One day ago.
After arguing with Silvia at the Dessert Research Club room, Danya headed back to her dormitory.
“Hmph! Silvia acts like she’s his wife or something.”
Silvia Laurent.
A girl backed by a continent-wide merchant guild.
Danya knew well that competing with her wouldn’t be easy.
Just now, Ian needed Silvia more than herself. That’s why she had conceded to Silvia.
Still, she was confident that her feelings for Ian wouldn’t lose to anyone.
That’s why Danya didn’t feel intimidated in front of Silvia.
“Hmph!”
But she couldn’t help feeling jealousy and competitiveness rising.
Danya tossed her clothes onto the sofa.
She planned to quickly wash up and then leisurely devise a strategy.
A strategy to keep Ian from being taken by another woman.
“Ah, I haven’t eaten yet, nyah.”
After washing up, Danya poured some cereal and sat at the table.
As she waited for the cereal to soak in milk, Danya fell into thought.
Silvia’s recent actions were clearly unusual.
Somehow, Ian’s embrace carried her scent as well.
There’s a high chance that the two of them have slept together.
– Heh Heh
Her heart ached a bit, but Danya held it in.
“It’s not like they’re married…”
She had learned that the human world was like that.
Around capable men and women, many admirers would flock.
Ian was more than capable.
She had no intention of blaming Ian just because flirty women were around him. Such people would always cling when they sensed opportunity.
Sometimes even formidable ones like Silvia.
She was simply trying to make Ian hers for sure now.
“…Yes, I have to cheer up, nyah.”
Danya scooped a handful of cereal and munched vigorously.
Eat well, exercise diligently.
Danya thought that the more she wanted to cling to Ian, the more she should focus on improving herself.
Besides, after all, she was the one who had spent the most time with Ian…
— Clatter!
She flinched.
Feeling the hair on her tail stand up, Danya put down her spoon.
Just now, she definitely sensed a presence.
The source of the sound was inside the room.
This was the dormitory where Danya lived alone.
“…”
Danya carefully moved backward.
She stood up quietly, making no sound.
She focused all her senses on her hearing.
— Thud Thud.
She definitely heard a sound.
A thief?
A robber?
Or… a kidnapper?
Countless possibilities rose and faded in her mind.
‘Should I run away?’
Danya shook her head.
If they intended to harm her, they would have attacked at a more precise timing.
‘I need to assess the situation.’
With that instinctive judgment, Danya approached the door of the room where she sensed the presence.
Ready to flee if necessary.
Then, taking a deep breath, she opened the door.
— Creak.
The door opened with a very slight noise.
She immediately pointed her bow and shouted.
“… Who’s there, nyah!”
Swish— swish swish!
Danya quickly scanned the room at considerable speed.
“… Ah.”
She let out a somewhat hollow sigh.
There was no sign of anyone in the room.
Only a crow perched on the lamp next to the bed.
Was she being too sensitive?
It probably came in through the open window.
“Come here.”
With a sigh, Danya approached to catch the crow.
She intended to grab it and let it fly out the window.
She was used to catching birds.
Whoosh!
At the moment Danya lunged toward the crow.
— Sluuurp.
The crow’s beak opened wide.
Danya suddenly felt chills run down her spine.
Because inside that beak, it seemed as if endless darkness was sleeping.
It was so deep that she felt she might be sucked in.
— Cawww!
Then came the crow’s cry.
Danya lost consciousness right then and there.
.
.
.
After that.
Her rationality returned only occasionally.
Once, when she opened her eyes, she was atop a tall tree.
Another time, she was licking water by the riverside.
‘… A cat?’
Only then did Danya realize she had transformed into an orange cat.
But even that thought flew away along with her sanity.
The more such incidents repeated, the more Danya felt it.
That her rational mind was gradually fading.
That she was slowly becoming a cat.
A day passed like that.
A brief return of consciousness.
— Shimmer!
She saw a gleaming forehead.
A forehead so tempting to lick that she couldn’t help herself.
When she came to her senses again, she was already chasing it.
— Nyahhh!
Once more, when she regained consciousness, she was on the verge of catching up.
— Tap, Tap!
Just as she was stepping toward that shimmering forehead.
“… Even if Danya is among them…”
A familiar voice came from afar.
It wasn’t a voice calling out to her.
But.
It was a voice she had to remember, even if her mind was clouded.
Danya’s steps halted.
Thud. Thud.
Other cats bumped into her as they passed by.
But she didn’t care.
Because Danya’s interests were no longer the same as theirs.
She began walking toward Ian.
She approached his leg.
This scent, this touch.
Danya liked this more than any temptation.
‘Yes. The one I love is Ian.’
From that thought, her rationality gradually returned.
She regained control over her body.
Just when she thought she could somehow resolve this situation.
— Cawww!
The crow’s cry echoed.
She remembers nothing after that.
◆
I wasn’t just imagining things.
The crow’s cry was particularly ominous.
— Whoosh!
All the cats leaped simultaneously.
It was more like a scene from a horror movie than an amazing spectacle.
In the split second my body wavered as I tried to assess the situation.
Danya jumped out of my arms.
“Danya!”
She widened the distance in an instant, just like the agile Danya I knew.
I never thought Danya would get away from me.
Pushing all thoughts to the back of my mind, I reflexively spread an electromagnetic field on the ground.
Whoosh!
The movement skill [Leap], now as familiar as breathing.
The distance between Danya and me closed rapidly.
Her figure growing larger.
Just when I thought I could catch her.
— Gulp!
A chilling sensation swirled around me.
Instinctively, I twisted my body.
Swish, Swish!
The impact from the unstable landing hit me.
But the important thing wasn’t the impact itself.
— Thud!
The shadows that had filled the ground rose up.
They covered the spot where I had just been.
“… Damn.”
What on earth is that?
I stared blankly at the black form.
It looked like a gigantic mouth.
Pitch black, as if it had swallowed all the light, just like something that had sprung from the shadows.
The shape disappeared back into the shadows.
Then.
— Cawww!
A crow burst out from the shadows and snatched Danya.
A series of events that happened in a split second, making it hard to regain my senses.
Shooting Ether at the crow was almost an instinctive action.
I aimed precisely at its wing.
— Cawww!
It easily dodged, as if it had eyes on its back.
But I can’t let it go like this.
“Silvia! Use a tracking spell! Cast it on Danya!”
“Yes!”
A straight beam of light flew toward Danya, who was being carried away.
The pure white light enveloped her body and then vanished.
With this, we can track Danya’s location for a while.
“Let’s follow them!”
◆
A dark space where dry stone dust swirls.
But its height and width are so immense that it’s hard to estimate.
Tap, tap.
Cold footsteps filled the silent space.
They continued for a while with an eerily consistent rhythm.
The footsteps were drowned out when a man spoke up.
“… It’s amazing that Senior Evan is personally drawing a Level 5 magic circle.”
“Shut up and either help or get lost over there.”
“Yes.”
The scolded man—Isaac—quietly went to stand in a corner.
Although his nature was cheerful and at times unstable, he followed Senior Evan respectfully.
Even though Evan was cold and heartless, whenever Isaac was with him, something interesting always happened.
Even now.
What Evan was drawing was a magic circle with a radius of 30 meters.
Considering that the power of a magic circle is proportional to its size…
“You don’t get to see something like this just anywhere, do you?”
Just the excitement alone was enough for Isaac to suppress his urges.
“Isaac. If you have time to babble, go check the surroundings again.”
“You worry too much, Senior. This is a B-grade Academy security zone. No one can enter recklessly. The procedures take more than a day to get through.”
“Isn’t there a sewer?”
“Only something like a cat could get through—it’s too small.”
They had done thorough preliminary research on the location.
This was a huge cavity located beneath the center of the Academy.
It was the perfect place to perform large-scale black magic.
“I see.”
Even the perfectionist Senior agreed, so there should be no worries.
“By the way, what if the professors swarm in, Senior?”
“Don’t worry about that.”
Screech!
Evan carefully completed the last stroke of the magic circle.
Then he stood at its very center.
“Barrier Expansion.”
A cold and heavy incantation.
— Wobble
A thin membrane spread out, along with a sensation as if the world was submerged in water.
The range extended precisely up to the area guarded by the security of the restricted zone.
“No one will notice what happens inside here.”
Their setup was now complete.
