Ch 5 Teacher and Student Showdown
Kittens were playing in a sunny spot. Their limbs were bigger than their own bodies.
[They would be around one, two months old?]
They kept running after something, then returned to their mother’s side with tottering steps and anxious expressions.
[I'm sure this is practice hunting. Cats are born hunters. They erase their presence, get close to their prey, and take it down in one strike. That’s what the kittens are learning by playing.]
On the other hand, maybe the mother cat was uninterested about her children's state, or maybe she knew they were safe, but she was stretching out her body in the sun with a big yawn, ready to enjoy some napping.
[Yes, this is probably the safest place in the world.]
The kittens were playing in the courtyard of the Guards headquarters, also known as “Elina's Palace”, one of the small palaces located at the center of Earl Vance’s castle, who led the association of former royal families ruling the west of the Continent.
“*Giggle*…”
Sitting in the sun, a maid with blue hair looked at the kittens, unintentionally smiling when she noticed the mother cat’s relaxed attitude. One wouldn’t be able to tell just by her face, but for a cat lover like her, this could be said to be paradise.
As she looked, the mother cat laid down without a care, and turned her defenseless stomach to the approaching girl as if to tell her to pet it.
“Good grief…”
The girl put on a troubled smile, sat beside the cat and reached out for her. Perhaps they were waiting for her to stand still, but at that moment, the kittens gathered around the girl, clinging to her and meowing.
“Eh? W-Were there so many?”
No wonder she was surprised. Kittens were appearing one after another everywhere around the courtyard. Their numbers reached 30 or more. Following their animal instincts, they flocked to her right hand.
“H-Hey!”
There, she held pieces of dried meat she had brought to feed them.
She tried to spring back at once, but noticed the kittens at her feet, lost her balance completely and fell on her butt.
“Kyah!”
With a small scream, she dropped the pieces of dried meat, which fell all over her body.
“Eh? Ah!?”
Making cute cries –*meow meow*–, the kittens trampled all over her body to get at the dried meat. They ran their tongues everywhere in their pursuit of it: her face, her breasts, her belly (of course), and up her thighs.
“Kyah~, I-I can’t take this!”
She twisted her body, making a small cry that sounded just a tad happy. Even if she liked cats, there was a limit to things.
The name of this girl was Irma. Originally a cleaning lady, she had been selected as the maid of the Captain of the Royal Guard Elina, and now received glares of envy from other subordinates in the castle.
If one didn’t know her true identity and looked at her playing with the cats, from a passerby’s perspective, they’d consider her harmless. Fortunately, no one did know that she was the best assassin in the “Assassins of Fang,” the assassination force commanded by the Queen.
“Sigh, just what am I doing…”
Irma gave a brief voice of lament as the kittens trampled all over her, still face up on the courtyard. She hadn’t fulfilled her mission of killing Earl Vance, she hadn’t found the Master Swordswoman Maria’s secret techniques; she was just unnecessarily spending her days as Elina’s personal attendant.
“When will I be able to accomplish my mission here?”
The kittens leaned and rubbed everywhere on her body, making her tickle.
“Hyau.”
A seductive voice escaped her lips.
[If someone saw me like this, what would they think?]
She raised her upper body quietly so as to not disturb the kittens... but what she saw left her stiff as a statue. Before she could even notice, a huge white tiger was in front of her eyes.
Back when the Master Swordswoman Maria, hailing from the northern territory, got married, she was rumored to have brought several white tigers with her.
[This white tiger here, would it be one of their descendants…?]
Whatever the case, the fact didn’t change that it was a dangerous situation for Irma. It was said that a white tiger’s power was equivalent to 30 soldiers'; it had fangs and claws sharper than your average sword, strength enough to crush armor, and explosive power able to jump over moats.
Irma might have boasted of her lightning speed, but she was just human; she couldn’t exceed a tiger’s reaction speed. She held her breath as she stared at it.
[Its fur is white, there's an air of nobility exuding from it. It looks smooth, too. I bet it feels soft to the touch.]
Thinking so, Irma stretched her hand to the tiger.
“H-Hello…”
[I can’t escape, so I can only go forward.]
As she tried to still her fast beating heart, her fingertips touched its throat. Purring, it slowly rubbed its head on Irma’s body.
[It seems it’s not hostile.]
She gave a sigh of relief, and calmly looked around.
Taking a closer look, many of those kittens were too big to be called so.
“Are they your children?”
The tiger licked Irma’s face in silence, once and again.
“Kyau.”
[I guess I was right.]
Making a little smile, she tried patting its cheeks; it was rare for a person to have a chance at touching a tiger directly.
“This does feel good.”
Noticing her own smile, Irma’s cheeks went red.
[I can’t believe myself! Restrain yourself, restrain yourself! I am an assassin!]
“Ah…”
The tiger suddenly separated from her, as if it could sense what she was thinking.
[No, that’s not the case. It noticed its master appearing.]
As soon as she saw her, Irma straightened her disheveled neck in a hurry.
A girl, with golden hair harking back to a fruitful wheat field and blue eyes like the summer sky, casually stroke the tiger’s ear.
“Looks like you had fun, Timorf.”
The white tiger barked when she called its name.
She was Elina, owner of the tiger and the palace, and leader of the Vance Royal Guards.
“You too, Irma.”
She called her name with a smile.
“Lady Elina, is your body alright now?”
The maid approached Elina quietly so as to not startle the tiger.
“Thanks to the herbal baths, I am.”
She claimed so, sticking out her chest. The metal breastplate around her breasts made a small sound.
“I made a blunder against that magician, but I’m fine now. We’ll resume the search for Sister tomorrow.”
Currently, the Royal Guards had been given the mission to capture the heiress of Earl Vance and Elina’s actual sister, Leina. In the middle of it, Elina had fought against Nyx, a magician carrying a grudge against the Vance house, and suffered an unexpectedly serious wound due to her powerful magic attack, which forced her into recovery.
“Understood. I’ll start the preparations right away.”
Irma bowed, and turned her back to Elina, en route to her room.
“Ah, Irma, wait a minute, I came here to ask you something.”
While she stroked the white tiger's back, the blonde stopped her.
“What is it?”
“Deliver this back to my father, Earl Vance.”
She held out a letter to the maid. The rolled up letter was sealed with beeswax, pressed with the Royal Guards crest: a white tiger about to bark.
That was a genuine official document used in the Earl Vance territory, the kind only the Earl himself and those analogous to him had the authority to open; the noble had shown her something highly confidential only her sister Leina or herself should handle.
“M-Me?”
Her voice cracked involuntarily. That was the best chance so far at accomplishing her original mission, assassinating the Earl.
[However…]
“You don’t need to be so tense. Just say “I brought the report,” and he’ll dismiss you with a “Right, much obliged.” “
Elina even mimicked the Earl to try and ease Irma’s tension. Apparently, she had misinterpreted her cracking voice as a sign of nervousness.
“So again, you don’t need to be so tense.”
With a telling smile, the Vance daughter took off the silver headdress holding her hair and put it on Irma’s head.
“W-What’s this?”
“This is proof of being the Captain of the Royal Guard. That's what you'll be until you deliver it and return.”
“H-Huh?”
Elina’s actions only confused her.
[I’m just delivering a letter, why take things so far?]
“A-And why not deliver it yourself?”
“I don’t want to listen to his nagging.”
The aristocrat made a slightly sulky expression.
Seeing the face of that girl her same age, Irma remembered her complex feelings. Elina trusted her. If she killed her father, what kind of face would she make? She had made herself the same question over and over again during her travels with Elina, and hadn’t found an answer yet.
Irma breathed in calmly, the letter in her hand, and looked her right in the eye.
“If it’s just that, I accept.”
[I've made up my mind. I don’t mind if she holds a grudge. To carry out my goal, I have to fulfill my mission; assassinate Earl Vance.]
***
The atmosphere of the room had grown cold. The marble floor reflected the murals on the ceiling, both so polished one couldn’t tell at a glance which was the top and which was the bottom. The room was huge, the ceiling high, enough for a giant to enter without crouching down. It was magnificent in its splendor, even surpassing the room of the very Queen governing the Continent.
Such was the office of Earl Vance, descendant of the royal families who used to rule the Continent in the olden days.
“Did 'that' go well?"
The Earl Vance rested his back on the regal chair, and called out to the woman sitting on top of the desk.
In contrast, she barely had clothes on, leaving both her soft-looking breasts and her abundant buttocks completely exposed. Because she wore a snake around her hips.
It was really unusual for Earl Vance, strict about courtesy, to be so lenient about that extremely shameless attitude of hers.
“She really looks a lot like Maria, back when she was young.”
The woman answered, casually as if talking to a friend.
“Is that so?”
Presumably satisfied with the woman’s words, he gave a short answer and put away in a drawer the pendant that was on the desk.
Suddenly, they heard the doorbell, and she jumped dashingly off the desk.
“Looks like duty calls for you, so I’ll take my leave.”
“Wait, Echidna.”
He took off one of the rings he was wearing and tossed it at the woman on her way out.
“This is the reward this time. It has no inscription, deal with it as you like.”
She caught it, and her lips twisted lightly. Goods without an inscription could be dealt with in a myriad of ways, none of them traceable.
“Pleasure doing business.”
***
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