It’S A Cat, Adopted By A Wolf Family? [EN]: Chapter 88

“Cleed, are you alright?”

I asked, surprised.

Cleed was my guard, but since Sir Elliot had taken over my protection from the second day of the New Year’s festival, it had been a while since I saw his face up close.

Due to the bold raid by the panthers, the guests of Gridwolf were spending most of their time inside the mansion, so I heard that Cleed was in charge of guarding the entire mansion, not just me.

The scope of his guard duty had widened, so it must have been too much for him. His eyes were hollow, as if he hadn’t slept properly.

‘But Cleed is a beast-man who knows how to be resourceful.’

Cleed, who would normally have mobilized his loyal subordinates to take adequate rest, looked so unwell that I was even more worried.

As I examined his face with a concerned gaze, Cleed shrugged his shoulders as if he had read my mind.

“Don’t worry too much. I just look tired because I used a lot of mana records.”

“Really?”

For some reason, I felt like Cleed was lying, so I moved my face slightly closer. I thought he would step back as I got closer, but Cleed rather pushed his face forward.

“Yes, really. And the rabbits gave testimonies that were hard to accept, so I lost some sleep.”

Cleed’s face looked very dark as he said that, so I could tell he wasn’t lying.

I had heard that the rabbits who had escaped the madness of the Blue Moon during the New Year’s festival had recovered enough to report what had happened to them.

I thought they would be giving Jerian a statement about what he had done to them, but Cleed’s reaction gave me a rough idea of what it was about.

‘It must be related to the fox beast-men.’

If it was information related to Jerian, I needed to hear it, so I headed that way.

In the central training ground, cozy and sturdy accommodations were prepared for the beast-men who had to be isolated just in case, even though they were not guilty.

‘I heard that the wolf lady who collapsed in front of me during the New Year’s festival is staying here too.’

I should investigate the magic that Delta cast on her.

I quickly found the room where Toby and the other rabbits were staying. Several fox beast-men were talking to the rabbits with dismal faces.

“Since the young lady has arrived, we should step back for a moment,” Cleed said. His voice was full of dignity. The fox beast-men bowed their heads and stood in neat rows against the wall.

I asked Toby, who had a troubled face, how he was doing, and then asked him to tell me what he had testified to the wolf knights.

“Thanks to the young lady’s magic, I remembered what happened in Jerian’s underground laboratory.”

“Underground laboratory?”

The large building where Jerian resided was called the food warehouse. I expected there to be a basement, but I never imagined that Toby would be kidnapped there.

“Yes. We were captured one by one and put in narrow iron cages. And… it was the fox beast-men who cast magic on us to be loyal to Jerian every night.”

Cleed’s face darkened even more, even though he probably already knew.

“I’ve seen Jerian use fox beast-men before. Were they any different?”

“Young lady, the fox beast-men trapped in the basement were not simply there because they were affected by the Blue Moon.”

“Yes?”

“They were all sane. Jerian had their children locked up in cages across from them. It was so pitiful to see the children whimpering, wanting to be in their parents’ arms…”

The scene of the basement that Toby described was quite shocking.

The baby foxes were acting strangely, spinning around in their narrow cages, as if they had gone crazy from anxiety, and their parents were begging Jerian.

Then Jerian would demand unreasonable things from the fox beast-men in exchange for letting the baby foxes play outside for a few minutes.

“Ha… Jerian, that crazy cat.”

It was disgusting no matter how I thought about it, using the love of family to fill his own belly.

What was even more annoying was that Jerian had been using that method all along.

“I asked the fox squad members and found out who the three pairs of fox couples Toby saw were,” Cleed added in a gloomy voice.

“They are all foxes belonging to the aristocracy among the fox beast-men. Their magic power is considerable.”

Jerian was taking advantage of the weaknesses of such strong foxes and wielding them. It was truly the worst.

The reason he was able to cast a unique curse that only activated at night on Toby and the other rabbits must be because the fox beast-men he was holding were outstanding.

“Mr. Toby, did you hear any orders that Jerian gave to the foxes?”

“Yes. I reported the details to the knights of Gridwolf earlier. Jerian seemed to want to make us rabbits his private soldiers.”

“…”

I think I knew why Jerian chose the rabbit beast-men among the many beast-men to conduct experiments on.

Rabbits are weak animals, so they are easily dominated by magic, and they have many children, so their numbers increase rapidly.

Most parents teach their children what they believe is right, so if only a few rabbits are brainwashed, the number of brainwashed rabbits will increase quickly.

‘But rabbits are weak, so they have no chance of winning when fighting strong animals.’

There was no way Jerian didn’t know that.

Then, of course… he was going to keep the rabbits by his side for one-time use.

Even if they were overwhelmingly strong wolves or panthers, it would take time to harm the rabbits, so he would use that time to escape or steal things.

It was meticulous of him to think of a retreat in advance.

His face, which had participated in the deaths of my father and brother but pretended not to know me and my mother, came back to life vividly.

Before I knew it, the hand that was tightly gripping Gridwolf’s bow was trembling.

‘What does he want to get by going this far?’

Jerian was already rich enough. If he used the abilities he had taken from the Icaruses, he could gain the trust of the panthers.

He had the ability to take Delta’s right-hand seat, but he was not satisfied and turned against the panthers.

He was already wealthy, and he was already called the ruler of the cats.

I couldn’t understand what desire he was trying to fulfill by squeezing the blood and tears of so many people.

‘…Evil bastard.’

The thought of wanting to take revenge on him quickly surged. I wanted to scratch his arrogant face.

“Thank you, Mr. Toby. Get some rest.”

I asked the wolf knights to read the report and headed to the training ground.

* * *

“Young lady, let’s stop here today.”

Elliot grabbed Kitty’s shoulder as she tried to swing the bow further.

“Just a little more. I can’t shoot the bow yet, so I want to properly learn how to attack with the bow’s body using magic power.”

Kitty said, but Elliot shook his head firmly.

“I told you it’s not allowed. You’ve been continuing strenuous training for days now.”

Elliot had heard the reason from Cleed.

Kitty had heard from Toby about another crime committed by Jerian. It was natural that she was burning with revenge.

The young lady in front of him had endured difficult martial arts classes with the single-minded determination to kill Jerian since she was very young.

“Moving according to anger without thinking about your body will only harm your body.”

“…”

“Young lady, if I could have held Gridwolf’s bow, I would have taken it away a long time ago.”

Elliot said firmly once more. When he made this voice when she was young, she would pout and listen to him right away.

Perhaps because she grew up in the wolf family, the young lady was acting and rebelling more and more like a wolf. That appearance was also lovely, but what was not allowed was not allowed.

“You know that revenge is not just about stabbing Jerian.”

“…That’s right. Because I learned from a wonderful teacher.”

Kitty reluctantly picked up the bow. Elliot chuckled at the sound of the bell ringing after a long time.

“That’s right. Helping Hogguth fight well against the panthers is also revenge against Jerian.”

“Okay, teacher.”

Kitty picked up the bow and headed to the Gridwolf mansion. The work she had to do today was to infuse magic power into the handkerchiefs to give to the wolf knights.

As a result of Cleed’s all-day investigation using mana records [magical recordings used for investigation and surveillance], it was revealed that having Kitty’s goddess magic would make them immune to the Blue Moon.

Kitty couldn’t give the wolf knights perfect immunity, but she could make them slightly stronger in the face of the madness of the Blue Moon.

‘If it helps even a little.’

Kitty steeled her resolve and sat on a small chair. Several boxes of luxurious handkerchiefs were placed on the large table in front of her.

Behind her, the wolf knights who had finished preparing for the expedition were lined up in sturdy armor.

“Shall we start then?”

“Yes, young lady.”

Poof!

When Kitty returned to her cat form, Vaniel put special ink on her right soft paw.

Tap, tap, tap.

After confirming that the pink jelly [referring to the paw pad] was well dyed red, Kitty pressed her paw firmly on one corner of the handkerchief that another maid was unfolding.

Squish—

When the luscious soft paw touched and fell, the handkerchief was stamped with the magic power that Kitty had infused and a cute paw print.

Hogguth, who had come out to receive Kitty’s cheering handkerchief first, burst into a refreshing laugh.

“Hahaha, this is really cute. It also contains magic power, so it will be of great help when dealing with panthers.”

“Oh, then I’ll try harder.”

Kitty, who was pleased to hear that she was helpful, began to produce soft paw handkerchiefs for Hogguth and the knights who would be leaving soon.

Since handkerchiefs can be used in useful ways in case of emergency, she filled them with the hope that they would be helpful in many ways.

Of course, the knights had no intention of using the handkerchiefs.

“Thank you, young lady. I’ll keep it with me and decorate it in a frame when I return safely.”

“Oh…”

“The paw print is really cute. It’s much bigger than the one on the adoption papers, isn’t it?”

Every time the knights received the handkerchiefs, they grabbed Kitty’s soft paws and shook them. Kitty was grateful that the knights recognized her, but she was also a little embarrassed.

‘At this rate, I don’t think they’ll be able to leave today.’

Eventually, she put special ink on both soft paws to double the production speed.

Squish, squish—

When she pressed both soft paws at the same time, she could make two soft paw handkerchiefs at once. The knights’ eyes twinkled.

“Young lady…”

“Thank you, we will definitely win.”

“Oh, the knights’ hands…”

The knights shook hands with Kitty without worrying about the ink on their palms.

Hogguth looked at the knights’ hands and laughed heartily.

“Oh, we should hang a soft paw flag at the vanguard of our knighthood, shouldn’t we?”

He made a pleasant joke, saying that he should change the name of the knighthood to the Soft Paw Knighthood.

It wasn’t just Hogguth and the knights who were about to leave who were interested in the handkerchiefs with Kitty’s paw prints.

“Is this the rumored soft paw stamp?”

“It’s so cute that it looks like it will sell very well.”

“If Kittia supplies the handkerchiefs with her paw prints, our Gray Sleigh Merchant Group will buy them all, so don’t set your sights on them.”

A group of merchants that Hashuka had brought to win Kitty’s favor also looked at the soft paw handkerchiefs with great interest.