“A kitten.”
After class, as Kennel headed toward the carriage to go home, he spotted a tiny snow-white kitten crouched beneath a tree.
It looked remarkably clean, as if it had only just been abandoned. Kennel approached it, a bright smile spreading across his face.
“Want to come home with me?”
[Kyuu!]
...Kyuu?
Did cats make sounds like that?
All the cats he had seen before had mewed and cried like cats.
And besides...
...It was awfully friendly.
He had not even fed it, yet it came right up to him and acted familiar.
The other cats had always stayed on guard until he gave them food before finally coming closer.
Watching the kitten climb straight into his arms without the slightest sign of fear, Kennel’s smile deepened.
“You’re the one today.”
The child’s hand, stroking the kitten, was impossibly gentle.
And so Kennel climbed into the carriage with the kitten in his arms.
“Here we are.”
A short while later, the carriage stopped in front of a large mansion in the capital.
“You’re back, Young Master.”
“Mm.”
A few servants approached the child as he stepped down from the carriage.
Kennel’s parents were not nobles, but they had more than enough money thanks to their talent for business. Kennel himself had been called a prodigy from a young age, clever enough that his parents’ expectations for him were enormous.
They spared no support for him, and he always repaid that support with excellent results.
“Make sure no one comes into my room.”
“...Yes, Young Master.”
One of the maids who had come to greet him hurriedly lowered her head.
Her gaze drifted to the kitten in Kennel’s arms.
The little white kitten had its eyes tightly closed against the boy’s chest, as though it had fallen asleep.
The maid bit her lip faintly as she looked at it, then quickly turned her head away.
Again...
In a little while, she would probably be the one cleaning up that cat’s corpse.
She knew that very well, which was why she tried as hard as possible not to meet the eyes of whatever young animal the young master brought home. When she cleaned up the bodies, those eyes kept coming back to her.
That horrible feeling...
The maid did not raise her head even once until Kennel had gone into his room.
Click.
“So? This is my room. Do you like it?”
After entering, Kennel kept the kitten in his arms and turned in a full circle, as if giving it a tour.
“Look carefully.”
Because this was going to be the last thing it ever saw.
“Now then, this is your place.”
A little later, he set the kitten down on a desk that looked more like a workbench.
There, oddly enough, stood a thick wooden rod, long and sturdy-looking. A long cord was attached to it as well.
Swiftly, Kennel picked up the cord and skillfully tied it tight around the kitten’s neck.
“Wouldn’t want you to run away.”
Still wearing that angelically pretty smile, Kennel reached his hand toward the kitten.
Toward its throat, to be exact.
Even then, the kitten did not resist at all. It only kept its eyes tightly shut.
And the moment Kennel’s hand was just about to touch its neck—
Smack!
“......”
Kennel’s expression went blank.
At the tiny hand that had struck his cheek.
The kitten had actually jumped and smacked him across the face.
“...Ha.”
A laugh of disbelief slipped out of him. Had he really just been hit?
It had not hurt much, but the fact that he had been slapped at all was enough to shock him.
Still laughing in disbelief, the boy rubbed his cheek.
“You little—!”
SMAACK!
“You—!”
SMAAACK!
“Hey—!”
SMAAAAACK!
“Aagh!”
Why, why was it getting worse?!
Kennel could not collect himself beneath the kitten’s relentless assault.
The force kept increasing. It felt as if someone were beating him in the face with a club.
A warm trickle slid down.
“U-uh...?!”
What was this coming from his nose... blood?!
Was he having a nosebleed right now?
WHAM!
“Ghk!”
At last, Kennel collapsed to the floor. Through his dazed vision, he barely managed to look ahead, and his face slowly filled with horror.
“I-it...!”
It was getting bigger.
The kitten was getting bigger.
[Grrrr.]
The thing growling low at him—
That was not a cat.
That was a tiger.
[ROOOAR!]
“Aaaaaaaaaah!”
At the sight of the huge white tiger rushing at him with its jaws wide open, a scream tore from Kennel’s mouth.
Instinctively, he squeezed his eyes shut.
Those enormous teeth were going to rip his whole body apart.
“U-ugh...”
Knock, knock!
“Hhk!”
“Young Master Kennel? Are you all right? We just heard a scream...”
“......!”
At that moment, movement came from outside.
Since he had ordered that no one enter unless he called for them, the door did not open right away.
But they must have heard the scream, because the knocking kept coming.
“S-save... me...!”
Kennel screamed as he crawled toward the door—then suddenly froze.
“Huh...?”
There was nothing there.
Just a moment ago, a giant tiger had been right in front of him, baring its fangs and roaring.
Now there was not even a trace.
“H-how is this...!”
Click.
Only then did the door open, and a maid and a servant stepped carefully inside.
“Young Master Kennel, are you all ri— hm?”
“Oh my.”
The maid and servant could only stare in confusion when they saw Kennel collapsed on the floor.
His face was badly swollen, and blood was still running from his nose.
And on top of that—
His trousers...
...were wet.
The maid and servant could not make sense of the situation at all.
“Ugh...”
And the one most bewildered by all of this was Kennel himself.
He could not even think of getting up. He stayed there for a long time, trembling in fear from head to toe.
*****
Rain poured down.
The sky was dark and heavy, but for the first time in a long while, Kennel had come outside.
After picking up that stray cat and going through that bizarre incident, he had not left his room for days.
[ROOOAR!]
He simply could not forget the horrifying image of that tiger charging at him with its jaws thrown wide.
He felt as though it might appear at any moment and kill him. The thought of going outside terrified him. What if he ran into that cat again?
“It was a hallucination. You imagined it.”
“Then what about these wounds?! What about the scratches on my cheek?!”
“That was...”
“The cord was snapped too! Then what is this torn cord I used to tie the cat with?!”
“Kennel.”
“Aaaah!”
“Calm down, Kennel.”
Kennel’s parents and the doctors all said he had seen something that was not there, that he had hallucinated because his mind and body had weakened.
But then what about the wounds on his body?
What about the pain he had felt then?
“Haa...”
He had stayed shut up in his room for nearly a week.
Only now, after calming down a little, had he finally managed to come outside again.
Even then, all he could do was step out of the mansion and walk through the garden. Going any farther was still impossible for him.
Was it really... a hallucination? Did I really...
“When the mind grows weak, there are cases where a person injures their own body...”
“So you’re saying I hit myself?!”
“Well, sometimes there are cases like that...”
After hearing the doctor’s words, everyone seemed inclined to believe it.
Kennel had insisted over and over that no, the cat really had turned into a tiger and attacked him.
But not a single person believed him.
Maybe that was why.
Little by little, even Kennel had started to wonder whether he really had seen a hallucination that day.
A kitten turning into a tiger.
It made no sense.
And the fact that he was still alive made even less sense.
How could he possibly have survived if a tiger that size had really lunged at him?
Did I really imagine it?
[ROOOAR!]
Brrr.
And yet the sound of that roar was still vivid in his ears, and just remembering it was enough to make cold sweat break out all over his body.
“Haa...”
Everything irritated him.
He felt filthy, foul-tempered.
After spending all that time cooped up in his room doing nothing, he was crawling out of his skin. It felt like he needed to do something today.
But he still did not want to go beyond the grounds.
What if the cat he had brought home that day was waiting for him again?
“...Huh?”
After wandering the garden alone for quite a while, Kennel suddenly spotted something, and his eyes widened.
There was an unfamiliar little creature in one corner of the garden.
“A puppy?”
