Intermission: Tigger and Roodle

I'd Rather Have a Cat than a Harem! Reincarnated into the World of an Otome Game as a Cat loving Villainess — LNCrawler · All chapters

“…AND that’s how they follow the magical power contained in these stones, using them as a kind of guide,” the royal caretaker Derek explained to Amy and Isabelle in their garden. It had just been decided that the Northland house would be the destination for Roodle’s flight test, and Derek was in the middle of teaching the bird the flight path.

He gave Amy one of the stones, which was emitting a strange magical power, to hold and smiled at her fondly. Derek had originally been a commoner from the countryside, but one day the royal palace, impressed by his talent in animal husbandry, had offered him employment. Amy reminded him of his own niece, who was around the same age, living back in his hometown.

“He also memorizes a person’s face and will almost always seek out that person whenever he arrives at the destination. I wanted to ask you to be that person for the Northland house, Lady Amy, because he’s the most used to you.”

Amy nodded, gazing at the stone in her hand. Roughly the size of a small rice ball, the stone faintly glowed red. Practically every other magical stone she had seen had been inside a magical tool, and they were usually much smaller and darker in color.

“When I was a child, hawks usually delivered letters to us,” Isabelle commented. She had often seen them flying back and forth from the royal capital to her home in the border province.

“Really? I haven’t seen any messenger birds at Grandfather’s house,” Amy said.

“You probably just missed them. They’re still delivering messages to this day—they’re much faster than the postal service, you see… Oh, look! There he is!”

As they stared at the clear, blue sky, a solitary black speck ever so silently became larger and larger. They shouted in support and amazement, and Roodle started circling right above Amy and the magical stone in her hands.

“I can’t believe it! He really made it!”

Having already put the arm cover on her left arm, she held it out. Roodle immediately perched on the landing spot. Amy just managed to keep her legs from buckling from the sudden weight on her arm—thanks to Tigger and Isabelle bracing her feet and shoulders, respectively.

“Roodle! You didn’t lose your way at all! Great job!”

Seeing Roodle’s head bobbing happily, Amy vaguely wondered if he was happy about the compliment or the food as he gobbled up the treats in Derek’s hand with relish.

Amy took out the scrap of paper from the cylinder on Roodle’s leg and saw Marvin’s signature and Roodle’s departure time. Her mother had been right—messenger birds were much faster than someone delivering a letter on horseback, even if they rode at full speed.

When he had finished eating, Roodle spread his wings and flew to the branch of a nearby tree, landing with a light thud. He would take a short rest before his return flight to the royal palace.

The tree Roodle had landed on happened to be Tigger’s favorite oak tree. The cat sprinted over to his perceived territory with surprising speed for his size.

“Wait! Tigger!” Amy cried. “Shoot, he ran off… I really hope he doesn’t pick a fight…”

“It’s not like Roodle’s a stranger. They’ve met several times before,” Isabelle reasoned. “I’m sure they’ll be fine. See?”

After the pursuit, Tigger and Roodle were standing some distance apart on the same branch halfway up the oak tree, Tigger right beside the trunk and Roodle at the end of the branch. For a while they were motionless, throwing furtive glances at each other.

Despite Amy’s mounting anxiety, the standoff between the two massive animals was quite an impressive sight.

Then, amazingly, Roodle began to inch his way toward Tigger. He would take one step forward—then pause. After a short while, he would take another step—

Eventually, the two animals were perfectly nestled up next to each other.

“They seem to get along well, don’t they?” Derek observed.

Halfway through Amy’s sigh of relief, there was a sudden movement in the tree.

Roodle pecked at Tigger’s fluffy front paw with his beak.

Tigger’s tail swished. Then, as if in retaliation, he took his front paw and bonked Roodle’s fluffy stomach.

Peck. Bonk.

Peck…

“Oh my god, what is that?!” Amy asked excitedly. “What are they doing?!”

“Wait—I need a video of this! A camera! Ugh, why don’t we have one yet?!” agonized Isabelle.

Cat and owl communicated with almost no eye contact at all. The young noble lady openly anguished over their cuteness, her face beet-red. The lady’s mother stamped her foot and cursed the absence of a so-called “ca-mer-ah.” Watching all the chaos, the royal caretaker was moved by the stark reminder that not all aristocrats were always so demure and stuffy.

In other words, it was another peaceful day at the Northland house.