The White Cat That Swore Vengeance Was Just Lazing on the Dragon King’s Lap - Volume 7 - Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Emperor Adularia

After the meeting with Adularia, Quartz asked the doctor for more details about her symptoms after they’d given her the dragon’s blood medicine. As soon as he was done, he told Jade that he was going back to the Nation of the Dragon King.

Jade, not expecting him to say that he was leaving on the same day he came, suggested that he at least stay the night, but Quartz adamantly refused. Jade was unable to hold him back, so Quartz returned home the very day he arrived in the Imperial Nation. Before he left, he ominously said, “I hope I make it back in time...”

Perhaps Quartz had come up with some way to save her. After all, given what he’d heard from the nation’s doctor, he’d said that it might be safe to assume that Adularia had the same ailment that had afflicted Seraphie.

That was only Ruri’s wishful thinking, though. She couldn’t possibly tell that to the ailing Adularia or the grief-stricken Corundum. If Ruri gave them hope and it turned out that nothing could be done, it would only make things harder for them both. All Ruri could do was silently pray for good news.

Ruri and Jade were staying at the palace for a while considering that Adularia’s declining health made it hard to determine what could happen next. The Imperial Nation was left with an ill leader, and within the palace walls, the struggle for succession, which had been behind the scenes so far, was starting to surface. The uprising was likely the reason the air in the palace was so rife with tension—so much so, in fact, that even Ruri, an outsider, could sense the turbulence.

“The air feels awful here, doesn’t it?” commented Rin.

“Warring over succession while a person is dying? Humans are greedy creatures,” said Kotaro, adding to the stinging commentary. As critical as that might sound, Kotaro was by no means wrong. Neither Ruri nor Jade, who were sitting beside the supreme-level spirits, denied it.

There was a knock at the door before someone entered. A troubled-looking Finn came over and whispered something into Jade’s ear. From the weary look on Jade’s face, Ruri knew exactly what it was about.

“Again, Jade-sama?”

“Yes, again. The same persistent idiots.”

“Ha ha ha...” Ruri let out a dry chuckle as Jade rubbed his temples.

The cause of his current headache was the imperial princes. Even though the woman who’d given birth to them was on the verge of death, the first prince, Roy, and the third prince, Samadan, were vying over the throne and incessantly asking for an audience with Jade. Jade said they most likely wanted backing from the Nation of the Dragon King or its Beloved, but neither Jade nor Ruri were remotely interested in sticking their noses into another nation’s messy affairs.

The Fourth Prince, Orio, had also requested an audience, but after Jade refused once, he never asked again. He’d probably just wanted to welcome the Dragon King and the Beloved to their nation as an imperial prince, but when Jade said that he was busy and turned him down, Orio had simply requested that Jade allow him to greet the Dragon King once he had a moment to spare.

Jade wished the same could have been said for his younger brothers, but both Roy and Samadan refused to take no for an answer and constantly asked for Jade’s status. As for Mariano, the second prince, he was currently away from the palace, so there were no issues to be had with him. He wasn’t even vying for the throne since he was marrying into the family of a neighboring nation, and by his own admission, he never had any intention of participating in the first place. Therefore, the only two who had been butting heads were the first and the third prince.

“Which of them is it this time?” asked Ruri.

“Prince Roy,” Finn answered.

“The first prince? I wonder why he’s so persistent.” Ruri was starting to get sick of all this herself.

“Perhaps I should send Corundum a complaint? Then again...” Jade trailed off, remembering that Corundum was not only running the nation as acting emperor, but he was also preoccupied with his ailing wife. Even though it was a matter concerning his sons, Jade thought it cruel to pile more problems upon the man and kept quiet.

“I’m also against telling him. It would be far too stressful,” Ruri said.

“True,” Jade agreed.

“I wonder if there is any way you can get them to give up. Even though Corundum-san said I could stroll around the palace, they might just ambush me at this point.”

Ruri was referring to the fact that Corundum had given her permission to walk around the palace since it would make for a dreary visit just staying in her room the entire time. The palace was as beautiful as the one in the Nation of the Spirit King, and the courtyard was practically a forest. Both of these sights tickled Ruri’s interest, but it seemed as if either Roy or Samadan would be lying in wait just as soon as she stepped foot out of her room—an act that they would likely pass off as mere coincidence. For that reason, Ruri was staying put.

In fact, people were keeping a close watch on her door from the outside, by the spirits’ accounts anyway. “Ew, what? That’s freaky,” Ruri had said after being informed of this. She’s decided to lock herself in her room the entire time despite that being an awful prospect.

“Ruri? Want us to take care of ’em?”

While touched by the spirit’s kindness, Ruri couldn’t very well say yes to that question. “Take care...how?”

“When the prince comes, we set his butt on fire!”

“I’m all for that!”

“Aww, what? Why don’t we flush ’em with a buncha water?”

“I say we start a tornado and fling ’em out of the palace!”

“Woo hoo! That sounds fun!”

“No, no, no, you cannot do any of that,” Ruri said, shooting them down.

The spirits were their same old selves: they settled matters by force. Why was it that they always resorted to violence? Did the words “civil discussion” not exist in their vocabulary?

Either way, if a civil discussion were enough to turn these princes away, they would have done so by now, but that method wasn’t going to fly with them. A violent criminal would be one thing, but these were princes of the Imperial Nation—the granddaddy of allied nations. One unwise move could lead to an international incident.

Actually, maybe she could get away with it by saying it was the spirits who did it? The devil whispered that idea into Ruri’s ear before she shook her head to dispel it. “No. There’ll be big problems if you hurt either of them, so don’t do anything.”

“But aren’t they being annoying?”

“If they’re bugging you, we gotta eliminate them!”

“We’ll make sure they can never walk up to you again.”

The spirits all jovially bantered with one another, but if the people in question were to hear what they were saying, they would turn pale in fright. Actually, if Ruri were to let the princes hear them, they would probably stop coming—a pretty good idea.

“Rin, Kotaro, say something,” Ruri pleaded.

“If they will cause you harm, why not get rid of them?” Rin suggested.

“I concur,” said Kotaro, agreeing with Rin.

Ruri’s shoulders slumped in disappointment. With even the supreme-level spirits thinking like that, maybe it wasn’t so surprising that the lesser spirits’ thoughts were headed down dangerous paths.

As Ruri heaved a sigh, an idea hit her. “Oh, wait! If I can’t stay a person, I can just turn into a cat!” Ruri quickly pulled out her bracelet. “Jade-sama, can I go for a walk in my cat form? I’ll bring Kotaro and Rin along.”

“Hmm... Yes, well, they won’t try to approach you so long as they don’t know you’re a Beloved. Is that what you want?”

“Yes!”

And so Ruri became a cat and sneaked out of the room to walk around the palace with Kotaro and Rin in tow.

Reminiscent of a European palace, the walls and surroundings of the imperial palace were embellished with painstaking detail. The Nation of the Spirit King’s chalk-white castle had a more imposing and sacred atmosphere to it, while the Nation of the Beast King’s castle had an Arabian motif running throughout. The Nation of the Dragon King’s castle also had a European-style interior, but it was simpler and—possibly because of the tastes of the past rulers—less flashy than the Imperial Nation’s palace. There was more of a focus on functionality, which made the castle somewhat cozier, but because the imperial palace was fun to look at, the nation could have charged admission for a tour.

As Ruri walked along, taking in the sights like a tourist, she heard arguing in the distance and started heading in that direction. Jade might scold her for sticking her nose in something dangerous if he knew, but she couldn’t contain her growing intrigue. She hid herself and observed, assuming that she would be fine since Kotaro and Rin were with her.

There, she saw two young men talking, each with their own entourage. Both of them looked to be of high standing judging from their attire and general appearance.

“Who are they?” asked Ruri.

“Mmm, those are the first and third princes, aren’t they?” replied Kotaro.

“Aah, the problem children.” Ruri referred to them as such because they were causing a ruckus when their mother was in dire straits. “Which is which?”

“The tall, dark-haired one is the first, and the smaller, redheaded one is the third.”

“Oh wow.”

According to what Ruri had heard, each prince was born two years apart from one another. The oldest was apparently twenty-seven years old, so the second was twenty-five, the third was twenty-three, and the fourth was twenty-one. They were what one would expect from the children of a beautiful middle-aged woman like Adularia. Both the first and third had handsome faces with well-defined features. They weren’t quite at Jade’s level of beauty, of course, but they were still in the running. Then again, maybe it was Ruri’s spousal bias talking.

“Brother, you should stop being so pigheaded and hand over what is owed to someone worthy!”

“You don’t think that I am worthy? I am the first imperial prince. I am the firstborn. Therefore, I am most worthy of the throne. Many of the nobles believe so as well.”

“Deciding a sovereign based on order of birth is so old-fashioned. The Imperial Nation needs a breath of fresh air, and to do so, we need to purge those nobles shackled to their old customs and build the nation anew.”

“While I agree with that, nothing good will come from rushing everything. We must take in the old and good as we make things anew.”

“If you keep talking like that, then things will never change!”

“Now who’s being pigheaded? You may be my brother, but if you keep up your flagrant behavior, then I will be forced to take action against you.”

“Oh, trying to act like the emperor already, are you? Mother has not yet named the successor. Does that not prove that the first prince lacks the qualifications?”

“Mother is just being prudent. And besides, she is in no condition now to...”

Having had her fill of eavesdropping, Ruri quietly left the area as their argument continued.

“Hmmm... I heard that the imperial princes weren’t particularly close, but that was total hostility. They don’t seem friendly with each other at all,” she remarked.

“If they both want the emperor’s throne, then they would be hostile no matter how friendly they may be,” Rin said. “I’ve seen many instances of people who were once friends stabbing each other in the back and cutting each other’s throats.”

Rin’s words were convincing because of her long years of experience, but it was still so sad. For the sake of Adularia, Ruri didn’t want her sons to fight each other if they could help it. Adularia likely didn’t want that either. That said, it wasn’t as if Ruri could do anything, nor was she allowed to. Ruri was the Beloved of the Nation of the Dragon King and the Dragon Queen. She couldn’t get involved in another nation’s succession issues.

“After seeing all of this,” Ruri continued, “maybe deciding a ruler by strength like how the Nation of the Dragon King does is the best way to avoid awkward conflicts.”

“Oh my, that’s not necessarily true,” Rin pointed out. “Try having a nation run by someone who’s all brawn and no brains. The place would collapse in no time.”

“You make a good point...”

“Well, with the Nation of the Dragon King, the Dragon King has absolute authority, but all important matters are decided through council, so they take appropriate measures to prevent such a fate. The treasury also sets aside a budget for the Dragon King, and if he ever goes over, he has to pay for it himself. The Dragon King cannot use the treasury’s money of his own accord.”

“Oh, really?” Ruri knew little of the Nation of the Dragon King’s politics despite being the Dragon Queen. Jade and everyone else was careful not to discuss politics around her so as not to involve a Beloved in political affairs.

“The dragonkin are a rational race among humans and demi-humans, so I doubt there’d ever be any major mistakes,” added Rin.

“Rational...?” echoed Ruri.

How could that be? In Ruri’s mind, there was no connection between the words “rational” and “dragonkin.” She suddenly remembered how Jade had acted around her as a cat. The word “rational” didn’t fit the sight of him having a cuddle deficiency attack just because Ruri took a hiatus from turning into a cat. The same went for the other dragonkin. The way they got excited around a cuddly animal was a total abandonment of rationality. Then again, they were quintessentially kind people if cuddly animals weren’t involved.

Basically, if one wanted to make dragonkin lose their rationale, they would just have to give them cuddly animals. One might even be able to take over the superpower that was the Nation of the Dragon King with one—a simple idea that was so ridiculous that Ruri quickly disregarded it.

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

Ruri moved from the palace interior to the court outside. The gorgeous, colorful flowers were a feast for the eyes, just like the buildings.

“Anyway, I wonder what’s causing the emperor’s illness,” Ruri said, then it dawned on her that maybe the spirits, who’d existed in this world since the beginning, knew of this mystery disease. “Kotaro, Rin, do either of you know?”

“We do. She was either stung by a bug called a tachyotoxian or the body fluids of that bug were injected into her. Though, they are very rare and almost never appear in public,” Rin answered, dropping a bombshell just as casually as could be.

“Wait, you knew?!” Ruri cried, shocked and completely flustered. “Then why didn’t you tell us earlier?! If you knew the cause, then there might be a cure out there!”

“Calm down, Ruri. We may know the cause, but we don’t know the cure. A sting from this tachyotoxian contaminates your blood, but no cure exists.”

“Not even the spirits know?”

“Spirits have no need for medicine, and because medicine is a human creation, it doesn’t fall in the realm of spirit knowledge. But even if we don’t know, there’s a chance a cure could have been made somewhere out there. Unfortunately, that information isn’t within the spirits’ sphere.”

“No way... But we still need to tell them the cause.”

“Quartz already did, didn’t he? He talked to the doctors here, and Seraphie was stricken with the same disease, right? The Spirit of Light was by Seraphie’s side, so they naturally knew of the tachyotoxian. Which means there’s no way that he didn’t tell them the cause.”

Quartz knew from the very start? And the Spirit of Light? Was it that it couldn’t be cured even if everyone did know?

“Be careful, Ruri,” Rin cautioned. “The blood of someone afflicted by this toxin is toxic as well. Though, I’m sure Quartz also told the palace doctors about that.”

“Say...is there nothing we can do? Nothing to prolong her life even if we can’t cure her?” Ruri asked.

“No. I’m afraid that not even spirits are omnipotent,” Rin admitted, her words weighing heavily on Ruri.

Then, one day, it finally happened. With her loving husband watching over her, Adularia breathed her final breath.

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

Many people mourned Adularia’s death. She’d reigned well for many years and was very popular among the people, so the news of her passing prompted many of the nation to pray in front of the palace, hoping that she would rest in peace.

Among those in attendance at the funeral were the Spirit King and the Beast King, who had both rushed to the Imperial Nation. Since Jade had informed them of Adularia’s worsening condition beforehand, the two of them had left their respective kingdoms before the tragic news of Adularia’s passing could reach them. They were able to reach the Imperial Nation so quickly because of that.

However, due to the suspicious nature of Adularia’s death, Lapis and Celestine, the Beloveds of those nations, were not attending the funeral. Ruri certainly would have been forced to stay home as well if she weren’t with Kotaro and Rin.

In the end, they never found out who’d placed the paper implicating the Reapers by Adularia’s bedside. It was thought that if they didn’t know now, then the truth would likely be buried in darkness forever. If there had been a spirit at the scene, then it would have been a different story, but unfortunately no spirit saw the crime happen. Spirits only cared about what interested them, so it wasn’t very surprising. The thought that this mystery would be lost to the sands of time left Ruri feeling uneasy, but there was nothing she could do about it.

Many people attended Adularia’s funeral proceedings. Cremation seemed to be the custom in the Imperial Nation, and at the imperial crematorium, Corundum and his sons spent their last moments with the coffin before it was placed inside. The second prince had also returned from his stint away from the palace, so all four of her sons were there.

Ruri could hear Corundum’s sorrowful weeping from where she stood a short distance away, which stimulated her tear glands. Jade quickly handed her a handkerchief. She thanked him for it, wiped her eyes, and looked back at Jade. His eyes were completely dry.

“Jade-sama, are you all right?” Ruri asked.

“Yes, I’m fine. You might say it’s heartless, but I’m used to people dying,” Jade replied, looking over to the Spirit King, who gave him a wry smile. “Races that live as long as Awain and I do have just seen that many people die. Human life is short. I wish it would stop at Adularia, but Corundum and all of his sons will die before I do. If I were to grieve every time, then my heart wouldn’t be able to keep up at all. The longer you live, the more you have to accept things as they happen.”

“Jade-sama...”

“These are the times that I curse my luck for being born a dragonkin. I wish I could cry for Adularia, but the tears won’t come,” Jade said with a smirk, but his face appeared to be grieving Adularia’s death well enough. He’d said that he accepted the death, but there was no way he didn’t feel anything.

Ruri hugged Jade tightly. Jade patted her gently on the head in response.

“Cry on behalf of me and Awain. For Adularia,” he said.

“Yes...” Ruri mumbled, clinging to Jade to hide her tear-stained face.

The smoke from the emperor’s burning form rose high into the sky above.

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

After the funeral, the Dragon King, the Spirit King, and the Beast King assembled. Not missing a beat, Ruri sat among them—as a cat. She actually wasn’t quite sure why she was present at the meeting in the first place.

“Never thought that Adularia would pass away this soon,” Arman said, his face incredulous. Jade and Awain surely felt the same way.

“The issue is who becomes the next emperor? What do you two think?” Arman asked as he gazed intensely at Jade and Awain.

The Emperor of the Imperial Nation, one of the four great nations, had died. When Adularia became emperor, the succession had gone smoothly because she was the only child of the previous emperor, but things were different this time around.

News of the first and third sons vying for the throne must have already reached Arman’s and Awain’s ears. It wasn’t surprising that they would be concerned about the rightful successor. As allied nations, finding out who would be the next emperor was an issue that the other three nations couldn’t ignore. That said, it seemed as if the three rulers had no intention of meddling with the succession of another nation.

“The two most likely to become emperor are either the first or the third,” noted Jade, “but I’m not sure what kind of people they are since I’ve rarely ever talked to them. What about you, Awain?”

“The same, Jade. But regardless of who is the better candidate, that isn’t a matter for us to speak on, is it? That decision lies with the nobles and citizens of the Imperial Nation,” Awain said, replying with a sound argument.

Arman awkwardly grinned. “Well, yeah. What you’re saying is right, Awain, but having a foolish king in our midst is also a problem, and that’s a fact. Did you notice? None of her sons shed a single tear despite Corundum being a sobbing mess in front of them.”

Ruri had noticed that herself. It would have been natural for them to get emotional when faced with their mother’s death, but unlike their father, the four princes had been extremely calm—almost to the point of it being eerie.

“Did the princes come to any of you?” Arman asked, to which Jade and Awain both nodded. “I knew it.”

“By your reaction, I assume they came to you too, Arman?” Jade guessed.

“Yeah. It was obvious they were trying to get me to help them take the throne, so I kicked their butts out. Same for you two?”

“I have Ruri with me, so it was even worse. I felt obligated to give my condolences in the wake of Adularia’s passing, so I decided to talk to all of them, but the first and third persistently demanded that I let them see Ruri. Not that I had any intention of doing so, of course. What about you, Awain?”

“Yes, a similar affair with me. I was right in not bringing Lapis along.”

All three kings let out long, tired sighs.

“Being a king is hard work, isn’t it?” Ruri said, sitting on Jade’s lap.

Arman raised an eyebrow, and the corner of his lips twitched. “You’ve got it easy not having to worry about anybody’s business, Ruri, since you’re a Beloved. Ruri being here as a cat is a measure to keep the imperial princes from seeing her, I assume?”

“Yes,” Jade answered. “They don’t seem to know that Ruri can become a cat. I have her stay as a cat when I leave so that she can pretend to be out on the off chance they drop by the room and try to pass it off as a chance meeting.”

“Yeah, that’s the best plan,” Arman agreed.

“Indeed, I would like a bracelet like that for Lapis as well, but he’s likely to do something outrageous if I handed him such a delightful tool. I’d be too afraid to give it to him,” Awain said, lamenting his untrustworthy son. Lapis had a penchant for always falling in love with the first woman he saw, after all.

“Well, either way, if I stay here any longer, I’m only going to get wrapped up in this sticky business,” Arman stated. “Getting back to my kingdom as soon as possible seems like the best bet.”

Both Awain and Jade agreed with Arman. The three kings had reached a consensus, so their discussion was brought to a close.

The next day, Arman and Awain returned to their respective nations. Ruri and the others were readying to leave as well, but they were taking a little longer to return because Jade was concerned about Corundum’s haggard state. Apparently, the sight of Corundum so depressed reminded Jade of Quartz after Seraphie’s death, so Jade couldn’t just leave Corundum be. Ruri was not in any hurry to leave, so she encouraged Jade’s typical kindhearted behavior.

Jade had been visiting Corundum’s room diligently, hoping to alleviate his sorrow if only a little. Normally, this role would have fallen to his sons, but the first and third princes only thought of becoming emperor, and the second prince had quickly left for the neighboring country he would be marrying into.

When Ruri heard this, she had gasped in utter disbelief, but no one had chided her for it because everyone felt the exact same way.

The youngest, the fourth prince, was so shocked by his mother’s death that he shut himself up in his room. He might have been the only one with decent sensibilities, but Ruri didn’t forget that he’d been extremely cold at the funeral. Maybe he was just in so much shock that he couldn’t accept the fact, or maybe it was something else. What that something was, though, Ruri didn’t know.

After a few days, Corundum finally calmed himself, and Ruri’s group prepared to go home. However, that was when the report came in.

Finn burst into the room without knocking. “Your Majesty!”

Jade’s eyes widened in surprise. The usually calm and collected Finn was acting erratically. “What’s wrong, Finn?” he asked.

“I just received word from the imperial consort. It seems that the first has fallen ill with the same thing the emperor had.”

“He what?!” Jade exclaimed as Ruri stopped what she was doing. “And you’re certain?”

“The doctors said that his symptoms are the exact same as the emperor’s. The imperial consort asked if they could have some dragon’s blood just in case. He figured that the medicine might work given that not much time has passed in comparison to Her Imperial Majesty.”

“I see. That is certainly a possibility. I have extra medicine ready, so it shouldn’t be an issue. Deliver it to them immediately,” Jade said, taking a vial out of his pocket space and handing it over to Finn.

Finn politely took it and dashed away.

The air in the room had become heavier, and Ruri decided to voice her worries. “The same sickness? So is it contagious?” If that were true, then it was possible they both could contract it as well.

Rin, nonetheless, shot down that theory. “As I said before, body fluids of tachyotoxian insects entering the body triggers this disease, so if you were to catch it, then you would have to have the afflicted’s blood injected into you. Both you and the King only talked to her, right? You definitely wouldn’t have caught it from that.”

Ruri was relieved to hear that, but she couldn’t completely rest easy. “Then does that mean there are other bugs around?”

“Well, for one thing, there aren’t supposed to be tachyotoxians in this region. I’m not too sure how the emperor contracted the disease in the first place,” Rin said, unsure herself.

Just then, Jade proposed a theory. “This is just a hypothetical, but what are the chances that Adularia’s illness was caused by someone deliberately injecting her with that bug’s fluids or the blood of a poisoned individual?”

Ruri looked at Jade in surprise.

“If anything, that is the more likely possibility,” Rin said. “The tachyotoxians aren’t local to this area. A deliberate attack would explain things.”

Jade’s face turned grim. “Gibeon said it himself. If there are Reapers, they’re fake. It could be that these fakes are trying to pin the crime on the Reapers.”

“Jade-sama... What are we going to do now?” Ruri asked, her expression tense with worry.

Jade took Ruri into his arms and stroked her head to calm her anxiety. “We’re not doing anything. We’re just going to tell Corundum about this, then be on our way.”

“But...”

“Assuming it’s the same sickness as Adularia’s, there’s nothing we can do if the dragon’s blood doesn’t work. The bigger problem is that you and the other dragonkin could be harmed by continuing to stay here, especially if Adularia’s death was caused by someone else and we have no idea why.”

“I agree with the king,” Rin said.

“As do I,” Kotaro added. “I can protect you from physical injuries, but fighting poison with my powers is difficult. I think we should return to the Nation of the Dragon King as soon as we can.”

The two supreme-level spirits were the most worried about Ruri. Jade also valued Ruri above all else, and at the same time, he couldn’t involve himself in the Imperial Nation’s affairs any longer. His position as king would not allow it. Ruri could only nod in compliance, but she was terribly frustrated at having to accept this situation for what it was.

In the end, the dragon’s blood had no effect on the first imperial prince. At that point, there was nothing more Ruri and the others could do in the nation. They had no choice but to return home, feeling completely ineffectual.

It was just as they were about to return to the Nation of the Dragon King that things took a sudden turn.

Quartz, who was supposed to have returned to the Nation of the Dragon King earlier, returned—with the Queen of Yadacain in tow.