Preparing for Delivery
Though she claimed to hate it on the surface, Serena's actions spoke louder than her words. She had agreed to procure a missile for Swoo.
However, doing so would take some time.
While her promotion was officially confirmed, she still had to handle the handover process and undergo mandatory training for her new position.
Because of this, Serena had asked for a fifteen-day grace period to deliver the missile.
"If it's too hard for you, Serena, I'll just make it myself."
"Yeah, I know how. If it flies and explodes, it's a rocket or a missile, right?"
"I can do a good job."
Faced with Swoo's "earnest" pleading, Serena had ultimately promised to get it within a week.
Having secured a satisfactory result, Swoo left the suddenly busy Serena behind and returned to the office.
Since the corporate and association registrations were set to be finalized by tomorrow afternoon, she now had to send John the first article he needed to write.
After that, she had to check on Draco's condition, ask Salvador to casually mention the name of the new media outlet, contact Iba to get legal tips on what the outlet should watch out for, and then log onto the community forums to finish her homework...
"Swoo, didn't you say you had a lot to do? Is it really okay for you to just lie around like that?"
"I have too much to do. There's so much that I don't want to do any of it."
There really was far too much to do.
She had finished her most urgent community homework, but just thinking about the tasks piled up in front of her made her feel exhausted already.
"Sniff."
"Did you catch a cold?"
"Dragons don't catch colds."
"You say that, but you feel a bit feverish."
"My body is naturally warm."
Angela, who had her hand on Swoo's forehead, let out a soft chuckle.
"Well, that's true... But still, be careful. You have so much to do; it'll be a hassle if you get sick."
"If I catch a cold, will you do my work for me, Angela?"
"Adults have to work even when they're sick."
"The world is a cold place."
"Pfft, hahaha!"
To think she would say something like that just because she had to work. Coming from Swoo, of all people, Angela couldn't hold back her laughter.
"Are you really that exhausted?"
"It's not so much exhaustion as it is just feeling sluggish."
"Isn't it just because you're lacking an immediate hit of dopamine?"
Swoo opened her closed eyes and looked up at Angela. They said everyone looked ugly when viewed from below, but that didn't apply to Angela at all.
That aside, sluggish because of a lack of immediate dopamine?
Did Angela really view her as that kind of dragon?
Swoo thought about it, then spoke.
"Spot on. As expected of Angela."
"Please don't give such a serious answer to a joke..."
Leting out a dry laugh and a sigh, Angela sat down by Swoo's head. She gently lifted Swoo's head and placed it on her lap.
"I don't know if I should be saying this, but if you're bored, why don't you just make some work for yourself? You usually do."
"I need a rest period to prepare for what's coming. If things are always exciting, the thrill will eventually fade."
"So you're the type to save the strawberry on a strawberry shortcake for last."
"Yep."
"Then how about taking on one of the postponed requests? We have plenty of them piled up at the office."
"Finding cats?"
"Where did finding cats suddenly come from?"
"When there was nothing else to do, finding cats was always the best. Rich people requested them, so the pay was great."
Was she talking about the time she spent with Enoch?
Or was it a request she took before meeting him?
Since Swoo wasn't wrong and it wasn't particularly important, Angela simply nodded in agreement.
"Well, people who keep pets do tend to have a lot of disposable income. So, what do you think? Want to go find a cat? I feel like you and I could find one in no time."
"Probably."
Just as Angela said, the two of them could easily find ten cats a day. With Swoo's physical abilities, catching them was trivial, and with Angela's hacking, locating them was just as easy.
"But that's not enough."
Even if the request offered a high reward, Swoo's office didn't need the money right now. Nor did they need fame. The office didn't even have a name yet, let alone a sign, so it was too early for that.
Still, if she had to find a cat...
A cat that ate the wrong food, gained sentience, escaped its home, learned human language, used its intelligence to charm and scam people, and eventually had a bounty placed on it—making it a request to 'capture' rather than just 'find'—
"—actually exists?"
Swoo's mouth fell open.
"Doesn't this look incredibly fun?"
Swoo blinked for a long moment, then tilted her head up to look at Angela.
Angela was lightly waving a very high-end shard in her hand.
A shard engraved with a sleek gear.
That gear was the symbol of Neonic, and its presence meant the shard had been sent directly by them.
"The cat, well... how should I put it? Apparently, it asks highly philosophical questions and runs away if it doesn't like the answer. But its movements are so fast and cunning that ordinary mercenaries can't catch it."
"...What kind of food did it eat?"
For once, Swoo's voice carried a hint of bewilderment.
Since something she had only imagined in her wildest dreams was actually happening, she couldn't help but be taken aback.
"Hmm..."
Tilting her head as she looked at Swoo, Angela wore a faint smile.
Her expression suggested she was eagerly anticipating Swoo's reaction to her next words.
"The shard doesn't say anything about the food other than the word 'Censored'?"
Swoo bolted upright.
Her eyes, which had been dull with boredom just moments ago, sparkled with life once again.
"Magic!"
"I suspect so."
"Let's go right now."
Swoo stood up, brushing herself off, and smiled brightly as she hugged her swishing tail to her chest.
"Should we put on some pants before we go?"
"Yep."
"I'll help you find it as fast as possible, so how about wearing the dress I bought you today?"
"Huh?"
"Sometimes adults have to do things they don't want to do. Don't you want to find the cat—no, the magic—quickly?"
Swoo weighed the options in her mind, but she quickly realized there was nothing to debate.
Finding new magic as soon as possible versus wearing a dress? It wasn't a hard choice at all.
For the sake of magic, Swoo was willing to wear a dress, and much more.
"Yeah, I'll wear it."
Angela gave a slightly troubled smile at Swoo's single-mindedness.
"...Promise me you won't follow someone else just because they offer you magic?"
"I'll think about it. Let's go."
How could she ever leave Swoo unsupervised?
If Angela weren't by her side, Swoo would probably follow some shady character and end up leveling the entire neighborhood.
I really have to stay by her side and protect her...
Granted, the one she was protecting was actually Eden rather than Swoo, but protection was protection.
Angela stood up with that thought in mind.
She had to admit she was curious about what a cat that understood human language and philosophy would look like.
"Rich people really are in a league of their own."
Angela smiled wryly, looking back and forth between the shard she had received from the client's secretary and the photo of the cat.
The place they had gone to accept the request was an office.
However, it was a bit unusual that the office didn't belong to the client, but rather to the client's secretary—specifically, the chief of staff.
If someone had multiple secretaries, a chief of staff, and a separate external office for that chief of staff, the client had to be at least an executive at Neonic.
Angela and Swoo had expected the client to be a branch manager at best, but this level of luxury suggested they might be an executive from the headquarters.
True to their position, the chief of staff who received Swoo and Angela was highly competent.
They pointed out the cat's characteristics, its frequent haunts, and even provided examples of the philosophical questions it had asked.
Thanks to that, they didn't waste any time and gathered all the clues needed to locate the cat.
"You're rich too, Angela."
"Well, I'm more like the head of a snake, if I had to say. I make good money, but I don't feel like I have a lot of assets."
Compared to the truly wealthy of Eden, even Angela could be considered poor. If they saw her, they would probably look down on her for buying clothes at a mere department store.
"Is that why you like my tail? Because it's the tail of a dragon?"
"Maybe so."
Chuckling at Swoo's playful remark, Angela hacked the surrounding security cameras the moment they stepped out of the secretary's office.
Since Neonic had promised to take responsibility for any issues arising from the camera hacking, she decided to be a bit bolder this time.
She found a pathway connecting one line to another, compromised it, and used it to hack the next camera.
Like spreading a virus, Angela stood still and hacked twenty percent of all the cameras in Eastheim.
Twenty percent. It sounded like a small number on paper, but when translated into the actual number of cameras, it was astronomical.
Moreover, it wasn't a random, indiscriminate hack.
Because she targeted the primary cameras monitoring key intersections, she could watch the entire area where the cat was rumored to appear.
She then shared all of these feeds with Swoo.
"Whoa."
Swoo couldn't help but marvel at the countless camera feeds projected onto her retinas.
Each camera was separate, and each showed a completely different view. But when organized in an orderly fashion, it felt like looking down on the world from above.
It was far clearer and more detailed than the view Swoo got when looking down from high places.
Did Angela see the world like this every time she took a job? Someday, I want to show her the world as I see it. I'm sure she'd love it.
With that thought, Swoo focused on the feeds Angela had shared.
And it didn't take long before she spotted it.
"...Swoo, that person."
"Yep, it's Sena."
The cat, which had transcended the limits of a mere beast, was sitting on Yoo Sena's lap, happily eating a Churu treat.