CHAPTER 24: CAKE

Hugging the meowing white kitten, the maid didn’t leave immediately but showed a hesitant expression, glancing occasionally at Julian. The kitten licked its paw in her arms, looking indifferent and relaxed.

"Is there something else?" Julian asked gently.

"Young master, Can you help me keep this a secret?" the maid blushed as she asked.

Young master?

Julian was momentarily puzzled but couldn’t help chuckling.

Setting aside the fact that he didn’t deserve such a title, the word "secret" felt rather amusing to him.

How could Alice not know? It was simply that such things didn’t warrant strict discipline, and she likely turned a blind eye to it.

He straightforwardly said, "There’s no need to keep it a secret. From now on, you can just say I’m the one raising it. Losiya won’t mind."

The maid was overjoyed and quickly bowed to express her thanks.

The kitten suddenly struggled out of her arms, landed on the ground, and swayed its tail as it walked over to Julian’s feet. Tilting its head and squinting its eyes, it rubbed affectionately against him.

"Looks like it really likes you..." the maid said in surprise, then immediately felt that it was only natural.

Someone like the young master, so refined and elegant—who wouldn’t like him?

That night at the ball, there were plenty of nobles who couldn’t forget her. How could the other maids in the manor not harbor thoughts as well?

Right now, the two of them were very close—barely a meter apart. She could clearly smell the refreshing scent from Julian that made people feel at ease.

She recalled her companions often saying that when they got close to Julian, they could catch a pleasant fragrance from him. Now, it seemed it really wasn’t an exaggeration.

Julian looked at the kitten and found himself growing increasingly fond of it. Suddenly, he frowned slightly, and without even lifting the maid’s skirt, bent down directly to check.

He picked the kitten up and cradled it in his arms. The kitten struggled, letting out distressed "meow meow" sounds, but Julian paid no attention to its flailing paws and seriously examined its hind leg.

But seeing the kitten like this, he couldn’t help but think of Losiya. Did he appear the same way in her eyes?

Though he didn’t really care, the maid was scared out of her wits. With all the clawing and biting, if it scratched Julian’s face, she’d be finished.

"What’s wrong with its hind leg?" Julian asked.

He touched the clearly limping back leg.

"Huh?" The maid was startled, then quickly responded, "It was already like that when I found it. I even took it to see a doctor, but they all said it was too late to fix."

"I see..." Julian gently pressed the kitten’s hind leg, then suddenly froze, his face blushing as he turned the kitten the other way.

It turned out to be a female kitten.

Julian suddenly felt frustrated.

Once, he had "raised" a cat before. He had found it on a side street—it was a yellow cat, if he remembered correctly.

It was terribly dirty and liked curling up in a corner of the road.

It had been abandoned—Julian knew because he’d found a pet tag around its neck. He suspected the reason it had been abandoned was its clearly crippled hind leg.

Perhaps because of that shared misfortune, the two had formed a strange bond at first meeting. When Julian petted it, it didn’t even bother to move—maybe because it physically couldn’t.

Julian had bought a cheap bag of cat food especially for it. After work, he would always go feed it on the way home.

Then one day, he suddenly had leftover food he didn’t need anymore—because the cat had died. It lay still on a small road, its appearance completely changed. It had been hit by a car. Because of its injured leg, it hadn’t even had a chance to escape.

Julian rarely felt regret or sorrow, and never cried for himself. But that time, he remembered crying for a very long time.

Looking back now, it wasn’t just the heartbreak of watching something he loved die right in front of him. Through the kitten, he had also seen his own hopeless future.

As expected...

Julian stroked the kitten’s head, overwhelmed with emotion.

"I want to see if I can heal it," he said in response to the maid’s confused expression.

"Huh?" The maid didn’t quite understand. Even if she trusted and felt close to Julian, a crippled kitten’s leg wasn’t something even professional doctors could fix. How could someone so young possibly manage it?

Julian simply took action. He closed his eyes and tried activating his inner magic circuits as Madam Catherine had taught him the previous night.

Platinum-colored markings gradually appeared on his body, stopping only at his neck.

He gently placed his hand on the kitten’s leg, and his magic slowly flowed into it.

A pale blue light began to shine. Julian closed his eyes and quietly felt the way the magic worked.

No one knew how much time had passed. When Julian opened his eyes, he was met with the maid’s face—overflowing with joy. In that moment, he understood.

He looked down and saw that the white kitten’s previously crippled hind leg had miraculously healed. It now pranced and leapt across the grass, its tail swaying excitedly.

Noticing Julian looking at it, the kitten jumped up directly from the ground and landed once more in his embrace.

Holding the kitten, Julian lowered his head and rubbed against it, closing his eyes contentedly.

"What’s its name?" he asked the maid.

"I-it’s called Cake," the maid stammered.

"Cake?" Julian chuckled. He found the name quite amusing.

"Because I like eating cake... So when I found her, I just started calling her that." The maid fidgeted and spoke in a low voice, looking terribly embarrassed.

"Why be embarrassed?" Julian asked, puzzled. "The name Cake is quite nice. It’s soft and sweet, just like cake."

Only then did the maid stop feeling awkward.

"Where do you usually keep her?" Julian asked again.

"The back courtyard of the manor. There’s basically no one there," she replied honestly.

Julian was instantly exasperated. So even Alice aside, Losiya had probably known about this for a while. Most likely, they thought the kitten was cute and just pretended not to notice.

"Just keep her there," he said at last.

The maid nodded obediently. At the same time, she couldn’t help but think: this young master didn’t seem to care about status at all. From the way he spoke, it felt like he already saw himself as the real master of the manor.

She couldn’t help feeling a bit regretful. But thinking of Losiya, the real owner, she quickly composed herself.

She wouldn’t dare do anything so bold again in the future.

After saying goodbye to the maid, Julian opened his right hand. With a thought, that pale blue light once again began to shine.

So this was what basic healing looked like.

He suddenly had the urge to go check out Losiya’s study in the manor. There were likely many useful books and materials there.

Besides that, Catherine clearly aimed to become even more powerful than both Losiya and Alice. If he had time, he wanted to learn more from her too.