Suspiciously Suspicious (1)

Although I spoke confidently as if all the mysteries had been solved, to be frank, I wasn’t the only one who figured out the truth.

Honestly, the circumstantial evidence was just too obvious. When I made a ‘I figured it out’ face and confidently looked back at Ethan, he already had an expression that suggested he had more or less reached a conclusion in his mind.

‘Ed, do you understand too?’

‘From what I see, this child’s grandmother seems to be a Werewolf. They say there are quite a few Werewolves who can take on both human and werewolf forms. She must have been hiding it until now, but probably got caught the night before last.’

‘…You knew?’

‘Her clothes being torn is probably due to her body growing larger as she transformed into a Werewolf. The fact that she told Cat she’d be back in two days but hasn’t returned yet probably means something happened to her that prevents her from coming back.’

‘…….’

‘Before that, her leaving the house once a month must have been to avoid the Full Moon cycle. No matter how much a Werewolf can take human form, they would be forcibly turned into a Werewolf on the night of a Full Moon. And since she left the house about half a month ago, the timing roughly matches.’

‘…Y-Yeah, that’s right.’

I hadn’t really thought about the Full Moon cycle. Well, the night before last was the new moon, so half a month before that would indeed be when the Full Moon rises.

Although I admired Ethan’s insight, to be honest, anyone else I brought would have figured it out too. It was, after all, a shallow mystery that even I could solve.

The way I played 『Luminor Academy』 in my previous life was essentially just grinding time under the guise of strategy, not really playing with a brilliant mind.

So, the deductions I could make were exactly at this level, I guess. As I quietly felt a sense of emptiness, Cat looked up at me, her sparkling eyes meeting mine.

“You found out, unnie?! So, we can find Grandma?!”

“…Probably.”

“Where is she?! Where is our Grandma?!”

“Hmm, I think we still need to investigate further….”

For now, one thing was certain: her, Cat’s only blood relative, was alive, and that alone was a great relief. In fact, given that she was a Werewolf, I was a bit unsure if Cat was truly her blood relative.

From the start, it wasn’t a wolf that took her; it was a situation where Grandma = wolf, so it couldn’t be safer than this. Even if they were to actually encounter a wolf, a Werewolf, being a superior species, would be able to subdue it without much trouble.

However, the heavy truth that needed to be told to Cat remained unchanged until the very end.

‘The difficulty of conveying it was lowered compared to saying she was eaten by a wolf and died, but….’

Still, it was a bit difficult to tell her directly. If I messed up, it could lead to issues like a secret of birth.

And there must have been a reason why the grandmother didn’t tell Cat the truth, so it felt strange for Ethan and me to butt in and say, ‘Your grandmother is a Werewolf.’

Ultimately, unable to reach a proper conclusion, I had no choice but to postpone my answer to her.

“She’ll probably be back tomorrow morning. If Cat-yang waits patiently at home.”

“Then… what if she doesn’t come back?”

“…Well. S-Still, she’ll probably come back, right? F-For now, it doesn’t seem like Grandma was bitten by a wolf and died….”

“How do you know that, unnie? Huh?”

“…….”

“Unnie, how do you know our Grandma will be back tomorrow morning? What did you find out? Huh? Please tell me, unnie.”

…Haa, how am I supposed to answer this?

This is why I absolutely hated kids. They’re full of curiosity, but you can’t tell them everything directly, so they always put you in a difficult spot.

As I was at a loss for how to react, Ethan, unable to watch any longer, interjected into Cat and my conversation.

“If your grandmother doesn’t return by tomorrow morning, we will conduct a full search for her whereabouts using the power of the Blackwood Family.”

“Huh?”

“Wait, Ed. Is that really okay…?”

“…Probably.”

…’Probably,’ he says.

It was the first time I’d seen Ethan unable to make a decision so easily. Perhaps his heart was weakened because it was a family-related matter.

But even if he spoke of a full search in the name of the Blackwood Family, would this child truly understand? Anyway, speaking like this, with a child’s comprehension, she might not even grasp what he’s saying….

“…Okay, oppa.”

‘Huh?’

“If Grandma doesn’t come back tomorrow morning, you’ll find her for me, right, oppa?”

“Yes, that’s roughly what it means.”

“Since a handsome oppa said it, I’ll wait patiently.”

“…….”

…Look at this brat.

When I spoke, she talked back incessantly, but when Ethan spoke, what? She believes it because a handsome oppa said it?

It was a moment when I genuinely worried about Cat’s future, as she seemed to have learned how to flirt with nobles from a young age.

It was true that Ethan was quite handsome even from a child’s perspective, so I couldn’t deny that part, but I felt somehow displeased.

“Yes, trust and wait, my cute young lady.”

“Yes!”

Even if it was just to prevent Ethan from getting further entangled with that girl, I needed to meet Cat’s grandmother first.

It wasn’t really jealousy. What jealousy could there be towards a brat who looked less than ten years old?

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

“Lily, is this really the right way?”

“…It’s the path found with the Saint’s Authority, so it’s probably correct.”

About 30 minutes after leaving Cat and her grandmother’s cabin, Ethan and I began searching for traces of the Werewolf’s path, climbing a mountain on the outskirts of the Imperial Capital.

Using the Saint’s Authority, finding lost people wasn’t too difficult. Because one of the Saint’s powers, ‘Owner of Lost Items,’ included the ability to find the owner of a disappeared item.

Of course, it couldn’t be used on just any item; it had to be a precious item that the owner had lost. After all, it was a power meant to return precious items to their owners.

And among her belongings that we could get our hands on, there was only one item to which she had such a strong attachment that the ‘Owner of Lost Items’ could be used. So, we simply climbed the mountain path, following the direction ‘it’ pointed.

“But you know, Lily.”

“Yes, Ed.”

“Does the Saint’s Authority really have to be used by holding the item in your hand like that?”

“……Yes.”

“O-Oh, I see…. Then it can’t be helped, haha….”

“…….”

“W-Well, at least it’s fortunate that it doesn’t look like anything specific at first glance. And it’s not very visible unless you’re looking from the side, anyway.”

“…….”

“I-It might even be fortunate that the place she went was in the mountains. If other people saw Lily carrying ‘that’ in her hand, they might have misunderstood her….”

“……Ed.”

“Hm?”

“Shut your trap. I’m already upset right now.”

“…….”

This time, I couldn’t hold back my temper for a moment and ended up blurting it out.

But what could I do? Someone was carrying a piece of cloth that barely resembled underwear, searching for its owner, and hearing words like that from the side just sounded like mockery.

I walked, holding the scrap of underwear that seemed to want to fly in the direction of Cat’s grandmother, feeling as if I were dowsing for a water vein.

About 10 minutes after Ethan and I pushed through the mountain path and entered deep into the mountain.

Fortunately, in a place not too deep in the mountains, the direction the cloth piece was pointing began to change, and we found a cabin that clearly showed signs of human presence.

“It seems to be over there.”

“…Indeed.”

It was a cabin quite close, too close to say she had fled to escape Cat’s eyes. So close, in fact, that if you looked down from the mountain, you’d probably be able to see Cat’s house.

Yet, when we looked up from below earlier, it was hidden by trees and bushes, making it truly an optimal place to hide from her granddaughter’s sight.

“She’s probably not a strange person.”

“Well. Considering she’d go to such lengths to hide the fact that she’s a Werewolf from her granddaughter, wouldn’t she be a rather delicate person?”

“Perhaps….”

Honestly, the very fact that someone old enough to be called a grandmother would wear ‘such underwear’ was quite something, but frankly, if you really thought about it, it was closer to personal freedom.

However, even the place she fled to escape her granddaughter’s gaze was ultimately a place where she could keep an eye on her granddaughter. Thinking that her humanity wouldn’t be lacking, even if her hobby was a bit strange, I knocked a couple of times on the cabin from which I felt a presence.

-Knock, knock.

“Yes~! Just a moment~!”

‘……Huh?’

What was that bright voice just now?

It was a woman’s voice, quite young to be a grandmother. Was there someone else here, not Cat’s grandmother?

If not, perhaps it was someone else’s house? But this underwear, no matter how I looked at it, seemed to be pointing towards the inside of this cabin.

Perhaps there was a cohabitant. There was no saying that Cat’s grandmother was the only woman who didn’t want her daughter or granddaughter to find out she was a Werewolf. Besides, the size of the cabin itself seemed a bit large for one person to live in.

As I thought that, waiting for the door to open from inside, the owner of the voice I had heard moments ago opened the door.

…At the appearance of a female Werewolf wearing a tight-fitting one-piece dress, what’s commonly known as a Dongtan dress, I couldn’t help but feel quite flustered.

“Welcome~!”

“Hello… huh?”

…’Welcome,’ she said?

“The door was open, so you could have just come in~! Are you perhaps looking for something?”

“Looking for… something?”

“…Perhaps, is this your first time at our shop?”

“……S-Shop?”

I thought it was just a small cabin in the mountains, but a shop?

As I thought that, I carefully looked at the sign next to the door again, and realized a beat too late that it wasn’t a nameplate, but a shop sign.

『Scent of the Wolf』

…I could only earnestly hope that it wasn’t a shop created to do something suspicious.