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The Mother Cat and the Girl (Web Novel) - Oneshot
Oneshot
This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml
What was in front of the eyes of the summoned mother cat was a girl who was making a face like she was about to cry at any time.
Her big eyes getting wet and her lips trembling made for quite the unreliable appearance.
The mother cat who had once lived in a human city had come to see various human beings.
Adults, children and also elderly ones.
Even within her many experiences, the unreliability of the girl in front of her was the greatest.
She would surely be eaten far quicker than those four children.
Leaving such child on her own, where could her parents have gone?
If this girl were to go to the forest, she would end up eaten without holding out even a single day.
The mother cat restlessly looked around her, but she could not discover any who looked like her parents.
Who were there were only children of similar age to the girl and a human male whose hair was thinning on the crown.
I thought the human male could be her parent, but they do not look similar for that.
The girl looks lovable, but the crown balding male human does not have a lovable nature at all.
This must mean they aren’t parent and child.
Thinking such was the mother cat, but she immediately recalled something out of the question.
Somebody has summoned me.
I have to first investigate who summoned me.
The mother cat first looked at her own feet.
There was a circle and small letter-like drawings drawn on the ground.
This should be a spell that humans would cast.
Thrusting a rod on that circle was the girl in front of her eyes.
Realizing that, the mother cat opened her eyes in surprise.
After all, it would seem that she was summoned by the girl in front of her.
What in the world could this mean?
Mother cat worked on understanding her present situation by squeezing out the most of the knowledge she was able to possess.
Understanding what sort of situation one is currently in was one of the basics of a hunter.
First, there is no mistaking it that I have been summoned.
Who performed the summon is the girl in front of me.
Around me are many human children.
What else is there?
There seems to be walls here and also a roof.
Somehow, this looks to be inside a building.
There, mother cat observed the garments of the children.
All of them wore the same garments.
Black clothes and a large hat.
Holding on their hands were rods.
These should be people who are skilled in casting spells among the humans.
Since human children takes time to grow into adulthood, it is difficult to think that any of these children are skilled in magic.
Thereupon, mother cat finally hit upon a deduction.
Could this not be what is called a school that I have heard in the past?
Humans would gather the children and train them.
This is probably a school.
During the time the mother cat was making such guesses, the crown balding man stepped up.
While fixedly gazing at the mother cat, he nodded eagerly with a admiring look.
What is it? The mother cat thought as she looked up, and the crown balding adult spoke.
“It looks like you have succeeded in summoning a cat sith. They are very clever, so they must perplexed to this situation. Explain the situation to the cat sith. The others should continue summoning their familiars!”
The girl, whose expression looked like she would cry even now, nodded many times over while looking confused, and spoke to the mother cat.
Stuttering, choking and choking, being difficult to understand.
The content should be, in a word, “please follow me.”
Mother cat raised a cry of understanding, and stood up at the girl’s feet.
Perhaps surprised by it, the girl stiffened and raised a shriek-like voice.
Mother cat certainly was an excellent hunter and feared by the small animals in the forest.
However, she did not believe to be strong enough to be feared by humans.
Is this girl not too helplessly afraid?
She was by far more of a coward than the winged child, who was the biggest coward among those the mother cat had raised.
The mother cat, who had become somewhat worried, hit the girl’s foot with her foreleg in order to calm her down.
Although the girl showed a startled expression seeing that, she managed to guide the mother cat to the corner of the room.
But then again, rather than calling it guiding, she was just walking, frozen solid.
Perhaps she calmed down considerably; there were no more tears in the girl’s eyes.
As usual she looked like she would burst into tears at any moment, but it somehow seemed to be her natural face.
Matching the girl sitting on the bench, the mother cat sat next to her.
After taking a few deep breaths, the girl slowly began to talk.
First, this seemed to be a magic school.
This was as the mother cat had expected.
She said that this building was a training grounds and a place where they do things like magic practice.
When she looked up after being told so, she saw that building’s ceiling was taller than the trees in the forest.
So those we call humans have even made this, the mother cat thought, being in great admiration.
Next, it was about the girl and the others.
She said that the children here were students who were studying in this magic school.
The girl said she was one of them and her grades were below average.
At the time when the mother cat was living in a human city, she often dropped by a school as well.
As a result, she was well aware of what they call school grades.
Well, if she cowers this much then she certainly would be too preoccupied to study.
And finally, she told the mother cat why she was summoned.
She said the students at the magic school were recommended to have a familiar.
That was because the existence of a familiar who would fight alongside you would be very reassuring.
She said that familiars were made by using a magic circle that was owned by the magic school.
According to her, one would be able to summon a companion compatible with oneself when invoking that.
But discovering such companion was quite difficult and it apparently did not that one could simply summon one.
Sometimes it could take several times and it’s not unusual to be unable to summon anything.
And the girl with bad grades among them surprisingly succeeded in summoning the mother cat on her very first attempt on her first day.
The girl didn’t seem to believe that fact even now, and she asked the mother cat if she wasn’t an illusion.
The mother cat reflexively sighed at that excessively serious expression of hers.
The mother cat had raised many children so far, but she never had one that had this little confidence in themselves.
She must be quite unreliable and should require the care of her parents.
But there are no signs of her parents around her.
It can’t be helped then, mother cat thought as she decided on a certain thing.
Being called through summon must be some fate.
How about I raise this one girl here.
What? The four children I have been separated from will become independent very soon either way.
That phase went a little quicker, that’s all.
In that case, looking after the girl currently in front of me, who can’t even catch preys on her own, would be fun.
Mother cat strengthened her resolve, faced the girl who even now was fixing her eyes on her with a serious expression, and opened her mouth.
“Alright. I will look after you, so study hard and become splendidly capable of using magic”
The mother cat, who had experience living a long time in a human city, could handle human language.
The girl was gazing fixedly towards the mother cat, and fell backwards.
The surprised mother hurriedly looked into the girl’s face.
The girl’s eyes turned round and round as she groaned.
It appears that the mother cat speaking to her in human language had quite the impact on her.
It seems my journey with her will be a fairly difficult one.
For now, let’s wake the girl up, the mother cat thought as she hit her face with pats.
When classes was over, the mother cat accompanied the girl to the training grounds.
Their purpose was to confirm at what level the girl could cast magic.
To the mother cat, spells were namely attacks.
A method to procure food.
I wonder if it wi the eldest child who will be the strongest in magic among those I left behind in the forest.
He would skillfully capture rats with a foreleg attack using the power of electricity.
It’s just that the rat would often notice him before he switched to offense, because he had discharge too much electricity.
It will be his challenge from now on, but I have warned him time and time again, so he should be able to do something about it.
That aside, now it’s the girl’s skill in magic.
I have to properly make sure what level of magic she is capable of.
Mother cat told the girl to release her magic towards the target, and the girl set up her staff to ready herself.
Humans are weak in handling magic and would not be able to smoothly handle it if they do not hold this sort of tool.
The girl murmured “gonyo gonyo” and wielded her staff.
What flew out was a white, pebble-like lump.
That lump drew a parabola towards the target and accurately captured it.
It made a miserable clinking sound and rolled on the ground.
The mother cat waited for a while for any changes to occur, but no changes occured in any way on the rolling white lump.
When she thought it was strange and raised her eyes towards the girl, the girl was staring the mother cat with a really triumphant look.
Mother cat stood up and approached the white lump.
When she tried hitting it with her foreleg, it felt cold to the touch.
She then tried picking it up in her mouth and crunching it.
It is nice and cold, quite delicious.
It appears to be a lump of ice.
Mother cat once again looked back to the girl.
The girl dropped her shoulder, crestfallen, with a look like she was about to cry at any time.
It appears that the spell just now was intended to be one for offense.
It seems my journey with her will be a fairly difficult one.
First I have to start teaching her the spells we call offensive spells.
Human magic were exceedingly complex and difficult to understand.
After years and years of learning them, one would finally be able to display the same results as the beasts of the forest.
Mother cat had always found it strange why they had to do such troublesome things.
However.
Humans cast spells and succeed in minute details unimaginable by the animals of the forest.
If they only desired power, then spells used by animals and monsters would be better.
But fineness were by no means beyond the powers of human magic.
Mother cat first thought the girl ought to learn her spells.
As human being, she will be using human magic.
Nonetheless, this is about whether it would be useful or not.
Using magic will have no meaning if it only makes a crunchy and delicious thing upon casting them.
Mother cat immediately decided to show her an example.
She told the girl to watch closely and put the power of her magic onto her tail.
A change immediately appeared on her tail upon doing so.
*Crackle* purple lightning began to scatter and a part of her tail expanded greatly.
Like a conductor’s baton, mother cat swung her tail which she raised overhead.
Upon doing so, the electricity that was coiling around her tail was tied into a bundle and pierced the target.
The girl’s body turned stiff from the continuous burst-like sound, as if she herself had received an electric shock.
This was the mother cat’s special and often used magic using lightning.
She could release fire as well, but in exchange for high effectiveness, she would run the risk of causing bushfires.
With electricity, she would be less anxious about that and the movement was quick, so it was difficult to avoid.
And above all, there were seldom animals who would be fine after receiving it, which was the reason she often used it.
And even if she was unable to inflict a large injury, the enemy would be unable to move for a moment when receiving the electricity.
That predominance was absurdly great.
Mother cat urged the girl to try it at once.
But the girl shook her head.
She simply could not use high level magic such as lightning magic, she said.
I see, magic using electricity is certainly very high level magic when it comes to human magic.
However, if it is magic that animals use, they were not a really difficult type to use.
The mother cat hit the girl’s leg with her forelegs, told her to look closely and used magic once again to show her.
The girl, even while half-weeping, observed mother cat’s magic well.
Upon doing so, she noticed that it was simpler than human magic, and it looked like magic even she herself could use.
Usual animals would cast their spells excessively quick and as a result, humans were hardly able to observe them.
In order to teach the girl, the mother cat showed her slowly casting the spell on purpose.
The girl had no confidence to be able to use it immediately after seeing it for the first time.
Even so, she would surely be able to handle it as long as she would try it many times over.
Until the girl had that sort of confidence, the mother cat carefully showed her using simple to understand magic.
The girl badgered the mother cat, wanting her to use magic once more.
The mother cat nodded and showed her magic once again.
Seeing her expression of watching her tail intently recalled her about one of her children.
That child, who was close to death inside the forest, must have been cast aside by his parent.
The mother cat saved him and let him become splendidly independent, but he was a big magic loving child.
He would always look whenever mother cat used magic as if to eat it, and tried to practice it himself.
When he left the nest, his magic improved thoroughly and he became more skilled than the mother cat.
What must have become of that child around this time?
I am certain he is living splendidly inside the forest as a hunter.
It may be interesting to try meeting with him once I finish raising this girl.
The mother cat thought as she looked at the girl staring at her tail while groaning.
Magic power is a mysterious thing and one would get stronger the more one uses it.
It’s similar to muscles, thought mother cat.
If the body recovers after tiring out, it becomes stronger.
If one’s magic power is exhausted and then recovered, it will become stronger.
That was not doable inside the forest, with many foreign enemies.
But if it was within human society, then it would be a different story.
Humans guaranteed a completely safe bed and one could rest rarely having to mind about being attacked.
If so, then there was no reason not to make use of it.
Mother cat thoroughly made the girl cast magic.
Before the sun rose, she would hit her face to wake her up and drag her to the training grounds.
While scolding the girl who was fretful as she said she was still sleepy, she made her cast magic either way.
The girl was weak at waking up, and it was not a fitting time for her to be learning new things.
She made her recklessly cast magic, made her consume magic power while at the same time making her body learn how to use magic.
This school, which was something called a boarding school, was supposed to have the students live near the school vicinity.
Meaning the girl and the other students were separated from their parents and lived in what they called a dormitory.
The biggest question was whether this still unreliable girl was at an age to be separated from her parents or not, but it was convenient for the mother cat, who planned to train her relentlessly.
When the girl became completely exhausted from overusing magic, a bell resounded inside the school.
It was something to urge the students to wake up and to notify them that breakfast has been prepared.
The bell’s signal became the end of the morning practice.
The girl’s expression suddenly brightened, and she decided to head to the dining hall.
The girl had a poor appetite from the beginning and could not really eat in the morning, but recently she had been able to eat very well.
In all probability, that must have been due to the mother cat working her hard.
Children who eat well are raised well.
With this, the girl will be able to grow up.
Mother cat gazed at the appearance of the girl eating her breakfast in satisfaction.
The school meals being considered to have a very balanced nutrition and being able to ask for another serving was helpful to her growth.
While the girl was eating, the mother cat had something she had to do.
It was information exchange with the summons the other students owned.
She discussed the mountains of tests and confirmed the deadlines of submissions.
In order to live among the humans, she could not only be skillful in hunting.
Mother cat knew that all too well.
When breakfast ended, the girl headed to the classroom to take her class.
In order to listen to the class, the mother cat went along with her.
In order to teach the girl, the mother cat too studied human education.
Normally, summoned beasts were unable to enter the classroom, but the mother cat was given special permission.
The teacher in charge of this girl was a very strange person, and he willingly accepted mother cat’s request to take his class.
In exchange, she was requested to cooperate in his research, but it was not something that would cause trouble for the mother cat.
Since his research was about raising children of magic beasts.
For the veteran mother cat, it was one field of expertise.
After morning lesson came the time for practical skills with lunch in between.
In the meantime, mother cat sallied forth to a nearby forest.
Naturally, it was in order to hunt.
Except she found a little problem in the forest near the school.
Easy to eat animals did not really live there.
What the mother cat prefered to eat the most were rats.
They were well-sized and had good multiplying speed; preys with nothing to criticize about.
Even so, there were hardly any rats in the forest.
What were in abundance there were rabbits with horns grown on them.
Getting these would not take much hardship for her, but they were, to her regret, oversized.
She would be unable to eat all of it if she were to catch one.
This would not be the case if she had her children with their hearty appetite, but the four children she left behind became independent, though a little early.
She did not know well where they were, so she could not possibly take them with her.
The rats who were in just the right edible size were exterminated by the rabbits and the goblins who were in swarms inside this forest.
Rabbits and goblins were reasonable preys if she were to catch them, but both of them were regrettably too large.
The sole perfect prey for the mother cat inside this forest would be the rats called carbuncles.
These rats have an extremely different outward appearance and have a gem embedded in their forehead.
They are extremely agile creatures that are not easy to capture for humans.
But from the perspective of mother cat, who had long hunting experience, they were no more than somewhat agile rats.
When she killed one in the blink of an eye, the mother cat ate the carbuncle deliciously.
According to the teacher in charge of the girl, the gem on the carbuncle’s forehead has extremely strong magic power.
Perhaps for that reason, the gem was very delicious.
Munching up these was the mother cat’s favorite these days.
They said that eating it strengthens one’s magic power and increases one’s strength, but that did not bother her so she did not care at all.
When she finished her daily meal and returned to school, it was just time for classes to be over.
The mother cat went to meet the girl in class and dragged her to the training grounds.
It was to review what she had studied in class today.
She encouraged the tired girl who was about to collapse, and made her cast magic in rapid succession.
Magic means endurance, was the mother cat’s education policy.
A way of thinking where one would either way become better at it even if one hates it, if one were to hit, hit and hit ceaselessly.
Never mind if accomplishing that was efficient or not, all of the children she raised were able to stand on their own by that.
The girl too was immediately exhausted in the beginning, but now she managed to hold out until the end.
The end meant the bell that would resound around evening to notify all for dinner.
The girl’s training would temporarily end once it resounded.
What pulled the now tired girl was once again the dining hall.
The girl started having her dinner, but the mother cat had no spare time to rest her body.
She had to exchange information with the beasts the other students had summoned.
Agh, my kid doesn’t clean up her room, my lord recklessly fires his magic, my master held back my food, and such.
They were information connecting fellow beasts.
They may sound rather useless, but one cannot not make light of it.
You don’t know when what will be useful in the world.
When the girl finished her dinner, she finally returned to her room in the dormitory.
From hereon it was the mother cat’s fight.
In the dormitories in this magic school, a shower was installed in each building.
It was not a place with equipments for letting out water, but one with an appearance where one could let out hot water with one’s own magic and take a shower.
The girl very much liked cleanliness, so she would take a warm shower every day. And she would force the mother cat to do so as well.
The mother cat certainly may have become somewhat dirty from hunting inside the forest.
But that was when compared to a pet cat who only lived inside a house.
Mother cat desperately resisted the girl who tried to catch her, saying she was not dirty.
I’m not dirty, so you don’t need to wash me.
Moreover, the mother cat dislike being washed with hot water.
Getting her fur wet felt bad, she could not stand it.
The mother cat tried to escape somehow, but she would always get caught by the girl in the end.
The mother cat had the feeling that the girl was taking revenge at a good opportunity.
Of course the girl denied it, but her smile was very, very sparkling.
After finishing their shower, next would be reviewing what she had learned in class until it was bedtime.
The mother cat too allotted this time to her own studies.
By teaching each other, the girl and the mother cat deepened their knowledge in magic.
Ten-odd months passed since the mother cat was summoned by the girl.
An incident occured when the students who still had not succeeded in summoning a beast used the spell.
A malfunction occurred in the summoning circle, and it connected to the magic world.
The magic world was a different world that ran parallel to the normal world. In there, various fiendish creatures which did not exist in the normal world were prevalent.
There existed a few places in the world which connected the normal world with the magic world; they are called “Dungeons”.
The forest where the mother cat lived in was also this dungeon and a place where fiendish creatures would get in from the magic world.
The place connecting to the magic world opened.
That meant an unusual and serious affair.
An ominous presence began to overflow from the summoning circle, and low level monsters began to spring out one by one.
Numerous beings like goblins and magic wolves.
While chaos occurred for a short time, the students immediately regained their calm by the orders of the teacher who was there.
The girl, who participated in the class, too managed to calm down after taking deep breaths.
Under the teacher’s orders, they immediately attempted attacking by magic.
Although they were still in the middle of their studies, their attack by magic was powerful.
They managed to crush the monsters and the situation appeared to have calmed down.
However.
From the summoning circle, a being unforeseen by anyone had appeared.
It was a “Demon,” talked about as an existence which drew a line with magic beasts.
And there was a species among them which held particular strong might, the Greater Daemon.
That demon, which possess wings, tough bodies which could make even trolls surrender and strong magic power rivaling a dozen human spellcasters, appeared from the summoning circle.
Immediately, the teacher and student’s magic was poured on the greater daemon, but the barrier he put on did not even make a twitch.
Within the hopeless atmosphere, the greater daemon slowly opened his mouth.
Though demon, there were often times they speak words when casting spells.
However, this greater daemon had not opened his mouth even once until now.
Everybody resigned, but that instant, the voice of a beast resounded.
“Oh dear, what are you doing at a place like this? You’ve grown haven’t you”
The owner of the voice was the mother cat.
Mother cat, who had gone to catch her meal in the forest, rushed to this place after hearing the uproar.
The teacher and students showed a startled expression towards the mother cat’s words.
However, something occurred immediately following that, which startled them even more.
“Whaaa!? Mommy!? Why are you in a place like this!?”
That voice was what came out of the greater daemon’s mouth.
Everyone in that place was frozen stiff by the words that came out of the greater daemon’s mouth.
They did not understand what in the world happened.
“No wait, that’s right! I heard of a rumor that you were suddenly summoned, so I took a wait-and-see approach in the forest, you know! And then I saw my little brothers who looked like they were born this year and that winged little brother is a dragon isn’t it? How in the world did that happen”
“It’s the same with you. I picked him up and raised him. Are those kids doing well?”
“They are doing well though. They received quite the shock, you know. Go back home quickly”
“It’s fine, they’re about to become independent after all. It was just the right timing to leave them alone”
Who then managed to enter the conversation between the mother cat and the demon, was one of the teachers in that place.
He was the teacher in charge of the girl and everyday friend with the mother cat.
He timidly raised his hand and managed to speak out some words.
“Excuse me. Could you two be uhm… acquaintances?”
“Yes. Rather than acquaintances, this child is my child you know. It’s the magic beast child I picked up that I told you about before”
“Magic beast you say, Mommy. I told you I’m not a magic beast, but a demon”
“Aren’t both of them similar? Only the way of calling them is different”
It appears that as far as the seasoned mother cat was concerned, demons and magic beasts were the same being.
At any rate, they must have understood that the tentative danger had just been driven away.
The teachers and students felt a sense of relief.
Now then
The mother cat’s son, the greater Daemon, said he was surprised by the gate to the magic world that was opened by accident, and turned up in order to verify what it actually meant.
There were times that when something like this happened, negative influences had befallen in both the magic world and the normal world.
The connected point on the magic world’s side was by chance in the greater daemon’s sphere of influence.
And he said he could not let it be ruined and thus came here.
The teacher in charge timidly asked a question to that greater daemon.
“The- then, sir Greater Daemon. Are you able to close this gate?”
“That is possible. I came here for that reason, you see.”
“Oh, isn’t it fine like this? They went through the trouble connecting it, so why not keep it open? It will even become training for the students”
Both the teacher and demon became surprised at the mother cat who declared so indifferently.
While puffing up her tail, the mother cat continued as if she recalled something good.
“You could just turn this training grounds into a small dungeon and then turn it into a place to let students train”
“But mommy. That’s still dangerous. I mean, there’s nobody who will manage it”
“You can do it, can’t you? You’ve got free time either way am I right? Help mommy for a little bit”
“Help you say. What are you planning to do?”
“I have a child here that I’m raising, you know. This time it’s a human child. She’s able to do my studies, and it’s fun, you know?”
“Doing such unreasonable”
Reflexively muttering so was the teacher.
The greater daemon looked like he gave up on something, hanging his head crestfallen.
He, who was the mother cat’s child, fully knew her personality of not listening after proposing something.
“Creating a place for practice is a completely good thing isn’t it!? Right, let’s do this!”
While saying so enjoyably, the mother cat’s tail returned to its fluttery self.
Seeing that tail, the teacher showed even more surprise in his face.
Because the mother cat’s tail had increased from one to two before anybody was aware of.
“Mommy. Your strength has grown too much and now you’re no longer a cat sith, you know”
“Oh dear, you’re right! Well, it’s not something to be worried about in particular, so it’s fine”
“Well, I guess there’s no real harm in becoming stronger and having your lifespan becoming outrageously longer though”
“Oh my, isn’t that great! Now I can properly take care of that child!”
“That is fine too though. You’re not going back to the forest?”
“That’s right~. It will still be fine for a while I suppose. That’s right, would you be a dear and keep me a secret to the children in the forest? It will be a problem if they come greeting me, don’t you think?”
“Everyone will hate me if they find out, you know…”
And thus, a new training grounds was created in the magic school.
The students, including the girl, came to be able to undergo an actual combat-like training.
Afterwards, this school grew to become the world’s leading magic school.
The girl, thanks to mother cat’s spartan training, matured to an excellent spellcaster.
The girl, who became a spellcaster whose name went down in history, reached the seat of this school’s headmaster at old age.
Since then, the girl’s descendants came to be widely known as a family of powerful spellcasters.
Beside those spellcasters, all having successively held the position of the magic school headmaster, had always been a cat with two tails.
That cat has been eating carbuncles in the forest near the school, even to this day.
-The End-
