Book 4: Chapter 19 (2/2)

Alice raised an eyebrow and glanced at Burc. “Do you?”

Burc shrugged. “I haven’t met all cats, so how would I know?”

“I guess that’s true,” Alice said and scratched her head. She looked at the man sitting across from herself. “Did he introduce himself? Is he here to take me to the Padishah?”

“Nope,” Burc said. He put down the remains of his fish and licked his paws. “He was just curious. Now he’s saying goodbye, he has to pick up his salary.”

“So, what, I’m like an animal in a zoo now?” Alice asked and raised an eyebrow. She frowned and stood up. “Let’s go back. I’m going to make myself look presentable by putting on some armor.” Earlier, she had thought she wouldn’t be getting into any fights. She still didn’t plan on getting into any, but it never hurt to wear armor just in case a fight spontaneously happened. Safety first.

After finding her way back to her room, she saw a bucket of water and a rag placed on her bedside table. Someone probably delivered it to clean her face, so she did. She also combed down a few frizzy hairs with her wet fingers before putting on her armor. Her shield was strapped to her wrist like a watch, but her pouch of food seemed to be a little emptier than yesterday. Alice frowned. “Did you take jerky out of my bag?”

Burc cleared his throat. “Yes. It’s my salary.”

“You couldn’t’ve asked me before you took it?”

“I could’ve, but I didn’t want to.” Burc licked the back of his paw, ignoring Alice’s gaze. “Why should I have to ask for what’s mine?”

Alice’s expression darkened. Burc reminded her of the stray cat one of the secretaries at the guild had taken in. It had stared at her and knocked over a pile of her papers without breaking eye contact. It wasn’t allowed inside the building after that. A sigh escaped from Alice’s lips. “That’s fine. Take jerky whenever you want as long as you continue translating for me.” She could survive without a few sticks of jerky but navigating through this world would be a lot trickier without Burc’s help. So even if he was inconsiderate and stole her food, she’d have to put up with it. Alice tightened the straps on her armor before rotating her arms and stretching her legs. Just in case she got into a fight, she’d make sure her limbs were warmed up. She didn’t want to pull any muscles after all. The Padishah was the ruler of the empire. If she pulled her leg muscle while pummeling him—not that she was going to—how was she going to escape properly?