Chapter 80: Domestication
[Edited by: Arthur300000, deathbricks, Bunny, ArchmageNaoki]
“There is a new magic resistant diarrhea spreading through elementary schools. Several children have been hospitalized and the government has temporarily shut down the affected schools until further notice while experts are doing their best to find the root cause of the disease.” I listened to the morning news while eating a giant, white sausage for breakfast.
The atmosphere was very awkward in the dining room due to the fact that my private sanctuary, a.k.a. the erotic book under my pillow, was violated by mom and Cocoa. Even though both of them acted like nothing had happened, I was still avoiding eye contact with them.
“Oh my, that sounds horrible, please be careful when eating something from outside the house. And Kuro, please wash your hands properly before a meal.” Mom said worriedly. But for some reason, the part about washing hands was aimed at me. Heh, diarrhea huh? That is nothing, I’ve survived countless sessions of food poisoning. The trick is to keep drinking water as much as possible and if it takes a turn for the worse, just collapse in front of someone… Maybe I should thank my landlord if I ever go back to Earth again.
“Yes, mom.” I replied after I swallowed the last bite of the sausage. Then I grabbed Barbara’s hand and attempted to bolt. However, I was still caught by mom when I had to wait for Barbara to adjust her attire one last time.
“I love you, and take care.” Mom hugged me and gave me a lunch box, then she moved on to do the same with Barbara.
“See you in the afternoon.” Pristia hugged me with enough force to crush a bull. Pristia didn’t come with us to the adventurer’s school because she had an interview at an university she had applied to. She still had to take the final test with me in the afternoon though.
At first, I thought she was going to apply to a course about cooking since she promised to give me the best food in the world. However, she went to the photography department instead. When I asked, she said, “I can do that when I have a lot of money.” … What a realistic girl she is.
Aunos also went with her, but he applied to the engineering department. Seeing them freely pursuing their dreams like this made me feel happy for them. Huh? What about me? I also had a plan.
Because my weapon crafting skills seemed to be better than this world could provide, I was planning to open a smithy together with Aunos once he graduated. Of course, I’ll do the weapon crafting and my brother will be the one who does the enchanting work. I’ll have Cocoa be the salesperson, accountant, and manager. Too much workload for my maid? There is no such thing. Oh right, I could also have Pristia install security cameras at our shop.
The only loose end here was my niece, Barbara, who was complaining about cold weather and the sun being too bright while walking beside me to the bus station. I learned first hand that being a jobless person was difficult. But no matter how I looked at her, she seemed to be heading that way.
From what I saw, Barbara was a smart, fashionable, and energetic girl. However, she was also fickle, impatient, overbearing, and game addicted. My worries seemed to be well founded as yesterday she began to shut herself up inside her room, playing a suspicious net game. It was so troublesome to excavate her this morning. Maybe I should have asked Ms. Nyatalee to-
“Nyaaaa” A faint distressed meow caused me to stop in my track. I looked left and right for the source but found none. That’s strange, it’s around minus twenty Celsius here, I doubt any cat could survive the cold.
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“Nyaaa” It’s over there! I pulled Barbara in that direction. She protested at first but when she also heard the noise she quickly followed me into a deserted alley which people wouldn’t normally pass by. We almost slipped on the ice, but we managed to find the… furball in question.
“It’s a cat, right?” Barbara asked. Well, I also doubt that because what I saw was a white and round ball of fur.
“It’s a flying snow leopard, one of the five magical species in the genus Neoneopanthera, a member of the Volantes Felidae. Compared to other wild flying cats, the flying snow leopard has relatively short legs and a long body with a large skull. The flying snow leopard is distinguished by its well-camouflaged fur. It usually pretends to be a flying snow rabbit and it has a opportunistic hunting behavior. It also has an ability to fly at speeds of up to 158 kilometers per hour.” Skynet explained at length. Anyways, I thought a leopard would be a lot more… majestic. Also, long body? All I could see was a ball of fur. Maybe Skynet was bugged or something from spending too much time with Barbara.
“Oh, so it must have come with the storm that you told me about. Wasn’t that five days ago? It must be starving.” Barbara picked the fluff ball in question up.
“Oi! Barbara, be careful, it’s a carnivorous animal it might attack you.” I inched closer and ready to intercept in case that thing turned dangerous. It might not look threatening, but with ‘leopard’ in its name there must be some danger, right? Not to mention, it’s a flying one.
“Kuro is a worry wart, here. See? It’s weak and pitiful.” Barbara put the fluffy ball in my arms. It looked at me with cute round eyes and snuggled its head on my boobs. Opportunistic hunting behavior? Skynet must’ve mistranslated from something like an opportunistic pervert. Still, it was a lot lighter than it looked and its body felt very skinny. Maybe I should feed it with something.
“Skynet, what does it eat?” I asked my personal search engine. A bit bugged as she may be, she was my only hope here.
“The flying snow leopard has a broad diet. It can eat anything a human can eat, however, its main source of nutrients is meat.” So, it was easy to feed. But the problem was, I already sold all the monster corpses. Giving it a snack seemed to be too wasteful and was probably bad for a cats health, or so I heard. Mom’s lunch box? That was out of the question.
I browsed my storage device for a while and decided what to feed it by process of elimination. Finally, I found two items that I acquired long time ago during the convenience store shopping spree which I didn’t mind to part with. A box of milk of unknown origin and an energy drink called ‘Red Viper’ which also consisted of unknown ingredients.
“Let’s try this milk first then.” I cut open the box along its length and placed it in front of the fur ball. If this guy didn’t look better, I would feed him the Red Viper afterward.
“Waaaa, it’s so cute. Kuro, can we keep it?” Barbara squealed as the furball in question gluttonously licked up the milk in high speed. It seemed to be really starving.
“Well, I don’t know. Maybe we should ask mom first.” Last time I asked my parents about getting mini ducks as a pet, they rejected the idea. Also, we already had Mr. Bobo, this leopard might not compatible with him like cats and dogs. So I told Barbara not to get her hopes up as I began to call mom.
“Kuro? What is it? Did something happen?” Mom quickly answered the phone, her worried voice came through the speakerphone as I set my communication device to the video call mode for Barbara to see.
“Nothing to worry about, mom. It’s just that we found this fluff ball starving in the alley. Uhm, can we take care of him?” I tilted the camera to Mr. Fluffy who was still licking what was left in the milk box. Is Mr. Fluffy actually a male? Well, I don’t know but it would be rude to check during its meal. So, according to the internet rule, everyone was a guy until proven otherwise… or was it that everyone was gay until proven otherwise? Well, nevermind that.
“... It’s fine, but you two need to take responsibility for him.” Mom replied and added after she saw Barbara and me nodding vigorously. “Then, you should take him to the vet and get him a health check and vaccinated. Also, don’t forget to buy its food, litter box, bed, and toys on your way home.”
“Roger that!” Barbara made a mock salute and pressed the call end button. Oi! I looked at her to protest, but she told me that it would be better to end it while we were still in the lead. Oh, crap, I forgot to tell mom that Mr. Fluffy is a fearsome flying leopard… Anyways, this guy seemed to be docile, so he should be alright, I hoped.