Volume 2 Chapter 2 Interlude - The Black Cat And The Vampire
In a black dress, with cat ears on my head.
The cat ears have a red ribbon on them.
I twirled in front of the mirror to check if there was anything weird about my outfit today.
"How do I look? Cute, right, Eir-Eir?"
"Pumpkin pudding!"
Eir-Eir was fidgeting, shaking her soft body back and forth on the bed.
It seemed she was curious about the nice smell of cookies coming from the kitchen.
Today is the Day of the Dead, so I had been baking cookies since morning to give to the children.
There are 2 types of cookies: pumpkin-shaped cookies and bat-shaped cookies, with cocoa powder mixed into the bat-shaped ones.
I went downstairs, divided the cooled cookies into bags, and tied them with ribbons.
I won't hold back my efforts for the cute children. The cookie wrapping should be cute too.
I put Eir-Eir's share on a plate and placed it in front of her.
Eir-Eir dove into the plate and gobbled up the cookies.
As soon as she finished eating, Eir-Eir looked up at me and tilted her head, asking, "Pumpkin...?"
"Eir-Eir, they are shaped like pumpkins, but they don't taste like pumpkins. I'll win a giant pumpkin at today's pumpkin harvest festival, and then we can make pumpkin pudding, pumpkin cake, pumpkin soup, and pumpkin gratin."
"Pumpkin pudding...!"
Eir-Eir bounced up and down happily.
I put the cookies in a basket and stepped outside the shop.
Soon, children dressed in various costumes, wearing capes and cute dresses, came running up to me, calling out, "Evil lady!" "Villainous Lady!"
It's sad.
It's so sad, but the children don't mean any harm, so I can't help it.
Kids tend to remember catchy names, and "Villainous Lady" probably just left a stronger impression.
The mothers of the children apologized, saying, "Lyd-Lyd, I'm sorry."
Recently, many young mothers and cute girls have been coming to Lobelia Diner House.
It seems the reason is that "you can meet famous people here," and those famous people are Sir Ciel, Mr. Lucian, and Sir Roxas──though I'm not sure if they are really famous, but they are the ones behind the Fox Mask.
It seems everyone knows that Fox Mask is Sir Rail now.
Sir Rail doesn't seem to be trying to hide much.
So, maybe the mask is just a hobby.
"Lydia, trick or treat!"
"Trick, treat. Bird..."
"It means if you don't give us candy, we'll play a trick on you, Lydia. That's what you say on the Day of the Dead. Didn't you know?"
"I have candy, lots of candy, so please take some!"
I squatted down in front of the children and handed out cookies.
The little kids gathered around me. I'm so happy.
This is the ideal I've been looking for. I wanted to cook for the little children.
So, what Lobelia Diner House was missing was definitely snacks. Sweets. Desserts.
"A vampire is here...! Cat lady, a vampire is here, we're going to get eaten..."
"Huh?"
"It's a vampire, Count Bloodsucker!"
"They came to eat the cat lady!"
While I was handing out cookies to the kids, someone from my group started making a fuss, and the noise grew like ripples on water. When I looked up, there was indeed a vampire.
"Sir Ciel!"
"Ms. Lydia. ...A cat, huh. ...A cat."
Sir Ciel always wears the Saintwise uniform.
On days off, he usually wears simple, comfortable clothes.
Even so, Sir Ciel looks beautiful, so he looks good even in plain clothes.
But today, he was wearing a noble-style outfit with a bright red lining and a black cape.
Since Sir Ciel has some gemstone blood in him, he has a beautiful appearance that reminds me of glasswork, and it suits him well.
He looks even better than I imagined in a festival outfit for the dead.
Vampires are one of those urban legends. Demons that suck blood. Count Cain. Also known as Count Bloodsucker.
"Sir Ciel, you're Count Bloodsucker, right..."
"I was a bit worried if just wearing noble clothes and a cape would be enough, but it seems there's no problem."
Sir Ciel smiled brightly.
Maybe because of the outfit, even though he was smiling, there was a strange intensity to him.
It felt like he might snatch a young girl away at any moment.
It was scary, but also really cool. Sir Ciel seemed to remember something and crouched down in front of the kids who were watching him warily, meeting their eyes.
"I heard today is the day to give out sweets to the kids, so I brought some too. One of my subordinates at Saintwise loves making sweets... here you go."
Inside the big bag Sir Ciel was holding, there were many small bags.
The bags had the Saintwise emblem on them and contained chocolate muffins.
Sir Ciel was soon surrounded by the kids, who were saying things like, "What a nice vampire!" When the sweets ran out, the mothers thanked him and took their kids away into the crowd.
I took the big bag Sir Ciel had and placed it inside the shop with the basket, then went outside to hang the closed sign and locked the door.
"Ms. Lydia, thank you for making time for me today. That cat costume looks great on you."
"Sir Ciel, you look wonderful too. You really look like Count Bloodsucker...!"
"Thank you. When I went to buy a costume, they said this outfit was the best. Ms. Lydia, you're a cat today, right?"
"Yes! The familiar of Count Bloodsucker is a cat, so we match perfectly."
"That's right. A black cat familiar... very cute, Ms. Lydia."
"Cats are cute, aren't they?"
"Yes. Cats are cute. They're round."
Sir Ciel likes cats.
And he also likes round things.
I'm not sure if cats are round, but Eir-Eir is round.
"Ms. Eiris, here you go. Leavis made this hat for you."
What Sir Ciel took out was a pumpkin ghost hat.
He placed the pumpkin ghost hat on Eir-Eir's head, who was snuggled up against my chest.
Eir-Eir stayed still.
Once she wore the pumpkin ghost hat, her eyes sparkled as she said, "Pumpkin..." She seemed happy. And cute.
The pumpkin hat was small enough to fit on Eir-Eir's head, but it was very well made.
"Well then, shall we go, Ms. Lydia? There were quite a lot of people on the way here... If you don't mind, could you hold my hand so we don't get separated?"
"Y-yes... If we get separated, it would be a big deal."
"Yes. Today, Ms. Lydia is even more adorable than usual, so it would be a problem if someone took you away."
"Uh, um, thank you..."
I took Sir Ciel's outstretched hand. He is kind, so he probably praises me, but today, I felt a bit embarrassed, maybe because I was wearing cat ears for the first time.
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