Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 559 - Tifa Cat

Chapter 559: Chapter 559: Tifa Cat Chapter 559: Chapter 559: Tifa Cat “Speaking of which, there’s also this matter. Shard, last time you mentioned that your cat could transform into a doll and follow you through the Gate of Time.”

After a brief touch of sentiment, the witch continued with the topic.

“Yes.”

Shard nodded:

“It’s probably because it’s a bit too naive.”

“Meow~”

The cat squirmed on his lap, seeking a more comfortable position.

“So I’ve come up with a new idea.”

Miss Galina reached out to Tifa, who pulled out a familiar-looking dark brown glass bottle from the pocket of her long skirt. Inside the bottle was a pure white kitten even smaller than Mia.

The Outlander squinted:

“This looks somewhat familiar…”

“I was quite fortunate. A while back, I bought a half-finished magic potion—a ‘Cat in the Bottle’—from the local black market. This potion expired thirty years ago, and the seller said it had been contaminated but was later purified. But that’s alright, there’s a Master Alchemist in the Council. I gave the black market seller one-sixth of the finished potion and got it for almost nothing.”

The witch’s pale hand shook the bottle gently, and the white cat “sleeping” inside the bottle immediately liquefied. Shard was now fairly certain that this was the same potion that Priest Augustus had once shown him. (Note)

Unexpectedly, this thing had come full circle back to him.

“Miss Galina, you’re thinking…”

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Shard had already pretty much understood.

“This precious potion can now be used. But due to its long expiration, its effectiveness is greatly reduced, only lasting for less than three minutes. I want to try it out.”

She pulled out the cork and looked at Shard, who complimented her:

“You certainly have ideas.”

“Yes, I want to try out whether someone who already has deep trust in you can be affected by your sorcery when turned into a cat. If so, I’ll look for other methods to transform people into animals.”

It sounded feasible, but this involved the extent of mental changes during flesh transformation, a rather advanced topic in the Study of Transformation, which is why careful experiments were needed:

“Miss Galina, are you thinking of drinking it yourself?”

“Of course not, my level is too high, and the potion has little effect on me.”

She pulled the cork from the bottle and handed it to Tifa behind her. Tifa shook the bottle again, solidifying the liquid back into a semi-cat shape, and without hesitation, drank the melted white cat from the bottle.

Shard opened his mouth slightly in surprise; Mia’s eyes widened in horror, but unfortunately, no one noticed.

After drinking the liquid, Tifa dropped the bottle from her hand and clutched her mouth in pain.

“What’s wrong?”

Galina stood up, concerned about helping her, but Tifa shook her head in agony:

“Miss, I feel so hot…”

As if unable to bear the pain, her body slowly squatted down and disappeared behind the sofa. Even the witch, who had seen much of the world, showed a surprised expression looking behind the sofa.

At that moment, Shard had already stood up, holding Mia as he walked around the coffee table to the back of the sofa where Miss Galina was sitting.

There, the black-haired Miss Maid was nowhere to be seen; her dress, white stockings, shoes, hair accessories, garters, and undergarments were scattered on the floor. And a pure white cat was dazedly curled up on top of those clothes.

It tried to stand, but its four short legs seemed unable to support its body, and it fell back down, swaying.

“Meow~ Meow~”

It opened its mouth slightly, but the sound that came out was that of a cat’s meow. The small, white kitty looked up at Shard in confusion:

“This cat… is truly beautiful. Oh, it really turned into a cat.”

“Then what did you think would happen?”

The witch, now relieved, asked.

“To turn into some sort of half-human, half-cat creature…”

Somehow, he was reminded of his friend, Professor Manning.

“Meow?”

Mia on Shard’s shoulder, unlike Shard, wasn’t admiring the pretty appearance of the “Tifa Cat”. It was puffing up its fur and hissing threateningly at the Tifa Cat on the clothes as it had never done before.

Obviously, Mia felt its status in the home was seriously threatened.

Mia continued to bare its claws and teeth, so Shard moved it from his shoulder into his pocket. He bent down to pick up the Tifa Cat from the pile of clothes and walked back around to the front of the sofa, sitting back in his original spot.

“I’ve also never seen this kind of magic potion being used before.”

Miss Galina looked very curious, while Mia took advantage of the moment Shard sat down to escape from his pocket onto the sofa. Seeing Shard holding the little white cat, it continued to puff up its fur and let out a low growl.

Shard reached out to pet Mia a couple of times, and as its voice subsided, he picked up a towel that had been prepared in advance and covered the pure white Tifa cat, which was still trying to stand up on all fours.

The cat, probably even smaller than Mia, wriggled under the towel. After several seconds, Shard frowned and removed the towel, the cat was still a cat:

“No effect.”

“That’s within expectations, if it had been that easy, I would have been surprised instead.”

The Red-Haired Witch said and then gestured for Shard to hand the white cat over to her.

The newly appeared white Tifa and Shard’s orange and white cat, Mia, both had the physique of young cats. However, perhaps due to the magic potion, Tifa Cat’s body temperature was higher and softer. Still, since this was someone else’s “cat,” Shard handed it over.

Because she also had cats in her own estate, Miss Galina handled the little white cat with familiar ease, placing it on her lap to pet:

“Touching you like this is a first for me.”

She joked with the cat.

Seeing the cat being taken away by someone else, Mia finally began to return to its normal state. It jumped onto Shard’s lap and even patted the spot where the white cat had been lying, then settled down again, resting its little head against Shard’s leg, looking at the cat being held across the coffee table.

And that little white cat, still in a daze, didn’t even notice the hostility it had incurred.

“Anyway, you can use the key from the year 3014 next time. If it has nothing to do with Miss Feliana, remember to let me know, and I’ll think of ways to find other keys.”

“Alright, let’s use it early Sunday morning.”

Shard replied.

In fact, according to time, he could activate the new key on Saturday afternoon. But he also wanted to give himself a bit of a rest, having lost that sense of urgency he had when he first came to this world.

“That works.”

Miss Galina nodded and, seeing Shard staring at the Tifa cat, she asked curiously:

“Is there something wrong with this cat?”

“I just wanted to remind you, you’ve got one minute and three seconds left until the three minutes are up. Because the duration of the magic potion varies from one individual to another, you better take Tifa to the bedroom quickly.”

Shard’s gaze shifted outside the window where, despite the mist, the morning sun of early autumn was rather strong, and he could even see the dust floating in the sunlight:

“After all, when a cat is transformed back into a human, they are not wearing clothes… The Supernatural System of this world really does make sense, summoning a skeleton horse doesn’t come with tack, and the Transformation Spell doesn’t include clothes,”

“The Knight, truly a gentleman indeed,”

The Duchess, holding the cat, commented as she played with Tifa’s tail, a smile forming at the corner of her mouth as she seemed to think of something amusing.

Nothing interesting happened today, Miss Galina spent the whole day at Shard’s place, personally copying Miss Feliana’s notebook in the study. She knew the writing of the Fifth Era, so copying went fairly smoothly.

As for Tifa, she successfully transformed back into human form and changed back into her clothes in Shard’s bedroom. After returning from the bedroom with her head lowered and her face flushed, tugging at the hem of her dress, she did not speak to Miss Galina until the chef who had been invited from the high-end restaurant on Silver Cross Avenue, bringing ingredients to cook lunch, arrived.

It certainly wasn’t proper for a Maid to treat her master in such a way, but Shard could understand why the black-haired girl was so angry about Miss Galina playing with “her” tail.

“Is there something special about a cat’s tail?”

Shard touched Mia’s tail, which flicked in response, and the cat looked at him. Seeing he had no intention of touching the two rings on her tail, she laid down beside him again, enjoying the peaceful afternoon.

It wasn’t until eight in the evening that Miss Galina, with her swift hands, finished copying the notebook. She discussed with Shard the blanks that appeared in the notebook and, while talking, surveyed his house:

“Living in such a big house by yourself must be tiring to clean, right? And, you’re not washing your own clothes, are you?”

She had seen Shard’s clothes drying on the balcony since the morning:

“How about this, from now on I’ll send Maids over to help clean your house and wash your clothes every week. A young gentleman like you should present himself properly. You used to use only one room on the second floor, but it’s different now, Shard. Instead of hiring some unknown housekeeper, it would be better for you to have trusted servants from my estate help you.”

Her suggestion was quite good, and though Shard felt a bit embarrassed, he knew that even if some rooms weren’t used, they still had to be swept and mopped weekly, and the windows needed to be wiped every now and then, which was indeed very troublesome. Moreover, he had thought about hiring someone to do these chores a few days ago while he was doing laundry, so he nodded in agreement.

He retrieved a spare key for his house, gave it to the black-haired Maid Miss in charge of the matter, and agreed that every Saturday afternoon, servants could be sent over from the Duchess’s estate to clean, he would leave the clothes to be washed in the basin in advance, lock the doors not to be entered, and leave a note specifying areas that needed particular attention.

He chose Saturday because he would not be at home Saturday afternoons, so the cleaning wouldn’t disturb him.

As for security concerns, Shard wasn’t worried at all. His secrets were hidden behind a concealed wall in the basement, and as long as he locked up the second-floor study, the most valuable things in the house were actually the furniture. But other than what Detective Sparrow had left behind, most of the furniture at No. 6, Saint Delan Square had been moved from Miss Galina’s estate. Shard wasn’t worried about theft.

“However, this means that when I go to the doctor’s every Saturday, I’ll need to take Mia with me,”

He stood at the edge of Saint Delan Square as nightfall approached, waving goodbye to the departing carriages.

As he turned to head home, he happened to run into Mr. and Mrs. Smith returning from walking their dog. The elderly gentleman, formerly a department secretary in the Kingdom Treasury Department, clearly recognized Miss Galina’s carriages.

He nodded cautiously to Shard, with a rather impressed expression, and remarked:

“The young people these days, they are really something else.”

Shard took that as a compliment to himself.