026 – Destiny

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[Can’t Raise this Cat?]

(Photo)

Keep seeing this cat while wandering around, so I really went for it this time…

But it slips right through my etheric grasp.

I’m the only one without a cat…

A haughty feline that absolutely refuses to let anyone near…

And its looks? Fucking gorgeous…

Any tips on how to catch this cat?

[Comments]

– Looks like you’ve been chosen, lol.

ㄴ (Poster): ??What do you mean, “chosen”?

ㄴ That thing shows up a lot when players are doing some batshit crazy stuff. ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

– Seriously, that cat is s*xy af but it pisses me off that I can’t catch it; the devs really know how to get under your skin.

ㄴ I’m certain the devs made it uncatchable because of guys like you.

– Wow… I’ve never seen it before. It really is gorgeous. When did cats get beauty? lol

– That’s odd… Usually animals turn me on, but not this one. It doesn’t seem like a cat.

ㄴ (Poster): That’s odd…

ㄴ Right?

ㄴ(Poster): Not the cat.

—

Initially, Isabella had thought she would quickly tire of observing these humans…

But she was wrong.

Men with wives who also had girlfriends.

Women with husbands who also had boyfriends.

Women who loved both men and women.

Young couples who knew of each other’s affection but couldn’t bring themselves to confess.

Men who felt not anger, but arousal at the sight of their beloved wife in another man’s arms, and so on.

‘Oh my… oh my oh my…!’

Ever new!

Ever thrilling!

Humans never fail to surprise.

What a kaleidoscopic species they are.

I long to grow weary, yet a fresh episode always finds me… how can I possibly tire of them?

Behold!

“O… Oppa, we are family… we’re family…”

“The reason siblings are born from the same womb is so they can become one again.”

“Oppa?!”

“Yes, Mika.”

Myaaang?!

Now they even show me the sight of blood siblings loving one another!!

“Oh my… Land’s sake!

“…What’s with the cat?”

Myaanyaa~

(Don’t mind me, just continue what you were doing.)

How is it that, every day, even after hundreds of years, human life remains eternally new?

The kinds of guilt felt by humans who cheat on their spouses are diverse and distinct.

A household with children, a household without children.

A household with living parents, a household without parents.

A household with some money, a household without money.

Nobility, commoners, the royal family, and so on.

Even if similar themes arise, the seasoning is different, making it thrilling and delightful to observe human life at every moment.

Nyangnyang~

When I needed a rest, I would sometimes return home.

Though my eternally immortal body didn’t truly require it, my physique repeatedly ‘evolved’ each time I slept and awoke.

If there came a time when I could no longer glimpse the humans I had been observing, I would return home, evolve my physique, and then glimpse the humans I couldn’t see before with my evolved form.

Of course, I never once released the Animagus magic during that process.

The other vampire children who saw me at home treated me as a normal forest cat.

“Isabella Lillith… that was her name…”

“Wow!”

My name, heard after so long, emerged from the voice of an old, dying man.

“If our Henry doesn’t listen to Mommy, Isabella Lillith will take him away, understand?”

“I’ll listen to Mommy!”

There were sometimes people who used my name for the purposes of educating children.

I thought the existence of the progenitor vampire would be eternally remembered as one of their unknown fears.

But this fascinating species had even forgotten that unknown fear, and it had already been about… three centuries since I last heard my true name.

Anyway.

‘Who shall I watch this time~?’

The human I had been observing recently reached his ending.

A man who couldn’t bear the death of his beloved and ultimately took his own life.

Although the sad ending was regrettable, I had no intention of meddling in human life and death.

“Wasn’t it about this time that the academy got new students?”

Remembering the arrival of new academy students around this time of year, I began searching the grounds, hoping to find some novel or amusing subject to observe.

“He killed all the doppelgangers?”

I could see a man who had single-handedly slain eleven doppelgangers.

“He doesn’t seem all that strong, though.”

Judging by the amount of aether flowing from him, he wasn’t particularly powerful.

Yet, to take down eleven doppelgangers unscathed, alone…

It meant he was likely quite cunning.

“Shall I observe him for a bit?”

With the thought of keeping a casual watch, I sauntered around nearby, tail swaying…

“…Abduction.”

*Pat pat pat pat*

Mya?!

Before I knew it, I was captured in the man’s hands, subjected to a barrage of butt pats.

“What? How did he do that? He didn’t use magic?”

The man hadn’t used magic.

The aether within him hadn’t stirred… So, while his teleportation of me involved magical action, it wasn’t magic, per se.

That’s when my curiosity regarding this fellow was growing.

“Isabella Lilith? Who gave you that name? It’s truly beautiful~.”

“!”

After three hundred-odd years, I had once again encountered a human who knew my True Name.

However…

“Myaa… No, how did he know?”

Even the other Progenitor Vampires, who shared my blood most strongly, couldn’t recognize me in my Animagus form.

How could this man possibly discern me?

“…Are humans just that peculiar these days, or are *you* the unusual one?”

“Pardon?”

“Normally, Progenitors evoke screams and panicked flight, don’t they?”

“Uh… I suppose so…?”

It was a first.

To have such an extended conversation with a human.

It was a first.

To encounter someone who knew my true form yet displayed no signs of fear.

It was a first.

The man’s treatment of me, a primeval Progenitor, as if I were a common house cat…

Everything was new. What, precisely, was this feeling I was experiencing?

“You knew my name. How did you find out?”

In the end, to satiate my curiosity, I had to pose the question to the man.

The man, upon hearing my question, offered a deeply meaningful reply.

“…I simply… came to know it.”

“…Instinctively?”

“…Yes.”

He recognized me, who has become a forgotten existence amongst humans… instinctively, they say…

And that too, not a vampire, but an ordinary human.

“…”

Humans once spoke such words.

“I feel that this is ‘fate’.”

“Because you and I are ‘fate’. Even if time were to turn back, I would have met you.”

“‘Fate’… I believe in it. That’s why we’ve met again like this, isn’t it?”

Fate.

Something humans cannot refuse, an inevitable conclusion that approaches.

A predetermined end.

Something that cannot be changed, no matter how hard you try to twist it.

‘…Fate?’

Yes… fate…

That man, who instinctively recognized my Animagus form, something no other being in the world could discern.

Perhaps that man… the thought began to dominate my mind… perhaps he is my ‘fated partner’.

*

“…”

The cat began to ponder something deeply.

I, too, maintained silence at the sight of the cat lost in thought, but only for a moment.

“Uh…”

The True Ancestor vampire, now just an adorable cat, seemed to have finished contemplating…

“I’m not quite… I’m not mentally prepared yet, you see?”

“…?”

“I’ve just… always been watching from the sidelines, and suddenly it’s my turn, so uh… it feels a little… very awkward?..”

“??”

He began to utter words that were difficult to understand.

“Hmm… Ugh… I don’t think I can do this… I need to get some sleep for the first time in a while.”

“…Sleep?”

“That’s right.”

I don’t know why he suddenly needs to sleep, but…

“Uh… sleep well. Shall we perhaps meet here again, sometime when the opportunity arises?”

“Shall we?”

An existence that could obliterate someone like me with a flick of his finger is going to sleep; why would I stand in his way?

I was about to give my final farewell and leave when…

“Was it about four centuries ago…”

“Pardon?”

“The last time I slept… it must have been about four centuries ago.”

“…Why haven’t you slept for so long?”

I could gaze upon a cat nonchalantly uttering she’d slept for four centuries.

“There was no need to evolve, you see.”

“…Right, I suppose?”

What was with that composure?

Some species take centuries to evolve, and she was presenting this “I evolve in my sleep” scenario?

This conversation was exceeding my grasp, so I thought it best to offer polite replies and then slip away.

“Sleep well.”

“Sleep now?”

“Oh, aren’t you going to sleep now?”

“I can only fall asleep in my own home, you see.”

“Where is your home?”

“Hmm…where *was* my home again?”

She doesn’t know her own home?

“…You don’t know your home?”

“Well, I know where it *is*, exactly, but I’ve forgotten the way.”

“…Because you last went back, what, four hundred years ago?”

“Yup!”

Her brazenness was frankly bewildering.

But, if she couldn’t get back to her house and sleep, the ancestral vampire would likely haunt me, which was a rather unsettling thought.

“Then… shall I put you to sleep?”

I decided I would personally help her sleep.

“Kind of you, but it won’t work.”

“…Why not?”

“I can’t fall asleep unless I’m in my own home. It’s always been like this since I was born. I suppose it’s because I need to be home to evolve.”

“…What will you do if you don’t sleep, starting now?”

“Until I remember the way home, I suppose I’ll just… follow you around?”

“Sleep…”

“Quickly remember…”

*Purrrrrr…*

“Sigh…”

Now that I’d put the ancestral vampire to sleep, I wanted to leave this place immediately.

But, to leave her here alone…

The thought that the cat, upon waking, might be furious at being abandoned and try to kill me, dawned on me.

Imagine it…

Someone suddenly puts you to sleep, and when you wake up, you’re left on a street with cars speeding by.

Wouldn’t anyone be enraged?

“…My life.”

Therefore, with no other choice, I carefully scooped up the sleeping cat, and began to move as cautiously as possible, lest she wake.