The day after making that wish to his advisor, the Prince immediately kicked off his “I am a cat” operational mode.
In truth, this required zero deliberate acting on his part.
Following their meeting atop the low wall the previous night, his favorability rating toward the advisor had skyrocketed to the level of: “In front of this bipedal creature, even if this king lies flat on his back with all four paws up rolling around, it won’t be dangerous at all.”
For a feline whose brain neurology was naturally born sensitive, suspicious, and possessing an extremely strong sense of self-defense, being able to display this kind of “I am very safe right now” state was something that could strictly only be achieved when favorability maxed out to the absolute limit.
Because he harbored favorable feelings toward this advisor who consistently maintained a sensible, well-behaved attitude, the Prince stripped away most of his guard, gradually revealing a relaxed side of himself in front of him. And this relaxed side was, of course, one hundred percent pure, natural feline instinct.
So when it came down to it, rather than calling it “trying hard to act,” it would be far more accurate to call it “his true nature coming to light”…
Regardless, this “cat offensive” strategy yielded exceptionally stellar results.
The advisor who previously trembled uncontrollably at the mere sight of the Prince and wanted nothing more than to stuff his head into the carpet was now completely devoid of fear.
Even though whenever the Prince made any sort of movement, the advisor would sport an expression that looked remarkably silly and adorable…
Wasn’t this precisely a good thing?
Being able to unreservedly and defenselessly display such a goofy side of himself in front of a creature whose combat prowess utterly crushed him proved that the advisor had also completely placed his trust in this king.
This was undeniably a massive, historically unprecedented breakthrough.
Though he felt he hadn’t deliberately done much of anything, regardless, looking at the glorious battle achievements he had racked up, the Prince felt warm and fuzzy inside.
At this moment, the Prince was triumphantly hoisting his large, glossy black tail high, striding forward across the rooftop with confident feline steps.
It was time to go see the advisor again.
Because the time spent with the advisor during patrol the previous night had been immensely pleasant, the Prince had directly force-added the activity of “dropping by to see the advisor while on patrol” into his unshakeable, fixed daily routine.
Naturally, he hadn’t bothered asking for the advisor’s consent, but so what? Whatever this king decided, who in the Aorong Principality dared to utter a single word of dissent?
The thought of being able to see the advisor right away made the Prince’s steps as he bounded across the roof tiles grow remarkably brisk and light.
The tactic of “adapting to feline nature” was indeed remarkably effective.
The advisor who had been whining and complaining about “not wanting to go to the study” just yesterday was now witnessing the charming feline traits radiating from the Prince’s person; right now, he was probably shouting deep down in his heart: “I am willing to go through fire and boiling water for Your Highness without a moment’s hesitation!”
Normally, although the Prince sheltered the common folk of the Aorong Principality by treating them as a part of his territory, deep down in his bones he intensely repelled other living creatures intruding upon his private domain. However, if it were an advisor this sensible, honest, and bearing a faint, soothing hint of ink fragrance, allowing him to stay in the study to serve didn’t seem entirely out of the question either.
Mhm. It felt not half bad.
Although this advisor was currently quite sensible, as time passed, who could say whether he might grow rebellious bones just like certain other individuals…
At least for now, the Prince found everything about him pleasing to the eye.
Fraught with anticipation, he arrived at the low wall where they had met yesterday at the agreed-upon hour. Sure enough, a familiar scent drifted over. It was the scent exuded by his advisor, carrying a trace of cool ink fragrance.
Since he had decided to write his rooftop meetings with the advisor into his daily schedule, should the guy ever dare stand him up, the Prince was fully prepared to personally slaughter his way over to General Yuchi’s household to hunt him down. To his surprise, this sensible advisor had actually arrived early and was already waiting there for him.
Quite punctual indeed.
Even though this was just a time slot unilaterally designated by the Prince, of which Yuchi Xiu remained completely oblivious, the Prince still felt immensely gratified and satisfied in his heart.
Without concealing his overflowing favorability in the slightest, the Prince swaggered toward Yuchi Xiu.
Yuchi Xiu whose sensory and perceptual abilities fell vastly short of the Prince’s—did not notice him until the black cat leaped down from the wall head and walked right up to him.
Clearly, he had been waiting anxiously; the moment he spotted this black cat, the advisor’s eyes widened round, and the joy filling his heart couldn’t be concealed at all.
Observing his obedient appearance, the Prince was immensely gratified, approaching him with graceful steps. Yuchi Xiu crouched down, bringing his line of sight level with the approaching black cat.
“Little kitty… you finally came… I thought you weren’t going to show up.”
The Prince who had originally intended to come today, tomorrow, and every day after that was quite startled by this unexpectedly heartfelt confession.
It appeared he was even more infatuated with this true-form pelt of this king than he had imagined.
With this development, the probability of him handing over his seal and running away plummeted even further, making it an investment with a hundredfold return for the Prince.
Seeing the black cat narrow its emerald-green eyes in satisfaction, Yuchi Xiu carefully opened his mouth.
“I have a question I want to ask you. Even though this sounds a bit stupid…”
Stupid-sounding questions, huh.
The Prince was in a fantastic mood right now; even if his advisor uttered monstrously foolish remarks, he possessed an abundance of patience to listen all the way through.
Normally, the Prince found it utterly vexing when his subordinate generals ran their mouths off and wasted his time on military formations… but carving out this chunk of time specifically for this kid meant listening to him talk nonsense for a bit was no big deal.
Besides… the expression the advisor wore while acting foolish suited his palate rather well, so listening to him play the fool felt rather nice.
Of course, tendering his resignation was strictly off-limits.
The Prince twitched his pointed black ears, signaling: “This king is listening, go ahead.”
Seeing this, Yuchi Xiu who had been wrestling just moments earlier over whether to speak up finally let his voice ring out.
“Um… the Prince suddenly turning into a cat like that… was that the handiwork of a little demon-beast like you?”
While listening to anything was fine so long as it wasn’t a resignation, the Prince never dreamed he would ask such a treasonous question, leaving him momentarily dazed.
You must understand, the fact that the Tuoba royal family had a cat prince was an absolute, highest-level state secret of the Tuoba clan. This was designed to prevent political rivals in the Central Plains court from exploiting the weaknesses of his demonic-cultivator nature to stir up trouble.
In reality, even without deliberately maintaining secrecy, absolutely no one would ever guess it.
After all, the concept of a feline transforming into a human form.
In the eyes of humans whose minds were stuffed with political intrigue and calculations, who would ever believe that such absurd, strange-tales legends genuinely existed?
If someone claimed there was a fox spirit dwelling deep in the remote mountains, that might be one thing, but the dignified Aorong Prince turning out to be a cat? That was far too far-fetched and ridiculous.
As a transmigrator hailing from the modern era who believed that in a novel world anything went, Yuchi Xiu couldn’t say for sure. But to the indigenous inhabitants of this political-intrigue world, their baseline of cognition did exist, and encountering something like this would naturally prompt them to think: “Ah, this is far too absurd…”
In short, under this kind of general environment, it was fundamentally impossible for anyone’s mind to make a wild leap and suspect that the decisive, ruthless Prince before their eyes was actually a cat.
To compound matters, because the Aorong Prince Tuoba Lin had always been renowned for his iron-fisted methods and ruthless coldness, nobody dared approach within three paces of him on a regular basis, making it difficult enough to catch even a glimpse of a clue… Consequently, the cat prince’s identity remained secure against exposure.
Yet, even after portraying feline behaviors so vividly by day, this fellow had actually managed to bridge the gap and connect the black cat at night with the Prince by day, even suspecting that the black cat had cast a spell.
Although he hadn’t yet deduced the ultimate truth that the Prince was the very black cat standing right before him, this stunt alone was quite sufficient to let the Prince experience the shock of “living long enough to see everything.”
To mask his inner panic, the Prince instinctively poked out his pink, delicate tongue and licked the tip of his nose.
Catching this movement, Yuchi Xiu narrowed his eyes.
“You know you’re panicking now, don’t you?”
This single sentence hit the Prince with a second wave of astonishment. He knew his advisor possessed a meticulous mind, but he never expected this kid could instantly see right through a cat’s “displacement behavior” utilized to relieve tension.
Panic-stricken, the Prince involuntarily executed another displacement behavior—letting out a massive yawn, exposing his sharp fangs.
Only after finishing the yawn did he realize something was amiss, hurriedly turning his head away to observe Yuchi Xiu’s reaction…
“Ah-ha?”
The advisor was staring fixedly at the black cat with a profound expression that screamed “I’ve seen right through everything.”
Just as the Prince felt supremely awkward at having his panic completely exposed, Yuchi Xiu spoke up once more:
“Then can you, as a little demon-beast, show mercy, retract your spell, and turn the Prince back into his original self?”
Turn him back?
The Prince who was panicking just a moment ago instantly grew displeased. He had gone to such great lengths to make him lower his guard in the study, and now you’re bringing this up with me?
If he reverted back to that icy-cold persona of old, this kid would definitely start grumbling blindly again with things like: “I really don’t get why that living king of hell has to torture me like this” and “I don’t want to go to the study anymore,” while getting his bedding rolls ready to run away at any second.
Displeased, the Prince slapped the bluestone floor back and forth with his tail. Yuchi Xiu read a clear message of “refusal” from the movement and muttered:
“Ah, is your magical power insufficient, so you can’t change him back?”
That’s right. He couldn’t be changed back. Should he revert back and have you run away again, who was this king supposed to cry to?
The Prince delivered a resolute swish of his tail against the floor tiles. The advisor let out a long sigh and buried his face in his hands.
“Holy shit… then what the hell do we do…”
What else could they do?
Naturally, stay in the Prince’s Manor and serve as this king’s advisor for the rest of his life. The Prince conveyed this overbearing will through his emerald-green eyes. The advisor glanced at the black cat and let out yet another heavy sigh.
“I really can’t deal with this… So the Prince is just going to have to live out the rest of his life as a cat like this?”
The Prince who was originally a cat and intended to keep being a cat offered no refutation, driving Yuchi Xiu into an even deeper state of despair.
The Prince found himself entirely incapable of comprehending this human’s brain wiring.
Why? Shouldn’t you be super happy that the Prince acts like a cat?
You were literally making that exact wish yesterday, and weren’t your reactions during the day today quite favorable? Didn’t you drop your guard completely?
Why are you suddenly so unhappy and dissatisfied about me being a cat again? What on earth is going on inside this kid’s head?
Good grief, human beings compared to straightforward felines like themselves possessed minds that were far too deep, dark, and complicated.
Simply incomprehensible.
However…
What if this kid’s mind was too complicated, and he panicked and ran away in a fit of rage?
Plunged into distress, Yuchi Xiu offered a perfunctory farewell before heading back to his manor not long after. Watching that back burdened with heavy thoughts drift further and further away, the Prince also fell into deep contemplation.
On the walk back to the Prince’s Manor; while lying on the towering wooden bed; upon waking up the next morning. The Prince’s mind was completely filled with this single issue.
What if this time, because he played the cat role, the kid got scared out of his wits and started trembling again?
If it really came to that, there would genuinely be no saving the situation.
Previously, it was because he wished for him to act like a cat that the Prince indulged him, but if he now wanted him not to act like a cat, that presented a difficult dilemma.
I am a cat to begin with, how do you expect me to change?
Clearly, when he went to see him last night, he still felt everything was under control and going swimmingly… It seemed this advisor was even harder to handle and possessed a far more complex mind than he had anticipated.
Soothing this kind of human was definitively an out-of-syllabus question for the Prince. After all, in all his born days, he had never lowered his head or coaxed a single soul.
Failing to come up with any countermeasure right up until the end, the Prince braced himself and headed into the study to see the advisor.
Yet, to his utter surprise, the advisor… treated the Prince with even stricter decorum and far greater reverence than ever before.
Because Yuchi Xiu had developed a profound sense of responsibility toward the Prince.
To be precise, it was directed toward the Prince who had “turned into a cat” overnight purely because of a wish he had uttered.