“Speaking of which, there’s one more thing this time, Xia De. Last time you said your cat could turn into a doll and follow you through the Time Gate.”
After a brief moment of contemplation, the Witch continued the conversation.
“Yes.”
Xia De nodded:
“It’s probably because it’s a bit too naive.”
“Meow~”
Mia squirmed on his lap, trying to find a more comfortable position.
“So I have a new idea.”
Miss Jialinna reached out to Tifa, who took out a dark brown glass wine bottle from her long skirt pocket that Xia De found very familiar. Inside the bottle was a pure white kitten, even smaller than Mia.
The Outsider narrowed his eyes:
“It looks a bit familiar…”
“I was very lucky. Some time ago, I bought a half-finished potion, 【Cat in a Bottle】, from the local black market. This potion expired thirty years ago, and the seller said it had been contaminated but was purified. But it doesn’t matter, there are potion masters in the Council. I gave the black market seller one-sixth of the finished potion and got it at almost no cost.”
The Witch’s fair hand gently shook the wine bottle, and the white cat “Sleeping” in the bottle immediately melted into liquid. Xia De was now almost certain that this was the same potion that Priest Augustus had once shown him. (Note)
He never expected this item to reappear before him after all this time.
“Miss Jialinna, you mean…”
Xia De had basically understood.
“This precious potion can basically be used now. But because it has been expired for too long, its effect is greatly reduced and can only last for less than three minutes. I want to test it.”
She pulled out the cork and looked at Xia De, who praised:
“You really do have ideas.”
“Yes, I want to test if someone who already trusts you deeply, when transformed into a cat, can be affected by your spell. If so, I’ll look for other ways to turn people into animals.”
It sounded feasible, but it involved the degree of mental mutation during physical transformation, which belonged to more advanced transformation studies, hence the need for careful experimentation:
“Miss Jialinna, do you want to drink it yourself?”
“Of course not, my level is too high, and the potion’s effect on me would be very poor.”
She pulled out the cork from the wine bottle and handed it to Tifa behind her. Tifa shook the bottle again, turning the gradually solidifying semi-cat-shaped liquid back into liquid, and then, without hesitation, drank the liquid from the melted white cat.
Xia De’s mouth slightly opened in surprise, and Mia’s eyes widened in fright, but unfortunately, no one noticed her.
After drinking the liquid, the bottle in Tifa’s hand suddenly dropped, and she painfully covered her mouth.
“What’s wrong?”
Jialinna stood up concerned, wanting to support her, but Tifa shook her head with a pained expression:
“Miss, I feel so hot…”
Her body seemed to be unable to bear the pain, slowly squatting down and disappearing behind the sofa. Even the Witch, who had seen much of the world, looked at the back of the sofa with a surprised expression.
Xia De had already stood up, holding Mia, and walked around the coffee table to the back of the sofa where Miss Jialinna was sitting.
The Black-haired maid was no longer there; her skirt, white long stockings, shoes, hair accessories, garters, and underwear were scattered on the floor. A pure white kitten was huddled confusedly among the clothes.
It tried to stand up, but its four short legs seemed unable to support its body, causing it to wobble and fall back down.
“Meow~ Meow~”
It opened its mouth slightly, but what came out was a cat’s meow. The small white kitten looked at the surprised Xia De in confusion:
“This cat… is really pretty. Oh, it really turned into a cat.”
“So what did you think would happen?”
The relieved Witch asked.
“Turn into a half-human, half-cat form…”
Somehow, he suddenly thought of his friend, Professor Manning.
“Meow?”
Mia on Xia De’s shoulder, unlike Xia De, did not appreciate the pretty appearance of this “Tifa cat.” She was bristling, letting out an unprecedented threatening meow at the Tifa cat on the clothes.
Clearly, Mia felt her status in this home was severely threatened.
Mia constantly bared her claws, so Xia De moved her from his shoulder to his pocket. Only then did he bend down to pick up the Tifa cat from the pile of clothes, then walk back to the front of the sofa and sit back in his original position.
“This is my first time seeing someone use this potion.”
Miss Jialinna looked very curious, while Mia, taking advantage of Xia De sitting down, escaped from his pocket onto the sofa. Seeing Xia De holding the small white cat, she continued to bristle and let out low growls.
Xia De reached out and stroked Mia twice, and as her voice softened, he picked up a towel that had been prepared earlier and draped it over the pure white Tifa cat, who was still trying to stand on its four legs.
The cat, probably a bit smaller than Mia, wriggled under the towel. After a few seconds, Xia De frowned and took off the towel; the cat was still a cat:
“No effect at all.”
“It was within expectations. If it succeeded so easily, I would be surprised instead.”
The Red-haired Witch said, then motioned for Xia De to hand her the white cat.
Both the new white cat Tifa and Xia De’s orange-and-white cat Mia were kitten-sized. But perhaps due to the potion, the Tifa cat’s body temperature was higher and it was softer. However, this was someone else’s “cat,” so Xia De handed the cat over.
Since she also kept cats in her own manor, Miss Jialinna used a very familiar method to place the small white cat on her lap and stroke it:
“It’s the first time I’ve touched you like this.”
She joked with the cat.
Seeing that the cat had been taken away by someone else, Mia finally returned to her normal state. She jumped onto Xia De’s lap, even patted the spot where the white cat had just been lying with her paw, and then lay down again, her small head resting against Xia De’s leg, looking at the cat held across the coffee table.
And the small white cat, still in a dazed state, didn't notice the hostility it was receiving.
“Anyway, you can use this key from 3014 next time. If it’s not related to Miss Felianna, remember to tell me, and I’ll think of other ways to find other keys.”
“Okay, I’ll use it in the early morning on Sunday.”
Xia De said.
Actually, according to the time, a new key could be opened on Saturday afternoon. But he also wanted to rest a bit; he was no longer as eager about everything as he was when he first arrived in this world.
“Alright.”
Miss Jialinna nodded. Seeing Xia De staring at the Tifa cat, she asked curiously again:
“Is there something wrong with this cat?”
“I just wanted to remind you that there’s one minute and three seconds left until three minutes are up. Because the duration of the potion varies among different individuals, you’d better take Tifa to the bedroom as soon as possible.”
Xia De’s gaze shifted to the window. Although it was still foggy today, the morning sun in early autumn was quite strong; he could even see dust floating in the sunlight:
“After all, when a cat turns back into a human, it’s naked… The extraordinary system of this world is truly logical; summoning a skeletal horse doesn’t include horse tack, and shapeshifting doesn’t include clothes.”
“The Knight is truly a gentleman.”
The Duchess, holding the cat, commented. She played with Tifa’s tail, and a smile appeared at the corner of her mouth, as if she had thought of something.
Nothing else interesting happened today. Miss Jialinna stayed at Xia De’s place all day, personally copying Miss Felianna’s notebook in the study. She recognized the words from the fifth epoch, so the copying went smoothly.
As for Tifa, after successfully transforming back into human form, she changed back into her clothes in Xia De’s bedroom. After returning from the bedroom with her head down, her face flushed, tugging at the hem of her skirt, she didn’t speak to Miss Jialinna until the chef, who was hired from a high-end restaurant on Silver Cross Avenue to cook lunch here with ingredients, arrived.
It was, of course, inappropriate for a maid to treat her master this way, but Xia De could understand; the Black-haired maid seemed very angry that Miss Jialinna had played with “her” tail.
“Is there anything special about a cat’s tail?”
Xia De touched Mia’s tail, and the tail wagged. Mia glanced at Xia De, and seeing that he didn’t intend to touch the two rings on her tail, she lay down beside him again, enjoying the peaceful afternoon.
It wasn’t until eight o’clock in the evening that Miss Jialinna, with her fast handwriting, finished copying the notebook. She then discussed the blank spaces in the notebook with Xia De, talking while surveying Xia De’s house:
“You live in such a large house by yourself, isn’t it too tiring to clean? Also, you don’t wash your own clothes, do you?”
She had seen Xia De’s clothes drying on the balcony that morning:
“How about this, from now on, I’ll send my maids to help you clean the house and wash your clothes every week. A young gentleman like you should keep yourself presentable. Before, you only used one room on the second floor, but it’s different now, Xia De. Instead of hiring a housekeeper from who knows where, why don’t I send trustworthy servants to help you?”
Her suggestion was quite good. Although Xia De felt a bit embarrassed, even if some rooms weren’t used, they still needed to be swept and mopped every week, and the windows needed to be wiped every few days, which was indeed very troublesome. Moreover, a few days ago, when he was doing laundry, he had thought about hiring someone to do these chores, so he nodded in agreement.
He found the spare key to the house and gave it to the Black-haired maid in charge of this matter, agreeing that servants could be sent from the Duchess’s manor to clean every Saturday afternoon. He would put the clothes to be washed in a basin beforehand, lock the forbidden doors, and leave a note explaining the areas that needed special cleaning.
Saturday was chosen because he wouldn’t be home on Saturday afternoon, so the cleaning wouldn’t disturb him.
As for safety, Xia De wasn’t worried at all. His secrets were hidden behind a secret wall in the basement. As long as the study on the second floor was locked, the most valuable things in the house were actually the furniture. But except for what Sparrow Detective left behind, most of the furniture at Saint Delan Square Six was moved from Miss Jialinna’s manor, so Xia De wasn’t worried about theft.
“However, this means I’ll have to take Mia with me when I go to the doctor’s every Saturday.”
He stood at the edge of Saint Delan Square as night fell, waving goodbye to the departing motorcade.
As he turned to go home, he happened to run into his neighbors, the Smith couple, who were returning from walking their dog. The old gentleman, who used to be a departmental secretary in the Kingdom’s Ministry of Finance, clearly recognized Miss Jialinna’s motorcade.
He nodded cautiously at Xia De and said with a sigh:
“Young people nowadays are truly remarkable.”
Xia De took this as a compliment to himself.
