and poultry

 

I hope everyone is enjoying the story so far and is in the mood for posting more comments for me to read! I might even reply with small spoilers… Anyways, thanks for waiting, and a big THANK YOU to Christya for the coffees! If you want, you can always hop by via discord or Novel Updates to check up on me!

I’m still looking for an editor, so if you can fix weird grammar and choose between synonyms and are interested at all, don’t be afraid to contact me!