I Reincarnated As A Villainess, But Why Did I Become A Cat Butler Instead? - Chapter 92
Translator: Nabi
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Chapter 92
As he arrived at Dimitri’s office, we sat facing each other with the table in between.
“….”
“….”
There was a brief moment of awkward silence.
Nervously, I stole a quick glance at Dimitri before swiftly lowering my gaze. It was because the scattered memories from last night, when I was drunk, resurfaced in my mind, vividly recalling his face being so close to mine and the feeling of his breath on my skin.
‘It feels like I’m going to die of shame…’
…I kissed that man.
As my face flushed with heat and I involuntarily closed my eyes tightly, Dimitri asked in a concerned voice.
“Are you feeling unwell, Rowaine?”
“N, no!”
I tried to shake my head, waving both hands in the air to distract myself and avoid making direct eye contact with Dimitri. Eventually, I mustered the courage to look at him. However, unlike my anxious demeanor, he appeared completely composed and unfazed.
…No, it felt like I was the one at a loss, which only added to my frustration.
As he entered the office, I nervously observed him unbuttoning two buttons on his shirt that had been done up all the way to his neck.
Anxiously, I bit my lower lip, unsure of what to say or do next.
‘He seems upset… no, he could be. Given the circumstances, he wouldn’t have initiated such actions, and it might just be the effect of alcohol—’
The look on Dimitri’s expression wasn’t an embarrassment.
‘Let’s apologize properly.’
I took a deep breath at the thought. At the same time, he suddenly stood up, causing my body to flinch.
“Isn’t it a bit hot in here?”
“Ah…! Yes, yes. It’s a little hot.”
“I’ll open the window.”
With those words, he strolled around the office and opened the window wide. However, it didn’t make much of a difference in cooling down the temperature. As Madam Elbas had mentioned, it was already noon, and the scorching sun was causing the outside temperature to be even higher than inside.
“It’s already summer, isn’t it?”
“That’s right.”
“Yes.”
The unusually awkward atmosphere continued. Dimitri was undoubtedly getting tired of waiting for me to bring up the conversation first.
As he returned to his seat, he began to rhyme impatiently.
“Last night…”
“Yes, I was wrong!”
I quickly interrupted him, not wanting to hear the reprimanding words, “You did something wrong, didn’t you?” out of his mouth.
“…Last night, I was very disrespectful to you, Dimitri. I must have been too drunk.”
I paused for a moment and glanced at his reaction. His expression seemed to stiffen slightly.
“I was actually going to ask if you slept well, but… I see.”
Since he didn’t say anything after that, I continued my words while being mindful of his reaction.
“To be honest, I don’t remember exactly what I said to you. Whatever I said, I didn’t mean it so please forgive me if I said something hurtful. And, of course, the… the kiss as well.”
“….”
“It was a complete mistake.”
“…Ha, a mistake.”
Dimitri’s expression darkened. Seeming conscious of my gaze, he covered his face with one hand and lowered his head.
My clasped hands tightened with tension.
‘Is he feeling very upset? Well, I guess he would be. Even if we’re not lovers, if someone gets drunk and does something like that, I would also feel very uncomfortable…’
While I was shedding little tears of remorse inside, he suddenly smiled and raised his head.
“You’re saying it was a mistake, the kiss between us?”
“Yes…”
His furrowed eyebrows twitched slightly.
“You don’t remember what happened? Or was it something that you don’t want to remember?”
The atmosphere felt a little strange.
Wanting to avoid misunderstandings, I was as honest as I could be.
“…I vaguely remember that you got angry and told me not to drink anymore in the future…”
Yet, in the face of Dimitri’s chilling demeanor, I found myself unable to continue speaking and fell into silence. It had been a long time since I last saw such an expression on his face—perhaps it was on the very first day I arrived here when I intruded into his room.
It was the expression he had when questioning an intruder.
As I silently reproached myself, Dimitri let out a small sigh and spoke with a slightly softened expression.
“It’s okay. I understand your feelings, Rowaine.”
“Really…?”
“Yes. You don’t need to apologize any further.”
“Then, are we okay…?”
Dimitri let out a smirk.
“At best.”
Gazing at me, he emphasized the words with a somehow burning glint in his eyes.
“That’s right. There’s no way our alliance would be affected by such a small, trivial mistake.”
As he continued to emphasize the words and look into my eyes, I couldn’t help but feel that he was looking for a certain reaction from me. Even though I wanted to meet his expectations if possible, I just couldn’t figure out what he wanted.
So, in the end, I simply smiled kindly and nodded.
“Ah, yes. I’m really grateful that you understand me like that.”
“Ha. Really, until the end…”
“Yes? What do you mean?”
“Nothing.”
He turned his head away with a nonchalant gesture. Although I was puzzled, I maintained a contrite attitude and cautiously asked.
“So, are we going to consider yesterday’s incident as if it never happened?”
Dimitri’s brow furrowed as he gazed directly at me once more. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, narrowing the gap between us while I instinctively leaned back, recalling the memories of yesterday. Though as he motioned for me to come closer, I hesitantly leaned forward in response.
With emerald eyes glinting fiercely, he whispered softly.
“I can’t do that.”
“….?”
“Our kiss happened. It’s not something we can just get rid of like that.”
“….!”
“Keep it in your heart, Rowaine. Next time, you won’t be able to just brush it off as a mistake like now.”
[ T/N: (ノ ω 〃) ACK I’M DEAD— ]
‘…Next time?’
What could that mean? Did he imply that there would be a next time?
‘Is it possible that I have a habit of impulsively kissing when I’m just drunk? No, even if that’s the case, why does he talk about the next time as if it’s certain…’
Seeing me flustered, he smiled slowly.
Just then, the butler came to find me, bringing our conversation to an end.
“Madam, there you are. Baron Placen has something to report.”
“Where is he right now?”
“He’s in your office, Madam.”
“Let’s go.”
As I glanced at Dimitri once and got up from my seat, he lightly tapped on his head. His gesture felt like he was saying, ‘Don’t forget about it.’
It wasn’t until we reached my office that I remembered I had something to ask Dimitri.
‘Ah. Come to think of it, I wanted to tell him that I saw his demon.’
It was originally known that demons were invisible to humans, and only cat shapeshifters and dog shapeshifters could see them.
‘But it appeared so clearly. It looked like a huge snake…’
In the novel, Dimitri dealt with two demons. The first demon was named ‘Shedim,’ who had a humanoid shape similar to a human and specialized in combat, and another one was ‘Samael,’ who served as both a minion and a messenger.
Shedim didn’t make a contract with Dimitri, rather, he was more like an appendix attached to Samael. In addition, he was the demon portrayed in the form of a giant snake.
‘If I really saw Shedim, maybe it wasn’t a mistake that I thought I saw Samael that one day.’
I distinctly remember seeing Samael the day I went to Count Larscel’s mansion and witnessed the battle between the Emperor’s hunting dogs and Dimitri.
‘I’ll ask him about it later since it’s not that important right now.’
Even though it was an interesting experience to be able to see demons, it didn’t seem to bring about any significant changes. Moreover, there was something even more urgent waiting for me.
“Baron Placen, what’s the matter?”
Baron Placen, who had been waiting for me in my office, turned to look at me.
“Oh, you’re here. The renovation of the shapeshifters’ shelter has been completed. I figured the Madam would be waiting, so I came to report right away.”
“The remodeling is finally done! Let’s go tell Avila to move in right away and move the cats from the annex.”
“Yes…”
Baron Placen’s response sounded less enthusiastic.
Excited and motivated, I looked back at him, feeling puzzled.
“Is there a problem?”
“It’s not that, but…”
The Baron, elongating his words, cautiously asked.”
“…Is the Madam really going to operate the shapeshifters shelter?”
“If not, why else would I have asked you to fix that boarding school?”
“As I mentioned before, it will definitely cause a commotion. The council of elders won’t just let it go.”
“I know.”
Despite the fact that I knew that the council of elders wouldn’t miss the chance to use this issue to corner me, I couldn’t back down.
‘I can’t take responsibility for the entire lives of so many shapeshifters.’
At first, all I could think about was how to rescue them from the slave traders, place them under my protection, and provide them with shelter. We had to stand against Count Bilbao and dismantle the slave traders, leaving the shapeshifters with nowhere to go. I couldn’t just abandon them stranded in the process like Dimitri wanted.
For me, bringing the shapeshifters to the shelter was the best option for now.
Yet, when I thought about finding people to take responsibility for their lives after doing all this, the idea of transferring ownership of a handful of the shapeshifters made me uncomfortable.
‘…In the end, it’s like condemning them to a life of slavery elsewhere just like before.’
I wanted to free them from their slave status, but right now, I couldn’t even do that for either Coco or Sasha. Since shapeshifters were considered slaves, they didn’t have identity documents. It meant that if someone caught a slave without identity papers, the captor would become the owner.
Only in exceptional circumstances, like Dimitri’s case, where he was born into a noble family but recognized as an illegitimate child, could some shapeshifters escape slavery. Additionally, children born between commoners and shapeshifters automatically became slaves owned by the commoners.
In other words, while a very small number of shapeshifters might attain noble status, they could never achieve the status of commoners.
In reality, Dimitri was one of the very few shapeshifters who managed to retain his noble status.
‘Until I find a way, I have to protect the shapeshifters I brought and help them integrate into society.’
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Translator’s Note: Hello, it’s Nabi! I’m the translator of this novel ପ( ๑•ᴗ•๑ )ଓ♡ If you like the novel and would like to support me, please feel free to click the button below to go to my kofi~! Thank you so much for always supporting the novels I work on, even if you don’t buy me a coffee, I really do appreciate it a lot. ❤︎
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Usurpadora
Já era de se esperar que ela falasse isso para o nosso gatinho,mas ainda me sinto decepcionada,mas feliz pelo gatinho não tem aceitado isso🥺🤏