“Halt!”

Why hello there, Mr. guard and his friends.

Why are you pointing your spear at us?

Do you perhaps think we are the criminals?

“What is it? We are in a hurry!”

Yeah, you tell them Ignis.

I want to wrap this up and go back to sleep already.

“Y-you are all under arrest! If you resist, we will use force!”

Yep, he thinks we’re the criminals.

What a pain…

Ugh, what should I do now?

As I thought of how to best handle this, Deliah, of all people, stepped forward.

“Stop! I am Deliah Heinzel, daughter of the Heinzel family.”

Oh, I almost forgot you were a noble girl.

How nice…

We can make use of that now.

“Wh- Heinzel family, you say?!”

“These people aren’t the criminals. In fact, they are actively working to catch the real culprits.”

Deliah turns at me and points at the unconscious trio I’m carrying.

“Is that so…”

C’mon, why do you keep doubting her?

Can’t you just get out of the way already?

“… but where are your guards, young lady? Don’t tell me those kids…”

“You dare doubt our abilities?! I’ll have you know, I’m the great fire mage, Ignis!”

Ah there she goes again.

This is going to be such a headache…

“Ignis…? You mean, the Iza dungeon conqueror…? Isn’t she supposed to be tall and have large rack?”

“Kch! Those are all false rumo-!”

“Yeah, you could be her younger sister or a daughter at best…”

“What?! How dare-”

“Ah, maybe she just looks up to the real Ignis and likes pretending to be her-”

“That’s it you pieces of-”

Argh!

Stop it!

All of you!

I had enough!

I thought there might be some hope, seeing how the inn guests reacted.

But no!

This is the standard, isn’t it?

This always has to happen!

“H-huh…?”

What?

Are you surprised how quickly I placed down these three and pacified you with a hug?

Don’t underestimate my speed.

“Stop it.”

Her body shook as I whispered into her ear.

“And you too. You are wasting our time.”

I release Ignis and look at the guard group in front of us.

Some of them make a step back.

“H-hey… those are fake cat ears.”

“Isn’t she that kid from the rumors?”

“The quick ogre subjugation?”

“Her name was Nina, wasn’t it?”

More useless chatter.

“Yes that’s me. Now get out of the way before I-”

…

Now it’s my turn to get pacified by a hug.

“… what are you doing?”

“You’re starting to look really scary you know?”

What are you talking about, you useless gorilla?

And why is Veras touching my head?

“… I can’t drain it away. You have to calm down by yourself.”

What’s that supposed to mean?

…

Status…

Name: Nina

Level: 15

Strength: 28/32

Endurance: 30/33

Speed: 41/45

Magic: 26/26

Equipment:

Kat underwear

Kat dress

Kat ear headband

Kat gloves

Kat slippers

Enchanted handbag

Skills:

Cat soul+ (Panther soul on)

9 lives

Special:

Blessing of the Kat

I see…

Panther soul turned on somehow.

So that’s why you all seem like good-for-nothings worth less than a pile of dust now.

…

Well then…

Should I find a way to turn it off…

Or should I just find the curse guy and finish him off while in this state?

The answer is…

“Don’t tell me what to do.”

I escaped from Mable’s hug by merging with the shadows.

Veras almost caught me and used his sleep skill on me, but somehow, I was quicker.

I skipped past the guard group and spoke to everyone without materializing.

“I’m going on ahead. I’ll return with that guy’s head.”

A series of panicked yells followed.

However, nobody knew which way to look.

I was perfectly hidden within the shadows.

The night stealth perk from panther soul probably helped too.

Well then, with that useless bunch out of the way, it’s time to finish this.

From what Veras said, there should be one more escaped prisoner, as well as Spectre and the curse guy.

Now, unless shadow magic can hit fog, which I doubt, I can’t do anything about Spectre.

And the last prisoner’s abilities are unknown.

That means my sole target is the curse guy.

The one behind everything up until now.

…

I said I would bring back his head.

But I have a fair few questions for him.

So cutting off or breaking his limbs will have to do for now.

…

Hmm…

I’m making progress controlling myself in this form.

I even decided to not kill my enemy right away.

How nice of me.

…

A little while later, I discover the cat base entrance.

Or what’s left of it anyway.

Those criminals sure didn’t lose any time trying to figure out how to properly open this.

Appreciated.

It saves up time and mana for me now.

Let’s go inside.

My body slides inside the shadow once again and I head down into the cat base.

As soon as I reach the main hub, where the cat choir once welcomed me, I materialized.

Hmm…

So not all the prisoners escaped, huh?

I can still sense many of them in the prison area.

Though, one is on the other side of this base.

That must be the last escapee.

As for the curse guy…

It’s hard to tell.

There are many unknown scents around here.

Other than him, these could simply be random people who entered this place on accident after discovering the entrance.

I guess I’ll have to check each and every one of them.

I dive back into the shadows and begin my search.

On my way through the labyrinth that is the cat base, I meet several groups of armed people.

Some of them look like typical city guards while others are probably adventurers or mercenaries.

Of course, I don’t stop to talk to any of them.

And since I’m in the shadows, nobody even took notice of me.

Other than these groups, there are many unconscious cats littered all over the place.

What a mess.

Most of them seem to still be alive, but I can’t be bothered to check.

My goal is to take down the curse guy.

I haven’t met him in person yet, but I should be able to tell who he is from the descriptions given by Ignis.

…

Short brown hair.

Half-closed brown eyes.

Looks around eighteen years old.

Wearing a black cloak.

Surrounded in fog.

That’s him, isn’t it?

Exactly the edgy appearance I imagined.

Well then…

I don’t think he noticed me yet.

So the element of surprise is on my side.

I materialize behind him and form a fist with my left hand.

A full powered punch aimed at his left shoulder follows.

“GAAAAAAAH?!”

He neither dodged, nor blocked it.

This resulted in him flying through the room in a spinning motion and falling onto his back.

But I wasn’t done yet.

Accumulating mana in the claws on my right hand, I stabbed at his other shoulder and shot through it.

His screams intensified as his eyes teared up and his face paled.

“M-MAAASTER?!”

Out of the fog came the naked little girl for the third time now.

She kneeled down by the crippled ‘master’ and fell into a panicked state.

Since she didn’t pay any attention to me, I decided to attack her as well.

A shadow magic shot aimed at her bent knees.

It hit without any problems and she joined her loved one in his screaming performance.

But that only lasted a second before she turned at me with a mixture of anger and fear in her expression.

“Y-youuuuuuu!”

She turned back into a fog after that and surrounded me.

In reaction to that, I retreated back into the shadows.

With that, neither one of us could attack the other.

…

But…

After observing the fog into which she turned, I noticed a part of it seemed darker than the rest.

It reminded me of the black spots I left on the ogre I attacked with shadow magic.

So that’s how it is…

Maybe she isn’t as invincible as Ignis said.

Jumping out of the shadows again, I concentrated more shadow magic and shot slightly above the black spot.

A pained yelp followed and another black spot appeared in the fog.

A few seconds later, Spectre materialized holding her side and sitting on the ground.

There was only fear in her expression now.

…

Argh…

It’s over…

I’m out of mana.

…

I’ve really done it now, haven’t I?

Sure, the final boss went down without any problems but…

…

Better at controlling myself in that form…?

Which idiot said that?!