I Don’t Care About the Story, I Want a Cat ～Transmigrated into an Otome Game～ - Chapter 35

Letter from Harold (Part 2)

That night, after her father had come home and they’d had dinner, they moved to the living room to read the letter from Harold. 

Joshua picked up the letter from the tray, looking surprised at its weight.

“Huh? It’s a bit thicker than usual.”

“Oh, you’re right.”

Harold’s letters have never before been longer than one sheet of paper. Curious, Isabel carefully opened the seal with a letter knife before pulling out a folded map from the envelope. 

“That kid… did he accidentally swap this map with his letter?”

“No, we’re talking about Harold. He probably couldn’t be bothered to explain his location in writing so he sent us a map instead of a letter.”

Joshua picked up the map and unfolded it on top of the tea table. It was made of thin parchment but was surprisingly big when unfolded. It was big enough to cover the whole table. 

As her father predicted, there were some notes written there in Harold’s handwriting. 

However, overall, most of the writing looked to be small memos or scribbles. There were random dates connected with arrows, and badly drawn illustrations in various places. It was like looking at a picture diary of an elementary school student.

“I can’t believe my brother… What’s with all these hard to decode illustrations? He should write proper sentences, seriously.”

There had been no contact from him for two months, and this was the letter they received when he finally deigned to send something. 

Her parents seemed to accept this even though they looked a bit exasperated. But Amy, who had developed proper letter writing etiquette after exchanging letters with Edward for so long, couldn’t help but feel like it was missing the crucial bits.

“What can you expect from Harold? Ah, I wonder if this komodo dragon looking drawing is meant to be a magical beast? Maybe he fought one here.”

“It looks like it happened recently.”

The arrows pointing to it didn’t just include past dates, but also had a date from the future. It looked like an itinerary. 

The thing that stood out most though, was an underlined phrase written in the margins on top of the map. 

The writing was messy, as if it had been written in excitement. The hastily written message looked like a spell to Amy from it’s upside down position as she looked at it from the other side.

“Umm, father, what’s written over there?”

“This? Let me see… Ah, it says ‘I found Yasumi!’ What’s a Yasumi? Is that a new kind of magical beast?”

“Yasumi? That sounds familiar…… Ah! I just remembered, it was the name of Hal’s friend who used to play that game with him.”

“Eh, you mean that person who was the miracle support member on his party?”

“‘Yasumi’ huh? I wonder if he meant to write ‘Yagami’ or something. What do you think, Joshua?”

“I don’t know.”

Amy put a finger to her lips as she thought back on it.

“Yasumi…… Yagami…… Ah, it might have been ‘Yasumin’ or something. 

Her brother had met this transcendental support player through a fateful encounter in the hunting action game he used to be obsessed with in their past lives. 

Her brother had wanted to add a member like this to their adventure party, someone with exceptional skills, and so he had wandered from place to place with Nicholas and Gilbert in search of such a person. It looked like he had finally found someone good. 

“He finally has more members in his party now.”

“Ah, father, it didn’t say if that person joined their party or not. All he wrote was that he’d found someone so we can’t say for sure.”

Surely, a person as skilled as him must already be part of another party. 

However, Amy was sure that her brother would find some way to entice him over to his own party. 

“If it’s Harold then he’ll just kneel in front of him or do something to persuade them to join his party.”

“You’re right……Ah, look here.” 

Isabel’s eyes fell on the map while she was laughing when something caught her eye on the southeast part of the map. 

She pointed to a place which was circled with a pen with words ‘hunting here’ written over it in a playful tone. 

“This is a ‘special zone’ isn’t it?”

“…… yes. I wonder if my brother and the others are okay?”

The place he had playfully circled was one of the most dangerous places in the land, with numerous magical beasts known to inhabit it. 

The monsters in this place were all high level and difficult to fight. It housed rare species and mutated beasts that were hard to find anywhere else. 

The reward of fighting and subjugating monsters was proportional to the level of danger that was present in fighting each monster. So, adventurers who were confident in their skills or those who made their living as bounty hunters would frequent this place in hopes of earning high rewards. 

Of course, if an adventurer with no skills or abilities set foot in the place, their life was basically forfeit. 

Even though they normally fought and bantered among themselves, Amy couldn’t help but feel worried for her brother.

Joshua sensed this and placed a hand on her chin to comfort her. 

“Your brother’s party is ranked high enough in the guild that they can challenge this place. But nothing is really absolute. It all depends on the type of monster they may encounter there.”

“Exactly……”

“Don’t worry. Harold knows the extent of his abilities, he wouldn’t go there recklessly. And he knows when to call it quits if things get difficult so I’m sure he will be fine.”

“That’s right. Hal is really lazy and doesn’t like things that are too much of a hassle. So if a fight gets too difficult he’ll be sure to withdraw from it rather than stay for a useless sense of pride.”

“Ah, look at this, Amy.”

Her father pointed to a place on the map. It was a destination marked by arrows that led there after passing through various towns. 

That place was the Royal Capital of Rudusia, the city where Amy and the others were currently at. 

A picture of two intercrossing swords was drawn on top of the date mentioned at the place.

“This is the date of the tournament……”

“He didn’t say anything about it but he’s probably planning on participating. If he has already made plans for the future then I’m sure he wouldn’t push himself too much in fighting monsters.”

The tournament was open to all participants as long as they applied in advance. The Adventurer’s guild handled the procedure for that so it was possible to apply even if you were in another kingdom. 

Amy looked at her parents.

“Does this mean that my brother is coming back?”

“It does look like he intends to participate in the tournament. Then perhaps this ‘special zone’ is supposed to be a test of his strength or skills.”

“That does sound like him…… But if that’s the case then I shouldn’t worry too much about him. Ah, Tiger!”

Tiger, who had been waiting quietly beside Amy until now suddenly jumped on the table, landing on top of the map her brother had sent. 

The thin paper wrinkled under Tiger’s paws. 

“Oh my.”

“Tiger, no getting on the table!”

Tiger never climbed on surfaces like tables or counters. Perhaps he was told not to in his previous household, or in the Duchess’ house. 

This was the first time he had actually climbed onto a table. However, after Amy admonished him, instead of getting down, he sat down leisurely, tucking his front paws beneath him. 

“…… he turned into a loaf.”

“Look at his cute face. It’s hard to admonish him when he makes a satisfied face like this.”

“I think he just wants to sit on the paper. The map is hiding the table so all Tiger sees is a large piece of paper for him to sit on, and not the table.”

“Oh, is that so?”

While the three of them talked among themselves, Tiger stretched open his mouth as he took a big yawn. His amber eyes, similar to Amy’s, seemed to be mellow and sleepy. 

Tiger was a shy cat and, at first, had been wary of people in the house who were not Amy. But now he seemed to have gotten used to her parents’ presence. Amy’s heart swelled in happiness to see that. 

“He shouldn’t be climbing the table but he looks so cute like this…. Tiger, come here, will you?”

Amy crouched down and called out to him with both of her hands spread open. He meowed softly in reply and began moving. He stood up and was in Amy’s open arms within a few seconds. Amy hugged him close prompting a satisfied purring from the cat. 

“He’s inseparable from you, as always.”

“Yes. I love him so much!”

Amy, who had never been able to keep a pet in her past life, had studied so much just to be able to have one in this one. Both magic and animals had become an important part of Amy’s life now. They were an important part of Amy herself. She couldn’t even think of separating herself from them. 

“Haha, Tiger’s going to be a formidable opponent. Right, Joshua. Isn’t it a little pitiful?”

“What is?”

“It’s like crossing a huge hurdle only to find a bigger wall towering in front.” Isable replied ambiguously. 

“……… Think of it as a test.”

Joshua shrugged as he folded the wrinkled map. Isabel just smiled in reply.