It’S A Cat, Adopted By A Wolf Family? [EN]: Chapter 107

“I hope Ethan Weavers isn’t there.”

Jackal asked me with a teasing voice. He seemed quite concerned that I had spent time with Ethan last night.

“Of course not! The black-furred wolves who were dispatched should be at the central training grounds by now. I just happened to run into him last night while he was hurrying back.”

“…So, if Ethan hadn’t hurried back, you might not have met him at night?”

“Maybe?”

Since Ethan was trying to leave the cat territory late, that’s why we ran into each other at that time.

Jackal muttered, ‘I shouldn’t have given that order.’ He seemed to regret his words a little.

Hmm, it seems Jackal ordered the black-furred wolves to return quickly.

If I had known just half a day earlier, I could have pestered him to withdraw the order and had tea with the black-furred wolves, but they had already left.

‘What I have to do today is more important than what’s done.’

I asked Jackal once more.

“I want to visit the house I used to live in. I would be very happy if you allowed it.”

Jerian has disappeared somewhere now. Wolves will be guarding this area, so he won’t be able to come near for a while.

I thought it wouldn’t be too much of a problem to visit the house I used to live in with reliable protection, so I brought it up.

Of course, the biggest reason was that I wanted to see if there were any traces of the precious time I spent with my family.

“Then I’ll go with you.”

“You’ll really go with me?”

“Yes. Elliot is doing a great job of organizing the food storage area.”

Jackal gently tidied my hair.

“Besides, you’re definitely going to cry when you enter the house you used to live in, and I don’t want to leave you alone when you’re crying.”

In Jackal’s mind, I’m still a crybaby kid, whether it’s ten years ago or now.

Anyway, I was relieved to get permission and quickly started preparing.

* * *

“As you can see, the surroundings have changed a lot. I don’t know if the place where your house was will be safe.”

Camel, who was walking ahead, said. Kitty, who was following her with half excitement and half emotion, couldn’t respond.

It had been more than ten years since she left the cat territory, so she didn’t expect the house to be perfectly preserved.

“I hope even the site is still there.”

She muttered in a desperate voice, closely following Camel.

Clyde, Jackal, and some of the wolf knights who came with them also followed quietly, hoping to find what Kitty wanted.

As they entered an alley with a rough wall standing firm, Kitty let out a faint sigh.

“This is……”

It was definitely different from her memory, but when she smelled the scent of the dirt road, she felt like she knew where this was.

Kitty walked ahead, retracing her memories.

Her nose tingled as she climbed the slope and passed familiar trees and rocks.

I always sat on that wall below, waiting for my mom to come home from work.

Mom would swing our clasped hands, and when we got up to this point, she would ask if I was having a hard time and lift me up.

“Kitty, if you turn into a cat, Mom will hold you.”

“Kya―!”

Whenever I thought of the moment when I jumped into my mom’s arms and curled up, I felt so happy that I could cry.

At the end of this road is the precious home where I spent my childhood.

Kitty forgot that she was gradually getting out of breath and ran even faster. Gridulf’s bow, tightly held instead of her mother’s hand, shook.

“Ah……”

But what awaited her was a wasteland full of weeds.

The house was completely demolished, and it was difficult to find even a piece of brick. Only the remaining walls allowed her to guess where the house had been.

Our house is gone.

Kitty felt like her legs would give way, so she supported herself with the bow. Fortunately, Gridulf’s bow was very long.

The wolves, Clyde, and Camel, who followed, could tell that the situation was not good just by looking at Kitty’s precarious back.

“Kitty, I’m sorry.”

Camel hugged her tightly.

Kitty, who was sullenly hanging her head, soon remembered something and quickly raised her head.

“Shall we dig up the ground? We used to bury precious things in the ground.”

“Huh? We’re cats, not dogs?”

“……”

It seemed that burying precious things in the ground was a custom unique to Kitty’s house.

It was a little embarrassing, but now was not the time to worry about that.

Kitty approached Clyde and asked.

“Clyde, can you burn all the weeds nearby with magic? I’m going to dig up the ground.”

“Leave it to me.”

Jackal added.

Using fire magic in the mountains covered with dry grass was very dangerous, but it was a piece of cake for Clyde, the head of the Foxstein family, a prestigious magic family.

“I’m glad I can repay the debt I owe from the Yaongsan Cave.”

Clyde concentrated. His pupils narrowed sharply.

Now that he had rescued the fox nobles whom Jerian had imprisoned and exploited, his magic power had grown to a different level than before.

The power of fire and the power of water swirled at the same time, and steam rose with a hiss.

When Kitty squeezed her eyes shut and opened them, all the grass growing on the house site had been burned away.

“Clyde, you’re amazing!”

“It’s nothing.”

Clyde shrugged.

Jackal stepped between them and ordered the wolf knights.

“Dig up the ground as much as my daughter wants.”

Kitty estimated the size of the house and then asked them to dig in a few places.

Bang―!

The wolf knights carefully dug up the soil with their forepaws, being careful not to damage anything that might be buried underground.

Pat, pat, pat!

Every time the sturdy wolves’ forepaws moved, dirt splashed like spray.

Kitty clasped her hands together with a desperate heart and closed her eyes. Before long, one of the wolf knights flinched.

“Did you find something?”

Jackal and Kitty quickly approached. The wolf knight’s forepaw was touching something like a clay tablet.

When Clyde shook off the dust on it with magic, four cat paw prints, each the size of Jackal’s thumbprint, were revealed.

‘What is this little thing?’

The wolf knights stared with wide eyes. Kitty exclaimed, ‘Ah!’ and began to explain.

“This is probably the paw print my mom and dad took when I was just born! There’s a superstition that if you take a paw print of a baby and bury it in a clay tablet, they will grow up healthy.”

As she said, the small letters ‘Malangson Kittia’ were engraved in the corner.

“That’s right, that’s right.”

This time, Camel also agreed.

Jackal put his finger next to the adorable paw print and sighed.

“Very small.”

“Because I was a baby.”

It was really shockingly small to him, a wolf.

“We can’t leave it here, so take it to Gridulf.”

Jackal decided that he had to show this cute and lovely paw print to Caris and took the clay tablet.

At that time, one of the wolf beastmen next to him sparkled his eyes.

“Something’s caught on my fingertips!”

“Clyde, please.”

Clyde shook off the dirt, hoping that something cute would appear this time as well. Then a very small cushion appeared.

“Ah, this is my favorite cushion! I used to take naps on it until I was three years old. It’s too old, but I didn’t want to throw it away, so I remember burying it in the ground.”

“……”

To think that her whole body could fit in this small place.

The cushion was so worn out that it looked like it would crumble if you touched it, but Jackal cherished it as well.

It was a very precious item that could estimate the size of baby Kitty.

The wolf beastmen also found Kitty’s rattle and used sketchbooks.

Jackal held them one by one as if they were precious treasures. It was fortunate that his daughter had buried so much.

“Miss, there’s something else.”

The wolf knight, who had not found anything until now, said. Clyde shook off the dirt with magic as he had done so far.

“A small box.”

The wolves were very excited about the appearance of a box smaller than the palm of their hand.

‘Could it be the box that the young lady liked the most when she was young?’

‘Did she take naps inside there?’

‘Was she as small as a hamster when she was young?’

But even after seeing the box, Kitty couldn’t speak for a while.

This was not what she had buried. The small fingernail marks on the outside of the box were clearly from an adult cat.

Kitty opened the box with trembling hands. Inside were a letter and a few gold coins.

‘Gold coins……?’

There’s no way we had this much money in our house.

Suppressing her doubts, Kitty unfolded the letter and soon bit the inside of her lip with her front teeth.

[To my beloved daughter, Malangson Kittia.]

It was her mother’s handwriting, which she could never forget even in her dreams.

“This…… It looks like my mom buried it. She wrote me a letter.”

When Kitty said that, everyone became quiet. Thanks to that, she was able to concentrate on reading the letter line by line.

[Kitty, after hearing the rumor that a Blue Moon appeared in the leopard’s territory, Mom started having strange dreams.]

After hearing the story from Nero that her mother had received God’s choice but refused the power, she could understand the contents of the letter.

[Today, I had a dream that you came here with the wolves and dug up the ground. The house was all demolished, but the wolves were very kind to you. I thought it might be a prophetic dream, so I decided to leave a letter for you.]

Did her mother gain prophetic abilities under the influence of the Blue Moon? She couldn’t know now.

[My beloved Malangson. Does the fact that you are with the wolves in the future mean that I have parted ways with you?]

Tears flowed from her emerald eyes.

Jackal carefully put down Kitty’s belongings that he was holding and gently stroked her shoulders.

[It breaks my heart to think that fate might separate you and me, but you are a cat as brave as a wolf and my daughter.]

“……”

[I really love you.]

[I believe in you as much as I love you, baby.]

Kitty wiped away her tears with the back of her hand.

There were still several letters left, but her vision was blurred by the word love, which was embedded everywhere, and she couldn’t read the rest.

“Kitty, you might collapse if you keep crying.”

Jackal, who said worriedly, handed her a handkerchief and water. Kitty shook her head bravely.

“I’ll just finish reading this. There are only a few left.”

One, two, three…… Kitty frowned as she counted how many letters were left.

[At this point, I think it would be good to tell you about Jerian’s visit to me late at night.]

For some reason, a familiar name was written in her mother’s letter.