Chapter 497 Chainsmoker Cat

Chapter 497: 497 Chainsmoker Cat

As the space changed, I found myself in a luxurious mansion.

And before my eyes, a female beastman was sitting, and as soon as she saw me, she kept apologizing.

"Sorry, Jin... My daughter ran away from home."

The beastman who was apologizing like that had purple hair tied neatly back, leaving only the left front bangs.

She was quite a beauty and had a pretty good figure, but because of her slightly sharp eyes and the bangs covering one eye, she gave off a chic atmosphere overall.

"I did contact the police, but they said since a letter comes every week, there is no criminality. So they said they can’t even investigate."

At first, I thought she was about the same age as me, but it seems she is Penpen Neko’s mother ’Kujo Mizuna’.

In the setting, it was said that beastmen’s appearance doesn’t change much even as they age, and it seemed to be true.

"I see. Nazuna (Penpen Neko) must want to get some fresh air for a while."

"I’m glad you think so. The Kujo Group is also searching with all its might, but there’s not even a clue... Since the handwriting on the letters is definitely my daughter’s, she must be safe..."

"You will return after resting enough. So you don’t have to worry too much."

Mizuna spoke while shedding tears because she was worried.

"She used to stick to me calling me mom, mom since long ago, but she must be stubbornly refusing to come back. I’m sending 1 million yen a day as pocket money, so at least there won’t be a problem with living."

That’s right.

Penpen Neko was living as a homeless person, but she was a super diamond spoon.

"Since there is still a mountain of things to teach that child, when she returns, I think I need to readjust the education schedule for the time she was late."

The reason Penpen Neko left home and came to live as a homeless person could be guessed to some extent through Mizuna’s words.

She couldn’t stand the excessively strict Spartan-style education and ran away from home.

"But how long has it been since she ran away?"

"It seems it’s been over three months now."

"I see."

"I’ll contact you right away when my daughter returns."

"I understand."

When the story ended, Mizuna was guided by people and left riding a luxury limousine.

First, I figured out the current state with the documents in the mansion and the license in my wallet.

My total fortune was about 10 trillion yen, and about 7 trillion yen of it was tied up in Kujo Group stocks.

But looking at the documents, the Kujo Group’s dividends were quite good, and since it was related to Penpen Neko, it seemed I couldn’t pull it out.

The current mansion was entirely mine, and the employees employed didn’t look so bad, so I decided to just keep employing them.

And as for vehicles, there was a silver Ferrari Roma that I personally use and a black Lexus LM500h as a protocol vehicle driven by a chauffeur, and a Toyota Alphard for the employees.

But there was no yacht.

’Considering what I have, there isn’t much expenditure history.’

My mansion was located in an upscale residential area in Nyagamihara City, Kanagawa Prefecture.

Here, there was one interesting point.

Nyagamihara City is a beastman special zone, essentially no different from a beastman ghetto (a city where one race was forced to live).

Yet quite a lot of wealthy humans lived there, even forming an upscale residential area.

That means there are quite a lot of perverted rich humans who like beastmen here.

If not, there would be no reason to live in the beastman special zone, and everyone would have flocked to Tokyo, the center of commerce.

’What a worldview...’

Still, I understood to some extent.

On top of the beastman trait, there are many beauties.

And there was meaning in itself that these rich humans are settling in the beastman special zone.

Their money and influence not only provide jobs for beastmen, but also serve as a shield protecting beastmen.

Because the ’Chainsmoker Cat’ worldview is a place where discrimination against beastmen is quite severe.

Not only do they push beastmen into specific areas, but there is also a wage gap, and it is rampant to treat them virtually as second-class citizens.

Even socially important jobs like doctors, politicians, and judges are restricted by law so that beastmen cannot have them.

In such a society, rich humans who prefer beastmen settling in the beastman special zone and employing them is, beyond simply satisfying personal taste, also providing stable jobs and a living foundation for beastmen.

That doesn’t mean I don’t completely understand humans.

Because beastmen are generally more faithful to instinct than reason and are very weak to peripheral impulses, so they can’t properly self-manage.

In particular, smoking on the street and gathering in groups in smoking areas and chain-smoking, etc., behavior that undermines prestige and dignity and the surrounding environment is basic, and there are quite a lot of beastmen who don’t even wash properly and can’t resist committing various vulgar social problem behaviors like gambling, drugs, and drinking habits.

But there was one more fundamental problem between humans and beastmen.

If a child is born between a beastman and a human, that child is necessarily born as a beastman.

This was the biggest problem.

There were overwhelmingly more females than males among beastmen, and moreover, as mentioned earlier, there were many cases where their appearance was outstanding.

If this situation continues, as generations pass, the ratio of beastmen will increase, and in the extreme, there is even a possibility that humans will go extinct.

Of course, this cannot justify discrimination against beastmen.

But I thought that this biological characteristic had a big influence on humans coming to see beastmen as a potential social threat.

After figuring out the current situation to some extent, I created a secret space that can only be entered by teleportation in the basement of the mansion as usual.

And I installed a laptop equipped with artificial intelligence brought from the Marvel worldview there.

All remaining assets except for spare funds and Kujo Group stocks were entrusted to the artificial intelligence for management.

And then I went around Nyagamihara City once, checked the locations of the main places that appear in the original work, while also directly walking around various parts of the city.

As expected, beastmen seemed to be working a lot in the service industry.

Moreover, there were quite a lot of brothels like soaplands or prostitution establishments disguised as massage parlors, and there were many shops that looked unusual from the outside.

’With such beauty yet socially low status, it can’t be helped.’

I went around the neighborhood once like that and returned to the mansion and rested, and when the next day came, I purchased a used car.

It was a Benz V-Class 11-seater vehicle.

I thought this would be more than enough to carry all the people in the beastman apartment.

Of course, I restored it with the ability.[Restore]

Then I again rode the Ferrari Roma and slowly went up along the Nyagami River to find Penpen Neko.

At this time, Penpen Neko was picking up a tent and living homeless by the Nyagami River, so it seemed easy to find.

When I went up a little along the riverside road, a yellow tent was pitched by the riverside, and I could immediately tell it was Penpen Neko’s tent.

So I parked the car in a nearby parking lot and went to the tent.

Penpen was boiling something like grass in an old pot in front of the tent.

It seemed that was the meal.

"Huk! Jin?!"

When I approached the tent, Penpen found me and started running away like crazy.

It seemed she mistook it as her mother told me to catch her.

But she couldn’t possibly escape from me.

I immediately caught up to Penpen, grabbed her as if snatching, and then lifted her up as if doing a princess carry.

Penpen, like her mother, had purple hair in a hush cut.

Originally, she was a squinty-eyed character, but perhaps because she was surprised, her silver pupils were clearly revealed, and overall, she was a beauty with an intellectual atmosphere.

But perhaps because she was living homeless, her attire was quite shabby.

She was wearing a blue mottled rag, and on her head, she was wearing something that looked like a mountaineering hat of the same color.

Looking closely, it seemed she made it herself by patching cloth.

"Where are you running away like that? And why are you living homeless?"

"Le, let me go! There are circumstances here."

Penpen wriggled in my arms with her face red, so I put her down for now.

"Okay, good. Let’s hear the story first."

We returned to the tent and talked.

"So you ran away because your mother’s education was too hard?"

"Yeah. It was so hard I thought I was really going crazy."

"Still, isn’t it a bit much for a woman to be homeless alone? Besides, you’re barefoot. You have money from your allowance..."

"Th, that is... If I use the money in the bank account, I thought I’d be tracked by mom..."

Penpen hesitated for a moment and then suddenly bowed her head to me and desperately begged.

"Jin, please! Keep it a secret from mom. I don’t want to go through that hardship again! And I learned while living here. That when you abandon possessions and live befriending nature, there are things that finally become visible."

Finally, it came out.

Penpen Neko’s characteristic crappy philosophy.

She herself says she has an ideology that she just exists where there is nature and a spirit of non-possession, but I already knew.

That it’s just an excuse that plausibly packages her situation of being homeless.

In fact, this guy is an enormous coward and crybaby, and unexpectedly, also quite obsessed with material things.

"Oh, really? I saw you boiling grass soup, so I was going to buy you a meal. If you live befriending nature, there’s no need for that?"

At those words, Penpen was very flustered and started sweating and making excuses.

"... We, well... Sometimes it’s not bad to leave nature and eat worldly food."

I couldn’t help but chuckle at those words.

"Let’s go, I’ll buy you whatever you want to eat."

When I said that while getting up from my seat, Penpen followed with an extremely happy expression.

"Yeah."

We rode the Ferrari and headed to a yakiniku restaurant.

Because Penpen said she wanted to eat meat.

And as expected, as soon as we entered the store, the employee’s gaze turned to Penpen.

"Customer... Your attire is a bit..."

As expected, Penpen Neko’s attire was pointed out.

She got off a Ferrari in an attire no different from a homeless person and entered a yakiniku restaurant, so it was understandable that the employee would be concerned.

"Ah, we came from a play, so that’s why. There are circumstances, so I would appreciate your understanding."

I brushed it off nonchalantly.

"Ah, I see. I understand. Then I will guide you this way."

The employee nodded without much suspicion and guided us to our seats.

"Hehe, a play... This is almost an all-purpose excuse? I should use it sometimes too."

"No, there’s no need for that now. At least I’ll provide a place to rest and buy you clothes and sneakers and daily necessities. And I’ll give you some pocket money too. I can’t see my fiancée being homeless by the riverside. And the money I give you can’t be tracked."

When I did, Penpen’s face brightened.

"Th, that means you won’t tell mom?"

"Yeah. Instead, don’t be stubborn for no reason and just use what I give you."

"I got it. But can I choose the house? There is an apartment where my friends live. I want to go there."

It seems she is talking about the beastman apartment.

Penpen seemed to have already become acquainted with the group in the beastman apartment while being homeless.

Thinking about it, that makes sense.

The place where Penpen is homeless is close to the beastman apartment, and even in the original, there were often scenes where she collected cigarette butts and gave them to Yanineko, so it seemed she naturally became close.

I rather thought it was good.

Because I was worrying about how to bring Penpen to the beastman house.

"Munch munch, so delicious! Cows are truly great!"

"Eat slowly. You’ll choke."

Penpen started eating hurriedly as soon as the meat was grilled.

It seemed she hadn’t had a proper meal for a while.

’As expected, all that talk about nature and whatever was all bullshit.’

Where did the appearance of talking about non-possession and living with nature until just now go, seeing her rush at the meat in front of her eyes, she was indeed the Penpen Neko I knew.

Besides, what on earth did she pick up and eat by the river, there were even parasites inside her body.

It seemed she had been catching and eating frogs or insects without discrimination.

So while Penpen was eating, I removed the parasites inside her body using.[Telekinesis]

The corpses of the parasites will be naturally excreted from the body as poop later, so there won’t be a big problem.

"Phew... I ate so well."

"I’m glad you ate well. Let’s go, I’ll buy you dessert too."

"Oh! Ice cream would be nice!"

We bought ice cream like that and ate it, then returned to the tent where Penpen Neko stayed for a while and packed her things.

But when we actually organized it, there wasn’t much that could be called luggage.

All there was was an old tent and a lantern and the old pot where she had boiled grass soup earlier.

After packing all the luggage, Penpen looked at the riverside once with tears welling in her eyes.

"I’ll miss this place. Take care, my home!"

She said seriously like a person leaving a hometown where she had spent a long time together, but I was a bit dumbfounded.

She just had no choice but to be homeless for a few months, but she’s acting like a person saying goodbye to a home where she lived a lifetime.

Anyway, we packed our luggage and moved to the beastman apartment.

"Whoa... Who on earth is the incredibly handsome man next to Penpen? And it’s a Ferrari..."

"Th, that is... My fiancé..."

Eeeh!!!???