A Dog's Life Is a Blessed Life
Pet.
By dictionary definition: something one loves, keeps close at hand, handles, and delights in watching.
Here the word “pet” joins itself to the image of one animal after another. Sometimes it conjures a carefully tended dog or cat; other times it brings to mind a tiny living thing—a rhinoceros beetle, a praying mantis.
What else is there?
Some people keep birds or fish. Occasionally someone takes as a pet a creature several times larger than a human being. The variety of species is endless, yet their purpose is always the same.
Animals are made into pets because their mere existence comforts their owners.
These small lives gift joy to their masters and become, in the bleak and freezing reality of the world, a single soft pillar for a weary soul to lean on.
That is what I believe a pet to be: a being that fills exactly that role.
“Tina. Would you come over here?”
“Lady Shari-one!”
The moment the voice called my name I ran without the slightest hesitation. I nestled straight into the arms of the woman who had summoned me, a harmless smile already fixed on my lips.
“Oh my, Tina.”
She flushed with a soft rose of pleasure, carefully lifted me, and set me upon the sofa. I settled there as though returning to a long-familiar sanctuary, resting my head upon Shari-one’s knee.
“Lady Shari-one, your skin is so lovely today. If only I could be even a quarter as beautiful as you…”
“Don’t say such things. Of every pet I have ever seen, Tina is the most adorable and the prettiest.”
“It makes me so happy when you look at me that way.”
I offered her that same harmless smile, and Shari-one, a faint blush still coloring her cheeks, stroked my hair.
She was not the only one.
“Tina, haven’t you put on a little weight?”
“Have I?”
“A plumper Tina would still be darling, of course, but your true charm lies in your beauty. Do try to slim down a bit.”
“Hehe, yes, Lady Versha.”
Looks like I’ll be starving for a while.
“It’s all right, Tina. I can love you even if you grow soft and round.”
“Really? Thank you, Lady Mardian.”
At Mardian’s words Versha’s brow twitched, one eyebrow rising in clear displeasure.
“…Young Lady Mardian. Are you trying to monopolize Tina’s favor?”
“Fufu… Who can say?”
Mardian, Versha, Shari-one—every woman surrounding me was the daughter of a house that wielded formidable power.
All of them caressed me with gentle hands. Softly they stroked my belly, carefully smoothed my hair, affectionately tickled my chin.
They did not touch me as one touches a person. They touched me as one touches a pet. Each time those soft hands passed over my body I simply closed my eyes and smiled, bashful and content.
“Truly… Tina is just so adorable.”
“I know. The other day I tried keeping a little dog, but it barked so fiercely I finally had to abandon it by the roadside.”
“Goodness, one pet is enough—Tina. She never bites, after all.”
The women’s lovely laughter drifted through the air alone. I took that laughter as background music and looked around me.
Men deep in political talk, women trading sharp words behind the fans held to their lips—every one of them dressed in glittering splendor.
Dazzling chandeliers crowned the ceiling, luxurious furnishings caught the eye, sweet strains of music and the seductive scent of fine food filled the air. This was high society.
Here a single word became a keen blade, a single glance a sharp arrow. It was a miniature battlefield where only the strong survived and the weak were cast aside—a cruel, merciless world.
And on that fierce battlefield I was called the “harmless Pet Young Lady.”
Calling a person a pet might seem strange, yet I preferred it this way. In places like this I only had to play along and money was brought to me of its own accord.
They say a dog’s life is a blessed life, do they not?
I certainly thought so.
Until the protagonist of this world decided to lock me away.