Lady Katarina, today was a special day for me. I saw the sea for the first time and did so together with the person I love the most.
We went back to the restaurant, stopping to buy the fruit we had talked about, and along the way, Lady Katarina reminded me that I should not call her “Lady” here.
Regina was waiting for us at the restaurant, and she asked us if we had seen Sora at the harbor.
I had pretended not to see him but I did not want to lie, so I admitted that I had.
Lady Katarina asked me why I did not say so earlier, and I gave the excuse that I had thought of earlier.
“I did not manage to do so.”
Just saying that made me feel embarrassed, since the real reason was that I wanted to enjoy my time together with her for as long as possible.
Sora, who had come back to help us prepare for the evening, reported to us about what he had seen that day. He found that it was possible to hide something within the cargo of a ship, which meant there was a possibility of human trafficking taking place.
“But could that really be happening in a town like this one?” Lady Katarina asked, and I felt the same.
The town I had just visited was bright and lively, certainly not the place one would imagine when hearing about such heinous crimes.
However, Regina explained to us that there were many foreigners passing through the port and that they often caused trouble. Fortunately, they did not tend to visit this part of town, so it was relatively safe.
I had almost never interacted with foreigners, except during my undercover mission at the International Assembly in the Castle. I remembered some of them, nobles who treated commoners as nothing more than objects. I immediately felt uncomfortable. If people like them were at Ocean Harbor, it was very possible that they were trafficking humans. And if the kidnapped girl was one of them…
I clenched my fists.
We had to do our best to get as much information as possible and ascertain whether the girl was in this town.
After he had finished reporting to us, Sora made for his room, but before leaving, he asked us whether we had been near the harbor. He had probably noticed us too, and I felt bad about it.
“Yes, Lady Katarina and I took a walk through the town during our break,” I confirmed.
“Oh, that sounds fun. Anyway, this area is relatively safe, but don’t go to any weird places,” he concluded, worried for us. Sora was a really kind person, and I felt sorry for pretending not to see him just so I could spend more time alone with Lady Katarina.
After he had left, I heard Katarina let out a sigh of relief.
“Sora wasn’t mad…” she muttered.
Why would he be mad?! Had Lady Katarina figured out the true reason I hadn’t talked to him earlier?! I panicked, but she quickly explained what she meant.
“I just thought that, you know, he’d get mad at us for not inviting him,” she said.
I thought that she made a valid point, so I suggested that the next time we go for a walk, we all do so together. Sora, as I understood it, also liked Lady Katarina very much, so I had no doubt that he would like that idea. I had kept her all for myself today by ignoring him, and not inviting him next time would be very unfair.
After that, I went to my room to start preparing, and before long, it was time to open the restaurant for dinner.
Lady Katarina performed even better at her job than she had on the previous day, gracefully moving between the tables carrying dishes and taking orders. As expected of her, she was very popular with the customers.
Afterward, we learned that Regina had heard a piece of information regarding suspicious actions by some foreigners and said that she would investigate it further.
While we were walking back to our respective rooms at the end of the day, I told Sora, “Next time, we should all go around town together, the three of us.”
“You’re right,” he replied, looking pleased. He probably wanted to go out walking with Lady Katarina as well.
Back in my room, I looked back at the good memories I had made during that day and prepared for the next day’s work. I had so much fun…but maybe, in this very town, a kidnapped girl was suffering. Maybe she was as scared as I was when those foreign nobles kidnapped me. If that was the case, we needed to rescue her as soon as possible. I will do my best to bring her home safely, I swore to myself before falling asleep.
★★★★★
Unlike the previous day, I managed to wake up without any problem before it was too late. …With Maria’s help, that is.
Today, too, Sora was out working at the docks while Maria looked busy preparing the desserts to serve at lunchtime.
Yesterday I hadn’t really done much of anything, but today I decided I wanted to help, so I asked Regina what ingredients we needed and went to shop for the groceries. I was getting used to the town, and I could go to the closest shop by myself.
Regina ordered me to immediately call a guard if anything happened, but it was barely more than a ten-minute trip, and I didn’t even get lost on the way. I also encountered some of the restaurant’s patrons from the previous day, who recognized me and asked me if I was out shopping for the restaurant. That made me feel even safer.
I bought the things that Regina told me to and was ready to go back when I heard someone calling out to me.
“Oh, you’re the Harbor’s new waitress, aren’t you?”
I looked up and saw a man in front of the store across the street smiling at me.
“Thank you for that dessert yesterday!” he said, and I remembered who he was.
He was the customer who had come to the restaurant with his daughter who wanted to try our dessert. We ended up making one just for her so that they could eat it after they left.
“Not at all! Did your daughter like it?” I asked.
“She sure did! She scarfed down the whole thing while going on about how good it tasted. Oh, right, take this. As thanks for yesterday,” he said, tossing me one of the apples on display at the store.
“Thank you! Please come visit us again sometime!” I said before leaving.
The apple he’d given me was shiny and smelled good. I could tell how delicious it was going to be just by looking at it.
I’m going to share this with Maria later. If we have any whipped cream, it’d go great with this. And I wonder if we also have honey. Honey would be awesome.
I was so busy thinking about how to eat the apple that I got distracted and stumbled on a rock.
Wah!
I tried my best not to fall down and to protect the ingredients I’d bought at the same time…but unfortunately, the apple fell down. It was so smooth and round that it rolled all the way into an alley.
My apple! I thought, dashing after it. After walking a short way down the dark alley, I finally found the apple laying next to some other small object which I couldn’t quite make out.
The object jumped up, and as I got a better look, I realized that it was a dirty, underweight kitten. He didn’t have a collar around his neck, so he was probably a stray. He started hissing at me while keeping an eye on the apple. He really looked malnourished. I took the apple and, crouching down, I tried to imitate a cat’s purr. The kitten, however, just started hissing louder and backed away slowly.
I knew that dogs hate me, but I thought cats tolerated me… Maybe strays are just easily scared.
I looked at the apple and noticed that there were no bite marks on it. Do cats even eat apples? They don’t, right? I tried to think of something that I could feed the kitten and remembered that the shop owner, earlier, had given me some extra sausages free of charge. Maybe the kitten likes meat?
I took the sausage out of the bag, tore off a little bit, and threw it in the kitten’s direction. The kitten looked surprised at first, but then slowly started moving toward it. When he reached the sausage, he started nibbling. The poor guy must have been really hungry. I threw another piece of sausage, and then another, and then another, until I heard a voice behind me.
“Little one? Where are you?”
I saw a young man entering the alley with a slice of ham in his hands.
“Oh, there you are. Wait, who are you?” the man, who probably was around my age, asked.
He had deep brown hair and eyes, and tan skin. He didn’t look like someone from this town. His face lit up when he saw the kitten but then darkened when he saw me crouching next to him.
“I found this kitten and was just giving him some sausage. Is this your cat?” I asked. I thought he was a stray cat, but this young man seemed to be his owner.
“No, he’s just a stray,” he answered, looking away from me. “I just found him here, so I come by to give him something to eat when I have free time.”
That explained the ham in his hand, and it also meant that, as I thought at first, the kitten had no owner.
“I see. But he looks so small. I wonder where his parents are.” The kitten was so tiny that he could have fit in my hands, and he looked too young to live without parents.
“He was already alone the first time I saw him. His parents are either dead or they abandoned him,” the young man spat out coldly.
“But will he be able to make it on his own?” I wondered. The kitten looked so thin that his bones showed. I couldn’t come to feed him every day, and apparently the young man only came here sporadically.
He’s definitely too small to hunt well enough to survive… I’m getting worried about this kitten.
“If he can’t, he’ll die. Simple as that,” the man replied, aloof.
His response sounded so cruel that I felt irritated and I turned toward him, ready to reprimand him for being heartless. But when I looked into his face, I found that he seemed genuinely worried for the kitten. My rage subsided, and I thought that maybe this man had the same tsundere tendencies as Alan.
“Excuse me…wouldn’t you be able to take him home?” I asked.
“…I’m not from around here, so I can’t. What about you?” he countered. As I suspected, he wasn’t from this town.
“I’m only staying here temporarily too, so I can’t…” I replied.
Of course, if I could bring him back to the Claes manor, he could probably stay in our garden, but… Easier said than done. I was here on a mission and I didn’t even know when we’d be back home.
“Oh…” he said, visibly disappointed.
He’s been feeding this cat since before I ever did, so he must have grown really attached… Wait, I have an idea!
“I work at a restaurant right now, so I could ask the customers if any of them wants to take him home!”
“Sure. It’s not my problem anyway,” came a stereotypical tsundere answer, but I could tell from his expression that he was happy about my idea.
“I can’t bring him back with me right now, however. Do you think he’ll be fine?”
“Yeah, he’s always in this alley. It should be fine even if you come by later.”
“I’m so glad. I’ll look for an owner and, when I find one, I’ll come back to pick up the kitten.”
“Whatever… I’ll come by to check on him too,” the young man said, mumbling the last part under his breath. I started to understand how he felt about the kitten.
“Oh, I work at the Harbor Restaurant down this road, so do come in if you have the chance. See you, young man!”
“Young man…? Just call me Arneau,” he said, before starting to walk away.
“Okay, Arneau. I’m Katarina, by the way!”
I saw Arneau put the ham down for the kitten as he left. He looked aloof but he was probably kind deep down.
“I’ll find you a good owner, so wait just a bit longer, okay?” I told the cat.
Arneau wasn’t there anymore, and I went back to the restaurant, for real this time.
I promptly asked Regina if I could look for an owner among the customers.
“Yes. I can’t take the cat myself, but feel free to ask around.”
I decided to do so as soon as we were open. I imagined that, just as on the previous day, we would get lots of young girls coming to eat sweets. I had to make sure to tell them about Maria’s new desserts too!
Soon after we opened, as I had predicted, the restaurant was full of girls. We had almost no empty seats left. Expecting a busy lunchtime, Regina had called her other two employees, who were now almost crying with joy at seeing how popular the restaurant had become.
“I’m going to turn a profit…” Regina gasped, grinning.
One smiling customer gushed, “This is so good! It’s so full of fruit!” as she proceeded to quickly finish her dessert. She was the daughter of the man who’d given me the apple earlier. After being too late for lunchtime on the previous day, she tried Maria’s sweets at home and liked them so much that she came again.
“I wish I could actually try all of them,” said the sugar-loving girl as she looked at the menu, “but I’m almost out of pocket money…”
After long and careful consideration, she had ordered three desserts which she was now happily devouring. The way she was attacking those plates made me think that we’d make good friends.
“Ughh… I ate too much… I’ll save my allowance and come again!” she announced, gazing enviously at the other girls who were still eating.
“These are small ones we made to give away as samples, but…here. Have this,” I told her, wrapping up some sweets and giving them to her without anyone noticing.
“Th-Thank you so much!” she said with a huge smile. Nodding vigorously, she added, “I’ll tell all my friends about this restaurant!”
“Oh, by the way, do you know anyone who would like to keep a cat? He’s still a kitten, but he’s living without his parents. I’m trying to find him an owner,” I said.
I had already asked a few customers, but most of the people around here were running businesses and couldn’t keep pets. This girl’s father gave me an apple earlier, so her family probably ran a fruit shop. I thought that, even if she couldn’t keep the kitten herself, maybe she knew someone who could.
“Hm… I can’t tell for sure, but I know someone who might. I’ll try to ask.”
“Really?!”
This was the first positive answer I’d received that day.
“I’ll come back to tell you what they said after I’ve asked!” she promised, with a smile on her face that looked just like her father’s.
“Thank you,” I bowed as she left.
I hope we’ll be able to find this kitten a home…
Another lunchtime made busy by tons of young women came to a close.
Maria said that she’d prepare new dishes for dinner, and I wanted to make myself useful too, so I said I’d go to buy the ingredients again. We had more customers than we expected, and many ingredients were already starting to run out. I wrote them down on a list and went to the same shop I’d been to earlier. Once again, I reached it without getting lost.
“Oh? Here again?” the shopkeeper asked me.
“Yes. We need ingredients again. I’ll buy more this time around.”
Walking out, I looked at the store whose owner had given me an apple earlier today. Maybe he was taking a break, because there was a woman standing there instead. Probably his wife.
With my groceries in hand, I started walking back and reached the alley where I met the kitten. It had been a few hours since I met him, and I wondered if he really was still here. I was so worried that I just had to check, and walked closer.
“Oh!”
Just as Arneau said, the kitten was still there…together with Arneau himself. He said he’d only come by when he had the time, but there he was, again giving some kind of meat to the kitten. I hadn’t noticed earlier, but the cat looked really comfortable around Arneau. He’d eat straight from his hand and was nowhere near as tense as when I was feeding him.
When he saw me, Arneau’s expression turned awkward.
I walked toward him and said, “He looks really used to you. Do you come by often?”
“Not that much. Not that much at all,” Arneau replied indifferently.
“But you were here earlier too…”
“It’s just a coincidence. I had something to do nearby.”
I decided not to press that topic further, since he just kept stubbornly denying that he cared about the kitten anyway. Instead, I told him about the results of my search for an owner.
“…She is going to ask, and when she has an answer, she’ll come back to tell me.”
“I see…”
His reply was terse, but his eyes were full of joy. He really was the type who’s never honest about his feelings.
“And also,” I continued, “tomorrow morning, there’s something I’d like to do for this kitten. Would you help me?”
I wanted to do this even if we couldn’t find the kitten an owner, but at first I thought it’d be impossible, given how tense he was around me. But seeing how relaxed he was around Arneau gave me hope. And Arneau obviously cared a lot about the kitten, so he’d probably help me.
“And what would that be?”
“Well…”
After getting Arneau to promise that he’d meet me the next day, I went back to the restaurant.
I found Maria in the kitchen preparing to open for dinner, and Sora was there with her. The two seemed to be having fun talking. I was ready to walk inside and greet them, but I remembered just in time that I didn’t want to intrude on Maria and Sora when they were together. I don’t want to get myself doomed. I must root for their love. No interfering, I thought, and quickly moved away from the kitchen and into the restaurant’s main dining room.
Regina, as usual, was behind the counter and seemed to be skimming through a notebook.
“I’m back. Here are the groceries.”
“Thank you,” she answered, looking up at me.
“What are you reading?” I asked, curious.
“Oh, Maria neatly wrote down the figures of the restaurant’s sales,” she replied.
“She did what?!”
I asked why Maria would go to the trouble of doing something like that, and Regina explained that Maria overheard her complain about how difficult accounting was and offered to help. Maria turned out to be so good at it that Regina eventually just turned the whole task over to her.
I was surprised both by Maria having yet another skill and by Regina lacking yet another skill.
“Maria’s really incredible, isn’t she?” I remarked.
“She sure is,” declared Regina. “She can cook, she can keep the books, and she even gave me various suggestions on how to cut operating costs.”
Just how much does Regina plan to rely on a single temporary employee? I thought to myself. Still, no matter how much she was entrusted with, Maria was able to do it. I’d always known that she was smart, but she still managed to impress me.
“I wonder if she would stay to work here even after the mission is over…” Regina trailed off.
“Maria easily ends up working too hard without realizing it, so try not to ask too much of her, please,” I replied, knowing about her tendency to comply whenever people relied on her.
“You’re probably right… She looks like the type. I’ll try to be careful,” Regina replied, but then she followed it up with, “If only she wasn’t a Light Magic user…” and I wasn’t really sure I could trust her.
I went back to take a look at the kitchen and noticed that Sora wasn’t there anymore. He’d probably gone back to his room. Since now I could go in without interfering with their budding romance, I approached Maria, and she let me try her new dishes for the day. They were delicious. I took the opportunity to ask her about the fact that she was keeping the restaurant’s books for Regina and whether she was overworking herself.
“Not at all. If anything, now that those messy books are all nice and tidy and I have been able to think about how to reduce all that wasteful spending, I feel much better. I enjoy this kind of thing,” she said with eyes full of delight.
Now that I thought back on it, she seemed to be enjoying herself when I saw her counting the sales and profits at the end of the day. It was a bit unexpected, but maybe she liked working with money.
After I discovered this new side of my friend’s personality, it was time to open the restaurant for dinner for the third day in a row.
Just as Regina expected, Maria’s cuisine drew in even more customers than on the previous days, and there were few empty seats. I’d also already gotten so used to being a waitress that I managed to do my job without any major mishaps.
Earlier, Regina had informed me that most of the customers stopped by here after work. They’d have a meal or a drink after they were done selling goods or loading cargo at the harbor and then they’d head home. It was easy to imagine that they weren’t really interested in fancy dishes. They wanted the kind of simple but tasty meal that they could eat in their own homes, which was exactly what Maria was making.
“Excuse me, Miss. I’ll take today’s special,” one late customer called out to me. He was the man who’d given me the apple earlier that day.
I thanked him for that while I took his order.
“Ha ha, it’s just an apple, don’t mention it. By the way, my daughter said that she was here today and mentioned how good you were to her. Thanks, Miss,” he added with a laugh.
“Not at all! I was happy to see how much she liked our menu. And she also said she’d help me in my search for an owner.”
“Oh, you mean about the kitten? She told me about it, and I asked someone who said they could take it. They’ll come by tomorrow evening to pick it up.”
“Really?! Thank you very much!”
Yeah! That must be the person she was talking about earlier! I didn’t think we’d find the kitten an owner this fast. I thanked the man and his daughter again and then (with permission from Regina and Maria) I gave him some small sweets to take back home.
And so another evening at the restaurant came to a finish. The old employees left once we were almost done with the cleanup, and Regina reported on what she’d heard on that day.
“With all these customers, I was able to listen to a lot of talk. And I even heard about a rumor of a kidnapped girl being sold to someone from another country,” she said.
“So there really was human trafficking going on!” We finally obtained a valuable piece of information.
“That seems to be the case, but it’s only a rumor. The man who talked about it sounded like he was just trying to warn his daughter against playing outside at night. I’ll need to look into it further.” Regina shrugged.
“I see…”
After all, it wasn’t going to be that easy.
“And I’m also still investigating those foreigners at the harbor. They look suspicious, but nobody has witnessed them committing any actual crime,” Regina continued.
All in all, after three days, we still didn’t know anything new. It was so frustrating.
“Hm…” Regina furrowed her brow. “If we’re having this much trouble finding information, it means that someone with a lot of power in our country is involved.”
I didn’t really understand what she meant, so I asked her to elaborate.
“Foreigners usually don’t know that much about Sorcié, so when they break the law, they usually get quickly found out by someone, and the rumors start spreading. But if they had an insider helping them, they’d be able to cover their tracks better, leaving everyone in the dark. And the more powerful that insider is, the better. I may not look it, but I know about pretty much everything that happens around these parts. My information network is quite a bit wider than just this restaurant. To be honest, I thought that I’d be able to find the girl you’re looking for much faster…” She paused for a while, then continued, “I don’t know who’s behind this, but they’re going to be a lot of trouble for us.”
That would explain why we were having such a hard time finding any leads, but I wasn’t expecting it… I wondered who the powerful Sorcié insider was. Could it be a noble? The nobles who had caused us those problems at the Assembly were foreigners though. I couldn’t get the idea of one of our nobles helping them out of my head, but thinking about it by myself wouldn’t be of any help.
Sora was the next to report, but he said that he hadn’t found any leads at the harbor either. Our end-of-day meeting closed quite grimly.
“Oh, by the way,” Regina added, “Larna stopped by earlier. She asked how you were doing, and I told her that you were working hard and doing great.”
“Larna was here?! When? Where is she now?” I asked.
We hadn’t seen her since the first day when she had said that she’d be investigating on her own, and I wondered what she was up to.
“I’m not so sure because I didn’t ask for details, but she seemed busy.”
Regina’s answer was as useless as I’d come to expect from her. We were all disappointed, but we concluded that at least knowing that she was safe was better than nothing. We all went back to our rooms.
Before parting for the night, Sora and Maria, who knew that I’d been out on errands on my own during the day, both told me to be very careful. Sora especially warned me not to go to any weird places and not to follow any strangers. He must have been really worried about me.
“Don’t worry!” I assured both of them.
I’m not a kid—I’m not going to walk into any weird place or follow any stranger. From Jeord just before leaving for the mission to my colleagues here on the job… Why does everyone always worry so much?
Anyway, on the following day, as soon as I was done with my errands, I was planning to go into that alley to meet with Arneau. Would he be happy to know that I found the kitten an owner?
Now that I think of it… Would Arneau count as a stranger? Well, I spoke with him for quite a while and he looks kind, even if a bit cold, so I guess he isn’t a stranger anymore.
I went straight to sleep, because I wanted to wake up early on the following day. I jumped right into the bed which I’d already gotten used to.
The next day, I did just as planned. I finished my errands early, brought the groceries back to the restaurant, and went to the alley. Arneau was already there with the kitten.
“I’m sorry, was I late?” I asked.
“No, I just arrived too,” he replied, but I saw the meat he was feeding to the kitten, and almost all of it was gone. He’d probably been here for a while and said that not to bother me. He always replied coldly, but I could tell how kind he was.
“I found an owner for the kitten.”
“I see.” He smiled.
“Oh!” I gasped, surprised by seeing him do so for the first time since I first met him.
“What?” He immediately went back to his usual annoyed face. Why is he like this?
“No, it’s nothing. Anyway, so, would you…?”
“Sure,” he replied, and then easily lured the kitten over with the meat and gently picked him up.
At first, the kitten twitched a little bit, but he went back to looking comfortable when Arneau started patting his head. No hissing or anything. If I tried to do the same, I was pretty sure he’d just scratch me and run away.
“There’s a garden near here, and the people living there have given me permission to put him there for the time being. Let’s go,” I said, guiding Arneau to a small house nearby.
The home belonged to the fruit shop owner who’d given me the apple on the previous day. Both he and his daughter were out, working or helping with the shop, but I’d gotten permission beforehand.
I stood in front of the bucket full of water and the bottle of shampoo that I’d prepared, rolled up my sleeves, and looked at Arneau.
“Let’s do it,” I said.
The kitten, probably understanding what was going to happen, started shaking.
“Please, Arneau…”
“Okay,” he said, slowly lowering the kitten into the bucket.
The cat, who’d probably never had a bath before in his life, was struggling to get away.
Arneau gently stroked his head, repeating, “It’s all right, it’s all right…”
The kitten was so filthy that I was worried that he’d get sick. I was planning to wash him clean with Arneau’s help, since the kitten was obviously very attached to him. I also thought that looking clean would help him find an owner sooner. Of course, we’d already found one, thanks to the fruit shop owner’s daughter, but I figured that it’d be better to wash him anyway.
“Okay, I’ll start,” I announced, grabbing the shampoo and walking closer to the kitten, who promptly started hissing at me.
He still didn’t like me that much. But he did eat the sausage I gave him… I sighed.
“Arneau, say… Do you think you could do it?” I suggested, thinking that it’d probably be better if he were the one to actually do the washing.
“…Okay.” He took the shampoo in one hand and slowly moved it toward the kitten, who looked scared but didn’t hiss.
He probably didn’t like the water but he could trust Arneau. The kitten obviously liked him a lot.
That made me a bit envious. But after all I had Pochi, a pet who liked me a lot too. Well, maybe not a “pet.” A Dark Familiar.
Arneau started scrubbing down the kitten, who looked scared like a cute little baby.
“…Will this do?”
“Yes. He looks much better now. Thank you, Arneau.”
He was very thorough with the shampoo, and the kitten was now perfectly clean.
“Could you wipe him dry?” I requested, handing him a towel. He did so, very gently, until the kitten was dry and shiny.
“Look at how shiny he is! So he used to be dark brown…” I said, before looking at Arnaeu and adding, “He has the same color of hair as you, now that I think of it.”
He pulled at his hair and then looked at the kitten, as if he’d only realized it just now.
“By the way, I was planning to hand over the kitten to the new owner today at the Harbor Restaurant. Could you bring him there later on?”
“Why does it have to be me?”
“I don’t think he likes me… I don’t know whether I’d be able to carry him. Please!”
“…Fine,” he agreed with a sour face.
Since he seemed very attached to the kitten, he’d probably feel better seeing what kind of person was going to keep him. When Arnaeu realized that his hair was the same color as the kitten’s, he looked so happy.
I put back the borrowed bucket, towel, and shampoo, and returned to the restaurant. We were going to have to open for lunch soon, and then it’d be time to meet the kitten’s new owner. I hoped they were going to be kind.
★★★★★
It had been a while since I had first found the kitten in the alley. Lately, he had even started eating straight out of my hand. Before I noticed, I was going to that alley to feed him whenever I could. He was very small, but he probably understood that leaving that place was too dangerous for him. Or maybe he knew that I’d come to bring him food. Whatever the case, he was always there.
I was on my way to give him some ham, as usual, when I found someone crouching in the alley next to the kitten. The alley was so dim that I didn’t notice until I was very close.
“I found this kitten and was just giving him some sausage. Is this your cat?” asked a girl with brown hair and blue eyes.
I was coming to see him every day, but I wasn’t his owner. I told her that he was probably a stray. Telling her that I was feeding him often was kind of embarrassing, so I ended up sounding a bit cold.
She was unfazed by my icy response, and asked me whether I knew about his parents. I told her that his parents were either dead or they had abandoned him. That happened a lot, even with people.
“But will he be able to make it on his own?” she questioned. She was obviously raised in this wealthy country, never having to worry about surviving another day.
But if the kitten wasn’t able to survive by himself, he’d just die. That’s how the world worked, and it applied the same to me, the other kids in the slums, and this kitten too. I told her as harshly as I could, so that she’d realize that I didn’t want to keep the conversation going any longer… But she didn’t seem to get it. She was either very strong-willed or very dumb.
She asked me whether I was planning to keep the cat. I told her that I couldn’t, because I didn’t live here. I asked her the same thing, so that I wouldn’t have to worry about feeding him myself. Unfortunately, she said that she didn’t live here either. I’d have to leave eventually, and if this kitten found a home, I wouldn’t have to worry about him. The girl said she’d ask around about finding an owner, and I was honestly grateful. I was starting to get attached to this little one. Just a bit.
“I can’t bring him back with me right now, however. Do you think he’ll be fine?” she asked.
“Yeah, he’s always in this alley. It should be fine even if you come by later.”
“I’m so glad. I’ll look for an owner and, when I find one, I’ll come back to pick up the kitten.”
“Whatever… I’ll come by to check on him too,” I said. Actually, I was stopping by whenever I could, but I didn’t have to tell her that.
She told me the name of the restaurant where she was working and smiled at me. I really couldn’t tell what she was thinking. She called me “young man,” which just sounded weird, so I told her my name instead. As I was leaving, she introduced herself as Katarina. I felt weird. It was like a tingling sensation in my chest.
When I got back to work, the girl was crying again. The others looked annoyed and they asked me to do something about it. I sighed and put on a smile and my gentlest voice.
“Is everything all right?” I asked her. I didn’t have any special talent and I’d never even been to school. This farce was all I could do.
That tingling in my chest was all gone.
In the evening, since I had some free time, I went to check on the little one. He was in the alley, in his usual spot, and as soon as he saw me, he pattered toward me. He’d started doing that lately. Honestly, I was starting to grow attached. If I had a normal life, I’d even consider keeping him myself. I stroked his head, and he purred at me. He was so small and weak that I felt I had to protect him. I fed him some meat, piece by piece.
“Oh!” I heard a voice behind me all of a sudden. It was that girl, Katarina.
After I told her that I only came here every once in a while, she saw me in the alley again after just a few hours. Well that was awkward.
“Do you come by often?” she asked sweetly.
Is she doing this on purpose?
“Not that much. Not that much at all.”
“But you were here earlier too…”
Can’t you take a hint?!
I made up an excuse about having some other reason to be around here, and she finally stopped badgering me about it. But her innocent grin was annoying me so much.
At least what she told me afterward made up for it. She reported that she’d found someone who, maybe, could give the kitten a home. We just had to wait for the answer. If he found a home, he wouldn’t have to worry about starving. He wouldn’t have to worry about dying. I looked at the kitten, who’d been hiding behind me ever since Katarina had stepped into the alley. I let out a sigh of relief.
She then told me that she wanted my help with something. I asked what it was, suspicious, and she started elaborating with a smile.
“Well…”
The next day, I met her in the alley like we’d agreed to. It was still early, so I was feeding the kitten. He was cute when he ate from my hand.
After a while, she arrived, looking like she rushed here. She asked me if I’d been waiting, but I told her I hadn’t. After all, I just came early because I wanted to.
Then she said that she found someone who wanted to keep the kitten. He’d be okay… And a girl as nosy as this one was bound to find someone that’d be nice to him. From now on, he wouldn’t have to worry about being hungry, cold, or threatened. I was so happy for him that the corners of my mouth curled up in a smile.
“Oh!” she exclaimed in surprise, staring at me.
She saw me smiling… I smiled a lot for work, but it was always fake. This was probably the first time since I was a child that someone had seen me smile for real, and I felt so embarrassed. Or maybe it was the first time I smiled for real since being a child, regardless of whether anyone saw it or not.
“What?” I grumbled, sounding annoyed because of how awkward I felt.
“No, it’s nothing,” she replied. She finally showed that she could get a hint…sometimes.
We then decided that it was time to go wash the kitten. I lured him closer to me with a piece of meat and then carefully picked him up. I had stroked his head before, but I’d never actually taken him in my arms. He was so light. I thought he’d try to get away, but he just sat there in my arms. I felt warm… Was that something special about small kittens? Or were other living things like this too?
Katarina showed me to the garden where we were going to give him his bath. She prepared a bucket full of water and a bottle of shampoo.
When he saw her roll up her sleeves, the kitten started shaking.
I carefully lowered him into the full bucket. He looked scared, probably because this was his first time taking a bath. I stroked his head and told him that it was all right, and he calmed down.
We were washing him because Katarina said that being so dirty could end up making him sick, and even if it didn’t, it’d make it more difficult for him to find a home. I promised to help her, in part because what she said made sense, and in part because the kitten just hissed at her whenever she tried to get too close.
When she took the bottle of shampoo in her hand, he hissed even louder than usual. I thought she wouldn’t be able to wash him, and she must have realized the same thing.
“Arneau, say… Do you think you could do it?” she asked as she handed me the shampoo.
I’d never washed an animal this small but I couldn’t step back after getting so far. I started scrubbing him, making sure not to hurt him. Once I was done, I asked her what she thought.
She said that he looked all nice and clean, and that we could wipe him dry now.
“Look at how shiny he is! So he used to be dark brown…” she remarked after I was done with the drying. She was right. He almost looked like a different cat. Now he can find happiness…
Out of the blue, Katarina said that the kitten and I had the same hair color.
I pulled my hair toward my face and checked it. I never really looked at my hair, so I hadn’t noticed, but she was right. It was just a coincidence, of course. But then…why did I feel so happy about it? Why did my chest feel so warm?
“By the way, I was planning to hand the kitten to the new owner today at the Harbor Restaurant. Could you bring him there later on?” she requested.
I asked her why I’d need to do that, but she was almost begging me, so I eventually gave in. I wanted to see who was going to keep him, and whether it was someone who could make him happy.
Even after parting with Katarina, I still felt warm inside. The kitten was so cute… He reminded me of something. Something from my childhood in the slums.
One day, a grown-up had walked into the slums. He wasn’t like the other grown-ups around us. He started teaching us kids lots of stuff. And when I was around him, I felt warm in my chest—just like with the kitten.
I didn’t know why I felt like that, and it felt awkward, so I tried to avoid him. One of the kids closest to me, however, really liked that man and was always around him. I remember how happy he sounded when that man had given him a name.
One day, the kid came to talk to me. He was going to go to look for medicine because the man had gotten sick. I never saw that boy again.
I later heard a rumor that he was caught stealing and was then sold off as a slave. What an idiot, I thought. There’s nothing we can do to help other people. We can barely do enough to help ourselves.
I wondered how that kid was doing right now.
Was he even still alive?