045 – A Wish

“Apparently, it doesn’t exist.”

“What doesn’t?”

“A spell that would allow all citizens of the Magical Kingdom to hear the proud Isabella’s meows.”

“…Why on earth would such a spell even be necessary?”

“I simply believe that the whole country should know the voice of our cute talking cat.”

Myaong..?

Regrettably, the plan to get a free ride on the doppelganger extermination is impossible.

Even the Magic Tower Master, the foremost expert in military magic, claimed to not know any spells that amplify sound.

“But it’s alright.”

“Hmm?”

“There exists a magical artifact that makes Isabella’s voice sound even louder!”

“Oh…”

So it turns out there are magical artifacts, like a microphone, that amplify the volume of one’s voice.

Well then…

From now on, it was merely a matter of Isabella-ssi actively cooperating with me.

“Cooperate, please.”

“Eh?”

“From this moment forward, I appoint you as the Saintess, or… Saint Match.”

“Saint Match?”

“Yes. We shall melt all the doppelgangers with holy incantations.”

Now, the persuasion…

“I just want to watch the owner, though.”

“Why is that?”

“…Because it’s amusing?”

“Why did you use the incantation when you were with the Pope?”

“Because it looked fun?”

“Because that’s a reasonable reason, I grant you 1 stack.”

“Yay~ But is that a good thing?”

“When you accumulate 10 stacks, I will grant you one wish.”

“Wish?”

What to do with this capricious cat…

How can I make this talking cat interested in the doppelganger massacre…

“Hmm…”

“Really? You’ll grant a wish?”

“What wish do you intend to make?”

“I’ll tell you to go home with me!”

“Oh, that’s a bit…”

“Why?”

“I am but a normal human, you know? Asking me to come to a vampire den like that…”

“It’s okay!”

“Hmm… Hmmm… …Understood. You are keen on gathering stacks diligently?”

“I will gather them!”

“Very well. In that case, for every 10 doppelgangers you melt with incantations, I shall add 1 stack.”

“How stingy.”

“Tch.”

It was a decision I’d arrived at after much deliberation.

1 stack for every 10 doppelgangers.

For Isabella-ssi, who can melt a doppelganger with a single ‘Mya’, isn’t this too good a condition?

However.

If she dislikes it, there’s no helping it…

“Just wait a little!”

“Yes?”

*Whoosh-*

“??”

What is this.

That aggressive attitude?

“So you *were* doing it.”

Judging by you calling it petty, I didn’t think you’d be collecting stacks.

Whether the stacks gave her appropriate motivation, Isabella-ssi showed a proactive side.

“How many will she catch, I wonder.”

Seeing her brimming with confidence.

Suddenly, I began imagining just how many doppelgangers Isabella-ssi might bring back.

“At most… around ten, maybe?”

There shouldn’t be more than ten or so doppelgangers in this vicinity, no matter what.

Anyway, I needed to wake up early tomorrow to interrogate the doppelgangers with the Tower Lord.

I quickly closed my eyes and tried to fall asleep.

…

Tap tap.

“Hueh?..”

Morning had broken, seemingly in an instant.

Opening my eyes to the soft pink jelly sensation on my cheek, I realized I only had about twenty minutes left until my appointment with the Tower Lord.

“Thank you for waking me up, Isabella-ssi…”

Thus, being grateful for being woken up…

“When are we going?”

“Where to?..”

Isabella-ssi suddenly asking when we were going.

“My place!”

At first, I thought the place she meant was the dorm.

“Even after the doppelganger interrogation, there will be other things to do. I don’t think I’ll be back until late tonight.”

I informed her that we’d be leaving a little late…

“Not there! My house!”

“If it’s Isabella-ssi’s house, where are you referring to?”

“That place I said I go to every time I evolve!”

“Ah… that place?”

“Yup!”

“Understood… I’ll write my will, then…”

“Huh…?”

From early morning, I could see Isabella-ssi was pushing me off a cliff.

“If I, Mi-haen, die… all my assets go to Ella-ssi… *sniff*… how much do I even have? Maybe around 6,000 shillings.”

“..Whatcha doin’?”

“Writing my will.”

“…”

“Huh?!”

Barely dragging my tired body, I sat at my desk and started writing…

Isabella, quick as a whip, snatched the paper and shook it back and forth, side to side.

“That certainly jolts you awake!”

Spilling coffee does a better job of waking you up than drinking it, they say.

And shredding a will gets you more awake than writing one, too.

Finally, with a properly awakened mind, I quickly washed up and came out. It was about five minutes before I was supposed to meet the Lord of the Tower, and I started making the bed while chatting with Isabella.

“Come to think of it, you were saying you want to go home? Are you telling me you caught ninety Doppelgangers in a single night?”

“Yup! Add 9 stacks for me!”

“Wow…”

Were there really that many Doppelgangers around here?

I’d only dozed off for a short while, and now Isabella was claiming to have caught ninety of them.

To honor my promise, I wanted to at least confirm the existence of the corpses, but…

“Understood.”

“Yippee!”

“Where are the Doppelganger corpses?”

“I abandoned them in the wild!”

“Request denied.”

“Ehhh!”

I immediately decided to deny her request to go to the vampire lair.

“Why! I collected 9 stacks!”

It seemed Isabella really wanted to invite me to her home.

So much so, that she’d even lie about catching ninety Doppelganger corpses in a single night…

“I need to see proof with my own eyes.”

“Mean!”

“Are you aware that I disciplined 200 Succubi last night?”

“Really?”

“Indeed.”

“…Lies.”

“Why?”

“There’s no proof.”

“I’m in the same boat.”

“Ehhh…”

Thankfully, I successfully convinced Isabella through mirroring –

“I’m strong, and the Master is so weak… but somehow, the truth in his words is different…”

“I can hear you.”

“That’s the point!”

She speaks her mind!

Nyan-coke-acola Isabella!

“This is why you keep cats!”

I guess so.

If they obediently listened to their owner, would they even be cats?

“Now that’s a cat!”

“Come here, you!”

“Mya?!”

I swept up the audacious cat and showered it with a flurry of affectionate squishes.

…

“Hmm?”

“Is something the matter?”

“No, it’s just… I once rescued some children who had been forcibly violated…”

“Ugh… What monsters would do such a thing to children…”

“The look on the faces of those children… it’s the same expression your cat is making now.”

“Hmm…”

Such perceptive insight from the Archmage of the Tower…

…

“Thank you for your work.”

“Just a moment.”

“I must be going.”

“You need to take these with you.”

“My hands are full.”

“It’s right there in front of you.”

“My limbs are in this state…”

“Just sling it over your shoulder.”

“Eeeek.”

“…What on earth was that scream about?”

Fumbling, fumbling…

I descended from the carriage, clutching the elixirs the Archmage had packed for me.

‘Just how many of these are there…?’

I still had a good supply of spirit pills I was working through, and now I’m receiving even more elixirs…

As I walked towards the dormitory, elixirs in tow, a thought struck me.

‘If I ate all of these…’

If I grit my teeth and actually managed to consume all of these elixirs, in next month’s academy mock sparring match…

‘…I might be able to reach at least 150th place?’

I felt like I could drastically improve my ranking.

‘Should I do it?’

In this world, aether was synonymous with power.

The greater the total amount of aether, the more nimbly or sturdily one could reinforce their weapon.

You could unleash more explosive power in battle.

“Should I just endure it and eat them all?”

It would be a lie to say I wasn’t tempted.

And as a master who’d just been brutally fact-checked on my weakness to my pet cat,

I could resolve to become a slightly more powerful master.

“Hoo… I am strong.”

Myaaong?

“I am capable of anything!”

…

I am weak.

I am a matsutake mushroom…

“Ugh…”

“The master is dying.”

To show off a bit of bravado, I downed three bottles of elixir in quick succession.

Thanks to that, my insides were now on the verge of collapse.

“There are… parasites roaming my stomach…”

Not an exaggeration, it truly felt like death approaching.

“Kkeueuk…”

I could feel the ether from the three elixirs churning wildly within me.

Normally, the ether absorbed from the elixir would have gone straight to the core in my heart, but…

As the ether core in my heart couldn’t absorb such a large amount of ether at once, I could feel the unabsorbed ether continuing to roam wildly throughout my body.

“Are you okay, Master?”

“I am not okay…”

I was probably the first person in history to drink three bottles of elixir at once.

Isabella-ssi, unsure of how to navigate this situation, looked at me with worried eyes when,

“What to do? Uh… it’s okay, though! I’ll turn you into a vampire before you truly die…!”

“I’m dying now… Oh? It’s getting better.”

The pain began to subside as the ether, which had been aimlessly wandering, took root in my lower abdomen.

Specifically, in my dantian.

“Whew, I thought I was going to die.”

“?????”

“I live. Let’s try being a vampire another time.”

“???????????”

Leaving Isabella-ssi, who was staring at me like a madman, behind.

I dragged my exhausted body and threw myself onto the bed.

‘I need to rest…’

Though that’s what I said, the pain I had felt hadn’t disappeared entirely.

As I lay on the bed, resting as if I had fainted…

I became curious about how to use the two new skills I had acquired, ‘Stealth’ and ‘Silence’.

“Well then, Isabella-ssi.”

“I think Master is the most amazing person in the world.”

“Shall I show you the new talents I’ve acquired now?”

“Master, who was screaming that he was dying just 5 seconds ago…”

“Ahem. Focus on what Master is saying!”

“I really wonder why there isn’t anyone more amazing than my master when you compare him to all human beings I’ve seen in centuries.”

“Infiltration.”

“Guess this is my destiny, something totally new… Master?”

“?”

“Master??”

Isabella, who had been so diligently backbiting – though not quite – started turning her head this way and that, even with me standing right in front of her.

“…What’s going on?”

So the infiltration skill hides me by reducing my presence, not actually rendering me invisible, like stealth…

“…What are you doing there? No, how did you do that?”

“…Can you see me?”

“Plain as day?”

“Ah…”

“Plain as day… but my senses are definitely dulled. Feels like I’d lose you if I weren’t concentrating.”

So it wasn’t a skill that made me invisible, but one that diminished my presence…

“…Why that look of disappointment, meow?”

“Just… regretting that I can’t scrub Isabella’s back in the women’s bathhouse…”

“…? Why would I need to bathe there?”

“We’re both women.”

“…I’m an animal, no?”

“Pshaw! Such minor details are irrelevant!”

Not as good as I’d imagined, but…

Still, it could be quite useful when sneaking into other people’s homes, no?

‘Thinking like a kidnapper from the get-go, me.’

It was the moment I understood why the Goddess had pegged me as a kidnapper.

“It’s late. Shall we sleep? Would you like me to put Isabella to bed as well?”

“I need to go somewhere tonight.”

“Ah, if you’re tired when you get back, just let me know. I’ll tuck you in.”

“Okay! Goodnight, Master.”

…

“I’m back.”

“Hnnng… Did you take care of everything you needed to, meow?”

Four in the morning.

Isabella, who had gone out around eleven, had finally returned, so I could quickly put Isabella to bed and then get back to sleep…

KYYaaaH!!

“?”

A sudden scream from outside the window.

“Ah, I thought I could leave them where no one ever passes by and they wouldn’t be discovered.”

“…Discovered what?”

“Ninety doppelgangers.”

“…This must be a dream.”

“Huh?”

“Spying… sleeping.”

“Master? Master?? What if you fall asleep alone? What about me??????”

This is a dream.

It must be a dream.

It has to be a dream.