Chapter 1

I was a cat demon, bound by blood and magic to obey my master's every whim.

A cat demon has nine lives.

Each life can be traded to absorb a fatal misfortune for someone else.

Nicholas, as my master, didn't just use me as a convenient warm body in his bed to satisfy his lust. He squandered every single one of my lives without a second thought.

And every single time, it was for Chloe.

A mild fever, an annoying cold, or even Chloe feeling a little sore after they had sex—Nicholas would force me to sacrifice an entire life just to take her discomfort away.

Afterward, he would pin my hips, clinging to me in an exhausting display of passion.

"This is your reward for being so obedient. Don't worry, I'll let you keep your very last life."

Yet, the moment Chloe suffered from a complicated, agonizing labor, Nicholas broke his sacred vow on the spot.

"I command you to bear this birth for Chloe right now!"

"Mother or child, you bring them both back alive, do you hear me?!"

I agreed with a quiet smile. I took the agonizing butchery of the C-section onto my own ethereal flesh, slowly bleeding out and dying on that cold delivery table.

After drawing my final breath, my soul returned to the Underworld to serve as an officer in the halls of judgment.

Yet up in the mortal realm, Nicholas gathered a massive crowd and threw a lavish, high-profile funeral in front of my empty grave, putting on the performance of a grieving, devoted widower...

"Tsk, tsk. Your former mortal master sure knows how to spend money. Look at this spectacle—even the grandest saints don't get a send-off like this."

"Didn't he scatter your ashes to the wind back then? Where did he even find bones to bury?"

Minos, the judge of the dead, materialized beside me out of thin air, a mocking smirk on his lips.

A cold glint of hatred flickered in my eyes as I sneered, "What bad luck. I can't even get peace after dying."

"When I died, my soul shattered and my mortal vessel dissolved. Not a single whisker remained."

"Whatever is buried in that fancy tomb is just a bunch of torn-up scratching posts and old toys."

Through the magic mirror, I watched Nicholas kneeling before my headstone. He meticulously wiped the polished marble, his fingers tracing the engraved words Beloved Wife, Mia with tender, heartbreaking devotion.

His assistant rushed over, trying to haul him up by the elbow, and murmured comforting words.

"Mr. Hayes, please, torturing yourself like this won't bring her peace. If she saw you right now, she'd be devastated."

"She loved you so much during her life. She would never want you to suffer like this."

Behind them, a swarm of reporters buzzed like flies scenting rot, their flashing cameras and microphones clicking in a frenzied rhythm.

Nicholas's face was pale with grief, looking as though he might throw himself into the dirt and follow me into the grave at any second.

His eyes were bloodshot and swollen as he turned toward the blinding lenses.

"Mia may have had the spirit of an otherworldly creature, but she was the absolute love of my life."

"Three years ago, wicked rivals cursed me with a lethal blood hex. I was on the brink of death."

"She cast aside all regard for her own safety. Using her nine sacred spirit lives, she absorbed every single drop of that wretched calamity for me! I held her in my arms, watching helplessly... watching her slowly turn cold..."

Nicholas choked back a sob, his voice trembling with sheer agony.

"I tried everything. I even carved flesh and spilled my own heart's blood to prolong her days, but in the end, fate could not be swayed..."

I yawned lazily and twirled the tassel dangling from my Underworld robes.

Nicholas really was a phenomenal actor. If he hadn't been, I wouldn't have fallen into his trap so completely in the first place.

If I hadn't already died by his hands, I might have actually believed the epic, soul-stirring romance spilling from his lips.

Minos propped his chin on his hand, studying me with keen interest.

"Little kitten, looking at him now, you'd think he loved you to the depths of his soul! It truly makes me wonder what kind of hell you went through to die with such unquenchable malice. If I hadn't dragged you straight down into the Underworld the second you died, you probably would have painted the mortal realm in rivers of blood."

Devoted love? Ha.

He paved his road with my lives.

He built a monument upon my bones.

Now, this grand spectacle was nothing more than cheap theater staged to win over the living.

I watched in cold silence.

Even the cold stone carvings on that marble slab felt more genuine than his tears.

In the waters of the mirror, Nicholas answered the journalists' questions, his tone earnest, his gaze drenched in longing and profound regret.

"Mr. Hayes, you mentioned earlier that you and Mia shared an unbroken telepathic bond. Could you share a bit more about that?"

"Between the two of us, words were entirely unnecessary," he said softly. "A single glance, a slight shift in her posture, and we understood each other completely. What she had for me was absolute, unconditional trust and reliance."

Listening from the Underworld, all I felt was pure revulsion.

Unconditional trust and reliance?

Perhaps once, a lifetime ago, that had been true.

Back then, I was just an ordinary black kitten that Nicholas had rescued and raised from a tiny stray.

He named me Mia. Simple, sweet, and familiar.

Life was quiet and mundane, but to an innocent cat, it was the happiest existence I could have ever dreamed of.

Until that horrific car crash.

The screech of burning rubber and tearing metal was my last memory of the mortal world.

When my soul drifted free of my broken body, I saw Nicholas sprint over like an absolute madman.

He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me tight against his chest. For days on end, he refused to eat or sleep, clutching my stiff, freezing corpse and weeping until his eyes bled.

To the naive creature I was, his overwhelming grief felt so devastatingly pure that it shattered my heart.

My wandering ghost lingered in the mortal realm, refusing to cross over.

Minos, touched by his terrifying obsession, made an exception.

He bound my nine spirit lives to Nicholas in a master-servant contract, allowing me to take human form and return to his side.

That day, when Nicholas held me once again, he broke down and cried tears of pure ecstasy.

It wasn't until much later that I finally learned the truth.

Nicholas had brought me back for one purpose and one purpose only: to serve as a disposable shield for Chloe.