Please, you are a werewolf, okay?
Lily darted behind the sofa with a *chuu*, but before that, she had already transformed into werewolf form.
She crouched behind the sofa, and slowly peeked out half a head while her silver hair draped onto the ground as a result. That pair of silvery white ears also keenly twitched back and forth, and she was clearly prepared to enter into battle at any time. Hao Ren saw a piece of pak-choi and noodles still hanging from this mysterious life form’s mouth. This severely destroyed what was left of her “dignity”, though somehow she still managed to damage it further with her following action: while grabbing the chopsticks she shakily pointed at the black and white striped cat at Hao Ren’s feet. Her voice was practically sobbing: “cat……cat!”
“Meow?”
The black and white cat looked at the additional uninvited guest while curiously tilting its head. From just this single meow, Lily had already shivered a couple of times. But afterwards, the striped cat completely ignored Lily by following the refined att.i.tude true to a meolien[1].
Hao Ren looked at all of this with eyes bulging and mouth agape, and only after turning his head like a cranky wind-up music box did he realise the situation at hand. He looked with disbelief at Lily who seemed to be on guard against a once in a lifetime enemy: “You’re……scared of cats?”
“I……I’m not scared of cats!” Lily stubbornly lifted her head, akin to a proud bulldog: “I’m only frightened.”
“Isn’t that the same!” Hao Ren felt that not only was his common sense disappearing, even his brain was unable to cope with the events. He didn’t care that the other party was a werewolf, furthermore one which he had just met, thus he proceeded to point exasperatedly at Lily, “Please! You’re a werewolf okay?!”
“I AM a werewolf!”
Lily seemed to realise her reactions right now were a bit embarra.s.sing, also perhaps due to Hao Ren’s expression and speech, this weregirl was stimulated. In short, she worked up her courage and slipped out from behind the sofa, then pretended to return to the dining table while actually edging along the living room walls to the other side while on her tip-toes, “You sure this cat is safe?”
“What’s unsafe about it,” Hao Ren casually picked up the cat, “I’ve never seen a cat easier to take care of, right Roll?”
The black and white cat immediately meow’d coquettishly with an extremely subservient appearance. Upon seeing this Hao Ren immediately lit up with delight. He jumped up to fill Roll’s food bowl to the top, then placed it on the ground besides the table: this was the dining area reserved for the cat. At the same time, Hao Ren pointed at Lily and started introducing her to his cat: “She’s called Liu Lily, she’s a werewolf……eh, this probably doesn’t mean anything to you, as long as you know she’s the new guest in our house, it’s fine. From today onwards, your food supply will directly depend on how much rent she pays. Show some grat.i.tude to your benefactor, understand?”
As if actually able to understand human speech, the cat looked at the not so distant Lily ,who seemed to be on guard. It nodded reservedly. signifying approval, then continued to eat with its head lowered.
It seemed as though Lily had only then confirmed the harmlessness of this black and white cat. She gingerly shuffled back to the dining table, but in the end, she still hugged her own noodles and switched to a safe distance as far away from the cat as possible. Only afterwards did she seem to suddenly remember: “What did you just call the cat?”
“Roll~?” Hao Ren looked down to observe his only ‘family’, “It’s [gender neutral] called Roll, the roll for rolling-pin.”[2]
Lily’s silver hair and wolf ears gradually receded as her mood stabilized (honestly speaking, Hao Ren felt it somewhat regrettable), but on the surface she showed an astonished expression: “How come it’s called by such a strange name?!”
“This cat came to my house last year,” Hao Ren chuckled, introducing his cat’s origin, “I don’t even know what breed it is. This place is rural and desolate, full of wild cats and dogs. For one or two to occasionally get in without noticing is normal. However, this cat came in and wouldn’t leave. I tried to chase it away many times but it was useless……”
“So you called it “roll”, hoping it would “get lost” sooner?” Lily asked with her eyes bulging.
“No, it likes to suddenly jump up on the bed while I’m watching TV, I’d howl “get lost” at it every time to chase it away. At the start it was quite effective, but after a while when I shouted “get lost” it would just snuggle up to me energetically – this cat thought its name was ‘Roll’. Then, after a while, it really became ‘Roll’.”
Lily finished listening with eyes bulging, as she continued to eat silently with her head lowered. Only after a while did she start muttering: “Feels like I’ve come to a very weird place.”
Hao Ren looked at the sky with his eyes upturned: was there anything weirder than you in this house? A werewolf ojou-sama that completely disregards common sense!
It was already past nine when dinner was finished, and Roll’s activity time came. The black and white kitten pompously ran up to the second floor and started to patrol its own territory. Hao Ren collected and soaked all of the plates in the kitchen sink for washing tomorrow. Then he lit a cigarette, and sat on the living room sofa as he s.p.a.ced out – he continued to organise today’s experience as well as appreciate how great his acceptance level was.
The werewolf ran up and down the stairs energetically, familiarising herself with the new home she would be renting, in an almost rude manner. At every place, she would sniff vigorously, seemingly trying to remember the smell. Even though she was in human form, Hao Ren couldn’t help but compliment the pair of sharp ears and the tail that swayed to and fro in his mind. If it was as usual, a tenant who was so unrestrained and overly-familiar running around would’ve been reprimanded once or twice, but right now he didn’t want to say even a single sentence more. Well…she is a wolf after all, delineating her territory after arriving in a new place was only normal. Now, one could only hope this werewolf’s territorial instincts could combine a bit with a human’s territorial instincts. It was fine if she just bore in mind at all times that this was actually someone else’s home, and that she herself was only a tenant. Considering Lily’s exposed disposition so far, this didn’t seem to be difficult.
Anyway, no matter what happened, Hao Ren was always sure he couldn’t win against this werewolf in a fight was all.
In the end, was bringing a speculatively high battle power non-human life form into his home right or wrong?
After calming down once again, Hao Ren still couldn’t resist pondering this issue. He thought it through, still believing his decisions were correct, and honestly speaking……he held some expectations for the future.
This was an incredibly suicidal mentality. A normal person should learn to profit while avoiding loss, not hastily interact with some mysterious new world with a curiosity that could cost them their life. But Hao Ren has had enough of this plain and mundane life.
He liked to read novels, he liked to watch TV, and he liked those various bizarre fantasy stories. This was the inevitable lifestyle of every unemployed, single, live-alone, worry free youth with empty goals. Even though it was neither to the point of contracting chuunibyou[3] nor to the point that he felt the lazy days were unbearable, even if he really ran into the situation where a “yes” or “ok” chat box popped up on the screen suddenly – his first reaction would be to pull the cable. However, his raring-to-go temperament couldn’t be stopped at all when faced with some “new exhilaration”. This was the most commonly seen psychopathic behaviour in action, and while some people, after having attained satisfaction from their curiosity, will be deterred when faced with the reality of it, other people……
They would probably have the same reaction as Hao Ren~
Also, no matter how you put it, he still needed to guard against that weird and dangerous giant bat. Even though it was unknown as to why he would be targeted by that kind of monster, the facts were established and one could only accept the reality of the situation. Hao Ren was not one to escape from reality, and he would actively think of ways to increase his safety. For example, keeping that strong looking, and seemingly easy to get along with, werewolf beside him.
“That’s right Landlord, here’s the rent!” Lily circled up and down the stairs many times (running into Roll midway twice – each time a scream could be heard). She finally remembered her current ident.i.ty, and therefore returned to her room and fetched her wallet in a joyous prancing manner. She counted out the rent and thrust the money into Hao Ren’s hands, “As advertised, prepayment of three months. Also how much are the food costs?”
Oh, she was not only easy to get along, but also an obedient werewolf who paid rent – in which kind of book did such good things happen?
“Dining fees are fine,” Hao Ren saw that Lily knit her brows upon smelling the smoke (dog noses are competent) [TL: Yes, I agree too author-san], and therefore consciously snuffed out the cig, “One more like you doesn’t make a big difference. Moreover stop going around shouting landlord landlord all the time. I have a name, Hao Ren is fine.”
“Got it landlord.”
“Call me Hao Ren……”
“Okay landlord.” [TL: please just call him Hao Ren already, I don’t want to end up writing landlord all the time, since it’s much shorter in Chinese than English the effect vastly differs…]
“……forget it, I’m going to sleep. Do as you like, just don’t go in those locked rooms upstairs, anywhere else but there is fine.” Hao Ren sighed and got up to return to his room. Lily also turned around to leave, but after just walking halfway to her room she had already found a new topic: “That’s right landlord, you won’t a.s.sault me at night, right?[4: author literally uses ‘Yobai’ equivalent here] It seems there are only us two in this house~ It’s my first time renting a room in a bachelor’s house……”
Hao Ren almost fell flat on the floor, and then proceeded to turn around and glare at this incredibly irritating werewolf: “For my personal safety, I will never a.s.sault[TL: yobai used here again] you; you can just feel a hundred times relieved!”