Ch.598Side Episode – Camilla’s Bizarre Adventure

People often say.

Intuition is the sum of all the life and experiences a person has lived.

It was the moment when the hour hand pointed to 12 o’clock.

As I made eye contact with the eerie cat glowing with mismatched colors, I unconsciously thought.

Perhaps,

I might never be able to return to who I was before.

Side Episode – Camilla’s Bizarre Adventure

Like a lantern being lit in pitch darkness, a delicate voice broke the silence.

“You look surprised.”

A cute cat with round, upturned eyes is ordinary. A strange cat speaking human language is extraordinary.

Then what should one call a sorceress who reveals her secrets while hidden in the form of a cat?

She suddenly broke the silence and added.

“There’s no need to hide from me. You can be honest.”

There seemed no reason to ask how long she had known.

Because she had already confessed.

“I’ve known from the beginning.”

Zeinab Eskander revealed her secret with remarkable nonchalance.

Her seemingly confident attitude suggested that she knew exactly what I was curious about, what I was thinking.

As if she could see right through my mind.

And indeed, she could.

“You just said it earlier, didn’t you? That even three bodies would seem insufficient.”

“……”

“One, you’re the subject of a divine oracle bestowed by a celestial deity; two, you’re a government official hiding your identity; three, you’ve flowed in from another world. Thus, one physical body sharing three identities. Wouldn’t even three bodies be insufficient?”

Like walking on ice, the priestess slowly walked across the glass table before settling between us.

She wrapped her tail carefully around her daintily positioned front paws.

Speaking as if stating something simple and obvious.

Camilla and I exchanged silent glances. The girl, wide-eyed and frozen, clearly had no idea what was happening.

Perhaps my face reflected in her eyes looked similar.

“You have remarkable insight.”

“I do have good eyes.”

The priestess deflected the joke with a friendly smile, but I was in no mood for jokes or banter.

“For someone with such exceptional vision, it’s quite the irony that you’ve let the country fall into utter chaos.”

Considering that the priestess was both a religious leader and Ashtistan’s spiritual guide, as well as a sorceress respected in magical circles alongside the Grand Duke, it was an extremely rude statement.

But the situation was hardly appropriate for polite words.

Perhaps that’s why.

Despite my sharp response, the priestess didn’t seem particularly offended as she continued.

“Well, I understand how you feel. If you deny it, there’s nothing I can do. I’m not skilled enough to apprehend traitors in an instant like some people.”

She has no evidence, she explained.

No means to prove I was a spy, nor grounds to demonstrate I came from another world.

She had nothing of the sort in her possession.

“Hmm….”

I sighed involuntarily. Half relief, half exhaustion.

“But why approach me like this? Surely you’re not upset that I cut off Dariush’s head but left Menbashi’s neck intact.”

“You’ve already figured that out, I see. Impressive.”

“Get to the point.”

“There’s no need to deceive yourself, is there?”

The priestess lifted her hindquarters and began to move her front and back legs slowly.

“As you said, I’m not a good ruler. But you know, just as a virtuous general might be recorded as an incompetent one, there’s no guarantee that a good religious leader will necessarily make a good political leader. They’re clearly different matters.”

The priestess of Ashtistan and the priestess of Al-Yabd are separate, distinct entities.

That was her assertion.

“I understand the difference. That Zeinab Eskander who leads Al-Yabd and Zeinab Eskander who leads Ashtistan are different personas.”

“Is that so?”

“Indeed. From a certain perspective, yesterday’s me and today’s me, the me transformed into a cat and the me returned to human form, could be considered different beings if we exclude the continuity of memory.”

“You’re quite philosophical. I dislike philosophy.”

“How can a humanities major say that? Especially when your own existence is similarly complex.”

“……”

“……”

“…What’s your point?”

To my brief, loaded question, the priestess leaped onto the sofa and said:

“Some say virtue naturally emerges when following the Way, but sometimes virtue emerges only after losing the Way. Like a coin with two sides coexisting across a thin boundary.”

“Could you please stop being cryptic and just tell me directly?”

“I mean I’ll help you accumulate the virtue you lack.”

Just as the priestess added this and was slowly approaching me.

The playful cat began poking my side with her front paw.

“Ah. Of course, I’m not talking about that kind of virtue. Just to avoid misunderstanding.”

I tried to brush away her paw like removing a bothersome leaf, but it was already too late.

Evading my hand, the cat quickly darted away, leaping over the table and snuggling into Camilla’s arms. It was lightning-fast movement.

“Wh-what…?”

Ignoring Camilla’s surprised voice, the priestess curled up in her arms and smiled.

It was both a contented smile suggesting comfort and a mocking one that seemed to ask why bother trying to catch what can’t be caught.

Her posture resembled a sphinx so closely that it slightly angered me.

I was about to vent my frustration on innocent air when:

“The gift I give you today is not from me as a priestess, but from me as Zeinab Eskander.”

The priestess wore a meaningful smile.

“So this time, I’ll give you a proper gift.”

More talk of gifts.

What if it causes trouble again?

She claimed to have prepared properly, but I couldn’t even begin to imagine what troublesome issue we’d be entangled in this time.

Should I just boil her in a pot of soybean paste stew right now?

As I grumbled internally, something suddenly changed.

-Blink.

Eyelids slowly closed and opened.

As if someone had flipped a switch,

sound and light drifted away in an instant.

*

It was pitch-black darkness. Nothing visible, nothing audible.

Feeling as though I was dreaming, I just sat there blankly.

Invited into this surreal space, I waited vacantly for a long time.

Until, at some point, a cat appeared before me.

A familiar cat. Glossy tricolor fur, a pair of odd eyes. The two eyeballs shining distinctly even in the pitch-black darkness clearly belonged to someone I knew.

As I tried to approach, the cat’s mouth suddenly moved.

“I will tell you the story permitted to you.”

Despite being a living creature, there was no sound of breathing in its speech.

The voice, lacking internal respiration or resonance, felt as if it came from a distant place.

I felt the urge to cover my ears. The voice approached so strangely.

Had my body obeyed my will, I would certainly have covered my ears with my hands.

“The puppet of destruction prowls around. Beware of the moon.”

“The eternal sleep is about to end. The time of fables approaches.”

“Hungry beasts and slaves of blood are watching for an opportunity. They must be stopped.”

In the midnight darkness, I faced eyes glowing with different colors.

“Go to the crawling fortress with the unquenchable flame. The guide at the grave will lead you. To everything you seek. The answers you want, the answers you don’t want, and even the one you must meet.”

The tricolor cat sits quietly, stretching its small legs.

The touch placed on my forehead feels heavier than a thousand pounds.

“Transplanting that flame into the world.”

Piercing my heart with calm heterochromatic eyes,

Extending glossy, glowing paws to stroke my head,

The paragon of all sorcerers and priestess of Al-Yabd speaks.

Calmly, and with certainty.

“Is your destiny.”

*

I feel as if I’ve fallen asleep and awakened. Strangely refreshed and energized, like that moment when I was staring at the clock filled with mysterious anxiety. I tried to grasp reality for a few seconds.

How much time had passed? It didn’t seem like much.

Camilla on the opposite sofa had a flushed face.

Her eyes, once ringed with dark circles like a panda from Everland, now sparkled brightly as if restored by deep sleep.

“…Frederick?”

“Yeah.”

You didn’t just see that too, did you?

Camilla’s somewhat dazed eyes seemed to ask exactly that. She was sweating profusely, hugging her shoulders as if she’d just had a chilling experience.

I, who had been sitting blankly, opened my mouth. I couldn’t bear the discomfort without breaking this silence.

And I had many questions too.

“Priestess. What was that…”

Looking around, I stopped mid-sentence when I saw Camilla.

“Ca-Camilla! Below! Below you!”

“Why are you suddenly shouting, KYAAAAH…!?”

A shrill scream shook the reception room.

Just as she began to awkwardly check beneath her, Camilla rose from the sofa with lightning speed and immediately knelt before it.

In the spot where she had been sitting was a sprawled cat.

“Ah, uh, aaack…”

It was the unconscious priestess.

Foaming at the mouth and trembling her hind legs, she looked quite precarious. She seemed to embody the very definition of being on the verge of suffocation.

“She must have collapsed and got sat on! Call an ambulance, quickly! Let me perform CPR…”

Camilla shouted, taking a deep breath. Her trembling lips descended upon the cat.

Maybe we should just dig a hole in the yard and bury her. There’s a shovel right there.

In my dazed state, I briefly considered this before remembering that the cat was the priestess, and I dashed toward the telephone.

Attempted assassination.

A bizarre incident where a theocratic nation’s leader was nearly killed by a British-born magician.

By being sat on, no less.