Betrothed to My Sister's Ex

Cold. So cold that even my toes were trembling uncontrollably.

Yet, only from the neck up, I felt like I was burning, my ears aching as if they might tear apart.

“Ah… ugh… ah… ugh…”

I flailed my hands, pleading for help. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted or needed. I understood I wasn’t well, but why I was both burning hot and freezing cold, why I was in pain—I had no idea. I just reached out my hands toward the people older than me in this house.

“Ma… ma… pa… o-older sister…”

A cold object was placed on my forehead. It was a damp cloth that drew the heat from my head.

Immediately, my whole body felt relief. Somehow, cooling my head eased the chill I felt all over.

I exhaled softly and opened my blurry eyes.

There was a small girl.

“Marie, how do you feel? Does it feel good?”

She peered at me while I was lying there, her brows furrowed.

“Ah… Anya, elder sister… thank you.”

When I spoke, Anastasia, my elder sister, sighed in relief.

She was two years older than me, just six years old. Her rosy, round cheeks and big blue eyes that seemed about to overflow. Her curly golden hair reached to her shoulders. None of these were things I had, but our slender fingers were strikingly similar.

“It’s okay, Marie. The doctor said just now it’s a simple ear cold. If you get plenty of rest, it will heal.”

I felt happy and smiled.

I didn’t understand the meaning of “cold,” but I was relieved it wasn’t something serious, and I was glad my sister had told me that.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” she kept repeating as she held my hand firmly.

Come to think of it, she had comforted me like this before—when I fell and got hurt, when I ate too much and had a stomach ache, when I was scared to sleep alone and cried.

Neither Mama nor Papa nor anyone else did that. Only my elder sister always did.

When I felt a little better, she picked up the book from her lap and showed it to me.

“Hey, Marie, just lying down is boring, right? I’ll read a book to you.”

I cheered. The Ragged Red Cat Tale. Since I couldn’t read yet, my sister would read various books to me. This was her favorite book among them.

She opened the large book with its cover too heavy for a child, using her whole body.

“—Once upon a time, in a place not here, a traveler journeyed across many countries. At the entrance of the town he came to, there was a red, tattered cat.

The traveler asked the cat, ‘Hey, kitty! What’s your name?’ The Ragged Red Cat replied, ‘Shut up, you fool! I have no name. I’m just a lousy cat!’”

“Hehe…”

She hid her mouth in the sheets and chuckled softly.

Because Anastasia’s words were different from last time she read it. Her careless translations of Ipsandros language varied each time.

I couldn’t read Ips language yet, but since my sister translated it into the kingdom’s language, I remembered the whole story.

“‘Why do you ask my name? Don’t you want to know why I’m ragged?’ ‘I can tell without asking. It’s because you’re red, right? The other cats bullied you. I know everything,’ said the traveler.

The Ragged Red Cat asked the traveler, ‘Why am I garbage, yet I have ears and a tail and walk around meowing?’ ‘Because you’re not garbage, you’re a cat,’ the traveler answered. The cat asked, ‘If I’m a cat, why am I ragged?’

…The traveler replied, ‘Because that’s just what you are.’ The cat asked, ‘Why am I that way?’ ‘Because you just are, just like I am a traveler.’ —”

I opened my mouth and whispered the passage I had completely memorized, with a dry throat.

“The traveler said, ‘You should travel too. If a cat rolls around like garbage, it becomes garbage. If garbage meows, it becomes a cat. And,’…”

My sister grinned.

“‘If you go on a journey, you become a traveling cat!’”

We both clapped our hands in delight.

We loved the story that began there.

The traveler and the Ragged Red Cat traveled across the world, meeting all sorts of people and incidents.