The Catgirl Who Took Off from a Standstill

After the officials left, Freya pulled Euphy aside and finally explained that she was the thief.

As expected, Euphy looked utterly dazed and shocked after hearing this. Freya said, “Anyway, that's not the point right now. The point is, what do we do next?”

Euphy said, “There's nothing we can do but stall for time and wait for His Majesty the King to give up searching for this potion.”

Euphy wasn't sure how long that would take. However, now that they had successfully survived the first wave of searches, Freya should at least be safe for the time being here at the Holmes residence.

Time passed slowly. The second day, the third day... This era was not like Freya's previous life, where the cost of locking down a city was unimaginably high. In her past life, because of advanced transportation, traveling between two cities might only take a few hours. Communication between cities was extremely frequent, and cutting it off would cause unimaginable economic losses.

But this world was different. The backward era meant that cities were relatively independent. For example, for a merchant caravan to buy goods from another city and bring them to the capital to sell, just the journey itself could take ten days to half a month, and that was considered fast.

Therefore, aside from the commoners in the capital feeling some fear because they couldn't understand what was happening, the lockdown surprisingly didn't cause any other impact.

The fourth day, the fifth day... Because of Duke Holmes, Euphy was always able to get firsthand information, which she would immediately share with Freya. On this fifth day, Euphy suddenly said, “They seem to have locked onto a suspect.”

Hearing this, a question mark practically floated above Freya's head. “Huh?”

But wasn't she the culprit? Who was this guy being treated as the suspect? In other words, someone was taking the fall for her.

Freya asked, “What happened exactly?”

Euphy said, “It's a high-rank extraordinary of the Trick Pathway. A Mobile Squad discovered them during a dragnet search. After a brief clash, the suspect managed to escape.”

A high-rank extraordinary who refused to cooperate with the investigation—if that wasn't a suspect, what was?

Freya thought about it and asked, “So, what exactly is this Trick Pathway...?”

Euphy explained, “It's also one of the twelve explored pathways. Remember how I said before that the Destiny Pathway is the most mysterious of them all? Well, the Trick Pathway is probably the second most mysterious.”

“I don't know what the class advancements of this pathway are or what abilities they have. But what everyone does know is that this pathway possesses extremely high mobility and is exceptionally good at deception and theft. If something important goes missing, blaming it on an extraordinary of the Trick Pathway is almost always a safe bet.”

“Oh, by the way, my Invisibility Cloak is essentially a product of the Trick Pathway.”

...

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of the capital, at a very remote residence. On the roof, a short-black-haired girl with a pair of cat ears on her head and two black cat tails behind her wore a distressed expression. “Tsk, talk about rotten luck. I didn't even steal anything, yet I'm being mistaken for the thief.”

“Damn it, is there another thief at work? If I'd known, I wouldn't have come to muddy these waters, meow.”

Obviously, this person was the Trick Pathway extraordinary who had been 'mistaken' for the thief. Although she hadn't stolen anything this time, the reputation of the Trick Pathway preceded her. Even if she claimed she didn't do it, no one would believe her.

Besides, she absolutely didn't dare to cooperate with the investigation. After all, while she hadn't stolen anything this time, she had stolen plenty of other things in the past. She had long been a wanted person; cooperating would just be walking straight into a trap.

The cat-eared girl's two tails swayed gently. “No, I have to find a safe place to hide for a while.”

Her gaze swept over her surroundings. Everything in sight was somewhat dilapidated housing. Although this was the nation's capital, it didn't mean everyone here was rich; there were bound to be poor people, and she was currently in such a remote area.

But the problem was that these remote areas were also key targets for the official investigation. Hiding here was not safe.

And so, the cat-eared girl turned her eyes toward the center of the city. “The most dangerous place is the safest place, meow!”

For example... the homes of the great nobles who had already passed the investigation and been whitelisted!

...

Back to Freya's side. Because she had entered the simulation using her main body this time, she was currently just an ordinary person. There was nothing she could do in the face of the current situation—or rather, she didn't need to do anything. She only needed to quietly observe the development of events and prepare for reality.

Time reached the sixth day. At night, she wasn't sure what time it was exactly, but Freya suddenly woke up. She yawned, then slowly got out of bed. She stretched her small feet out by the side of the dark bed, groping around for a long time without finding her slippers. Giving up, she simply hopped out of bed and walked barefoot toward the bathroom.

“Ugh, did I drink too many beverages during the day?”

As Freya muttered to herself, she suddenly saw a faint light shining at the end of the hallway. She rubbed her eyes and murmured, “I remember... isn't that the kitchen?”

With a hint of curiosity, she walked over slowly. As she drew closer, she spotted a dark silhouette moving back and forth in the kitchen, making faint chewing sounds.

Who was sneaking food in the kitchen instead of sleeping in the middle of the night?

Freya's first thought was Euphy. After all, there weren't many people in the Holmes residence. Surely the servants wouldn't sneak in to steal food? Not to mention Euphy's parents and grandfather. Aside from Freya herself, wasn't Euphy the only other person in the entire manor?

Did she get hungry from reading late at night and come down to find something to eat?

Freya walked over slowly. After all, she was half-asleep and in a daze. It wasn't until she stepped into the kitchen and got closer that she realized something was off about this back.

Euphy wouldn't wear a cat-ear hairband while sneaking food, would she?

Or to be more precise, normal people in this world didn't grow cat ears and tails, did they?

Freya snapped wide awake instantly. At the exact same moment, the cat ears on the figure in front of her twitched slightly. Sensing something, she whipped her head around.

Freya could clearly see every single hair on the other party's tail stand on end. Then, the entire cat took off from a standstill, turning into a dark blur that darted straight up to the ceiling.

...