Volume 6 Chapter 71 The Dark Hatching
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
”Oh? Today you’re in Dress Armor? That white kimono style looks great on you. You look super cute.”
”Fufun. Of course I do. I found it in Fwavlotz. The Hero wore something like this before, and I thought it looked wonderful.”
The red cat pressed her hands together, her black tail swaying.
The white princess cat spun, the hem of her dress fluttering like it cut through the dusk.
”Lady Elna, to dress up even at a time like this—you really are a model princess~desuwa. And you look so mature, so full of charm… You make me want to dress up again myself.”
”Oh really? I think the Nyan Law Corps uniforms are very cute. I especially like your white coat and cherry pattern, Meina. I’d love it if you made one for me too.”
When the princess cat turned, the Golden Cat fidgeted nervously behind her.
In front, the red and white cats both wore uneasy looks.
They stood outside the port town of Fwavlotz, wrapped in darkness.
The town itself was silent. Grass fields spread under the moonlight, the only sound the rustling leaves.
Above them hung the Red Moon.
There were days, like this one, when the moon turned red for no reason. Many felt it ominous, but nothing ever happened on such nights.
It was simply one of those days.
So the cats who stood beneath the red sky did not spare the moon a thought.
Knee-high in grass, the four of them waited, like house cats waiting for their master.
”Kuro and my aunt are talking. That leaves us outside. Just waiting is boring. So, Mina, Larana, why don’t you tell me about what you did to Meina?”
Klock and Irina had gone off to speak.
Because of that, Elna, Meina, Mina, and Larana were made to leave. It was Klock’s way of keeping the talk calm.
The waiting group did not glare at each other. Elna was a princess, after all. Mina and Larana were supposed to bow their heads without Irina there.
But when it came to Meina, the air grew tense.
Elna’s sharp eyes turned to the red and white cats.
”W-what do you mean…?”
”Oh? Trying to dodge it? The Nyan Law Corps is too strict for bullying to be ignored. The only time it happens is when higher cats do it. You two are the only ones who could have picked on Meina.”
Hands on her hips, Elna strode toward them like a queen.
”N-no, it wasn’t us. It must have been Ribetta. We didn’t—”
”Larana. I hate lies. Tell me the truth!”
Overwhelmed by the white princess, the two cats turned their eyes away.
Meina glanced at her with worry.
”Ribetta is a proud girl. You know that. Back when we fought the Wolfkin—when Belandi, their last stronghold, fell—she gave herself up. She begged for her people’s lives. Mother spared her and the Wolfkin only if she swore loyalty to my aunt. A girl like that would never do something petty.”
Unless someone ordered her, Elna added.
At that, the two cats drooped their ears. They fell silent. The truth was plain.
With Meina and the princess linked, there was no hiding it.
”Mina. Come here.”
Elna floated into the air, as if to sit in the sky.
Flight (Volo) was her specialty, so no one was surprised.
The red cat walked over nervously, tail and ears drooping.
”…Lady Elna, I…”
”First, show your loyalty.”
Elna slipped off her boot.
Her bare foot, pale even in the dark, stretched out.
The red cat knelt and held it with both hands.
She pressed her lips to it.
Like grooming something precious, she licked it gently.
Elna stroked her head, a sign of acceptance.
”Mina. Why did you hurt Mī?”
”B-because… the leader said… that Meina had more talent… that she might become your attendant…”
”So you were jealous of a lower rank?”
At Elna’s blunt words, Mina nodded.
It was painful to admit, and Elna leaned close on purpose.
”I like Mī. She’s honest and kind. She’s so cute. Hurting her makes you a bad cat. Should I punish you here and end your life of sin?”
”!?”
Elna gripped Mina’s chin and tilted her face up.
Her beast eyes judged her like prey, and Mina shrank.
”I—I swear loyalty! If you want, I’ll even give you my body—”
”Fufu, I’m joking. I’m a girl. I wouldn’t do that. But Mina, you’re cute too. If I were a boy, I’d pin you down right here.”
Elna smiled with girlish mischief.
Blushing, Mina bowed her head.
Then Elna turned to the other.
The red cat stepped back, and the white cat stepped forward.
”Larana. You’re the main one, aren’t you? Big breasts, but such a small heart.”
”My chest has nothing to do with it…”
Before more words, Larana knelt, bowing her head.
White fur beside white fur in the dusk.
”To take her meals, how cruel. I could scratch your face for that. Why did you do it?”
”…I’m sorry.”
She kissed Elna’s bare foot with care, licking in loyal grooming.
Elna stared down, weighing her faith. After twenty seconds, she finally stroked her head.
”As you may know, I come from a family of attendants. My pride was in loyalty. I was proud to serve the leader, and I accepted that Mina outshone me. But—”
”You couldn’t forgive Meina?”
The night air flowed around them.
”A newcomer becoming the next Emperor’s attendant—I couldn’t accept it. So I tried to drive her away. I took her food. I told others to ignore her. I even told her to sell herself to guests. As you said, I was the main one.”
Her sad air weighed heavy.
Elna tilted her head at the word “sell” but hugged her instead.
She stroked her, then licked her cheek.
”Meina is my friend. And she’s friends with the Hero too. Stop hurting her.”
Few could ignore that word—Hero.
Mina and Larana stared at Meina in shock.
Meina shifted shyly.
”I won’t tell you to be friends now. That’s not easy. But I don’t rank you. I just hate seeing friends hurt each other. So let this end today.
From now, cats face a hard time. Whatever Kuro and my aunt decide, we must hold hands and endure together.”
The little princess licked Larana with care.
Then she beckoned Mina close, hugged her too, and licked her face.
The two cats lowered their ears and accepted it.
They had no thought of resisting. Their air was almost like spoiled children.
After long hugs, they stood.
The red and white cats met the Golden Cat’s eyes.
The Golden Cat looked away.
The others had confessed their guilt right before her.
Hatred once born would not vanish quickly.
It would take time, maybe flare again.
Elna floated back to Meina.
She hugged the waiting girl and groomed her too.
”…Lady Elna…”
”No more words. The rest is up to you. But if they hurt you again, tell me at once.”
Cats were free by nature. She would not force them to reconcile.
And so she ended the matter here.
She sighed and looked toward town.
”I wonder if Kuro is all right. My aunt is strict, so I hope it doesn’t go wrong. Well, with that girl there, it should be fine.”
”Huh? Lady Elna, it’s shaking.”
As Elna floated, tail swaying, the Golden Cat noticed it.
A faint tremor. A sound, a shake of the earth.
So small it made her tilt her head.
”…Eh? What’s that?”
Larana noticed too.
Then Mina, and then Elna and the Golden Cat turned southeast.
It was red.
The sky of blood drew closer.
”…What is that?”
――A few days earlier.
In Bastili’s land rose countless gaping holes.
Once, giant insects had lived there.
It was known as the Bastili Hundred Pits.
East of Boorinel Town, slightly northeast if one looked at the Beast Continent as a whole.
Here, many Beastkin had gathered.
Crowds of people and militia swarmed together.
They were here to save their kin still trapped in the great Bastili Prison.
The rescue was led by Silke, the dog Beastkin and acting lord of Belandi.
Many dog Beastkin joined the exploration, and even captured Mole Soldiers—the rat Beastkin—lent their help.
The work went smoothly.
Teams split into small groups, delved into the pits, and each time brought out more prisoners.
Testimonies from the rescued Fox Princess and Wolf Princess gave key details—such as there being five levels inside—which made the work faster.
In the lower levels, most prisoners were too weak to speak.
The stench of rot choked the air.
The deeper they went, the harder it became.
Though an entrance to the Sea Layer was found, some refused to go further, shaking in fear.
Reports said many fox Beastkin were caught on the fourth floor, but most believed they had already died. Few dared go down.
”Something feels… wrong.”
It happened when they were forming a team to enter the Sea Layer.
The change came without warning.
Far away, tremors were felt.
Northwest, beyond even Slomvanilla.
Yet people even here felt the earth shudder.
Silke and the others sensed it.
The source was here.
No—the source was beneath the Hundred Pits.
Everyone knew it.
The militia frowned at each other.
It was not just the rarity of a quake.
The tremor pulsed strangely, like a heartbeat.
At the same time, something crawling deep underground sent its presence upward.
”Ugh… gross—”
Militiamen began leaving.
One by one, they slipped away as if they suddenly remembered errands at home.
The wave spread faster.
No one stopped it. Even Silke herself began to retreat.
When she turned and ran, the militia broke too, screaming as they fled.
The Hundred Pits throbbed.
Like the egg of a living creature, it pulsed with dreadful life.
Beastkin instincts screamed.
Stay here and you die.
”――――――”
A heavy, crushing impact.
From far below the earth, from the abyss, an impossible newborn cried out.
Something broke and crawled upward.
The shell of the Bastili Hundred Pits was struck again and again, until overwhelming malice broke through.
It was the overlap of nine worlds.
An invasion from darkness.
A challenge to the Lord of Death.
A crime against the boundary of worlds.
The trap for god-killing had begun.
A curse burst into the world.
A dying scream for its mother roared from the endless dark.
From the Hundred Pits poured a blackness laced with dim light.
With it, a giant shadow stepped onto the surface.
The darkness flowed.
The order of the world was rewritten.
Black carpet was laid, for a higher being to walk upon.
Its birth was blessed in silent approval.
The newborn climbed boldly to the surface.
Bastili fell into panic and screams.
Like a broken doll reassembled wrong, it was cruel and childish destruction.
Before this divine cruelty, dogs and rats went mad.
Trees withered at once.
The land turned black.
The sky blazed crimson.
Malice took form.
A wolf’s head marked with a scar.
A centipede’s body encircling mountains.
Human arms covered in beast fur stamping in steady rhythm.
A being too vile, too hideous to exist.
A nightmare one wished to blind oneself against.
Yet it was no mere monster.
It was the fingertip of the dark world’s master, who shaped innocent life.
It was the fair maiden tugging the shepherd’s sleeve as she stepped from the altar.
’The world is bright, is it not? Do not fear. However vast it seems, I shall guide you.’
The Abyss’s outrage was accepted by the temple.
The Moon Court and Paradise watched.
The Fragments turned away.
The Fortress did not yet know.
The Grand Cathedral stood still.
The Crimson Spire and the Void only smiled.
Notes:
• Fwavlotz – A town beyond a mountain north of Rizan Village, it is an alternative location for Klock to verify his humanity.
• Elna – Female. A young apprentice mage. Her appearance is that of a child with white hair reaching her shoulders. She wears a black hooded mantle with strange patterns. Her relationship is as an apprentice to Hermine, the Great Mage. Her power involves advanced magic, including spatial teleportation. Her combat style is magical, and she is described as childish and easily provoked.
• Meina – She is a golden-haired catgirl employee of the beastman (Larana the cat woman) Inn, appeared performing fellatio, desperate and tear-streaked, with an inexperienced yet earnest approach to her work.
• Larana – Her white hair contrasts with an aggressive seductress attitude, as she entices with her body and a calculated air, once the gold coins appear.
• Mina – The red-haired cat girl is a hostess who leans in closely, her blushing cheeks indicating her interest, but she plays hard to get.
• Irina – She introduced herself as the innkeeper’s name, a 32-year-old with a youthful appearance, who enjoys being sexually satisfied by Klock. A beastkin cat.
• Boorinel – A town east of Ryzan, where Lord Cattleya’s manor is located; said to be a long journey from Ryzan.
• Silke – Silke is the acting lord of Belandi, a Beastkin from the bird-beast clan that was relocated to Boorinel. She has chestnut-brown hair and first appears in chapter v6c9 along with Annerose to meet with Cianie.
• Slomvanilla – The white fortress, also known as the empress’s residence; a gigantic bedroom on the scale of a fortress.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
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