As the servants brought the food, the meal began in earnest.

The nobles gathered here seemed very curious as to why I had arranged this gathering, but they endured and exchanged a few meaningless conversations. By the time dessert was served, I glanced at the script, ready to get down to the main topic. Then, Dimitri, who had sneakily glimpsed at my script, intercepted my line with a mischievous grin.

“These days, it seems like the monsters are causing an unusual amount of trouble in managing estates across the country. How is everyone’s situation?”

‘My lines!’

That was an important line attempting to transition the subject to the current dream demon incident.

Glancing at Dimitri, I reached under the table and lightly pinched his thigh as a warning not to joke around, but he suddenly held onto my hand. No matter how hard I tried to pull away, it was no use. As I spoke to him through ventriloquism, he spoke back in ventriloquism.

“Let me go.”

“You asked me to hold it, didn’t you?”

“When did I ask you to hold it? Aren’t you going to let me go?”

“I’ll think about it.”

When I tried to push away his hand holding mine with my other hand, he caught that hand as well.

‘Ah, really.’

While I muttered under my breath under the table, Dimitri casually continued the conversation with the nobles, wearing a nonchalant expression.

“Count Tara, I heard the damage is extensive.”

“Yes, even without that issue, I’ve been having a hard time. The people of the territory are trapped in their nightmares and can’t wake up…”

Count Tara, mentioned, spoke gloomily. He couldn’t hide the discontent in his eyes as he glanced at me briefly.

‘His territory is the place that suffered the most damage from the nightmare demons.’

It was clear why he harbored dissatisfaction towards me.

His territory was close to Blois, and he believed that the monster damage had worsened due to my gathering of cat shapeshifters in Blois. It seemed that rumors persisted that the cat shapeshifters were still causing trouble by using dream demons.

He asked meaningfully, looking at Dimitri.

“What about Blois? Is it better because the Duke is protecting it, or…”

This time, he looked at me.

“I wonder if the Duchess’s hobbies are having an impact.”

He was asking if Blois was spared from the dream demons because Dimitri was a cat shapeshifter or if it had become a hotbed for dream demons because I was gathering cat shapeshifters.

It was a question that subtly mocked both of us.

‘To openly display hostility even though you know the elders have been censured.’

He must have seen the elders’ heads on stakes on the way to Blois, yet he showed no fear. In the meanwhile, everyone was too busy watching their words and being cautious despite their grievances.

It was difficult to be asked questions while both of my hands were held by Dimitri.

‘Now is the perfect time to step forward.’

I glanced briefly at Dimitri, whose grip on my hand was firm. Then, he was looking at me and smiling brazenly as if I should’ve been delivering my lines by now, according to the script.

Having no choice but to give up my hand, I smiled casually and spoke to Count Tara as if nothing had happened.

“Oh my, even though Count Tara has diligently searched and driven away the cat shapeshifters to Blois, and yet the damage is still significant? If it’s true that the cat shapeshifters are causing trouble with the dream demons, isn’t that really strange?”

He narrowed his eyes and asked me.

“Is the rumor true? Wouldn’t you two know better.”

“What about the Count? Didn’t you chase away the cat shapeshifters because you believed the rumor to be true?”

Seeing Dimitri sneak a glance at the script, I whispered.

“It’s not written there. I was just being sarcastic because he was rude.”

Dimitri considered him being a shapeshifter as a weakness and felt inferior because of it. Although he had reached the point of casually making jokes about it in front of me, seeing my fondness for cat shapeshifters, he still felt uncomfortable talking about it in front of people who hated cat shapeshifters.

Despite knowing this, Count Tara continued to poke at Dimitri.

‘Without fear. He doesn’t even know what we’re putting up with.’

It was amusing.

In the minds of the nobles, the fact that Dimitri was a shapeshifter of the slave class and that he was someone with a higher rank than them didn’t quite merge together—they seemed to float separately, like water and oil.

So, even though they would inadvertently cross the line and mock him when a warning was sent, they would realize their mistake, bow their heads, and then their pride would be hurt.

‘No, it’s not just the nobles who behave this way. In the past, slave traders would act indifferently until they were confronted with authority and power, and only then would they tremble. It’s not just nobles who do that.’

It was like dropping a black leader into the American South in the 19th century.

For the people of this world, Dimitri, at the top of the hierarchy, must have been very confusing and annoying, as he was a disruption to the hierarchy to which they were loyal. If he hadn’t had the means to defend himself, he might have been assassinated long ago.

Most people in this world were forced to submit to his formidable power, so any opportunity to challenge it was eagerly seized upon.

Dimitri chuckled as he watched me fuming and generously let go of one of my hands. Since I wasn’t particularly interested in Count Tara’s response, I quickly returned to the script and continued speaking.

“Of course, Blois couldn’t avoid the damage, so I found a way to solve this problem.”

“Hmm?”

“Is that true, Duchess?”

“Heheh.”

The nobles showed interest. Some were intrigued, while others were skeptical.

And most of them laughed at me.

Among them, there were quite a few who were seeing me for the first time, and they knew of Rowaine’s reputation and looked down on me—the concubine dedicated to the Emperor by her father—a shallow woman with cruel hobbies. Rowaine’s reputation would still remain as such outside of Blois.

I continued regardless.

“See for yourselves.”

As I gave the signal, the knights appeared, dragging a giant special cage. The nobles who saw this were shocked and stood up from their seats.

“What in the world…”

“Oh, no…!”

What they were looking at was a cage made by the collaboration of Avila and Esca—a demon prison. And inside, hundreds of bat-like monsters, whose appearance was sprinkled with lamb’s blood, were screaming.

I explained with a leisurely smile.

“We recruited dream demon hunters.”

“Dream demon hunting?”

“Is that possible?”

In response to their questions, I silently signaled again.

Then, the cat shapeshifters who had been waiting on the other side appeared, lined up confidently. The shapeshifters emerged gracefully, their sharp fangs glinting as they elegantly raised their heads and walked out…

…It was truly the cutest cat train ever, with the cats purring.

With a prideful voice, I addressed the nobles.

“These are the dream demon hunting experts I recruited!”

“Cats?”

“Wait, are they cat shapeshifters?”

“Cat shapeshifters hunting dream demons?”

Even after showing them the captured monsters, there was still an air of disbelief. It was the reaction I anticipated.

‘This is why I placed an order to capture the dream demons alive.’

As Avila opened the cage door wide as if she had been waiting, the nobles who saw her screamed in terror.

“What are you doing, Duchess?!”

“T-The dream demons are escaping!”

“Aaahhh!”

The trapped dream demons hastily spread their wings and poured out of the enclosure.

However, contrary to the expectations of the terrified nobles attempting to flee, not a single monster managed to fly away freely.

“Ha!”

“Where are you running!”

“Yah! Yaah!”

This was because their forms had been destroyed by the waiting cat shapeshifters, and they disappeared one after another.

Tuk!

Tudtukk!

The red stone, known as the heart of the demon, fell to the ground like hail. The green grass of the garden turned red. If there were any red cherry blossom trees around, their petals would have fallen like rain, covering the area around the trees in a sea of red.

It was magnificent.

One of the nobles murmured in a dumbfounded voice.

“The cat shapeshifters hunting dream demons…”

Such a reaction clearly revealed how indifferent people in this world were towards cat shapeshifters.

Because it was from a story about a demon hunter I heard from Coco one day that gave me the idea to assemble a professional mercenary group to deal with dream demons.

Hunters used cat shapeshifter slaves to steal the hearts of dream demons and sell them to shapeshifter enthusiasts for profit. The fact that they existed, and there were those who traded with them, meant that there were quite a few people who knew about the relationship between cat shapeshifters, rat shapeshifters, and dream demons.

Yet, despite this, rumors spread in some circles that cat shapeshifters and dream demons were in a cooperative relationship, leading to the absurd attempt to resolve the dream demons crisis by oppressing cat shapeshifters.

‘If only they had bothered to learn a bit about cat shapeshifters, they wouldn’t have blindly believed those foolish rumors and chased them away.’

I introduced my cat mercenaries, who gave a great performance and sang with joy.

“Well, I hope you enjoyed the watching. That was 〈 The Cool Cat Mercenaries. 〉”

“Kuh!”

Dimitri, upon hearing the mercenary group’s name, chuckled beside me as if he had heard something funny. I ignored him and glanced around at the nobles, who were wearing confused expressions.

“If anyone happens to be interested, feel free to entrust your request to my mercenary group at any time. We’ll gladly root out the dream demons from your territories.”

“Mercenaries…?”

As Baron Placen had feared, the nobles’s reactions were incredulous disbelief at my founding a mercenary group and promoting it like this. However, those astute individuals quickly finished calculating that I could solve the problems they were struggling with and adopted a polite demeanor.

I added firmly to them.

“If you ever need to call upon my mercenary group, be sure to call them by their full name. If I catch you calling them by a shortened name, I won’t be pleased.”

I finished my words meaningfully.

“By the way, whether or not I accept your requests will depend on my mood.”

Count Tara looked distressed.

 
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