章 164: Chapter 164: Cat Lord Part 5
– Flash!
A sudden burst of bright light turned everything white for a moment. I could even feel the electric current crackling and this caused my whiskers to stand on end.
If I face Lausian now, I'm dead.
My whiskers instinctively sounded the alarm. Reacting to the tingling warning, I quickly hid between the clumps of dark dust. However, the kittens who were distracted by the giant foxtails…
-Rumble, rumble, rumble!
-Crash!
The hands reaching down from the sky weren't just one or two. There had to be at least ten glowing hands searching the air for the kittens. The kittens scratched and bit at the goddess's hands as they frantically fled in all directions. But it seemed that Lausian, this time, had come with firm resolve. The glowing hands paid no mind and tightly grasped the kittens.
-Hiss!
-Screech!
The kittens hissed and squirmed, but there was no way Lausian would care about something like that. Surely, she wasn't planning to crush them to death like this, was she? The horrifying thought made me shudder.
The remaining hands started searching the surroundings. I quickly threw myself over Lausian's quill and wrapped myself in my shadow cloak. I wasn't sure if the shadow cloak would work in front of a goddess, but…
-Slither.
Fortunately, it worked. The glowing hand that had been poking around the dark dust near my nose suddenly stopped and disappeared. The other hands searching the area did the same. Perhaps they decided there was no quill here, as the glowing hands that were still gripping the kittens slowly rose back into the air.
-Rumble…
-Flash!
Once again, there was a deafening roar and a blinding flash of light. When I opened my eyes, everything was quiet.
-Whooo…
-Swish…
The only thing moving was the innocent foxtails swaying in the wind as they were blown by an unseen breeze.
***
Fury.
Lausian trembled with rising fury.
The nine cats with the "privilege" of moving freely between the nine worlds. The "Cat Council" was an unsettling presence even to the gods. Beings that disregarded "rules" and "order" and mocked them. To a goddess who guarded temperance and order, the Cat Council was nothing more than an annoying bunch of furballs.
And when she realized that the successors of those already irritating furballs had stolen her cherished quill…
Fury.
There was no other word to describe it.
She had to oversee thousands, and even tens of thousands, of rules and laws every day. To protect the order of the world, she was busier than any of the twelve gods. This had been true since the moment she became aware of her own existence.
The number of laws Lausian had written and revised with her quill over the years surely exceeded the number of all the cats in the nine worlds combined. Her quill was an invaluable and important item that had been with her through everything. No, it was more like a comrade than just an object. If Arzan's sword was needed to uphold justice, Lausian's quill was essential for maintaining order.
Yet the so-called "Cat Council" who treated rules like nothing more than scraps of fur, refused even the smallest cooperation, let alone an apology, despite knowing full well that their successors had committed the blasphemous act of stealing her quill. Their excuse? "To preserve the balance of the world".
To Lausian, it was nothing short of an outrageous mockery. Anyone could see that it was she, the goddess of temperance and order, who maintained the world's balance—not those "furballs"!
—But, Goddess, how can you be so "certain"? Isn't it possible that you simply "lost" your quill?
She would never forget the words spoken by that arrogant, golden-furred cat, not even if the world came to an end.
Lausian had presented the thin strands of fur floating in her office as evidence, but the Cat Council refused to admit guilt; they argued that "a few strands of fur" were not enough to accuse a cat of the crime. In fact, they slyly suggested that Lausian's beloved hunting dog, Lyraffs, also had fur, didn't he?
The world could only be properly maintained under perfect order and law.
Without the rules written with the ink flowing from the goddess's quill, the world would surely fall into chaos. And if the world fell into chaos…
"They" would awaken.
[You foolish creatures cannot possibly comprehend the gravity of that.]
Lausian looked down at the world of chaos and controlled one of her glowing hands. In response to her command, the glowing hand grabbed hold of a golden-furred cat.
[I will make an example out of you.]
– Gah!
[I will show you children of chaos what order truly means.]
After reducing this example to ashes, leaving not even dust behind, she would make the rest of the so-called "Cat Council" taste the bitterness as well. They would pay the price for defying "order".
[In endless agony, you will come to understand true order.]
– Crackle!
Fierce bolts of lightning began to spark around the hand that held the cat.
[The 'end' that comes equally to all…]
It was then.
"Lausian!"
An unexpected voice made the goddess pause.
"I've come to make a deal!"
***
Hm? That line sounded oddly familiar. Was it just my imagination?
Anyway, that wasn't the important thing right now.
Just before Kali was about to be turned into a crispy electric roast, I raised the quill high and waved it. Strangely, despite the tense situation, the sight of soft starlight fragments scattering was quite beautiful.
-Fizzzzzzz…
The lightning that had been about to fry Kali began to slowly die down. Only then did I stop waving the quill and calmly look up at the sky. The sky was full of dark clouds, and it looked like the face of an angry goddess.
[A deal, you say…?]
"Yes! A deal!"
The glowing hand threw Kali aside and pointed a finger at me.
[You are mistaken.]
"In what part?"
[That quill originally belongs to me. So, how do you plan to make a 'deal'?]
"It's in my hands now, isn't it?"
[Then return it, and I'll at least spare your life.]
"I can't do that."
[Why not?]
Lausian asked again; she sounded genuinely puzzled. I glanced at the limp kittens in the glowing hand that were too weak to even struggle and spoke once more.
"Because I…"
[....]
"…am the Cat Lord."
-BOOOOOM!!!
Flash! Thunder and lightning struck again. I squeezed my eyes shut and waited for the blinding light and deafening roar to pass. When it did, I opened my eyes and stared straight up at the sky.
"Oh, goddess, if the world knew you did all this over mere kittens' mischief, they would laugh at you!"
['Mischief,' you say?]
"Yes, that's right. They meant no harm! It was all out of simple curiosity…"
-Rumble!!!
A thunderous roar that seemed like it would tear through my eardrums echoed across the sky, but I ignored it and continued talking.
"Lausian, I know how much effort you've put into maintaining the order of the world."
[And yet, knowing that, you dare to speak so carelessly?]
"But…"
[Silence, you insignificant creature.]
"Isn't order something that only exists because of chaos?"
– Flash!
Lightning struck once more. Whether it was because the goddess's anger had reached its peak, I couldn't tell, but I saw bolts of lightning crackling, ready to strike at any moment from the dark clouds filling the sky.
[If you continue speaking any further…]
I boldly interrupted the goddess.
"Don't forget, you yourself were born from chaos!"
Indeed, the twelve gods were also beings born from chaos. Without chaos, the twelve gods would not have existed.
Chaos was the essence of "possibility" itself.
Even a goddess who guarded order had chaos at her roots.
Just like I said, order could not exist without chaos.
If the world was perfectly in order, there would be no need to protect order.
"If you destroy them, the very 'order' you wish to establish will disappear along with them."
[....]
"So, for your own sake, please show mercy."
I cautiously held the quill with both hands and raised it toward the sky. A glowing hand slowly approached and picked up the quill. At that moment, the kittens began meowing in frustration as if in protest.
"Be quiet!"
I sternly shouted at them before looking back up at the sky.
"As the Lord of Cats, I respectfully ask you to release those small fragments of chaos."
[That is not possible.]
"That goes against our agreement."
[Strictly speaking, no 'contract' has been made yet, 'Cat Lord'.]
A contract, she said.
As expected, a goddess of order wouldn't let things go so easily.
I quietly watched as the glowing hand tore through the dark clouds and began writing something with the quill.
['Cat Lord'. You are right. Order exists to set chaos straight. So I, Lausian, will establish another order here.]
"What is it?"
[The nine small fragments of chaos shall not cross between the nine worlds until they have received proper instruction in order.]
"..."
I glanced briefly at Kali. He shook his head, but I nodded.
As I had said, chaos needs order, and order needs chaos. Even these kittens that were pure chaos themselves needed to learn the laws of the world.
"Very well."
The glowing hand handed me the quill. I took it and signed on the dark cloud before returning the quill to the glowing hand. The hands that had been holding the kittens released them onto the ground. The kittens who were now free fluffed up their fur and hissed at the hands, but it was of no use.
[I hope we do not meet again, 'Cat Lord'.]
"...The feeling is mutual, Goddess."
– Rumble!!!
With a flash of lightning, the dark clouds swallowed the glowing hands. When I blinked, the sky had returned to its original appearance filled with the Milky Way. Only then did my legs give out, and I collapsed to the ground.
[Special Quest: Operation Save the Kittens Success!]
[Reward: 'Key of Fortune' from the Goddess of Luck, Liadel]
…Wait, Liadel?
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