The White Cat That Swore Vengeance Was Just Lazing on the Dragon King’s Lap - Volume 5 - Chapter 24

Chapter 24: Seraphie

The case was technically closed, but instead of going straight back to the castle, they all decided to go inside the house and talk. Jade had many questions he wanted to ask—mainly about Spirit Slayer.

While Ruri prepared tea for everyone, so that they could relax while talking, Jade listened to what Quartz had to say.

“Is that so? You simply passed on the magic to Nadasha and the Church of God’s Light?” asked Jade.

“Yes. I had absolutely nothing to do with the war they incited or that assassination plot. I did teach them the magic, but I had very little to do with them thereafter. I would only check on their research from time to time, but they weren’t producing anything greater than what I gave them initially, so I left them be for a few years. When I came back to the Nation of the Dragon King, I was surprised to hear that they were the instigators of such a huge incident.”

“I am relieved to hear that you were not involved in anything. However, Spirit Slayer is forbidden magic, and teaching it to others arbitrarily is impermissible conduct.”

“I’m well aware. I’ll accept my punishment,” Quartz said, comfortable with that fact.

The Spirit of Light, on the other hand, furrowed her brow. “Wait, I’m also responsible for not stopping the Spirit Slayer magic even though I knew it was harmful to spirits everywhere. Isn’t that right, Darkness?”

“Yes, indeed it is,” the Spirit of Darkness replied. He too was also responsible for allowing Yadacain’s queen to continue her research.

“If you’re going to pin the blame on Quartz, then Darkness and I need to be punished as well.”

“U-Um, no, but...” Jade stammered.

The Spirit of Light was demanding to be punished if Quartz was, but not even a Dragon King could ever punish a spirit. If he tried, every nation in the world would be at his throat. The Nation of the Beast King would be especially opposed given that all their people were very spirit-religious. The Spirit of Light would not sit idly by if Jade only punished Quartz. At the same time, Jade couldn’t let Quartz go scot-free just because he couldn’t punish the Spirit of Light.

Seeing as how the incident with Nadasha had harmed Ruri the most, the punishment was up to her discretion. But the real issue here was that Quartz had taught the Church of God’s Light the Spirit Slayer magic. That entire incident had started because of that, and the results had involved the Nation of the Beast King as well. To make matters worse, Celestine had been assaulted by the tools Quartz had given them. The Nation of the Beast King wouldn’t stand for it if Jade were to completely pardon Quartz.

Actually, since the Spirit of Light was adamantly defending Quartz, and since the nation was so spirit-religious, perhaps they would forgive Quartz if the Spirit of Light were to give them a proper apology.

“But I kidnapped Ruri. That is absolutely a crime,” Quartz stated.

Kidnapping a Beloved and forcing them to drink poison—Quartz was undoubtedly guilty of both. Not even Jade could cover for him in that. It also didn’t help that the laws had been amended after Ruri’s run-in with the Church of God’s Light. Now, anyone who harmed a Beloved was subject to serious punishment. Quartz, though a former Dragon King, wasn’t above the law.

Ruri looked at Jade and Quartz vacantly and said, “Oh, you two. What are you talking about? I wasn’t kidnapped!”

“Huh?” Jade asked.

“What are you talking about, Ruri?” Quartz followed.

The both of them stared at her, puzzled.

“Why, I just asked Quartz-sama to bring me here to meet the Spirit of Light.”

Jade smiled in relief as he realized what Ruri was trying to say. “Right, I almost forgot. Did you enjoy yourself?”

“Yes. But I think it’s about time we start heading home.”

“I agree. That’s a good idea,” Jade replied.

Quartz listened to their conversation in stunned silence. Ruri was indirectly saying that she would pretend Quartz’s recent actions had never occurred. There had been no “kidnapping” to begin with, and you couldn’t punish what never happened.

“Ruri, are you sure about that?” Quartz asked.

“Oh, I’m sure,” Ruri declared as she handed Quartz the tea she’d prepared.

“Thank you,” Quartz uttered softly, taking a sip from the cup. “That reminds me. Whatever happened with Yadacain?”

Since the kidnapping occurred before they’d received any reports from Yadacain, neither Quartz nor Ruri knew what had transpired. Quartz was curious to know since the queen was an acquaintance of his.

“We destroyed anything related to Spirit Slayer,” Jade explained. “I made them promise that they would never use it again or leave any trace of it for future generations. The rest will be under the Spirit of Darkness’s supervision.”

“And the abducted dragonkin?” Quartz prompted.

“They’re all safe. No serious injuries.”

“Good to hear,” Quartz replied, a soft smile on his face. He had been worried about his kinsmen.

Ruri was also relieved to hear that they were safe.

“What are you going to do about the queen?” Quartz asked. After all, she had abducted dragonkin. The Nation of the Dragon King couldn’t just take that lying down.

“To be honest, I wasn’t able to talk much with the queen,” Jade replied. “I talked with the delegates and the Spirit of Darkness instead. Considering the Spirit of Darkness was the one who did the abducting, there isn’t much we can do in the way of a formal punishment.”

“Very true,” Quartz murmured.

Just like with the Spirit of Light, a mortal couldn’t possibly punish a spirit.

“Be that as it may, I couldn’t just leave things at that, so I came to the decision to have Yadacain pay reparations.”

“That seems fair. But the queen is going to comply with the eradication of Spirit Slayer?”

Jade shot a quick, awkward glance at the Spirit of Darkness and then turned his eyes back to Quartz. “As for that, Joshua set fire to the queen’s laboratory and burned it to the ground. With all of her research reduced to ash, the queen went into shock. I wasn’t able to speak to her, so you could say it’s more retrospective approval, if anything. Anyway, the Spirit of Darkness said he would watch over the queen from now on, so I’ll be leaving things to him.”

“Well, you sure were thorough. Reducing her research to nothing and restricting her from conducting it ever again is the greatest form of punishment she could possibly receive. Though I doubt the Spirit of Darkness will take it lying down,” Quartz said, inquisitively glancing at the Spirit of Darkness. Obsessive devotion to a loved one was an emotion that Quartz knew all too well. It wasn’t something you could just give up on.

“That won’t be a problem. I will convince her, sure enough. The next opportunity I have, I assure you,” the Spirit of Darkness said, his jet-black eyes filled with determination.

He’d sat on the sidelines this entire time out of sympathy, but he actually should’ve reprimanded her long ago—just as Ruri did with Quartz.

“I’m sure she will be fine,” the Spirit of Darkness said. “Despite how she may appear, her vassals adore her. She won’t be alone. She has me. I will keep telling her that she isn’t alone until she understands.”

“I see. I hope she comes to realize that, then,” Quartz said.

And with that, they had tied up all loose ends, bringing things to a conclusion. Or at least, that was what everyone thought, but Ruri wasn’t about to let this end on that note. She abruptly stood up. All eyes landed on her.

Ruri smiled at Quartz and said, “Quartz-sama, would you stand and come over here for a second?”

“Huh? Oh, sure,” Quartz replied. He was perplexed, but he walked away from the table as instructed.

“I am angry. I’ve always thought it was Nadasha’s king and priests’ fault that I wound up summoned to this world. And while I do feel better after enacting my revenge on them, I’ve learned a rather shocking piece of truth.”

Everyone seemed to know what Ruri was getting at.

“To think that you were the root of this evil, Quartz-sama, is shocking, saddening, and infuriating. That basically means you are the target of my revenge. So, on that note, I humbly ask that you allow me to land one free hit on you.”

Ruri was smiling sweetly, but Quartz’s jaw tensed. “Huh? But you hit me pretty hard just a moment ago. One headbutt and two slaps across the face, to be exact...”

“That was that. This is this. The reasons are different.”

“Hmm. Well, fine. I did cause all of that. I’ll accept a punch—even two or three, if that’s what it takes.”

Quartz set his resolve and accepted his fate.

“Okay, then I implore you to close your eyes and grit your teeth.”

Quartz closed his eyes as Ruri instructed. His assumption was that her punches wouldn’t pack much force since she was merely a human girl—a misguided assumption on his part.

Ruri tightened her fist. Next, after checking to see if her magic was available, she secretly wrapped her legs in wind power. She made it seem as though she was going to throw a punch at Quartz’s face, but she instead delivered a roundhouse kick to his gut. The force of it was unlike that of a woman, and he went flying into the wall.

“Oof!” Quartz grunted, blindsided.

Jade grimaced in terror at the sight that played out before him, but Kotaro, who still had a bone to pick with Quartz for kidnapping Ruri, smiled in delight. In fact, if he were in human form, he would have been grinning ear to ear.

“Urgh,” Quartz coughed, clutching his stomach.

Ruri watched his reaction, grinning in satisfaction.

Quartz reproachfully looked up at Ruri. “You told me to grit my teeth! I wasn’t prepared for a kick to the gut.”

“I don’t want any complaints. Punching a dragonkin would just end up hurting my hand. And since I lacked the force, I made up for it with magic. I suggest taking that minor bump in stride. After all, you made it so I can never return to my homeworld ever again.”

Ruri had laid it all out, and Quartz couldn’t argue with it. He made a sour face but then bowed his head and said, “Yes, you’re right. I’m truly sorry for that.”

Ruri was more than satisfied with this outcome, seeing as how it was too late to change what had happened. She forced herself to come to terms with the fact that this was the final chapter of her revenge.

“Speaking of homeworlds reminds me,” Jade interrupted. “I found your parents in Yadacain, Ruri.”

“Huh? You did?!”

“Yes, they seem to be doing well.”

“Thank goodness. That’s great,” Ruri said in relief. She had been worried about their well-being since they had gone missing, but they had apparently stuck it out and survived, just like Ruri’s grandfather had said.

Now that all of Ruri’s worries were gone, she was going to suggest going back to the kingdom. But just then, Rin spoke up.

“Say, by the way, whatever happened to Ruri possibly being your mate?”

“Oh,” Ruri gasped. She’d almost completely forgotten about that.

Jade looked at Ruri with concern. What would happen if that were true?

“So what’s the actual deal here, Light? Is Ruri her?” Rin asked.

“No, that girl is not Seraphie.”

“Huh? I’m not?”

Despite swearing up and down this whole time that she wasn’t Seraphie, Ruri was still taken aback at how quickly the Spirit of Light refuted the idea. Once Ruri thought about it, though, she realized that the Spirit of Light had never once called her “Seraphie” during her stay.

“Spirits know just by looking. Your soul isn’t the same.”

“In that case, why didn’t you tell Quartz-sama that sooner?” Ruri griped.

“Because Quartz was convinced. I didn’t think he would listen even if I told him. Also, he brought you here in the first place to anger the Dragon King, so he wouldn’t have let you go no matter what I said.”

That was true, but it didn’t necessarily mean that Quartz knew she wasn’t really Seraphie. Ruri wondered why she’d spent all that time fretting over whether she actually was Seraphie’s reincarnation. She looked scornfully at the Spirit of Light, wishing she had just told him that wasn’t the case.

“Why did you think I was Seraphie’s reincarnation in the first place, Quartz-sama?” Ruri asked. That question had been on the forefront of her mind, but Quartz had only answered in vague responses until now.

“You sang the song,” Quartz stated.

“Song? Me?” Ruri cocked her head. She didn’t remember singing for him.

“During the tournament, you were humming a song,” Quartz explained. “That was a secret song that only Seraphie and I knew. Since no one else knows it, and you were singing it, I figured you were Seraphie.”

Jade looked at Ruri and asked, “Ruri, can you explain?”

Ruri remembered that she’d started humming when Jade made it through the tournament, but the song she’d hummed back then was...

“I picked up that song. It wasn’t one I already knew,” Ruri replied.

“That’s impossible. Seraphie wrote that song, and she’s the only person other than me who knows it. She didn’t even sing it in front of the Spirit of Light, and she had a contract with her. You can see why I would assume you were Seraphie given that you knew something only she would know.”

Quartz’s argument was convincing, but what was wrong was wrong.

“We had never met each other before I returned to the Nation of the Dragon King, so where in the world did you learn that song?” Quartz asked.

“It’s the song that the ghost in the pocket space sang,” Ruri replied.

“Ghost in the pocket space?”

“Yes. There’s a room that no longer has an owner in Lydia’s domain. Lydia usually checks inside those rooms and erases them, but there’s one where a ghost has taken up residence. It’s spooked her so bad that she’s left it alone. But sometimes you can hear an extremely beautiful song coming from there, so I’ve been going to hear it on occasion.”

“And that was the song the ghost was singing, you say?”

“That’s correct.”

“You have to take me there!” Quartz insisted. “Take me to the room, please!”

Quartz jumped to his feet and grabbed Ruri’s arm in such a frantic manner that he forgot to control his strength.

“T-That hurts, Quartz-sama!” Ruri screamed.

Quartz came back to his senses and let go of Ruri’s arm. “Sorry about that. But could you please take me to this place? I beg of you.”

“Hmm, while I’d love to take you there, only Lydia and her contract-bearers can go there, so I don’t think you’ll be able to.”

“That can’t be...” Quartz said, looking painfully dejected. His shoulders slumped.

“Don’t worry, I’ll go check it out. The idea of meeting with a ghost scares me, but I’ll do my best.”

“I’d appreciate that.”

Ruri opened her pocket space and jumped inside. Lydia was waiting for her, distress written all over her face.

“Ruri, are you really going in?” Lydia asked. She’d apparently heard the news from Kotaro and the other supreme-level spirits. That helped cut a rather long story short.

“Of course. Come on, let’s go, Lydia.”

“Aww, what? But what if the ghost attacks us?”

“They’re not a zombie, so we’ll be fine. If it comes attacking us, then we just book it outside and erase the whole room.”

“They won’t end up haunting us?”

“I don’t think so. Not someone who sings a song that beautiful, at least.”

Ruri was honestly afraid that she might get haunted, but she had no other choice. She had to do this, for Quartz’s sake.

Lydia brought her to the room where the ghost resided, but neither of them could hear singing. Ruri was about to reach out to the doorknob, but her hand stopped.

“Hey, Ruri, we can still turn back now.”

Even though spirits and ghosts were similar, Lydia was considerably freaked out. She was really afraid of getting haunted. Ruri was similarly afraid and didn’t really want to go in herself, but she couldn’t just leave without venturing inside.

“Ughh... Women have guts! Women have guts!” Ruri repeated like an incantation and then swung the door open.

Unlike Ruri’s pocket space, the inside of this room was quite small—though it wasn’t a fair comparison since Ruri’s space was by no means standard. From Lydia’s perspective, a spirit who knew other pocket spaces, this size was average.

“Hello, is anyone home~?” Ruri called out as she and Lydia timidly looked around the room. They found neither hide nor hair of any ghost. “Did we get the wrong room?”

“No, this is the room all right.”

Be that as it may, there was no sign of a ghost at all. But just as Ruri considered leaving and trying again, it happened.

“Who are you two?” asked a voice belonging neither to Ruri nor Lydia.

They both slowly turned around to see a woman dressed in white clothes—her body transparent.

“Eek! There it is!”

“Eeeeeeeek!”

Ruri belted out a loud scream and ran toward the exit, but as she reached the door, she finally came to her senses and stopped. Her sense of duty had prevailed over her fear. She nervously turned around to see...a transparent ghost. Lydia was also transparent when she wasn’t in her material form, but Ruri could sense a strong life force or aura from Lydia. The woman before her had none.

The ghost cocked her head, her look vacant.

Even though Ruri didn’t feel any hostility from the woman, she couldn’t help but fear that she might suddenly attack. It was taking all of Ruri’s courage to even face her.

Taking a big gulp, Ruri summoned up the courage to ask, “You’re a ghost, aren’t you? You’ve been singing here this whole time, right?”

“Yes, that’s right,” the ghost woman replied. “That’s probably right, since my body died. Have you been listening to my song? I have to say, knowing that people have been listening is quite embarrassing.”

“What are you doing here?”

“Oh! You’d actually like to hear about that?!”

The ghost enthusiastically slid up to Ruri’s face. Ruri gasped and drew back, but she regained her composure and nodded.

“Okay, so I ended up falling ill. I wasn’t so much afraid of dying, but I have a husband, you see. He is utterly hopeless without me around, and he said that he would follow after me if I were to die. I thought, ‘What kind of nonsense is he talking about?’ But then I realized, that must be how much he really loves me. It sparked a bit of joy in my heart, I’ll tell you.”

She was rapid-fire talking. Ruri was so stunned that the fear left her mind.

“Say, are you listening to me?” asked the ghost.

“Yes, I am.”

“Good. So, yeah, I was worried that he really might follow me, so I did some convincing and got him to agree to a promise. I told him to look for me after I was reincarnated. Encountering the same beloved after being reincarnated is a scenario girls tend to like, you know. Tee, hee, hee. But even though I made him promise that, I knew he would find the process unbearable, so I needed to do something.”

Ruri couldn’t help but think that this story sounded awfully familiar.

“And so what I came up with was—”

“Ah, wait a second! Before I hear the rest, could I ask for your name?”

Ruri had cut her seemingly long life story short. That prompted the ghost to come to her senses and speak a little more calmly.

“Oh my. Yes, I’m sorry. You’re right. First-time greetings are very important. It’s just been decades since I’ve talked to anyone. I got a little carried away. I’m Seraphie. And you two are?”

Ruri was taken aback. She hadn’t wanted to believe her hunch at first, but the ghost’s story, including what she’d said about the song, was extremely similar to what she’d heard from Quartz.

“Seraphie?! Your name is Seraphie?!”

“Yes, it is.”

“Then you’re Seraphie-san, Quartz-sama’s mate?”

The ghost was surprised. “Do you know Quartz?! Please take me to him!”

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

“I’m back!” announced Ruri as she returned from her pocket space.

Quartz, who had been waiting on bated breath, rushed over to her in a mix of expectation and anxiety.

“Well? How did it go?!”

Ruri simply unfurled her hand in front of him. Although confused, Quartz instinctively stuck out his own hand. Ruri plopped something into his palm. It was a ring—a familiar ring.

Quartz’s eyes widened. “But this is Seraphie’s ring. How did something stolen by grave robbers end up with you, Ruri...?”

Quartz stared at the ring in disbelief a few seconds more and then raised his head, only to find something even more unbelievable staring him in the face.

“Sera...phie...”

She was lacking a physical body, and her entire form was see-through, but standing there was indeed Quartz’s beloved mate, Seraphie.

“Am I...dreaming...?” Quartz asked in a daze, unsure if this was real.

“Hee, hee, hee, it’s no dream. We meet at long last, dear.”

That same tender smile as when she was alive—the smile that Quartz had searched years for—was really there.

“Ngh... Seraphie...!” Quartz exclaimed, clinging to his beloved mate. Or, at least he would have clung to her if she’d had a physical form. But instead of taking her into his arms, he passed right through her and stumbled forward.

Seraphie giggled, finding Quartz’s actions comical. “Silly, you obviously can’t do that when I don’t have a physical body.”

Quartz couldn’t touch her, but he was still happy to see her laughing and smiling. His lips stretched into a wide smile, and tears rolled down his face.

“Ruri, what in the world is going on here?” Jade asked. He assumed that the ghost before them was Quartz’s mate, despite never having met her before, but he didn’t know how she had become a ghost.

“Well, it’s certainly a long story...” Ruri started.

“Allow me to explain,” Seraphie interjected, volunteering to elaborate. “Hey, Quartz, do you remember? After my death, you buried my favorite ring with my body.”

“Right, this ring,” Quartz replied, referring to the ring Ruri had just given him.

“I was inside of that,” Seraphie stated.

“What do you mean?”

“I made you share a promise with me before I died. Without it, you would have followed me right into the grave. I couldn’t allow that to happen.”

“Seraphie...”

“But I watched you wither away as you saw me grow weaker by the day, and I knew that you couldn’t bear to live alone. Once I decided that I needed to do something, I came up with a way to be by your side even in death. That being the magic to move souls to items.”

“That sort of magic exists?” Quartz asked, dumbfounded.

“Despite appearances, I am a very capable witch. Witch sorcery has a spell with that effect. The problem is, it has a very low success rate. I knew that if I gave you hope and it didn’t work, you would fall into despair, so I kept it a secret. And just before I died, I initiated the magic. I managed to safely transfer my soul into the ring. But there was one problem.”

“What was that?”

“Well, I was convinced that you were going to keep the ring. I figured you would keep it by your side since you knew it was my favorite piece of jewelry. So the issue was, even though I picked the ring to house my soul, you decided to bury the darn thing along with my body! It ruined the whole plan!”

Though Quartz could have never known Sophie’s intentions, she was unreasonably blaming him.

“S-Sorry...” Quartz apologized as though he were in the wrong.

“I wasn’t able to go outside because my soul hadn’t fully affixed itself to it yet, which was an unfortunate consequence... But to make matters worse, grave robbers came and took off with the ring. Then it got tossed into one of their pocket spaces. I assumed that the grave robbers would eventually sell it somewhere and I would be able to get to the outside world, but that never happened and I spent decades inside of there. What happened to them?! I mean, honestly!”

To put it bluntly, luck just wasn’t on their side. Grave robbers weren’t an everyday occurrence. Not to mention that the ring was the only thing that had gone missing out of all the pieces of jewelry in the grave.

“I tried to get the ring back from the grave robbers,” Quartz said, “but one of them died in a falling-out with his cohort. It was still inside his pocket space, which meant I couldn’t have reclaimed it.”

Quartz was absolutely not in the wrong, but he felt sorry nonetheless seeing Seraphie fuming mad.

“Well, what’s done is done. I’m able to see you now, so we’ll just say it worked out. Sorry for keeping you waiting, Quartz.”

Seraphie gave him a beaming grin. Quartz squinted like he was looking straight at something overwhelmingly beautiful and dazzling and smiled. But then he awkwardly looked away.

“Seraphie, I have to apologize to you. I wasn’t able to bear living without you, in spite of our promise. I tried to seek death as an option.”

Seraphie cheerfully smiled. It was like she knew that but was willing to forgive him for everything. “Yes, I thought so. You’re hopeless without me around, after all. But now I’m able to see you—alive. That’s all that matters, right?”

“Right. And it’s all thanks to Ruri. Without her help, I probably wouldn’t be here right now,” Quartz stated.

“Thanks to Ruri’s headbutt, you mean,” Jade jokingly quipped.

As soon as Ruri gave it some real thought, she felt embarrassed. She had been face-to-face with the former Dragon King, and she’d run the gamut—punched him, kicked him, headbutted him, and even gave him a stern lecture.

“Thank you, Ruri,” Seraphie added. “I wouldn’t have been able to see Quartz if not for you.” If Ruri hadn’t come along, Seraphie might have spent all of her days singing in that room.

“Then you would call this a happy ending...right?” Ruri asked, smiling and looking up at Jade.

“Yes, I think I would. Fine work, Ruri,” Jade replied, smiling back at her and rustling her hair.