It’S A Cat, Adopted By A Wolf Family? [EN]: Chapter 68

A few days after the leopard attack on the central training grounds, Jerian’s food storage was in shambles. Sigma had arrived with a group of sturdy leopards.

“Jerian, thanks to your information, we really got screwed over.”

“Haha, Sigma. What are you talking about…? Ugh!”

A leopard beastman slammed Jerian’s head into the desk. Sigma adjusted his newly fitted glasses and continued.

“You said Kittia Gridwolf’s magic usage was terrible. But it wasn’t, was it?”

“What are you…”

“Because of you, the leopards lost their power and gave away information. Malangson even took Gridwolf’s bow.”

“What?”

Bang!

Before Jerian could even ask what he meant, Sigma slammed the desk. At that signal, the leopard beastmen moved.

“Jerian, you wouldn’t mind if we took the fox beastmen you’ve been hiding from us, would you?”

“Hiding? I was just letting them rest for a while…”

“Delta-nim [referring to a high-ranking leopard] ordered it directly. Don’t even think about brushing it off as a joke.”

Sigma growled, and Jerian shut his mouth. No matter how bold he was, he couldn’t stand up to the leader of the leopards.

Not yet.

The leopards ransacked the food storage and then left, taking half of Jerian’s loyal subjects with them.

He patiently waited for the leopards to disappear outside the cat territory, then ordered his remaining subordinates.

“Clean up this mess of an office.”

Then, he headed alone to the depths of the basement. When he pressed a brick, a secret place was revealed, one he hadn’t even told his closest aides about, in preparation for a situation like today.

As expected, the leopards hadn’t even considered that there might be a hidden detention room.

Inside the iron bars were six fox beastmen, weakened and slumped on the floor.

“What to do? Your companions were just captured. The leopards made a surprise attack.”

He was just as weak in front of the leopards, but Jerian was relaxed as he pressed another brick.

Then, the wall opened, revealing another small iron cage. Inside were three fragile baby foxes, unaware of the situation, whimpering.

“Kkyuuu…”

“Kkiing!”

The fox beastmen trapped in the large iron cage wailed as they looked at the wriggling baby foxes.

“Baby, baby!”

“Jerian-nim, please, just let me hold them once…”

Jerian grinned at the expected reaction. Jerian wasn’t specially managing the fox beastmen with the strongest magic.

The easiest to use. That was Jerian’s condition. The fox beastmen he had decided to hide and use until the end were three couples, all with children.

It’s easier to get cooperation when you have something to lose. Jerian’s creed hadn’t changed when he killed the Icaruses or now.

Babies are good bait.

How economical it is to squeeze the parents of two foxes with one weak and easy-to-handle hostage.

“Well, the kids must miss their parents.”

Jerian picked up the small baby foxes and put them inside the cage. The baby foxes had long strings attached to their necks, so they could be forcibly taken out at any time.

“Baby…”

“Kkiiing…”

Having been moved to a cage as soon as they were born, the baby foxes seemed to remember their parents’ embrace as they wriggled and burrowed in.

Jerian chuckled, thinking that there was nothing more pathetic than the sight of three fox couples wailing in the cage.

“It seems like Anne and Marie leaked false information. Ah, I’m talking about my subordinates who are attending to Kittia.”

Jerian’s expression crumpled like paper. He never imagined that Kittia would even take Gridwolf’s bow.

‘When I tested her abilities, she was clearly just an ordinary cat…!’

His teeth ground.

“I trusted Anne and Marie’s information and ended up being a con man to the leopards. So…”

Clang!

As he pulled the leash with force, the baby foxes twisted their bodies and were dragged out of the iron cage.

The faces of the fox couples who had their babies snatched away in an instant turned blue. Their chapped lips, due to poor nutrition, trembled.

“Jerian-nim, please…”

“They’re still young children, please be gentle. I’ll do anything…”

“If you don’t improve Blue Moon soon, these baby foxes will all die.”

Jerian carefully locked the small iron cage. The baby foxes, not knowing why they were separated from their parents, whimpered pitifully and wandered around the small iron cage.

“Kkiiing…”

Jerian kicked the cage and snapped.

“So hurry up and improve Blue Moon so you can brainwash small animals. I’m the only one who’s immune to Blue Moon, how long do I have to cater to those leopard bastards?”

“Yes, I understand.”

“We’ll hurry.”

The fox beastmen looked at their precious babies inside the cage and gave reflexive answers. Jerian pressed a brick and hid the cage where the baby foxes were trapped.

“Work hard. If you want to raise your kids in a good environment.”

He had the same smile on his face as when he threw Kittia and the pregnant mother cat over the wall.

* * *

It had been a week since I left the training grounds. As I expected, the mansion was eerily quiet without my brothers and Ethan.

‘Is this what it feels like to become an adult?’

Anne and Marie were taken to the Gridwolf Knights this morning and couldn’t attend to me. Since they committed a crime, they probably won’t be able to attend to me in the future.

I heard from Jackal-nim [referring to Lord Jackal, a respected figure] during breakfast that the two were arrested based on the letters they wrote to Jerian yesterday.

‘They wouldn’t have known that the Gridwolf knights had captured and interrogated the rabbit in charge of delivering Jerian’s letters.’

This letter was filled with lengthy slander about my cunningness in deliberately leaking false information.

Karis-nim [referring to Lady Karis, a respected figure] read the letter with cold eyes and even asked, ‘Kittia, what should we do with Anne and Marie?’

I asked them to be locked up for now, so I’ll have to think about their future disposition slowly.

‘First, after finishing training, I’ll bring Vaniel as a maid.’

If Jerian is related to the rabbit, I might be able to hear related stories from Vaniel.

Since Clide spent a long time investigating Vaniel, I can trust the information.

I picked up Gridwolf’s bow and headed to the training grounds in the mansion. At times like this, it was better to move my body and shake off distracting thoughts.

“Have you come, Miss?”

“Master, please take care of me again today.”

“Today, we’ll do basic training and then look at Gridwolf’s bow. We’ll have to learn little by little.”

“Yes!”

I couldn’t just keep hitting enemies with this special bow that the goddess used.

If I could attack enemies from afar, it would be more helpful in the next battle with the leopards.

Today’s training was so harsh that I could barely finish it. It was the middle of winter, but I was sweating profusely.

‘Theo and Deon are training hard too, so I have to cheer up too.’

And… Ethan too.

Looking back, I had never seen Ethan exhausted. Clide sometimes panted while sparring with a wooden sword.

What would Ethan look like when he was disheveled? Imagining sweat beading on his dark hair made me feel strange.

My heart was beating faster for no reason, and my breathing was disrupted. The training at the central training grounds was said to be intense, so Ethan would definitely be moving his body until his face turned red.

‘…Ethan is popular, so other wolves will see that 모습 [Korean word meaning ‘appearance’ or ‘figure’].’

It was a hard image to picture, but if it was Ethan, he would look great even if he was sweating and panting.

“You’ve worked hard, Miss.”

Only after all the strength had left my body did Sir Elliot hand me a water bottle.

“I’ll examine the bow while you quench your thirst.”

“Yes, Master.”

I stood it up so that Sir Elliot could examine the bow well. Because it was a bow that no one but me could move.

“You can see the bowstring, Miss, right?”

“Yes. There’s a long string here that emits a warm energy. It’s like moonlight.”

The beastmen around me glanced at the bow, but no one seemed to see the bowstring.

I asked Sir Elliot, who was circling around the bow, examining it here and there.

“Master, what is the life of a popular wolf like?”

At that question, Sir Elliot rubbed his forehead and shook his head.

“Oh dear… I can finally explain to you why I suffer from chronic fatigue.”

“Ah, wasn’t it because you drink with the knights every day!”

“…Miss, it hurts me a lot when you stab me in the back with such sparkling eyes.”

Sir Elliot gave a proper answer only after explaining that socializing with the knights was also an important virtue.

“It’s tiring to be popular. It’s a blessing to receive someone’s affectionate gaze, but it takes effort to live up to it.”

“Do you have to live up to it?”

“Well, you never know what might happen with the wolves, and your side gets cold in the winter… No, I don’t mean to manage your fish pond, but… Why do you always ask such difficult questions, Miss?”

Sir Elliot asked me back. Hmm, I think he’s hiding something.

“Master, what is fish pond management?”

“Well, I’m embarrassed to explain it to you, Miss, who already has a full fish pond with big catches.”

“…?”

“Anyway, Miss, let’s go pick up Vaniel soon.”

When I tilted my head, Sir Elliot quickly changed the subject.

* * *

Meanwhile, Anne and Marie realized that the situation had gone wrong only after being locked in the deep underground prison of the Gridwolf.

The Gridwolf knights arrested the two maids on charges of leaking information to Jerian.

‘But Jerian’s address shouldn’t be on our letter.’

If they just explained well that there seemed to be a misunderstanding, they might be able to get out of the underground prison. Anne and Marie decided to think as positively as possible.

“Kittia seemed to like me. She was even about to take me with her when she left for Ethan-nim’s mansion later.”

“She told me that I was better than you? Besides, Ethan-nim’s mansion? Didn’t Kittia-nim decide to spend the rest of her life in the fox territory?”

Anne and Marie, who noticed that something was wrong, matched the information they had gathered so far one by one.

The information the two knew didn’t match surprisingly. As if they had been observing completely different people.

“What are you talking about, Anne…”

“Marie, why don’t you know anything properly?”

A large shadow fell into the iron cage where the two maids were arguing. Anne and Marie instinctively bowed to the owner of the shadow.

“Jackal-nim.”

“We greet the head of the family.”

Jackal was in the form of a wolf. The wolf beastmen instinctively swallowed their fear as they looked at the golden eyes overflowing with anger.

Only his wife, Karis, could afford to be relaxed next to him. She stroked Jackal’s nose, which was making threatening noises, and said coldly.

“Jackal. I heard that those two maids leaked information about our youngest daughter to Jerian?”

Bang!

Karis used magic to send the lock that was locking the iron bars far away and gradually approached Anne and Marie.

Her eyes, which grabbed the two maids by the hair, were overflowing with murderous intent.

“I will personally teach you about the ranks of the wolves again.”