EP.100 The Kings of Beasts
"Hm? Wait a moment."
The Undying One tilted his head and headed toward the room where I was hiding. He swiftly opened the door and peeked inside.
And made eye contact with me.
"Sir. What are you doing here?"
"Ah, I'm caught!"
He found me.
The Undying One looked at me suspiciously as I hid furtively.
I put on an awkward smile and crawled out of the room.
"No, well, I was heading to my room to grab something, but the atmosphere downstairs felt strange. So I quickly ducked into the room and hid, then missed my timing to come out and was just on standby."
The Undying One accepted my excuse at face value and scolded me.
"Hey, if you were watching, you should have intervened! The Lieutenant Commander almost died, and the boy was almost killed!"
"If I had jumped in between, I would have died too, and wouldn't Shei have evolved from a murderer to a serial killer? Unlike Mr. Rash, I'm not undying. If my arm gets cut off, I can't reattach it, and if I die, I can't resurrect from a blade of grass."
"Hm! I can't deny that! Actually, I just got caught up in it too and couldn't stop it either! Hahaha!"
The Undying One laughed heartily. I followed him with an awkward smile.
Truthfully, I had hidden here to see the identity of the escape bundle.
There was only one place Callis could flee to escape the Regressor, and having realized that, I asked Tir for understanding and came ahead to hide here. If Callis went up to the surface through the escape bundle, I planned to seize that moment to steal or figure out the escape method.
But who would have thought the escape bundle's true identity was an escape-to-the-living-world bundle.
When I first read the thoughts about the bundle, I seriously considered pickpocketing it. Old habits die hard—whenever I saw that plump leather pouch under the belt, my hands would itch and I'd unconsciously reach out.
Looking back now, it was a stroke of luck that I didn't. If I had pickpocketed and used the escape-to-the-living-world bundle, I would have died on the spot, and instead of the obituary section, I'd have made the humor section.
Phew. People really need to turn over a new leaf first. When you live kindly, evil-repelling charms... no, blessings come your way.
While I was breathing a sigh of relief, the Undying One gripped Callis's shoulder tightly and spoke.
"The one who saved the Lieutenant Commander was the Lieutenant Commander herself. I merely lent a little help! So you can be proud, Lieutenant Commander!"
"...Nyeheh."
A sound of someone biting their tongue came out. The Undying One and I looked at Callis. Instantly, Callis's face turned as red as her hair color.
The Undying One looked puzzled.
"Hm? Lieutenant Commander. Your reaction seems to have gotten... cuter?"
"N-no, it's not..."
"Anyway, now that the hat covering half your eyes is gone, your impression is fully visible! Your eyes are rounder than I expected! I only saw your eyes under the hat every day, so I thought they were sharp like blades, but you're cuter than you look!"
"Th-that's..."
"Why on earth did you wear that stiff, wide-brimmed hat around? It's completely useless except for pressing down your head! If it weren't for that hat brim shadow, I would have recognized your face sooner!"
"I... didn't want... to look... foolish..."
Covering her flushed face, Callis kept bowing her head.
My, my. So that's how it is.
The faintly sweet-and-sour emotion I could sense was like a drug that made my fingers and toes curl back yet I couldn't take my eyes off it. I wiped under my nose and said.
"Wow! It was pathetic, but still interesting! No matter how tough life gets, the living world is better, right?"
"...Do you want to die?"
"Oh my? You're still sharpening your blade at me?"
Hey, Undying One. Didn't you say her eyes were soft? When she looks at me, they're still so sharp I feel like I'll get cut.
Even without uniform or hat, just her stinging glare is enough to intimidate me. Is this fear imprinted in my instincts?
Callis glared at me stingingly, then leaned her body slightly toward the Undying One and muttered.
"...Until the investigation team arrives, I must stay here. Having had my authority suspended, I'm no different from a prisoner."
"Hey, don't worry too much! Still, you're not completely locked up like us! And from my experience living here, this place is surprisingly livable!"
"Perhaps... it is."
She's completely fallen for him. Well, it's only natural to develop good feelings for someone who threw themselves in to save you.
But what do we do about this.
"I was holding on too long! Now, I'll be going. It'd be better for you to get some sleep first! The way to calm a shocked body is to sleep soundly!"
The Undying One politely tried to make room to leave. It wasn't what Callis wanted.
He didn't save her because Callis was special. Originally, even when the prison break occurred, the Undying One had a record of standing against the ringleader to protect the common laborers. He was miserably defeated and his limbs were torn off, but still.
So, this is just how the Undying One's personality is formed. If you ask whether Callis is "special," the answer is no.
Well, he probably has thoughts of trying to make things work out.
"Sigh. A rough road lies ahead..."
Just as I was muttering that, wondering what obstacles would come in the future.
Without any sign.
Without any context.
Without even a small sound.
A cat beast-person appeared before our eyes.
"Nyaa-"
At the sudden appearance, everyone lost their words. Everyone had their gazes stolen by the girl walking lightly as if they had agreed to do so.
The cat beast-person, who quietly walked to the center of everyone, curled her hand into a fist and began licking the back of her hand.
"...A cat?"
Her stiffly standing tail reaches near her head. Triangular pointed cat ears with lush ash-gray hair flowing down her back—unusually, the outer fur color is dark gray while the inner side is nearly pure white. It looks as if the inside and outside were painted differently.
On her snow-white face, four whiskers grow thinly and long. Her light steps are elegant yet as weightless as feathers; had I not seen her with my own eyes, I wouldn't have even known she was there.
"Nyaa-"
The cat beast-person mewed bewitchingly and looked around with an air of indifference.
I too reflexively tried to read the thoughts of the opponent who had appeared. No, I tried to.
I can't read them.
No, they do get read, but the meanings don't connect. Like translating hieroglyphs written in a cave into our language. It was a book whose words I could read aloud but whose meaning I couldn't grasp.
Having experienced this before, I wasn't flustered. I was merely surprised.
"The King of Cats?"
Crazy, why would the King of Beasts come here thinking there's something to eat?
No, this is a bit strange. The King of Dogs came because a human ordered him to, but why would the King of Cats come to the Bottomless Pit? Is this the Bottomless Pit or a zoo?
There are no other thoughts I can sense nearby. That means she's alone. I have no choice but to ask directly.
I can't read the memories possessed by the King of Beasts, but I can know their names. I just need to read them as they sound.
I spoke to the butterfly who was licking the back of her hand.
"Nabi. Why did you come to our home?"
"Nya?"
Nabi paused her hand-licking for a moment and said haughtily.
"Nya has received tribute and come to grant that wish, nya."
"Received tribute?"
"Nya is the only king who has made an equal contract with humans. Catch the rat squeaking in the rat hole—my servant offered tribute and wished for that. So nya has descended here, nya."
Contract. Rat. Tribute.
The ominous feeling I'm getting can't just be my imagination.
Especially since just a moment ago, there was talk about the lord of all creation.
"Oh! Miss Cat!"
At that moment, the Undying One, who lacked any sense of crisis because he couldn't die, stepped toward Nabi as was typical of him.
"This year is overflowing with fortune! To meet two animal ladies who are so hard to see! What an immense adventure! I can already picture the eyes of those who will fall over in surprise when I return to the village!"
"Nyaa?"
"Nice to meet you! I am Rash, Miss Cat!"
It was when the Undying One reached his hand out toward Nabi.
Staring intently, Nabi swatted the Undying One with her front paw.
Space was carved out. The cat's front paw darkly swallowed space, and Rash's arm, torn off in an instant, flew across the corridor. Until it crossed the corridor, his attached right arm didn't touch the ground even once.
The Undying One widened his eyes.
"Oh!"
It was strength similar to Aji's—no, greater than that.
Unlike Aji, whose hostility fades just from having a human-like form, the cautious King of Cats didn't hold back. Even if Rash hadn't been undying, she would have swatted him like that.
That means, even if I had reached my hand out.
Sweat ran down my spine. The scent of death slowly began to flicker before my nose.
She may be the King of Cats, a beast relatively friendly to humans... but fundamentally, it's better not to get close to the King of Beasts. Beasts are capricious and can turn violent at any moment.
Aji, who possesses complete goodwill, is an exceptional case; basically, beasts... have been symbols of fear and danger since time immemorial.
Nabi, who casually blew off a person's arm, licked the front paw she had just swung.
The Undying One scratched his head with his left arm and said.
"As expected of a cat! The prickliest of all! I feel a bit lonely since there are only prickly women around me lately! Haha! Everyone, it'd be best not to approach Miss Cat carelessly! That is, if you're not undying like me!"
Looking at the right arm that had disappeared below the elbow, Callis asked worriedly.
"Rash, are you... okay?"
"I'm fine. My right arm falling off is everyday now! Lately, having it attached feels more awkward, and sometimes I detach my right arm and use it as a pillow! A true arm pillow in every sense!"
"...It's only been a day since you woke up?"
"Is that so? Then I'll sleep like that starting today!"
The Undying One's inane jokes somewhat lightened the atmosphere.
The right arm, which only dropped to the ground after hitting the opposite wall, raised itself with two fingers and came scuttling over.
At that rare sight, Nabi stared at the self-moving right arm with curiosity-filled eyes.
"Nya? The arm moves, nya."
"My proud arm! It has never betrayed me until now! As reliable as any decent comrade..."
"Nya."
It was when the right arm passed in front of Nabi.
Crunch.
Nabi crushed that right arm with her front paw. She merely pressed down, but the floor caved in the shape of a cat's paw pad. The right arm, crushed between Nabi's front paw and the concrete floor, was squashed like fruit, and pieces of flesh scattered in all directions.
The Undying One muttered with an expression of having taken a hit.
"Huh, that's not quite okay."
Callis shouted urgently.
"Rash!"
"Shh! Don't approach. It's still okay! My right arm is a body part offered to the Earth Mother Goddess. No matter how damaged it gets, it will regenerate eventually..."
Nabi looked at the continuously regenerating right arm with fascination, and every time it fully recovered and tried to escape, she pressed it down with her paw. Each time, the right arm trembled painfully.
The sight of her tormenting the right arm with pure curiosity, without any malice. That figure was gruesome, yet there was something cruelly mesmerizing about it that made it hard to look away.
A strange standoff continued for a while. We just watched Nabi play without saying a word.
Truthfully, there was nothing else we could do.
Then, at some point.
"Nyaaah! When on earth is it coming!"
The right arm's regeneration was gradually slowing. Having lost interest in the merely trembling right arm, Nabi cried out in annoyance.
Immediately after, with a thud, something landed on the roof. Following that, the sound of a parachute fluttering was heard.
Nabi, whose ears perked up, snapped her head up and shouted.
"Nyaa! Hurry up, nya!"
"We are coming."
After the voice was heard, two officers came down the roof stairs.