"Ah!!!!!!!"
"What's the problem, Daisy?"
"I forgot the birds in the forest!!!!"
"Eh?"
"I left them there because I couldn't carry them as well!! I need to go back fast! If I leave them alone, some animal will devour them or they will rot!! Excuse me, sir, I will be right back!"
"Wait, calm d-...down...."
Not waiting for an answer, Daisy sprinted out of the room, leaving only Rose, Apollo and the cat girl inside.
"Oh, well, then, it's just us. Rose, can you prepare some tea?"
"There are no tea leaves, Master..."
"Yeah, I thought so, I was just trying my luck...Please add it to the pending list and deliver it to Briony after we are done here."
"Of course, Master!"
"Then, you. Little cat girl, how should I call you?"
"Eh? This one has no name. Just call me you, or servant, cat girl or whatever you like."
"I see, then Yuu, what's your story? How did you end up here?"
The cat girl Yuu shook her head and answered in an uncertain voice.
"...I don't know..."
"Then...what's the last think you remember?"
"Being taken here by you and miss Rose."
(Is this girl dumb or is she playing dumb??? Her eyes look sincere but what the hell are these answers!? It's like she is playing tricks on me!)
"Oh, yeah, of course! I mean, what do you remember before waking up here..."
"Falling down."
"Where did you fall?"
"In the middle of the forest."
"And why were you there?"
"Because of my master's order."
(Okay, we are finally reaching somewhere!)
"Hmm...Then, can you tell me what your Master's orders were?"
"To run away with the egg."
"You mean the one in your hands now?"
"Yes!"
"And why would you need to run away?"
"Because the boars were angry we had stolen their egg."
(...Eh? What did you say?)
"The... boar's egg?"
"Yes!"
"You mean those giant, furry boars, with those gigantic tusks?"
"Yes!"
"They lay eggs!?"
"I don't know."
"But you said this was a boar egg."
"It is!"
"But you are saying you don't know if they lay eggs."
"Yes!"
"Why is that?"
"Because I never saw them laying eggs. I just know the egg came from them."
"Man, this story is a mess... Can you tell me from the beginning, what happened that made you run away from home?"
"Hmm, Master didn't say anything about keeping it a secret, so I can."
(...)
"Then do tell me now!"
"All right! It was like this..."
Despite not being the smartest cat girl of her generation, Yuu had perfect memory so she was easily able to remember each and every event that happened since she was born, from the important ones, to the silliest ones, like the time one of her friends made a costume out of the boar's head and skin, and chased after the other girls (including her) while making boar sounds, or the time her Master put on inverted pants, making all internal seams visible to outside.
In many cases this perfect memory would work in favor of the Master, making sure she didn't forget any important thing, but on this specific case where Apollo just wanted to know the general line of what happened, without too many details, this skill turned out to be a hindrance, even more when associated to the low I.Q. of the cat girl who didn't know how to keep the embarrassing side of her Master a secret.
As Apollo silently hear the story, his impression of her old Master got worse and worse, and by the time when her Master gave her the final order, Apollo could more or less figure out what was passing through his head and the results he expected from her.
Maybe it was that old Master's fortune that his cat girls appeared to be quite silly, or maybe it was how they were made, with absolute loyalty, that stopped them from revolting and getting rid of him. No matter the truth, it was obvious that their Master exploited these girls in every single possible manner, making Apollo 1 piece jealous and another 99 pieces pissed off.
As Yuu finish telling her story, Apollo only had one word in his mind: Revolution!
The era of slavery has long ended! How could he allow that bastard to do whatever he wished with these naive cat girls and escape unpunished!? No way! Apollo had the moral obligation to free these girls from their old master's tyrannical hands!
Luckily, luck was on his side! Because of the boar's attack, this bastard's base should have taken a lot of damage, if not out right destroyed, so this made the perfect time to launch a sneak attack and finish him off.
Of course Apollo's intention was not really to kill the bastard. As long as he destroyed his bracer and HQ it should be enough. Maybe hitting him a few times would be a bonus, but killing him was literary over kill.
The most important objectives he had was to free the cat girls and end this bastard's reign before he could commit more crimes.
"Okay. Thanks for the explanation, Yuu. Yuu can stay here for now and rest. Since your Master ordered Yuu to get away from there, it would be the best if Yuu didn't return right away. Stay here for a few days and recover your strength."
"Understood! Thank you for your generosity!"
"Since you are staying here, it would be good for you to learn about the place. Rose, please guide Yuu for a tour around the base."
"As you wish, Master!"
Apollo smiled at her and saw her off, but as soon as she was gone, that smile lost all it's warmth, appearing cold and cruel.
(While I can't trust 100% of what she said, if she does try something, Rose should be more than enough to stop her...But for now, let's act as if all she said was the truth.)
Now that a new objective had been set, Apollo's mind once again started working at full throttle, organizing what he had to do and who he had to call to raise his chances of success.
(It would be the best to strike fast! The longer I take, the more the enemy will recover! We should move out before our information became outdated and we lose our advantage! The enemy is not expecting us as well... man, this should be so easy that it will feel like bullying, but let's not let our guard down. Maybe the only problem will be to keep the cat girls alive. As they are still under his control, it would be a tragedy if he ordered them to sacrifice their lives to allow him to escape! And to make things worse, considering the story I heard from Yuu, the chance this happens are quite high...Yeah, now that I think about this, this whole operation may be a hit or miss, either we will get everything and save everyone, or we will get nothing and all the cat girls will end up dead...)
"No point in worrying too much over things that are out of our hands. Let's start with what we can do and proceed from there. For now what I can do is prepare my troops and check out the enemy's situation."
As Daisy entered the Palace holding the dead birds in her hand, Apollo rose from his armchair and voiced out his first order.
"Cindy, call all the soldiers to the factory at once! Daisy, leave these birds in the kitchen, one of the maids will take care of them! Accompany me to the factory, we got to have all the soldiers perfectly equipped for the battle to come! No lethal weapons allowed, our objective is to subdue them, not kill them! It's time for war once again! Get ready, everyone!"
"Yes, master!"