Noir is an intelligent black cat with amber eyes who lives in a warm, watercolor-like world. His favorite spot is the top of an old bookshelf in his owner's study, which serves as his private 'castle.' One afternoon, Noir's owner discovers a mysterious golden bookmark—a magical item that causes the story within a book to slightly overflow into reality. When a sudden wind carries the bookmark out the window, Noir embarks on his first adventure outside the house. Following clues through the town,
Noir the Cat and the Vanished Bookmark - Episode 24: Luna
The Amber of the Old Castle —The Tale of a Black Cat Who Became a Guardian Beast—
Memory of Cold Stone
When Luna was still a warm-blooded kitten, the era was driven mad by the terror of the Black Death and witch hunts. At that time, the castle towering atop a steep cliff in the north was ruled by the cruel and deeply suspicious Count Bartholomäus. Having lost his beloved son to a fever, the Count became convinced that "this is a curse of the devil," and plunged the entire castle into a whirlpool of paranoia and suspicion.
It was then that a black cat with mysterious amber eyes—Luna—wandered into the castle kitchen. As soldiers raised an uproar crying "Black cats are servants of the devil!," the Count's personal old sorcerer made a coldhearted suggestion. "Your Lordship, this is truly heaven-sent. Seal this black cat alive within the castle's foundation. If you make a minion of the devil into a human sacrifice, its dark power will be inverted, and it shall become an immortal shield that repels all curses."
On a stormy night, Luna's small body was stuffed into a burlap sack and shoved into a hollow in the damp underground wall. Brick by brick, the masons laid the wall before her very eyes, sealing away the light. The Count and his men drowned out Luna's desperate cries of "Mew, mew" with praying incantations. When the final brick was set in place and complete darkness and silence descended, Luna's small life expired—and in its place, she was transformed into a new existence: an "arcane force that protects the castle."
Several hundred years passed. The Count's bloodline died out, and the castle changed hands many times, but each time, strange phenomena followed—"a black shadow appears night after night," "the master falls ill with a mysterious disease"—and before long, it was abandoned as a "cursed ruin" that no one dared approach.
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The Scholar Arthur's Calculation
Many more years flowed by, and what awakened Luna from her slumber was the lively, warm sound of human footsteps echoing through the castle for the first time in centuries.
The new residents were the Heartfield family—exiled to the provinces after losing in a court power struggle in the royal capital.
The head of the family, Arthur, had been an honest scholar once affiliated with the Royal Academy, but he had been caught up in court factional disputes and stripped of his elite status. His sentence was a harsh field assignment: "Survey the vegetation and mineral resources" of an untamed land at the northern edge of the world. His salary was slashed by thirty percent from his days in the capital.
In the capital, they had lived a middle-class life—unable to afford luxuries, but the three of them managed in a small rented house, breaking even each month after paying for their sickly daughter's medicine. His wife Eleanor had learned basic housekeeping by watching and imitating her mother's work at her family home.
But a thirty percent pay cut changed everything. If they tried to rent a normal house in a provincial town, the rent alone would make it impossible to feed their daughter Emma properly or to keep ordering expensive medicine from the capital. Bankruptcy within a few months was inevitable.
So Arthur, being a scholar, calculated coldly and desperately. (Near the survey site, there's an old castle put up for sale for just "a few loaves of bread in fees" because of creepy rumors. Ghosts are unscientific. If we choose that place, rent will be zero for life. If I offset the thirty percent pay cut with the rent we save, I can feed Emma warm porridge every day and keep buying her medicine!)
The family moved into the cursed old castle as a "practical choice" to protect their daughter's life from starvation.
Eleanor had no time to lament their fallen standard of living—she scrubbed the dust-covered floors of the castle with a rag, filling the gloomy space with the scent of herbs through her natural cheerfulness.
And then there was their daughter Emma. Born with weak lungs, the clear northern air suited her body far better than the polluted atmosphere of the capital. She began a quiet convalescence, reading old books she found in the castle's library.
Luna, now a shadow being, at first watched them from the ceiling beams and the shadows of dark pillars. (Another batch of sacrifices has arrived. They'll either flee in terror like all the others, or have their souls devoured by devils.)
Luna deliberately made the floor creak and sent cold drafts to test them. But the father Arthur merely furrowed his brow and said, "Just a draft from the gaps peculiar to old buildings. Tomorrow I'll knead some clay to seal them." He showed no sign of fear. What's more, thanks to the floors Eleanor polished and the wildflowers arranged by the windows, the once-gloomy atmosphere of the castle gradually transformed into something Luna had never known—the scent of daily life.
Then one day, Emma found in the library a dust-covered record of Luna—a written testament left by the old sorcerer, describing the ritual in which the black cat had been buried alive. Luna watched from the beams, expecting her face to twist in horror. But what overflowed from Emma's eyes were not fear, but large, heartfelt tears.
"You poor thing… How frightened and lonely you must have been. I wish I could have protected you."
Those gentle words pierced deep into Luna's heart. For hundreds of years, all that had been directed at him was fear, curses, or the mockery of devils. Never once had anyone pitied him.
(Silly girl. I'm a monster with the power of a devil. What could a fragile human like you possibly do?)
Luna turned his face away—but from that night on, he couldn't help but be curious about Emma.
The next night, Luna stood quietly in a corner of Emma's bedroom, in darkness beyond the reach of moonlight. Emma, who had been reading in bed, suddenly looked up. In her pure-hearted eyes, Luna's amber gaze glowed eerily in the dark.
"Ah…" Emma caught her breath. Luna braced himself, thinking "She'll scream in terror after all"—but she simply smiled softly. "You're Luna, aren't you? The one from the book? Did you come to see me?"
Luna didn't answer, only stared back. When Emma got out of bed and tried to approach, Luna retreated a step back into the shadows with a supple motion. He still hadn't fully trusted humans. Emma didn't push further either, and simply said, "Goodnight, Luna," and quietly returned to bed.
Nights of this "neither close nor far" distance continued for about ten days. Luna gradually moved the spot where he appeared closer to the bed. First the corner of the room, then the shadow of a chair, then the top of the desk. Emma never raised her voice or tried to touch him forcefully—she simply talked to Luna about the book she'd read that day, or the rare blue flower her father had found.
The distance between them decisively closed on a night of heavy rain. Perhaps from overexerting herself during the day, Emma was wracked by violent coughing. Even after Arthur and Eleanor gave her medicine and she finally fell asleep, her breathing remained labored.
Luna leaped onto the pillow beside her head. Deep within her chest, he could see the shadow of illness writhing. Luna gently laid his shadow-body over Emma's chest. The "power to ward off evil" that humans had once imbued in him slightly eased Emma's suffering and made her breathing easier.
The next morning, Emma woke to find her body lighter than usual. And she sensed a faint, pleasant presence like a cool breeze lingering by her pillow.
"Luna, you protected me, didn't you?"
That night, when Luna appeared, Emma gently held out her right hand. Luna no longer fled. He slowly approached and slipped his incorporeal shadow-head into Emma's small palm. Emma's hand passed through Luna's body. Yet Luna could clearly feel the warmth of Emma's palm, and Emma could feel Luna's cool, gentle will.
"No one will ever lock you in a dark place again. I'll be your family."
Emma's slender fingertips traced the outline of Luna's head lovingly. Luna narrowed his eyes in contentment and, for the first time in hundreds of years, began to purr. It was the moment when a lonely black cat decided, by his own will, to become this girl's "guardian."
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Showdown on a Stormy Night
One autumn night, Emma's condition took a sudden turn for the worse. Amid a violent thunderstorm, she was delirious with a high fever, breathing painfully in her bedroom. As Arthur and Eleanor desperately brewed medicinal herbs, the temperature of the entire castle plummeted.
The darkness outside the window warped and twisted, and a true "devil"—with sharp claws and shadowy wings—appeared. The devil that infested this land had devoured the despair of generations of castle lords and been the root cause of their deaths. Tonight, it had been drawn by the scent of Emma's weakening soul. The devil smashed through the glass and crept toward Emma's bed as black mist.
As Arthur and Eleanor cowered in terror, a pair of amber lights burst ominously at the bedside.
"Begone, you insect. This castle and this girl are my territory."
Luna stood blocking the way before the bed. The devil looked at Luna and sneered. "How ridiculous. Are you not the pitiful cat who was betrayed by humans and buried alive in a wall? Why side with their kind? Hand over the girl's soul, and I shall free you from this castle's bondage."
Luna bristled the dark waves that served as his fur and growled low.
"Don't misunderstand. I haven't forgiven humans. But those who sealed me here truly believed that 'a black cat's power repels devils.' —Then I'll prove that curse, here and now!"
As Luna roared, the centuries' worth of "anti-evil magic" sleeping deep beneath the castle surged up through the stone walls all at once. The power of pure faith that medieval people had poured into Luna, fused with the warm light of daily life the Heartfield family had kindled in this castle, and Luna's shadow-body swelled into the form of a gigantic black panther that filled the room.
"Graaah! What is this power…!?"
Swallowed by the overwhelming torrent of "holy darkness" that Luna unleashed, the devil screamed and was completely blasted away into the stormy night sky.
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The True Guardian Beast
The storm passed, and in the room where silence returned, Luna's body shrank back to the size of a small black cat. Strangely, at the same moment the devil was purged, Emma's fever vanished, and a healthy color returned to her cheeks. This was because the "true curse (the devil)" that had filled this castle had been completely erased by Luna.
Emma gently opened her eyes and reached out toward Luna before her. This time, somehow, a mysterious warmth reached Luna's body. Emma's warm palm was gently, unmistakably stroking Luna's head—which should have had no physical form.
"Thank you, my little guardian."
Luna narrowed his eyes in satisfaction and purred. Watching this, Arthur and Eleanor—though they could not see him—sensed the presence of the "invisible protector" who had saved their beloved daughter, and wept in gratitude.
The black cat who had once been made a sacrifice by human fear and superstition had now, by his own will, become a true "guardian beast" protecting the family he loved.
The "cursed castle bought for next to nothing" became the safest, warmest home in the world for the Heartfield family—through Arthur's cold calculation, his deep love for his family, and the pride of one black cat.
The scars on the wall in the castle's lowest level still remain today, but what can be heard from there is not a sorrowful cry, but a small, bell-like sound—the happy purring of a contented cat.
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