IPDT 3

“A pet human……?”

“Yep. I thought about making him a familiar, but I wasn’t really drawn to the idea. When you make a human a familiar, they don’t get smart like you; they get stupid. So, I’m just going to keep him as a pet human for about nine years. How about it?”

Fleabag’s whiskers and ears drooped down. He was clearly about to start nagging again while pretending to be pitiful.

“But Master—.”

“Ah, I don’t know, I don’t know. I don’t want to hear any more nagging. The time I spend with the black-haired one will be just a fleeting moment anyway. When my interest fades, I’ll send him away even if he begs me to keep him.”

“……I understand.”

Fleabag replied with a face that showed he was not at all pleased. I snorted. What could he do if he wasn’t pleased? I, his master, had already made up my mind.

“If you understand, let’s go quickly. We’ll return to the lair, wake up the black-haired one, and then have a proper conversation.”

Fleabag kicked off my knee, climbed up, and sat on the black-haired one’s back. Seeing that Fleabag had landed safely, I opened the gate again.

Crack, creak.

Through the bright rays of light pouring out from the gate, I could see the lair. Without hesitation, I leaped through the gate.

*

“Ugh, urk……!”

Leaving behind Fleabag, who ran to the bathroom as soon as we arrived at the lair, I headed to the bedroom. When I placed the black-haired one I was carrying onto the nest-shaped bed, the mattress billowed softly.

The black-haired one was still fast asleep, his face covered in blood. I stared at his face, which was hard to see properly because of the blood, and tilted my head.

“Is he a little…… dirty?”

I reached out and scrubbed at the black-haired one’s cheek. But the hardened blood didn’t come off just by rubbing.

I was about to stop the pointless effort and withdraw my hand, but the sensation of touching his skin felt good, so I rubbed a few more times. There wasn’t much flesh on his face, so I couldn’t get a full pinch, but it felt soft.

As I fiddled with his cheek, I began to want to see his clean face. Come to think of it, I hadn’t thought to look at his face properly until now, had I? Without hesitating, I used a cleaning spell. In an instant, the black-haired one’s entire body was washed clean.

“Oh.”

An exclamation of admiration escaped me as I looked at the human, who was now clean from head to toe. From his thick eyebrows to his eyelashes, everything was black. And what’s more…….

“Master, has the human woken up?”

“You came just in time, Fleabag! Come here, quickly!”

At my urging, Fleabag approached with quick steps. I cupped my face with my hands as if making a flower shape and looked at the black-haired one. A pleased smile naturally formed as I looked at his cleaned-up face.

“He’s pretty.”

“He is quite…… handsome for a human.”

What? I tore my eyes away from the human and looked at Fleabag. Fleabag also looked up at me.

“You think that’s handsome? He’s pretty. Like a jewel.”

“If you think so, Master, then it must be so……”

“Ah, really! It’s because you haven’t seen the black-haired one with his eyes open. Even his irises are black, I tell you. He really looks like an obsidian.”

I exclaimed confidently, but in truth, this was the first time I had gotten a proper look at the black-haired one’s face myself. But one way or another, I was right.

I felt the need to wake the human up and show Fleabag properly, who was reacting so lukewarmly. Once he saw his eyes open, he would know I was right!

“I’m going to wake him up now, so open your eyes and watch carefully.”

Hmph, I snorted and gently tapped the area around the black-haired one’s eyes. His quietly closed eyelids fluttered and then silently slid open. Within the long, monolidded eyes, black pupils were revealed. The dazed-looking black eyes slowly rolled to take in my face.

“Hey.”

In that moment, the black-haired one grabbed my throat. Crash! I went tumbling to the floor together with him.

“Oof, what are you doing.”

I frowned at the sudden impact, but the black-haired one desperately climbed on top of me. Then, with both hands, he began to press down on my neck with force. It was an action that clearly showed he wanted to kill me, whatever it took.

“──!”

The black-haired one shouted something completely incomprehensible. His black pupils were filled with fury, and his expression was fierce. It felt like I was looking at an animal that truly couldn’t be reasoned with.

I had no idea why he was so angry, but……. that aside, I was currently feeling a fresh sense of shock.

“───!”

I couldn’t understand a single word of the language the black-haired one was using. A human language I didn’t know? Was this a language that had emerged in the last 1500 years? Black hair, black eyes, and on top of that, a special human who spoke a language I couldn’t understand.

It seemed I had smiled without realizing it. The black-haired one’s eyes, which had been roughly strangling my neck, trembled greatly.

“Master!”

Fleabag, belatedly rushing over, bit the black-haired one’s shoulder. The black-haired one’s arms, which had been pressing down on my neck with all his strength, naturally loosened.

“Grrrr!”

As Fleabag, who had grown to about twice his size, hung on with his claws extended, the black-haired one’s face contorted in pain. The black-haired one grabbed the scruff of Fleabag’s fluffy neck and applied force to try and pull him off. But no matter how hard he struggled, he couldn’t beat Fleabag. Because Fleabag was the familiar of me, the great balancer.

“───!”

The black-haired one let out an unintelligible sound, and soon, a cold sweat began to bead on his forehead. His pain-filled eyes grew very hazy. He seemed to be in a lot of pain.

I decided to help the black-haired one, who looked like he would pass out at any moment. As a master, mediating between a pet human and a familiar is a natural thing to do, is it not?

“Fleabag, that’s enough.”

I grabbed the scruff of Fleabag’s neck and lifted him up. Fleabag, who hadn’t budged even when the black-haired one struggled with all his might, was lifted dangling in the air, his four legs flailing.

“Master! There is no need to show mercy to this impudent human! I will take care of him!”

“Take care of him? Don’t say such dreadful things!”

I put Fleabag down on the floor and pointed at the wall.

“When I say stop, you stop. Go face that wall and reflect.”

“……Yes.”

Fleabag trudged toward the wall, his tail drooping. As he went, he didn’t forget to occasionally turn back and bare his teeth. It was a threat toward the black-haired one that wasn’t scary at all.

Meanwhile, the black-haired one was getting off me and backing away. All while clutching his shoulder, from which blood was gushing out. The way he glared at me, on high alert even while breaking out in a cold sweat from the pain, was just like a frightened deer.

“Hmm…… I think I should probably tell him there’s no need to be scared.”

The problem was that I didn’t know the language he spoke. As I rubbed my chin and pondered what to do about this problem, a good solution suddenly came to mind. Ah, that’s right. Translation magic!

Of course, translation magic wasn’t perfect. The meaning was conveyed correctly for the most part, but the tone of speech was translated arbitrarily. That’s why it was a spell I hadn’t used in quite a while, but since this was urgent, it seemed better to use it.

“Hey, you don’t need to be scared.”

「There is no need to be scared.」

The principle by which the translation magic worked was simple. When I spoke, the language was converted and went directly into the human’s brain.

“I’m a pretty benevolent and generous master. So even though you choked me, I have no intention of punishing you. Oh, and this is me using translation magic to make my words understandable to you. Don’t be surprised.”

「I am a benevolent guardian. Even though you threatened my life, I have no thought of punishing you. This is me using translation magic to make my words understandable to you, so do not be surprised.」

Ugh……. The translation magic was using the kind of speech I used only in my immature days, and it gave me goosebumps. It was a tone that reminded me of my embarrassing past.

Ahem, ahem, I cleared my throat and glanced at the black-haired one. I was worried he might not recognize my true greatness just from hearing the tone of the translation magic.

“……”

Fortunately, the black-haired one didn’t seem to have any particular thoughts about the tone. I could see that the hostility from him, whose shoulder was soaked with blood, had subsided at least a little. But his wariness remained. His black eyes, which seemed to be sizing me up, shone with a sharp light.

“But you know, I want to take a look at the wound on your shoulder, so is it okay if I go over to you?”

「I wish to see the wound on your shoulder, so I shall go to you.」

The black-haired one’s body flinched. The wariness that had seemed to ease a little grew thick again. He was truly like a sensitive wild animal.

“Seriously, as if being on guard will stop me from going.”

I muttered to myself and strode toward the black-haired one. The human backed away as much as I approached, but soon his back was blocked by a wall. I approached the flustered human and placed my hand on his bleeding shoulder. In that moment, the black-haired one’s breathing became ragged.

“Ouch.”

The black-haired one instantly kicked me in the stomach. There was no real impact, but because I was caught off guard, I was pushed back and did a backward roll. My hair, which had tumbled across the floor, felt unpleasant, and as I was shaking it out, the black-haired one started to run far away.

“Hah.”

I shot to my feet and chased after the human. But as I followed, wasn’t the black-haired one’s running getting even faster?

“If you go that way, it’s a cliff!”

「That way is a cliff!」

At those words, the black-haired one turned to look at me, and his eyes widened.

Crumble, crumble, the sound of stone debris falling from beneath the black-haired one’s feet rang out, and soon the ground beneath him collapsed. His body plunged downward.

“Y-you little troublemaker.”

I let out a deep sigh. Black-haired one, you better believe you’re going to get time to face the wall and reflect, too. I threw my body off the cliff the black-haired one had fallen from.

*

Unfortunately, the black-haired one facing the wall to reflect did not happen. This was because he had passed out midway through his fall from the cliff.

“He is an impudent human! He does not even know what a benevolent measure you have bestowed upon him, the nerve!”

Fleabag huffed, looking at the bed where the unconscious human lay. I, who was lying down hugging a cloud instead of a bed, glanced down at the black-haired one. The unconscious black-haired one was sleeping quietly, as if he had never caused a ruckus.

“Fleabag, you’re getting too worked up. Is it because you were the only one who had to face the wall and reflect?”

“It is not!”

Fleabag jumped up and down, denying it. They say a strong denial is a strong affirmation. Smiling faintly, I fiddled with Fleabag’s twitching tail. Fleabag shuddered and dodged my touch.

“But Fleabag, how should a human be raised?”

“Are you truly planning on keeping that human?”

“Yep. He seems like a troublemaker, but he’s a unique human because of it. I’m extremely interested right now.”

The word ‘interested’ was not a lie in the slightest. Having lived for a vast amount of time and lost many emotions, this was a ‘real’ interest I was feeling for the first, first time in a long while.

“Sigh, although I do not much care for that human……”

Fleabag, who also knew this, continued without any more reluctance.

“We cats tend to raise our young communally, but unlike us, humans form a relationship called a ‘married couple,’ and one of the humans is solely in charge of housework.”

“Yep, I know that when two humans get married, they’re called a married couple. But if one is solely in charge of housework, doesn’t that mean the other one isn’t needed? You said only one does the raising.”