After the banquet, Martin Smith arranged the most comfortable guest rooms in the castle for the two adventurers. Though it was a double room, Barrett had specifically insisted on two separate beds. The lord looked a little surprised but agreed without hesitation.
Inside the guest room, the furniture was covered in intricate, beautiful carvings, and the walls were papered with pink woodcut patterns of little bears. Several slim, soft-leather books stood on the wardrobe shelves. EeDechi pulled one out at random and flipped through a few pages. They were all romance novels about knights and princesses, knights and princes—those kinds of stories.
"The lord wouldn't have given us his daughter's room, would he?" EeDechi said, shoving the book back onto the shelf.
"Who cares? We're sleeping here anyway," Barrett replied. He had just stepped out of a refreshing hot bath. He flung himself onto the big bed and stretched luxuriously.
EeDechi's gaze drifted across the bookshelf, then locked onto a book whose cover showed a burning skull. By instinct she knew it had something to do with Ainz Ooal Gown.
She eased the volume out and looked closer. The red leather cover bore a single line of gilded, flowing script:
The Extraordinary Demon Lord's Exclusive Love for the Proud Princess
The frontispiece held an illustration: an undead figure wreathed in blue magical flames cradling a blushing young woman in a pure-white wedding gown. The image was strangely harmonious.
These days someone was actually writing stories using Ainz Ooal Gown as the hook. EeDechi opened the book with a dismissive attitude. She skimmed through a dozen chapters at blinding speed before realizing the story had nothing to do with Ainz Ooal Gown at all.
The book had been written a hundred years earlier. It told the tale of a young woman who broke free from society's chains and fell in love with a skeletal demon god of white bone.
Some nameless wandering bard, sick of the same old knight-and-princess, knight-and-prince, duke-and-adventurer clichés, had decided to write an anti-trope story instead.
The pages rustled rapidly between EeDechi's fingers as she raced through the book at fifty lines per glance. In no time she had finished the whole thing.
The novel started out fresh and unconventional, but to give the young readers the sweet fantasy they craved, it circled back to a completely standard happy ending.
The male lead—the white skeletal Demon King—received the blessing of the Tree of Life, grew himself a cock, and lived happily ever after with the heroine. The author had gone out of his way to describe their wedding-night lovemaking in vivid detail, the kind of writing that would make any ordinary person's blood run hot.
"What a vulgar little novel," EeDechi muttered, shaking her head as she slid the book back onto the shelf. "Books like this can actually get published? Don't the countries in this world have any kind of censorship board?"
Barrett picked it up out of curiosity, flipped through a few pages, and read the ending with obvious enjoyment. He shot back, "The people love this stuff. What's it matter if you don't like it?"
Under the fluffy long-staple cotton comforter lay a jacquard sheet patterned with lilies. EeDechi, dressed in silk satin pajamas, slipped beneath the covers. Barrett snuffed out the long-necked oil lamp beside the bed. The two of them lay with their heads on the soft velvet pillows, ready to sink into the rare, peaceful sleep they both craved.
The clamor of voices and the metallic clash of armor from the castle below shattered the endless quiet of the night. Barrett's sharp instincts made him roll out of bed. He eased open the shutters and looked out.
"Why aren't they sleeping at this hour? What are they yelling about?" EeDechi curled tighter under the blankets and grumbled.
Knights in half-dressed armor hurried back and forth through the castle, torches and shortswords in hand, while the castle's master—Lord Martin Smith—barked orders at them.
Barrett cocked his head, catching a few words that kept repeating in the commotion. "Sounds like they're hunting a cat," he guessed. "A cat named Cheeko. They want to find it and kill it."
"It's just a cat," EeDechi said with a long yawn. "Do they really need to make this much noise over one little animal?"
She rolled over in bed and pulled the covers up over her ears. Then a faint scratching sound reached her sensitive ears.
"There's something in the room!" EeDechi sat up fast. She reached for the brass oil lamp on the bedside table, pinched the wick between her thumb and forefinger, and gave it a lightning-fast twist. The heat from the friction flared the oil alight in an instant.
Seeing EeDechi's rare burst of alertness, Barrett quietly closed the shutters. He slid the shortsword out from under his pillow and pulled a glowing crystal lantern from his spatial ring. With careful eyes he swept the light across every corner of the room.
The magical glow of the crystal lantern flooded the night-dark room with light as bright as day, shoving every shadow into the corners. The guest room clearly didn't see much use; the furniture was plain and simple. The two adventurers searched every wall and corner but found no sign of an intruder.
"Could those bastards from the Sorcerer Kingdom have caught up with us?" Barrett's nerves pulled tight. Was their easy, carefree traveling life finally over? He gripped his shortsword, body already coiled for a fight, refusing to relax his guard for even a second.
"There's something in the travel pack!" EeDechi pointed at the big cloth bag lying crumpled on the floor. To keep anyone from suspecting they owned spatial rings, the pair had each carried one of the oversized sacks so they would look like nothing more than ordinary travelers.
Barrett stared at the pack but saw nothing out of place. EeDechi leapt off the bed, crossed the room in a single quick stride, clamped the bag with her left hand, and shoved her right arm inside. She rummaged for a moment, then lifted something soft and squishy into the air.
A sky-blue, semi-transparent, perfectly smooth ball of a… cat?
EeDechi pinched the creature by the scruff of its neck and held it up, studying it closely. Barrett sheathed his shortsword and stared in open astonishment.
The "cat" was a little plump, its body round and chubby. Its skin was sleek and hairless, crystal-clear and translucent, a murky semi-transparent sky blue. It looked less like a living animal and more like a blue crystal cat statue.
Except this crystal cat statue was soft and squishy—and it was moving, almost exactly like a real cat.
The "cat" kicked its four stubby little legs a few times. It had a pair of beautiful round eyes like polished black obsidian. The two dark pupils gazed curiously at EeDechi and Barrett. Its small mouth opened, but there were no sharp fangs or teeth inside.
It half-closed its eyes and let out a soft meow~, the sound so adorable it was impossible not to smile.
"Wow, this cat is so cute!" EeDechi exclaimed, her first impression of the creature bursting out loud.
"To be precise, it's not actually a cat," Barrett said. He gave one of the cat's soft little paws a squeeze and felt no hidden claws tucked inside the pads.
He pressed gently on the translucent crystal cat's belly a few times and concluded, "It's a slime that's taken the shape of a cat."
The cat actually nodded its round head in agreement.
"It understands what you're saying," EeDechi said. She cradled the cat's two front legs and hugged it close to her chest.
"Creatures like this all have self-awareness and high intelligence," Barrett replied. He rubbed the top of the cat's head, and the little thing squinted its eyes and lowered its head, clearly enjoying the petting. Even Barrett had to admit that this "cat" was really adorable.
"If it really has self-awareness…" EeDechi activated her Innate Talent, wanting to check whether the cat had a Justice Value.
One look was all it took. EeDechi's eyes widened in shock. She lifted the cat high into the air and exclaimed,
"Its Justice Value is… 368!!!"
EeDechi pulled the cat into her arms and declared happily, "It's decided! I'm keeping it. From now on, it's the third member of our adventurer party!"
"With a Justice Value this high and it's this cute, it's practically a perfect creature!" EeDechi stroked the chubby cat in her arms. "I've always thought that if I ever owned a cat, I'd pet it until it went bald. But this one has no fur, so I can pet it as much as I want without worry."
"Wait a second," Barrett said, sounding puzzled. "The cat the lord and his knights are out hunting… it wouldn't happen to be this one, would it?"