Chapter 2174: The Waiting Cat

Chapter 2174: Chapter 2174: The Waiting Cat

The cat’s opening its mouth to speak really startled Shard and Mr. Benhart, and its voice sounded like that of an underage girl.

Mr. Benhart gave Shard a questioning look, asking what was going on, but Shard didn’t know either:

"Sorry, so you knew we were here from the very beginning?"

he asked the cat.

"This is the only weird place around here, isn’t this what you were looking for?"

The cat raised its head and looked up at Shard as it spoke.

"So you actually have nothing to do with this place? You’re not a victim here, and you’re not an accomplice of these people?"

The cat licked its paw:

"When my corpse entered the sewers, you probably hadn’t even been born, and the person beside you was probably not even twenty. I only know about this place; I have nothing to do with them. You’re very capable people, you should be able to help me, so I led you here. Now can you help me? Let’s set off right away."

Shard exchanged another glance with the Vampire Viscount:

"Sorry, I’m not quite sure how to put this. Let me put it this way: do you know what your situation is right now?"

The cat nodded:

"I know, I’m already dead, and I’m very powerful. I’ve been wandering in the sewer pipes for more than twenty years."

It spoke very bluntly. After speaking, it lowered its head again to lick its fur, and the fur changed direction with the motion of its tongue. For an ordinary cat, this detail of fur shifting would be normal, but for a soul, it was yet another sign of a powerful Wraith Spirit manifesting physically.

"How did you end up like this?"

Shard asked again, and the cat in his arms grew a bit impatient:

"Humans are such a hassle. I helped you, so you should help me—how is that not right? If you want to ask questions, I’ll tell you after you’ve helped me."

It suddenly darted from Shard’s arms onto his shoulder, then settled down there comfortably:

"We’re leaving now. Humans are such a hassle."

Shard exchanged another look with Mr. Benhart. Shard gave a slight nod, and Mr. Benhart asked one last question:

"I’m very curious, why are you asking us for help instead of someone else? You’ve been in the sewers for so many years, there’s no way we’re the only ones you’ve met."

"Because he looks pleasing to the eye, like a good person."

The cat patted Shard’s shoulder, and Mr. Benhart understood.

What the cat wanted the two of them to help with was very simple. Though it was powerful, it couldn’t leave the sewers, and it wanted to go up to the surface to see someone, so it needed the help of someone "capable" like Shard.

Just from its description, Shard and Mr. Benhart understood that it was bound to a limited area by its own Corpse, so as long as they moved the Corpse, it could fulfill its wish.

The cat’s own story was simple. More than twenty years ago, one day, it was run over by a carriage on the street and then thrown into the Taton River. Its body drifted along with the current and somehow ended up in the sewers. At first its soul-consciousness was very blurry, and only after many years did it gain the abilities it had now.

And its Corpse was still in the sewers even now, so Shard and Mr. Benhart temporarily sealed up that secret passage and followed it out. When it led Shard and Mr. Benhart through the pipes to find the Corpse, the two of them saw that the cat’s body, now only half a skeleton, was covered over with a few stones.

"This is..."

"I brought those stones myself. Don’t humans always cover Corpses with stones and earth? So I have to do the same."

The cat said this.

Because they didn’t know whom this cat wanted to find or what it would do after finding that person, and considering that its nature was still that of a powerful Wraith Spirit, Shard and Mr. Benhart decided to accompany it to the surface. The black cat’s soul was very happy and kept praising Shard and Mr. Benhart as both being "very good" Humans.

The cat gave them a specific address. The place wasn’t far from here, a street-facing apartment building in the north of the city. Even under the Sun, the powerful cat Wraith Spirit felt no discomfort—perhaps this had something to do with the sky over Moon Bay City being perpetually shrouded in black fog. Crouching on Shard’s shoulder as they came out onto the street, people only thought it was an ordinary cat.

"Number 16, Martyr’s Alley, this is the place."

Following the address, they found the building, an unremarkable three‑story apartment block that had nothing special about it even in the prosperous Moon Bay.

Shard, with the Wraith Cat on his back, stood behind while Mr. Benhart went to knock on the door. The one who opened it was a slightly plump woman wearing a headscarf. Mr. Benhart spoke with her politely for a while, then withdrew back to the street and said:

"The Denver family moved away 12 years ago."

"They moved away, huh..."

The black cat said in a daze, and Shard immediately covered its mouth and glanced around. Fortunately, no one was looking its way:

"You just promised us you wouldn’t talk."

"Don’t worry. Even though it’s been so many years, the people living here now still know where their family moved to. I think we’ll have to walk a bit more."

Mr. Benhart added.

"If it’s very far, you don’t have to come with me."

The cat answered dejectedly, but Shard and Mr. Benhart still wanted to stay with it.

They found a carriage again at the street corner and set off once more, this time heading from the north of the city all the way southwest, getting off on "Williamette Street," which was separated from the Dock Area by just one street.

This was a typical middle-class residential district of Moon Bay City. On both sides of the street stood neatly lined detached houses with gardens, and the lawn in front of each house was trimmed very evenly. On a Tuesday afternoon, the place was all peace and quiet. If not for their decent clothes and bearing, these two strangers—Shard and Mr. Benhart—would likely have immediately drawn the suspicious gazes of the neighborhood residents.

Their destination this time was No. 9 Williamette Street, but unfortunately both the yard gate and the front door were locked, and Shard didn’t hear any heartbeat from inside the house.

"Seems like no one’s home."

Shard said, and Mr. Benhart also looked inside:

"We’re at the right place. That woman just now said that the Denver family’s daughter married a man with the surname Mahat, and look, that’s the name on the plaque. Looks like this family’s doing quite well. The house has been freshly painted, and they definitely hire someone to trim the lawn. I can see a piano through the window, and the doorbell on the front door is the real high-end kind."

"I can wait here by myself, you two..."

The cat spoke again, but Shard and Mr. Benhart refused in unison:

"We’ll stay with you."

So they simply used the Illusion Technique to hide their figures and stood together in front of that door, chatting. Of course, it was mainly Shard and Mr. Benhart trying to find out just who exactly this Miss Denver was that the cat was looking for.

"She’s obviously my owner, my little Angel Janet!"

When it got onto this topic, the black cat’s eyes practically sparkled:

"She’s the cutest child in this whole World, even cuter than you can imagine. My mother gave birth to me in a trash bin in an alley, and in that winter she went to that very faraway place that I still haven’t been able to reach. My brothers and sisters all went their own ways afterwards, and Little Janet found me huddled against the wall in the Heavy Snow, and then I had a new home."

Although its tone was cheerful, both Shard and Mr. Benhart knew this was actually a very sad story.

"From then on, Little Janet and I lived together, and my responsibility was to protect her and keep her company as she grew up. Human cubs are, most of the time, even more mischievous than kitten cubs, so this wasn’t an easy job, and I spent a lot of Time with her. But I really liked those days—we read together, slept together, ran across the lawn together, and waited at the table for dinner together..."

This time it definitely wasn’t a misconception—the Wraith Cat’s eyes really were shining:

"But Human cubs always grow up very fast. I thought she would always need my company and protection, would always need me to play with her. Yet one day, while I had my head down counting the ants on the ground, Little Janet’s mother asked her what she was going to do in a bit. She didn’t come play with me; instead, she went into the study to read. So when I looked up at her, she had suddenly grown up."

The cat tried to stand up, spreading its front paws to indicate "grown up." Since they were in an Illusion Technique Invisibility state, Shard didn’t stop it. This was a cat’s strange metaphor; it wasn’t a complete transformation of body and soul like a Witch’s awakening, just a child becoming sensible.

Shard pressed his lips together, feeling his mood grow inexplicably heavy. When he glanced over, that Vampire Viscount had a similar expression on his face:

"So that’s how a Pet Cat sees its Human owner... What happened after that?"

"After that? After that, life just went on! Little Janet grew up and no longer needed me with her all the time. I had more free Time, and she still wanted to play with me."

The black cat was still speaking excitedly in a Human girl’s voice:

"I just lay on the house’s windowsill like that, watching her walk back and forth in front of me, waiting for those moments when she occasionally remembered me. She grew taller and taller, her hair got longer and longer, and she also had more and more worries. But what could I do? I was just a cat."

Shard felt his mood sink even further. It was almost dusk now; a faint afterglow hung at the edge of the sky, and the black cat illuminated by that evening Light had a strange sheen upon its fur.

"But Little Janet never forgot me, because when she was still a child, she made a promise with me, that I would always stay by her side. So the big tree grew bare and then filled with leaves again, and the leaves fell like beautiful Butterflies and left it bare again. One day, I went out for a stroll after a good meal, just like always, and then I died."

As it spoke, it even let out a "meow~." Unlike the two men with their lips pressed tight, the black cat’s face didn’t show any sadness:

"It was really amazing. In that Instant, I suddenly understood where my mother had gone in the winter I was born. She never abandoned me; just like me, she was forced to leave the ones she loved."