The sound of a cat meowing carried far across the night streets, but clearly, the city had no shortage of meowing cats.
Only two people had their attention drawn by the sound. One was, of course, Shade. He locked eyes with his cat, quite certain that Little Mia was looking directly at him. However, considering this cat had once witnessed an Evil God alongside him—and had even absorbed a sliver of divinity—it wasn't particularly surprising that she could see him now.
Lacy, who had also heard Mia's cry, instinctively looked in the direction Mia was staring, and was surprised to notice Shade standing there. To her, Shade hadn't disappeared just now; she had simply subconsciously ignored his position. Now that she truly noticed him, she felt that the previous oversight was incredibly strange.
"Shade, now—"
The blonde girl hurried toward Shade, clutching the cat in her arms.
"Catch your breath first, don't be in such a rush. Don't come close to me right now. Hold Mia tight, and don't let her touch me."
Shade continued walking forward, identifying the person before him as Lacy from her gaze
"The [Dice Storybook], I know."
"Iluna Bayes..."
"The friend from the Church I mentioned before."
He provided answers in succession under Lacy's surprised gaze, then inquired
"Lacy, I need to know what is currently happening."
"No problem."
Lacy leaned against a nearby lamppost, but let go after a few seconds.
"Meow~"
Mia meowed softly, tilting her head up to look at the receding Shade. Shade immediately asked
"Do Iluna and the others know that you are by my side?"
Dorothy, who had just opened her eyes, paused. She shook her head immediately as she caught up
"We only knew you slowed your pace; we didn't know what you were looking at."
"Then keep moving forward," Shade said, then added with some concern
"I know the rules myself, and now that I know you aren't temporarily appearing in the story, you and Lacy shouldn't switch too easily. Frequent switching will greatly damage your spirits."
"But this is Angel-grade..."
Seeing the worry on Dorothy's face, Shade explained rapidly
"Is this the first time I've encountered an Angel-grade relic? Don't worry about me. The current situation is that only if a certain target directly affects me or poses a direct threat to life can they appear in the story's narrative. So, just hold Mia and keep talking to me. What's the situation inside the relic? Have the three storytellers found Phantom Thief Jack?"
"Two of Iluna Bayes' opponents have been found."
Dorothy spoke clearly regarding the location of [Phantom Thief Jack]. The two walked past the edges of two lamplights, heading toward the area beneath the next gas lamp. Patrolling policemen approached from a distance; Dorothy hid her sword inside Shade's oversized coat. A tall policeman in the squad merely glanced at her, assuming she was just a young lady returning home late at night.
"Miss Bayes is hesitating; it seems she doesn't want to expose your identity as a Ring-wielder. Lacy cannot communicate directly with Miss Bayes, and there are many Church Ring-wielders over there. Do you need me to lure the Church's Ring-wielder squad stationed on Silver Cross Avenue? Let them enter the story to capture Jogori Deus and Lydia Penglo. Since Mia can let me see you, I should also be able to let the high-ranking Ring-wielders of the Church see those two sneaking around."
"No. For rule-based and story-type relics, never try to cheat; just utilize the rules reasonably. Moreover, we cannot easily introduce other variables into the story."
Shade looked ahead at the street and said softly
"If extra variables are introduced, each of us would have to pass an additional dice check. Iluna—I mean, Miss Bayes—cannot expose my identity, so in every check, I would be the disadvantaged party."
"What needs to be done now?" Dorothy asked, clutching Little Mia tightly. The cat remained unusually well-behaved. Although the writer lady had not experienced anything like this, her thinking was broad
"Since I'm not a character in the story yet, how about I just go and kill Jogori Deus and Lydia Penglo? They are only First-Ring, and I am Fifth-Ring."
"I can't let you take the risk. You are a normal person, while they are story characters influenced by the relic's rules; who knows what they might do? I would rather fail to catch [Phantom Thief Jack] than let you suffer any harm."
Shade emphasized. Dorothy curled her lips, about to say something, when she suddenly saw Shade's expression change
"I've received the next instruction. Miss Bayes wants me to return home directly? Strange. Even if she doesn't know what to tell me to do, she shouldn't be telling me to leave Silver Cross Avenue."
"Let Lacy answer you."
"Wait..."
Before Shade could stop her, Dorothy leaned against the lamppost again while holding the cat, and immediately stood up again. The short-term soul swap made her complexion look pale, but the blonde girl didn't complain in the slightest.
The Princess, opening her eyes, explained the current situation
"Phantom Thief Jack is moving, heading toward St. Delan Square. The Church's judgment was wrong; his target isn't Yodel Palace at all. A high-ranking Ring-wielder from the Truth Society and a cultist passed a check as high as 1200 points and learned the destination is St. Delan Square, allowing Jogori Deus and Lydia Penglo to successfully follow [Phantom Thief Jack]. Miss Bayes had no choice but to issue an instruction for you to go home."
As she spoke, Shade clearly sensed the two "stealthing" individuals rushing past them, yet he still could not perceive any trace of "Phantom Thief Jack."
"Yes, as long as Phantom Thief Jack isn't stealing, he is equivalent to non-existence. Even with the power of the [Dice Storybook], the check required to capture him right now must be extremely harsh. Iluna's opponents are likely planning to wait until the theft occurs before making the arrest."
Shade's pace remained unchanged, as he was already walking in the direction of home
"St. Delan Square, huh? I wonder which of my neighbors is going to be that unlucky."
Hearing Shade's words, the blonde girl glanced at him but did not voice her inner suspicions
"Additionally, Miss Bayes' opponents are high-ranking Ring-wielders of the [Truth Society] and cultists who believe in the Evil God."
She turned the corner with Shade, leaving Silver Cross Avenue. The lights suddenly dimmed; it was about a seven-minute walk until they entered St. Delan Square.
"But who would the thief's target be?" Lacy asked again. Shade shook his head
"Including tenants and homeowners like me who occupy an entire building, there are no fewer than a hundred households living in St. Delan Square. Anyone could be his target. Our only advantage right now is that, as a story character, I can use you to learn things from the Secret Keeper that I shouldn't know in my actual identity."
"Shade, this situation is very unfavorable for you. Perhaps I can do something for you," Lacy said softly by his side. The cat, meanwhile, widened its eyes and looked into the surrounding darkness, its bright amber pupils seeming to notice something.
"My knight, at a time like this, I must do something for you."
"Lacy, you've already done enough for me. Just walk with me now and return to St. Delan Square. We need to confirm which unlucky household is being robbed before we can take action. The two people walking ahead of us will enter the St. Delan Square area in a few minutes. Although Miss Bayes cannot manipulate me to use Ring-wielder powers, we actually have other methods. Once we must enter a combat scene, I will need your help."
"Alright, Shade."
Lacy was about to nod when she found that Shade had stopped in his tracks. She looked around in surprise and suddenly realized that, at some point, all the surrounding lights had gone out. Drifting dark clouds blocked the galaxy and the moon; vast sheets of darkness enveloped them, and even the light from the windows of surrounding buildings vanished.
The surroundings were deathly quiet—a silence that brought a strange sense of dread. Lacy instinctively hugged Little Mia tighter and moved closer to Shade
"I sense Whisper elements? A relic? But how?"
As the words left her mouth, she noticed her voice was incredibly raspy. The blonde girl was marveling at this body's instinctive reaction when she finally saw pairs of glowing green eyes appearing densely from the surrounding darkness.
Accompanied by those gazes, the darkness was slightly illuminated. Lacy and Shade saw countless stray cats surrounding them. It was like a swarm of locusts, or dense white maggots in a rotting corpse.
The Whisper elements suppressed all surrounding light and sound. The swarm of stray cats watched them, and then, as one, they rose from their crouching positions
"Meow~"
"Meow~"
"Meow~"
The overlapping, shrill meows swept over them like a tidal wave, making the hairs on Lacy's neck stand on end in the night. She never knew that the sound of cats meowing could be so terrifying.
The piercing cries were like the final wails of a dying person in the night, or the low growls of an indescribable thing hidden in the darkness of a horror story. Thousands of stray cats converged on the two in the dark, the glow of their eyes becoming increasingly ghastly.
Lacy instinctively tried to summon her Life Ring, only to find with horror that the thick air seemed to be suppressing her power.
In a daze, the swarm of cats had already surrounded her feet. Black, white, orange, brown—cats of every color possessed a similar, eerie aura. As the mass of stray cats screeched and closed in, Lacy felt she might never like cats again.
Just as she was about to erupt with her magical power regardless of the cost, her cold body sensed warmth—the temperature of the cat in her arms. In an instant, it felt as if she had moved from the dead of winter to spring. Little Mia's body temperature was so reassuring at this moment that the Princess decided she would still like cats.
"A relic related to cat swarms."
Shade's voice reached Dorothy's ears clearly. Lacy finally snapped back to her senses and took a quick step forward, pressing her back against Shade's without actually touching him. Shade's body was glowing in the darkness; Lacy knew this was one of Shade's peculiar abilities, having seen it several times in the night.
At this moment, that stable silver-white moonlight was so joyful that Lacy even felt herself blushing for some reason
"What should we do now?"
"My luck isn't so bad that I'd encounter a dangerous relic while walking at night; it seems the story has taken a new turn. However, we're lucky this time. Although it's on the verge of losing control, the Whisper elements aren't very strong. This relic is likely Document-grade. Lacy, I'll probably need you to handle this. Take the [Night Watchman] and try to—"
Lacy was not a story character. If the Princess expelled the relic, the story's development might change to "encountered a relic but it was dispersed by a powerful Ring-wielder."
But before Shade could finish, Little Mia, held in Lacy's arms, poked her small head out of the blonde girl's embrace with great displeasure and looked at the surrounding swarm of cats.
She had never been afraid of her own kind, and she had always hated any other cat approaching Shade. Her amber eyes stared at the surrounding swarm. Just as she was about to let out a cry to respond to the undulating meows, moonlight and starlight suddenly poured down from the high sky, and the gas lamps and window lights around them returned one by one.
The Whisper elements gradually subsided. The swarm of cats, whose eyes emitted an eerie glow and had been closing in on the two humans and one cat, stopped in their tracks the moment the tiny Mia looked at them. Then, they lowered their heads slightly and retreated into the shadows like a receding tide, vanishing completely.
Shade, who had been mid-sentence, paused and looked around in surprise
"Hmm? Where's the relic? How did it disappear before we even moved?"
[Who knows?]
Only "she" was chuckling.
(End of Chapter)