Kyaaak

Kyaaak

“Kyaaak! Meooow!”

“… Woof! Woof woof!”

Would you believe this is a confrontation between a cat and a human?

I put my hand on my forehead as I watched Rumi barking at the cat.

I never dreamed she would fight like that with a cat, not even a person.

‘Although she’s made frequent mistakes before, I don’t think she’s ever done anything this foolish.’

Just as I was sighing, wondering how it came to this.

Rumi spoke to me with an extremely proud expression on her face.

“I, I won!”

The cat… or more precisely, Rumi, who had just won against the Seed of Negation, looked at me with great joy.

I was quite embarrassed by Rumi’s reaction and pretended not to notice.

Rumi spoke to me with a somewhat triumphant expression.

“Now I can proudly stay here. So, Mr. Stupid Cat, please leave now.”

“Meow!”

“I, I won, so Mr. Cat should leave!”

As I listened to this conversation, a puzzling thought crossed my mind.

Until just a moment ago, the Seed of Negation’s way of speaking was ‘resonating inside the mind’.

But now, it seemed to be actually making sounds to speak.

‘Moreover, it was speaking human language just fine earlier, but now it’s only making cat noises.’

I wondered if the Seed of Negation was adopting this method because ‘Rumi’ was present.

To test this, I briefly spoke to Rumi.

“I have something to do, so wait in the room for a while.”

“… Pardon?”

She stared at me with a bewildered expression, probably not expecting to be sent away so soon after entering the lab.

I deliberately ignored Rumi’s gaze and nonchalantly pointed to the door.

She left with a very dejected expression, hanging her head and looking like a drenched puppy.

The moment I confirmed Rumi had completely left, I turned my gaze back to the Seed of Negation.

[Finally, she’s gone…!]

The seed of negativity, speaking in a way that resonates in my head like before, appears to be excited.

I, who realized that it has a nature of hiding its identity when Rumi is present, for reasons unknown.

Perhaps this led me to speculate that it might be related to ‘the reason why the Heaven God Cult is tormenting Rumi’.

‘Seed of evil… Rumi.’

For now, I’ll need more information to understand the details.

To avoid revealing that I had obtained this information, I spoke somewhat coldly without showing any expression.

“You’re noisy. Be quiet.”

[……]

Fortunately, it seems to have some sense of awareness, as it quickly closed its mouth while watching my reaction.

I slowly turned my gaze away from the seed of negativity and opened the magic book.

*

About an hour later.

I went to Rumi’s room as I had promised her.

‘… It would be more accurate to call it a guest room, but.’

Since I intended to leave it as Rumi’s room forever until she decides to leave, it would be right to call it Rumi’s room from now on.

As I was thinking this, I slowly knocked on the door.

I heard the sound of someone hurriedly running, and then Rumi gently opened the door and spoke to me.

“… Did you have a good time playing with the cat?”

It seems she misunderstood that the reason I sent her away was to play with the seed of negativity.

I considered telling her that wasn’t the case, but.

Thinking that saying such a thing would be foolish, I didn’t answer and instead brought up a different topic.

“Is there anything uncomfortable?”

“……”

She reluctantly answers while making a sulky expression, deliberately changing the subject.

“Yes. Everyone has been so nice, I’m living very comfortably.”

“That’s good. Well then, I’ll be going now.”

As soon as I say I’m leaving, Rumi grabs my clothes in surprise.

Then, looking restless and nervous, she speaks in a small, shrinking voice.

“Th… that…”

“Is there something you want to say?”

Rumi seems to have no other words coming to mind, so she closes her eyes tightly and stays silent for a moment.

Then, as if squeezing the words out, she says to me.

“Th-thank you.”

Thank you… The moment I heard those words, I couldn’t help but pause as I remembered my first meeting with Rumi.

No matter how well I treated her, to her, I should have been nothing more than a villain.

The fact that she was opening up to me and approaching me showed just how starved for human interaction she must have been.

As that thought crossed my mind, I unconsciously patted Rumi’s head.

Rather than a gesture of affection, it was more to acknowledge how well she had endured so far.

Rumi looked up at me with a blank expression, then started to smile sheepishly.

‘This isn’t like Deren, it’s not good.’

Compromising that it would be fine just this once, I continued to pat her head.

* * *

The research on ancient magic continued.

Among this, what I was focusing on was ‘magic penetration’.

Deep underground, I recalled that my magic couldn’t reach there, so I was conducting various studies to solve this problem.

‘So far, it’s been fine since only weak ones have appeared.’

Later, when dealing with high-ranking magicians or knights, such tricks won’t work.

If possible, it would be important to learn something like magic penetration to break through the opponent’s weak points.

While I was accelerating my research on this and designing it one by one, the magic I saw in the underground waterway suddenly crossed my mind.

‘Magic that can control dolls at will.’

Although it was a magic that was quite tricky and had many conditions to use, as obtaining corpses to put into the dolls was difficult.

The thought crossed my mind that if this could be applied to ‘objects’ instead of corpses, it could become quite a good magic.

The moment that thought crossed my mind, I paused my penetration research and looked at the negative energy nearby.

If my thoughts were correct, I thought I could use this negative energy as material for ‘doll magic’.

‘If it works, something quite amazing would come out.’

Negative energy is a crystallization made by extracting only the strongest emotion that can be drawn from humans, ‘negativity’.

If dolls were created using such crystals, it’s hard to imagine how powerful they would be.

With such thoughts, I looked at it for a while and decided to include this in my research as well.

[……?]

The negative energy seemed to have read my thoughts, showing signs of uneasiness as it looked at me.

Pretending not to know anything, I turned my gaze away and decided to complete the penetration magic first.

I slowly began to connect thousands of magical formulas, starting to attach ‘magic penetration’ to the point explosion.

* * * * *

About a week has passed since that day.

While I was applying the completed magic penetration formula to other formulas and repeatedly researching until I could use it properly.

Someone knocks on my research room door and speaks.

“Young Master Deren. A guest has arrived.”

A guest?

Thinking it might be Deliana Sien, I said ‘I’ll be right there’ and immediately went outside.

An unexpected figure comes into view, waiting for me.

“It’s been a while.”

Espin, wearing black gloves on her snow-white hands, waves at me with a smile.

Surprised that she came to the house in person, I approach her silently.

Espin takes a step towards me and says.

“I came to share some information.”

At those words, I nod after checking the people around us.

Since the Lercier Family’s servants are all of confirmed identity, we shouldn’t have to worry about information spreading.

Still, considering the possibility of ‘just in case’, I decided to take her to the reception room first.

Once we arrived at the reception room.

Espin sprawls on the sofa and tells me.

“To cut to the chase, it just fizzled out with only some minor loose ends tied up.”

As it was a result I had somewhat expected, I nodded without much reaction.

Espin sighs and continues talking to me.

“I don’t know how powerful the person behind this is for it to fizzle out so quickly… But well. We managed to achieve the initial modest goal we set out for, so it’s not a big problem.”

Since Espin’s original reason for orchestrating this was to ‘gain recognition’ for her abilities, it must have been quite a satisfactory outcome for her.

‘And for me as well. I succeeded in widely exposing the identity of the Heaven God Cult, so it wasn’t bad at all.’

Usually, just being aware of a problem is enough to make it a big concern.

Even if no one is raising the issue right now.

As time passes, more people will start to question it, so eventually, we could increase the number of those who could be called allies.

While I was thinking that this wasn’t a bad idea.

Espin sat up straight on the sofa, then looked at me intently and said.

“This is just a casual question, but are you interested in becoming an inspector or something like that?”

“No.”

“Of course not. Why would the youngest son of the Lercier Family need to be an inspector?”

As I nodded vaguely and stared at Espin expressionlessly.

Suddenly, from outside the room, I heard barking and meowing sounds.

While I was denying reality, thinking it couldn’t be, the reception room door suddenly opened, and Rumi and the aura of denial popped out.

“……”

It was obvious to anyone that the barking sound was made by Rumi.

Espin silently took a bite of the snack in front of him.

Then, with an awkward smile, he said to me.

“Your… pet dog is cute. As expected of a dog trainer.”

“……”

I couldn’t refute his words and just closed my eyes tightly.