Chapter 06: The calm lifestyle
At a thriving restaurant near the Adventurers Society’s branch in Barras – Within that restaurant, Rich.e.l.lo, who was eating at a table while facing Elmel, was listening to the details of what exactly happened after he went to the adventurer’s society, to request protection for Kou and he got rejected afterwards. After listening, he sighed deeply.
The society had noticed the movements of the adventurer group ‘Gavik corps’, but they couldn’t do anything about it, because they were ordered by the town’s ruler not to interfere.
Since they were a group of talented and influential adventurers, the ruler of the town didn’t want to purposely anger them. Groups that specialize in hunting monsters like them, are an important existence for the security and peace of towns. More so if the group is at the level where they have the ‘War Axe and Snake’ emblem as proof, so they wanted to make a good impression on them.
“To think both the citizens, and the ruler had to go around to please a single group, seriously, every single one of them, how pathetic.”
“It can’t be helped, leaving aside lords with a standing army, this town’s ruler can only rely on mercenaries for protection, to fend off bandits.”
If you were to put a single friendly magic beast and a group that ensures the peace of the town and has influence in other countries together on a scale, then you won’t even have to think about which one is more important. Because of things like this, the soldiers directly under the ruler, look at the adventurer’s society with enmity in their eyes, or so Elmel complained.
“Well, leaving that aside…… Is it really true that this cat is Kou?”
“Yeah…… But I was also surprised, just what happened——-Kou?”
The two, who were whispering with each other about Kou, looked at him. What they saw was a cat that was controlling spilled water from a cup with his front paw, and making a picture with it on the table, this made the two involuntarily look at each other. The cat pointed at the picture that had animals and humans on it, and went ‘nyaa’. Rich.e.l.lo, who noticed that Kou was trying to tell them something, thought it would be bad if Kou did that here, so he left the restaurant and went toward his room. .
What was drawn on the paper, that was spread on the floor, were monsters like a large rat, earwig, large bat, large lizard, and an arrow connecting it all. And a human form. Kou pointed out that he was the human form, and in three steps he showed that he entered a monster.
Then, a familiar scene where a fully armored human beat two hounds. Afterwards three familiar humans were fighting three dogs. When he started to draw the picture of a large lizard giving a vial to a seated human, Elmel muttered with eyes full of surprise.
“I see…….. That lizard was you, wasn’t it, Kou.”
“Nyaaaa~”
“I understand, so this is what Rindora meant when she said that.”
Rich.e.l.lo nodded in agreement, when he thought about how she said that he was an unkillable, immortal existence.
After that, Kou began to communicate with them using the drawn pictures to exchange information, Kou let them know what he could do and what he was, so that he could understand how much they understood about him, and in order to obtain the knowledge and things he wanted to learn in the future.
Even though it was for a short while, Kou wanted to know more about this world after Rindora told him a little about it, but he couldn’t speak, and had no one to teach him how. At this time, even though it was a trap made by those that were after the spiritualist’s amulet, Kou thought it wasn’t all that bad since he got to go to the surface like this.
“However, it’s good that we know a little more about Kou and that he got to go to the surface, but what should we do from now on……”
“I’ll keep him.”
“Eh, you will?”
Even if he returned to the dungeon, we can’t be sure the same thing won’t happen again. Being in the position of a lecturer and thinking it would be bad to go to the dungeon frequently, as if it were a daily thing, it would be better for Kou to be educated about the world like this.
“But you, toward animals……”
“I don’t have any experience, however, if it’s Kou it shouldn’t be that much of a problem. After all it seems that on the inside he is a former human.”
Elmel said, looking forward to it, while picking up the cat and stroking his fur. Until now an animal had never taken a liking to her, she, whom neither dogs nor cats got close to, had taken a liking to the fluffy feeling of holding a cat.
“……”
Rich.e.l.lo showed a complicated expression towards Elmel, who was enjoying the fluffy feeling of the cat and Kou who was comfortably resting in her arms. Noticing his stare, Elmel made a wry smile and kicked Rich.e.l.lo’s shin.
“Ouch.”
“Don’t be jealous of a cat.”
“Nya~aa?”
Like this, Kou started his life on the surface while freeloading in Elmel’s room.
The adventurer Elmel was teaching a cat, Kou, about the basic ways of fighting that usually get taught at the adventurer’s academy, inside her own home. From time to time, Rich.e.l.lo comes by with gifts and goes out with Elmel, not coming back home that night. Eating together, guarding the house when n.o.body is home, or going to pick her up, while living such a peaceful life, Kou organizes the memories he remembered.
[It feels like I saw that bird before, that black one had the feeling of being a clever one, I think?]
Sitting at the window which is being illuminated by the sun, the cat Kou was observing some groups that were pa.s.sing by and some birds that were singing on top of a roof.
It would be handy if he possessed a bird, in order to observe the town better, but because they have a strong sense of danger towards land animals, they run away and thus, he hasn’t been able to posses other animals. Since his host is a cat, it’s even more difficult.
Then he tried to possess a small insect, in order to get close, but since Kou was bigger than the insect itself, it had sensed him and ran away.
“Hmm? So Kou is inside today.”
“Nya~.” [Good morning.]
Kou answered Elmel, who was preparing to go out to the adventurer’s academy. Because of his host acc.u.mulating stress, Kou sometimes goes out through the window and just floats around. At that time, the cat will act like a normal one, so sometimes he’ll go out, or he’ll just sleep somewhere, living a free life.
The cat that Kou was possessing understood that Elmel, who was taking care of him, wasn’t a dangerous existence. Noticing that it had nothing to fear if he was close to the powerful her, the cat would always come to this room if he was resting. Whether the cat was Kou, or just the cat itself, it was still being taken care of by Elmel.
It also seems she feeds half of them.
“Hmm. How is it Kou, want to go take a look at the training school?”
“Nya? Nya~nyanya~nyanyanyaaa~?” [Eh? Will you bring me along?]
“Yeah, I can’t understand what you’re saying like usual…… but I can somehow grasp what you’re trying to say, just like what Gashe said.”
“Unyaa?”
By the way, since the spiritualist’s amulet was too big to fit on the cat’s forehead, and it would actually hurt the cat itself, the trademark of having a gem on the forehead disappeared. The way to tell whether it’s Kou or a normal cat, was that when it’s a cat, it’ll sit around or roll around on the ground. When it’s observing its surroundings, or goes nya~nayanaynaynyaa it’s Kou who has possessed the cat.
“You might get teased by the younger trainees, but it’ll be a great help if you’ll become a healing factor in between the training sessions.”
“Nya~aanyaa.” [Yeah, it’s okay.]
Elmel thought back about the betrayal of the trainees in the dungeon exam, that because of the rigorous training, the trusting relationship between student and teacher wasn’t made strong enough. And that it couldn’t be strengthened because of the situation, so she thought that a mascot like existence would help with creating the image of an environment where it’ll be easy to build up trust. Kou had the body of a cat, and the reason and intellect of a human, because of this disposition, he can be called a mild-natured existence.
The adventurer’s training school was located slightly far away from the town and relatively close to the dungeon. Just like how there were students who commuted from the town, there are those who lived in the student dorms. The town that borders the town of Bara.s.s doesn’t have a branch of the adventurer’s society, so those seeking enrollment will pa.s.s the border, in order to come here.
“Wow, Is this child Elmel-sensei’s pet?”
“Yeah, well, I’m just taking care of him for now.”
“Nya~o.” [h.e.l.lo.]
When Elmel arrived at the school together with Kou, she was greeted with stares, as if they had seen something rare, from not only her students, but also from other instructors. Since Rich.e.l.lo had been told beforehand, he just had a wry smile, seeing everyone reacting like he thought they would.
“So kawaii, his name is? What’s he called?”
“His name….. he’s called Kou.”
She hesitated a little, but Elmel used Kou’s name as it was. The name of the ‘Demon Hound Kou’ that died the other day had already spread throughout all the adventurers of the town, but not many of them knew of his relationship with humans, so having a pet named Kou wasn’t that weird. It had become a big thing for a while, but maybe because of the flow, there wasn’t anyone particularity concerned when they heard the name Kou.
“Sensei having a cat…… How unexpected.”
“With Elmel-sensei’s image, I thought she would have a rugged military dog, or a wild beast as a pet.”
“I know, right.”
“……. You guys, it seems like I’ll need to have a long talk later.”
It seems like the plan to communicate with the students by using an animal had immediately showed effect.
Kou, at the school, is just lazily lying at the window in the cla.s.sroom during lectures, receiving lectures together with students, or just walking around the school grounds. The lecturers thought that it would disturb the school’s morals if he was kept around, but then after three days, everyone got used to it and there were no more complaints.
As if better than a normal animal, it was really clever, reacting as if he could understand human language, he became an existence the adventurer’s school got totally used to. Furthermore, Kou ended up ruling over all the cats within the school grounds.
While living such a fulfilling school life, Kou was reunited with a single trainee.
[Ah, that child is—–]
In front of the cla.s.sroom for beginners, was a group of female students that seemed like friends talking to each other while walking through the corridor, a single girl with a s.p.a.ced out feel was with them. The one with whom he successfully communicated for the first time, the girl who lost her brooch. The human who gave ‘Him’ the name ‘Kou’.
“Ah, it’s Kou-chan.”
“Eh?”
“Nya~a.”
Noticing the cat Kou, the student went towards him with a ‘kyaa~’ and started to ‘mofumofu’ his body. Since the cla.s.ses Elmel teaches, are the higher level ones, these girls don’t have much chance to touch Kou, so they began to flock toward him.
“Nina come closer, Kou-chan is cute you know?”
“Y-Yeah—— Kou-chan……”
Hearing the recently popular name that had been spreading through town, Nina got mixed feelings when she thought about the large bat she met inside the dungeon. Her childhood friend Lucabell, who had denied the existence of ‘Kou-chan the bat’, changed his thinking after hearing rumors about the ‘Demon Hound Kou’, thinking the large bat may have been the same kind of monster.
“Nya~aaa Nyanyanyaaanyaanayaaaanyanya.” [I have been keeping your lost item.]
“Uwah What? What?”
“This child is trying to say something, how kawaii~”
After getting out of the sea of female student hands, Kou walks toward Nina, he held out his front paw. Thinking about what it could be, Nina reached towards the front paw with her hand. When she did—–
“Oh! This is……”
“What what? What happened?”
Her friend looked at what was in Nina’s hand, on it was a dull brooch that was a little damaged.
“Nya nyanynya~a.” [I have properly returned it.]
Kou had called out to Nina, who’s face got frozen with surprise and confusion, dodging the excited hands that were closing in, he ran through the corridor. The female students chased after him while going ‘kyaakya~’. While seeing off the commotion, Nina sighed.
“Kou-chan……”
The present she got from her childhood friend. Just why did ‘the School Cat Kou’ have the brooch she lost inside the dungeon with him. And why did he deliver it to her. Maybe, if she had a misunderstanding and didn’t drop it inside the dungeon, but in the town, she still wouldn’t have understood why the cat Kou gave it to her.
“….. It can’t be.”
Maybe because of the name, a thought she found ridiculous crossed her mind.
“The cat Kou-chan is actually an acquaintance of the bat Kou-chan!”
The cat Kou, who was further down the corridor, slipped and fell down.