Ch.63Bewildering

# Enhanced Translation

A while ago, after scolding a strange woman who appeared to be an S-rank hero, I found myself caught in a dilemma I couldn’t resolve alone.

What exactly is a hero?

If someone kills some humans but saves many more, does that make them a hero?

Starlight doesn’t seem to think so.

Objectively speaking, from the perspective of a hero who must hunt me, his judgment could be considered correct.

But Starlight would never do such a thing.

As a hero who protects humans, he doesn’t harm humans.

Why would Starlight, not once but twice, prevent the death of a woman who uses her abilities against civilians and even tries to kill them?

He’s quick to raise his fists at me with the slightest suspicion, yet the electric woman shouldn’t be killed?

Perhaps it’s because, unlike me, he’s human.

Judging who deserves to be human is my standard; humans have different criteria.

Heroes are superhumans who protect humans and kill monsters.

Even bad humans are still humans—no matter what wrongs they’ve committed, humans protect them.

They let human rules punish them rather than punishing them themselves.

Starlight did what he had to do.

He saves people without distinguishing between those who deserve saving and those who don’t.

That’s what being a hero is all about.

It’s different for monsters like me.

“Grrrr…”

“H-hieek… t-that’s impossible… Black Cat doesn’t hurt people…”

Crunch, crunch. After devouring a human arm in the darkness, I glared at the whimpering man.

A villain, a human who isn’t human.

I was appropriately disposing of these creatures that keep appearing no matter how many I eat.

Today’s villain was a human who tried to kidnap a child who had lost their mother during the evacuation chaos while I was hunting a Destruction-rank monster.

With his invisibility ability, he seemed experienced, as if this wasn’t his first time committing such acts.

How much of this child kidnapper should I eat?

I’ve already eaten his arm, should I eat his legs too?

No… maybe I should just kill him.

“Black Cat scary…”

Woong. As my killing intent spread, the child clutching my front legs tightly emitted a sweet scent of fear.

I suppressed my bloodlust and used telekinesis to lift the child onto my back.

“Black Cat ride!”

Despite crying just moments ago, the child excitedly grabbed my fur.

Using Medusa’s Evil Eye, an ability that immobilizes those I stare at, I was keeping the villain from escaping when I sensed heroes approaching and gradually eased my ability.

Across the street lamp, two heroes dismounted from a motorcycle and rushed over urgently.

“Black Cat spotted. Destruction-rank monsters all defeated.”

“The child and… hmm, it seems to be playing with the child, but someone is captured?”

“Wait, this guy’s a villain? I remember seeing him on wanted posters.”

“Damn it!”

“Subdue him!”

When I released the villain, the two heroes completely subdued him.

They pulled out a syringe gun from their pocket, and the villain collapsed limply after being injected with a powerful sedative.

“This guy… he’s a child kidnapper.”

“What? This is that bastard? Finally caught the rotten scum…”

Having caught the villain and intending to hand over the child, I lifted the child with telekinesis, but the child who was tightly gripping my fur ended up hanging upside down.

“Ahahahaha!”

“Woong.”

“Whoa, that’s dangerous.”

Come and take him, I signaled with a crying sound, and the heroes approached to hold the child.

Well, my business is done, so… Just as I was about to disappear, a hero suddenly called out to me.

“Hey, hey! You have to do that thing.”

“Ah…! Thank you, Black Cat. Thanks to you, we saved the child and caught the monsters…”

“Idiot, it’s ‘Thanks for catching the monsters, you’re cool, you’re cute.'”

What’s this about…? A sudden thank you?

I appreciate it, but I’m not sure if they should be thanking a monster for help. It’s different from their usual reluctant reaction.

As I bristled my fur at this unfamiliar response, one of the heroes pulled out meat from the bag on his back.

“Hurry up and take it out, we need to give it to him before he runs away.”

“Owao?”

What’s this, they’re giving me meat?

Perhaps due to our positions as monster and heroes, heroes who give me meat are rare.

I was about to leave but paused to accept and eat the meat.

“Waoong…!”

Slurp, the tender meat melting in my mouth with a chewy texture.

This is… quite high-quality beef.

Chomp chomp, after eating and swallowing the meat, I licked my lips, savoring the taste.

“Uh… is he asking for more?”

“Sorry, we don’t have any more. That’s all we have.”

“Waong.”

I happily sank into the shadows.

Mmm, that was delicious… such tasty beef, I’m lucky today.

And the next day.

As I lay on the park grass, focusing on cleaning up a cluster of Homicide-rank monsters forming underground, heroes rushed over to me.

“I-it’s really Black Cat! The alarm didn’t go off?”

“Maybe it didn’t go off because he’s just taking a nap? Where’s the meat?”

“I didn’t bring any…!”

“Oh come on! You were supposed to bring it!”

“No, we bring it when there’s a Black Cat alert, not all the time. How am I supposed to carry it around?”

“Let’s just give him this for now.”

The C-rank and D-rank heroes offered me sausages as I focused on my spatial manipulation ability.

After quickly eating the sausage they dangled in front of me, I remained lying down, and the heroes frantically ran off somewhere.

“Hey, let’s quickly go to the mart and buy some meat. Senior will cover the expenses anyway.”

“Black Cat, wait right here!”

“Yawwwn…”

After yawning, I refocused on the underground, tearing apart the Homicide-rank monsters one by one.

Like a giant ant colony, the ant monsters, each the size of a human leg, were slowly dying, unable to escape as I blocked the entrance.

Let’s see, spatial manipulation with fire ability, ice, lightning, what should I kill them with next…

Hmm… this is fun.

After killing all the ants, a long Death Worm approached to swallow the small cores of the ants.

Perfect timing… it would have been annoying to collect each core with spatial manipulation.

As I left it alone for a moment, people resting in the park approached me.

“See! I told you Black Cat was here.”

“Wow, it’s true!”

“They say Black Cat is sleeping here! Taking a nap!”

“Wow! It’s Black Cat!”

“Do we have anything to eat? I heard if you give him food, he lets you pet him.”

“Be careful, they say he’ll cut off your wrist if you touch him carelessly.”

The citizens tried to share their food with me.

Since I was hungry from using so many abilities, I thought this was perfect and ate whatever food they offered.

“Excuse me, I’m feeding him right now, please wait your turn.”

“Black Cat’s stomach isn’t a garbage disposal, don’t just feed him anything.”

“At least stick to one type of food!”

At first, everyone gave similar foods or things that tasted good together.

But as time passed and more people gathered, the food started to get mixed up.

“Does a monster even care what it eats?”

“Not only does it catch monsters for us, but it also disposes of food waste. Black Cat is the best.”

Adults came with lunch boxes and dumped their leftover food into my open mouth.

Hmm… sweet, sour, spicy, salty, an odd mix of flavors… I thought this was going too far. I approached the person who threw paper foil along with food waste into my mouth, claiming it was food waste, and spat the food on top of their head.

“Uwaack! Y-you bastard!”

“Kyaaak!”

Thwack! When the person covered in food waste tried to punch my nose, I caught him with telekinesis, lifted him high, and shook him up and down.

Along with the filthy waste, the wig covering his bald head fell off.

Just then, heroes carrying handfuls of meat rushed over urgently.

“Huh? This isn’t allowed, we were told in the meeting to prevent this.”

“What’s going on, why is Black Cat lifting that person? Hey, what did you do to Black Cat?”

“I’ll investigate this person, you just feed him.”

“Alright, alright! No approaching, no approaching Black Cat. Please don’t feed him.”

“Huh? What’s that meat for? Aren’t you going to give it to him?”

“Citizens are not allowed to feed Black Cat.”

“What? Since when? Are heroes special or something?”

Amid the complaints from citizens, the heroes gave me meat.

Mmm, delicious pork and beef… not specific cuts, just randomly thrown pieces.

It would be nice if they grilled it, but they’re not Starlight, so that might be difficult.

Heroes don’t carry around grills, after all.

“I wanna feed Black Cat too! Black Cat!”

“This my candy, yummy.”

“No, you can’t. I said you can’t… Ah!”

“Woong.”

After filling my stomach, I stretched out my head to accept candy from children as a dessert.

Thinking I was lucky again today, I left.

And the next day.

After cleaning the underground all night and turning the evolved Death Worm into a corpse, I carried the core of the Disaster-rank monster in my mouth and settled on the rooftop of an empty building.

As I was chewing on the core and yawning on the rooftop, another hero came.

With meat in hand.

“Um… Black Cat, you’re really amazing… thank you. To think you’d protect W City.”

“Grrrr…”

“Ha, what am I doing… praising a monster… as if it understands.”

When I bared my teeth at the A-rank hero who could manipulate air currents and float in the sky, the man sighed, holding his forehead.

“Just eat the meat… I don’t know why I have to give you meat…”

“Urrrr…”

“You really do eat it quietly, what an absurd monster you are.”

Woong, grrrr, I made a sound mixing wariness and welcome, ate the meat, and perked up my ears.

I ate the meat, but… something feels strange.

Even I know this isn’t just good luck if it keeps happening repeatedly.

There were heroes who secretly gave me meat besides Starlight, but never to this extent.

Is there some trend among heroes to give me meat?

“Yeah, eat it where it’s visible. I need to record this with the camera.”

Record with a camera? Why would they record me eating meat?

Feeling an inexplicable discomfort and wariness, I sank into the shadows, avoiding the camera.

I mean, it’s good for me since I can fill my stomach, but it feels odd that everyone is suddenly giving me meat.

Did they put poison in the meat? It doesn’t taste like poison.

…This is strange.

“B-Black Cat!”

And then, the next day.

As I was devouring Destruction-rank monsters, Starlight appeared before me.

The meat in his hand… Starlight had always thrown meat to me before.

So it shouldn’t be strange, but why? The smell is different from usual.

His anxiety and urgency are so intense that it’s hard to predict what he’ll do.

Is something happening among the heroes? Why does everyone suddenly seem different?

“Wait, let’s talk…!”

Despite my doubts, I backed away from the approaching Starlight.

Starlight had already attacked me twice.

I don’t mind heroes hunting monsters—it’s natural—but Starlight’s ability is painful.

Not wanting to be attacked again, I warily sank into the shadows.

“Ah…!”

#

After escaping from Starlight, a little while later.

As I was playing with small fish in an empty riverside field, combining various abilities, another hero appeared.

“Oh my? It’s really Black Cat. I thought it was illegal dumping trash hidden in the bushes.”

“See? I told you it looked like Black Cat! Who would bring such a large piece of illegal trash all the way here?”

“Well, shall we give him meat?”

“Waong?”

The heroes who discovered me took out sausages and meat from their backpacks.

More meat. After being cautious for a moment and confirming there was nothing wrong with the meat, I obediently ate it.

“Wow, this feels really weird. He’s actually eating it!”

“I’ve always wanted to give meat to Black Cat too.”

“Didn’t your senior say his little sister was saved thanks to Black Cat?”

“That’s right, thank you Black Cat. To think the day would come when I could thank you like this…”

“Oooong…?”

A thank you… is it?

A hero, deliberately, to a monster?

When they never did before?

After finishing the sausage and licking my lips with a strange feeling, the hero carefully stroked my head.

“Whoa, wow, it’s soft.”

“Would you like me to take a picture?”

“Ah, yes, please do. I need one for submission anyway.”

The hero who was stroking me hugged my head and smiled broadly.

As I stood there bewildered, another hero held up a phone and took a picture.

A submission photo? What’s that?

What are they doing to me?