The White Cat That Swore Vengeance Was Just Lazing on the Dragon King’s Lap - Volume 3 - Chapter SS

Side Story: The Big Bracelet Search

This tale takes place before Ruri was exposed as being a human.

“Ruri, I’m beggin’ you!” pleaded Joshua, his hands clasped together. Why was he doing this? Because he wanted to borrow Ruri’s bracelet. “They’re way too alert and I’m not going to be able to conduct my undercover op. But they’d be totally off guard if I were a cat!”

Joshua was investigating a certain organization, but it wasn’t panning out as planned. Then he remembered Ruri and came up with the idea to go as a cat.

“Hmm. Okay, but...” Ruri hummed. The bracelet was extremely important to her since she was keeping her identity as a human a secret. She was slightly hesitant to lend it out to others.

“Please! Just while you’re working your shift at the diner. I’ll give it right back, honest!”

However, as hesitant as Ruri was, once she was faced with Joshua’s desperate pleas, she folded, replying, “Make sure you give it back. I won’t be able to get into the castle without it.”

“Of course!” Joshua said in delighted relief upon gaining Ruri’s consent.

As such, Joshua walked with Ruri on her way to the diner. Once there, they dipped into an unpopulated back alley. Ruri then had Joshua remove her bracelet so she could turn back into her human form.

After gazing at the bracelet with great interest, Joshua placed it on his own arm. In the blink of an eye, he transformed into an orange tabby.

“Ooh, awesome!” Joshua exclaimed in astonishment as he looked at his own fuzzy body.

“Since I doubt you’ll be able to take it off on your own, let’s meet up here when everything is done.”

“Read ya loud ’n clear. My business is in the confines of the capital, so I’ll be back here by the time you’re off work.”

After seeing Joshua off, Ruri headed into the diner in the town next to the capital and started her shift as normal.

This town was basically a passageway to the capital, meaning there was always a constant string of customers coming in—all of them weary travelers trying to get into the capital proper before the end of the day and looking for a short break. However, Ruri wasn’t imagining things when she noticed there were far more customers today than usual.

“Today feels kind of busier than usual,” Ruri said aloud, catching the ear of the diner owner’s daughter.

“Oh, you don’t know, Ruri? There’s a festival in the capital tomorrow.”

“There’s a festival?”

“Sure is. Since the capital is a port town, they hold a festival every year to pray to the water spirits for safe passage. Today is the pre-festival celebration, so all these people trying to get to the capital before nightfall are passing through here right around now.”

“Oh wow, a festival!” Ruri said, her heart fluttering with the prospect of festival food and other such things.

“You should try going tomorrow yourself.”

“But, I have work here...”

“The capital will be packed with people tomorrow. We’d get no customers anyway if we stayed open, so we’re closing shop the day of.”

“Oh, really?” It had been so long since her last festival that she decided to tell Jade a convincing lie and enjoy herself at this one.

As Ruri struggled to keep up with the dizzying pace of customers flooding into the diner, they eventually got past peak hours.

“Okay, Ruri, you’re good to go today.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

Since Josha was scheduled to come back, Ruri left the diner and heard toward their impromptu rendezvous spot in the back alley. However, Joshua wasn’t there. She figured it wouldn’t be long before he came, but despite waiting for several minutes, Joshua was nowhere to be found. After two whole hours had passed, Ruri found herself miffed. She wanted to give up on him and go back to the castle, but she needed the bracelet to get in.

“God, Joshua! You’re taking forever!” Ruri screamed in frustration, her cries echoing throughout the alley.

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

After borrowing Ruri’s bracelet and turning into a cat, Joshua successfully finished his mission and was en route to the alley where Ruri was waiting. He had walked around the capital enough to practically call it his own backyard, but the change in height made the normal scenery look different.

(Well, this is a pretty cool change of pace. Maybe I should borrow this from Ruri again and take a stroll around the capital,) Joshua thought to himself, positively delighted over his invaluable feline experience.

That was when a crow flapped its wings down to a nearby crate. The black-feathered bird was much bigger than Joshua was currently. He wasn’t particularly bothered by its presence, but once he tried to pass by it, it suddenly let out a loud, ear-splitting caw.

He shivered and threw a wary glance the bird’s way. “The hell’s your deal? Don’t scare me like that.”

Joshua met eyes with the crow. Just one look at that ferocious gaze sent off warning bells in Joshua’s mind.

“Oh boy, I have a bad feeling ’bout this...” Joshua said to himself, as the worst case scenario came to fruition.

The crow kept its intense stare on Joshua as it spread open its wings. With a shrill caw, it swooped straight for him.

“Gah! Yowch! Ow!” Joshua mentally yelled as the bird’s sharp talons scratched at him. Assaulted by the physically larger crow, he was forced to go on the defensive without a moment to strike back for himself.

The crow swiped its talons at Joshua, aiming at his face, but Joshua instinctively lifted up his arm to defend from the attack—the same arm wearing the bracelet. The crow’s talons grazed Joshua’s arm and caught on the bracelet. It then pulled the bracelet completely off.

“Aww crap!” Joshua’s panicked actions had led to the bracelet coming off, and his body reverted back to human form in the blink of an eye.

Shocked to see a cat turning into a human, the crow flew off into the sky—with the bracelet still in its grasp.

“Are you freakin’ serious...?” Joshua said to himself, hopelessly dumbfounded.

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

Ruri wound up waiting for another thirty minutes, irritated to no end. Eventually, Joshua finally showed up in the alley. Although he had a rather awkward look on his face, Ruri was too mad to notice and launched her frustrations at him.

“Joshua, you practically took forever!”

“My bad. I got caught up in some things.”

“I can’t with you!” Ruri exclaimed, but that was when she noticed something. “Hey, Joshua? I’m surprised to see you’re not a cat right now. You managed to get the bracelet off all by yourself?”

“Uh, no, see, about that...” Joshua stammered, acting as if he had something hard to say.

“Hmm?” Ruri tilted her head in confusion.

“...It got taken,” Joshua said in a voice barely above a whisper.

“Huh? What did you just say?”

“Like I said, it got taken. The bracelet, that is.” Joshua said, chuckling in an attempt to diminish the impact of his blunder.

“You... huh?” Ruri paused to process what he said. “You whaaaaat?!” She then rushed over and grabbed him by the lapels. “Explain yourself!”

Joshua clasped his hands together and bowed his head. “I’m real sorry. I got attacked by a crow on my way here and it swiped the bracelet. I tried chasing it down, but I couldn’t find it.”

“Where did it get taken?!”

“A side road in the capital.”

“What am I gonna dooo?! I can’t go back to the castle without that bracelet!”

“I’m really sorry. But just wait here; I swear I’m going to find it.”

“I’m going to look, too!”

Ruri needed to find that bracelet fast or she couldn’t return to the castle. If she couldn’t return, Jade would start to worry. And since she was hiding the fact that she was a human, she was naturally keeping the fact that she was working at the diner a secret as well. She would give the excuse of “going for a walk” whenever she left the castle, so Jade most likely thought she was somewhere on the grounds. If she wasn’t in the castle, it would be a disaster.

“Oh, right. We should be able to find it quick if we get the spirits to help,” Ruri said, thinking that would be a good idea.

However, Joshua stopped her. “You can’t have the spirits help.”

“Why?”

“Just think about it. If you ask the spirits for help, they’ll be moving all over the capital. If that many spirits start swarming all over the place, then residents are gonna report to the castle and it’ll reach His Majesty. Then there’ll be a ton of soldiers investigating all over town, so moving around will be tough. Also, you’re the fastest solution for any issue with spirits, so they’d find out you’re not in the castle as soon as they look for you. Actually, they might end up thinking the spirits are freaking out because something happened to you.”

“That wouldn’t be good... But, a wind spirit should be able to find them without having to actually search, right? There’s no way a crow would be where there’s no wind.” A wind spirit’s power wouldn’t work if they were looking for something in the ocean, but wherever a crow would live, there would have to be air. A crow flying the skies should be even easier for a wind spirit to find.

“I’ve been doing that already. I figured the wind spirits’ power would help me find it right away, but I haven’t been able to spot the crow that ran off with the bracelet.”

“So, we’ll have to find it all on our own? We can’t look for one crow in this big capital like that. Also, we’re looking for a winged target, so it might have flown outside the city.” With their search now impossible, Ruri’s panic started to grow in intensity.

“I’ve got some spirits posted inconspicuously around the capital just to be sure. That’s how I know it’s still within the confines of the city. All we can do now is put in the legwork and search,” said Joshua.

“Let’s get back to the capital quickly, then,” Ruri suggested. It was already past noon. They needed to search before nightfall or else searching for a dark bird in the darkness would be impossible.

Ruri quickly returned to the capital, where droves of people were trying to get in for the pre-festival celebration. The inspection going into town was probably a lot more rigid than usual considering the long line outside of the gates.

Ruri was starting to panic, thinking they would have to wait like everyone else despite their hurry to find the crow. However, Joshua practically ignored the line and marched his way up to the front. He said a few words to the gate sentries and easily gained entrance.

“Are you sure this is okay?” she asked.

“Well, I am a dragonkin that works in the castle. All I have to do is tell them that I’m on a mission.”

The two of them first headed for the spot where the crow snatched the bracelet away.

“This is it?” asked Ruri.

“Yeah, this is where I was robbed.”

It went without saying, but the crow was nowhere to be found.

“Which direction did it fly off to?”

“That way,” Joshua said, pointing. Then the two of them started walking in that direction.

The capital was more bustling than usual—either because of today being the pre-festival vigil or tomorrow being the festival itself. Paper lanterns adorned the main street and food stalls lined the sides as festival fever filled the air. The capital was normally dense with people, but it was especially packed today—a fact that made Ruri’s head spin. It was going to be tough moving around to find the crow. Slipping in between people while looking up to search for signs of it was dangerous, and they kept bumping into people on the way, but complaining about it wasn’t going to help. They felt the pressure to find this bird—fast.

However, after a few minutes of walking around, they couldn’t find neither hide nor hair (nor feather) of it, much less catch it. It was starting to become more and more dark, as well.

“Hnghh~ What’re we going to do, Joshua? It’s starting to get dark.”

“This is really bad. If we can’t find it, then...” Joshua trailed off as the both of them pictured Jade throwing a fit upon finding out Ruri was missing. “Well, this is as good a chance as any to let the cat out of the bag about you being human, am I right?”

“Come on, Joshua!” Ruri scolded, annoyed by his irresponsible and carefree response.

“My bad, my bad. No need to get all sore at me. But, if we can’t find that crow like this, we’ll need to think of something or it’s gonna be bad news,” Joshua said as he looked up.

It was already evening and there wasn’t much time before nightfall. Not only that, but the pre-festival celebrations were about to start, meaning the streets would be packed and it would be even tougher to move around.

Ruri scanned the area until something caught her eye—something that made her stare, befuddled.

“H-Hey, Joshua? You said that a crow carried off the bracelet, right?”

“Yeah, a crow. Why?”

“Because maybe it’s not still a crow...?”

“Huh? Care to explain yourself?”

“Look over there...” Ruri said, pointing over to the roof of a house on the other side of the street. There a lone black cat groomed itself.

“A cat?”

“Look closer. At its hind leg.”

“Hind leg?” Joshua repeated, looking at the cat’s leg to see an all-too-familiar item there. His entire face froze in surprise. “The bracelet...”

“If it’s wearing the bracelet now, it must mean it slipped onto its leg after it took it from you.”

“Aah, of all the lousy—!” Joshua cried, clutching his head. “No wonder the wind spirits couldn’t find the damn thing.”

“So, even crows can turn into a cat?” Ruri murmured to herself, a bit impressed despite the dire situation. However, as she stood there whispering to herself, the cat suddenly started to move off of the roof. “Oh no, it’s going to run away!”

“Let’s get after it!” Joshua prompted.

The two of them dashed through the bustling street in the direction of the cat, avoiding people all the while. However, it took a lot of time to cross the street; by the time they got in front of the house, the cat was already gone.

“We were so close, too,” Ruri lamented.

“It should be nearby, though,” Joshua replied.

“Should we split up and search?” asked Ruri, thinking that would be an effective measure.

“No, that won’t do. There are already so many people here, and quarrels happening all over, so I can’t just leave you by yourself to let something happen.”

“I’ll be fine; I’m not a child.”

“The royal capital is safe, but not always. If the worst were to happen, it’d be my head.”

As discontent as Ruri was about that, they didn’t have the time to keep bickering, so she resumed her search for the cat with Joshua. They searched around for about an hour, but the cat was nowhere to be found.

After running around for hours on end, Ruri, a mere human, was understandably tired. Joshua, being a dragonkin, had plenty of energy to spare, but she was at her limit. She wanted to take a break.

Sensing that Ruri was beat, Joshua stopped in his tracks. “Looks like that’s all we can do for today. I’m guessing people at the castle are realizing you aren’t there by now.” It was already pitch-black around them.

“What should we do, then?” Ruri flusteredly asked, no good ideas coming to mind.

“Why don’t you go to my house for the time being?”

“Huh? Are you sure? But isn’t Claus-san going to be there?”

“Dad is busy with work for the festival, so he shouldn’t be coming home tonight.”

Seeing as how any inn in the capital would be booked up due to the festival, Ruri reluctantly agreed.

Joshua’s house was just as big as she remembered it. Granted, it made perfect sense considering his father served as part of the king’s court.

“Boy, Joshua, you’re kind of a rich kid, huh?”

“Well, I have a big house, but almost all dragonkin hold vital positions for the nation, so I never really felt that way.”

They proceeded inside and were immediately greeted by people who appeared to be maids and butlers.

“Where’s Dad?”

“He is staying the night at the castle.”

Hearing that, Ruri and Joshua looked at each other in relief.

“This girl is my acquaintance. She’ll be staying the night here, so get a room and a meal ready for her.”

“Very well, sir.”

“Please, young miss, right this way.”

Ruri was about to follow the butler as instructed, but Joshua stopped her before she walked off. “You just take it easy here. I’ll go to the castle and make up a convincing lie. I think that’ll buy us at least a day.”

“Okay. Sorry for putting you out like this.”

“I mean, it was all my fault to begin with. Anyway, I’ll be back.”

“Thank you.”

After seeing Joshua off, Ruri ate her meal. Once she finished, she was shown to her room, where she plopped down on the bed and let out a long sigh. Then she called in the spirits she’d kept at bay the whole day.

“Guys, you can come here if you want,” Ruri said, allowing spirits to gather in the room.

“Ruri, can we help too?” The spirits had been away from Ruri the whole day, but they seemed aware of the situation.

“Thank you, but it would cause a scene if you all went searching the town.”

“In that case, you can just ask the wind spirits for help.”

“Oh yeah. Joshua had the wind spirits look thinking it was a crow, but since it was actually a cat, they couldn’t find it. Now that we know it’s a cat, we can have the wind spirits look for it.”

Ruri felt a glimmer of hope. It was an arduous task searching the whole capital just by themselves, but she could probably find it right away if she had the wind spirits lend a helping hand. She felt slightly relieved. Her nerves calmed, and she felt drowsiness start to set in. Deciding not to fight sleep, Ruri retired for the night.

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

The next morning, before the crack of dawn, Joshua woke Ruri up.

“Heeey, Ruri. Rise and shine.”

“Unghh~ Still sleepy...”

“We don’t have time for complaining. We have to hurry and find your bracelet.”

“Oh, right...” Ruri said, reluctantly sitting up while rubbing her tired eyes. After getting herself together and eating breakfast, she left Joshua’s house.

Ruri called out to the wind spirits. “Guys, did you figure out where the cat wearing my bracelet went?”

Several wind spirits filed in and replied, “Yeah. Um, it’s at the harbor right now.”

Ruri and Joshua looked at one another and firmly nodded.

Numerous stalls were set up along the main road leading to the harbor, and people were gathering early. Ruri and Joshua ran down the street as the smell of food wafted through the air. As Ruri peered at the stalls out of the corner of her eye and saw all of the people enjoying the festivities, she naturally started to feel envious.

“I want to enjoy the festival too~ Look at the food stalls~” whined Ruri.

“Now’s not the time,” Joshua reminded. “I’ll take you to the festival once we get the bracelet back.”

“Hmph...” Ruri replied, sad because she had to pass by the festival happening right before her eyes.

Now motivated to catch the cat as fast as possible, she dashed at full speed toward the harbor. Once there, she saw what appeared to be an altar filled with candle stands and offerings. It was probably used to pray to the water spirits.

“So, where’s our cat?” Ruri asked, taking a look around. They were at the world’s most distinguished harbor, so it was extremely wide. They had an unobstructed view.

There were people around, but there were no spirits in sight at the moment, so Ruri couldn’t ask them for help even if she wanted to. However, it actually took less time than expected before the bracelet-wearing cat showed itself.

“Oh, there it is!” Joshua declared as he spotted the black cat wearing the bracelet in between two warehouses on the harbor. He wasted no time in throwing up a big barrier around the sheds so that the cat couldn’t run away. With it in place, the animal had nowhere to go.

“Good thinking, Joshua!”

“I’ll circle around the back. You take the front.”

“Roger that!”

The crow-turned-cat picked up on Ruri’s presence and tried to run in the opposite direction, but Joshua showed himself at the right time, making the cat halt in its tracks. Then Ruri and Joshua slowly started to close in on it. The small gap between the two sheds was only big enough for one person at a time. Unable to cut across, the cat kept its guard up, though it had nowhere left to run.

“Here we go, Ruri.”

“Right.”

“One... two...” both of them chanted in synchronization before pouncing at the cat.

The cat flailed its arms around in desperate resistance, bearing its claws. It was scratching up their arms, but they couldn’t let that deter them.

“Gah, that hurts, you little sonova—”

“Joshua! The bracelet! Take off the bracelet! Oww!”

“Dammit, hold still, will ya?!” Joshua said, grabbing the bracelet and yanking it off in one pull.

As soon as the bracelet smoothly slid off, the “cat” returned to a crow. Now back to its original form, it flapped its feathers and took to the skies, running away from Ruri and Joshua as fast as its wings could take it.

Ruri and Joshua stood there completely exhausted. Ruri had scratch marks all over her arms. However, Joshua, with his sturdy dragonkin body, barely had a blemish on him. Seeing that, Ruri couldn’t help but feel that was unfair.

“Here, Ruri,” Joshua said, returning the bracelet.

Ruri felt relieved now that she had the bracelet back, safe and sound.

“Thank goodness~”

“You said it. This all really had me worried,” Joshua said, relief also showing on his face.

“Alright! Now we can enjoy the festival with peace of mind,” Ruri said.

“Geez, how much does this festival mean to you?”

“Well, I mean, I’ve never been to a festival here before. Plus, hearing the word ‘festival,’ gets the blood flowing, doesn’t it?”

Joshua just smiled wryly, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

“Come on, let’s go, Joshua. You promised to escort me around,” said Ruri, giddy with joy.

“Yes, ma’am. Right away, ma’am,” Joshua said in a reluctant manner as he followed behind her.

The excitement from the pre-festival the night before carried over as the main festival bustled with activity.

Ruri first looked around the stalls in order to enjoy the festival cuisine. As one would expect from a port town, there was no shortage of offerings farmed from the ocean, and plenty of stalls offered grilled seafood. Ruri spotted something that looked similar to squid. In Japanese fashion, she thought it wouldn’t be a festival without grilled squid, so she quickly purchased one for herself. It indeed had the taste and texture of squid from her world. Once she finished with that, she ate a meat skewer and bought a skewer filled with fruit for desert.

This festival was the biggest event in the royal capital, which showed in its robust lineup of stalls. It also catered to all races with a plentiful array of different foods—something you could only expect from a nation composed of so many races and creeds.

As Ruri pondered over her food choices, she started to feel a little full. After dragging Joshua all over the festival, looking at the street performances happening around her, Ruri finally had her fill. She put on her reclaimed bracelet, turned into a cat, and returned to the castle. 

After being away a whole day, Ruri stepped timidly into Jade’s office. Joshua, who was with her, was a tad nervous himself.

“Um, hello, I’m back.”

“Yes, welcome back, Ruri. Did you enjoy the festival?”

“O-Oh, yes. I did.” Ruri had begged and pleaded to enjoy the pre-festival leading into the festival, which was why she had stayed the night at an inn within the capital. At least, that was what Joshua had told Jade and the others.

Jade had seemed suspicious that they managed to book an inn during the height of the festival proceedings, but judging from his obliviousness now, it seemed the lie had convinced him. Ruri looked at Joshua and they both breathed sighs of relief.

“You’re back awfully early. Your first festival and you didn’t stay for the fireworks?” Seeing Ruri’s confused look, Jade asked, “You didn’t know? It’s tradition to end the festival with a large firework display.”

“Oh, I didn’t know. That’s unfortunate.”

“Oh, come to think of it, it does end like that,” said Joshua, seemingly remembering that fact just now.

Ruri wanted to enjoy the festival to its end, but she figured it was already too late to head back. She found herself disappointed about missing the last spectacle.

Jade stood up and suddenly picked Ruri up. “If you’d like to see them, I know just the place,” he said. He proceeded to lead Ruri over to the garden in sector one. The cityscape lay spread below, and the port, where the fireworks would be set off, was in clear view.

Jade pulled his pocket watch from his breast pocket to check the time. “Should be any moment now.” It wasn’t long before a gigantic flower bloomed in the night sky accompanied by a loud bang.

“Wow, there it is, Jade-sama!” Ruri said, naturally delighted.

“Indeed,” Jade replied with a smile as he gazed at the giant burst of light.

Viewing fireworks from above as opposed to normally viewing them from below was a novel change of pace, but it was beautiful in its own right.

The last gigantic firework shimmered brightly in the sky and slowly vanished. The fleetingness made the end of the festival sink in. There was probably a loud chorus of cheers erupting in town right about now. Next year, Ruri definitely wanted to see the show while experiencing the mood of the festival in town.

As if he heard Ruri’s thoughts, Jade said, “Let’s attend the festival together next year.”

“Can we? Aren’t you too busy since you’re king, Jade-sama?” In yearly fashion, Jade was so busy with the various odds and ends surrounding the festival that he had no time to spend enjoying it.

“I’ll manage.”

“Are you sure?”

“I have Claus and Euclase around. It should be no problem if I slip out for a little bit.”

Ruri could picture Euclause sighing at the extra work and Claus racking his head in frustration. Ruri mentally begged for their forgiveness.

Jade added, “Joshua being the only one to enjoy the fun isn’t fair. I want to go around the festival with you, too.” Since Jade didn’t know of the problem haunting Joshua and herself while the festival was going on, he was under the assumption that she was simply having the time of her life together with Joshua. He wanted to festival hop with Ruri too.

Ruri smiled wryly at Jade’s childish pouting. “Well then, I look forward to next year.”

“Yes, I personally can’t wait.”

As she watched the fireworks light up the night sky, Ruri hoped that she could walk around in human form by next year.