Chapter 140
Chapter 140
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 140
Chapter Title: Cat Ears and Tail
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"……."
"……."
A second silence descended upon the bedroom. Evan pinched his own cheek, wondering if this was all a dream.
It hurt.
Lianus cautiously ventured an opinion.
"…What if the feline beastkin have some kind of contagious effect we didn't know about?"
"Mewww…."
Bella, who had been thoroughly scolded by Evan and turned into a cat, timidly mewed while raising her front paws.
"I've never heard of any beastkin race having such an ability. Besides… you've already confirmed it's not the case."
"…You're right."
Lianus glanced dejectedly at Kara, who was sitting nearby. Right after Nihil's ears had appeared, Kara had clung to Bella, begging for cat ears of her own and showering her with kisses—smack, smack—but no ears had sprouted on Kara.
Noah, who had at least thought Nihil was a fairy, wasn't too surprised and pressed her point.
"What if she's been a feline beastkin from the start?"
"…But Sir Bella doesn't have ears in her human form…."
At those words, Bella shifted back to her human form and shot her hand up eagerly to speak.
"Young beastkin often can't hide their ears and tails!"
"Is that so?"
"Yep! It happened to me when I was little too!"
Bella seemed determined, fully aware that she was the cause of this mess.
"Haha… but how do we explain this to my dear friend?"
"……."
Karus's question left Lianus speechless once more. We were playing pretend with a sleeping person, kissed them, and their hair color changed… There was no way to explain that without sounding utterly shameless.
It was shameless, but… he wanted to frame it a bit less outrageously.
"Will Nil get mad?"
"…At kissing him while he slept?"
"Put like that, it doesn't seem like he'd get mad…."
He figured his dear friend would just shrug it off with a "Sure," but the problem was the changed hair color and the new ears.
If Nil had been a feline beastkin all along, they'd exposed his hidden identity without permission. If not, something had happened to Nil. Neither was a good sign.
"What if this affects Nil badly? Can we turn him back?"
At that moment, Nihil's eyelids slowly lifted. Everyone had been watching him intently, so they all rushed over at once.
Lianus flinched at the sight of Nihil's usually black eyes now turned cyan, but he quickly composed himself and called out.
"Nil."
"…Rian."
"Can you… hear me?"
"…Yeah."
His response was a bit sluggish, as if he wasn't fully awake yet, but Lianus beamed at the confirmation.
But just as he opened his mouth to say how relieved he was—
"…I can hear other things too, though."
"……."
"…Wonder why."
Everyone except Kara jolted at his words.
Nihil rolled his eyes slightly to survey the room. Wind spirits zipped back and forth in front of him, chattering away. Since he hadn't summoned them, this had to mean he'd assimilated with them.
Nihil fiddled with his now-cyan hair, then looked at the unfamiliar little girl nestled in Karus's arms. The area around her crawled with spirits—she was clearly an affinity bearer.
"It was you…."
The culprit.
"Huh? Kara didn't do anything!"
"Haa…."
Uncharacteristically, Nihil dry-washed his face and let out a blatant sigh, making all the heads around him flinch.
"…I shouldn't have fallen asleep…."
This was some kind of instinct. The survival drive to assimilate with one's surroundings…
No way she fed me her blood while I slept…
"The Winter Princess turned into the Spring Princess, and then a cat—mmph!"
Kara's innocent chatter was cut short as Karus clamped a hand over her mouth.
Nihil pinched the bridge of his nose. The princess talk suggested he'd been cast as the sleeping princess. He'd slept deeply and woken fully recovered, but this unforeseen mess made his head throb.
Tap, tap-tap.
"……?"
In the quiet, something was tapping rhythmically.
Wondering what it was, Nihil tilted his head to the side. Next to him, a fluffy cyan rope-like thing thrashed wildly, thumping against the bed.
"…What the hell is this…."
"……."
"……."
"…A furry worm…?"
As Nihil voiced his confusion, the thing that had been whipping the bed began swaying slowly left and right. Curious about what creature it could be, he snatched it up with a firm grab.
And realized. It was attached to him.
"……."
In heavy silence, Nihil cautiously ran his hand up to feel his head. Soft triangular things caught on his fingers from both sides.
Bella rolled her eyes nervously at the sight, then quickly turned into a cat and darted under the bed.
Nihil sat there blankly for a long while before muttering one thing.
"…I'm losing it."
Then he pulled the blanket up over his head and lay back down, hoping against hope that this was all a dream—though he hadn't dreamed lately.
"……."
"……."
They exchanged glances at his blatant escape from reality. Even then, his tail obliviously swished on its own until its owner grabbed it and dragged it under the covers.
Evan felt a strong urge to touch the trembling tail but restrained himself and asked quietly.
"…You okay?"
"……."
Nihil didn't reply, lost in thought under the blanket. How was he supposed to get past this? Seen like this by not one, but eight people. And it wasn't assimilation with just one—it was two, making it even trickier.
At least they don't seem to suspect anything…
But the moment they started questioning his existence, things could flip unpredictably.
In this case, his options were to blab about himself to erase their memories, leave until they forgot him completely, or play dumb like it wasn't his power…
Erasing their memories clean would be best, but there was no guarantee all eight would accept it like when they became puppies. And if even one harbored hostility, it could spread.
Leaving would snag on Lianus—he'd bawl his eyes out. Those memories would fade eventually, but… Nihil didn't like it.
In the end, denial was his only choice.
After a moment's thought, Nihil sat up still shrouded in the blanket.
"Wh-what? Nil, where are you going?"
"…My room."
He needed to at least fix his appearance. Wind spirits had natural counters—he could cancel it out. Ears and tail could be severed. Scars would remain, but as the assimilation naturally faded over time, it'd be like they were never there.
With that in mind, he reached out from under the blanket for the door handle, but Lianus came dashing over and clung tightly.
"N-Nil, I messed up… don't go."
"Rian, I'm not going anywhere. It's just the next room over."
"Waaah, I'm sorry I couldn't protect your purity…."
"Where did you even…."
Nihil pinched his forehead discreetly. How had the conversation derailed this badly? Meanwhile, the little girl in Karus's arms was yelling something like 'Kara's fault, so Kara will take responsibility!'
"No, Nil, Kara's still a baby, so I'll take responsibility!"
Lianus, knowing how much Nihil liked kids, hurriedly added his words, apologizing sincerely for fear he'd run off with Kara.
This was already the second time with a little brat. Protecting his dear friend was no easy task. Why were there so many people gunning for him?
But to Nihil, seven or five years old were both just blobs of flesh, so he felt a bit awkward.
"Rian, I'm not mad. I'll be right back. This is… actually a magic artifact's power."
Nihil soothed Lianus, who clutched the blanket, spouting whatever came to mind. As long as it sounded plausible.
"Oh, uh? Something like that exists?"
"…Yeah. When we went to Sharton, I noticed you kept covering one eye, so I made this as a test… but it didn't activate, so I thought it failed. Didn't expect it'd trigger while I was asleep."
"Oh, that's what it was!"
"I was out cold, so I don't know… do you happen to know the activation condition?"
"Uh… uh? Th-that…."
Pretending ignorance, Nihil felt the air outside the blanket grow still. Kara must've tried to speak up again, as only a muffled 'Mmph!' came through.
"I-I-I have no idea. S-sorry…."
"……."
How was he so bad at lying?
Nihil decided to play along.
"I see. But this was a one-time use… so I need to make another. I… used up the mana stone without a word… sorry."
"No, no! Use as much as you want. I'll get more if needed. Mana stones are managed by the Magic Tower, so I can't get tons, but…."
"Hey, Rian. No one can know I can make magic artifacts…."
Nihil said that, then peeked his head out from under the blanket. He drooped his brows and cast his eyes downward.
"If word gets out that an outsider from the Magic Tower made something like this, they'll drag me there…."
"……!"
"…Then I couldn't be with you anymore…."
"!!!!"
"I'll go dispel the artifact's effect first. Not sure… if it'll work."
Without waiting for a reply, Nihil pulled the blanket back over and hurried out of the bedroom. The moment the door closed, he heard Lianus fervently urging everyone to keep quiet on the other side.
He even called out Frederick, who was hiding in the shadows, and gave a speech about guarding the secret.
But lacking good leverage, it devolved from 'If you don't keep the secret… if you don't…!' to a whimpering 'You have to keep the secret….' appealing to emotions.
This should do it.
He didn't care if they actually kept the secret. Just imprinting that this was a 'magic artifact malfunction' unrelated to his powers was enough.
Though I do need to prove I can actually make real magic artifacts.
Nihil sighed inwardly at his growing workload. He headed straight to his room, grabbed the mana stone from the bathroom, and stepped out—only to hear the spirits complaining.
(Huh? Hey? You can't use that!)
(No! No magic!)
(I wanna contract with him.)
(I claimed him first!)
"……."
To counter the wind, he first needed to change the mana stone to fire attribute.
(Nooo, you dummy!)
One spirit tugged at his hair. Others zipped by in front of him.
Nihil focused solely on the mana stone. Pretending not to see what he saw or hear what he heard wasn't easy. Assimilated with an affinity bearer as he was, the spirits wouldn't attack if he spoke to them, but they'd pester him to play instead.
He erased the inscriptions on the mana stone, engraved runes symbolizing sun and fire, and waited for its attribute to shift from 'null' to 'fire'.
The spirits grumbled, but he ignored them, slowly absorbing fire mana. Or rather, 'accepting' it. Assimilation was natural to him.
Soon, heat surged through his body and subsided. Opening his eyes, he saw his hair had returned to white.
"Phew…."
Nihil brushed back his hair. Suppressing the assimilation had brought fatigue, but there was no time to rest. He still needed to deal with the ears and tail.
As he wondered if it'd hurt much, the tail seemed to sense his fear and curled between his legs. Irritated by how it mirrored his feelings, he scowled—and the tail whipped the air savagely, as if echoing that too.
"Annoying."
Deciding to deal with the tail first, he grabbed the thrashing fluffy thing tightly. Just as he drew his dagger to slice—
Bang—
"Wildcat, you're still fa—."
"……!"
"……."
Silence fell.