The White Cat That Swore Vengeance Was Just Lazing on the Dragon King’s Lap - Volume 4 - Chapter 7

Chapter 7: The Misunderstanding

After her bath and beauty treatment, which greatly satisfied her mind and body, Ruri returned to her room with a glut of people trailing behind her. Chi headed out with the other spirits to go explore the castle, but Kotaro and Rin stayed by her side.

As she strolled down the hallway, she saw several women walking over from the opposite side. Two of the women clearly led the pack. They were dressed in extremely revealing clothes and decked out in lavish jewelry. Several other women followed behind them, one of which seemed to be carrying a pail of some kind.

Ruri wasn’t paying them much mind, but the two ladies in front glared at her for a second. Ruri’s eyes sprang open in confusion, but since she wasn’t familiar with either woman, she let it drop. However, out of the corner of her eye, she saw the woman with the pail hand it over to one of the lavishly dressed women.

As she went to pass by the group, one of the women quickly stuck out her leg. “Whoa!” Ruri exclaimed, the action happening too fast for her to dodge. She tripped and lurched forward. Convinced she was going to fall, she braced for the imminent pain of hitting the floor, but Kotaro’s winds softly dropped her to the ground instead.

Ruri’s relief was short-lived, however, as a massive amount of water came pouring down on her from overhead. It wasn’t just any water either—it was dirty water that emanated an intensely foul odor. Fortunately, Kotaro’s barrier was still in place around her, assuring that not even one drop touched Ruri’s body. Even so, an assaulting odor wafted through the air as the dirty water formed puddles around her.

The woman discarded the now empty pail where she stood. It hit the ground with a set of hollow clunks that echoed through the hallway.

Ruri was dumbfounded as to what just happened. That was when she heard the woman’s shrill laugh from overhead.

“Oh dear, pardon me. It seems my hand slipped.” The woman sneered spitefully at Ruri from above, denoting that this was not a mere accident but an intentional act of ill will. “Still, lying there in such a pathetic stupor suits you quite well.”

“Excuse me? Who are you?” Ruri asked, glaring up at them.

“Oh, how scary,” the woman replied in a contrived manner.

The woman’s attitude was doing an excellent job of pushing Ruri’s buttons. This was the first time she’d met any of them, so there was absolutely no reason for them to treat her this way.

“What’s the big idea out of nowhere?” she asked.

“We’re simply teaching the newcomer to learn her place on the pecking order,” replied the woman. “You must come from a rather exalted family in the Nation of the Dragon King to become the king’s bride, but don’t get too ahead of yourself. Your family’s status doesn’t mean a thing here. What’s important is how capable you are of winning His Majesty’s affection.”

The other woman added, “If you think that someone as scrawny as yourself could ever serve by His Majesty’s side, then you are sorely mistaken. His Majesty prefers more voluptuous bodies like ours.”

“Uh, what?” Ruri hadn’t the foggiest idea what she meant. She assumed that “His Majesty” referred to the Beast King, but she couldn’t figure out what his preferences had to do with herself. Also, it was surprising to see them accost a Beloved, especially since the people of the Nation of the Beast King were supposed to be oh-so devoted to the spirits.

Ruri’s attendants standing behind her all went pale, paralyzed from witnessing the situation. Joshua and the other dragonkin also remained frozen, too afraid from Kotaro and Rin’s display of anger to act without prudence. Ruri was unscathed thanks to Kotaro’s assistance, but the mere act of trying to inflict harm on Ruri was enough to earn Kotaro’s ire. The stare he delivered to the group of women was harsh and brutal.

“What’s going on here?” asked a voice from farther down the hall, grabbing everyone’s attention. When they looked, there stood Arman, an expression of bewilderment on his face.

Arman’s gaze wandered over everyone standing petrified, fell to Ruri on the ground, and then stopped at the two women standing in front of her. He fired a sharp glare their way.

Rin flapped her tiny wings over to the Beast King, addressing him. “Hey, Beast King. Is this how you educate the people in your castle? Throwing dirty water over the head of a Beloved after they tried to trip her? All right in front of us? Are they trying to pick a fight? Because I’ll give it to them ten times what they’re dishing out.”

“Ten times isn’t good enough. Make it a hundred,” said Kotaro.

“Can we go get them?”

Arman grimaced as the two spirits readied themselves to strike at any moment. “I see. You have my apologies. I assure you that I’ll handle this matter.” He looked over to the two women who were baselessly attacking Ruri. Both his look and his tone were reproachful as he said, “Explain yourselves, the both of you.”

The two women flinched momentarily, but they quickly curled their lips into a flirtatious pair of smiles and approached Arman. “Oh my, Your Majesty, explain what?”

“What were you both doing? And by that, I mean, what were you doing to the young lady over there?”

“There were rumors among the harem that you summoned a new bride from the Nation of the Dragon King. We were just giving our romantic rival a bit of a warning; that’s all,” said the first woman.

“But never mind that, Your Majesty. I’d like it ever so much if you were to stop by my room today,” said the other woman in a coquettish voice as she tried to cuddle her voluptuous body against Arman.

Arman shook off her advances. “A new bride? What are either of you talking about?”

“Oh dear, why might you be so upset? You never try to interject when the queens normally quarrel.”

“Does she suit your fancy that much?”

The two women glared straight at Ruri. Their pensive faces, altogether different from how they greeted Arman, made Ruri wince in surprise.

“Do either of you know what it is you’ve done?” Arman asked, giving both ladies a stern look.

“Why, what do you mean?”

“She isn’t a new bride; she’s the Beloved of the Nation of the Dragon King, under our care by request of the Dragon King himself. So, I ask again, do either of you know what it is you’ve done to a Beloved of the spirits?”

The ladies didn’t understand what Arman was saying at first as they stared at him with blank looks, but they gradually wrapped their heads around his words. They looked at Ruri, then at Arman, and then back at Ruri again. Their faces drained of all color and their lips trembled as the realization finally set in.

“Wait... That can’t be...”

“A Beloved? This whelp...err, I mean, woman?”

“That’s right. She is a Beloved, just like Celestine.”

The two ladies appeared to be scared—terrified, in fact—as they gasped and immediately dropped to their hands and knees, prostrating themselves before Ruri.

“O-O-Our humblest apologies!”

“Please, forgive us, milady!”

The two of them apologized profusely, practically rubbing their foreheads against the floor as they quaked in their shoes.

Arman looked down at them with a piercing gaze. “Do you think you can just apologize for trying to harm a Beloved? You’d both best prepare to face a suitable punishment to quell the spirits’ rage.” Both of them yelped in fear, bowing their heads and pleading with Arman, but he simply looked at Ruri and heartlessly asked, “Ruri, what do you want to do?”

Ruri found it difficult to speak up right away. “By that you mean...?”

“Dealing with these two. Since they’ve assaulted a Beloved, I think torturing them, lopping off their heads, and sticking them on pikes near the castle gates would be a proper punishment, but...”

Ruri’s eyes widened in shock once she heard Arman call that a “proper” punishment. “No, no, no! That’s way overboard for just tripping me and splashing some water on me! Not only that, but they didn’t even succeed. If they just apologize and swear never to do it again, I think that will—”

Before she could finish her sentence, Arman interrupted her. “No, we can’t do that. Even if it was a misunderstanding, they assaulted a Beloved. If I didn’t punish them at all, then it would set a bad example for anyone else. I told you that we’re a devout nation, didn’t I? Anyone who tries to inflict harm on a Beloved becomes an enemy in the eyes of everyone in the nation. If they were to get off scot-free, it would incite riots.”

“In that case, please give them a more moderate punishment—one less bloody, okay?” Knowing that heads would fly over something so insignificant wouldn’t sit well with Ruri’s mental health. She had been in such a good mood after taking a dip in the springs that it was a shame that nothing she did now could keep her mood from plummeting into the ground.

“Moderate, eh? That isn’t going to be easy. Hmm, I know. You’re both banished from the castle. I can’t very well have you sitting as my ‘queens’ when you’d lay hands on a Beloved.”

Both ladies slumped their shoulders in disappointment, but it was better than losing their heads.

“And the both of you will be offered to Kahste and Dobza instead. And divorce will not be an option.”

The moment those names were mentioned, not only did the pair of women gasp and go deathly pale, but so did all of Ruri’s attendants.

Noticing that something in the air had changed, Ruri looked around at everyone’s faces. The people of the Nation of the Dragon King seemed to be just as clueless as Ruri was, but they could figure out that neither person mentioned was good news based on the atmosphere.

Once they heard they were being given away, the pair clung to Arman.

“No, please! Anything but that! Please, send us to anybody aside from them!”

“We don’t want to go there! Please!”

Arman looked down at the two women pleading on top of one another with a cold stare as he apathetically continued, “Then, should I throw you both out into town? You’re major criminals now that you’ve attacked a Beloved. Once all the believers in town eventually catch word of what you’ve done, they’ll surely punish you—likely ripping you both limb from limb.”

Ruri thought that Arman was being far too severe over something that left Ruri unscathed, but to the people of the Nation of the Beast King, it wasn’t severe enough. A huge number of citizens saw spirits as religious figures and were extremely devout, meaning their respect and adoration for the spirits and Beloveds was immense. Anyone harming a Beloved was practically a disaster to them. It was an act equal to treason, and anyone playing a part in it would be considered a major criminal—an enemy to the people. That meant that even if they acted on another nation’s Beloved or the plot ended in failure, a pack of devout followers would literally tear them apart.

“Eek!” they yelped.

“Choose,” Arman demanded.

Their lives were clearly more important. Neither even needed time to think as they both quickly accepted their fates.

“As you command, Sire,” they said, bowing.

Ruri was curious as to why the two people mentioned were so disliked. She whispered to a nearby caretaker, “Hey, so what are these people like if they’re disliked that much?”

The caretaker whispered back an explanation. “Well, Master Kahste and Master Dobza are both nobles who serve the castle, but...” She hesitated a moment. “Master Kahste is what you would call a ‘mama’s boy’ and does whatever his mother tells him. And his mother is quite a nasty...erm, strict individual. She nitpicks and heckles into submission any bride that comes her son’s way, so his divorces range into the double digits. Once she finds out that the new bride bestowed to her son caused harm to a Beloved, she will inevitably bully them until their dying days. Since Master Kahste is completely loyal to his mother, he would likely come defending her rather than his own wife.”

“Yeesh, he sounds terrible.”

“Master Dobza, simply put, is a miserly individual, extraordinarily obsessed with saving money. He scrimps and saves everything in spite of being a nobleman. Due to his hyperfixation on saving, he leads a life more destitute than even the most common of commoners. I believe it would take a huge toll on someone coming from the lap of luxury as one of the king’s queens.”

“They are the two people that absolutely no one who works in the castle wishes to marry,” added another of the women.

The caretaker women clamored in agreeance, none of them sparing any sympathy for the two women slated to marry such husbands. No one seemed to consider this punishment for simply tripping someone too extreme.

“However, I’d say they’re quite lucky that this is their only punishment for harming a Beloved.”

“Yes, I quite agree.”

“Boy, not even a day in without a mess on our hands,” said Ewan as he walked closer to Ruri.

Ruri just stared at him in the face.

“What?” he asked.

“Well, I was just thinking that I’m glad you’re not from the Nation of the Beast King, Ewan.”

“Where’s this coming from?”

“Well, I mean, in this nation, heads fly if I so much as trip over someone. If this were you, you’d have lost your head—three times, might I add.”

Ewan paused. “Yeah, maybe so,” he said with a mortified look, nervously rubbing at his neck.

They were friends now, but Ewan used to snap and hurl all sorts of abuse at Ruri when they first met. If he acted out in such a way in the Nation of the Beast King, he most likely wouldn’t walk away with a slap on the wrist. Even if Ruri’s tolerance excluded him from being punished, there was always the possibility of a spirit-faithful person assassinating him. In terms of Ruri’s mental health and Ewan’s well-being, it was probably for the best that they lived in the peaceful Nation of the Dragon King instead.