Chapter 45
Chapter 45
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 45
Chapter Title: Villain and Change
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Park Ji-young, better known as Cattler, leaned against the grimy alley wall, gasping for breath. Her cheek throbbed with a bruise, and a sharp pain like broken ribs pierced through her body.
Her fake designer coat was now so tattered that it didn't matter whether it was counterfeit or real anymore.
"No way..."
Her voice trembled. She couldn't believe her life had crumbled in an instant to that horned little brat—a kid who looked no older than elementary school age.
Research data, years of experiment logs, and the test subjects she'd painstakingly tamed. All of it gone in a flash.
"Mirror... mirror..."
With shaking hands, she rummaged through her fake designer bag and pulled out a small hand mirror.
The face reflected in it was a wreck. Her usual heavy makeup had cracked like a mask, and her lipstick had smeared along her cheek, turning her into a clown.
"Ah... aaah!"
She hurled the mirror to the ground. Glass shards scattered everywhere.
"You idiots! This is all because of those cats! Useless beasts! You loved me when I fed you after you were abandoned on the street, but now you betray me!?"
Her voice, laced with rage and despair, echoed through the empty alley.
"Why... why did this happen?"
She couldn't make sense of it. Everything was ruined.
How could it have that kind of power? That ability? It wasn't just some kid. That strength was too much even for a provisional hero.
"It's okay, it's okay... this isn't the end. Do I look like someone who just gives up?"
Cattler pulled out her smartphone and checked the map app. She needed to scout a new residential area. She could start over in a fresh spot.
"Dong-gu Sol-gil Road... that's where there are lots of strays, right? Yeah, stray cats are everywhere."
This time, she'd be more careful. More secretive. More cunning. And later... she'd get revenge on that horned little punk.
Mew...
A low, weak meow sounded. Cattler whipped around in surprise. At the end of the alley, a cat was slowly approaching. It was that familiar one-eyed stray. Lucky.
"You... you're on my side now, aren't you? Oh, my Lucky! Did you come back to Mommy? How did you find your way here when you can barely see?"
Cattler's voice suddenly softened. The fake 'mommy' inside her had awakened again.
"You couldn't forget Mommy, could you? Come here, Lucky. Mommy will make you strong again. We won't fail this time."
She tossed a few pellets of feed onto the ground. The fluorescent particles glowed faintly on the dark pavement.
"Eat up—you need to get stronger! Next time, we'll gather more kittens and smash that horned brat!"
But Lucky didn't approach the food. Instead, it backed away a few steps, staring at Cattler with wary eyes.
"What? Why aren't you eating?"
Cattler's voice sharpened again. The soft mask slipped off in an instant.
"You won't listen to me either!?"
Her patience snapped. Unbearable fury surged up.
All the failures and frustrations of the day focused on Lucky's defiance. She strode toward the cat.
Hiss!
"You dare hiss at Mommy? Ungrateful beast! Stupid animal! You're just a tool, a tool!"
Whoosh!
She lashed out with a rough kick. The cat let out a small screech as it flew through the air and crashed several meters away.
"After all I've done raising you! Do you know how much I've sacrificed? My home... my job... my social life... my friends..."
She tore at her hair, screaming. In reality, she'd lost everything due to her own mistakes, but in her mind, it was all the fault of an unfair world.
"Do you know how much money and time I poured in? Useless parasites!"
Meeeooowww...
Then something strange happened. Lucky's meow rang out. It was no longer weak and pitiful—it had turned deep and menacing.
"Wh-what?"
Cattler backed away. Lucky slowly rose. Instead of fleeing, it assumed an aggressive stance. Its fur bristled, claws bared.
The blind eye on the opposite side regained color, glowing faintly red. It was dim, but visible in the dark alley.
The most shocking change was its tail. Lucky's tail split into two from the tip, wriggling independently like snakes.
"Th-this... impossible..."
Cattler's voice shook. This was a change she hadn't anticipated. Grimoire's energy had reacted with her drugs, creating a special chemical synergy. And Lucky was the one cat perfectly suited for it.
"W-wait... baby... Mommy's really sorry..."
Cattler's attitude flipped. Her 'mommy' voice returned, but now it was laced with genuine terror.
"Mommy was just a little mad. I was so shocked—felt like all my babies betrayed me... G-good kitty? You've always listened to me."
With trembling hands, she pulled out a special pheromone spray and misted it toward Lucky. Fluorescent vapor spread through the air. Normally, any cat would calm down at the scent.
But it had no effect on Lucky. If anything, the irritating smell amplified its rage.
"Damn it... this wasn't supposed to happen..."
Cattler finally grasped the gravity of the situation. She started backing away. Her research notebook and remaining feed bag dropped from her hands, but she didn't even think to pick them up. She just wanted to run.
"G-get... get away! You damned monster!"
Cattler bolted like a madwoman. But the alley narrowed, ending in a dead-end wall.
Tap-tap.
Small paws hitting the ground. Getting closer.
"R-remember? Mommy saved you, Lucky! You're Mommy's lucky charm, my fortune cat!"
One year ago, in a small park in Dong-gu, S City.
It was a Sunday afternoon, sunlight filtering through the leaves. A woman sat on a bench, sighing. Park Ji-young had spent the morning exhausted from job listings.
'Only 150,000 won left...'
She checked her bank balance again. Three months since getting fired from the lab, her rent overdue.
The expensive cosmetics in her bag were mostly free samples, and the designer-looking coat was a sophisticated fake from Dongdaemun Market.
Her resumes kept getting rejected. 'Dismissal for unethical experiments unacceptable,' the emails said. Her extreme animal testing methods weren't accepted even in academia.
"Everyone's blind. My research is revolutionary..."
That's when it happened. Near the playground bench, an annoying voice caught her ear.
"Hey, stupid cat! Won't run? Should I hit harder?"
A boy about ten years old poked a stray cat huddled under a tree with a stick. She meant to ignore it—she had no time for lowly strays.
Meeeow!
But then the boy jabbed the stick into the cat's eye. The cat wailed in agony. A piercing scream tore at her ears. Red blood spurted from its face.
"Eek! It's bleeding!"
The boy, shocked by his own action, dropped the stick and fled.
Park Ji-young approached the bleeding cat. Its gruesome state nearly made her puke, but then a brilliant idea struck.
She carefully wrapped the suffering one-eyed cat in her coat and chased the boy. Didn't have to go far—he was a local kid.
"Where does he live? Must be nearby..."
Ten minutes later, she stood before a luxury apartment complex near the park. She spotted the uniformed boy entering with his parents. Badge from a prestigious private elementary school. Rich family.
She examined the cat more, smearing a bit more blood, then rang the intercom.
"Who is it?"
"Hello, is this the family from the park just now?"
The door opened, and a neatly dressed woman emerged with a puzzled look. The boy hid half his face behind her.
"What is it?"
Park Ji-young teared up artfully and showed the cat wrapped in her coat.
"Look at this! My 'Russian Blue' got hurt like this! Your son stabbed it with a stick in the park!"
The woman's face paled. The boy fully hid behind her.
"Wh-what are you talking about... My son wouldn't..."
"Wouldn't he?!"
Park Ji-young raised her voice, calculating for neighbors to hear. She knew luxury apartments were sensitive to rumors.
"I saw it all! It's on CCTV too! You gonna deny it after doing this!?"
The woman glanced around anxiously, terrified of a scene.
"Wait. Come inside first?"
She was a rabbit in a trap. To Park Ji-young, they looked like stacks of cash.
"This one's a purebred I was entering in the cat festival next month! Worth five million each."
The woman's face went even whiter.
"Oh...! I'm so sorry. He didn't mean it like that... What should we do?"
"What do you mean, what?!"
Park Ji-young bellowed.
"Don't you know animal abuse is a criminal offense?! If I report to the police, even a kid gets investigated, school finds out... You know how much backlash animal abusers get these days?"
The terrified woman grabbed her phone.
"Honey, come home now. Big trouble..."
Thirty minutes later, a man in a fancy suit rushed in, sweating.
"What the hell happened..."
Park Ji-young showed the cat and repeated the story. The man's attitude started defensive.
"Do you have proof? That our son did this..."
"What?! Should I call the police? Animal rights groups? Post the video on SNS myself?! With your apartment name—what do you think happens then?"
After a short negotiation, they agreed to five million in settlement and one million for vet bills. Better than 'animal abuse' on their kid's record.
Leaving the apartment, Park Ji-young headed not to a hospital, but a bar.
With money in hand and drunk, she laughed. More than her monthly salary. Easiest cash ever.
"Thanks to you, my lucky cat."
She muttered at the cat crammed in a box.
"Let's keep it up."
That's how she named it 'Lucky.'
From then on, she realized she could make money off strays. That was the start of her 'cat mom' business.
It was quite profitable. Feed strays in empty lots, post 'poor babies' on SNS for donations. Adoption fees, responsibility fees, care costs... every excuse to rake it in.
But now, that luck had betrayed her.
"D-don't do this! Lucky! After all the food I gave you! This can't be happening!"
Cattler's voice cracked. Back pressed to the dead-end wall, she felt the cold bricks.
The scene before her felt like a nightmare. How did it come to this? If she hadn't met that horned kid... would this have happened?
Lucky approached slowly.
One step, another. Its menacing red eyes gleamed sharper in the dark. The split tail writhed like snakes in the air.
"Please... without me, you'd have died long ago... Remember..."
Cattler's voice turned to begging. Tears streamed down her clownish, smeared face.
"Mommy... Mommy was wrong. I'll give you better food from now on. Special treats too..."
There was no sincerity in her words. Just desperation to survive.
Lucky's red eyes flickered. Flashing within: the cold lab, painful injections, and abuse called 'love.'
"After all I sacrificed for you! All the money I spent! A street cat like you...!"
Meow.
"N-no... don't... I... I still have so much I want to do..."
Tears poured from her eyes as she clung to the wall.
How ironic. The cat she named 'Lucky,' her one 'success story,' had become her doom.
"Don't... please...!"
Her voice grew desperate. She wanted to live. Really live. But there was no escape for Cattler. A dead-end alley walled on all sides. And one cat slowly lowering its head before her.
Grrr...
Red light emanated from Lucky's body, staining the alley walls. Its shadow grew enormous—a massive beast's silhouette, not a small cat.
"Aaah—!"
The sound of flesh tearing, claws raking, and a woman's weakening screams. That was enough.
After that day, someone claimed to see a two-tailed cat leaping across rooftops at night, but no one believed it.
S City gained yet another rumor.