Ch.65Familiar Taste

# W City’s Greatest Hero, Starlight, continued grilling meat in the box without rest while patting my head.

“Um… I’m sorry? You know I’m apologizing, right?”

“Grrrrrr….”

“So… we’ve made up…?”

What is there to be sorry about when the meat tastes this good?

Make up? Did we ever fight? Isn’t it natural for heroes and monsters to fight?

Her skillful hand movements as she flips a large chunk of meat, tossing and catching it.

Every time I open my mouth wanting more, happiness takes physical form and enters my mouth.

“Is it that delicious?”

“Woooooong~!”

I must have been alive solely to eat this meat.

After devouring all the melt-in-your-mouth meat, I savored the lingering taste in my mouth.

Beside me, Starlight pulled out something strange and started talking.

“Black Cat…? Can we talk for a bit?”

“Meow?”

“Um… didn’t you speak before? Can you talk?”

“Owaong.”

“Are you still angry? Don’t want to talk to me…?”

[Talking makes me hungry.]

After making crying sounds, I finally used my ability to move the wind.

When I speak in monster form, it’s not through my physical body but through my ability.

The more I use my ability, the hungrier I get.

So, I don’t want to speak in monster form unless absolutely necessary.

“I knew it, you can talk… a monster capable of conversation…”

“Woong?”

“Good, the possibility that we can actually resolve this through dialogue has increased.”

Starlight showed surprise that I could talk, but also seemed somewhat relieved.

At the same time, she kept squeezing something onto a disposable plate.

What could that be? It smells incredibly delicious.

“Listen, Black Cat. There are strange people targeting you lately. If someone suspicious offers you something tasty, don’t follow them, okay? Even if they look pitiful or injured, don’t follow them carelessly. Understand?”

“Woongangang.”

“Thank you for saving so many people until now, but there are people who want to use you, so be careful. Especially if strange people talk about gods or ask you to save them… Are you even listening to me? Ouch!”

How noisy, why so much talking while I’m eating?

When the plate emptied and I bit Starlight’s hand firmly, she stroked my head while emanating a sticky emotion.

“Is… is this a sign of affection…? I heard cats gently bite when they like someone.”

[Hurry up and squeeze more. The plate is empty.]

“Ah, okay…”

I didn’t bite gently—Starlight’s hand is just tough.

With a disappointed voice, Starlight filled the plate continuously like a sushi chef.

“Anyway… heroes will give you meat, so I hope you’ll follow their instructions a little. If you fill your stomach with beef and pork that you love so much, you won’t need to eat monsters or humans, right?”

“Angnyangnyang.”

“Ah, you understand? Black Cat, if you don’t do bad things, the citizens of W City and heroes will give you meat and delicious food like this. You shouldn’t do bad things, okay?”

Here, “bad things” probably means eating humans.

I don’t particularly plan to do that, but Starlight’s definition of humans differs from mine.

If she’s saying don’t eat trash humans either, I can’t agree to that.

Unless they give me that special 1++ grade beef every day.

[If I listen to you, will you give me that beef every day?]

“Huh? That’s… well, it’s not that I don’t have money, but the production is limited. At most, I can give you that amount once a month, no matter how much I want to give.”

“Waoong…oong…?”

Hearing that, before my disappointment at only eating it once a month could fully register, excitement rose at the prospect of eating it once a month.

“But… I’ll give you Churu every time from now on, along with meat. How about that?”

With this Churu snack too… it might be a bit insufficient unless I can eat enough to be full.

I wonder if I could eat as much as at the free meal center.

Come to think of it… is the free meal center maintained with Starlight’s money?

And the meat heroes give me…

If I can eat special 1++ grade beef once a month, it might not be bad.

It’s not much different from what I’ve been doing anyway.

“Understood? Don’t follow strange people, okay?”

At that moment, the plate was completely empty.

I stared at Starlight, waiting for the plate that was no longer being filled.

“Aoong.”

“You’re asking if there’s more Churu? That’s all for today.”

What, no more?

Beef and dessert… though not completely full, I was satisfied with the meal and yawned while grooming my fur.

Well, if I’m done eating, I should go.

“Wait, wait! You’re leaving just because you finished eating?! What about your answer?!”

With a leap, I jumped down from the rooftop toward the people murmuring below, passing right through them.

As I sank into the shadows to escape, Starlight shouted behind me.

“Black Cat! Don’t follow suspicious people even if they offer food! Understand?!”

As I listened to Starlight’s fading voice, I thought:

A monster following humans for food? As if that would happen.

What do they take me for?

#

Electris’s ability utilization method paired perfectly with spatial manipulation.

The technology of spreading electromagnetic fields to detect biological responses was more delicate than methods that detect monsters responding to monster core wavelengths, and could spread over longer distances.

Monsters found this way could be destroyed remotely through spatial manipulation.

When used properly, spatial manipulation ability could ignore the characteristic of abilities weakening with distance from the core.

My ability’s range was about half a district, and at that limit, connecting spaces to use other abilities allowed me to insert powerful abilities at long distances.

Unfortunately, connecting spaces required extremely delicate control, and I could only connect one space at a time.

So the only drawback was that it took a long time to detect and catch monsters one by one at a distance.

Recently, I had become addicted to eliminating monsters before monster alerts sounded, using this combination of spatial manipulation and electrical manipulation.

After finding a suitable spot and enjoying the sunshine while eliminating monsters, no monsters would appear in that area for a while.

I call this monster extermination hobby.

“Haven’t monsters decreased a lot lately?”

“Monster damage? That’s thanks to Black Cat…”

“No, I mean monster appearances themselves have decreased, haven’t they?”

“Huh? Now that you mention it… that’s strange…?”

When monsters stopped appearing around places where I showed up for more than a day or two, heroes began to notice something unusual.

Eventually, heroes discovered the rule that monsters didn’t appear in places where I was napping.

“It might be a spatial manipulation ability.”

“Bad Cat’s ability, using it to hunt monsters one by one from a distance.”

“So you’re saying it’s not actually napping but remotely eliminating monsters?”

“Ah, did you feel that just now? That ability wavelength…”

“Wow, the ability gets more subtle every day… scary.”

“But at this point, isn’t it like W City’s guardian deity?”

Not long after, rumors began to spread among citizens.

Places where Black Cat naps are safe.

People began to take leisurely naps where I was, enjoying a peace that didn’t fit the monster era.

And day by day, more people thanked me.

“Black Cat is no longer just Black Cat. It’s Lord Black Cat.”

“Anyone who disrespects Lord Black Cat shall be considered an enemy.”

“Thank you, Lord Black Cat.”

“Oh… Lord Black Cat~ Please appear in this area every day and show us the miracle of real estate prices skyrocketing.”

For citizens, thanking me was like a playful entertainment.

I considered their exaggerated worship as nothing serious since I sensed little sincerity in their emotions, but heroes reacted extremely sensitively.

“Addressing as ‘Lord Black Cat’ is prohibited.”

“I’m sorry, but could you show me your W City resident ID?”

“This is sector 8, requesting backup.”

“No, it’s just a joke, a joke.”

While I thought they were overreacting, tasting the heroes’ anxious emotions reminded me of what Starlight had said.

To be careful of people who call me a god or something similar.

Though I haven’t encountered such humans yet.

After finishing my underground monster hunting today, I left my spot and was running across buildings when I stopped, sensing something strange in my core.

Homicide-rank monsters flying in the sky… quite a few of them.

Insect monsters gathered in a clump.

It’s impossible to eliminate monsters coming from outside my detection range in the sky beforehand.

“Krooo!”

Kwak! Woooong! I unleashed lightning ability into the air, instantly burning away the insect swarm.

At that moment, part of the swarm avoided my ability and descended toward the city center.

The monster alarm began to sound as they crossed the alarm perimeter.

The rapidly falling monster cluster hid in a dark, empty alley.

As I chased the monsters, destroying entire spaces with kwak, kwak, the diminishing cluster fled from me and flew toward a human.

The human, overwhelmed by the insect swarm, fell in the alley, flailing their arms.

Koong! I pushed back the insects with a shockwave and breathed fire to kill them all.

“Ah… th-thank you. Oh… Lord Black Cat…”

What is this? A very strange, unfamiliar emotional scent flows out.

The man who got up, like others, rummaged through his pocket and held out a sausage.

“Please accept this…”

Now accustomed to such rewards, I opened my mouth, and the man carefully placed the sausage in my mouth with both hands.

Perhaps being careful not to get bitten, I tasted the sausage and felt saliva rapidly pooling in my mouth from its sweet and rich flavor.

Crunch—as I chewed, I naturally thought this was the most delicious meat I’d eaten recently.

This taste… I know this taste.

Human.

This is a human sausage.