“Hm? Hold on.”

The undying one tilted his head, then headed toward the room where I was hiding. He promptly opened the door and peered inside.

Our eyes met.

“Instructor. What are you doing here?”

“Oops, you caught me!”

He actually found me.

The undying one gave me a dubious look at my suspicious hiding place. Wearing an awkward smile, I crawled out of the room.

“Well, I was heading to my room to get something, but things downstairs seemed a little strange. So I ducked into a room and hid, missed my chance to come out, and ended up just standing by.”

Accepting my excuse at face value, the undying one scolded me.

“Come now, if you were watching, you should have stopped it! The lieutenant colonel nearly died, and the boy nearly killed her!”

“If I'd stepped into that, wouldn't I have died too, and Shei have evolved from a murderer into a serial killer? Unlike you, Rash, I'm not undying. If my arm gets cut off, I can't stick it back on, and if I die, a blade of grass can't bring me back.”

“Hm! Can't deny that! In truth, I only got caught up in it myself. I didn't stop anything! Hahaha!”

The undying one laughed heartily. I joined him with an awkward smile.

In truth, I'd hidden here to find out what the escape bundle really was.

There was only one place Callis could flee from the Regressor. Realizing that, I'd asked Tyr to excuse me, hurried ahead, and hidden here. If Callis used her escape bundle to reach the surface, I planned to seize that opportunity to steal her means of escape or learn how it worked.

But who would have guessed the escape bundle was for escaping the world of the living?

When I first read her thoughts about the bundles, I'd seriously considered picking her pocket. Old habits die hard. The sight of that bulging leather pouch in her belt made my fingers itch, and sometimes my hand would dart out before I knew it.

Looking back, thank goodness I hadn't. If I'd stolen that escape-from-life bundle, used it, and promptly died, I'd have ended up in the humor column instead of the obituaries.

Whew. It really does pay to turn over a new leaf. Live a good life, and you get a charm against disaster... no, good fortune.

As I sighed in relief, the undying one took a firm grip on Callis's shoulders and spoke.

“You saved yourself, Lieutenant Colonel. I merely helped a little! So hold your head high!”

“... Yesh!”

She audibly stumbled over her tongue. The undying one and I looked at Callis. In an instant, her face turned as red as her hair.

The undying one looked puzzled.

“Hm? Lieutenant Colonel. Your reactions seem to have gotten cuter.”

“N-noh...”

“At any rate, now that the cap isn't half covering your eyes, I can finally see your face clearly! Your eyes are rounder than I expected! I only ever saw them beneath that cap, so I thought they were sharp as blades, but you're cuter than you look!”

“Th-that's...”

“Why on earth did you wear that stiff, wide-brimmed cap around? It's utterly useless except for pressing down on your head! Without the shadow of that brim, I'd have gotten to know your face much sooner!”

“I didn't... want... to look... ridiculous.”

Covering her flushed face, Callis kept ducking her head.

Well, well. So that's how it is.

The faintly sweet-and-tart emotions I sensed were like a drug: they made me cringe, yet I couldn't look away. I wiped beneath my nose and spoke.

“Wow. It was pathetic, but still fascinating! No matter how hard life gets, being alive beats the alternative, doesn't it?”

“... Do you want to die?”

“Huh? Still keeping your claws out for me?”

Hey, undying one. Didn't you say her eyes were soft? When they're pointed at me, they're still sharp enough to cut.

Even without her uniform or cap, a single glare from her had me cowed. Was this fear etched into my instincts?

Callis shot me a glare, then murmured as she leaned subtly toward the undying one.

“... I have to stay here until the investigation team arrives. With my authority suspended as well, I'm no different from a prisoner.”

“Come now, don't worry so much! At least you aren't completely trapped here like us! And living here has taught me something: this place is surprisingly livable!”

“Perhaps... it is.”

She'd fallen hard. Well, it was only natural to feel fond of someone who'd thrown himself into danger to save you.

But what to do about this?

“I've kept you too long! Now then, I'll be going. You should get some sleep first! A good, deep sleep is the way to settle a body after a fright!”

The undying one politely tried to give her some space. That wasn't what Callis wanted.

He hadn't saved her because she was special. After all, during the prison break, he'd stood up to the ringleader to protect mere convict laborers. Granted, he'd lost miserably and had his limbs torn off, but still.

In other words, this was simply how the undying one was made. If you asked whether Callis was “special,” the answer was no.

Well, he might still be interested in seeing where things went.

“Whew. A rough road ahead...”

I was muttering that, wondering what difficulties lay ahead, when it happened.

Without the slightest warning.

Without any context.

Without the faintest sound.

A cat beastkin appeared before us.

“Meoow.”

Her sudden appearance left everyone speechless. As though on cue, all eyes were drawn to the girl padding lightly along.

The cat beastkin quietly walked into our midst, curled up her hand, and began licking its back.

“... A cat?”

Her upright tail reached nearly to her head. She had pointed, triangular cat ears and thick, ash-gray hair that fell down her back. Strangely, the outer fur was dark gray, while the inner fur was so white it was almost pure white. It looked as though the inside and outside had been painted different colors.

Four long, fine whiskers sprouted from her snow-white face. Her graceful steps were light as feathers. Had I not seen her with my own eyes, I wouldn't even have known she was there.

“Meoow.”

The cat beastkin gave a beguiling meow and surveyed each of us with apparent indifference.

I reflexively read our new arrival's thoughts. Or rather, tried to.

I couldn't read them.

No, I could read them, but the meanings wouldn't connect. It was like cave hieroglyphs transcribed into our language—a book I could read aloud, but whose words made no sense in context.

Having experienced this before, I wasn't flustered. Only surprised.

“The King of Cats?”

What the hell? What could a Beast King possibly find here to make it worth coming?

No, this was strange. The King of Dogs had come because a human told her to, but why would the King of Cats visit the bottomless pit? Was this a bottomless pit or a zoo?

I couldn't sense any other thoughts nearby. That meant she was alone. Did I have no choice but to ask her directly?

I couldn't read a Beast King's memories, but I could learn their name. I only had to sound it out.

I addressed Nabi, who was licking the back of her hand.

“Nabi. What brings you to our house?”

“Meow?”

Nabi paused her licking and replied haughtily.

“I received tribute and came to grant the wish behind it, meow.”

“You received tribute?”

“I am the only king to have made a contract with humans as an equal. My servant offered tribute and asked me to catch the mice squeaking in their mousehole. Thus have I graced this place with my presence, meow.”

A contract. Mice. Tribute.

That ominous feeling probably wasn't my imagination.

Especially not when we'd been discussing the Lords of Creation until just moments ago.

“Oh! A cat lady!”

Just then, true to form, the undying one—who had no sense of danger because he couldn't die—strode toward Nabi.

“I've been blessed this year! To meet two animal ladies, when they're said to be so rare! What a tremendous adventure. I can already see everyone back in the village falling over in shock!”

“Meow?”

“A pleasure to meet you! My name is Rash, cat lady!”

It happened as the undying one reached toward Nabi.

Having stared at him, Nabi struck him with her forepaw.

Space was gouged away. The cat's forepaw swallowed space in darkness, and the undying one's arm, torn off in an instant, flew down the corridor. His detachable right arm never once touched the ground until it had traveled the corridor's entire length.

The undying one's eyes widened.

“Oh!”

Her strength was comparable to Azi's—no, greater.

Unlike Azi, whose hostility faded at the mere sight of a humanlike form, the wary King of Cats didn't hold back. She would have struck Rash just the same even if he hadn't been undying.

In other words, even if I'd been the one to offer my hand.

Sweat ran down my back. The scent of death was beginning to tease my nose.

Cats might be relatively friendly toward humans, but even so... it was best to keep away from Beast Kings in the first place. Beasts did as they pleased, and you never knew when they might turn on you.

Azi, with her fully formed goodwill, was the anomaly. As a rule, beasts had been symbols of fear and danger since the distant past.

Having casually knocked someone's arm off, Nabi licked the forepaw she'd just swung.

The undying one scratched his head with his left arm and spoke.

“A cat indeed! None can match that prickliness! I've had nothing but prickly women around me lately. It's a little lonely! Haha! Everyone, you'd best not approach the cat lady rashly! Not unless you're undying like me!”

Looking at his right arm, now missing below the elbow, Callis asked anxiously,

“Rash, are you... all right?”

“I'm fine. My right arm falling off is an everyday occurrence now! These days, having it attached feels stranger. Sometimes I even detach it and sleep on it as a pillow! An arm pillow in the truest sense!”

“... You've only been awake for a day, though?”

“Have I? Then I'll start sleeping that way tonight!”

The undying one's silly jokes eased the tension somewhat.

The right arm, which had only fallen to the ground after striking the far wall, propped itself up on two fingers and scurried over.

At that unusual sight, Nabi stared at the self-propelled right arm with eyes full of curiosity.

“Meow? The arm is moving.”

“It's my pride and joy! It's never betrayed me! As dependable as any good comrade...”

“Meow.”

It happened as the right arm passed in front of Nabi.

CRUNCH.

Nabi crushed the right arm beneath her forepaw. It was only a simple downward strike, yet it left a cat-paw-shaped dent in the floor. Mashed between her forepaw and the concrete, the right arm crumpled like fruit, scattering bits of flesh everywhere.

Looking taken aback, the undying one muttered,

“Oh dear. This isn't quite so fine.”

Callis cried out urgently.

“Rash!”

“Shh! Don't go near her. It's still all right! My right arm is a part of my body offered to Mother Earth. However badly it's damaged, it will regenerate eventually...”

Nabi watched the endlessly regenerating right arm in fascination, then slammed her hand down on it whenever it finished healing and tried to escape. Each time, the arm quivered in agony.

She tormented the right arm without a shred of malice, out of pure curiosity. The sight was grotesque, yet there was something cruelly compelling about it that made it hard to look away.

The peculiar standoff continued for a while. We watched Nabi play without a word.

In truth, there was nothing else we could do.

Then, at some point—

“Meow! When are you coming?!”

The right arm's regenerative power was gradually dwindling. Losing interest in the arm now that it only trembled, Nabi meowed irritably.

Immediately afterward, something landed on the roof with a thud. The flapping of a parachute followed.

Nabi's ears pricked up. She whipped her head upward and shouted,

“Meow! Hurry up!”

“I'm on my way.”

After that voice rang out, two officers came down the stairs from the roof.