Chapter 57

Calypse had thought, No way.

Could a tiny kitten really transform into a human?

And if it could—if that was truly possible—

then what exactly was he supposed to make of that damned cat he had found sitting beside the sleeping Aisha’s bed a few days ago?

A beast? A boy? A cat?

Amazingly enough, in Calypse’s encyclopedia, all three words meant exactly the same thing.

“...If a cat kills a person, there’s a possibility it can become human.”

The moment he heard Knox say that in the prison, Calypse had no choice but to sprint down the corridor like a madman.

No way, he thought as he threw open Aisha’s bedroom door—

“...Father?”

Startled, Aisha blinked at him with wide rabbit eyes.

And standing beside her was a boy about the same height as her.

White hair falling over his forehead. Purple eyes, the mark of monsters. A face that strangely resembled that cat.

“......”

Veins bulged across the back of Calypse’s hand where he gripped the doorframe hard enough to nearly shatter it.

If Aisha had not been there, the curse he was repeating in his head would have exploded straight out of his mouth.

But—

“Boy. Come out.”

Aisha was watching.

“Why should I?”

The boy blinked innocently as he answered back.

He was even speaking casually to him?

So it can speak human language. Still a beast, though.

A dry laugh escaped Calypse as he stalked toward the boy threateningly. Then he seized the child’s wrist roughly.

“...?”

The boy’s eyes widened as he was dragged away.

“Kyle! Don’t kill him, don’t kill him! Father, don’t kill him either!”

At the end of Aisha’s frantic, incomprehensible shouting, Calypse slammed the bedroom door shut behind them.

BANG—!

***

And so, the office.

“They say killing a human lets you become human. Are you really that damned kitten?”

Calypse’s jaw tightened hard as he asked the insane, impossible question.

The boy still looked up at him without the slightest fear.

Then he let out a heavy sigh before nodding.

“To be exact, drinking human blood lets us become human.”

“Then why did you go to Aisha immediately after becoming human?”

“To go home.”

Home?

One of Calypse’s brows lifted as he ground his molars together to suppress his anger.

“Yeah. Home. If you lose it, you’re supposed to find it again.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Maybe it was because he was a beast, but the way he talked was bizarre.

At that point, Knox, standing nearby, carefully interpreted the boy’s words.

“I believe... when the demon was living as a cat, he always slept in Lady Aisha’s bedroom with her. So I think he’s referring to the bedroom as his home...”

Craaack—

The armrest of Calypse’s chair shattered, and Knox immediately snapped his mouth shut.

It was ridiculous to get angry over a boy who had not even reached puberty yet, but irritating things were still irritating.

I should just change the subject.

If this conversation continued, he felt like he might destroy the other armrest too.

Closing his eyes briefly to steady his breathing, Calypse pointed out another issue.

“Then why did you kill the maid? Because you wanted to become human?”

“Becoming human doesn’t require killing people. I only need to drink human blood.”

“Then why did you kill her?”

At Calypse’s question, the boy fell silent for a moment.

That same unafraid, expressionless face irritated him, but—

“I wasn’t planning to drink her blood.”

The next words that came from the boy were unexpected enough that Calypse could not immediately get angry.

“...What?”

“I was just going to kill her. Aisha scolded me for it afterward, though.”

The expressions on Calypse’s and Knox’s faces shifted slightly.

He had intended to kill her from the beginning?

“Aisha only nags me if I become human. That’s why I didn’t want to become human either. I wanted to stay a cat forever.”

As though the thought alone was unfair, the boy kicked lightly at the floor and muttered under his breath. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

“Then why did you kill a person?”

“That person didn’t smell.”

“Smell?”

“Humans usually smell. You smell. You smell too.”

The boy pointed at Calypse and Knox in turn as he continued.

“The smell of people tangled together with other people. The kind of smell that tells you someone will come looking if this person disappears. But that person didn’t smell like anything.”

“...What does that even mean?”

“People like that are usually waiting alone for the day they die.”

The boy answered immediately, but Calypse’s gaze turned toward Knox instead. He was demanding an interpretation.

“I don’t understand it either.”

Even Knox, the chairman of the Monster Lovers’ Association, shook his head.

Damn it.

His head was starting to ache.

Growing frustrated, Calypse dragged a hand through his hair and tried once more to force a proper explanation.

“You said she didn’t smell. So why did you kill her?”

“Because there was a high chance she was going to kidnap Aisha.”

And then, without warning, the boy gave an answer so shocking it needed no interpretation at all.

“......?”

“?”

Silence settled over the office.

Calypse and Knox stared down at the boy in mild shock before turning to look at each other.

“Kidnap? Did something happen at the royal palace?”

“When we found Lady Aisha, she had already escaped through a portal with this boy. I don’t know what happened before that, however...”

Adjusting his slipping monocle, Knox muttered belatedly,

“It seems we have reason to investigate.”

Obviously.

And the kid did not seem intelligent enough to fabricate a lie like this. Which meant it was probably true.

“Kidnap? What exactly do you mean?”

Now that the conversation had become serious, Calypse rose from his chair and lowered himself to one knee so he could meet the boy’s eyes directly.

The boy still answered without fear.

“When Aisha took me far away with her, some human without a smell followed her around and kept watching her.”

Thud—

Calypse’s heart dropped.

Someone had been watching Aisha?

Since when? How had no one noticed?

“Right then, I wanted to become human because I had something I wanted to ask Aisha. But that person didn’t smell, so I figured Aisha wouldn’t be sad even if I killed him.”

“...What?”

He could not fully understand everything the boy was saying, but one thing was perfectly clear.

This beast... cared whether Aisha would be sad?

The thought flashed briefly through Calypse’s mind, but he stayed silent and let the boy continue.

“But then that person suddenly kidnapped Aisha. At first he was calling her by name, so I thought maybe they knew each other, and I just watched.”

“And then?”

“He slapped sleeping Aisha across the face. So I thought, Ah. Then it’s fine to kill this man, and I killed him.”

“......”

Another silence descended over the office.

This time it was colder.

Heavier.

“So that’s why you killed the maid too?”

“Yeah.”

That was truly fortunate.

Even though the expression on Calypse’s face was probably terrifying right now, the boy nodded without a second thought.

Then the boy glanced up at the ceiling for a moment, as though remembering something.

“I thought it was strange because she didn’t smell. But there was something else strange too.”

“What?”

“After that person came by, the man in the next room got really loud. He kept saying stuff like, Now I can finally escape, and, Duke Pose sure gives good service.”

“A spy.”

“A spy indeed.”

With the boy’s decisive statement, the entire situation fell into place.

Duke Pose had attached a spy to Aisha.

The reason was obvious. Surveillance. He wanted to monitor whether she was carrying out her mission properly.

“...For now.”

They needed to destroy the Pose family by exposing the madness enhancer issue.

As quickly as possible.

Lost in thought, Calypse rose from his seat. Then he paused and looked back down at the boy.

So what was he supposed to do with this demon?

“...?”

The boy tilted his head curiously beneath Calypse’s obvious stare.

When he had first found him in the bedroom, he had looked like nothing more than a beast that deserved to be beaten to death.

He can identify spies by smell?

But after speaking with him, the boy seemed surprisingly useful.

Perfect material for Aisha’s personal guard knight.

Crossing his arms, Calypse frowned deeply.

Then—

“Well done.”

“...Huh?”

“Killing the people without a smell. Very well done.”

He roughly ruffled the boy’s white hair.

“But Aisha said killing people is bad...”

“People without a smell aren’t people. So next time you find someone around Aisha who doesn’t smell, kill them immediately.”

“...Huh?”

The boy stared blankly at him with purple eyes for a moment before nodding slowly at the sudden praise.

And so, a few days later—

“Hi.”

“...Did you move into our castle or something?”

Kyle, now fully human, began appearing around the Kreutz estate.

And quite frequently, too.