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A cat named Loki, butler Grundel, Jeong Ha-yul, and me.

In the middle of the night, a suffocating standoff ensued.

“So… you mistook Loki for a ghost, and that’s how this happened?”

“Yeah… He jumps up the stairs in an instant and creaks open doors every night, so Gyeoul must have been scared.”

Just a moment ago, Jeong Ha-yul was more scared, but she casually left that part out.

Unbelievable.

“I apologize. Since he only moves when I’m asleep, I had no idea this was happening. It’s my fault.”

Cats are nocturnal, so it makes sense.

It’s not the butler’s fault.

But… Grundel is a real butler, and also a butler for a cat.

I chuckled, thinking of the wordplay.

“Purrr.”

Loki seemed to be in a good mood too, rubbing his face against my leg and purring.

“No, it’s a relief it’s not a real ghost. We’re the ones who barged in and broke the ceiling while you were sleeping, sorry…”

“Meow~”

As a warm atmosphere of mutual apologies filled the room, Loki, who had been purring beside me, also let out a cry as if apologizing.

“Loki is so cute. His odd eyes make him even prettier.”

I can’t resist cuteness.

I stroked Loki’s chin and head, stretched his cheeks like rice cakes, and played around.

“Purrr~”

Loki stayed still, unlike a typical cat.

He even seemed to enjoy my touch.

Grundel watched the scene with curiosity.

“He’s usually very shy and avoids people, but he seems to follow Gyeoul surprisingly well. Even I can’t touch him often.”

“Earlier, when I grabbed him, his form became blurry, and then he appeared in the next room…”

“You saw it. He might be the world’s first Awakened Cat. Of course, there might be others hiding like me, but since there’s no way to confirm, Loki can be considered the world’s first for now.”

The world’s first Awakened Cat.

The world’s youngest Awakened One.

The world’s strongest Awakened One.

Three incredible titles gathered in one place.

But it still feels a bit empty.

Shouldn’t Grundel be called the world’s best butler?

I subtly increased the number of titles to four.

Now it feels complete.

“He must be from the Super Ability Category, with spatial movement. Amazing.”

“Sister, it’s my first time seeing it too. People speculated that spatial movement abilities might exist, but no one had actually seen it. When did he awaken?”

“Loki awakened in the winter of the year before last. As you said, he can move through space, and sometimes he even takes me along, which always surprises me.”

The winter of the year before last… That’s around the time I was transported to this world.

“So he can move not only himself but also others? Amazing, Loki!”

Jeong Ha-yul, who doesn’t seem to dislike cats, approached to pet him.

“Screech!”

Loki let out a scream toward Jeong Ha-yul and hid behind me in fright.

“…I guess he doesn’t like me. Maybe because I grabbed him earlier.”

“Did he feel threatened?”

“I only grabbed him because Gyeoul told me to.”

“But still, you’re the one who grabbed him…”

I feel guilty.

It’s my fault that the relationship between Loki and Jeong Ha-yul turned sour.

As Loki continued to hiss, Jeong Ha-yul reluctantly stepped back.

Only then did Loki lower his guard.

“So the ghost’s identity has been revealed. Now you can sleep peacefully, right, Gyeoul?”

“Yes, it wasn’t because of the noise but because I was scared. Now I’m fine.”

“I’ll spend more time playing with him during the day. It seems he moves at night because he has too much energy.”

The situation ended happily for everyone.

But…

What about the broken door, the dented hallway, and the hole in the ceiling?

“By the way, my sister caused a bit of an accident…”

“…”

Jeong Ha-yul’s shoulders slumped.

I’m sorry. But you’re the one who caused the accident. I clearly asked you to catch a ghost, not to wreck the mansion.

“It’s fine. Nothing is seriously damaged, so I’ll have it repaired tomorrow.”

Even though his own floor was pierced, he acted as if it was nothing and even comforted Jeong Ha-yul and me.

This is what a real adult is like.

Learn from this, fake adult Jeong Ha-yul.

We came in by breaking through the ceiling, but we left through the stairs like normal people.

We closed all the doors we had opened because of the ghost and retrieved the pillow from Jeong Ha-yul’s room.

“Are you going to leave me behind?”

“Leave you behind? I’m just returning things to how they were.”

“It’s a shame. I liked sleeping with Gyeoul.”

“I’ll come back if another ghost appears.”

“…You don’t have to come next time. I want to live without knowing ghosts exist.”

Leaving Jeong Ha-yul, who seems more scared of ghosts than me, I returned to my room.

Lying in bed, I kept thinking about Loki.

He was so cute… Should I suggest we get a cat too?

“Meow~”

As I kept thinking about Loki, I even started hearing things.

I ignored it since my eyes were closed, but…

I felt a rough tongue licking my finger.

When I opened my eyes, Loki was sitting on my bed.

“What! When did you get here, Loki!”

“Meow~”

He must have known I was thinking about him and came to find me.

And that night.

I didn’t sleep a wink because I was playing with Loki.

***

Puffy eyes, dark circles.

Jeong Ha-yul and Jeong Gyeoul walked out of their rooms looking the same.

“…Why do you two look like that?”

“I couldn’t sleep…”

“Me too…”

“Why couldn’t both of you sleep? Did you train or something?”

The sight of the two zombies walking out startled Eun-chae.

Jeong Gyeoul and Jeong Ha-yul finally noticed each other’s appearances.

“Why couldn’t you sleep, sister? I couldn’t sleep because of Loki.”

“…It’s nothing.”

“Ah… Was it because we were too noisy? Sorry… You should have told us.”

“No. Actually, I was happy to see you having fun.”

The ghost incident was resolved with Loki as the culprit, but after returning to her room, Jeong Ha-yul stayed up all night, fixated on the word “ghost.”

She couldn’t reveal that in front of the family.

Especially in front of Jeong Gyeoul.

“Loki? Who’s Loki?”

“A cat that lives in this mansion.”

“There’s a cat here? Why haven’t I seen it?”

“He’s awakened. He moves around secretly, even using teleportation, so we didn’t even know he existed until yesterday.”

“…Now even cats are awakening. What about me and Kang-woo oppa?”

Eun-chae sighed, looking at the former youngest Awakened One and the current youngest Awakened One.

“…You’ll awaken someday. Don’t be too disheartened. Heinz grandpa awakened in his 60s.”

“You’re making it worse…”

A sulky Eun-chae walked ahead alone.

“But… why does he keep following you?”

“Huh, he’s still here.”

Loki had been following Jeong Gyeoul from the room.

He had been following so secretly that even Eun-chae and Jeong Gyeoul didn’t notice until Eun-chae disappeared.

“Was it because I played with him yesterday?”

“He must have really taken a liking to Gyeoul. A cute person with a cute animal. What a heartwarming sight.”

Loki followed Jeong Gyeoul all the way to the dining room.

“Loki? I wondered where he was all day. He must have been with Gyeoul.”

“Yes! He came to my room last night and played with me!”

“Oh my… No wonder you look tired.”

“It’s fine! We had fun!”

“That’s a relief.”

After a tiring breakfast.

After a light tea time, we were about to head to the Clock Tower.

“Take this with you.”

Grundel handed Jeong Gyeoul a lunchbox.

The lunchbox was almost as big as Jeong Gyeoul’s torso.

“Wow! A lunchbox?”

“I’ll prepare one for you every day from now on.”

“Thank you!”

Jeong Gyeoul, in a good mood, took the lunchbox and was about to head out.

“Meow!”

“Sorry, Loki, but I have to go study.”

“Meow!”

Loki, who had been running over, instantly leaped onto Jeong Gyeoul and settled on her head.

“…?”

“Pfft, what’s that?”

Jeong Gyeoul’s head is small.

Partly because she’s still young, but she’s naturally small-headed.

Loki slid down from her head and balanced on her shoulder.

Amazingly, he didn’t use his claws at all.

“Loki! Get down now!”

A flustered Grundel called for Loki, but he didn’t even pretend to listen.

“…What should we do?”

“Why don’t you just let Gyeoul take him?”

“Are you sure? It might interfere with her studies…”

“I’m fine with it. Is it okay to take him out?”

Once a cat goes outside, it keeps wanting to go out.

They sometimes don’t come back because they’re managing their expanded territory.

Jeong Gyeoul was worried about that, but it was an unnecessary question.

Loki is an Awakened Cat, after all.

“He already moves around on his own. With his abilities, I can’t stop him. Since he’s going out anyway, I’d feel more at ease if Gyeoul took him along.”

“Then it’s settled! I’ll take him with me!”

“Thank you. If he gets hungry or thirsty, he’ll come home on his own, so don’t worry about that.”

“Okay!”

With Loki clinging to her shoulder and refusing to get down, Jeong Gyeoul got into Kang-woo’s car.

“It’s really amazing. Didn’t you say you just met him yesterday? How does he follow you like that?”

Kang-woo, checking the rearview mirror, spoke in amazement.

Eun-chae also nodded in agreement.

“He’s a dog-cat.”

“Birds of a feather flock together. It’s natural for a cute person to have a cute animal.”

Even Jeong Ha-yul chimed in with her nonsense.

The conversation in the car heading to the Clock Tower didn’t stop.

“Meow~”

Loki, experiencing a car ride for the first time, quietly looked out the window.

 

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