Chapter 28

28th Chapter

Nemea’s Cat

028 ? <Nemea's Cat #4>

“Meow, meeeeeow!”

Just as I was listening to Luna’s strange meowing for a while,

“Who called me? It was you, brother!”

As I turned my head to the sound of footsteps from behind, seeing a wide-brimmed hat made me think for a second that a witch who overheard something might have followed, but then I got angry at the sight of a large nose beneath it.

“sh*t, turn on your blinkers and get out here, brat.”

“What’s a blinker? Anyway, I heard a familiar voice calling me and thought, ‘What if?’ It seems that the god of meetings, Mercury, is watching over us!”

Click, click.

The musician Malco hit the strange dentures-like object in his hand to make a sound.

“Ahh, this is a castanet I’m using instead of the lyre that broke last time due to the goblins. When I tap it like this, the grooves inside-.”

“I didn’t ask, brat. And who said they called you? What are you doing here?”

“I thought you were looking for White One? My childhood nickname was White One-.”

As Malco was explaining something, Luna, who had been quietly listening, interrupted him first.

“White One is a cat.”

“Cat? I thought my siblings had come to watch my underground performance.”

“Nose-face, did you say you perform underground?”

“Not Nose-face but Malco. I give performances on the streets and underground every week. Didn’t I mention it at the tavern?”

“Did you?”

Luna stared at my face intently and slightly furrowed her brows, as if asking if I remembered anything. But now, with the memory of that day almost entirely blurred, I couldn’t recall anything.

“I see you don’t remember. Are you heading down the underground passage looking for a cat? Meeting you even though you didn’t come to see me is quite a fateful encounter!”

Even though I haven’t seen him for a while, it seems this Malco guy likes to attach the word ‘fate’ to everything. Of course, most street performers are like that.

Musicians and bards are types who attach flowery language like fate and tragedy everywhere because they are overly sensitive.

To put it nicely, they choose art over filling their starving bellies.

To put it harshly, they’re pitiful souls lacking a sense of reality.

“Nose-face, you said you perform down here, right? So you must know the way around this place well.”

“That’s right, sister. Do you need guidance? You seem to be on a quest to find a cat.”

Malco, the nose-face musician, was more perceptive than expected. It makes sense since he survives in a tough world with just his instrument.

Though this guy is utterly useless in combat, adding another member to our group somehow gives a sense of stability.

In this world, where combat and tactics haven’t fully developed, numbers are strength.

But if this guy joins, we’d have to share money for him too.

Since I’ve already spent 1 silver coin as an advance on the mission, I’m starting to feel uneasy. What should I do?

“Nose-face, it’s fine if you don’t get a share, right?”

“Ho, sister, do you see this Malco as someone who moves only for money?”

“Hmm.”

“Indeed! The daughter of Ideope truly has an eye for people! Money’s the best. According to the laws set by Lord Mercury, I’ll only accept 10% of the reward as a guiding fee.”

10%? If I could increase our manpower with just 10%, this isn’t a bad deal.

“Malco, you corrupted artist brat. Alright, 10%. Let’s go.”

“Artist? Brother, did you just call me an artist? I’ve heard all sorts of names like vagabond and clown, but this is the first time I’ve felt such an exhilarating resonance! Alright, let’s go!”

With that, we slowly squeezed our bodies into a hole leading underground.

As we completely descended the ladder, the first things that came into view were a dark and damp floor and a bunch of rats the size of fists with glowing red eyes.

Whoosh.

The rats showed no signs of fleeing even as I lit the fire, staring at us unblinking, sending shivers down my spine.

Chit, Chit-Chit.

Having studied world history in liberal arts, I’m well aware that these medieval rats are notorious for spreading all sorts of bacteria. Given this world lacks proper medicinal drugs, it’s not hard to imagine the consequences should one get bitten by a rat.

“Rats, rats. How lovely.”

But Luna casually squatted down and extended her palm towards the rats as if none of that mattered. To my astonishment, a few rats climbed onto her palm and rubbed their faces against it.

“Hey! sh*t! Get down, you!”

“Why? They’re cute. Rats are said to be the messengers of Lord Nox.”

“sh*t, whatever! Get down now! They’re filthy!”

“Hmm-.”

In response to my nerve-racking shout, Luna reluctantly released the rats back onto the sewer floor despite understanding my concern.

Chit.

In a world where talk of pathogens and viruses is dismissed as nonsense, my actions might only seem like I’m overreacting, but I still can’t tolerate those rats.

Every time I think about being bitten by them during my slave days, I still feel an overwhelming urge to grit my teeth in anger.

“Hmm, Samarians are afraid of rats. That’s unexpected.”

“Sister, everyone has their fears. Didn’t even the great hero Achilles d*e after a rat bit his heel?”

“True. But there sure are a lot of rats here. Even Ideope’s swamp didn’t have this many.”

Luna’s lips curled up as she looked around at the squeaking rat swarms from all sides. And Malco, who hit his instrument with a “Clack,” added,

“The sewer rats of Sodomora have an interesting story. A single musician once drove the rat swarms away with his pipe music-.”

“Alright, let’s move.”

“Then I’ll tell the story next time.”

Worried that the pointless chatter might drag on, I decided to move ahead. This was because my coat was already getting wet from the dripping water all around.

As befitting an underworld stream full of all sorts of filth, the foul odor was strong, and the number of rats was staggering. Being in such a place would likely make even healthy people fall ill.

“Many rats, but hiding one cat shouldn’t be odd, right? So, do you know what White One, the cat you’re searching for, looks like?”

Responding to Malco’s question, I recalled the description I’d heard from the witch.

“It has all-white fur. You’ll know it as soon as you see it.”

“A white-furred cat indeed. That’s rare in Sodomora. Trust me. I’ll find it soon.”

*

With that, Malco and I continued wandering through the damp, eerie underground passage. But not even a single glimpse of a white tuft of hair was found, making progress impossible.

Finding a cat in the vast city was no easy task, and I was well aware of that. Perhaps this job will extend into tomorrow, or the day after, and the days beyond.

Still, I was told that additional fees would be given if the job took longer—.

With that in mind, I simply kept walking quietly on trust of the extra money.

Failing or quitting the assigned quest would go against my resolve to ascend to the Silver Tier as an adventurer.

“Meow.”

“Sister, you’re quite talented at producing cat sounds!”

“Of course. Aspiring to become a voodoo priest of Ideope, learning animal mimicry is the first step. You must harmonize with all things, exchanging soulful dialogues through their calls.”

As Luna and Malco chatted idly without realizing the severity of the situation, this reminded me of group assignments during university’s general education classes. Back then too, it was just the group leader who was in a rush while the others were all like this—fooling around.

“Alright, keep going.”

“Meowww-.”

d*mn.

While walking and hearing those strange cat sounds for quite a while, there it was.

Crrrrk-.

“What is that? Did you guys hear it?”

At that distant corner where decaying garbage and rat carcasses floated, a sound very similar to Luna’s strange noises came through, stopping me in my tracks.

“Did you hear it too? How should I put it… It sounded like something tickling my armpits.”

“I didn’t hear anything.”

Luna shook her head, and Malco beside her looked concerned, “Brother, are you hearing things? Maybe it’s a curse from the statue you touched?”

…

Weird, I definitely heard something.

“Hotshot, did I confuse it with my own sounds?”

“Nah, it felt different. It was a raw sound.”

Crrrrk!

“Real—really?! Something truly made a sound over there!”

As the sound came again clearly, Luna screamed in surprise.

“Wow, the cat really understood my voice! My voodoo skills must be advancing!”

d*mn, reacting to such weird mimicry—was it this world that was wrong, or was it me?

But as an elusive thread finally appeared in a situation that seemed hopeless, it was quite a relief. Just when I was about to step towards that deep corner,

“Brother, we’d best not go inside that corner.”

The jovial Malco, who until now had been chatting and even singing songs joyfully, firmly grabbed my shoulder with an expression I’d never seen before.

“Why? You serious?”

“Wait, is it a monster?”

“No, it’s just disgusting. That corner smells so awful that even vagrants avoid it.”

Ah, thought he was talking about something big. But wow, this guy’s putting on quite an act for something so trivial.

But on second thought, he’s right. Malco is more hygienic and perceptive than I imagined? I guess I should slightly upgrade my estimate of Malco’s hygiene level.

Meanwhile, Luna sniffed the air.

“I don’t really smell anything.”

Even though the stench was strong enough to make one’s nose twist, Luna shrugged as if she couldn’t feel anything. Either her palate or her sense of smell might be gone. What a pitiful guy.

“Sister’s sense of smell is astonishing.”

“I’ve been training it since I was small! I don’t care about average smells. Oh, speaking of which, there’s something good.”

Suddenly, Luna reached inside her coat and pulled out a small shell.

“Menthe oil. If you apply it under your nose, it’ll block out most odors.”

And she took the white, thick liquid inside the shell with her finger and smothered the nostrils of myself and Malco.

Swish-.

It felt like something unknown was either soothing or painfully prying at my brain through my nostrils.

It reminded me of elementary school lunchtime when, as a punishment game, I had to smear toothpaste under my nose—this was exactly the same feeling.

Although it was a bit uncomfortable, it was better than enduring the sewer’s foul smell.

“That-that feels like dying! This menthe scent!”

“Kid, stop being dramatic. Anyway, let’s go inside. We don’t know what we might find, so be careful-.”

After giving a brief caution as the party leader and preparing my mind to draw my sword anytime,

Zizz, Zizz.

We spotted a black wave rushing towards us from that corner, making the hairs on our heads stand up. It was a swarm of rats. Not just any regular rats but a horrifying mass that resembled a living, moving black tidal wave.

“d*mn it! What is that?”

“The rats in this place are drawn to the menthe scent! It’s because the menthe-scented beer leftovers from above flow down here!”

“Hey, sh*t, you should’ve mentioned that earlier!”

Rats swarmed around Luna, me, and Malco in no time.

Not just that—they leapt around as if hitting the spacebar repeatedly, onto our bodies, digging their claws and teeth into us.

“What the hell! Rat brats!”

I grabbed a torch and a sword in each hand and shook them around wildly to scare the rats. It was time to showcase the grandeur of the three-way style of Hassan.

“Decapitate the goblins brat!”

Swish-.

“Ha-se-gi!”

Chit chit!

But these tiny devil-made rats didn’t seem to fear human weapons. They swarmed all over my body, gnawing at my coat with their small teeth.

sh*t, the 10 copper coins I just spent on this coat is about to become a rat’s meal?

“I’ll handle it! Chit Chit! Chit!”

“What are you doing!”

“Rat sound! I’m going to try soothing the rats with my voodoo soul communication! Ak, Ow! Hey, hey guys—we’re friends! Chit, chit!”

“If you’re not going to do something, stop screwing around and just swing something!”

But the black tide was ruthless—a horde of merciless gangsters. At this rate, I might end up not just losing my clothes but also getting wounded, costing me more than 2 silvers for treatment.

Just as the thought of “this isn’t going to work, let’s escape!” was forming in my throat,

. .

The rats halted as if someone had pressed a pause button upon hearing a gentle melody from somewhere.

[Author’s Note] Thank you to ExtraTangerine and Vurgil for the patronage coupons. Also, a big thank you to everyone who provided script allowance coupons.

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