"And so, I thought all is good and that we've won. Nothing can stop me now. But guess what happened next?"
"Meow?"
"Exactly, turns out that bitch had outwitted me to some degree all along. She used all her remaining strength and turned me into a demon. That's what she buying time for. How, I have no idea—"
"Meooew!"
The cat's tail smacked my face and it jumped away from my hold. All the other cats crawling over the blue mattress circled around me, some playing with their toys and the others trying to climb over my head.
I sighed as the black and white cat ran away from me and toward the group of others, all of them staring at me like I was an idiot.
"Customer, I would appreciate it if you go for actual therapy instead of bothering our cats."
When I looked up, beyond the small cubicle that separated the cats' area from that of the humans', a girl wearing a especially frilly maid costume spoke to me.
Two blue ears like that of a cat stuck out of her head while a similar blue tail flailed around behind her back as she gazed down at me.
A sigh left my lips.
"Also, please don't expose these babies to your despicable vocabulary."
The shopkeep continued laying it into me.
What had I become? I had gotten so used to have a cat around that the moment I laid my eyes on a 'cat-cafe' I had jumped inside without second thought.
"Meow…"
A cat turned and faced me.
Yeah. Why did I like these guys? I couldn't even see them to call them cute or some—
"Meowww."
"Gah, cute. Too cute."
"Hah," the shopkeep scoffed. I patted the cats a little more before getting up.
"Why is there a cat cafe in the academy anyway?" I asked the shopkeep as I yanked the kitties that had clung to me away.
"Of course for the faction festival. All factions need to earn their own money, customer. Aren't you a member of one too?"
"My faction isn't accepting others yet, so I don't know." Stepping out of the divide, I stretched my hand above my head. Some of those cats' fur had stuck my clothes. "Ugh… well, what do you mean earn your own money? Isn't almost everyone here loaded?"
"You're not allowed to use your own money for the faction, customer. So we have to make businesses like these."
Hah.
"No way do you want me to believe you guys are not laundering your own cash with these."
There was already no one else here.
"We don't have to."
The shopkeep smiled.
"Huh?"
"That'll be thirty gold for the hour."
"Son of a bitch."
"Don't have it?"
Scam! This was a fucking scam! I clicked my tongue and snapped my fingers, a pouch of coins in my hand. Thirty flew out on their own using my psychokinesis and plopped in front of the girl. What do you take me for, thirty gold is barely anything.
"Perfect! Thank you for your patronage, young mister demon killer. You have a good plot for a book, so you should definitely write it down."
"Don't eavesdrop on mine and the cats' conversation!" Leaving those words, I left the shop. The toll of the bell sounded sweetly and I was back out in the streets.
The white buildings stretching all around me, the numerous flowers and shrubs splayed all over the already haphazard city, the structures of the Academy City were in equal parts exhausting as they were beautiful.
Heaving a sigh, I lifted my steps and set off away from the Sachertorte Faction's island. It was strangely filled with people and quite a few waved at me.
"Hey! It's demon killer guy!"
"Good job out there dude!"
"Hey hey, were there any sexy succubus mamas in hell?"
I flipped the bird to each and every one of them and went onward to my own house.
Three days had passed since I returned. Since death was a fairly big topic, the principal and his gang had done their best to spread around word that I and Noa were helping them sniff out the demon worshippers and their plans.
As I crossed by the bridges connecting the various islands, I rolled my sleeve and looked at my arm. The cats had scratched me slightly, and flowing there, was a drop of black blood.
"Haha."
"I still have a hard time believing this," Titania muttered, resting on my shoulders.
I had killed Dantalian.
And in a desperate attempt, she took her twisted outlook of losing against my 'blood' and changed it from the bottom up. Over the last three days, all that I and Titania had done was take care of Dawn who was still unable to stay up for long hours and figure out what in the quack-inducing fuck had happened to me.
For one, Titania was unable to notice the change. I didn't feel much of it either. We figured Dawn could tell because she was sensitive to demons. My blood was still black, so change was certain.
Second, I also didn't grow horns or tails, and nor did I start saying quack quack, so it seemed the change was minimal.
Third, I had started seeing something else. Not in the beginning, and probably wouldn't have if I didn't know of this change. But I was certain I could see a strange, murky, dark glow appearing here and there. To confirm, I had checked on the horns and the corpse on hand as well.
I was able to see demonic energy. Change, was useful.
"I still think you've only turned into a half-demon. Or maybe a quarter. An eighth? Sixteenth?" Titania showed off her 2048 skills as neared the island of our faction again.
"Whatever it is," I said. "I'll make sure it's useful. I think demonic energy can be quite of use to me."
"As expected, you really don't let it faze you, huh?"
Of course I didn't. Who cared what kind of being I was? What mattered was how strong I was, and this was showing me way to be very fucking strong.
The sound of birds squealing above echoed and I finally reached the faction house.
I had excused myself from classes a few more days under the guise of recovery. Lushan gladly allowed it since it would help sell his story better.
It was a lie, but not truly.
In honesty, I wanted to take the time to make things up to everyone for the last two months. It was time to right my wrongs.
And well, I was taking time off for recovery, just not mine.
The door to my room opened.
"Good morning, miss Dawn."
"Oh, demon. You're here."
Visit freewe𝑏(n)ovel.𝘤ℴ𝑚 for the best novel reading experience