Chapter 52
Confronted with choices thrust upon her so suddenly, Sia fell into thought. Compared to modern civilization, this world was on the boring side, but even so, her heart felt so at peace that she had been thinking she’d like to keep living here.
Still, there was one thing she regretted. This was a country of cat werebeasts overflowing with cats, yet there were limits to how much she could dote on them.
First of all, fur brushes, toys, and then the food and treats that cats went crazy for.
Since none of those could be obtained here, she had once thought, If only I could make just one trip back to Korea.
On top of that, if the money she had worked hard to save was left untouched, she knew that once she was declared missing, her money would end up going to her family.
That, at least, she absolutely wanted to prevent. She wanted to squander every last bit of what was in her bank account on cat supplies.
Standing still in hesitation, Sia carefully asked the mysterious being,
“Would it be impossible… just to go once?”
“Hmm?”
“To be honest, I really like it here. I’ve never lived this peacefully before. But there are some things that can only be found back home…”
“Ahahaha…”
The mysterious being burst out in loud laughter. Well, it was only natural. What she was saying must sound absurd. She had been given options, and yet she was now making up an option that wasn’t even there.
Crossing between dimensions surely couldn’t be such an easy thing. Regretting that she had spoken carelessly, Sia suddenly heard the mysterious voice resonate in her mind once again.
“Everything you wish for will be granted. In that case, follow my messenger at once…”
“W-Wait a moment!”
“Is there something else you wish for?”
“It’s just… I think I should at least tell the people I’ve been living with before I go. Could you come back tomorrow night instead?”
“That wouldn’t be so bad either. Very well, beloved human.”
With that, the voice was gone. At some point, Cola had disappeared as well. Only then did Sia notice the night breeze brushing against her.
“Phew…”
Collapsing onto the floor, she tried to recall whether what she’d heard had been real, then simply sprawled out flat.
“Wow, that was really amazing.”
Since coming here, she’d gone through one astonishing experience after another.
“Look at this, goosebumps all up my arm.”
She hadn’t realized, but she must have been very tense. Her whole body was sticky with sweat, and the goosebumps still wouldn’t fade.
“Meooow.”
“Huh?”
Just then, Lips slipped in through the crack of the balcony door. Lying down, Sia quickly sat up and hugged Lips tightly to her chest. As the warmth of a living creature filled her arms, she could finally exhale in relief.
“Lips, this big sister just went through something unbelievable. You wouldn’t understand even if I told you, right?”
“……”
“Ah, that sweet scent.”
Lifting one of Lips’s paws to her nose, Sia sniffed it, then remembered the toy she had made.
“Oh right, I made something for our Lips.”
Grabbing the thing she’d tossed on the bed earlier, Sia sat down on the edge of the bed and set Lips down on the floor.
“Here, look at this.”
Sway, sway. At the end of a short rod, like a fishing pole, was something that looked like a ball of gathered feathers. Nox couldn’t bring himself to show any reaction to the strange object.
Usually, when he came, Sia would pet and sniff him for ages, but now, with clear expectation in her eyes, she kept shaking that unknown feather-tied stick.
“Huh? Not interested? But I thought I made it pretty well…”
Seeing Sia shake the toy with such a disappointed look, Nox felt like he understood what she wanted. But he couldn’t bring himself to give her what she wanted.
He still hadn’t revealed to her that ‘Lips’ was actually ‘Nox’, but one day he intended to tell her the truth. Yet if he played along with this toy now, he felt like he would never be able to confess it for the rest of his life.
As Nox agonized over what to do, he felt his body twitch. This was by no means something he had intended.
“Oh, oh, you’re reacting!”
Delighted at Lips’s response, Sia shook the rod more fiercely. The more erratically she shook it, the more violently Lips’s hindquarters wiggled. Soon Lips raised his front paw and batted at the bundle of feathers.
“It was worth making after all!”
Sia happily swung the rod, while Nox cursed the body that moved against his will.
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