I Became Friends with a Cat
The rocking chair went creak, creak in a steady rhythm.
Lucy sat by the sunlit window, her fingers moving busily as she worked. Since the weather had begun to turn chilly, she was making a winter coat for when she went outside.
"Ah, is that so? Thank you very much."
Lucy was blind, unable to see the world before her, but there was still much she could do.
That was because she could hear a mysterious voice.
"Then it would be better to make this part a little puffier."
In this world, Lucy was the only one who could hear that voice.
It always guided her, showing her how to get what she wanted and helping her survive without injury. Lucy called it Teacher.
It had no physical form, and its tone was so flat that it seemed incapable of emotion at all. It simply stated facts as they were, like sentences printed in a newspaper. And yet Lucy still treated that voice with respect, because the reason a mere blind human like herself had managed to live safely in the Gehenna Great Forest was entirely because that voice stayed by her side.
Thanks to it, she had been able to flee to the Gehenna Great Forest in one piece, even in a blind body.
And thanks to it, she could even understand the language of her giant, mysterious friend.
"Mm, just need to stuff this with cotton and it’ll be done…."
It was helping her make a scarf, too.
To Lucy, the voice was an extraordinarily special existence.
Even if it wasn't what people would normally call a person.
"Hm?"
She heard a sound outside the window.
The voice told her the source had been Soho.
Lucy gently opened the window.
At once, a huge cat burst into the house.
There was a large horn on its forehead, proof that it was no ordinary beast.
"Nyan."
"It’s been a while, Soho."
The giant cat Lucy was petting, Soho, was a spirit beast.
It was a sacred creature revered by the beastmen, and also their guardian.
It was one of the few friends who came and went from Lucy’s house, too.
Whenever Soho came inside, the shedding fur was a bit of a nuisance, but it was still a treasured cat that brought life to the quiet, easygoing forest days.
"Why has it been so long since you last came? I even dried the salted fish jerky Soho likes myself."
Lucy took out the jerky she had stored in a jar.
Soho ate the jerky, rolling on the floor and going, "Nyan nyan."
"The Imperial soldiers suddenly started searching the forest?"
"Nyan nyan."
"The barrier and surveillance magic of the Green Tower collapsed all at once? Why?"
"Nyan…."
To sum up Soho’s story, one day the forest management system the Green Tower had painstakingly set up in the great forest had completely fallen apart.
The cause had been a mana explosion. It had been so massive that every magical device and barrier humans had installed in the great forest had been wrecked to pieces.
Fortunately, aside from the lizardmen, the mana explosion hadn’t had much effect on the demi-humans.
There were many races capable of handling mana, but there were virtually none besides humans that could make tools or set up formations.
To humans, it must have looked like a catastrophe that had suddenly struck out of nowhere.
The Empire had sent soldiers to identify the cause, and they had begun tearing through the forest.
Soho had been busy keeping watch over them.
"That was dangerous to do alone… At the very least, you should have asked the beastmen for help. Nothing happened to you, right?"
"Nyaa…."
"You almost died!?"
Lucy grabbed a fistful of Soho’s fur.
"Myaaagh!"
"Ah… sorry, no! I’m not sorry. Soho deserves to be scolded!"
"Myaaaah!"
After the rather rough lecture came to an end, Soho lay flat on the floor with a sulky face.
"Honestly. From now on, you’re not allowed to try anything that dangerous by yourself."
"Myaa…."
Feeling sorry for the creature, Lucy let out a sigh and gave it another piece of jerky.
Soho’s eyes brightened as it clutched the jerky with both front paws. Then it warned Lucy in a serious tone.
"Nyan nyan nyan nyan."
When Lucy heard Soho’s words, her expression turned grave.
Because the Imperial soldiers had stirred up the great forest, the monsters that had been sealed away had awakened?
Those terrifying monsters that even the ancestors of the beastmen who had settled here had given up on killing?
The forest was not a safe place Lucy could wander around in alone anymore, so Soho suggested that if she had to go out for a while, she should come with him.
"Shouldn’t you be going back to the beastmen?"
Soho shook its head.
Before Soho had met Behemoth, the reason it had been bound up in the forest like that was because it had lost a fight against a man-faced lion manticore.
The manticore had known that killing a spirit beast would bring a curse down upon it.
So Soho had been able to keep its life, but the wounds from the battle and the effects of being bound for so long had left it in need of rest.
Life among the beastmen was noisy and exhausting, so Soho preferred the quiet of Lucy’s house.
"I understand. Oh, there’s one thing I’ve been wondering. How were you able to break free of the binding?"
Soho’s fur twitched.
It remembered the figure of Behemoth who had saved it.
Behemoth had been a little mountain made of black steel.
Soho had felt a pressure from him unlike anything it had ever known from any other monster.
He was more divine than a monster, and more formidable than a beast. It was as if he were something like a god—an overwhelming being.
Even though Soho was a spirit beast that had lived coiled in the forest for hundreds of years, it had felt as helpless as a housecat facing a tiger.
Behemoth had saved it, and Soho had been grateful, yes.
And yet its instincts still shrank away from meeting him face to face. He had been the sort of impossible creature that made even its own body reluctant to approach.
"Did you meet someone strange?"
"Nyan."
For some reason, Lucy felt like she understood who had rescued Soho.
I arrived at Lucy’s cottage.
Lucy came out to the yard to meet me.
"Friend, what’s going on all of a sudden?"
"Here, take this. You haven’t had lunch yet, right?"
I held out my palm. On it sat a plate with a steak—steam still rising from it, fresh off the grill.
This time, I’d made sure to bring it straight away, the moment it was finished, so I could give it to Lucy myself.
Lucy sniffed the air.
"This is steak. It smells wonderful."
"I cooked it with the herbs and mushrooms you gave me last time. I hope it suits your taste."
"You really didn’t need to go to all that trouble…."
"It came out so tasty thanks to you."
Lucy accepted the plate with a happy smile.
"I’ll enjoy it. Friend."
"Good."
After that, a brief silence fell between us.
It felt a little empty to come all the way here, hand her just the steak, and then leave.
Opportunities to talk to people weren’t exactly common.
"Oh, right."
"That’s right."
We both opened our mouths at the same time, trying to keep the conversation going.
"Ah, you go first."
"Oh, um. It’s nothing much, but… what were you doing, Lucy?"
"Oh, I was making a coat to wear in winter."
"By yourself?"
"Yes."
No way.
How was she managing to be this capable when she couldn’t even see?
Living alone in that cottage was impressive enough, but Lucy was truly incredible.
Just watching her made admiration bloom in my chest without my even meaning it to.
Hold on a second.
"A winter coat means you put stuffing inside it and make it that way?"
"Yes."
Wait—if that was the case, couldn’t she make a blanket, too?
"Where did you get the stuffing?"
"If you go west, you’ll see a forest covered in maple trees. Puffy Flowers bloom there. If you gather the fluffy fibers that form when their seeds ripen, you can make cotton stuffing. It happens to be the right season for blooming, too… but why do you ask?"
"I was thinking I’d like to make a blanket. Lately I’ve been wanting a proper place to sleep."
Even though I was a creature that could swallow flames whole and sleep in the deepest part of a cave without so much as a scratch, blankets were serious business.
Just as sunlight made me feel good, I thought the cozy warmth of being wrapped in a blanket was pretty amazing, too.
"But making it is probably impossible…."
"Why are you giving up so suddenly…."
"I don’t have the skill to make one, and I don’t have the proper tools either…."
I was really hopeless when it came to this kind of thing.
I might have the cotton and leather needed to make a blanket, but I didn’t have tools like a needle.
Realistically speaking, it was probably impossible. Tch.
Just as I was feeling dejected and ready to give up—
"Hmm. If you can bring me the cotton, I’ll make it for you."
"Really? With how big it is, that won’t be easy…."
"If it’s for a friend, of course I can do it. My sewing skills are actually pretty good, you know. It won’t be difficult at all. So don’t worry so much."
Lucy held out a hand of salvation.
Dammit, she was dazzling.
If you suddenly turn bright as the sun without warning, it’s hard to look at you with your own two eyes….
"I really don’t know what to do about how grateful I’ve been since last time."
"I should be the one thanking you, actually. Oh, please wait a moment."
Lucy told me to wait and went back into the house.
Then she dragged a giant cat out with her— the horned Maine Coon I’d seen before.
The cat looked up at me with a frightened expression.
I’d thought I might see it again sometime, but I hadn’t expected to run into it here in Lucy’s house.
"This child’s name is Soho. You know this face, don’t you, friend?"
"Well, yeah."
"I thought so."
Lucy bowed her head to me.
"Friend, thank you so much for saving Soho. To me, Soho is a precious friend, too."
Lucy tugged at Soho’s fur.
"Soho, hurry and tell friend thank you as well."
At that, Soho lowered its posture even further and went, "Nyan nyan."
I couldn’t understand Soho the way Lucy could, but I somehow felt like I understood what it was saying just then.
It wasn’t like I’d saved it expecting gratitude in the first place.
A laugh slipped out of me before I could stop it.
I crouched down as low as I could.
Then, so Soho wouldn’t be scared, I carefully held out the back of my hand.
Soho slowly stared at it. After a cautious moment from a distance, it came over on hesitant little steps.
When it gently rubbed its head against my hand, I could feel the softness of its fur.
I slowly straightened up.
"Then I’ll come back once I’ve got the cotton. Take Soho inside quickly—the meat’s going to get cold."
"Please be careful on your way back, friend."
"Myaong."
I waved to them and left Lucy’s cottage.
"Nyaa…."
"See? He’s not a bad person, right?"
Lucy gently stroked Soho as it stared after the departing friend with shining eyes.
It looked just like a child watching an adult it admired, and Lucy couldn’t hold back the smile that kept slipping out.
"Ah, I forgot to ask if I could hold his hand."
Lucy felt a little disappointed.
The sensation of the pain easing the last time had been so soothing.
Next time he came, she had to ask for sure.
Come to think of it, if it was the maple forest, that would be the place with the orcs and the beastmen.
Friend won’t run into any trouble while gathering things, will he?
Then again, she had forgotten to tell him that monsters were roaming around and he should be careful.
Well, if even Soho the spirit beast had been frightened, then friend must be extraordinarily strong, and there probably wasn’t anyone bold enough to pick a fight with a giant like him anyway, so there should be no problem.
With that, Lucy tasted the steak her friend had made, and with a blissful expression, returned indoors with Soho.