While Landen and Katarina Forest Cat negotiated, quite a few people had already gathered in the living room outside the Study.
The girls had heard that Landen had been emotionally deceived by a cat and had come over to gossip. The magical beasts had heard that Landen's pet cat was actually a Beastman and had come to watch the fun.
In short, when Landen opened the Study door with Big Cat in his arms, a chorus of "Wow!" rose from outside.
"What are you all looking at?" Landen grumbled, eyeing the girls' mischievous smiles.
"My lord, Lady Katarina is practically a Beastman leader. Isn't this... a little rude of you?" Lily covered her mouth, doing her best to hide her laughter.
"Meow~" The moment she saw the room full of female mages, Katarina began meowing. She didn't utter another human word, deliberately making herself seem like an ordinary Big Cat.
"Oh, exactly! Landen, weren't you always so fond of her?" Gleia laughed as she took Katarina from Landen's hands. "You can't abandon her just because she can talk now. What will you do when more of your magical beasts learn to speak? Abandon them all?"
"All right, all right, they've finished talking. It's time to go see the child!" the Magic Pattern Tiger reminded them. "My son's almost walking now, and he hasn't seen his real mother even once!"
Honnier quickly chimed in from beside her. "You have no idea. Lady Katarina is famous throughout the Basin for disappearing without a trace. Zhuxi barely saw her at all as a child. Before she grew up, she even called me Mom."
As the woman and tiger chatted and led Katarina out of the room, Blaze ran up to Landen and rubbed her head against his chest. "Landen, when you asked me