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CK Chapter 2.2

“Disregarding the scare, he seems to be fine.” The knight, who couldn’t know what I was thinking, spoke to the crown prince.1[T/N: This sentence is technically the third sentence in this part and is the first in the paragraph after the internal monologue. I moved it since it makes more sense in English for it to follow the actual words spoken to the crown prince.]

‘But I was not scared? I was absolutely not scared. I was not even once afraid!’

The knight, who could barely lower me down from the tree after a long time, had a proud expression on his face. It disgusted me that he acted so high and mighty after taking more than 2 hours to barely save me, but I bore with it. Because I am a cool2쿨한: (cool-han) from 쿨하다 (cool-hada) > 쿨 is the Korean transcription of the English word “cool.” cat. It was only natural that I would not thank him. Because I am a precious cat.

The crown prince carried me in his arms and patted me on the head. As I was carried in the familiar arms, the tension in my body decreased, and I felt exhausted. I yawned and could hear a quiet sound coming from the crown prince’s chest. Without a doubt, he was laughing inside. I lifted my head and stared at the crown prince’s face. This fellow’s face was usually expressionless. But I knew it. This fellow was, for sure, laughing a little bit inside.

“Meow…”

‘Hey. You laughed, right?’

When I put my forepaws on his chest and asked him, the crown prince’s golden eyes narrowed slightly. As he did so, I could have sworn that this fellow really understood my words.

“Prepare some warm water.”

The crown prince commanded the manservants behind him. One of the manservants left at once to prepare for it. As I saw the receding back of the manservant, I expected a hot bath.

Three days had already passed since I followed the crown prince to this imperial palace.

It might be a very short time, but it can be considered a long enough time to understand the crown prince roughly.

The crown prince’s name was Calix. It might not be as good a name as my name, K, but I considered it decent enough. Other humans might call him “Your Royal Highness, the Crown Prince” or “Your Royal Highness,” but I called this fellow just “Water-giver.” Not that this fellow would know what I was calling him.

The crown prince, who gave me water, was an excellent fellow.

This grown-up fellow talked too little, and his face was also constantly expressionless, but there was no doubt that he was deep down soft-hearted and good-natured. This could be seen just by considering how thoughtfully he served me.

He is not only good inside. This fellow also looked quite good. As I was currently a cat, I could not accurately judge this fellow’s height, but I was certain that he was taller than the average for adult men.

But what I liked more than anything was this fellow’s eye color. This fellow had golden eyes as beautiful as soft golden hair. He might be an expressionless fellow, but if you looked quietly into these golden eyes, you knew they were full of emotion.

The crown prince, striding with me in his arms, suddenly stopped walking. And he looked at me quietly. After watching me like that for a moment, he stroked my nape with his fingers.

“You lost your collar again.”

The crown prince spoke softly while stroking my nape. It pricked my conscience, so I pulled myself together and vainly licked my forepaw.

As soon as I entered the imperial palace, the water-giver put a collar around my neck. At first, I secretly took it off and threw it away in an angry fit, but what was the reason afterward? Well, when I took it off, a brilliant jewel was hanging from my collar. The size of the gem was as big as my current forepaw, so it must be extremely valuable. I bit the jewel and dug a deep hole in the crown prince’s palace garden to bury it. As I was currently a cat, it might suffice just to eat well, but later, when I would become human again, I needed money. That was the reason for me doing this. So, I hid the collar and feigned ignorance, and the water-giver put a new collar around my neck. I also excitedly buried this collar, and the water-giver put another new collar around my neck. This way, there were already five collars stored in the ground. Even though I felt reassured that I had saved something up, for now, I feared that I had embezzled too often. There is no doubt that this water-giving fellow was suspicious of me.

When I stealthily glanced at the crown prince while licking my forepaw, the crown prince’s golden eyes slightly narrowed. Did I really get caught?

The water-giver, who had watched me quietly, lifted his hand from my nape and started to walk again. I was relieved. It was nothing but really lucky. I mean that I didn’t immediately drop down to the status of a thieving cat because I stole and stashed away several collars in vain, just to be driven out of the imperial palace. From now on, I should only steal one per week instead of one per day.

While I was carried in the water-giver’s arms, the humans we passed bowed down or curtsied. As they greeted him so politely, I could candidly see the valley of the maids’ bosoms.3가슴 계곡: (gaseum gaegok) (literally) breast valley I maintained a well-mannered and dignified expression but appreciated such a beautiful sight. The current me is a cat, so staring without taking my eyes off is never a flaw. Because we are of different species. There are no cases where humans were accused of sexual assault for fiddling with dog teats or chili peppers.

Ah. Of course, I was crossing the line.4열외로 친다: (yeolwaero chinda) (literally) to hit the sidelines; 열외 (列外) (yeolwae): sideline, being out of line (space beyond a line); being sidelined (the act of or a person failing to reach a certain standard) I could never let them touch or examine my body just because I was a cat. When I first arrived at the imperial palace, there was a manservant who pushed his face into the space between my hind legs to verify my gender. I warned this shameless manservant by engraving claw marks into his face, and ever since, no one touched my body thoughtlessly again.

A familiar door appeared in front of my eyes. I jumped out of the crown prince’s arms onto the ground and started to walk towards the bathtub in front of me. Passing through the double doors, I could see steam wafting out of the enormous bathtub. In truth, instead of a bathtub, it was more accurate to call this a swimming pool filled with hot water instead of a bathtub. Anyway, the enormous bathtub softly exuded a fragrant scent of flowers. I looked back once. One door away, the maids were taking the crown prince’s clothes off. Seeing him with slightly spread arms, being undressed by the servants,5옷 시중: (ot sijung) (literally) clothes service he looked quite like a crown prince. Honestly, I, too, would have loved to be undressed by servants, but since I wasn’t wearing clothes, I had no choice but to pass on it.

Judging by dipping one forepaw slightly into the bathtub, the temperature was just right.

After meowing once at the water-giver beyond the doors out of courtesy, I jumped into the water. I felt my fur getting thoroughly wet when entering the reasonably hot water. Lifting my chin, I moved my legs6발을 굴리다: (baleul gullida) (literally) to roll/run the leg and started swimming. I was a graceful swimming cat. How fabulous I was.

While I was swimming for a while, the water-giver walked up to the bathtub and sat down. I changed my direction toward this fellow. Plowing through the waves, I stepped on the water-giver’s thighs. I did not exactly do this because I was having a hard time. The reason was simply that you become unhealthy if you swim for too long.7[T/N: As an ex-lifeguard, I can tell you that this is absolutely not true. You don’t get sick just because you swim for a prolonged time… Exercising is not unhealthy.]

The good water-giver made a gesture at the manservant and put my exclusive foothold into the bathtub for me. I sat on the foothold the water-giver put next to him and enjoyed the bath in a relaxed fashion. Aimlessly floating black fur could be seen following the waves, but I stopped caring. Anyhow, it was not me who would have to clean it up.

Looking next to me, the water-giver had softly closed his eyes. He seemed to have been tired. I watched the fellow for a moment and carefully moved my tail, submerged in the water. My tail secretly approached him from within the water and touched the water-giver’s ribs. Skillfully moving my tail like this, I tickled him. The water-giver opened his eyes surreptitiously and looked to my side. Pretending not to know, I made round eyes and looked at the fellow. Naturally, my tail was picked up and held. The water-giver looked alternately at me and his ribs inside the now-empty water8물주가 물속의 텅 빈 자기 옆구리와 나를 번갈아 보곤…: (literally) The water giver looked alternately at inside the water, which is emptily empty, his ribs and me… [T/N: The sentence here is a bit complicated, but structurally, the sentence part “inside the empty water” should belong to the sentence part “his ribs.” Please correct me if I understood this wrong. ^^’ The “empty” probably refers to the missing tail, which is now in the prince’s hands.] and stroked my head with his fingers. Seeing the water-giver closing his eyes, I felt dispirited. If I had played such a prank on Simon, he would have fumed in anger, but as this fellow was not provoked at all, there was no fun in it. As he was so gentle, I did not know how to save the crown prince from getting hurt.9황태자를 해먹는 건지: 해먹다 normally means “to cook and eat,” but in this case, it is combined with 건지다 = “to save.” As “to save the crown prince from cooking and eating” doesn’t make sense, it is likely that “해” does not stem from the usual “하다” = “to do,” but from “해” = “damage, harm.” I was worried he would get abused and driven out like the good and gentle prince or crown prince in historical dramas.

To encourage him, I patted the water-giver once with my forepaw on the shoulder and got out of the bathtub. When I shook my body, the water-giver also lifted his body out of the bathtub. After following only me like this, there was no doubt that living in the imperial palace must have been very lonely. If this is really true, it might be embarrassing, but it appears that I started to feel a sense of responsibility towards this fellow without realizing it. It was pitiful that such a good and gentle fellow was lonely, living in this big imperial palace without anyone to talk to. But it would be proper to put such emotions appropriately aside. The reason was that I had to break the curse as soon as possible10나는 하루라도 빨리 저주를 풀고…: 하루라도 = any day, 빨리 = quickly [T/N: I opted to translate this loosely as “as soon as possible,” as “any day quickly” is a double emphasis of sorts.] and return to my original place.


T/N: Sorry for the late publishing. There were 2 reasons: the holidays and the ultra-long chapter.

After this scene was getting too long, I decided to split part 2.2 in half, at about 60% of it (approx. 2000 words). Unfortunately, the scene hasn’t ended yet, but this is at least a half-decent logical break (with them getting out of the bathtub). As the next part is technically still part of the same scene, I named this part 2.2.1, and the next will be 2.2.2.

Thank you for your patience!

~ Souricelle


Edit from12/01/2022: Changed chapter title from 2.2.1 to 2.2, as Novel Update doesn’t allow subdivision of chapter parts. Subsequently, chapter 2.2.2 will be chapter 2.3 instead. Note that the scene itself is still not broken, but chapters 2.2 and 2.3 still are one continuous scene.


Edit from 12/06/2022: Hi everyone. I will have to cancel today’s publishing of chapter 2.4, and move it to next week. Migraines have been picking up and developed over the weekend to one of the worst ones. =( I tried hard to translate over the weekend, but seeing that it’s already Monday afternoon, with the migraines just growing worse and worse. I’ll have to call it quits for this week and hope that the migraines improve enough for me to finish it by the end of the week in time for next Monday. Sorry! =.=

~ Souricelle


Edit from 12/12/2022: Hi everyone. I wanted to avoid doing this, but I have had issues lately with my eyesight again (yes, a chronic affliction in addition to my chronic migraines T_T) and have trouble properly seeing. As this makes translating really hard and progress slowed down to a crawl, I need to push the deadline again. This time, it will be pushed by 2 weeks, as I am flying this weekend across half the world. I am deeply sorry. =(

Also FYI: While overseas, I’ll be working weird hours and will need to deal with friends, family, and moving companies, so updates will likely be sporadic and weird until I’m back home end of January.

~Souricelle


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  • 1
    [T/N: This sentence is technically the third sentence in this part and is the first in the paragraph after the internal monologue. I moved it since it makes more sense in English for it to follow the actual words spoken to the crown prince.]
  • 2
    쿨한: (cool-han) from 쿨하다 (cool-hada) > 쿨 is the Korean transcription of the English word “cool.”
  • 3
    가슴 계곡: (gaseum gaegok) (literally) breast valley
  • 4
    열외로 친다: (yeolwaero chinda) (literally) to hit the sidelines; 열외 (列外) (yeolwae): sideline, being out of line (space beyond a line); being sidelined (the act of or a person failing to reach a certain standard)
  • 5
    옷 시중: (ot sijung) (literally) clothes service
  • 6
    발을 굴리다: (baleul gullida) (literally) to roll/run the leg
  • 7
    [T/N: As an ex-lifeguard, I can tell you that this is absolutely not true. You don’t get sick just because you swim for a prolonged time… Exercising is not unhealthy.]
  • 8
    물주가 물속의 텅 빈 자기 옆구리와 나를 번갈아 보곤…: (literally) The water giver looked alternately at inside the water, which is emptily empty, his ribs and me… [T/N: The sentence here is a bit complicated, but structurally, the sentence part “inside the empty water” should belong to the sentence part “his ribs.” Please correct me if I understood this wrong. ^^’ The “empty” probably refers to the missing tail, which is now in the prince’s hands.]
  • 9
    황태자를 해먹는 건지: 해먹다 normally means “to cook and eat,” but in this case, it is combined with 건지다 = “to save.” As “to save the crown prince from cooking and eating” doesn’t make sense, it is likely that “해” does not stem from the usual “하다” = “to do,” but from “해” = “damage, harm.”
  • 10
    나는 하루라도 빨리 저주를 풀고…: 하루라도 = any day, 빨리 = quickly [T/N: I opted to translate this loosely as “as soon as possible,” as “any day quickly” is a double emphasis of sorts.]

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