A Thief Cat's Ugly Pride
She had plenty she wanted to say.
The trouble was deciding which words to say first.
Aria, her lips still trembling at the edges of all those unsaid things, pushed away the thick arm wrapped around her, rose on unsteady legs, and dragged her panties back up over her thighs.
"……"
The damp, clinging sensation of fabric soaked through with everything he'd wrung out of her was thoroughly unpleasant. The heat hadn't entirely died either — along the line of her sex, which still panted open-mouthed, savoring the faint afterglow, her groin had gone sticky and heavy. It was as if she were living through one of those oppressive, humid summer days firsthand.
And the scent of a female spreading outward with it didn't thin in the slightest — it only grew thicker.
And there was Rohen, watching her like this, smiling with his eyes as if she were cute.
"Idiot……"
She still had so much she wanted to spit at him, but because she had no idea which words would actually come out, Aria flung a petty curse into the room instead, turned her back, and stepped out into the corridor.
Only belatedly did she remember the disgraceful state of herself, the stains she'd left on the office floor — but whatever. He was the heir to the Dragon Tongue, wasn't he? He could handle cleanup on that scale himself.
So she told herself as she walked on.
One step.
Two.
And with every step she took, the same thoughts circled relentlessly through her head — had she really washed herself perfectly clean before coming to see him? Had there been some smell?
'Then why on earth did he——!'
It was embarrassing beyond what words could capture — mortifying, humiliating.
But it was also true that she'd felt every bit as good.
Separate from the pleasure of the flesh.
A satisfaction like a spiritual thirst she'd carried forever had been filled in an instant. And no wonder — unlike what his hands gave her, what his mouth gave her let her feel, deeply, how much he cherished her.
If she, the one who'd experienced it, was left with this restless tangle of emotion lingering in her chest, what must it be like for Rohen, who'd had his face buried between her thighs?
He was the sole prince who would one day ascend the throne — no, the Crown Prince. And she was the bloodline of a power-hungry Empress who had nearly ruined his childhood.
She'd carved most of that sense of unworthiness out of herself, but carving it out completely was impossible, not when the turbulence of their childhoods had run deep for them both.
"Ah……"
She'd done her best to straighten her clothes.
But the reflection that glanced back at her from the mirror in the shadowed corridor told a different story.
'……I need to wash up.'
She turned her steps toward her chambers instead. And then, as she passed, her eyes caught on the door of the room where Lapis was staying — and Aria couldn't help a thoroughly ugly little smile.
She was the thief cat, yes.
But Lapis was, formally and in everyone's eyes, Rohen's lawful wife — the woman who would become Empress.
"This is my first time."
And yet the memory, stained with wantonness, that she had claimed one step ahead of that woman…
…was enough to let a mere thief cat taste a faint, shameful sense of superiority.
After washing up quickly in the bath and meeting with Lapis, I took a seat.
"You're not too tired, are you?"
Watching her fret over me from the very first word, a faint guilt began to smolder in my chest — but I did my best not to let it show as I wrote my reply.
"I'm not lacking in stamina at my age."
"I'm glad to hear it."
"In any case, to get to the point — I called for you because I need your help."
"If it's something I can do, I'll gladly oblige."
At that, I took a sip of tea to wet my throat, then continued writing.
"You know a building was recently completed, don't you?"
"Yes."
"That building is going to operate as an Elementary Educational Institution."
"An elementary educational institution?"
"As you know, for ordinary commoners the Academy's threshold is far too high, no matter how much they might wish to enter. So I intend to run this institution as a preparatory stage before that — a course that will give commoners the chance to eventually enroll in the Academy as well."
That was the purpose we put forward on the surface, but dig beneath it, and the truth was the strengthening of imperial authority. A pillar supporting the imperial family made up solely of capable talents genuinely loyal to the Crown would always be more effective than one propped up by nobles alone. If this step-by-step educational system could take firm root, then once the Demonic Tree was removed, the imperial family would be able to gather outstanding talents to its side, little by little.
"Then… are you asking me to serve as a teacher at the institution?"
"No."
Outside the capital and its surroundings, illiteracy among commoners was extremely high. So at this fledgling stage, we would have to start with teaching letters themselves. Honestly, putting Lapis's talents to work on that would be like using a butcher's cleaver to slaughter a chicken.
"Could you recommend some good people to work as teachers?"
Lapis had spent long years bedridden, and in that time countless tutors had come and gone as she recovered her body and pursued her studies. On top of that, she was widely beloved. Borrowing her hand was clearly the best option.
"That's not a difficult task at all. I'll send out letters."
"Thank you. And tell them the compensation will leave nothing to be desired."
"Yes."
With the brief business concluded, I took another sip of tea and leaned back comfortably in my chair.
"Before long now… it will be our wedding."
"It will."
I wondered what she was feeling, bringing that up first of her own accord — in her position, fully aware of my relationship with Aria. The same warm smile as always. The etiquette so naturally ingrained in her. And beyond it, without a doubt, the silent struggle of someone who did not want to share the person she loved with anyone else.
Come to think of it, perhaps that was exactly why arranged marriages passed back and forth so freely in this era, where polygamy was sanctioned. Because these unions were not born of feelings meeting each other, an additional wife gave rise to no conflict rooted in love.
Of course, my engagement to Lapis had originally been a political match — a transaction struck between two parties with separate aims — but by now that meaning had faded considerably.
And that was precisely why I felt this guilt toward her.
'If, as Aria said, Lapis intends to use the guilt and discomfort this entanglement burdens us with as a pretext — something she can later rationalize to soothe herself… then perhaps I ought to wait for permission to fall from her own lips, rather than raise the subject first.'
"I'll see to it that nothing is lacking. The grandest there's ever been."
"However it looks on the outside doesn't matter to me. Every ordinary day spent at your side, Rohen, is the happiest time I have."
I was grateful she would say something like that — and yet I couldn't stop one corner of my heart from stinging, again and again.
Through the expressions Rohen wore when they were alone together — his gestures, his breathing — Lapis couldn't help but notice, however much she might have wished not to.
That she was aware of the affair — an affair that wasn't quite an affair — he was carrying on with Aria.
Undoubtedly, Rohen felt guilty about it.
But Lapis did not readily step forward to wipe that guilt away.
Or rather, she couldn't find her footing either way.
She resented Aria, who looked at her own half-brother as a man and seduced him despite sharing half his blood. And yet, if she took a hard line, her heart ached at the thought of the girl being cast aside without mercy.
And every time it came to this, she hated Rohen — the man who whispered love to her alone, and yet offered his embrace to another woman. She wanted to reproach him, to call his heart, swept away by such insidious temptation, no better than a drifting scrap of chaff.
But an emperor keeping multiple wives was simply the natural order of things. As the future Empress, how could she fail to understand that cause and effect?
The problem was only that this was not a relationship grounded in political gain, but in pure affection.
However much the world might divide them into wife and concubine on the surface, no such wall would exist in the way Rohen treated her and Aria.
If even a wall like that existed, perhaps she might have been spared at least this ugly jealousy.
It was true, of course, that Aria possessed a talent she herself lacked — she could fill in, from angles Lapis could not reach, the places where Rohen fell short.
At first, Lapis had used that logic to force her ugly jealousy back underwater. But before long, she came to understand that the jealousy she'd sunk was only the tip of the iceberg.
The beloved man before her sometimes told her it was all right to want more, but…
…if she truly let this ugly jealousy run wild and vomited all of it out, would he accept her still?
Even she, at the end of that road, couldn't help pitying an Aria who had been ruthlessly cast away.
She didn't want to give the answer now, and she didn't want to hear it, either.
An Aria who, like a thief cat, could only ever steal what was not hers. A Rohen who would stand between them, smiling awkwardly. And herself, doing nothing but looking on.
Someday, it would all come down to a single answer.
Since none of them was willing to declare their will and decide it, it would surely arrive at the far end of time's slow current.
She didn't know when that day would come — and she had no wish to dwell on it, turning her ugly jealousy over and over in her mind.
So Lapis turned to Rohen and gave him a bright, radiant smile.
"……It really has been far too long, all of us together."
"Same for you, I take it?"
"It seems I wasn't the only one who received the Lady Princess's letter."
Trading words like these, the many tutors who had once passed through Lapis's education — all recipients of her letter — had arrived at the duchy and now sat clustered together in the lord's office of the seat castle. Teaching the children of noble houses was never an easy line of work. Even those who had retired from posts in the imperial administration, or wives of prominent families, stumbled into trouble with it time and again.
"Weren't you tutoring the eldest son of Count Jerron, Lady Elion?"
"No — isn't that the good-for-nothing they say is a hopeless wastrel?"
"My husband had business to settle with House Jerron, so I was obliged to take the post… but mercifully, an opportunity like this presented itself and I was able to escape."
"A near step into hell, then."
They were, every one of them, fine people — which was precisely why Lapis had chosen them. Their skill in teaching was matched by their character. Anyone whose mouths produced nothing good about a former colleague was, by clear proof, the one with the flaw.
"Those were the good days, tutoring the Lady Princess."
"……Not for me, I'm afraid. I taught her before she rose from her sickbed, and watching her bury that despair so deep in herself at such a young age and throw herself into her lessons — it broke my heart, truly."
"Hm? I hear footsteps. It seems the Prince is coming."
The lively chatter fell silent in an instant. The moment the door opened and Prince Rohen stepped through, running a hand through his distinctive silver hair, everyone who had answered Lapis's invitation straightened their posture.
"Forgive me for skipping the pleasantries and getting straight to business — I trust that's no discourtesy to those of you who've traveled so far without yet having a proper rest."
Rohen held out the documents he had brought with him.
"Contract papers, I see."
"That's right. I'm recruiting teachers to serve at the Elementary Educational Institution on my territory."
"The Elementary Educational Institution…?"
"Call it a place where the children of commoners enroll to learn basic knowledge and culture."
"Then surely it didn't need to be us, of all people……"
"As you say, people equipped with the knowledge and refinement to teach others can be found anywhere in number. But people whose character allows them to face students who don't know even their letters — and teach without ever letting a trace of condescension slip through — those are rare indeed. In that respect, I trusted Lapis's eye, and I trust it wasn't wrong."
"G-goodness, such sudden praise — I hardly know where to look."
"Read through the terms of the contract thoroughly, all of you."
Unlike their old work as tutors — hired ad hoc, with no guaranteed steady income — a fundamental difference existed here. Of course, for some that would prove a hindrance instead. A married woman of a prominent house, for instance. And so the contract specified a fixed number of working days per month, with leave available upon request.
"Regarding this pay grade column here——"
"Compensation should reflect experience. It makes no sense for veterans to be paid the same as those just starting out."
"You don't intend to confine this institution to the duchy alone, do you, Your Highness?"
"That, neither you nor I can know. With the revival of the Demonic Tree looming and everything racing toward that single matter, this is the only undertaking that looks past it — a trial run of what lies beyond. Should we be defeated and humanity fall, none of it will have been worth anything at all."
"……"
They had all felt it in their bones, but hearing it from the Prince standing before them, the weight of it landed differently — heavier, and more real.
From then on, a long stretch passed in silence as they read the contracts line by line, and once the terms were discussed and the agreements were concluded without a hitch, Rohen smiled.
"Then I look forward to working with you all."
"Yes. And we with you, Your Highness."