[WWUFW] We Woke Up to a Fantasy World

Chapter 4: A Magic spell, a "cat", and a sweet "kiss"

It had been a week since Cherise arrived and she thought she finally settled down.

She had come to terms with the fact that she would spend her days working past the 9 to 5 hours, with her beloved who she would have to try to bond with all over again.

She definitely could have wished for more for her lot in life, but that would have been ambitious.

Instead of droning away at the mansion, she came to town to both inspect it as the duchess and to reward herself for making it through week one. She had heard from the servants that there was a bakery that made all sorts of delicious goods, especially its tarts. It seemed that lemon tarts, fruit tarts, and apple pies were its best desserts in terms of craftsmanship.

She was hoping it wasn't too much to ask for a decent chocolate cake.

But first she had to make her other stops. So she went around town looking for the people she had to check in with.

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No wonder she had to do so much paperwork. A good amount of them were because the citizens she did check in on were never in shop or in person to confirm anything. The servants' sighs indicate this happened more times than accidentally possible.

She finally figured it out first hand, after failing to meet up with both the alchemist who was supposed to be in town today and the accountant that handled finances at the local bank. The two individuals singlehandedly the ones to blame for most of the documents, because of the amount of permits and approvals they needed.

"What is with them? Was everyone out of work this specific day for some reason? Is this a prank?" Cherise exasperated.

She had been chasing around the whereabouts of these two people, thinking she'd be able to track them down unlike her predecessor. Instead, she found herself tired out, by a nearby cathedral. Although she avoided religion like the plague, she could admire the glass windows and beautiful flower beds.

She did insist on resting at a restaurant of the sort, but her servants insisted that for a noble woman like her, it was the safest to rest at a religious site where nobody would dare touch her. Normally, the duchess would have went to a temple of a different religion instead, since the temple was more for visitations rather than worship. However, this cathedral was the closest to them at the moment.

After coming to the cathedral, the servants had just dropped her and ran immediately. They insisted that she could walk around within the cathedral's vicinity while they went to buy refreshments. Cherise couldn't refute as they had already left her.

Quietly, Cherise sat on one of the nearby benches, unfamiliar with the area. She could at least examine the place so she knew the layout for the future.

Admiring the streets and shops, Cherise glanced back at the flowerbeds when she had set her gaze on a white, plump cat lazing on the beds. She knew very well to not interact with strays, but the nuns passing by and constantly petting the cat made Cherry softened. She wanted to pet the cat too.

Her hands found themselves stroking the cat's head, which earned her an irritated growl. Cherise backed off at the sound of annoyance and waited until the cat snoozed off again. Hesitant, she tried the back of the cat instead, which earned her a soft hum.

Cherise should have been thinking about how cute the cat was, but instead she was weirded out by how the cat was humming like a human rather than purring.

It was really strange. She turned the cat over to lay on its back.