It’S A Cat, Adopted By A Wolf Family? [EN]: Chapter 85

“Please, allow me to hold the Young Lady in her cat form for just a moment.”

“Ah……”

Kitty blinked at Katrina’s unexpected request.

“Is that all you want?”

“I’ve become interested in those jelly paws, you see.”

Kitty’s lips subtly curved upward, feeling proud of her soft, pink jelly beans. Somehow, Katrina didn’t seem so intimidating anymore.

Kitty decided to reveal a bit of her own self-interest.

“If you turn into a bear for me, that is.”

“A bear?”

“Yes. I’ve never actually seen a bear.”

Kitty’s eyes sparkled earnestly.

Katrina raised an eyebrow, then nodded. With a *poof*, both beastmen returned to their animal forms.

Kitty’s mouth fell slightly open as she looked at Katrina, who was now the size of a house. Her entire body was covered in soft-looking white fur, and her eyes and round nose were all black.

*I love bears!*

Kitty leaped up and snuggled into Katrina’s embrace. It felt like being inside a giant yarn pouch.

“Here are my jelly paws.”

Kitty’s tiny hands were gently placed on Katrina’s black bear paw. Katrina struggled to keep the bench from breaking as she fiddled with Kitty’s pink jelly beans.

Each of Katrina’s thick claws, each the size of Kitty’s palm, moved carefully.

*Squish.*

The sensation was irresistible.

“Oh, my…….”

The pink jelly beans were so soft that Katrina worried she might accidentally pop them with her claws.

Kitty wore a proud smile as she watched Katrina become enraptured.

“You have wonderful fur, Katrina.”

“Thank you. In the bear territory, there are bears with various colors of fur. My mother is a black bear with black fur, and my father is a dark brown bear with a white crescent mark on his chest.”

“……?”

Kitty became confused, recalling what Ethan had taught her about ‘genetics.’

‘Both of her parents have dark fur, so how is Katrina……’

Jackal always said that the bear beastmen seemed to be hiding something. Could it be a secret about her birth? Kitty’s trembling eyes darted around.

Katrina corrected her, as if it were a familiar reaction.

“My grandfather is a white-furred bear. It’s a case of atavism [reversion to ancestral traits].”

“Ah…….”

“Around next year, I might be able to invite the Young Lady to the bear beastmen’s territory. I’ll introduce you to everyone then.”

“I would be delighted if that could happen.”

Kitty felt a little abashed and dove into the white fur. Katrina chuckled softly and stroked Kitty’s back.

The two basked in the sunlight for a while. The white fur absorbed the sunlight, taking on a subtle glow.

Gridwolf and his wife, having received a report from the gardener Phillip, suppressed their laughter as they arrived at the strawberry garden.

Phillip had reported that Kittia and Katrina were having a private meeting, so they came to check, and it seemed the conversation had gone well.

Phillip looked worriedly at the giant fur ball that had entered the strawberry garden.

“Is the Young Lady alright?”

Only Kitty’s tail and ears were visible, poking out from the embrace of the large white bear. But Jackal and Caris could say for sure.

“Kitty will be fine. We can consider the alliance a success.”

“No one can stand firm in the face of our little one’s jelly paws.”

The two decided to return to the mansion and wait, turning their steps.

* * *

The bear beastmen left the mansion after dinner. Katrina left behind an alliance protocol that would be remembered in the beastmen world, drafted in Caris’s study.

The content stated that the bear beastmen would send envoys to the Gridwolf mansion once per season, and would invite the wolf envoys as soon as they were ready to receive guests.

However, there was a condition attached: Kittia must be included in the wolf envoy party.

“What on earth did the Young Lady talk about with Katrina?”

“To think I would be drafting a diplomatic protocol with the bear beastmen in my generation……”

“It seemed like the two became friends.”

The wolf officials looked over the protocol again and again, Katrina Foley’s signature prominently displayed.

To resume diplomacy with the bear beastmen, who had maintained a long-standing closed-door policy. It was truly like a dream.

And, mixed in with the crowd, was a dog beastman who glanced at the problematic alliance protocol.

It was Hashka, the owner of the Gray Sled Trading Company.

‘Diplomacy with the bears, huh.’

A typical merchant would first think of the abundant resources and undeveloped coal mines in the bear territory.

It was true that they could make enormous profits by exclusively developing them and selling them to beastmen in other regions.

The bear beastmen had not interacted with the outside world for decades, and thanks to that, other beastmen would pay a considerable amount of money to experience their culture.

In short, anything from the bear territory would sell, even at ridiculously high prices.

Perhaps it was only natural that merchants were drooling over the bear territory.

But Hashka was no fledgling merchant. He was the head of the Gray Sled Trading Company, which had established a solid foundation over several generations.

What he wanted wasn’t just goods from the bear territory.

‘The market landscape will completely change.’

A great merchant always looks further ahead. Hashka thought about the impact the alliance between the bear beastmen and the wolves would have.

The bear beastmen had the strongest physical strength among the beastmen. Moreover, they possessed the veiled sacred object, the Mirror of the Goddess.

If the power of Kittia Gridwolf, the immunity holder who moved the Gridwolf’s Bow, was added to that.

‘Peace will return soon.’

Of course, there were many trading companies that made money by exploiting the special demands of conflict situations. Hashka’s trading company also relied to some extent on the war boom.

But this kind of business was difficult to sustain in the long run. There were too many risks to bear.

It was not uncommon for leopards to intercept the goods they had painstakingly brought in.

For the sake of the trading company, and for the sake of the beastmen, peace was necessary.

‘Well, I’m the head of the trading company, so I can’t just wait for peace with a fluttering heart.’

He smiled self-deprecatingly. The deep wrinkles on his face suggested the time he had endured as the continent’s leading trading company head.

“Hashka. Business is about gaining people.”

Hashka intended to gain people, as advised by his father, grandfather, and previous trading company heads.

The person who would be at the center of the era of peace.

“Trading Company Head. Miss Kittia said she would be waiting.”

“Good news.”

Hashka had quickly moved his subordinates after seeing Kitty dispel the madness of the Mock Blue Moon on the first day of the New Year’s festival.

The best way to quickly gain favor is with a gift.

Thanks to his clever subordinates who moved quickly, Hashka was able to get his hands on the item he wanted.

He placed the gift in a high-quality box made of expensive rosewood and lined with velvet—he also knew that the box was more important than the gift to a cat.

‘I hope she likes it.’

Even if it wasn’t about gaining favor, the cat girl was very cute.

She was so lovely and warm that she could captivate anyone, regardless of age or gender. Hashka thought that if he were forty years younger, he might have proposed to her.

‘But I’m too old, and after seeing the formidable competition……’

He chuckled.

On the first day of the New Year’s festival, Hashka was touring every corner of the Gridwolf Castle, which had an antique charm.

Then he saw the young head of the Weebies family seducing the Gridwolf Young Lady on the balcony.

The wolf’s unique obsession was blazing in his blue eyes. A wolf suppressing his desires was something he would only do when he really liked someone.

‘What was even more surprising was the one next to him.’

That day, Hashka and his subordinates weren’t the only ones looking up at the terrace. Not far from them, a man was making a bitter expression.

It was Clyde Foxstein, the head of the foxes.

‘He was holding something like a small turnip model in his hand, I think.’

When Kitty wrapped a scarf around Ethan, Clyde was fiddling with a small doll-like object that someone had made with clumsy knitting skills.

It seemed to be something he always carried with him, but Hashka had no way of knowing what it was.

What was certain was that the wolf family’s temporary adopted daughter was wielding considerable influence.

‘An unpredictable miss.’

Hashka briefly assessed Kitty in his mind and quickened his pace.

It was a time when the blue moonlight dimly illuminated the surroundings. He had planned to meet Kitty in the morning, but she had moved up the appointment.

“Welcome, Hashka.”

Kitty greeted him politely. Elliot had come in as her escort. Hashka spoke kindly to both of them.

“I apologize for the late hour. I wanted to have a conversation with the Young Lady before leaving the mansion, so this old man took the liberty.”

“No, not at all. I was the one who wanted to see Hashka as soon as possible, so I moved up the appointment.”

Kitty smiled brightly and offered him tea. It was a herb tea that soothed the mind and body.

Hashka’s eyes narrowed.

‘Did she investigate me in advance?’

He suffered from slight insomnia and did not drink black tea at night. He was a little surprised that she knew information that only his close aides knew.

Either she had done a preliminary investigation, or she had a detailed consideration ingrained in her. Either way, Hashka liked Kitty.

“I have prepared a small gift for the Young Lady. Please, open it.”

After talking about the New Year’s festival to some extent, Hashka skillfully brought up the main point.

As he asked, Kitty opened the box on the spot. It was a truly comfortable-looking box. And what was inside……

“Is this perhaps a cat comb?”

Kitty’s eyes widened.

She carefully took out the contents. It was a comb with the finest wood carved into the shape of a cat on a cushion, and dense comb teeth were embedded in it.

Hashka rejoiced at the expected reaction.

“You know about it. It is a comb exclusively for cats that a craftsman in the cat territory produces only one of each year. Everyone calls it a *myaong* comb [onomatopoeia for a cat’s meow].”

Kitty tried to calm her pounding heart. The *myaong* comb was a legendary item that made a cat’s fur as rich and soft as a cloud.

Jerian had five of these combs, so he always had fur as rich as a raccoon.

It was a comb that every cat dreamed of, and it was not something that could be bought just because you had money.

Kitty barely suppressed her materialistic desires and said.

“It’s too expensive a gift…… I’ll just accept your kind gesture, Hashka.”

This was an unexpected reaction. Hashka became a little anxious.

“Oh, no. I got it relatively cheaply through an acquaintance merchant.”

Kitty tilted her head slightly at those words.

“Do you know a trading company that enters the cat territory?”

“Of course. You know that the cat territory is barren and most of its food is procured from outside, right?”

Kitty nodded and paused for a moment. A small exclamation mark flashed in her head.

The moment Hogwood entered the war, Gridwolf was planning to put pressure on the cat territory to cut off the supply of Mock Blue Moon.

But if they used the trading company in charge of food supply…

“Hashka, do you know all the owners of the trading companies that trade with Jerian?”

“Yes? Yes, well…….”

Hashka nodded absentmindedly. She was truly an unpredictable cat girl.