Ariya immediately pulled the cat back to her chest and turned, as if to hide it from me. She looked back at me, her eyes moist. “Stay away from him, Mr. Meow!”
“You don’t need to hide him; I was just kidding. Don’t give me that look and run off. Also, why are you giving him a name? He’s not your cat.” Not to mention, that’s kind of a simple name for a cat...
For the record, I knew what dog...well, I guess, wolf blood tasted like. All I meant was that I’d never tried cat blood before. No matter how I tried to reassure Ariya, though, she wouldn’t drop her guard or approach me, so I decided to buy her another skewer.
“Seriously...? That’s not cool, my guy.”
“Bite me. Oh—no sauce, please.”
“Oh my gosh, what a cute cat!”
I was currently in a specific circle of hell, being approached by a middle-aged man with too much makeup on who was eagerly wiggling his butt.
“Cute? You should get your eyes checked,” I scoffed.
“Its ugliness makes it cute!”
Oh yeah—just like the gross-cute trend in Japan. We were currently visiting our second armorer of the day, and it seemed to be run almost single-handedly by a cross-dressing man. At the very least, though, he wasn’t shooting us any dirty looks like the first armorer we went to. Even though his store was smaller, he won out in that regard.
“What’s his name?”
“Mr. Meow,” Ariya responded proudly.
“That’s not his real name,” I chimed in.
Ariya shot me a displeased look and puffed out her cheeks. Why are you mad? I’m not lying.
“We don’t know his name. We think he belongs to someone, but we’re not sure who. Have any of you seen him before?”
“Mmm, sorry. I’ve never seen him before. I’m sure I’d recognize this cat in a heartbeat if I had,” said the owner, putting his hand to his chin in thought.
Looks like we’d struck out. Maybe the cat didn’t belong to anyone in these parts. It might really have wandered here from somewhere else far away.
“Oh, I see,” Ariya said, disappointed.
“Sorry I couldn’t help, but can I help you find any weapons?”
“Yeah, let’s have a look,” I said. After all, that had been our primary purpose in coming here. “But first—I’m physically incapable of using magic tools. Do you have anything else I could use, preferably a sword of some sort?”
“Oh, interesting.” At this point, it looked as if dots had connected in his head. That reaction said he must have figured out who I was. He’d probably thought that I was slacking off because I couldn’t use magic tools.
“I’m really sorry, but my store specializes in magic tools.”
“All good. Sorry to have bothered you. Ariya, anything you want?”
“No, I already have something.”
Oh, right, her prized dagger...or, uh, skewer? I’d expected her to be clutching her dagger, but she was currently holding up the skewer, which still had three pieces of meat on it. Apparently, she’d been sharing it with the cat. She was taking forever to get through it.
So with that, we thanked the shop owner again and left. What a character that guy was.
“A cat?”
“Yes. This one right here. Do you recognize him?”
“No!” the kid replied, with a little too much energy.
We were currently at a bakery, and the person at the counter was probably the owner’s kid, filling in for them because they’d had to step away from the counter.
If we were to believe the last shop owner’s statement, this cat most likely hadn’t come from anywhere around here. So we’d decided to spread our search to stores a little farther away. At this point, Ariya finally only had one piece of meat left on her skewer. I suppose I should’ve been impressed by her technique which allowed her to eat elegantly while still holding the cat, but I honestly would’ve preferred if she’d prioritized eating it quickly instead.
“Scram.” A middle-aged woman with a husky voice and a decent body put herself between me and the kid. From the apron she was wearing, it was a safe guess that she was the shop owner and most likely the kid’s mom. “Go play in the back, Kai.”
“But mom!”
“Don’t ‘but mom’ me!”
She pushed him into the back of the shop. It seemed as though she really wanted to put some distance between her son and me. She turned back then and leered at me.
“What do you want? If you’re not buying anything, get out!” Apparently, she knew who we were.
Ariya looked discouraged, but in the end still managed to ask the woman about the cat. “Sorry, but do you know anything about this cat?”
“No! There’s nobody around here who owns one. That all? Good. Scram!” Sheesh, she was mean. It almost made me think that this was personal. “And don’t bring an animal into a place that serves food! The hair’s gonna get everywhere!”
Oh, I’m so sorry. I couldn’t believe how insensitive we were being. We practically ran out of the store. After that, we continued going to different armorers while asking about the cat, but nobody seemed to know where it had come from.
“What if we never find their owner?” Ariya asked.
“We put it back where we found it, of course.”
“Do you want to come home with us, Mr. Meow?”
Nope. Not unless you want me to suck out its blood and turn it into my thrall. A black cat might not have been too bad, though.
The cat meowed again. I really wished I knew what it was thinking.
“Aw, are you hungry? Maybe I should make a basket to carry you around in.”
Well, someone was certainly getting way ahead of themselves. But also, after having gone down this entire street, we hadn’t found anyone who knew about the cat. We were now nearing the end of the street, which also happened to be the closest point to the town’s entrance. That was probably the place where the most people congregated and shopped.
“I wonder if they sell fish here.” Oh god, she’s already decided to buy it food. “What kind of fish do you want, Mr. Meow?”
The cat meowed really loudly. What the hell? Wait, no—that was a human scream. A man with a turban ran over to us. Could he have been the owner of this cat?
“Ecatarina! You went off on your own to beg for food?!” The man snatched the cat from Ariya and began happily spinning around with it. If he wasn’t careful, his turban was going to unwind.
That ugly cat’s name is Ecatarina, though? Seriously? I looked over at Ariya and saw that she was frozen in place, with her arms out as if she were still holding the cat. All she had left was the last piece of meat on her skewer. How have you not finished that yet?!
After the owner had finished dancing with the cat, he turned to us and cleared his throat. Then he began spinning in the opposite direction, and somehow his turban rewound itself. What the hell? Oh crap, this guy is really gonna be a character!
“I don’t know who you are, but thank you! Thank you so much!”
“All good.” I answered for Ariya, since she was still frozen in place.
“Let me guess,” said the man, “you found him collapsed somewhere around here.”
“That’s right. Has this happened before to...Ecatarina?”
“Yes. As you can see, I’ve been trying to keep him on a diet, but sometimes he slips away and pretends to collapse in alleys so that passersby will feed him. He usually comes back after he gets his fill...” Wow, pretty smart cat. “But I’m a traveling salesman, and this is our first time in this town, so I was worried that he’d gotten lost.” Or wait, maybe he’s actually dumb?
As thanks, the man gave me one of his wares for free. And as for Ariya, she didn’t move a muscle until after the guy and his cat were long gone.
“Mr. Meow...”
“Ecatarina, you mean...”
Give it up, Ariya.
One night, Ariya was petting Fenrir, who’d shrunk himself.
“Mr. Meow...” Ariya, you’re not petting Mr. Meow or even Ecatarina. That’s Fenrir.
“Masterrr...” Fenrir shot me a concerned look. Sorry, buddy, can’t help you.
It’d been a few days since our time with that chubby cat, and Ariya had tried to see if she could find that guy again, but apparently they’d only been passing through Regin. They had no plans to regularly visit. And after learning that fact, Ariya had become like this.
I sighed and took a certain item out of my Shadow Storage, which I put on Ariya’s head.
“Huh?” Ariya touched it and realized that I’d put cat ears on her. “Wh-What is this?!”
“This is what I got from that traveling salesman as thanks. You like cats, right?”
“I like owning cats, not being one!” she yelled, still wearing them. Aw, you’re so cute when you yell with cat ears, Ariya. “Wait, I’ve come up with a great idea.”
“Oh yeah?”
“You wear these! Then it’ll feel like we have a really opinionated cat!”
“Okay, now you’ve seriously lost it.”
I had no intention of wearing the cat ears. Though if I did, would I be ugly-cute? Or would I be gross-cute? After that, Ariya fought me to put on the cat ears. Ultimately, she settled for Fenrir wearing them.
I gave Fenrir a guilty look. The wolf looked on the verge of tears as Ariya petted him.
“Masterrr...”
“Yeah?”
“I already have my own animal earsss...”
Having four ears is pretty strange...but Ariya looks happy, so I guess it’s okay.
Oversummoned, Overpowered, and Over It! 2 / End