Chapter 50

Come to think of it, he doesn’t look cold at all, even dressed in rags.

The wind was lashing at us like this, but his violet eyes only stared at me with detached calm.

“Are you very cold?”

Then, suddenly—

“If you’re cold, you’ll get sick again.”

He took off the filthy robe I’d assumed he wouldn’t give me even if I asked, and draped it over my shoulders.

“If you get sick, you might forget meeting me today. So you can’t be cold.”

He didn’t seem to be joking.

His eyebrows lifted slightly as he even tied the robe shut for me.

I had thought the robe would be thin as a rag, but once it was wrapped around me, it blocked the wind. It was much warmer than before.

Looking at him like this, he doesn’t seem like a bad kid.

Or maybe not?

Considering he bit my finger just because I didn’t answer his question, he definitely has a temper.

Then I remembered what had happened when we ran away from the knights.

When he casually said he had killed a man, I had been too flustered to let it sink in.

But that was a very serious thing to say.

After hesitating, I asked carefully.

“Um. Why did you kill that man?”

“He kidnapped you and hit you.”

...Huh?

My eyes widened at the unexpected answer.

“Me?”

“Yeah. I needed your answer. If you died, that would be a problem.”

The man kidnapped and hit me?

Could he have been Duke Pose’s spy, the one who sent the telegram?

“You killed that man because you wanted my answer?”

“Yeah.”

This kid was seriously strange.

I was grateful he had helped me.

But that aside, he was dangerous.

Crossing my arms, I stared at the boy.

On the outside, he looked more than normal. He was pretty as a doll.

But if he grew up this reckless, wouldn’t he become a menace to society someday?

“......”

This wouldn’t do.

I needed to educate him a little.

“Hey.”

“Yeah?”

Still shivering with my arms crossed, I gave him advice.

“Even so, you can’t just go around killing people.”

“Why?”

The boy tilted his head.

Oh my God.

A seed of social evil.

I emphasized it again.

“Killing people is bad.”

“Why can’t I do bad things?”

“If you do bad things...”

Hmm.

How should I explain this to him?

Would he understand if I said he’d go to prison?

Shake, shake—

I shook my head inwardly.

Then my eyes suddenly went round.

I had it.

I knew how to persuade him!

“If you do bad things...”

With a grave expression, I whispered to him.

“...I could get shocked and lose my memories.”

“!”

It worked.

His expressionless violet eyes slowly began to widen.

“No...”

He even backed away a step or two, clearly horrified.

Then, like a child who had lost his toy, he muttered in despair.

“...No. If you lose any more memories, you’ll become stupid. Then you won’t be able to answer my question.”

Yes.

The stupid one here is you.

Like a teacher, I gently urged him along.

“So should you do bad things or not?”

“I shouldn’t. I’ll never do bad things. Never.”

Excellent effect!

“Good. Then first...”

We needed to ask whoever guarded this side of the portal to take us back to the estate.

Whooosh—

Now that I thought about it, no one had found us while we were talking.

No gatekeeper knights.

No portal managers.

Only the portal stood there by itself.

“That’s right! They said the ice barrier collapsed!”

I hurriedly looked around and finally grasped the seriousness of the situation.

In the distance, beyond the conifer trees, I could see the Kreutz estate.

And in the opposite direction, beyond the forest, smoke was rising as though something were on fire.

That was the end of the world.

Where the ice barrier stood.

“I have to help somehow. Even if I only kill one monster, I need to do something. I also have to tell them that the king and Duke Pose caused this!”

Flutter—

I shook off the snow that had piled on my head and gripped my poison needle with determination as I ran forward.

***

Aisha was a strange child.

No matter how he looked at her, she was strange.

“Why are you going that way? Your home is over there.”

He pointed at the castle where Aisha always carried him around.

But she shook her head solemnly and kept running.

“My family is in danger! I can’t just sit still by myself!”

At those words, the boy tilted his head.

If there was danger, shouldn’t she hide?

What was she going to do if they all died together?

I don’t understand animals with pack instincts.

“Do whatever you want, then.”

Yawning with a sulky expression, he followed after Aisha, who was somehow managing to walk quickly on her short, stubby legs.

Just then—

Her hair still a mess from the kidnapping incident, Aisha scanned the surroundings with sharp triangle-eyes.

“...But in a situation like this, I feel like we should’ve seen monsters by now. It’s really quiet.”

The boy’s ears perked up at the word monsters, and he turned his head.

“......”

In truth, someone had been watching them for a while now.

From behind a tree.

‘Grrrr...’

‘Don’t come closer.’

He had been warning it not to come near, just in case Aisha saw a monster and lost her memories from the shock.

“Is it normal for monsters to be visible?”

He asked just in case.

Aisha nodded.

“Actually, yes. It would be normal to see them. Something feels strange.”

Oh no.

So he was supposed to show her the monster.

Flustered, the boy looked at the monster hiding behind the tree.

Sorry. She says you should come out.

“Kuung...?”

The monster stared at the boy with pitiful rabbit eyes and was about to reveal a foot tipped with rough claws when—

“But it’s better if we don’t see any.”

Aisha suddenly changed her mind.

Startled, the boy immediately reversed his order.

If you come out, you die.

“Kiing.”

Was it supposed to come out or not?

The monster, which had urgently needed to relieve itself, whimpered a little, then disappeared behind the tree.

Phew.

Only then did the boy let out a relieved sigh.

Feeling slightly wronged, he glared at Aisha’s back.

Aisha has a glass head.

She got shocked over everything.

How was he supposed to live without worrying?

But his time in human form was running out.

I should disappear before she gets shocked any more.

During the time he had spent with Aisha as a human, the boy had realized something.

Aisha didn’t know he was the cat she called baby.

When he was a cat, she hugged him and cuddled him.

Now that he was human, she only nagged him and didn’t hug him at all.

I’d rather stay a cat.

Secretly pouting, he said goodbye.

“I have to go now.”

“Hm? All of a sudden?”

Aisha, who had been striding forward proudly with the poison needle in hand, looked at him in surprise.

Blue eyes.

The eyes that had found him when he had been dying in a corner.

For a moment, he thought Aisha’s eyes looked like jewels.

Then he continued.

“Yeah. My home is actually in the opposite direction.”

“Ghk! I see. You should’ve said that earlier! Where’s your house?”

After briefly thinking over Aisha’s question, he vaguely pointed toward the estate.

“There.”

“Ah, so you do live in the village beyond the estate.”

He had been pointing at the estate itself.

Still, he didn’t bother correcting her.

It was almost time for him to turn back into a cat.

“Yeah. I’m going.”

He had given a vague farewell and was about to turn away when—

“But what’s your name?”

Something behind him hurriedly caught his pinky finger.

When he turned, Aisha was smiling brightly and holding out her hand.

“I should at least know your name before you go. I’m Aisha.”

I know.

But I...

If I say baby, she’ll scold me again.

The boy recalled their earlier conversation.

‘Hm? Whose blankets?’

‘Your blankets.’

When Aisha asked where his home was, he had simply answered honestly.

These days, the place he stayed was inside Aisha’s blankets.

But Aisha had blushed and gotten angry.

You were the one who told me to sleep there first.

Then shouldn’t she allow him the same comfortable nest even when he was human?

He felt wronged, but this was not a situation where he could push Aisha.

If she got startled again, she might lose her memories from the shock.

Aisha has a glass head.

The boy repeated it inwardly like a spell.

He thought for a long time, then realized he had no talent for making up a name on the spot.

So—

“Give me one next time we meet.”

“What?”

He simply asked her to name him.

“My name. Since we’re about the same age, don’t use a weird babyish nickname.”

Anything was fine as long as it wasn’t baby.

Baby was a title used only for weak creatures.

Even if he turned into a kitten in animal form, when he became human he was fairly close to Aisha’s height.

“That’s settled, right? I’m going.”

Aisha stared blankly, as though she hadn’t expected that answer.

But he could feel his humanization starting to unravel, so he hurried away.

Asking why she had saved him.

That had been the only goal in the dark, hunger-filled space of the boy’s life.

But as he hummed to himself, another desire settled in his mind.

I need to hurry up and turn back into a cat so I can get into Aisha’s blankets.

It was an incredibly simple, modest desire.

But for the first time, he thought he wanted to keep living.