Elemental Cats

Eventually, there was nothing more Toz could gain from just sitting around and thinking about his meeting with the general. The one thing he could do instead was to take the general's advice to heart and dedicate himself to training as much as possible.

After confirming that no one was in his surroundings and Cooper hadn't attached another piece of tracking magic, Toz pulled out his grimoire.

Since he had used his mana without restraint after he accepted the general's invitation, he had accidentally delayed his mana pool's complete recovery. So while he wanted to bring his lightning mana to the sixth level, that would have to wait. Thankfully, he could still study the grimoire without worrying about his injuries.

Merr had interrupted Toz in the middle of a studious trance when he sent the invitation letter, which was another thing that displeased Toz now that he thought about it. But he quickly regained his flow and sank into the grimoire, hungrily devouring the information within it.

It was an excruciatingly slow progress, but each and every minuscule step forward brought Toz closer to learning the spell. And each step also revealed the spell's potential, which only further pushed Toz into the world of learning.

Unfortunately, he couldn't study without a single break until he learned the spell. His mind needed rest, after all. But thanks to his miniature mind clone and the mind training he did in prison, Toz could go on for longer periods of time than before, and he recovered quickly as well.

After resting his mind a little, Toz noticed that his mana pool was already about to be completely healed, so he decided to read the grimoire for a little before switching to focus on his mana training.

However, when he finished reading the grimoire for the moment, he looked up and noticed that when he had been stuck in the grimoire, Lucy had snuck inside the tent and climbed up onto his head.

Although Lucy was bonded with Toz, and Toz would never be wary of him, Toz was still surprised that Lucy had managed to sneak into the tent and nestled into his hair without him noticing.

"Hey, buddy."

Toz grabbed Lucy and moved him from his head to his arms as he laid down to take a quick nap.

He hadn't noticed when Lucy arrived, but as soon as he felt Lucy, he could tell how exhausted he was. He had pushed himself quite a bit following Toz's request. Toz was thankful that he came back safe and sound, and he happily indulged the black kitten in a solid nap.

But they couldn't sleep forever, and Lucy seemed to have discovered something. Otherwise, he wouldn't have needed to push himself like that.

Toz and Lucy woke up after a while, and any sign of Lucy's exhaustion was gone like the wind, and before Toz could even open his eyes, he had already started talking.

"Tozzie, I have discovered who is behind the conspiracy. It's the fellas from the Redire Kingdom. I didn't notice it at first since they're using some pretty advanced disguise magic and because I don't know what they looked like originally. But those kinds of things are nothing in front of the Mighty Lucy. One quick peek was all it took to figure out they weren't human. Like not at all. So they have to be responsible!"

"Okay. That's great, Lucy. But how do you know they are the ones doing the plotting, and if they aren't human, what are they?"

"Excellent question, my dear Toz! Because it's obvious! And I don't know what they are!"

Toz wasn't surprised by Lucy's confidence when he proclaimed that he didn't know the true identities of the people he had discovered. But he could trust in Lucy's intuition that they were indeed responsible for the conspiracy they had uncovered.

It also matched with the rest of Toz's theory. Now he only had to figure out why, who, and when.

"Can you tell me more about the non-human guys you found, Lucy?"

"Of course!"

Lucy noticed that Tos trusted his words about the Redire Kingdom being responsible, despite being unable to expand on his reasoning, so he happily obliged to Toz's request.

"Their original shape should be humanoid. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to disguise themselves as humans. Oh! They also smelled like that rusty old knife Brunswick, ptui, found."

Lucy's expression soured, and he spat when mentioning Brunswick, but he went back to his previously excited expression as he waited for Toz to express his thoughts.

Toz thought back to the Hidden Blood Dagger that Brunswick discovered and unsheathed after Toz and the cats looted the Blue Lounge League's treasury. Brunswick had told them that a red misty mana flowed from the dagger, and it later turned out that the dagger had excellent compatibility with Red Hook, a blood attribute mage.

If the individuals that Lucy discovered had a presence vaguely reminiscent of that dagger, it was very likely that it was the feeling of blood magic. Though maybe it was something more nefarious since they resembled the dagger and not Red Hook's magic.

"Do you think there's such a thing as Blood Demons?"

"That! That sounds like a perfect description of what they smelled like. The same nasty stench as the demons from the sparkly forest, the leafy forest, and that pile of boulders from the other day, but filled with the smell of blood. You are almost as smart as me now, Toz!"

Toz happily accepted Lucy's praise with a smile as he wondered about the origins of that knife. If it was a demonic artifact or magic tool, what was it doing in the hands of Stris? But considering how it was thrown into a corner of the treasury, maybe Stris didn't know about it.

It didn't matter now since it was in the hands of Red Hook and Stris was somewhere else.

Although Toz and Red Hook didn't have the most amicable relationship for a couple of reasons, they were still allies and had several friends in common, so he couldn't help but worry about her now that he had found out that dagger's potential origins. But there was nothing he could do at the moment. He could only hope that Red Hook wasn't in any danger. If she was, she might also put the others in danger, after all.