125 Part 2

“Oh!”

Alice took a couple of steps back after her last shelter had been discovered.

“Daddy, can you read my mind?”

“Yes, since Daddies know everything.”

While it was a trick, I was not inexperienced enough to lose to an ordinary twelve-year-old kid in psychological warfare.

“What should we do, puss?”

“Meow.”

The cat looked sleepy as my daughter looked serious. My experience translated the cat’s attitude as ‘I have no wish to stay here, human, so leave me alone!’ or something like that.

-Meow has that much meaning?

-It’s instinct!

-Well, if my master is that decided…then there’s no other choice.

The Metal Bat looked at our fight indifferently and now stood up to approach Alice with a swagger.

“Little Sis, I’ll scold you if you don’t listen to Daddy.”

“Unnie! Look at this cat! He’s so cute!”

“However, Daddy owns this house, which means he decides if he’ll raise this cat or not.”

While Alice had been saying her argument with some determination, even as her face paled at the Metal Bat’s words, she was being pushed back.

“I’ll raise him in my room.”

“Daddy gave you that room.”

“Uh…why are you against me?”

Alice shouted to the Metal Bat with teary eyes now.

“You’re fighting with Daddy when I want to play with you, which makes me very bored.”

The Metal Bat’s answer was simple at Alice’s shouted question, but my daughter’s eyes brightened at her words.

“I’ll play with you a lot! Let’ play with the cat often!”

“All right! I’ll agree then to raise the cat!

-What?

-You’re enjoying farming with my cute little sister while I have to mind the house! I also want to play with her!

-It’s winter now, which means that we will be at home!

-However, if that cat really has a secret as your instincts say…

-If that cat…?

-It’s party time!

-I’m the one who has to take care of the problems!

This metal bat was trying to drive me into a corner for her own desires.

“Alice!”

“Daddy!”

Alice and my eyes met, and they both were determined.

“Why are you saying that I can’t raise this cat! You’re not telling me the reason, and the last time you just announced that we had to move and leave all our produce behind!”

“Had there been a time when listening to me led to bad things? That cat is wild, and raising him in our house is also unfair for him.”

“But…I want to take care of him!”

“Really…”

I sighed as I watched my daughter suddenly turn into a cat lover. I knew that she was close to the stray cats in the village, but why was she bringing that unnerving cat to this house?! I now could believe that Alice was being controlled by the world’s will since her rebellion was that serious.

-I sincerely believe that the world is wilfully against you.

-Are you fanning a burning house?

“Please let me take care of this cat as my birthday present, Daddy.”

Tears fell out of Alice’s eyes, and the cat stared at her in surprise.

“You made her cry, Daddy!”

“Please…please.”

Telling a crying person that she is crying will make her cry all the more, and that principle amplified Alice’s sorrow. However, now was not the time to be lenient. Who was I? I was once the coldblooded drill instructor for the empire’s biggest syndicate and had been the exclusive butler under the craziest princess of the empire! Then, I had been the harsh professor of the best academy of the empire, Eugrasia! Do you think that tears would work, daughter?

“Daddy, you’re the best!”

My lovely daughter shed tears of joy as she hugged me.

“You’re a fool.”

“Be quiet.”

I realized that my cold-blooded self had died that day, and our first pet came to our house.

#7 Other Stories: A cat’s story.

Humans are strange.

“Puss, we are now family!”

I saw a small girl with pink hair who hugged me in joy, and another small girl telling me to call her Unnie. I would be older…and since I was male and Unnie was only reserved for between sisters, it did not suit me.

“Meow.”

However, I still had to be wary, as the man who realized my true identity was looking at me with suspicious eyes. That man knew who I was, and even one of the beast people, if they were of a different species, would not be able to know who I am in this animal form. Only another aristocrat would vaguely see through another species’ beast form. That man instantly knew who I was.

I thought I had been mistaken at the beginning. However, the man’s eyes were saying that ‘since I know who you are, stop acting like an infant!’ as I acted like an ordinary cat. I imagined maybe he was another aristocrat of the beast people, but the man’s smell was perfectly human.

He did not smell like a beast, and I was already betrayed by someone I called my brother. I could not stay in a suspicious man’s house I saw for the first time, and who knew my identity in a second.

While I was sorry for this girl showing me affection, she would not remain unaffected if she maintained a relationship with me. No matter how much I hated humans, I could not ignore her saving me even after I wounded her. While she would be disappointed, that was the only way I could repay her grace. While I could not fully give back what she gave me, I could not disrupt her ordinary life. Therefore, I had decided to live here tonight. I had…

“Where are you going, puss?”

After leaving the pink-haired girl, I had jumped off the window, who slept with me in her arms. It was then I saw the other girl of this house looking at me with a smile like she had known I would come down!

“My cute little sister had fought her beloved daddy to raise you…You’re not trying to escape, right?”

Had she also known my identity?!

“Meow…”

However, she was only a little girl, so I acted in the way I believed an ordinary cat would act.

“Haha.”

Only a knowing laugh came back, as she said, “A disobedient cat…should be punished, right?”

I was an honorable aristocrat of the beast people, each and everyone warriors in their own right. Threatening me would not work!

‘It shouldn’t!”

However, my legs were shaking as my body was stepping back in fear while my mind rallied.

“Do you need to be punished, or will you go in?”

“Meow.”

My body turned around on instinct and entered the house again. This, this!

“I’ll only pay back what I owe the girl!”

I will stay here for only a little, a tiny bit while! I had thought like that, but it was some time in the future when I left this house.