Chapter 223 – "Slight" Difference in Understanding

The catkins' archive wasn't a particularly large building.
Its height was similar to a normal house, and it only had three floors in total.
There was also a pair of cat ears situated on the roof, giving the simple building a cute appearance.

As a side note, many of Elkite's buildings had a pair of cat ears decorating them.
This could be considered an architectural style unique to the catkins.
According to Ciel, if one came across such a building in other places, there was a high likelihood that a catkin owned it.

After taking a moment to admire the cute architectural design, Alice pushed open the doors to the building.
Rather than calling it an archive, it'd be more accurate to call the building a library.
The building stored a massive number of books of many varieties.
Basically, these were all of the documents the catkins had passed down throughout the generations.

Of course, not all books here were written by catkins.
Some were also bought from humans to use as reference.

The archive's manager was a cute young lady.
When Alice saw the girl, she smiled and took the initiative to shake hands with the other party.
Meanwhile, just like Alice expected, the girl obediently shook hands with her.
Moreover, she also got to see the other party's weapon information.

Unlike Ciel and Johanna, this archivist was only a normal person.
So, her stats were relatively normal, ranging between twenty to thirty points.
Regardless, the fact that Alice could see the girl's stats made her wonder whether her conjecture might be right.
Could all catkins possibly be masochists?

Logically, that shouldn't be the case.
If all catkins were masochists, their unique fetish should have been discovered by others in their tribe's ten thousand years of history.

It was especially true, considering slavery had once existed in this world.
If the catkins really had such a predisposition, they definitely couldn't have hidden it from those slave owners.
Meanwhile, once those slave owners learned about this trait, they would absolutely let everyone know about it.
Yet…nothing like this had happened during the era of slavery.
This was strange no matter how Alice looked at it.

Perhaps there was another reason for this situation? Maybe something about her separated her from others, and this difference was why the catkins were so obedient to her?

While Alice wondered which part of her was making the catkins behave so obediently around her, Ciel tugged at her arm and brought her back to her senses.
Then, turning around, Alice was met with the sight of Ciel's displeased face.

Meanwhile, after seeing Alice looking toward her, Ciel puffed up her cheeks and strangely said, “Why are you staring at her for so long? You're making her feel awkward.”

Alice quickly realized that she had been staring forward while she was immersed in her thoughts, and it just so happened that the archive's manager was standing before her.
Meanwhile, the other party seemingly felt embarrassed from being stared at for so long as her face had become bright red.
Even the root of the girl's brown cat ears had turned a little red.

After smiling at the manager awkwardly, Alice let Ciel pull her away to the archive's second floor.

A few people were reading on the archive's first floor, but nobody was on the second floor.
At the very least, Alice couldn't see anybody within her field of view.
This probably meant that the books stored on the second floor weren't of particular interest to the catkins.
For example, books on taboos.

“The taboos are over here,” Ciel said, still wearing a disgruntled expression on her face.

Alice couldn't help but be a little confused by Ciel's behavior.
Although Ciel would normally wear a dissatisfied expression, Alice felt that the catkin was behaving a little more irritable than usual.

However, Alice wasn't in the mood to care about Ciel right now.
Instead, she set her sights on the bookshelf that Ciel pointed to.
The bookshelf Ciel pointed to wasn't packed with books like the other bookshelves on the second floor.
The entire three-layer bookshelf only contained three books, and all three were placed on the top layer.

Evidently, these three books were the catkins' unique taboos.
Alice's eyes shined when she saw the three books, and she promptly retrieved them and took a look at their names.

[Wind Hunter]

[Panther's Weapons]

[Sixth Sense]

Just the names alone gave the taboos a wild feeling.
Although there was a taboo clearly meant for pantherkins mixed in here, considering that pantherkins and catkins were close relatives, it wasn't strange to see one of the pantherkin's taboos here.
As to why there weren't any taboos from other feline beastkins such as tigerkins, this might be a problem that concerned the relationship between the various beastkin races, so Alice didn't dare to ask too much about it.

When Ciel saw that Alice had started reading without giving her a second glance, the annoyance on her face worsened.
After letting out a grumpy snort, she took a seat on a nearby chair and glared at Alice.
It was as if she was trying to see how long it would take for Alice to notice her bad mood.

However, while Alice might not have noticed Ciel's expression, Andusia, who sat on Alice's shoulder, did.
Meanwhile, seeing that Ciel was obviously in a very unhappy mood, Andusia couldn't help but let out a helpless sigh.
Then, while doing her best to maintain her posture, she pinched Alice's shoulder with her fingers.

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“Hm?”

Alice felt Andusia's actions just after she had opened the cover of Wind Hunter, and she couldn't help but give the former Demon King a confused look.
However, to avoid exposing Andusia's existence, Alice didn't voice her confusion.
Instead, she simply asked what the other party wanted with her eyes.

Andusia was different from an inexperienced youth like Alice.
She was more than capable of reading the expressions of others, so she instantly picked up on the confusion in Alice's eyes.
So, she turned her head slightly and motioned for Alice to look back.

Alice was still confused by what was going on, but she obediently followed Andusia's instructions and looked back.
Then, she found herself looking at a grumpy catkin sitting on a chair.

“Catkins might not be a race susceptible to loneliness, but once they identify a person they are close with, they will be very concerned about the other party's attention,” Andusia said in a helpless tone.
Fortunately, Alice had already undone the Forest Crystal sealing Andusia's mana.
So, Andusia could communicate with Alice by directly transmitting her voice into Alice's ears.
“She thinks you are giving her the cold shoulder.”

Alice's current behavior reminded Andusia of her younger self.
Her catkin friend would often grow sullen whenever she didn't pay attention to her.
However, her friend would brighten up immediately so long as she patted her friend on the head and said a few words of comfort.

Thus, what Andusia was trying to convey to Alice was simple—go and comfort Ciel.
It'd be best if Alice could pat Ciel on the head as well.
That way, the catkin girl would recover very quickly.

Realization dawned on Alice.
Immediately, she walked up to Ciel and stepped on her stomach.