I couldn't sleep after what had happened to me. That damn Joker...
I kept on tossing and turning all night but still can't sleep. Curse you, Kaitou Joker.
Just as how I was last time, sleep was evading from me. But this time, just when I thought I could get some sleep, Miss Purple had already knock on my door and calling me to get up.
I answered back that I would be ready in a short time, and ignored the rest of her sentence. I only realized it's already morning with the sun shinning into the room.
I sighed and got ready for the day. Just as I was walking down the stairs, I suddenly thought of what did Miss Purple said just now. Was it to visit a royal family or something? I only remembered her saying we were invited to some sort of meet up with other nobles.
I stood midway until Miss Purple called me once more, stuffed a small present in my hands, then only I make my way down for breakfast.
After that scrumptious meal, I entered the carriage, lost in the scenery outside as the carriage pulled our way to the unfamiliar kingdom, Roseland.
The whole place was crawling and blooming with roses, despite them all being full of thorns, the whole castle still looks neat and tidy.
A short little girl in her tidy uniform stood near the entrance,"A-ah, g-good morning, Your Highness, I-I am Cecile Brun-n-ner, h-here to show you th-the way t-to Princess Roselina." She must be a personal servant to Princess Roselina, I believe.
She opened the doors and led the way to meet Princess Roselina. The place is huge that walking from the entrance to the guest room seemed to be a maze. Although the hallways were bright, I clutched the present in my hands uneasily, the whole place seemed to be making my head dizzy as I walked through them.
When we finally reached the guest room, the timid little servant knocked on the door, announcing my presence and left us there. "Y-y-your Highness, Princess Q-Queen has a-arrived,"
"About time you are here!" There was a tone of impatience from the voice owner. I peeked inside and see the princess in there. She was dressed all flouncy and fancy, petting a cat in her laps.
She stood up, and marched right in my direction. I slightly curtsied at her,"Pleasure to meet you, my name is Que---" I was then interrupted by her series of actions.
She first leaned in to check my hair,"Hmm..." then turned to the other side and kept looking up and down at me. "Not too shabby, but not even pretty."
She must have noticed the small present in my hands,"Oooh! What have we got there?" She snatched the present from my hands and opened it, "A hello gift for me?" In the present was a golden necklace carved in the shape of a rose, "Mm-hmm... Seems like you've got the correct taste, for once." she snorted.
I was a bit stunned, unsure of how should I react to her way of meeting someone new, it was rather rude but I didn't want to give her the same impolite reply.
"Oh yes, what was I thinking about earlier... ..." She murmured to herself, "Yes. A tea party." She stared at me, "Let's go." Then roughly grabbed me to her tea party venue by my arm.
The garden was filled with the strong aroma of roses, she dragged me to the table set for tea nearby. There were also several spilt paint cans were found near a scrapped canvas next to the table. She poured me a cup of rosy pink tea, and tried to start a conversation. "Well this is... Weird. How should we start? Hmm... ... Tell me about your life!"
"Um, my life?"
"Well of course, your life as a lowly commoner?" She rolled her eyes at my question, she could have added a "duh" at the back.
"Uh, well I was just living a life as a normal girl?"
"Well yeah, like what did you do as a living? Did you like, work in the fields, sleep in the trees, and eat from a whole boar leg as a meal?" That was... Out of my expectations.
"No, I don't. I worked at a florist near Mount Hyacinth. I had my own house, and I eat from my plate, not a whole boar leg."
"Oh." Was all she said, clearly uninterested at my answers.
"Where is His Majesty if I may ask? I thought I was invited here to meet His Majesty?" I took a sip of the tea, trying to be not so nervous around her.
"About that, hmm, you see, I made my father to write that invitation so I could have you come over to meet me."
"Well why would you do that?" She could have sent an invitation by herself, I took another sip as I waited for her answer.
"Because, well... ..." She didn't seem to be really answering. "A-anyways, I have also invited Jack over to this tea party." She covered her mouth with a fan and looked away.
"At least you had given me a much more better gift than the one you gave him, hmph! But that doesn't mean I'll forgive you!" She suddenly started to scream a bit at her last sentence. In a mix of confusion and shocked, I looked at her and thought what had I ever done to her? I don't even recall meeting her before.
"So tell me, what kind of magic did you use on that cheap-o of yours?"
"Wh-what?" I was getting more and more confused, I stopped my cup mid-air and looked at her big angry eyes.
"Well that stupid garland you gave him! What kind of magic did you use on it??! Spells? What kind of tricks, illusions is that?!" She stood up from her chair, making it fell back behind her.
"It was just a plain garland, that was all."
"Lies!! Do you think you can fool me with that kind of tricks?! Do you take me for an idiot or what?!" She stomped her foot angrily but kept bombarding weird questions at me.
Out of a sudden, she turned to the other side and seemed to be sobbing,"Hics... It-it was your fault! Now Prince Jack, hics... Doesn't love me... Hics... Anymore..."
"What... ... ???" I did not know that they were in love(???)
I suddenly felt bad for her, but if they really were a couple then that would make me the third wheel in their relationship, and if this kind of scandalous news spreads all over the world my reputation on behalf of my father and my subjects will all be angered and I might lose the hope of helping out my kingdom and everyone will turn to hate me for being the bad person--- my brain couldn't stop thinking about the what-ifs and consequences I will face for my presence between them.
"I'm sorry to hear this from you, but, that's not true."
"Hics... Hics... Lies! Lies! Lies! You were only trying to persuade me that's not true so you can keep on lying to everyone then they will only believe an ugly duckling like you!"
"We... We are just friends." My face blushed in anger or embarrassment, I was unsure. I disliked the way she called me by ugly names, nor do I feel like being with Prince Jack as a couple after knowing they were the match.
"I will keep my distance with him if that makes you feel more comfortable." I set the tea cup down and stood up, ready to leave the place. "I'm sorry to hear that from you, but thank you for your invitation."
"No! You are not going anywhere!" She grabbed my arm once again, hurtfully pulled me back to my seat.
"Wha--?"
"Since you used some tricks on him and won't admit it, then I shall use the same method on you too!"
"What are you---" I felt something weird going on with my body, it was shrinking, making me smaller and fluffier.
Wait, fluffier? I reached out my hands but to see two fluffy white paws. "Meow?!(What?!)"
"I shall turn you into something he hates! If he hates you, then he will only love me!" She grinned widely then started laughing like a broken picolo.
"Meow! Meow! (What?! How could you? How??)"
Just then, there was a quick rustling coming from behind us.
"Y-your, huff... Your high-highness, Prince J-Jack has arrived."
"Where is Queen?" There came Jack and Cecile.
"Oh, Jack! You're here!" She was now no longer crying, running towards Jack and clinging onto his arm. He tried to withdraw his arm from her embrace, but she only clung tighter onto him.
"Where is Queen, Roselina?"
"Why are you talking about her? It was only supposed to be our time together!" She pouted at his question.
"You said that you had invited her over."
"But she had already left! And you have no idea that how rude she was!"
"Huh?"
"Look at all this mess she made! I was just showing her a painting of my beautiful roses, then she splattered my paint cans all over the canvas! She said that roses are the worst flowers of all! The most disgusting! Grossest! Flower ever! She even scraped my paintings! Oh my poor, poor, poor roses! Even they are still dripping with the splashed paint!"
What? That wasn't even true!
I turned to Jack, who was facepalming at her absurd stories. He sighed,"Roselina, that was your doing, wasn't it?"
"What?! But she did this to me! How could you not have a single hint of sympathy??!" She was on the verge of screaming.
"It was very obvious that you did this. The canvas was scraped from top right to bottom left, Queen wouldn't have done that since she's a right-handed person. You, on the other hand, are a left-handed person. Even the directions of the paint splashes are the same as the scraped parts."
"I-I, b-but-but---" There was no sound of retortion coming out from her. She stood there dumbfounded as he caught her red-handed.
"Meow~(Haha! Serves you right for lying!)" I meowed at his statement.
"A cat?" His brows furrowed at the sight of a cat, me, but then looked around the garden. "How is Queen not here..." He muttered then start walking around and calling out for me.
"Queen! Where are you? Queen!" He ran around while looking for me, while I on the other hand has been following him all the time.
"Meow! Meow! Meow!(Jack! It's me! Queen!)"
When he finally turned to look at me, he only sighed heavily, "Why are you following me, little one? Ah-choo!" The sneeze startled me, but I tried going near him. "Oh, no, no. Sorry, little one, but I'm allergic to your-- Ah-choo! Cuteness..." I stopped at my spot, so that's why Jack hates cats, I guess he's allergic to their fur.
"Meow..." I looked down at the ground, there was nothing I can do to help him, nor can I help myself out of this situation. "Ahaha... "He smiled bitterly,"Ah-choo! Guess you want to run away from Rose-- Ah-choo!--lina, huh?"
"Jack~ Come back here! Queen really had left, but we can still have our time together!" Looks like someone has "recharged".
Jack doesn't seemed to be convinced by her words, he kept looking around the crazy rose garden. I tried to follow him, but this time, I got picked up by Roselina. "Oh, you're not going anywhere. Little--" she eyed Jack,"Little Mewsetta."
I struggled hard and tried to escape from her grasp, meowing as hard as I could. "Meow! Meow!! Meow!!" Those calls must had got Jack's attention, he came over and asked,"I don't remember seeing this cat around here before."
"Oh well, you know, I just bought it today. Its name is, Mewsmore, yeah."
"Huh, and I thought Miss Mewsmore is your other--Ah-choo!--Persian cat?" He eyed her suspiciously.
"Oh what? You must have gotten their names wrong, hahaha!"
"What is this cat's breed?"
"It's a, um, Tiger-Li! It was pretty fierce like a tiger, you can see how it scratched my hands as I was just picking her up, didn't you?" Jack sneezed one more time, but didn't seem to be buying at all.
"Roselina, that isn't a Tiger-Li, a Tiger-Li is a striped cat, this one's a pure white." He snatched me out from the devil's grasp. "And since when did you--Ah-choo!--even buy a cat breed other than--Ah-Choo!--a Persian?" He took a cautiously close look at me, I meowed at response, trying very hard at hinting my identity.
"I am going back now, you had better not hurt Queen at all." He angrily gritted those words out, and marched towards his transport.
"Jack? Jack! She just--Jack!!" He ignored her without another word.
Once he got onto his carriage, he put me aside while furiously tapping on his phone, and kept placing the phone near his ear once in a few while. "Jack? I'm sorry but I didn't know where she is." That sounded like King.
"Queen? But I haven't seen her nor heard from her since this morning. Is everything alright? I'll have to get Miss Purple right now!" I heard Ai's worries from the other side and couldn't help mewing, trying to talk to her.
"That will be muchly appreciated, I'll keep asking around." With that, he hung up. For the next few moments, he kept on texting and calling others.
He leaned back at the seat, defeated. Despite having lots of sneezes during his ride, he still looked at me like it was nothing. "Where could she be?" He sneezed again, then picked me up in his hands. "You know, your eyes looked like her, well, Queen," There goes another "Ah-choo!", he laughed it off, "I hope Triple R didn't make you play the--Ah-Choo!--Rose Cruise with her, I had seen her stuffed other--Ah-Choo!--cats in a box and pulled them down the halls, calling it her 'Rose Cruise'."
What? That's animal abuse! I hissed angrily at his statement.
"I hope Queen never got--Ah-Choo!--there, Roselina's attitude," he sighed,"She liked to brag, but that's not all--Ah-Choo!--she's always mean and I didn't like her around at all."
"Guess you're a--Ah-Choo!--lucky one." He gently pet my head, it was so warm that I felt asleep right next to his laps. Finally getting some sleep...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I had no idea how long have I slept for, but it felt great to really have some rest. The ride came to a stop, the next thing I knew, we were at the Jones' Castle.
"Come on now, little one," he picked me up as he got out from the carriage.
We were then approached by two other people. One of them was a short little girl with pink hair, while the other was a cyan-haired boy who looked almost like Jack, but I don't think that Jack has a twin brother? But speaking of which, I think I have met him somewhere before?
"Cyan, Rose, have you got any lead?"
"Yes, your highness, but--" the girl named Rose, looked at me with her big eyes, suddenly changed her sentence,"I think this is her! Thank goodness you had brought her back!" Jack seemed to be confused, "Hold on, I will go and brew the correct antidote right now!"
Rose ran off hurriedly, Cyan just continued on, "This cat, she said, must be Princess Queen that you are looking for."
"What?" He looked at me again, "Meow! Meow!(I was trying to tell you so!)"
"Guess you have heard my conversation--Ah-Choo!--, huh?"
"Meow! Meow!"
About an hour later, Rose brought me a blue potion that is said to help me change back into human. It tasted a tad more sour than I thought. The magic worked and I looked at how my fluffy paws are back to normal looking hands again!
"Thank you so much!" I appreciately shook her hands as I thanked her for the help.
"Thank you too, Jack--" he hugged me and there was only silence. "Jack?"
"I am so sorry, I didn't think you would attend this invitation sent by Roselina."
"Huh?" He reluctantly let go of me, then continued on,"She asked her father to invite you for a meetup, didn't she? That was just a casual way of her trying to set up traps. She knew that you wouldn't come if she sent the invitation by herself, that's because if I knew she was inviting you over, I would have stopped you, that was her way of doing so."
"But I'm glad you're ok, Queen."
"Thank you all again," I fished out my phone from my pocket, looks like my phone magically appear on me again, then called for Miss Purple and Ai and told them what had happened.
"Goodness me, Your Highness! I shall let them send you home immediately,"
"Oh my gosh! Queen! It's a relief to know that you're alright!"
"Yes, Ai. I am fine, no worries." After ensuring I had everyone knowing that I am fine, I turned to Jack and gave him a hug.
"Thank you very much again, see you! " I then got home safely, hoping there will never be anyone who got turned into a cat by Roselina. Or get near her.