The party members, seeing the small cup-sized cat, couldn’t handle its cuteness and screamed in delight.
“Ahhh! So cute!!”
“Wow, it’s incredibly adorable. Is this the same one that roared the last time we saw it?”
“Yep, but please don’t touch it… it’s mine.”
“Aw, come on! Just once, can’t I pet it?”
“No way! Ahh-!”
Ham Eun-young struggled to protect the cat, but ultimately relented to the swarm of eager party members.
“Hmm… They really treasure that mirror. Did something change within as she leveled up?”
The Ham Eun-young I knew would never show it off like this.
If I lost that transformed demon to others like this, I’d be in a panic. But I was impressed by how she managed her emotions.
One by one, the party members who outmatched Eun-young started surrounding the cat, eagerly petting it and chattering away.
“The fur is so soft~”
“I can’t believe it could even manifest! Why didn’t we do this earlier??”
“But doesn’t manifesting make it weaker? Right, sis? It looks like it could fly away with a little tap.”
“It’s, it’s not that weak! Manifesting is just for practice—ahh, stop it!”
(How dare these filthy humans touch my body! And who are they calling weak?!)
I watched the little guy getting squished under numerous hands, and unable to hold back any longer, I asked,
“You can do this too? You’re really cute now?”
I adjusted my voice so only he could hear.
(Shut up! This is not my true form! This ability only emerged as Eun-young grew stronger!)
Eun-young’s power, huh?
Why exactly a cat?
“You don’t need to be mad at me. You look happy being petted, though?”
(Hmph! Do you think I’d like the human’s touch? But coming into a world full of mana, I feel like I can breathe again. Hehe…)
‘… Don’t smile like that; you look even cuter.’
(Shut up!! Just shut up! More importantly, I’m curious about something!)
“Why are you suddenly curious about me?”
I found it intriguing that this guy who never spoke before was now chatty.
(I sense a familiar scent from you. What have you been up to lately?)
I was puzzled at first, but the suddenly chatty, cuter demon was amusing.
“Let’s see… Recently, I met this Great Beast.”
Upon hearing this, the little one tugged at his squished whiskers and answered.
(A Great Beast… I’ve heard those called that in this world are quite strong. What did you do to it?)
“I killed it. Well, it was someone else, a stronger one, who did.”
I refrained from mentioning that I had taken it down myself with my abilities, and the little guy responded with a look of disappointment.
(Then that Great Beast you met wasn’t related to that person…)
“Oh come on, what are you rambling on about? Talk clearer.”
I persistently nudged the silent figure until finally eliciting an answer.
(… There was a supreme being I served. Occasionally, I felt revelations from that being, and the scent from you is reminiscent of that.)
‘……Huh?’
In that instant, I recalled what is referred to as the Fragments of a Great Being.
‘No way… can it be?’
So I immediately asked the little cat,
“What’s the supreme being’s name?”
(■■■■.)
‘… What did you say?’
(■■■■.)
‘…… What’s this again?’
Could it be that I couldn’t understand the demon’s language properly? But wouldn’t the system’s great powers convey meaning even in unknown languages?
Some even claimed that becoming awakened freed you from foreign languages.
“Anyway, I really don’t get it. But why did you serve that being?”
(That’s a foolish question. It’s not a choice I make. As you know, we were born to endure hardship to reach the end of the world.
When that happens, we naturally follow beings that walk similar paths. Like a heartbeat without consciousness.)
‘……?’
I shrugged, not understanding what he meant.
“As a demon, couldn’t you just serve the Demon King? That supreme being you mention isn’t the Demon King, is it?”
Upon hearing this, the cat waved his little arms in frustration and replied again.
(Even those called kings where I lived had their own supreme beings they served. And those supreme beings surely serve someone else.)
‘…… Are you saying there’s an endless chain of leaders?’
(I’ve heard that term before. Yes, it feels similar.
The paths derived from countless dimensions in this universe converge into one.
That path is endless, and it’s said no one ever reaches its ultimate end.
Thus, we must seek guidance and enlightenment from those who have walked the path before us.)
‘……’
Honestly, I didn’t completely grasp what this little cat was saying, nor did it resonate with me.
“What are you getting at?”
When I’m struggling just to take a single step.
Of course, it’s not like I could say that as someone who has stepped onto the path of the King of the Undead, but reality was as it was.
Cleaning up daily disasters was already tiring.
That so-called ‘path,’ I’d think about later after dealing with that crazy dragon and those blue-eyed fiends.
I signaled that I semi-understood, and he finally looked a bit satisfied.
While watching the little cat still being petted by the beautiful women, I suddenly remembered my minion.
“My cute little subordinate, Gori. I need to check just how much cuter it has gotten.”
– Currently reconstructing ‘Small Hook Bat’ into ‘Big and Powerful Hook Bat’…
It seemed like it would take more time before it turned into a large minion.
And I had slowly been consuming parts from the monsters hunted in the Frog Folk dungeon, but results hadn’t appeared yet.
– Currently reconstructing ingested materials…
It didn’t seem to take this long before; it was probably due to the rise in the tier of [Essence Devour].
‘For now, I need to focus on meeting the minimum criteria for [Meteor]. The Dire Wolf dungeon has hidden spaces, and there are a few more dungeons…’
While deep in thought, my companions were chatting about yesterday’s events.
“I really can’t remember, it’s driving me crazy.
In that moment when Jo Gi-man and that monster were right next to each other! I closed my eyes, opened them, and suddenly my head was spinning like I had drunk ten bottles of soju, and poof! The monster was gone!”
“Did we all get hit by some mass illusion? I just can’t wrap my head around it.”
“According to the internet, such a mass forgetting phenomenon is unprecedented.”
“Can it really be called forgetting? It was just a brief moment, right?”
“Well, what matters is we defeated it, right?”
“True. Let’s come up with a formation for tomorrow.”
“That sounds good. Hahyun and Yeon-hee have experience, so please explain a bit.”
“Sure! I’ll go first.”
No Ha-yoon, who always loved taking the lead, started explaining about the dungeon while I watched them fondly, though a part of me felt worried.
“Sigh… bringing in so many bugs.”
Now, the tailing that had started with Baek Ah-rin had turned into a trio with Joo-ah and Eun-young added.
I threw a piece of paper at the chatting companions.
“Huh?”
“What’s this?”
Upon seeing the note with doodled drawings I made, they quickly sharpened their senses and soon acted as if nothing was wrong, lowering their voices.
The drawing depicted a person’s head hidden behind a wall, and everyone reacted to the intuitive signal.
(We messed up. We skipped the most important story.)
(What’s going on?)
(What’s this?)
Details about Hyun Woo-seok from the Ilseom Guild placing a watch on our party members.
Bae Joo-ah and Ham Eun-young were unsurprisingly shocked since they were oblivious, and interestingly, No Ha-yoon was not being watched.
“You know? I have a security detail watching over me.”
“Oh right.”
“But even if they intended to, it could have been handled better?”
‘Whatever the reason, they’ve placed followers while picking people…’
Then No Ha-yoon whispered with a hint of mischief in her smile.
“The Ilseom Guild is highly rated because of lord Jong-Gil and Hyun Il-hwan, but a group only filled with knights has its limits. They didn’t want to cause trouble with our guild, I guess.”
This made the rest of the companions wear bittersweet smiles.
“This is why being unaffiliated is bad. We might need to look for a place to settle down soon…”
“You can just return to the Vision.”
“How long has it been since then?”
‘Joo-ah seems to be considering joining a guild again.’
“Hey, Yeon-hee, you know I’m part of the White Knight Guild, right? Why are you asking?”
“Didn’t Yeon-hee not register in the guild?”
“Yes, not yet…”
“The affiliation is judged by that, so it’s better to register first…”
“I did get that suggestion from the guild, but I felt a bit pressured and said I’d do it in April.”
“Oh dear…”
No Ha-yoon rested her chin in contemplation, then suddenly shouted.
“I’ll ask the Vice Guild Master.”
“That feels like relying too much on others. Besides, they don’t have a watch on you.”
“Hmm… Let’s see.”
Bae Joo-ah remarked that the previous incident where they received help from Eun-young’s grandmother had blown up, so doing it again would be problematic.
Ham Eun-young felt surprisingly calm about being targeted with her grandmother but agreed with Joo-ah’s stance.
“Seriously, are you just going to sit back knowing you’re being watched? Isn’t that uncomfortable?”
“……”
No Ha-yoon seemed stressed and hit her chest a few times before suddenly making a phone call.
“Yeah, so um, our party member has been harassed. In fact, they were forcibly removed because of it—”
“Forcibly removed isn’t quite right…”
A-rin looked a bit wronged, but No Ha-yoon signaled to remain silent, deeming it unimportant.
Repeating the call several times and elaborating on the events, she finally ended the last call with a pleased smile.
“Great! It’s settled.”
“Huh? What is it? How?”
Joo-ah couldn’t contain her curiosity and immediately asked, and No Ha-yoon replied with a bright smile.
“It’s just going to end up in a match.”
“…… A match? What do you mean, Ha-yoon?”
Bae Joo-ah scratched her ear as if she had misheard and asked again.
“I don’t know, if you don’t want to drag along something annoying, just fight and win against Hyun Woo-seok!”
“No… are we really going to fight Hyun Woo-seok?”
“Yes.”
“Why did it turn out like this?”
“It just happened?”
“Whoa… are you serious? How are we supposed to beat that crazy monster? And why did he agree to these terms?”
“I think he was pondering what he should do too since I did set up a tail. And he’ll probably balance the duel as well! You think our guild isn’t capable of planning that much?”
No Ha-yoon spoke assertively, and right after.
To my surprise, it ended up being a duel against a C-class Ilseom guild member designated by Hyun Woo-seok.
‘Why is everything going so smoothly? Like they were just waiting for this moment.’
Should this duel be realized, if Hyun Woo-seok were to do something to Ham Eun-young, it might bring out her enraged grandmother.
Was this a calculated play to place a tail that would eventually be revealed?
‘Am I overthinking this?’
Even if it was correct, he probably hadn’t anticipated that we’d discover the tail so quickly. Hence the one-week time frame.
‘Well, Ilseom’s forces are definitely larger. So are they saying we can face them as we are… honestly absurd.’
Support me by donating at least $10, and you'll have the right to request any novel from Novelpia (excluding 19+ content) using a newly developed tool.
