I didn’t know who pulled what strings but I was first in my class and third in my overall grade.

How did this even happen? Even Mike was only 10th overall!

But this did make me question, who was ahead of me? I asked around and apparently it was some rich Count’s Son and some Marquis’s daughter. They’d hardly ever performed in class and there was a good chance their positions were bought with money but oh well.

“See, I told you, you didn’t need to worry,” Shia said. “Worrying is only for the bad students.” She shrugged as we walked for the dorms.

Nope. Good students worried way more.

Bad students only had to worry about whether they would pass or not. Good students had to worry about whether they would be in the top of not. If by some unholy miracle their marks dropped below 90, fucked they were. At least in my case that was true. One time I got 89 in math and my mother literally hadn’t cooked for me that day. She hadn’t done anything at all and stopped talking to me for like three weeks. I got a 100 in the very next math test.

All her shenanigans did make me study like an idiot though. And make me hate her for it.

But when I left her, a lot of things became clear. My mother wasn’t trying to raise me as a straight A student just to satisfy her ego or boast to her friends (she didn’t have any to begin with). She was doing it for me, or so she’d convinced herself. All her dreams, everything she ever wanted to be, she couldn’t because of her grades. And because of that, she wanted me to not end up like her. She never even considered what I wanted though. Unlike her, I never wanted to be a Nasa engineer. I never wanted to be a space pilot. Heck, I never even wanted to be near a flying vehicle.

Actually, what did I want to become? Was there anything that interested me? All I ever did was study, study, and study. I never cared about anything else, and that included life goals.

Sighing, I was back to my dorm room. Lil Rexy was here to greet me. Petting her was a weird feeling. I was used to petting cats and their fur. But this guy didn’t have any fur at all. And the scales were cold and… kind of cool. She didn’t seem to like my petting. She didn’t dislike it either. Chill, in other words. But, staring at the lizard, did give me a sense of calm. But can I really take care of another life?

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The last time I tried, it ended up dead within a week. this was why I wasn’t keen on having pets anymore. The only reason I didn’t feel Sisna was a pet, was because Mom was taking care of her and the goat letting me suck her tits. She was like a second mother to me, honestly. No wait, a third?

“Mraw,” I got a knock on my window. I didn’t have a direct window connecting to the outside, so it came from Gerar’s side. I opened it and was greeted by the big panther. She’d brought two cubs today.

The panther was a little big for the window but she squeezed herself in without any trouble whatsoever.

She came in, I gave her some biscuits and her cubs some milk and they all just ate and stuff.

“You’re not going around clawing kids, right?” I asked, giving the mother cat a pet. She didn’t mind. She did look at me and shook her head though. Yup, she could understand speech, up to a certain degree. “This,” I mumbled, almost diving into her fur. Soft, dark, and utterly good fur! Even rubbing my face felt great! “Woah!” I almost fell over when she moved a bit but she grabbed my shirt with a bite and I hung in the air like one of her kids. She casually sat me down on the bed and was ready to leave.

“Mraw.” But then she noticed the lizard. “Grr…” A low growl. A warning?

“It’s okay, she’s one of my friend’s kids,” I said.

“Mraw…” Mother cat didn’t seem all that convinced but she shrugged and watched her cubs finish up the milk like they were competing. We watched them together. Once they were done, she took both of them in her mouth and bid me goodnight with a swing of that lovely tail.

Damn, that cat was smart. And elegant too~!

But they might actually kill her one of these days. And the cat knew that. Even if she didn’t murder students, the actual murderers were probably going to frame her and….

So far, Gerar seemed to be in the favor of the cat, particularly why he hadn’t said anything about the cat coming to visit me every night. But I had my doubts how long this would last.

Just last night, it was two victims. Fresh claw marks. Almost all the victims so far were clawed to death and were commoners. But what if a noble died?

The school would surely get rid of the murdering cat, even if the cat hadn’t murdered, just to look good to the victim’s family.

Sigh.

She’s strong. She’s smart. She’s got kids.

I’m sure she’ll be fine.

She was not fine.

We found the cat dead just outside the dorm the next morning. I was one of the first people who found the cat, only second to Mike who’d been waiting for me.

“Didn’t think she’d go out like this,” he said. Claw marks.

I gritted my teeth. Mother cat was dead, and so were her two cubs. All clawed to death.

Dead.

“Let’s…” I tried to talk but my throat clogged up. It was almost as though someone had punched the air out of my lungs. “Bury her,” I managed, as a deep suppressed sob leaked out and my eyes moistened.

This is why I didn’t like pets. Always fucking dying on me. Damn it! Fuck!

Mike put a hand on my shoulder. He didn’t say anything.

FUCK!

“FUCKKK!!!”