Hao Ren had never expected to end up celebrating a festival in Nathatone by sheer coincidence. He had originally come only to discuss serious business with the Siren Queen, but happened to arrive on the very day the Sirens had completed a stage of the city's reconstruction and were celebrating as a race. Since he was already there, he decided to stay for another half-day and join in the fun—at the very least, he could let the cat-dog-fish trio at home enjoy themselves to their hearts' content, and keep them from getting bored and causing trouble by chewing on furniture and poking electrical outlets.
But the Sirens seemed to feel rather guilty about having the trio cause trouble in their territory...
After seeing the stupid cat wreaking havoc among the Sirens, Hao Ren and Vivian hurried over to clean up the mess. It took the two of them an incredible amount of effort to catch that extraordinarily agile cat demon. "Roll" still had no idea what was going on. Even after Hao Ren grabbed her by the collar, she continued flailing and splashing in the water, craning her neck as hard as she could to bite the mermaid's tail in front of her. "Food, food, don't run away! Come here, Food! Hey, Big Cat, why are you grabbing me, meow..."
Shaqila curled up in the water, clutching her tail protectively, her face blank with confusion. "What's wrong with her...?"
Hao Ren pressed Cat Girl's head down with all his strength, explaining with cold sweat covering his head despite being underwater, "She's a cat, isn't she...? Maybe she was starving, and then she happened to see your tail."
Shaqila shuddered. "But didn't she come here last time too? Why didn't this happen then?"
Hao Ren forced a crooked smile. "Last time,