The Kitty Killer Isn't So Cold

Watching Su Sulo seem to disdain her own "battlefield cuisine," Ace helplessly spread his hands.

"But we've really been swamped with work. This morning, when we heard there were patients suffering acute Oripathy attacks, we all went to the scene to maintain order... That left us even less time to prepare anything. To make it in time for lunch, how could we possibly handle things as slowly as we did when the Landship was docked..."

As he spoke, Ace helplessly looked at Kal'tsit.

"In any case, I'm very sorry. I'm afraid the meals for the critical ward will have to be prepared personally by you, Doctor Kal'tsit."

Hearing Ace's explanation, Kal'tsit had been about to nod, but halfway through the motion, the potted-plant-colored cat suddenly remembered something and turned toward the utterly lifeless Nana.

"Medic, according to the task assignments..."

"I'll cook..."

Whether she ought to sigh or feel fortunate, under the on-site command of the Medical Department's highest-ranking official, the Kitty Killer was granted access to the cooking area.

It was just that, unlike before, when she entered the cooking area either to poison someone or search for a handy weapon... actually coming here to cook was perhaps a novel experience for Nana as well.

"Alright, let's see what we've got to work with..."

First, she needed to determine what kind of meal to make. ACE's squad had prepared flour and minced meat in the cooking area, while Blaze, who had come to mooch a meal, was carrying a huge block of cheese. Though Nana had no idea how many leafy vegetables Rhodes Island had in cold storage, with what was already available on the food truck, she instantly assembled several dishes she could make in her head.

"None of you are allergic to bread or pizza, right...?"

Listening to the loud proclamation of kitchen pastry sovereignty from a certain bakery girl who had suddenly become energized, Nana took off her medical gloves and rolled up her sleeves.

In any case, if she did not want to eat that mysterious sludge that looked like... whatever it was, she would have to prepare lunch herself.

For the moment, the scene returned to the medical area on Rhodes Island's fourth floor. Just as Kal'tsit had predicted, a sleeping girl woke up on schedule.

When she opened her eyes, the unfamiliar ceiling, unfamiliar equipment, and beeping surroundings filled her with doubt.

"Mom?"

The girl sat up in bed. Her mother, who had always been by her side whenever she woke up, was nowhere to be seen. Then the child remembered what had happened yesterday... Scratching the bald top of her head, Matilda pursed her lips and was about to cry like a child again.

But she held it in.

At the end of yesterday, both her mother and sister had told her that she was no longer a child who could act spoiled whenever she wanted.

From today onward, she had to get used to living on her own.

She had to learn to eat alone, use the bathroom alone...

Speaking of using the bathroom, the Little Cat awkwardly pressed down on the empty bed surface, then cautiously felt around the bedside and climbed down on her own.

The bed automatically stopped operating after detecting that its occupant had left. Watching the advanced device emit a series of beeps, the Little Cat went, "Ooh," in amazement. But the discomfort in her stomach urged her to quickly find somewhere to relieve herself... The problem was that everything in this room looked like something she was not allowed to touch. Holding her lower stomach, the Little Cat anxiously looked around.

The potted plant on the little table gave her a sense of security. A familiar-looking suitcase had a note on it labeled Nana... At last, the Little Cat determined that she was probably safe for now.

"This is... a hospital?"

Unaccustomed to the chilly feeling atop her head, the Little Cat shook her ears. The discomfort in her stomach made her cat ears flatten like airplane wings... Encouraged by the potted plant, she began trying to find the bathroom, but a new problem soon arose.

This room had been built according to an ICU template and was not suited to a child's size... Or rather, this room, which had prioritized safety over comfort from the start, had never considered the possibility that a guardian might not be present.

Because no one with Rhodes Island access authorization was here, the door was locked tight. The Little Cat found the bathroom, but could not reach the handle to open the door and call for help. In her desperation, she actually prepared to smash the door apart.

Just as invisible power began to gather, and the Little Cat pursed her lips with tears in her eyes, ready to act, a voice from outside the door made Matilda freeze.

"Um... do you need help?"

It was a voice as young as her own. Her mental link and Telekinesis immediately reached through the thin door and touched the other person.

It felt as though she were speaking with her parents, her sister, or her older brothers. It was an overwhelming sense of safety, a strange feeling that allowed the Little Cat to instantly judge that the other person genuinely wanted to help her.

"Um... I can't open the door..."

"Ah, maybe Doctor Kal'tsit hasn't entered your information yet. I'll open it with my card first, then..."

Amid beeping like that of the equipment, the Little Cat saw a Cautus girl in the same dress as hers... Her rabbit ears stood tall, making her seem much taller than Matilda. But when the Little Cat instinctively tried to perk up her own ears to look taller, she immediately realized the other girl seemed to be looking at her chilly bald head.

"...Don't look..."

"Ah! Sorry... Anyway, let's use the bathroom first! This door can actually be pushed sideways."

After that chaotic first meeting, once the Little Cat recovered, the bunny girl had already helped her use the bathroom, wash her hands, and taught her how to use the seemingly unremarkable faucet aboard the ship. She had even shown her the convenient button prepared for children, one that she probably never would have specifically looked for without being told about it...

Finally, the Cautus girl found a beret that the Medical Department had apparently prepared in advance for the Little Cat... Once she put it on, the fidgety Little Cat no longer had to awkwardly cover the top of her head with her hands.

"Um, thank you."

Having dealt with her personal problem, Matilda returned to being the polite child she was. Looking at the bunny girl, who seemed about the same age as her, Matilda gave her a smile befitting her age.

However, for a girl who could sense others' emotions to some extent, Matilda could see that the girl who had heard her call for help and come to assist her was herself drowning in painful sorrow... It was the blue that filled the space around her. Nana had looked much the same yesterday.

Remembering her sister's earlier guidance, the Little Cat copied her and took the other girl's hand.

"I'm Matilda, Matilda Bruce... What's your name?"

"I... I'm... Amiya... Just Amiya."

Seeing the sorrow-filled smile on the other girl's face, the Little Cat froze for a moment. Then the rumbling of her stomach made her immediately realize how she could make this new friend feel less sad.

"My tummy's hungry... Let's go find my sister. She makes really delicious bread. If it has red bean paste inside, it's sweet. Once you eat it, it won't hurt anymore."

As she spoke, she touched the bunny girl's rabbit ears, which were longer than those of ordinary Cautus. Perhaps because she disliked being touched, Amiya's ears immediately drooped.

But before she could refuse, the Little Cat grabbed her hand.

"I can feel where my sister is... Let's go find her!"

"Huh? Huh?! Wait, don't pull me..."

At Rhodes Island's "cafeteria," Nana was making batches upon batches of highly praised filled buns and pizzas under the instruction of Kate, the bakery girl. But a sudden feeling of being watched, mixed with the familiar shared senses of the Little Cat, made her stop what she was doing.

Meanwhile, Kate, who had been chattering nonstop at her side, suddenly began cheering.

[Ooh, our little princess is awake~ Mia, over here!]

As the Little Cat ran excitedly toward her with her new friend in tow, Nana was shocked to discover that Kate, whose voice she had previously only been able to hear, slowly gained a tangible form beside her.

Nana reached out in confusion, trying to grab her... Sure enough, it was only an illusion... But the emotional expression, and the clarity of her voice beside Nana's ear, were far too real.

"Nana! And Sis!"

Seeing the Little Cat pounce toward her, the Kitty Killer, whose hands still had flour on them, instinctively wanted to catch her.

But people could not outrun ghosts... Watching Kate hug the Little Cat and happily spin her around in the air, Nana's head filled with question marks.

Wasn't she supposed to be just a hallucination?

Before Nana could think any further, Kate, having discovered that she could interfere with reality, returned to the food truck's worktable first.

[Great~ Now that Mia is here, I can get right to work. Watch closely, Nana. Let me show you what it means to have the skill to run an independent bakery!]

[Kate, don't forget that Rhodes Island's kitchen work isn't finished yet. I'll make lunch for Nana and Mia.]

[Mom... You just want to get your hands on flour and kitchen utensils too, don't you?]

Watching Cole suddenly appear, make faces at her, the Little Cat, and Kate behind her while acting cute, Nana gave up trying to think altogether.

As Matilda burrowed into her arms and rubbed against her wildly, all Nana could do was straighten the Little Cat's hat and watch as a third party while her mother and sister demonstrated what a "kitchen territory war" was.

Elsewhere, beyond Nana's attention, Su Sulo, who had been helping with the prep work, saw Nana and Matilda speaking with "things that did not exist" again. The fur on her fluffy tail exploded once more... If she took another step back, she would collapse into the equally dumbfounded Blaze's arms.

Behind the young doctor, who had somehow developed a fear of ghosts, Ace, Kal'tsit, and Amiya, who had been dragged over to the scene, were trying to guess what exactly they were seeing.

"...So Medic really did use Originium Arts to recreate the illusion that the Little Cat's family is still alive?"

"That was what I thought at first too... But can Originium Arts 'recreate' something so lifelike? Something that can fool the family and make it seem as though the deceased are still in this world?"

Without going over to interrupt Nana and the Little Cat as they interacted with the invisible phantoms, Kal'tsit, dark circles beneath her eyes, took Amiya's hand and turned away as though she could not bear to keep watching.

"Did Medic create the illusion that the dead are still alive to comfort that child... Or does Medic truly believe that they are still alive?"

Between that child and the person who had tried to save that family, only to ultimately find the child alone, who had been hurt more deeply... Even Kal'tsit could not make that judgment.

Amid the complicated gazes of everyone present, only Amiya, whose hand Kal'tsit was holding, showed a hint of envy.

At least she could truly feel that intense bond, one so deep that even death could not separate it.

PS: Today's cat picture.

PS2: Information that can now be revealed—Rhodes Island had set sail wearing little more than a shell. Even the portable rations carried by its accompanying crew were brought by the crew themselves. When they first departed, they had not even stocked food in the cold storage... The fresh vegetables and meat currently in storage had even been supplied by Contingency Contract.

But the price was that Rhodes Island had to take aboard some severely Infected people with nowhere else to go... Columbia had no objection to their departure.

PS3: Today I wrote the word count for Qun]Qi Lin Ba V Liu Ba Qi... Not bad... But my stomach still hurts, the bleeding is still going on, and I still have to check what nonsense YJ's Chapter Twelve has pulled this time.

PS4: Finally, it goes premium tomorrow... I just hope I'll be mentally capable enough tomorrow to grind out a ten-thousand-word chapter...

I won't write any sort of premium-release message. Stable updates are heaven; if they become unstable... just assume I'm dead.

The Mystery of the Second Medic: 028 Everything Must Be Tried

The red bean buns smelled sweet, while the pizza filled the surroundings with the aroma of dairy. The instant fruit juice was cheap, but the various vitamin additives were indeed indispensable.

Most importantly, the sweet fragrance that seeped into the heart could soothe not only a growling stomach, but also the Kitty Killer's exhausted heart.

Especially now that watching Cole and Kate grab the Little Cat and feed her had become a newly discovered pleasure for Nana. When she used to listen to them fool around through the wall, she had not felt this way... Still, watching Medic stare at her patient floating in midair with a strange smile always made everyone else on Rhodes Island feel inexplicably sad.

Even the Infected passing through the cafeteria to get food would look at Medic in her doctor's outfit and wonder, Can this company really be trusted? In the end, it was Kal'tsit who interrupted Nana, who had been spacing out ever since finishing lunch preparations, and pulled her back from the "happy family" scene before her eyes.

"...Two hundred portions of bread and pizza should be enough for today's crew lunch... Good work, Medic..."

Pulling her gaze away from the Little Cat in Cole's arms, Nana first looked at her potted-plant superior, then examined the lunch she and Kate had worked on together.

"There are still enough prepared meals here for at least fifty people who haven't come to collect them..."

"They are probably meal portions for the Ship Affairs Department, Engineering Department, Equipment Department, and... those Medical Department colleagues who cannot leave their posts. Since we departed in a hurry, many positions only had their most basic maintenance staff aboard. Some people could not even leave their posts when Rhodes Island set off... This was also a problem we had anticipated before departure."

"So the next job is... food delivery?"

"Not quite."

As she spoke, Kal'tsit took out a tablet Terminal and tapped away at it. Accompanied by the distinctive buzzing of quadcopter drones, the cafeteria soon filled with turbulent airflow.

Watching Kal'tsit skillfully take disposable tableware and lunch boxes from cardboard boxes, pack the meals portion by portion, and hang them from the drones, the Kitty Killer froze for a moment before joining Ace's squad in the packing work.

Nana: "...You actually use drones for logistics inside the Landship? Other than Columbia, I've only seen similar applications in Kazimierz..."

Kal'tsit: "However, these are not actually drones... Closure from the Engineering Department controls them to distribute food to people who cannot leave their positions while also piloting Rhodes Island. Without question, this is merely a temporary measure born of necessity."

Hearing Kal'tsit's explanation, Nana looked again at the drones lining up in the air.

"Operating the Landship while also managing the drones must make her an incredible machine-controller Arts user... But... why is someone from the Engineering Department doing work for the Ship Affairs Department? Is it because Closure is really that capable?"

"...No. It is because the only Ship Affairs Department member currently aboard Rhodes Island is me..."

As she spoke, Kal'tsit deftly set down the final lunch box and ignored the behavior of a drone that seemed to be trying to express something by frantically circling the two of them. The potted-plant cat waved a hand and swatted it aside, then checked the time.

"Next, I need to go to the Ship Affairs Department to confirm our navigation status... Would you like to try it?"

"...Ship Affairs Department work?"

Seeing Kal'tsit nod without hesitation, Nana had just finished work that technically belonged to logistics. But then she looked over and saw that Ace and Blaze were doing the logistics work. Recalling Kal'tsit's claim that the Ship Affairs Department had only one member, Nana suddenly felt an inexplicable terror.

"Th-this is the truth behind the claim that... Rhodes Island has lots of positions to choose from?"

Ace and Blaze did not dare meet the Kitty Killer's eyes. Kal'tsit simply spread her hands.

"You tell me, aren't there plenty of jobs to choose from...?"

"There are certainly plenty... But I've never seen a company where someone holds Ship Affairs, medical, and logistics positions all at once, while also grinding through research and writing papers... Kal'tsit, are you really okay?"

"...The company is newly founded, and I still have matters from my former position to handle. It is understandable to be a little busy."

Understand what?

That anyone who does not work properly gets shot?

But considering that her contract with ICA had been transferred to Rhodes Island, Nana, as Operator "Medic," could only nod... At that moment, though, Kate and Cole also leaned closer.

[Feels like the company Andy found after he got sick is just like this. They were always saying things like the company's newly established and everyone needs to work together...]

[...Should we quit early and run away with Mia?]

"Are we running away?"