83 – 16 – Species Alliance – 3

“Nyah! Is this cat abuse?!”

The creature cried out noisily even as it was carried into the room, dangling from Gi-jun’s hand.

“Is a bad, burning monster bullying a good cat, nya!”

“If you keep making a fuss, you might get arrested for trespassing.”

“Nyah…”

The Cait Sith froze in place like a cat wearing a doll costume.

Only after entering the room where no one could disturb them did Gi-jun throw the Cait Sith onto the floor and shove his face close as he asked,

“Now, tell me what you wanted from us that made you come here.”

His eyes, fixed on the Cait Sith, seemed to burn fiercely because of the mask, making the creature shrink back endlessly.

The Cait Sith shrank back in an atmosphere where it could not possibly joke that it had simply run into his party by chance while out playing.

“Ugh…”

“Now, now, there, there.”

Then.

Scintilla said as she stroked the head of the Cait Sith, which had frozen up after meeting Gi-jun’s eyes,

“Don’t bully the cute cat so much, Jun.”

“Nya, nyaa.”

“You should wake up from your hallucination now.”

Rodim, the Red Flame Beast who had been sitting quietly on Gi-jun’s shoulder until now, sighed and crossed over to her shoulder, tapping its master’s cheek.

However, even that was of no use.

“Ah, Rodiiim. Are you jealous? You’re so cute.”

—Kooo…

Sighing at the sight of its master hugging both the Cait Sith and itself while rubbing her cheeks against them, Rodim cast a look at Gi-jun, pleading with him to do something.

He shrugged his shoulders and called Lucy.

‘It’s possible, right?’

—Of course. It seems this woman’s magic resistance is extremely low because her mind is out of it…

Considering that Unica had been freed from the hallucination as soon as Gi-jun grabbed her, it was a very serious state that Scintilla, who was a stronger ability user than her, could not break free from the hallucination on her own.

However, once Lucy’s spirit power was infused, it did not take long for Scintilla to regain her senses.

Once freed from the hallucination, she blinked a few times, carefully put the Cait Sith down on the floor, and bowed her head to Gi-jun.

“I made a fool of myself. It was just such a cute cat.”

“I’m sorry for tricking you, nya… The Cait Sith’s hallucination is quite strong, but it doesn’t last very long, so it’s strange, nya.”

“No need for apologies, just tell me your purpose now.”

Finally, the atmosphere became one where they could manage to have a conversation.

When Gi-jun, leaning back on the sofa in the hotel room, spoke with a sigh, the Cait Sith cleared its throat, climbed onto a nearby table, and spoke.

“Actually… I came here because I wanted to know about the request you received, nya.”

“You’re a member of the Demander. Why don’t you go and ask them directly?”

“The problem is that I can’t do that, which is why I’m here, nya…! Those bastards are moving forward with this faction war while excluding us Cait Siths, nya!”

As expected.

He had suspected something fishy ever since one of the five representative seats was left vacant.

When Gi-jun faced it with a serious expression, the Cait Sith, gaining courage from it, slammed its tail against the floor and asserted.

“This faction war makes no sense in many ways, nya! It’s a scam, nya!”

“Go on.”

“The Sabers only joined the alliance not too long ago, nya! Originally, the Cait Siths should have been in that spot, nya!”

“But how did they end up participating in the faction war instead of the Cait Siths? The Cait Siths are one of the five species representing the alliance. Logically, there’s no reason for you to be pushed out.”

“That’s…”

The Cait Sith’s explanation that followed was simple.

Originally, the Cait Siths were on the weaker side within the alliance, but they were able to become one of the five representatives based on the combat power and achievements of the guild master of the Cait Sith species guild, ‘Imagine’.

However, this guild master of the Cait Siths was such an inflexible person that they were often at odds with the other representatives.

The other representatives, who had never liked him anyway, planned the faction war during his long-term absence on a mission in order to screw him and the Cait Siths over.

And, as if it were only natural, they excluded the Cait Siths and shoved the Sabers—who had only joined the alliance a few years ago—into that spot.

“The Cait Siths were originally supported by a small number of elite, including our captain, nya. But since the captain took most of those elites on a mission, those of us left in the alliance became nothing but empty husks, nya!”

“It sounds plausible enough, but one thing bothers me. The goblin representative, Honeypup, said that the Sabers participated in the faction war without knowing their place.”

“Which makes it even better for them, nya.”

The Cait Sith said as it stroked the white fur on its chest.

“Wouldn’t the goblins need weak competitors to win the faction war, nya? Those bastards only have to deal with the trolls, nya! This faction war is a stage completely driven by the goblins, nya!”

“…Hearing it now, that makes sense.”

The Sabers were a species that had recently appeared on the continent of Leta a few years ago.

They were presumed to all come from a single civilization, and in fact, they moved in a tight-knit group and cleverly hid who their species representative was.

Although the guild master of the species guild, ‘Hide’, existed, he was nothing but a figurehead put forward to conceal the actual power in charge.

“Those bastards have clearly given up on winning the civilization war and decided to survive on this continent for as long as possible, nya. They stepped into the species alliance just to pick up whatever crumbs they could get, nya.”

“I must say, they used their heads well for the survival of their civilization.”

“Perhaps they’ve already sided with the goblins, nya. For such trashy bastards to take the place of our brave Cait Siths—it makes me so resentful and bitter that I can’t sleep, nya…”

Well, looking at the Cait Sith in front of him, it didn’t seem like this species could win against the goblins and trolls even if they did participate in the faction war.

As Gi-jun’s eyes narrowed, the Cait Sith snorted and said.

“I know what you’re thinking, nya. But the elite Cait Sith knight order led by our captain is different, nya! If only Lord Boots, who leads us from the front, were here, the Cait Siths could defeat all goblins or trolls, and even win the territory war, nya!”

“But you said he’s not here right now.”

“That is true, nya… Ugh, if only our captain’s return hadn’t been delayed like this, we would never have suffered such humiliation, nya…”

“Aren’t you contacting him? You must have a Letaphone.”

“I contacted him long ago, but he won’t listen, saying he has to finish the job he took on first, nya…”

Indeed, he seemed to be a damn stubborn person.

Perhaps depending on the result of this faction war, a great change would come to the species guild alliance.

However, that was strictly a matter for the Demander and the Cait Siths to resolve.

“So, what is it you want to do? From what I’ve heard, it’s already a ship that has sailed for you guys anyway.”

“That is not the case, nya.”

The Cait Sith, who had been slouched, sprang up and its eyes sparkled.

“If we push back the faction war itself, we will have a chance again, nya! Once the captain and the knight order return, we can push out those Saber bastards and participate in the faction war, nya!”

“Is that possible?”

“It is possible because there is plenty of room in the territory war schedule, nya! Those damn goblin bastards lobbied the nobles to secretly move up the faction war schedule just to bypass us Cait Siths, nya!”

Although the more he listened, the more prejudices against goblins seemed to pile up, Gi-jun decided to take it with a grain of salt.

Gi-jun did not even know what kind of species the Cait Siths were yet.

Of course, Honeypup, the goblin representative, kept trying to coax him and irritated Unica, but he should not be so quick to conclude that the entire goblin species was evil based on that alone.

“Even if you go out to the street and grab anyone to ask, they will tell you, nya—that originally, the Cait Siths were supposed to participate in this Demander’s faction war, nya!”

Right, at least that part seemed to be a fact.

Moreover, it was suspicious to hold a major event within the alliance while one of the representatives was absent, and if there was a way to delay the faction war for the sake of fairness…

Feeling his heart lean toward the Cait Sith’s side, Gi-jun clicked his tongue.

The path of a superhuman who acts according to his own standards without being swept away by prejudice was indeed this difficult.

But wouldn’t even Mr. Nietzsche prefer a cute cat over an ugly goblin who did nothing but irritate people?

“What do you think, Unica?”

“If you are speaking with trust in the horn on my forehead,”

Unica, a descendant of the Monoceros-kin who possessed the ability to distinguish good from evil like nymphs, stroked the horn on her forehead that was emitting a faint glow and said in a calm voice.

“I can tell you that they are at least more trustworthy than the goblins. If there is no harm to us, why not discuss it further?”

“If you think so too…”

Seeing Gi-jun finally nod, the Cait Sith’s eyes sparkled as it lunged toward him.

“Explain the faction war to me, nya. If I hear about it, maybe a method will come to mind, nya!”

“That might be true, but, hm. How can I trust you?”

Due to the existence of the magic contract, he was restricted from speaking to others about the details of the faction war.

Of course, since it was impossible to keep it a secret from everyone, he could share it to some extent with those who had a deep relationship with him, but he was by no means in such a relationship with the Cait Sith in front of him.

“Grrr, it can’t be helped, nya…! If it’s necessary anyway, the timing is now, nya.”

After agonizing over it for a long time, the Cait Sith finally sighed and said,

“Give me shoes, nya.”

“Shoes?”

“Shoes, nya. Since I am not yet qualified to wear boots, give me low shoes, nya.”

“A cat in low shoes, not boots…”

Gi-jun felt as if he understood what this Cait Sith wanted to say.

Although he had not personally read the original work by French fairy tale writer Charles Perrault, with a bit of exaggeration, about half of the world’s population would remember the cute image of ‘Puss in Boots’ looking up with wide, sparkling eyes.

A cat that spoke human tongue, helped its master with witty actions, and even devoured a shapeshifting monster—an ogre—by making it turn into a mouse.

There were also many rumors that the cat had drawn its motif from the Cait Sith.

And that meant…

“Are you saying you want to become my subordinate right now?”

At those words, the Cait Sith wore a startled expression.

“You figured it out quickly, nya. This is a traditional ritual passed down only among us Cait Siths, nya.”

“No, do you really have to go that far just to hear it? Even if you hear it, we might not come up with a way.”

“As long as it can help our species, I don’t care about sacrificing my own body, nya!”

However… to be completely honest, he did not think this cat would be of much help.

Yet, the Cait Sith’s attitude was stubborn, so Gi-jun had no choice but to hand it a pair of sneakers that happened to be in his inventory.

They were made of divine beast leather.

“Such a good item?!”

“Jun-nim…?!”

Not to mention the Cait Sith who received it, even Unica was shocked.

Gi-jun shrugged his shoulders and made an excuse.

“After finishing all the requested items, they said there was a tiny scrap of leather left over and told me to just keep it, so I had them make this. It’s a relief that someone who fits the size finally showed up.”

“I see…”

Responding in a convinced tone, Unica quietly stared at the tiny sneakers in the Cait Sith’s hand.

For some reason, she looked envious.

Come to think of it, her eyes had sparkled even while looking at Gin and Laura’s equipment made of divine beast leather…

Although it was not visible on the outside, Gi-jun was also wearing a newly made undergarment under his armor using the leather of the divine beast, Hati.

“…Unica? If I catch a divine beast next time, should I make a pair of shoes for you too?”

“Thank you just for the words. …But you said something similar at the workshop last time as well, as if you have already set your eyes on the next divine beast to hunt.”

“…”

“Jun-nim?”

While Gi-jun exercised his right to remain silent, the Cait Sith, who stood completely on two legs after putting on the sneakers, hopped up and down on the desk, its eyes widening with joy.

“I didn’t expect you to give me such a great gift, nya! Master, thank you so much, nya!”

“There’s no need to call me master. And can you really not do anything about that sentence ending?”

“That is impossible, nya. Oh, my name is Nabi, nya!”

It was a name that sounded like it would be given to a real cat.

The moment the creature put on the shoes Gi-jun had given it and revealed its name, he felt something connect between him and the creature, similar to when he contracted with a spirit.

Wondering if this was a spiritual connection that he could feel because he handled spiritual power, he also took off his mask and revealed his real name to the creature.

“Right, Nabi, nya. I am Gi-jun.”

“So you weren’t a burning monster, nya?! And my name is not Nabi-nya, nya! It’s Nabi, nya!”

“Right, Nabi, nya.”

“Nyahhh! It’s not Nabi-nya, it’s Nabi, nya!”

“It sounds exactly the same…”

It seemed the creature itself was also suffering from its unique speech habit.

Realizing that the restrictions of the magic contract did not apply to Nabi, Gi-jun immediately explained the details of the faction war to it.

“Hmm, hmm… It seems there are quite a few loopholes, nya.”

After hearing the explanation, Nabi nodded, its eyes sparkling.

“The condition that ‘outsiders’ cannot approach the ‘battlefield’ while the faction war is taking place is especially so, nya. Doesn’t this mean we can pull tricks from a long distance, nya?”

“Are you a demon, not a cat?”

“But even if we snipe them one by one from a distance, we’ll just get caught quickly and that’ll be the end of it, nya. We need a scheme to fundamentally flip the board, nya…”

After thinking for a moment, Nabi’s eyes sparkled again.

“How about tampering with the teleportation devices they will wear, nya? We can cause them to malfunction like crazy, forcing everyone to be teleported away before they can even properly start the faction war, nya!”

“Then the faction war wouldn’t be the only issue. They would immediately hunt down the one who broke them and hang you.”

“Would I get caught already, nya!”

As Gi-jun was thinking that it might be better to take the shoes back from Nabi and throw it out since it couldn’t think of any good plans despite listening to the faction war details in exchange for its loyalty,

“Hmm. If the issue can be resolved by not having a winner in the faction war, how about this method?”

Unica opened her mouth hesitantly.

“It is a method that would place a heavy burden on you, Jun-nim, but it is also something I have been thinking about since I first heard the explanation of the faction war…”

* * *

—Kuoooooooo!

At the roar filled with killing intent released by the ogre, which was so extremely ferocious and powerful that it was even called the king of land monsters, the damage dealers of the various parties gathered to raid it tumbled onto the ground all at once.

“This bastard, ugh…! Its ‘Battle Cry’ type skill is at least Unique grade!”

Someone shouted, but such information was of no help in defeating the beast.

“Unbelievable, my body… my body won’t move!”

—Kuaaa!

The muscular monster, nearly four meters in height, turned the nearby warriors into heaps of blood all at once with a punch packed with terrifying power, and roared once again.

“Should the reserve unit step forward? Or would you like to try a bit more?”

At Ye-min’s quietly spoken words as she watched from behind, the heavy-armored beastman mercenary overseeing the main force of the ogre raid ground his teeth.

He was a man who did not like Ye-min’s party, which had been actively performing and accumulating achievements here and there with the full support of the guild, and had tried his best to exclude them from this raid.

In the ogre raid that was originally supposed to be faced by four parties working together, he had insisted that the three parties that had ‘long-term activity’ and accumulated achievements in the guild were enough, succeeding in pushing Ye-min’s party to the reserves, but…

—Kuaaaaa!

“Arghhh! This bastard is a title holder! It’s a named monster!”

“It’s much stronger than we assumed, save me—!”

As one could see, the three parties were being torn apart one after another due to the rampaging ogre.

The reasons for their defeat were that the ogre was exceptionally strong even among its kind, and that it possessed many unexpected skills.

Realizing that they would truly face annihilation at this rate, the raid leader gritted his teeth and shouted.

“Damn it… get in there! Right now!”

“Just like that?”

“What?”

And from this point on, the real fight for Ye-min’s party began.

“You wanted to exclude us from battle earlier, but now that the main force is in danger, you tell us to fight? The situation has changed, so the terms must change as well.”

“Terms? What are you talking about?”

“We will take all of the ogre’s byproducts.”

“That is absolute nonsense!”

“If you say so.”

Ye-min immediately pulled her companions and retreated far away.

The man shouted in panic for her to step forward, but the ogre reached him before she did.

Already, half of the raid force that participated in the raid was rolling on the floor, and half of those had departed on the road of no return.

Since the remaining half whose feet were still planted on the ground were not in very good condition either, it was clear how terrible of a monster this ogre they were facing was, far exceeding their imagination.

“The guild probably attached us because they thought the raid would fail without our party.”

“We learned to the point of sickness in the tutorial that when dealing with monsters, one must focus only on the monster. I guess they didn’t even undergo the tutorial.”

Ye-min sneered and replied to Mok-su’s muttering in a pathetic tone.

Eun-shin, who was watching the battlefield with them, suddenly muttered.

“Would things have been different if we had joined the place called the Union?”

At those words, Ye-min also recalled Choi Kang—the man who had visited their guild not long ago and strongly urged them to join the human-only guild called ‘Union’.

Since they were already doing well with the support of the Mercenary Guild, there was no need to take unreasonable risks, so they had rejected him flatly. However, remembering that man who looked at them with distrusting eyes…

She still could only think that he was an idiot.

“Hphm, those guys must be even worse. The ones who uselessly stoke a sense of kinship and emphasize group consciousness are always the worst.”

“And that guy who was easily fooled by it was a fool.”

“It seems both of you still have bad feelings toward Mr. Choi Kang…”

“I just don’t easily trust someone else simply because they are of the same species as me.”

Giggling as he saw Ye-min answer immediately, Mok-su asked her.

“But is it really okay to stay like this? If those guys die, we are next.”

“We can win. It’s not like those guys are dying without doing anything.”

No matter how exceptionally strong the ogre was, it did not mean the raid force was unable to inflict any damage.

The problem was that the raid force was shedding far more blood compared to what the ogre was bleeding.

“If we could have taken down the beast with just our party, we wouldn’t have had to do such a bothersome thing.”

“That’s wonderful. Oh, it looks like the raid leader is about to surrender soon.”

“Damn it… I’ll give you everything, I said I’ll give you everything!”

The moment she heard those words, Ye-min smiled with satisfaction and turned off the magic tool she had brought from the guild.

It was a magic tool that measured the damage dealt to the raid target by each party to fairly divide the share of the monster, and from this moment on, it was no longer needed.

“Shin-ah, go get the signatures.”

“Understood.”

Eun-shin, holding the magic contract, immediately ran out and went around collecting signatures from the surviving raid members.

They ground their teeth upon realizing that Ye-min’s party had been prepared for this situation from the beginning, but since they were the ones who had tried to trap them first, they had no choice but to sign.

What kind of expression would they make if she told them that the guild had actually anticipated this situation and prepared the magic contract for them?

It was a secret, of course.

—Kuooooo!

“I can’t block it for long—!”

There was no way the ogre would leave the humans alone as they suddenly stopped fighting to sign papers, but the one who drew its attention after provoking the beast was none other than Mok-su.

Although Mok-su, who was still of Uncommon grade, was no better than the other tanks fighting alongside him in terms of level and grade alone, because he was clad in good equipment brought from the second round of the tutorial and covered in high-grade defensive skills, his defense was raised to an incomparable level!

“Five seconds is enough!”

Ye-min replied briefly and leaped.

Activating ‘all’ of the Legendary-grade skills she possessed.

Since the ogre’s health was already below half, pouring all of her resources into leaving it half-dead was a simple matter.

“Die—!”

Ye-min’s longsword, rushing forward while emitting a brilliant light, tore through more than half of the thick neck of the ogre that was attacking Mok-su in an instant.

The moment the survivors opened their eyes wide in collective shock at the result achieved by the slender swordsman holding only a single sword, which was like a needle compared to the ogre’s body—

“Hup!”

Eun-shin, who had finished collecting signatures before they knew it, appeared behind the ogre and slashed the remaining half of its neck with all his might.

As the thick black energy rising above his dagger sliced through the ogre’s neck, the massive ogre’s head surprisingly floated up into the air.

“What… such ridiculous power…”

“Humans… there is no way. They can’t be human, they must be at least Unique-grade…”

The survivors muttered with their mouths wide open.

However, even though she had succeeded in resolving the situation in an instant, Ye-min’s heart was not at ease.

‘If I could have killed the ogre without leaving any room for others to interfere, I wouldn’t have had to play such useless tricks.’

The mercenaries here were merely active at the level of a small city.

She could not be satisfied with merely landing the final blow on the ogre.

She had to become stronger.

Even for the sake of the day when she would be with Gi-jun again, she absolutely had to.