Chapter 9 First Steps in Fontainebleau: A Carefree Cat's Life...
"Lord Navelette."
Inside the Momo Palace, Melushin raised her hand and handed the thick stack of documents to the Grand Inquisitor.
"This is the latest mission log and case report of the Shadow Chaser Court."
"Thank you for your hard work, Sedna."
Navelette put down her water glass and focused her attention on Youyuan's handwriting.
[Mount Mansos... Nearby, many battle traces even more beautiful than the Tideweed have been discovered! The site retains lingering hot and cool elemental energy, the wind howls, and there's a delicious scent of curses... even better than the Fish-Fish Chanting Sect!]
A report in the style of Luscin.
This pleased the Water Dragon King, but after a moment's thought, the pleasure quickly vanished.
How could so many dangerous people suddenly appear in the sparsely populated eastern foothills of Munsos?
"This matter is too dangerous. The Shadow Chaser's investigation should be suspended pending the support of the Law Enforcement Court... How is the Fools involved? I will discuss this with Ms. Funina."
The next report is about the gods.
[Lady Furna, on a sudden whim during her walk, performed a skit titled "Falling into a Fountain" without informing her guards. Her convincing acting drew a large crowd, causing a traffic jam, and the fleeing criminal was successfully apprehended without injury.]
[Many people subsequently flocked to the fountain to imitate her fall, but none could do it as convincingly as Lady Furina.]
...Why perform this? Is Fulina going to perform a cold next?
The water dragon couldn't understand.
"The autumn wind is bleak and the water temperature is cold. Warning signs have been erected next to the fountain to remind people to keep warm."
Let's see what the next one is like.
?
"A short-tailed, pointed-eared feline wild animal has been spotted near Mo Mang Palace, but multiple attempts to capture it have been unsuccessful?"
Navelette read the sentence aloud in confusion.
Is the Mo Mang Palace the Mo Mang Palace I'm thinking of?
"Yes, Lady Vilette."
Melusine Sedna noticed Navelette's confusion. "This is the place where you and Lady Funina work and live."
"That's even stranger."
There have been enough confusing reports already, but this one is definitely one of them:
"This is Mo Mang Palace, the central hub of Fontaine, the place with the strongest security forces. How could there be wild beasts here?"
They even failed to make the arrest.
"But there are indeed some."
Sedna shrugged in confusion, "Behind the Momang Palace, near the Carles Wharf, a large number of fragments of the Purple Gold Seagulls that had been eaten were found."
Oh... the Purple Gold Gull, those gulls that are so fat from being fed fries that they don't even want to fly.
Although the failure to capture it is concerning, the wild beast poses little danger if one can only catch seagulls.
"Notify the guards to make the arrest to prevent accidental harm to civilians."
Navelette turned the page without much concern.
*
Fontaine, which has been away for nearly ten years.
Although it's my hometown, it feels like a new place.
After turning into a cat, the pain of being human was suddenly cut off, and Mainkuhn felt a long-lost peace in his heart.
"My dear, whose child are you?"
The old woman's eyesight was so poor that she stood on the steps for a long time and still managed to mistake the big cat for a small child.
"Have you seen my Isa? I've lost her, I can't find her..."
"......"
It's hilarious. When I was a human, I was seen as a wild beast, but when I was a cat, I was seen as a human.
Maine twitched its ears, thought for a moment, then stuck out its tongue and exaggeratedly combed the fur on its paws—
Surely I can't have misread it now.
"Sweetie, stop licking your hands, are you hungry?"
The old man shakily pulled out a few biscuits from his pocket and stuffed them directly into the cat's mouth.
"Isa loves to eat this..."
"......?"
There should be a limit to how bad one's eyesight can get, even in old age.
The big cat turned its head away, looked at her in surprise for a moment, and then quickly disappeared into the bushes.
"Gaoh—"
He rushed to the dock, caught a seagull, and waved it in front of the old woman with it in his beak.
Look closely! What's in front of you is a dangerous wild beast! Not some human cub!
"Oh! Isa!"
The old woman smiled foolishly, "You can catch birds now, that's amazing!"
......
It turns out he was mentally unstable.
"Ga-o-ka!"
You're not allowed to treat me like a human being!
The big cat bit off the bird's neck and walked away angrily.
......
Is that Isha?
*
He carried the bird to the seaside, gently bit its head, and plucked out its beautiful feathers. Mainkuen licked his lips, his mood as calm as still water.
The aversion to fishy smells, the discomfort with raw food, and the disgust with killing remained unchanged—none of them.
The barbed tongue licked the broken neck, scraping blood and flesh into its mouth.
It's delicious.
It is better than all the rice and vegetables that are forced into your stomach.
After swallowing its prey, Mei extends its paws in the sunlight to clean its ears and head, licking its fur and claws clean. Mei had never done these things before, yet it did them with the skill of someone who had been a cat for over a decade.
Being a cat... definitely suits me better than being a human.
The half-demon jumped to the beach and looked at his reflection in the water, confirming his belief once again.
You don't need to think too much, you don't need to distinguish right from wrong, you don't need to understand morality and ethics, and you can't hurt others.
Let the painful past vanish along with my human form. From this day forward, I am just an ordinary cat, no longer concerned with human affairs...
Please! Don't do this!
!
The child's innocent cry rippled across the water, shattering the cat's reflection in the sea.
Maine looked up and saw the little girl with purple hair being held high by a man, crying and struggling in mid-air.
"The water is deep! The water is cold! I'm scared!"
? ?
The cat with the broken tail arched its back.
"Too weak, don't cry!"
The man initially tried to coax her gently, but quickly grew impatient.
"Everything will only get more difficult in winter. You're so delicate now, what will we do then!"
The man rebuked twice, then continued to raise his arm:
"Go down! Train your will and your body! Schiavo—"
"!!ha--"
Just as the child was about to fall into the icy seawater, the cat in the distance suddenly leaped into the air, its flexible body bursting with incredible power, leaping over ten meters of sea just to slap the child on the head with its paw!
"ah!"
The man let out a short scream and collapsed to the ground. The little girl, stunned for a moment after falling on him, didn't immediately run away. Instead, she threw herself on him and cried out:
"dad!"
dad! ?
Mainkuhn shuddered, its paws freezing in mid-air, its tiny cat head beginning to function in an incredible way:
Dad is the father, and Mom is the mother;
The process of raising human infants requires the joint participation of both parents; the mother and father are equally important. Therefore, the mother is roughly equivalent to the father, leading to the conclusion that...
The father is roughly equivalent to the mother.
And this father had just been trying to throw his child into the icy seawater—even the extremely dangerous deep water—under the guise of exercise.
......
Kujavina!
Go to hell!
"ha--!"
The luxurious, soft fur on his back bristled up in layers, and his sharp teeth bared uncontrollably. Maine, with his ears behind his back and his back hunched, looked at his father as if he were looking at a dead man.
I'm going to kill you! Once again!
"dad!"
The moment Maine's claws hooked onto the man's artery, the child burst into tears:
"Run!!"
That innocent cry made the cat's paw twitch, leaving only a bloody mark on the man's neck.
"Xia Wore! Come to me!"
The man struggled to his feet from the half-demon's claws and scooped up his daughter in one swift motion.
"Don't even think about touching my daughter!"
This action, these words, saved his life.
"......"
This is not Kujavina.
Kujavina couldn't do the actions that protect the child.
*
Donatello, Chavore's father, suddenly noticed that when he picked up his daughter, the cat-like short-tailed beast suddenly calmed down, its pupils returned to their peaceful spindle shape, and its bristling fur flattened back onto its back.
But his eyes remained cold and wary.
Can animals really have such cold eyes?
Donatello felt his hair stand on end from the scrutiny, and only regained his smugness after the cat's figure disappeared into the grass.
"Xiawolei, look at you, so weak and spineless! Be brave! It's just a wild beast, and you're scared like this!"
"I'm sorry, Dad... shall we still exercise today?"
Little Xia Wore leaned against him, wiping away tears, still shaken.
"Practice! Why don't you practice!"
Donatello considered the increasingly busy work and dwindling vacation time of the special tour team, and decisively chose to persevere:
"Xia Worei, you're still too timid. You must hone your willpower in the face of life and death!"
"No, Daddy! I'm scared!"
"No, you can't be weak, you have to be strong! You have to be brave!"
Donatello's anger flared at the sight of his daughter's crying, and once again, ignoring her struggles, he lifted her up and aimed at the deeper water.
"This is all for your own good! Schiavo—"
"don't want--"
"ha!"
Before the child could be lifted to its highest point, the silver-grey, tiger-striped beast pounced fiercely again—
"Ouch—??"
Why did my child act so crazy when I was disciplining him?
After a brutal beating, Donatello lay on the ground, covering his face, staring blankly at the cat's departing figure.
Why is this thing so powerful? And between me and it, who is actually the special patrol team leader?
"Will you...will you still study, Dad?"
The child looked at him anxiously.
"Study! You can't give up at the first sign of difficulty! Listen to me, Xia Worei, only through hardship can you forge the strongest will!"
A typical example of hardship-based education comes from an anxious and worried father.
"Hmm..."
Little Xia Wore didn't like it, but she couldn't resist it, so she could only try to save herself indirectly.
"What if the cat comes? Dad can't beat it."
"......"
"It's not that I have high expectations of you, it's just that you haven't done well enough."
Donatello led little Chavory for a full half hour, painstakingly finding a deeper spot in the water, and then lifted his daughter up again from the shore.
"Those with weak willpower must undergo physical tempering!"
"......"
Exhausted and fed up with all the commotion, and then being scolded, Xia Wore had no strength left to struggle.
As she was lifted into the air, she looked back and saw the large cat with the broken tail angrily pounce from the bushes.
“.
That's settled then.
Xia Worei didn't remind her father.
"Hiss!!"
"Ouch!"
As the man frantically wiped the mud off his face, his daughter calmly asked:
"Will you continue learning, Dad?"
"...I refuse to believe it, I'll learn!"
"ha!"
But no matter how many times, as soon as he stood in front of the deep water and lifted the child up, that elusive beast would immediately appear and slap him on the head several times!
Fortunately, although it looks fierce, it only slaps and pounces on people without showing its nails, and the pain only lasts for a while after it hits.
After a while, Xia Wore forgot her fear and just watched expressionlessly as her father was repeatedly knocked to the ground by the cat, feeling a strange sense of pleasure.
"dad."
She asked quietly.
"With such a strong will, and being the captain of the special patrol team, how come you can't even beat a slightly larger cat?"
"...How should I know! There's something strange about this cat!"
Although he hasn't given up on the teaching plan, Donatello really doesn't have the mood or energy to go looking for the deep water area.
I'm so tired, so very tired.
But what's even more painful than being tired is losing face in front of your children.
"This has ruined my whole day!... Xia Wore, come here and practice your basics!"
He picked up the child dejectedly, pushed little Xiawolei into the shallow water, and immediately raised his arm to protect his face.
Seriously, couldn't this cat just stop slapping its own face?
"Dad, it's so cold today... Can I only swim for a little while?"
I was prepared to be beaten, but all around was quiet and nothing happened.
The only sound was the daughter shivering in the water.
...It's gone?
It's gone!
"!!!"
Donatello was overjoyed and lifted little Chavorei up, rushing towards the deep end!
Xia Worei: ": "
"ha--!!"
The cat is here again.
*
After a day of slapping faces, Mainkuen, his two front paws trembling, returned to Fontaine with a stiff face.
Even skilled swimmers like sea otters won't let go of their pups in the wind and waves, but adults will throw their children into deep water in the fall.
Even after being corrected dozens of times, it still wouldn't change.
Cats don't understand anything about tempering one's will in the face of life and death, or that one must endure hardship before becoming resilient. Cats only think that humans are crazy for tormenting their fragile cubs.
It’s so hard to be a human being.
......
But in the end, they are all human children, so why should I get involved?
...This was an accident, I won't worry about the next one.
As night fell, fewer pedestrians began to throng Fontaine Street, hurrying home in the cold wind. But Mainkuhn did not seek a warm place to rest; instead, he began the most important work of the day.
Searching for her brother, whom she has been separated from for many years.
So much time had passed that Mainkuen had completely forgotten which district of Fontaine he lived in before coming to the Hearth House, and which direction his home was in—after all, he was young at the time and was often locked in the house by his adoptive parents because of his frightening appearance.
But cats are free; they can go wherever they want.
With light steps, bypassing patrolling police officers, Maine began illegally breaking into house after house in the outer city, starting with the first house.
Although my brother has definitely grown up, his appearance will change accordingly.
But Maine still remembered her brother's scent.
The cat's bright yellow eyes reflected the darkness as it stood on the cabinet, looking down at the sleeping family.
This age doesn't match, this hair color doesn't match, this one matches, I jump onto the bed and smell it, the smell is wrong, next place.
Amidst the purring and under the moonlight, the big cat sighed in disappointment, then stood up like a human, turned the doorknob, opened the door, and left.
"......"
The child, who was woken up by the urge to urinate, found his lower body wet.
"Mommy! It's a monster! Aaaaaaah!"
"Ugh...did you have a nightmare? Don't cry, don't cry...zzz~"
"No! It's a real monster, Mom!"
"......"
Mainkun closed the door, quickly lowered its two front paws, and casually shook its short tail.
Mistake, mistake.
Fortunately, no one on the street saw it, not even a stray cat.
"Hey? Brother, what a big cat!"
As soon as the claws were lowered, a childish exclamation came from the dilapidated alley.
"Where? Where?...Linette, are you sure that's a cat?"
...?
Homeless...children?
A note from the author:
----------------------
I wanted to complain about Xia Worei's dad when we were going through the event storyline...
Forcing a child to go winter swimming, the child cried and refused, so the person threw the child into the icy sea, jumped in themselves, and swam towards the other side without looking back...
It's either swim or die. Those who know understand you're cultivating resilience in your child; those who don't might even suspect you of murder...
In other words, Xia Wore is open-minded and has grown up to be able to take this matter in stride. If it were me, well...
Hey, there was no chance of growing up. I was too weak when I was little. I could only watch his back in despair and then sink to the bottom without moving.
Congratulations to Mr. Donatello on having a healthy daughter! (Cheers!)
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