A fat cat walked through the streets of Coastal City. Apart from a few curious stares at the cat's abnormal size, the citizens continued about their day, unbothered.
After all, cats were not considered magical beasts.
In a daze, Fluffington continued to walk through the streets, its body moving on autopilot, avoiding any obstacles in its path.
"Hey, that cat looks familiar," one of the nearby youths remarked.
"Wait, I remember now! That's the same cat that attacked us with the panda back in Frostburg!" the other exclaimed, a cold shiver running down his spine as he recalled the one-sided beating they had endured.
They looked around nervously, expecting Nox and the panda to be nearby, but they found no one.
"Should we tell Senior Ren?" one of them suggested. "I remember he's been researching that kid..."
"You're right, let's contact him."
"All alone? Are you sure of what you're saying?" Ren yelled into the communication crystal. He couldn't believe that the powerful cat was all alone! The same cat that had easily defeated his strike team was wandering aimlessly?
"What about the panda? Is it with the cat?"
"No... it's only the cat, and from the look of things, it seems lost."
"Good." Ren nodded. "You guys keep an eye on the cat. I'll be there very soon."
Ren hung up with a smile on his face. If he could capture that cat, wouldn't it mean he had another powerful ally at his disposal?
"The panda would've been nice too," Ren muttered to himself. Without a doubt, the panda was several times more powerful than the cat. Even Ren wasn't sure how well he'd fare against the beast, but he knew that the panda's strength rivaled that of the top students in the Alpha class of Vermilion Academy.
But the cat was still strong enough...
"It'll do," Ren grinned. "Besides, the panda is a magical beast and could turn on me whenever it's hungry, but the cat should be much easier to control."
A few seconds later, the silver-haired youth disappeared from the study, heading out to catch the lost cat.
Meanwhile, on the streets, the two students continued to trail Fluffington. They decided to stalk it from afar but noticed something unusual. Closing the distance, they realized the cat was still oblivious to their presence.
"Something's wrong with this cat," one of them stated. They were clearly walking just a few meters behind it, but the cat still didn't sense their presence.
This was vastly different from the cat they remembered from a few weeks ago—the savage cat that sensed its opponents even before they could make a move.
While the two students were stalking Fluffington nearby, a red-eyed woman narrowed her gaze and disappeared into a black mist.
Soon, Ren arrived. Just as his subordinates had said, the massive cat was all alone, currently walking toward the outskirts of Coastal City... toward a frozen forest.
At that moment, Ren, who had purchased a large net, threw it over the cat. He had expected resistance, but the net caught the cat relatively easily.
'This... this is too easy... something must be wrong,' he thought, looking around, expecting Nox to pop out of thin air and attack him with the panda. However, nothing happened.
"Come, let's get out of here," Ren called to his subordinates, who were holding the cat. They looked frightened—afraid that at any moment, the cat would snap out of its trance-like state and attack them with its retractable claws. But they couldn't disobey Ren's orders.
The three turned around and found themselves face-to-face with a woman with dark hair and ruby-like eyes. She was staring at them with a stern expression.
'Gulp.' Ren swallowed noisily as he stared into those red eyes. He tried to step aside, but it seemed his body had become paralyzed in that instant, the woman's gaze bearing down on him like a tsunami.
The other two weren't faring any better; they were visibly trembling. The mad aura bursting out of the red-eyed woman even caused the frozen trees nearby to shake wildly.
"W-what do you want?" Ren stammered with great difficulty. He had never felt this scared before in his life—not even the professors and special class students could make him feel .
"I believe that cat doesn't belong to you," Eve said with an indifferent expression. "Hand it over and scram, or I'll gouge your eyes out."
"Do as she says!" Ren, still trembling, shouted at his subordinates; the two hurriedly did as they were told.
"Please, this is just a misunderstanding, it's a mistak—"
"Scram!" Eve said simply, and the two disappeared from the spot in an instant.
As they fled, Ren couldn't help but feel as if he had just escaped a great calamity. Though he was arrogant, he wasn't foolish enough to fight someone as intimidating as that woman. Though the cat could have been very useful to him, it wasn't worth risking his life over.
Eve untangled the cat from the net, and it continued its walk toward the forest.
'What is it up to?' she wondered, narrowing her eyes. 'The cat doesn't seem like its usual self.'
Though Nox wasn't aware, his master Eve had also snuck into the Snowhelm Kingdom. She had been keeping a close eye on him from a distance for weeks now.
Eve hadn't intended to help her disciple, as she felt it was necessary for him to experience hardship to grow and become stronger. So far, she'd been impressed by his proactiveness.
However, after noticing Fluffington's abnormal behavior, she couldn't sit back and decided to investigate.
'Is something calling out to it?' the necromancer wondered, following the cat through the thicket of frozen trees. She continued to follow the cat for several minutes. It took several detours with a sense of purpose as if it was very familiar with the forest.
After what felt like an eternity, the cat finally came to a stop in front of a frozen pond. As soon as it reached the pond, the magical whispers that had been controlling Fluffington ceased.