Kays Translations

Chapter 179: The Cat Situation in Avalushi

“Indeed. In fact, it would be helpful if you could assist us as well. Unfortunately, I don’t think the royal family will act solely on Lilene’s testimony, so we’ll have to manage for the time being with just our faction. Having someone who understands the situation on our side is a great help.”

As Isamu said this, he extended his right hand towards Lilene.

If they presented the magic giant golems they brought, they could ensure a certain level of credibility, but if they were to appeal to a duke’s house, that alone would not be enough.

They would be questioned on whether to trust the word of another country over their own powerful figures, so they must provide conclusive evidence.

It’s unlikely they would make a blunder that could easily give them away, so they need to be prepared to solve this themselves.

“It’s reassuring to hear you say that. Although we are not a significant fighting force…”

Lilene, shaking hands with Isamu, spoke apologetically.

“How much of a fighting force do you have?”

“We have about ten people pretending to be allies, including myself. We have three operational magic giant golems, including mine, and two that are non-operational.”

“Five in total… That seems sufficient, but how many do the opponents have?”

“About forty. There are probably no non-operational ones among them.”

“…A difference in fighting force of nearly ten times. Since it’s not a simultaneous battle, it depends on the approach, right?”

Isamu asked Felix, seeking his opinion.

“Yes. We also have magic tools, and with a few magic giant golems added, there are various strategies we could employ.”

Felix answered without showing any particular anxiety.

“Yes, and if someone can read the magic circle of the giant golems, it might be possible to create more if things go well.”

Mizeroi also nodded in agreement.

“…You’re not shaken. Well, if you can fight like that, I can understand why.”

Lilene gave a wry smile at the calmness of Yuu and the others regarding the difference in fighting force.

“Nyanyaffu”

Then, Orihime, who had come over without them noticing, jumped onto Mizeroi’s shoulder and tapped his head.

“Oh, right. We also have Orihime-sensei with us!”

“Nya-fun”

Upon hearing that, Orihime made a satisfied noise.

“Indeed, your cat, Orihime, seems to understand human language…”

Seeing the exchange, Lilene said with a look of surprise.

“I think she probably understands. But more importantly!! How did Max end up with Lilene? Didn’t you say earlier that there were cats in Avalushi? Also, ‘cat’ might refer to the word ‘cat’ in Abel’s country’s language, but what exactly…”

“Nya-fu!”

“Ouch!”

Isamu, who always loses his punctuation when interested in something, was scratched on the ear by Orihime as usual.

“Nyaa-fuu”

“Ah—sorry, Princess…”

Isamu scratched his head and apologized to Orihime, who let out a long, exaggerated sigh.

“……Max is a descendant of the cats Ray and Kaoru who came with Abel when he was summoned here.”

With a somewhat reserved expression, Lilene began to explain about Max.

Abel, known as the Great Boss, was apparently summoned here while working with heavy machinery, and since Rei and Kaoru were in his pocket at that time, they came along as well.

“He had cats in his pocket while working!?—Ah, America is so free.”

Of course, just because it’s America doesn’t mean it’s okay, and heavy machinery, with its noise and vibrations, is not a good environment for cats.

So why was this the case? A few days before the summoning, Abel had rescued two kittens found meowing under a car near the site.

The kittens, a tabby and a black cat, appeared to be about 1-2 months old, and Abel, unable to leave them at home, had gotten permission from his company to bring them to work.

The plan was to leave them in the office and have the clerks take care of them while he worked, but since the kittens would chase after him and meow continuously whenever he tried to leave, he had no choice but to take them along in the machinery.

Fortunately, since they would sleep quietly in the large pockets of his work clothes, it didn’t significantly interfere with his work.

“Shortly after arriving here, the Great Boss was fortunate enough to meet an adventurer party and began boiling the monster meat they had hunted to feed Ray and Kaoru.”

This situation resembles the early days of Orihime.

Despite being very small kittens, Ray and Kaoru were able to eat monster meat. It seems they were given some sort of blessing or enhancement upon arriving here, similar to Orihime.

Upon discovering the existence of familiars, Abel decided to raise Ray and Kaoru as his familiars.

About a year and a half after arriving here, Ray and Kaoru had a few kittens.

At that time, they were in the midst of excavating the second magic giant golem, so Abel and his mercenary companions were able to raise the kittens calmly.

Later, while moving through the rocky desert in search of ruins, they accidentally discovered a monster that resembled a cat living in a certain ruin.

The monster looked like a smaller version of an Earth cat, but it was still a monster and attacked them. Furthermore, it apparently used some earth magic as well.

Abel and his companions, who had grown emotionally attached to Ray, Kaoru, and their kittens, didn’t want to defeat the monster that looked so similar. However, since they were attacked, they had no choice but to fight back.

They had to defeat it reluctantly because leaving it alone would have prevented them from continuing their excavation of the ruins. To their dismay, they discovered that the monster had three newborn kittens.

While pondering what to do, they saw the monster’s kittens meowing and approaching Ray and Kaoru. Kaoru even licked the kittens affectionately.

Since the other kittens showed no signs of aggression and were merely curious, they decided to keep them.

The cat-like monsters that grew up alongside Rei and Kaoru were friendly not only to the cats but also to Abel and his companions.

Being monsters, they participated in battles using their specialized earth magic as familiars.

“When the monster was around two years old, unbelievably, it had a child with the offspring of Ray and Kaoru.”

“What!? Not between monsters, but between a cat and a monster?”

“Yes. The monster offspring were all female.”

By then, Ray and Kaoru had nearly ten kittens, and the third generation, their grandchildren, had just been born.

While they were successfully producing descendants, Abel worried about the risks of inbreeding if they continued. He was overjoyed to find that it was possible to have children between monsters as well.

“Monsters typically produce only one or at most two offspring, so their numbers did not increase significantly after that.”

Compared to Earth cats, which often have three to four kittens at once, this is indeed quite few.

“A few years later, they encountered the same type of monster at another ruin. This time, the protected monster might have intervened, as there was no battle, and they ended up being entrusted with two of the monster’s kittens.”

It seems that the monster was so rare that even Abel and his team, who were constantly excavating ruins, only encountered it twice.

“After that, the mercenaries who were companions of the Great Boss, as well as his family, gradually began turning cats into familiars.”

The cats, which were adorable and could also fight due to their monster blood, became extremely popular. Every time kittens were born, they were quickly adopted.

At the peak, there were more than a hundred cats, and they were commonly seen in Neo-Tokyo.

However, when Abel passed away, the residents dispersed.

Although the cats that were kept also escaped, since everyone had only one cat, the descendants did not continue to thrive.

“Those who were tasked with protecting magic giant golems like us migrated together, so there were still quite a few cats. That’s why even now, cats descended from Ray and Kaoru are used as familiars.”

“I see… So, since they had been living in hiding, no one had ever seen a cat before.”

It’s understandable that no one knew about them, considering they were rare monsters and were kept by those who even hid magic giant golems.

“Yes. Even we were quite surprised as we’ve never seen cats outside of Avalushi. And according to your story, these cats are from the same world as Ray and the Great Boss. Avalushi residents would surely be delighted to see them, but…”

At this point, Lilene’s expression darkened as she muttered in frustration.

“Now, it’s become difficult to show Orihime…”

“Now that we’ve decided to cooperate, how should we proceed for the time being?”

“Preventing a significant portion of the magic stones from reaching Zun is unavoidable. However, it should take time for them to be fully operational. So first, we need to reclaim the magic giant golem in Kapolfi.”

“Do you have any ideas?”

“Our magic giant golems require the magic power pattern of the operator to be registered initially. Once registered, only the current registrant can change it. However, only the head of the house can cancel this registration.”

Since precise coordination with human magic is required for remote control, this system also provides security that prevents easy operation even if captured.

However, to avoid issues if the operator suddenly dies, the head of the house and those recognized by them can reset the registration to blank.

“But it only resets to the initial state. It can be registered again immediately. So, while I reset it to blank, another person needs to register it simultaneously.”

“I see. But wouldn’t it be better to register the magic power of someone else inside? Although they wouldn’t be able to operate it simultaneously, they wouldn’t be able to retaliate.”

“Actually, there are conditions for registering the same person’s magic power pattern in multiple magic giant golems. To keep it brief, the most significant condition is that there shouldn’t be multiple units nearby.”

Since the magic power pattern connects the control source to the controlled unit, if multiple magic giant golems registered with the same person are nearby, they may stop functioning or go berserk.

This situation is similar to how interference occurs when frequencies overlap in old remote controls or walkie-talkies.

“It’s not entirely impossible to cause a rampage, but given the possibility of facing off against Zun’s magic giant golems, we’d rather not reduce our available magical giant golems.”

“Indeed, that would reduce our fighting strength…”

“Yes. Therefore, we’re considering having people on our side learn how to operate them and register their patterns.”

Anyone can register a magic power pattern, but without knowing how to operate the golems, they can’t be used effectively. It wouldn’t be practical to register residents from Kapolfi who have no connection.

“Therefore, I’d like Matsumoto and the others to learn how to operate the magic giant golems.”

“Learn how to operate the magic giant golems…”

Isamu was surprised by the unexpected offer.

He had watched robot anime as a child and, like many boys, had admired pilots, but he never expected to realize that dream at his age.

Felix, sitting next to him, looked excited, thinking.

“Wow… I can operate a magic giant golem.”

“But how will we learn to operate them? It might look suspicious if Lilene-san doesn’t join us.”

“That’s true. As the head of the house, my actions attract more attention than others. I must leave here before dawn. So, I’ll assign a replacement to you. They will handle both the learning process and communication with us.”

“That’s helpful, but is it alright to spare someone for this? Everyone in Avalushi is officially cooperating with Zun, right?”

“That’s fine. There are Guardians, known only to the head of the house and their attendants.”

“Guardians?”

“Yes. They are responsible for guarding the Great Boss’s machine and its spare parts across generations. They’ll help you learn how to operate them.”

“Eh, Abel-san’s machine is still around!?”

Isamu eyes widened at Lilene’s words.

“Yes. Officially, it’s said to have been buried with the Great Boss, but the burial was a decoy. The real machine was secretly removed and is still hidden and operational.”

“Incredible… to have been guarded for over a thousand years.”

“Greg, the previous guardian, and his granddaughter Sarah are responsible for that. The current head’s son and his wife will continue the duty. They should be staying in Balshan as adventurers now, so please visit them. The hiding place is also nearby…”

“Yes, that’s no problem. I’ve been to Balshan many times and can reach there in three days.”

“The magic car is amazing… They should be at an inn called ‘Sand’s Radiance’ in Balshan.”

“‘Sand’s Radiance,’ got it.”

“Oh, and they each have cats with them. Look forward to it.”

“Oh!? That’s exciting!!”

Isamu’s eyes sparkled at Lilene’s words. 

Mizeroi, who was sitting next to him, also looked happy, but when Orihime, who was on his shoulder, hit him hard on the nose with her tail, he hurriedly explained.

“No, sensei, this is…”

“Well then, I’ll head to Balshan and meet Greg and Sarah.”

“I’m sorry to ask, but I would appreciate it if you could ensure that around ten people can operate them to some extent.”

“Understood. Is it alright if I select a few people from outside the Klaufeldt family?”

“Yes, as long as they are trustworthy.”

“Thank you. To be safe, I’ll strengthen the defenses of Klaufendam before heading out, so I plan to depart in two or three days.”

“Thank you. I’ll also send scouts to the southern part of Plazzo, so we’ll keep you updated regularly.”

“Thank you.”

With that, the two sides finalized their immediate plans and exchanged another handshake.

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