My family runs an adventurer's guild.

Therefore, as a dragon's pet, Firi's life in Totoro Town over the past five years has been extremely miserable.

First of all, it's simply impossible to expect Miss Lulutia, a "dormouse-type" owner who is "sleepy in spring, lethargic in summer, dozing off in autumn, and hibernating in winter," to get out of her sleep every day and prepare three meals a day for her magical cat on time and in sufficient quantities.

As a poor, homebody dragon, Miss Lulutia has no servants to serve her magical pet, Firi.

Secondly, given that she has a stingy little female dragon as her master, Phili also finds it difficult to squeeze enough living expenses and pocket money out of Miss Lulutia.

After all, due to their racial nature, neither benevolent nor malevolent dragons seem to be completely free from the virtue of "generosity".

When Firi first became a cat, he had a terrible experience: he was starving in the Adventurers' Guild while his mistress slept soundly in the bedroom, impossible to wake. This nightmarish experience left Firi deeply puzzled: how did this cat, who had been stuck with an irresponsible dragon owner and constantly threatened to starve, survive before he transmigrated?

Later, Phil was surprised and heartbroken to discover that in the library next to the Adventurers' Guild, there was a kind-hearted and loving older sister named Portia who would prepare a large bowl of food every evening to feed the stray cats on the streets.

Before transmigrating, the orange cat Firi probably only managed to fill its stomach by begging for food from Portia in the library next door. And after transmigrating, the cat-human Firi also managed to solve its first dinner in the other world with the help of Portia, the librarian... but the taste was really... half-cooked, bland and tasteless, it was really like torture for the tongue.

Well, what can you do when Portia is a ghost? Can cat food made by a dead person suit the tastes of a living cat?

In short, unless things get really bad and she's starving, Phil never wants to go with the stray cats to the library next door to steal cat food again.

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Of course, as Firi's owner, the silver dragon Miss Lulutia wasn't so bad that she dumped all the Adventurers' Guild's business on Firi while watching her own pet starve to death every day.

After waking from yet another long slumber and listening to Phily's tearful grievances after eating several meals of relief cat food from the library, Miss Silver Dragon generously waved her hand and announced that all of the Adventurers' Guild's trading revenue would be at Phily's disposal and would not need to be handed over to her master.

However, since the Adventurers' Guild's income has already been given to Phil, all his living expenses will have to be covered by this income.

In short, the lazy silver dragon, Lulutia, completely handed over the Adventurers' Guild to her pet, instructing Firi to fend for herself from then on.

How about that? Looks pretty generous, right?

The problem is that the Adventurers' Guild in Totoro Town only gets one job per month on average right now!

This pitiful profit isn't even enough to feed a single cat!

—The Adventurers' Guild's quests aren't like those high-profit antique businesses where you can go three years without making a single sale, and then live off that success for three years!

To put it bluntly, the Adventurers' Guild is neither a government agency nor a mercenary group. At best, it's a trading platform connecting employers and adventurers, much like a second-hand housing or car brokerage website on Earth, and even far inferior to a labor agency—at least a labor agency signs multi-year contracts with temporary workers and can order them around like slaves during that time. But the Adventurers' Guild in a certain town doesn't even have this loose personal dependence on the local adventurers; any adventurer can come and go as they please.

If I had to use an analogy, the relationship between the Adventurers' Guild and the adventurers is roughly similar to that between a job market employer and a job seeker.

Therefore, with employers' requests being so scarce, the Adventurers' Guild's income is even more pitiful.

Fortunately, for Phily, this feline, becoming a dragon's pet does have some advantages.

At least, Firi could freely browse the Adventurers' Guild's library, which contained magical notes and cultural books accumulated over three hundred years, including notes from some famous adventurers. A significant portion of the memories and most of the magical knowledge of the silver dragon mistress, Lulutia, were also automatically unlocked to Firi, her magical pet with a soul contract. This allowed Firi to quickly master some magic and alchemy, enabling her to earn a living by customizing or repairing small items and teaching basic magic to the town's children.

As for getting rich with these few alchemical tricks? You're really dreaming. Totoro Town isn't some magical desert far removed from civilization; there's a well-stocked magical item shop on the street right next door. How could Phily's amateurish attempts possibly compete with the well-established alchemy workshops in the capital with hundreds of employees? It's like a small workshop on modern Earth can't compete with a large assembly line factory.

Of course, regardless of the circumstances, after becoming a spellcaster by relying on various cheats, Phil's personal financial situation improved significantly.

However, after some time, with the opening of the "Forest Fairy Pastry Shop" by the fairies next to the Adventurers' Guild on the left, the cat-man Phili's personal finances quickly returned to a state of deficit, where income could not cover expenses.

There's no way around it; in this fantastical world of dragons and magic, the dietary standards of ordinary citizens aren't much better than those of the Western Middle Ages in Earth's history.

The quality of the staple foods was even worse. Whether it was the hard black bread mixed with a lot of sawdust, straw and mud, or the so-called "white bread" mixed with a lot of chalk, the raw material for making chalk, Phil was an extremely disgusting food that was impossible to eat.

Fortunately, although the bread quality was truly appalling, and the prices of refined flour and white rice were staggering, the market in Totoro Town, a town nestled between mountains and the sea with a mild climate and abundant resources, offered a relatively plentiful and inexpensive supply of fresh fish and fruit. Moreover, everything was absolutely natural, green, and pollution-free, only with a few insects – fruits and vegetables grown without any pesticides were practically immune to insect bites.

The problem is, although Phil was born in a gourmet country renowned for its "art of fire," he hadn't mastered much of his homeland's culinary arts before transmigrating to this other world. Even with decent ingredients, he couldn't create anything particularly exquisite or delicious. Not to mention, there was no running water, refrigerator, microwave, or gas stove here; just starting a fire would take quite a while.

Being able to make a pot of seafood stew by herself is already the limit for Philly.

Besides, although the seafood in town is pretty good, you can't eat fish every day instead of meals! He's not a real cat!

As for the small restaurants in Totoro Town, they also don't offer any cheap and delicious dishes.

Small restaurants in this era didn't even have menus, and there weren't many different dishes to choose from. They basically only had a few common items like beer, wine, spirits, bread, grilled fish, and grilled meat. In addition, the chef would make fish soup or vegetable soup depending on his mood and the price of the ingredients. As for the hygiene standards of the dishes, there was no way to rely on them. They were usually just a helpless choice when there was no other way.

If the restaurant owner happens to be a skilled chef, he might be able to show you some of his specialties, but such talents are rare.

It's said that the royal capital, Thousand Sails City, has a variety of upscale restaurants, and the luxurious hot spring inn in Foothill Town atop Dragon Roar Volcano is famous for its hot spring banquet dishes. But putting aside the issue of money, Firi's status as a magical pet alone makes it impossible for her to leave Totoro Town.

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Therefore, after the "Forest Fairy Pastry Shop" opened by the fairies next to the Adventurers' Guild, Phili only tried it once and became completely fascinated by the exquisite pastries there. The pastries and breads made by the fairies were not made with flour and ovens, but were grown directly on the vines by the fairy magic to make plants grow. They were breadfruits of various flavors!

Not only is it absolutely free of chalk, sawdust, straw, mud, and other such random stuff, but it also boasts a wide variety of ingredients and an absolutely wonderful taste.

Add to that the flavorful jam squeezed directly from fresh berries, and a variety of colorful and fragrant fruit juices, and Phil, the feline, feels as if she has returned to a modern urban dessert shop on Earth.

Moreover, it's an ultra-high-end dessert shop where the food contains no industrial pigments, additives, or preservatives, and has a pure, natural, green, and refreshing taste!

Thus, the greedy little cat Firi quickly succumbed to the little fairies' "smokeless food industry."

However, as a product of the fairy's natural magic, the pastries sold at the "Forest Fairy Pastry Shop" are not cheap; a special flavor of breadfruit can cost as much as three silver coins.

For ordinary residents of Totoro Town, it's fine to occasionally patronize this place for a treat. However, eating here every day would strain their wallets.

Even in Totoro Town, Ferry could only be considered a poor man.

Unfortunately, Phil had already developed a picky palate from the abundant and diverse pastries and sweets available during the industrial age on Earth. Now, spending all his time next door to the "Forest Fairy Pastry Shop," surrounded by the aromas of pastries and drinks from morning till night, he simply couldn't resist his cravings. He couldn't control his sweet tooth, and his visits to the "Forest Fairy Pastry Shop" to overeat and drink on credit became more and more frequent...

To this day, he has accumulated dozens of gold coins in debt at the "Forest Fairy Pastry Shop," and who knows when he will be able to pay them back.

If it weren't for the fact that the two families lived next door to each other and that Phili was also skilled in alchemy, occasionally making custom-made miniature magical items for the fairies to flatter them, he would probably have been blacklisted by the fairies long ago.

—Given their tiny size, the magical tools of humans and cat-people are simply unusable for the goblins. The wands used by human mages are as thick as roof beams to them, and the scrolls used by human adventurers are as large as carpets to them.

As a result, when the goblins needed to use magical items, they couldn't buy the common goods from magic item shops and had to have them custom-made. Phili, this half-baked alchemist, took advantage of his proximity to the goblins and secured many orders from them.

This offsetting effect prevented Phil from racking up an unbearable amount of debt at the "Forest Fairy Pastry Shop".

On the contrary, because they see each other all the time, Phil actually gets along quite well with the little fairies in the shop.

So, after the initial tension, Phil quickly noticed the mischievous smile that secretly flickered in the eyes of the little fairy mascot Flor, despite her feigned anger. He breathed a sigh of relief and, with a fawning expression, tried to ingratiate himself with Flor.

"...My dearest Miss Flor, please don't be angry anymore, okay? For the sake of our friendship, let me borrow from you one more time! I'll definitely pay you back when I have the money. Or I can make you something small to settle the debt. This tiny magic megaphone you use to hawk your wares, I made it myself!"

"...Well! Well, since you've begged so sincerely, I'll be generous this time!"

The little fairy Flor waved her magic megaphone, putting on an arrogant air, but due to her size and appearance, she didn't evoke much dislike; instead, she seemed quite amusing. "...No need for credit. I'll treat you to an all-you-can-eat lunch at the shop today! But afterwards, you'll have to play a knight game with me!"

Don't try to fool me with excuses like being too busy with work! Your so-called job at the Adventurers' Guild is basically just sitting at the counter dozing off all day! I see it all clearly!"

Chapter 5, The Little Fairy Flor's Knight Game

What?! Play the knight game with Flor?!

Feline's smile froze on her face, and the nightmare scene from when she played the knight game with Flora last time flashed through her mind.

Well, in the little fairy Flor's so-called knight game, the cat Phil naturally played the role of the mount.

Of course, being carried on the shoulders of a little fairy wouldn't be a problem. But the issue is that Flor always likes to play knight games in public, with lots of people watching and cheering... While the little fairy enjoys being the center of attention, for Phil, who's being ridden beneath her, being watched by the entire town is just... too shameless!

But... thinking about the little fairy Flor's generous promise of "all you can eat for free," Phil couldn't help but feel a little tempted.

Looking up at the dazzling array of pastries and desserts inside the "Forest Fairy Pastry Shop," and smelling the various sweet and fragrant aromas, Phil felt as if a furry little animal was scratching at her heart... She really wanted to go in and eat to her heart's content!

"...Recently, the store has launched some new specialty desserts, including melon jelly, mango pudding, and coconut marshmallows..."

Seeing that the cat seemed to be still hesitating, the little fairy Flore's eyes darted around, and she leaned close to Phili's ear with a mischievous smile, whispering seductively, "...Besides, today there are also seafood rice balls, which are your cat people's favorite!"

The little fairy Flor's final blow completely shattered Phil's mental defenses, making him unable to suppress his cravings any longer.

"...Alright! I'll play the knight game with you this afternoon...but don't do anything too outrageous!"

Seemingly to provide a way out, he added an unnecessary remark, while the little fairy Flore nodded and smiled in response.

In any case, the standard for judging whether something is "exaggerated" or not is just a matter of Flor's word.

In short, after bowing down to the little fairy Flor, Phili enjoyed a sumptuous meal as she wished, and her little belly bulged out from eating so much.

But the problem is, next, it's time for the cat Phil to "endure humiliation" and lose its sense of propriety.

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"...Giddy up! Giddy up! My lovely horse! Charge bravely toward the monster!"

Beside the fountain in the plaza outside the Adventurers' Guild, the little fairy Flor, dressed in a set of shimmering silver miniature armor, held a sharp miniature spear. With a powerful kick of her little foot, she kicked her furry orange riding beast, pointed the spear at her prey, and sang loudly like an opera singer.

"...Meow!"

Having just reverted to its original orange cat form, Firi, with the little fairy straddling its neck and riding on its bottom, let out a howl with a look of utter despair. Then, resigned to its fate, it released its paws and charged at full speed toward the large rat that was tied to a stick and squeaking in front of it!

Immediately following was a swift cat paw strike, a silver spear thrust, and blood splattered everywhere!

—The unlucky big rat was accurately stabbed in the heart by the little devil and died instantly.

Immediately afterwards, Flore casually tossed aside her spear, drew a toothpick-long saber from her waist, flapped her wings, and took flight.

The next moment, after a flash of light, Flore, like a majestic Valkyrie, turned and jumped back onto Firi's back, still holding the rat's head in her hand, triumphantly shouting to the surrounding citizens: "...I've taken the enemy general's head!"

"...Clap clap clap! What an interesting little knight, meow!"

"...This little imp really has some ideas, meow..."

"...But the Adventurers' Guild's receptionist just lets her ride a cat like that? In such public, isn't she embarrassed?"

"...It's just kids playing, why make such a fuss, meow?"

The surrounding cat residents laughed and clapped, then stared at Phili's sad face, pointing and whispering with various expressions.

"...Aha! The little girl's riding and swordsmanship are quite good! Perfect, we can eat this rat after removing its head."

The generous sponsor of the large rat mentioned earlier, a middle-aged, overweight, and endearing cat-like barbecue vendor, picked up the decapitated rat, skinned it quickly, and then bent down to pick up the "knight's lance" that Flor had dropped—which was actually just a barbecue skewer. He chopped the skinned rat's body into several pieces, stuck them onto the skewer, and placed it on the grill, where it sizzled and turned to roast.

Huh? What? Openly selling rat meat skewers like this is unhygienic?

Please, look at who this stall owner and customer are! What reason would a cat have to refrain from eating rats for the sake of food hygiene?

Meanwhile, the catgirls nearby were still egging the little fairy Flora on, "One more! One more!" And the little fairy Flora readily agreed, taking out a small hammer and jumping back onto Phili, "...Hey! Now let's have the second round of the warhammer show!"

Looking at the small hammer in Flor's hand, Phil couldn't help but twitch at the corner of his mouth, because it wasn't a warhammer at all, but a miniature magic wand that Phil had made himself.

He had initially thought that Flor, the little fairy who insisted on turning her wand into a hammer, wanted to be a miniature Thor, hurling lightning at enemies from the sky—but given the fairy's tiny size, that amount of electricity would only be enough to kill a mouse or a rabbit. He never imagined that this seemingly delicate fairy harbored such a violent heart, actually wanting to be a melee mage, playing the "one hit of my wand and you might die" card game?!

"...Slap slap! How long are you going to stand there in a daze? Get running for me now!"

Because Phil paused for a moment upon seeing the little hammer, he felt Flore flick his bottom twice with her little riding crop. Resigned, he meowed again and, carrying the little fairy Flore wielding her warhammer wand, dashed towards another mouse tied to a stick by the barbecue stall owner. The next moment, Flore's tiny warhammer struck the unfortunate mouse squarely in the skull, sending its brains and eyeballs flying...

Riding on Phili, the hardworking cat, and using a variety of weapons such as spears, warhammers, flails, bows and arrows, and javelins, she killed a dozen mice in a row, giving the cat owner of the roasted mouse meat stall a very effective free advertisement. After that, the little fairy Flora was still not satisfied and urged Phili to continue playing horse-riding hurdles, uh, no, cat-riding hurdles.

I won't go into the details of the hurdle-jumping process. In short, after the little fairy Flora, under the coaxing of the catgirls, completed one hundred hurdle jumps, this little knight was beaming as she accepted the applause and cheers of a group of mischievous children, while Phil was already so exhausted that he was almost foaming at the mouth.

Sigh, what's even more torturous than playing with a bratty kid is having a bunch of bratty kids watching and egging you on while you're playing with one!

Then, just as the smug little fairy Flora, under the influence of a group of mischievous children, was about to try again and prepare to ride Phili through the fire ring, the savior who would free Phili from his suffering finally arrived.

—After doing nothing for so long, the Adventurers' Guild in Totoro Town finally got a job!

A cat-like clerk working at the city hall was carrying a scroll of official documents and was about to go to the Adventurers' Guild to issue a quest when he saw Flor riding Phili playing a knight game outside the guild gate, surrounded by a bunch of odds and ends such as targets and wooden fences. He was stunned.

"...Ah! I think I have some work to do! Flor, let's call it a day!"

On the other side, seeing that a client had finally come to post a quest request, Phili, who had been suffering terribly, felt as if she had been granted a pardon and immediately said this to Flor. Then, without waiting for the little fairy's reply, she "whooshed" into the Adventurers' Guild, transformed into human form, put on clothes, and came out. She greeted the still-dazed cat-like clerk familiarly, and at the same time took out the quest document from his hand and began to read it in the sunlight.

"...Hmm, the town hall is hiring adventurers to clean the town's sewers? The reason is that summer is here and the rats and slimes have multiplied too much?"

While looking at the official document, Phil casually asked, "...A bounty of one hundred gold coins? That's quite generous! But I remember our town's sewers were just cleaned last winter, right? According to the usual practice, they should be cleaned every two years. Why do they need to clean them again after only half a year?"

"...because we need to make the town as clean and beautiful as possible to welcome the new lord to take office!"

The clerk shrugged and replied, "...News has come from the capital that our town's new lord has been confirmed and will be taking office in a few days. I heard she's a princess. Right now, the entire town hall is in chaos, frantically clearing accounts and putting on a show...The new lord will definitely be bringing a lot of her cronies with her, and everyone in our town hall is worried, afraid of losing their jobs under her!"

Phil nodded knowingly. As far as he knew, the original lord of Totoro Town, the brass dragon Achilles Parkinson, was over a thousand years old this year, and due to his early adventures and battles, he had accumulated a lot of injuries, especially a cursed old wound on the heel of his right leg that had not been fully healed even after a hundred years.

As Achilles grew older, his health deteriorated. A few years ago, his old ailment relapsed, leaving him emaciated and frequently suffering from spasms in his limbs and trembling all over. Finally, last year, he left behind a resignation letter, departed from the town, and went to some unknown place to recuperate and seek medical treatment.

Since Achilles, the brass dragon, had neither a legitimate mate nor a pure-blooded dragon offspring, the territory of Totoro Town was reclaimed by the royal family and redistributed. After a series of struggles unknown to the townspeople, the position of lord now seems to have finally been decided.

Then, due to the custom of a new emperor bringing a new court, and following the established practices of the Golden Dragon Kingdom, after a change of lord, many unfortunate individuals among the dozens of public officials in Totoro Town will inevitably be dismissed to make way for the new lord's cronies. No wonder they are so eager to make a good impression on the new leader and try to minimize the number of layoffs...

Meanwhile, Flor, the little fairy who was feeling down because she couldn't continue playing the knight game, curiously flapped her semi-transparent wings and flew over to take a look at the official document in Phil's hand. She then let out a cute exclamation: "...Eh? A cat is paying a human to catch mice in the sewers? Isn't that a bit too strange? There are already so many things to complain about! Am I crazy or has the world gone mad?"

"...You're making a fuss over nothing! What's so strange about cats hiring people to catch mice? The mouse farm in our town is run by dog-headed people hired by the cat boss! Otherwise, where do you think that mouse you just killed came from? Besides, there are cats here who kneel and pray to mice!"

Phili gestured with his mouth towards the bronze dormice statue in front of the Church of Hypnos across the town square, and a few cat-man believers silently praying in front of the dormice statue. He scratched his neck and commented with a sigh.

In the world of Western fantasy, for adventurers who roam the world with their swords, in addition to dragon nests in the mountains, goblins in the forests, and undead creatures in the tombs, the stinking, dark sewers in big cities are also a common monster-hunting spot.

Just as the sewers of many modern metropolises are often hiding places for drug lords, fugitives, and petty thugs, and even become the headquarters of certain gangs, the sewers of fantasy world metropolises are also known for being infested with monsters, undead, and various mutated creatures.

Especially in some large cities where magicians congregate, those imaginative and lazy magicians often dump all sorts of random experimental waste directly into the sewers, resulting in the creation of even more bizarre monsters that defy human imagination.

Based on what Feline knows, even if one day they find four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and their giant rat master in the sewers of the capital city of Thousand Sails, the locals probably wouldn't find it too strange.

Even worse, the sewers of some major cities have become infiltrative strongholds for evil organizations in the heart of civilized nations. Accompanied by the battle cry of cultists to "attack from the sewers," a devastating night raid reduced the entire city to ruins. If the ancestors who painstakingly built these cities knew from beyond the grave that the sewers they dug had become dens of monsters and strongholds of cults that endangered the lives of future generations, they would probably think it would have been better to cut corners when building the cities and not have sewers at all, so that everyone could live together in the stench of excrement.