The northern reaches of the North American continent were exceptionally cold at night.
Inside the cozy little tent Pardo had built for herself, however, the temperature remained comfortably warm.
The moment she entered, Pardo took off her coat and settled beside the wood stove, hugging her knees to her chest. With her chin resting on them, she swayed gently from side to side while humming a tune she had once heard from Sister Eden.
The melody had long since become nearly unrecognizable, and whatever meaning the original song once held had been completely lost.
As she waited for the meat dish cooking on the stove, her long, fluffy tail swayed lazily behind her.
Beside her, Can was happily munching on a plate of premium cat food, his plump little backside wiggling as his tail flicked back and forth.
Without a doubt, this was exactly the kind of life Pardo wanted most.
Free and carefree…
Well, not entirely without worries.
Pardo had never expected the weather to change so suddenly or become this extreme.
"To think I was counting on relaxing here for at least a few years!"
"This kind of abnormal change wasn't supposed to happen… Could it be the work of the Herrscher of Ice?"
"Oh, right. 'Originally,' Brother Kalpas defeated the newly born Herrscher of Ice almost immediately. But now… who knows what happened?"
"Brother Kalpas really is amazing. He's a good person too, even if he's a little too fierce. Whenever he loses his temper, he scares the life out of a cat. Don't you agree, Can?"
"Meow~"
As she worried aloud, Pardo's heterochromatic eyes shifted with the fading light outside.
This was the so-called "Cat-Eye Timekeeping."
Not long afterward, the meat dish on the wood stove was finally ready.
A delighted smile appeared on Pardo's face.
Clearly, even such a small pleasure was more than enough to satisfy her.
The fifty-thousand-year-old catgirl (?) eagerly lifted the lid from the pot, releasing a rich aroma of cooked meat into the tent.
Pardo sniffed deeply, her mouth curling into the same catlike pout as a certain thousand-year-old mage.
The only difference was the tiny fang peeking from between her lips, along with the small trail of drool already gathering at the corner of her mouth.
Then she began to feast.
"Ah! Hot!"
She had taken the first bite too quickly.
Her tongue was apparently just as sensitive as a real cat's.
Fortunately, the powerful constitution of a MANTIS soon allowed her to ignore the heat and enjoy the meal to her heart's content.
"Slurp, slurp… Mmm, chew~"
Some people might have considered making so much noise while eating terribly impolite.
But with only Pardo and Can inside the tent, there was no reason to care about manners.
Besides…
Had Ling Ke been there, he probably would have laughed and said:
"More than fifty thousand years have passed, yet your eating habits haven't changed in the slightest."
And he would not have been wrong.
Pardo's cheeks gradually puffed out as she stuffed more food into her mouth.
Although she was supposed to be a "cat," it was only at times like this that she resembled a hamster instead.
Rustle, rustle…
"Hm?"
The pair of cat ears atop Pardo's head twitched.
She stopped chewing.
Turning her head slightly, she began adjusting the direction of her ears, listening carefully to the noises coming from somewhere nearby.
"Can."
Pardo quietly warned her companion, curling one finger toward herself in a beckoning gesture.
Her vigilance was obvious.
After all, such awareness was an essential skill for any Master Thief.
She reached for the hooded coat and cat-paw scarf she had brought out of the Elysian Realm and held them tightly in one hand.
Can immediately scrambled into her arms.
The next moment…
Hum…
A golden-orange portal opened.
Pardo curled herself into a ball and rolled straight through it, emerging inside another tent.
The layout was almost identical to the one she had just left.
However, the wood stove here had not been lit, leaving the surrounding air bitterly cold.
Pardo paid no attention to that.
She quickly put on her coat, then left the portal open for a moment, allowing some of the warmth from the previous tent to drift through and take the edge off the cold.
Afterward, she slowly shrank the portal.
Smaller…
And smaller…
Until it was no larger than a cat's eye.
She then moved the opening to an inconspicuous corner of the warm tent she had abandoned.
The other end remained suspended directly in front of her left eye.
Just like that…
Rustle, rustle…
Through the tiny portal, Pardo clearly saw something resembling an insect crawl through a gap in the warm tent's zipper.
"Not this thing again!"
Her face immediately scrunched into an irritated, catlike pout.
Without the slightest hesitation, she closed the Cat's Eye Portal.
She had no intention of recklessly trying to fight it.
It was just a shame about…
"All the supplies I just stocked up on!"
Pardo was obviously annoyed.
But there was nothing she could do.
Over the past several days, that eerie creature had attacked her more than once. No matter where she fled, it always seemed capable of finding her again.
Because of that, Pardo had gradually established a number of little "nooks" in isolated locations throughout the world.
They could also be called…
Safehouses for the Cat and the Girl (?).
She had prepared quite a few of them.
One example was the warm tent she had just abandoned.
Another was this nearly identical tent, hidden inside a cave deep within a South American rainforest.
"Whew~"
Pardo quickly put the recent incident out of her mind and relit the wood stove.
This "Nook" was clearly not as comfortable as the previous one.
After all, the former had been located inside an enormous shopping mall filled with so many supplies that a single person could never hope to use them all.
Here, however…
"Looks like I'll have to find another 'restocking spot' tomorrow."
Still only half-full, Pardo set Can down beside her and casually pulled a few snacks from a cabinet inside the tent.
Then she flopped bonelessly onto a large beanbag cushion, looking like a salted fish.
With both hands tucked behind her head, she munched on her snacks and muttered to herself.
"Being able to 'teleport' still isn't convenient enough."
"If only I had some kind of 'Portable Warehouse.'"
"Then none of the supplies I collect would ever be lost, and I could carry them with me wherever I went."
She happily imagined such a future.
And continued imagining it…
Until, little by little, exhaustion began to overtake her.
Pardo placed the remaining snacks aside.
As the firewood stove gradually warmed the inside of the tent, the comfortable atmosphere made her eyelids grow heavier.
Before long, she had fallen into a deep sleep.
Can raised his ears and quietly took responsibility for guarding their surroundings.
This was how the girl and cat had been relying on each other lately.
Then, at some unknown moment…
"!!!"
Pardo jolted awake.
She suddenly discovered that she was no longer lying inside the tent.
Instead, she stood within a vast and boundless sea of stars.
Beneath her feet stretched a pathway formed from illusory light, extending endlessly into the distance.
Faced with such an abrupt and incomprehensible situation, Pardo, who had no real understanding of something known as a "Path Interstice," instinctively attempted to open a portal and escape.
However, her MANTIS abilities could not be used in this place.
"What's going on? This is…"
Pardo genuinely began to panic.
Then…
Clang~
An immense presence descended.
Pardo's attention was immediately seized by it.
Almost instinctively, she turned toward a particular direction.
"!!!"
A colossal black cat with golden eyes was staring curiously at her tiny figure.
Its body appeared larger than an entire planet.
Around its neck was a radiant golden ring resembling a collar.
It walked gracefully upon eight legs, while three tails swayed slowly behind it. Each tail was adorned with several smaller golden rings.
There were eleven rings in total.
Pardo did not dare move a single muscle.
Perhaps noticing her terror, the enormous black cat narrowed its eyes into what seemed like a humanlike smile.
Its golden vertical pupils gleamed with interest.
Then…
Clang~
Divine light manifested.
A dark golden sphere of light descended upon Pardo's left arm.
The light quickly condensed, transforming into a magnificent golden armlet.
At that exact moment…
"Ah?"
A startled sound escaped Pardo's lips.
Her expression went completely blank, as though her mind had suddenly been overwhelmed.
A vast amount of knowledge, far too profound for her to immediately understand, had spontaneously appeared inside her head.
Part of that knowledge explained the identity of the enormous black cat standing before her.
"The Aeon of Harmony… Bastet?"
There was also another term.
"Emanator?"
The young girl (?) scratched her head in confusion.
"What's that supposed to be?"