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I spent some time chatting with the not-quite-bandit afterward, then formally accepted the cat-finding job. His name turned out to be Douglas, and... Man, he was so nice and friendly. I was happy that I’d made a new adventurer friend—no matter the time or place, being alone really wore on the soul.
“Hmm...” Fouré hummed, sizing me up. “I don’t think I’d like it very much if you decided to take after that strange man and get all big and brawny.”
“If that happened, you could simply change him back, Fouré. With my magecraft at his fingertips, any bulk would just be an accessory for our Hisui.”
Cult giggled. “I can always adjust his appearance so his muscles aren’t obvious too. Everything will be just fine.”
“Good idea,” agreed Fouré and Aruna in unison.
“Uh, could you three not discuss something so creepy in my vicinity?” I sighed. Once we left the guild, the three goddesses began chatting among themselves at their usual loud volume, uninterested in even pretending to be secretive. The topic of their lively discussion was, of course, how to prevent me from becoming as big and brawny as my new friend.
I didn’t mind that they disagreed with me potentially bulking up, but they were crossing a line when they started discussing renovating my body with godcraft and spellcraft. Goddesses they might be, but wow, were they ever reckless.
“I mean, did you see the way Huey looked at that man? He was totally full of respect! That’s so concerning!”
“That’s not proof of anything, Fouré. I’m not planning on becoming a bodybuilder or anything.” I preferred to stay the same way I was now—slim and toned. Inwardly grimacing at the visual imagery of getting bulked up, I silently apologized to no one in particular. Muscles really didn’t suit me.
“As long as you understand we don’t want you all muscled up, we’re fine with anything! All that stuff we said was just a little joke anyway. Right, Cult?” Fouré nudged the other goddess.
“Of course. We deeply respect your wishes, dear one. We shall not alter your body without permission...” Cult trailed off, laughing quietly.
I shook my head in exasperation. “I can tell you actually wanted to, though.”
“You’re just imagining things.” Aruna refused my opinion, and she wasn’t likely to change her mind. But if she was that serious, maybe I really was imagining it.
Banishing the hazy suspicions from my mind, I changed gears. “All right. I’m going to focus on this job request.”
“It was to find a missing cat, correct?” Cult asked.
“Yeah. I can’t fly like you guys, so I’ll just have to run around on foot.”
“I think you actually could just fly around to look for it, though.” Fouré suddenly blurted out an odd suggestion. Blinking in confusion for a moment, I repeated after her to reaffirm what she meant.
“Huh? You mean, like...in the sky?”
“You have our powers after all, Huey! For example, to fly...you’d need wind.”
“Wind?” I stared at her for a second before realizing what she meant. “Ah, you mean I can alter the properties of the air however I like.”
“Ding, ding, ding! You got it!” She clapped her hands enthusiastically.
“True, I would be able to fly doing that. But—”
“You would most assuredly stand out,” Aruna interrupted.
“Yeah...”
Aruna was right. Looking up, I saw the sky was completely bereft of anyone in flight. There were no witches astride their brooms, and there definitely weren’t any dragon-riding knights. People just didn’t fly in this world. If I tried to do it when the prevailing common sense said it wasn’t possible, I’d become a local legend overnight. If people asked me how I managed to fly, I’d be hard-pressed to answer. Flight just wasn’t an option for me.
“If you don’t want to fly because it attracts attention, then you could try bending light so people can’t see you,” Cult suggested.
“Wow, you can do anything with spellcraft, huh?”
Cult smiled. “As long as you leave the area around your eyes untouched, it shouldn’t interfere with your vision.”
“That’s not a bad idea, but I don’t really want to become invisible anyway, so I’ll pass,” I said, discarding the idea.
“Very wise. You should take the easy road only when you must—it’s best not to get in the habit of neglecting good discipline. I’m pleased that you understand, Hisui.” Aruna proudly complimented me.
“You’ve knocked it into me pretty well, after all.”
Compared to the other two goddesses, Aruna was really strict. If I tried to skip training with a really irresponsible excuse, I was sure there’d be hell. Thankfully, I’ve never once tried doing that, so I’ve never had to witness that firsthand.
“So what are you going to do? Do you even have an idea where the missing kitty might be?” said Fouré.
“Unfortunately, no.” I smiled bitterly at her question, shoulders sagging. I’d been running around town as we chatted, but I didn’t see any cats resembling the one described in the request.
“There wasn’t even a single cat back in Clematis,” remarked Fouré.
“That’s because it was all woodlands. I bet most cats would die trying to get through the forest, so they’d never even make it to the village.”
Their lack of freedom was kind of sad to think about. Even stray cats in Canna never left the town. They must’ve been aware of the danger the wilderness presented, and as a result, there were a lot of cats around.
“I don’t mind finding the cat for you, but I guess you wouldn’t like that. Right, Huey?”
“Yeah. I have to complete this request on my own. I don’t think I should rely on other people for something like this.”
“You’re so wonderful! So manly and cool!” Fouré cheered, when Dandelion suddenly stood at attention.
“Chirp!”
“Huh? What’s wrong, Dandelion?”
“Chiiirp!” He flapped his wings against my head as if to get my attention and pointed in the opposite direction.
“Is the missing cat over there?”
Dandelion paused before chirping and nodded somewhat hesitantly. How did he manage to figure out where the cat was so quickly, even though there was no way he was anywhere near as skilled as Fouré with godcraft? Even Fouré seemed a little surprised.
“Wow, Dandelion’s so fast at finding things, it blows my mind! He might even be as good as me.” Fouré was praising someone other than herself, something she rarely did. Because the goddesses had a ridiculously high skill level, the bar for impressing them was really high. Dandelion must’ve gotten hack-level skills because he’d been created by Fouré herself.
But this felt like cheating, so I had to decline his help. “This feels a little too easy. I’m sorry, Dandelion, but I’m going to try to find the cat on my own now. I would appreciate it if you could give me a rough estimate of the area, though.”
“Chirp...” Dandelion became sullen. But if I didn’t impose limits, then I’d end up finding the cat within seconds, and this job wouldn’t give me any experience at all.
I apologized to Dandelion again and stroked his head, then began to run up and down the town’s eastern quarter, searching through every street. Given that I was searching for a cat, I made sure to enter even the smallest and tightest places. Taking care not to miss any tiny alleys or side streets, I sprinted at top speed—at times, I even ran along the roofs of buildings like a ninja.
Then, after a while of running, I caught sight of something strange—but it wasn’t the cat. I’d found a man collapsed on the side of the street.
“Is he okay?” After checking to make sure no one was around to see me, I jumped down from the roof and hurried over to the man’s side.
“Wha?!” When I touched his shoulder, I felt an inexplicable malaise.
“Hisui, did you feel that?” Cult asked from behind.
“Just now, you mean?” Since her question had come precisely when I touched the man, she must’ve been referring to that terrible feeling.
“Yes. This man is cursed.” That was what it was...a curse. As part of my training, I’d asked Cult to show me curses dozens of times, although I’ve never actually used one myself. It was clear that somehow, even though curses wouldn’t work against me, they were still able to affect me on some level—when I’d touched the man, it felt as though I were immersed in a mud that threatened to engulf me.
“What’s a cursed man doing here? Is he important enough for someone to try to assassinate him?” But as I considered these questions, it didn’t make sense. To my eye, he was nothing more than a man dressed in worn rags.
Curses couldn’t be created easily, nor were they exactly commonplace. Either someone had a serious grudge against him, or he had come in contact with a cursed object.
“I don’t know what happened to this man, but curses have certain patterns. He might have been exposed to a curse and gotten infected, like a contagion,” Cult explained.
“Curses can spread between people?”
“Yes. They really are that powerful.”
“Yikes...” This meant there was a possibility he’d simply come into contact with someone else who was cursed. In that case, that meant there were others.
“Anyway, I’ll bring him to the church for now. I’m afraid I might make things worse if I try curing him on my own.”
“I believe you’re skilled enough to cure this curse with ease, dear one.”
“Maybe, but I’m still scared. His life would be in my hands, so I don’t want to risk it.” Overestimating my own ability would be too dangerous. This case should be left to experienced professionals. I could just take my time training my skills.
Gathering the man into my arms, I headed for the church in the western quarter. To no one’s surprise, all the people I passed stared at us—the sight of me carrying a fully grown adult in my arms must’ve been a surprise. I was a little embarrassed from all the attention, but I couldn’t just leave him. Doing my best to ignore people’s gazes, I sprinted through the streets toward the church without stopping once.