I felt the tension in the room spike as the black-haired woman before me smiled at my question. The middle-aged butler, sensing that he wasn't welcome anymore, immediately bowed and left the room, leaving me alone with her.
"Hello, I am Hestia, Hestia Fervor, the head of the Fervor Marques family and the mother of Arya and Ronan. Nice to meet you, Ervin," she said, her voice calm but authoritative.
Well, well, apparently I was sitting across from one of the most powerful nobles in the land. And somehow she knew about me, while I had no idea how.
Man, she was gorgeous! I could feel sweat forming on my forehead, which, considering the situation, was probably more from nerves than admiration. I just dearly hoped she didn't have any mind-reading abilities, or else I was so screwed.
Fortunately, she didn't seem to know what was happening in my head. "As for your question about how I know about your cat? Well, let's just say I have my ways," she said, her eyes subtly shifting towards a portrait of two red-haired siblings behind her. "Anyway, do you know or have any idea why it's able to talk?"
I had a pretty good guess, but I wasn't sure if the truth—that the goddess had just created her that way—would satisfy Hestia. Besides, I didn't even know if talking animals were rare in this world. For all I knew, the trees could have opinions on politics here. But Systie had always been careful about speaking in public, and honestly, I was perfectly fine with not having to hear her sarcastic comments all day long.
I tried to play it cool. "Um, actually, I have no idea! The cat could talk even before meeting me. Is that such a big deal?" I asked, attempting to sound nonchalant, but judging by Hestia's suspicious look, I wasn't doing a great job.
She sighed and handed me a book titled *The Birth of the Sacred Beasts*. The cover was worn, the title barely readable, like it had been read and re-read for years.
"That book is an ancient storybook that my son used to read a lot," Hestia began. "It's a very interesting story. Three hundred years ago, our world was vastly different from now. There was no System at that time, and people used a much more rudimentary form of magic. Then one day, a cat-eared goddess called Systie descended upon the world and gifted the System to three beasts—a wind bird, a red lizard, and a grey rat. She ordered them to spread the System across the world before disappearing. Those three beasts later became incredibly powerful sacred beasts and created all the dungeons of the world. Interestingly, those three beasts were the only animals ever known to speak the human language."
With every word, I could feel my face getting paler. Apparently, talking cats were rare—very rare. Suddenly, I was glad that Systie kept her mouth shut in public.
"So… what now?" I asked cautiously, hoping my voice didn't betray how freaked out I was. "Why did you tell me all these things? Do you want me to give the cat to you?"
Please say no. Please, please say no, I pleaded internally. I didn't want to admit it, but I had grown attached to the smack-talking cat. The thought of parting ways with her wasn't a pleasant one. To my surprise, Systie was clinging tightly to my shirt, and I could even spot a few tears in the corners of her eyes.
To my immense relief, Hestia shook her head. "No, I have no interest in raising a cat. I told you this because you protected my daughter in the dungeon. You can keep the cat with you, but make sure it doesn't talk in public, and don't use its name when other people are around."
I nodded, feeling the tension ease slightly. "You got that, Blacky?" I asked, turning to the little furball perched on my shoulder.
Systie bobbed her head in happiness. "Human, do you see how great I am? You need to worship me from now on."
"Yeah, not happening. In my eyes, you're just a smack-talking, stupid cat," I replied, trying not to smile too widely. Messing with her was the highlight of my day.
"Who are you calling stupid, you wimpy human?" she snarled, her tiny fangs bared as she tried to bite me. Her antics ended up knocking over a few things on the table, causing a small mess. Hestia, to my surprise, chuckled.
"Hello there, little cat. Do you finally feel comfortable enough to speak in front of me?" she asked, her tone more amused than anything.
Systie, still sulking from my teasing, gave a reluctant nod. "I suppose," she muttered.
"Well then," Hestia continued, clearly enjoying herself now, "let me ask you: what do you think about your human master?"
"Huh, this human isn't my master. He's my pet," Systie declared with a straight face, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, causing me to stare dumbly at her.
"What kind of cat logic is that? When did I become your pet?" I protested, but Hestia's laughter drowned me out. She laughed so hard that it took her a while to calm down.
Once she finally composed herself, she asked, "What do you want to do next?"
I told her that I wanted to go to the capital and enter the dungeon there, but Hestia quickly put a stop to those ideas.
"Not everyone can enter that dungeon," she explained. "The dungeon is under the control of the royal family, and there are some requirements you need to fulfill if you want to enter it. You either have to be born a noble or become a contracted adventurer."
"Contracted adventurer? What's that?" I asked, feeling like this whole thing was going to be a pain to deal with.
Hestia folded her hands in her lap, her expression turning serious. "A noble family can form a contract with an adventurer, allowing them to enter a dungeon. But in exchange, the adventurer has to complete special missions assigned by that noble."
"Isn't that kind of unfair? What if you ask us to do some suicide mission?" I asked, half-joking but fully concerned.
She shrugged her shoulders like it was the most natural thing in the world. "You can choose to do the mission, or you will lose the contract and thus your entry into the dungeon."
I had a feeling things were far more complicated than she was letting on, but I wasn't in a position to argue. "Is there no other way to enter the dungeon?" I asked, not exactly thrilled about the idea of being a noble family's errand boy.
"There are a few other ways," Hestia admitted. "You can wait for a war to occur and make significant contributions, or you can create new inventions that improve the country. As long as you gain recognition from the royal family, you can enter the dungeon."
I groaned. All of those options sounded like they belonged in the "not happening anytime soon" category. "Is there no easier way? Like maybe marrying a noblewoman?" I asked, hoping to find a loophole.
But Hestia wasn't having it. She shook her head. "You need to be at least 18 years old to marry anyone, and if you try to lay your hands on my daughter, I'll chop off your balls."
Yikes. Message received loud and clear.
After a moment of silence, she finally spoke up again. "Since you protected my daughter, I will allow you to sign a contract with the Fervor family. But there's a catch—you'll have to act as Arya's temporary butler and also take on some missions I assign you."
"Butler?!" I almost choked on the word. "What kind of missions are we talking about?"
"It's an infiltration mission," Hestia said, her voice turning a bit more serious. "There's an underground organization called PLAGUE that has been conducting nefarious experiments on monsters and humans alike. I want you to use your
'So the underground organization was called PLAGUE, huh?' I thought to myself. She even knew about my skills, and I had no idea how. That must mean she had a powerful spy network. If I wanted to find out more about this organization, then working for her didn't seem like a bad idea.
It didn't sound like the safest job in the world, but I was a thief in my past life—sneaking around was kind of my thing. "Can I, uh, steal some money in the process? Or is that forbidden?" I asked, already leaning toward signing the contract.
"As long as you manage to dig up some dirt, you can do whatever you want," Hestia replied with a knowing smile.
That was nice, but I still had some doubts, "Can I get some time to think this through!?" I asked and Hestia nodded.
"You can rest in the mansion for today and tell me about your decision tomorrow" she offered before sending me away.