For a creature like a cat, taking off from a standstill when startled was by no means an exaggeration. In her past life, hadn't Freya seen videos of people sneakily placing a cucumber behind a house cat, only for the cat to turn around, spot it, and launch itself straight into the air?
“Clatter~”
The sound of a plate falling and shattering on the floor briefly caught Freya's attention. When she looked back up at the ceiling, she found that the catgirl had already vanished.
But in the next second, a pitch-black tail wrapped around her neck. The catgirl had appeared behind her at some point, frowning as she whispered, “How did you get behind me?”
Freya instinctively grabbed at the tail with both hands and struggled slightly. “I... I just walked over normally...”
Although it was a fluffy tail, to Freya right now, it felt like a tightened hemp rope. Just as she was beginning to find it hard to breathe from the constriction, the catgirl suddenly released her and asked in confusion, “A normal human?”
“Cough, cough!” Freya coughed first, and after catching her breath, she said, “Ye... Yes. Why, is there a problem?”
The catgirl blinked in silence, sizing Freya up from head to toe, before her gaze finally rested on her bare feet.
At first, she had thought some extraordinary was sneakily approaching her from behind to launch a surprise attack, which triggered her defense mechanism. But the problem was, who would send an ordinary person to attack an extraordinary?
The catgirl asked, “So, what are you doing?”
Freya replied, “I just came out to use the restroom and saw the kitchen light was on. Wait, shouldn't I be the one asking you that? Who are you? Why are you sneaking food here?”
Hearing this, the catgirl awkwardly looked away, her two tails swaying irregularly behind her. “Uh... I was hungry, so of course I had to eat, meow~!”
Freya, “?”
There was indeed nothing wrong with that logic, but what decent person would sneak into someone else's house to steal food?
Just then, a set of footsteps sounded, rapidly approaching the kitchen. The ears on top of the catgirl's head twitched slightly, and she shrank her neck. “Gotta run, gotta run.”
With that, the catgirl took a step back. Her body gradually became translucent until she completely vanished right in front of Freya. Seeing this, Freya immediately realized it was some kind of invisibility ability. And when it came to invisibility, it was hard not to associate it with the Trick Pathway.
No way... Could this catgirl be the Trick Pathway extraordinary who got blamed for my theft and mistaken for the culprit?
If that were the case, it would make perfect sense. Since she was a wanted fugitive, she could only resort to petty thievery to feed herself.
As she pondered, the footsteps stopped at the kitchen entrance. The newcomer was Euphemia's grandfather, Augustus. He frowned slightly, glancing at the shattered plate on the kitchen floor. “What is this...?”
Freya told the truth. “Just now, someone with cat ears and a cat tail was sneaking food here, but she ran away the moment she saw me.”
Augustus frowned. “Someone with cat ears and a cat tail? It's highly likely someone from the Trick Pathway. Did she do anything to you?”
Freya shook her head. Aside from the initial panic reaction that had almost strangled her to death, the catgirl had immediately lost all hostility once she realized Freya was just an ordinary person.
“That's good then,” Augustus said. “Still, for a petty thief to infiltrate the Holmes residence... it seems I need to tighten security.”
Afterward, Freya witnessed firsthand what true efficiency meant. It was the middle of the night; normally, anyone would wait until dawn to deal with such matters. Yet, the moment Augustus mentioned tightening security, he immediately went into action.
He walked back and forth through the Holmes manor. As he passed certain spots, he would gently brush his fingers against the walls, leaving behind a glowing blue mark wherever he touched.
Out of curiosity, Freya followed him as he made a complete lap around the Holmes manor. Finally, Augustus said, “With this, the entire Holmes manor is now under my detection array. I will be notified immediately at the slightest disturbance.”
The general principle was essentially equivalent to installing high-definition cameras in every corner of the house. Since the Scholar Pathway granted multiple "brains," Augustus could simply allocate one of his brains to monitor the footage from these cameras twenty-four hours a day.
Only after watching Augustus finish all this did Freya remember her original reason for getting out of bed. She hurriedly went to the restroom, relieved herself, and then returned to her bedroom.
All the while, she kept thinking about the catgirl. To be honest, because the catgirl was taking the fall for her, she felt a slight twinge of guilt toward her.
But then, the moment she pushed open her bedroom door, she saw the catgirl sitting right there on her bed, even waving at her. “Hi~ Seeing your gloomy expression, were you thinking about me?”
Freya was taken aback. “Didn't you leave? And... how did you avoid...”
The catgirl said, “Oh, you mean that old geezer's detection array? Avoiding something like that is a piece of cake for me, meow~”
Besides, while Augustus had theoretically covered the entire Holmes manor, in reality, he had only covered the public areas. He hadn't set up detection arrays in private spaces like bedrooms or restrooms.
Freya hesitated before asking, “Then... what do you mean by waiting for me in my room?”
At this, the catgirl hopped down from the bed, landing on her feet without making a single sound. She took a deep breath, clasped her hands together, bowed her head slightly, and pleaded, “Please, meow~ Can you help me~!”
Freya, “?”
The catgirl continued, “Like... letting me hide out here with you for a while, and you can bring me some food every day or something. Please~! Can you help a kitty out? If you're willing to help, I'll do anything you want~”
Although she could sense that the girl harbored no ill intent, Freya was still highly skeptical. “If you can easily bypass Augustus's detection array, hiding and stealing food should be a breeze for you, right? Why do you even need my help?”
The catgirl replied, “Well, one option is 【constantly keeping my ability active, focusing all my attention on dodging the surrounding detection arrays, and sneakily stealing food with utmost caution】, while the other is 【lying comfortably on your bed and waiting to be fed at mealtimes】. Which one do you think is better?”
Freya fell silent. She actually couldn't find a single word to refute that logic. After a brief pause, she asked, “But... why me?”
...
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