"I wasn't! I didn't! You're talking nonsense!"
After that practiced triple denial, the black cat sprang up like a leaping fish, flicked his tail, and ran toward the edge of the camp. "You guys carry on. I'll go patrol... make sure no slugs or rabbit spirits come causing trouble."
He ultimately decided to stop idling around, lest real trouble come looking for him.
"Does this magic circle have a name?" Before leaping over the bushes, the black cat suddenly remembered something he had overlooked. He finally turned back to look at the busy witches and asked curiously.
The answer came from Colmar's busy back.
"Solomon's Key."
After the black cat vanished into the bushes, the two witches finally let out simultaneous sighs of relief.
"Don't you think that cat really knows you?" Colmar set up the peachwood Talisman Boards from her arms one by one according to the blueprint, then asked thoughtfully, "Its reaction just now felt a little excessive."
"Don't waste time. Hurry up." Ilena cut Colmar off, sounding somewhat annoyed.
Colmar shrugged and did not continue teasing her companion.
Before long, the foundational runes of the Magic Circle had been set up.
"This was much easier than I expected." Wearing the White Mask, Ilena used a sifter to evenly scatter graphite powder across the base of the Magic Circle, quietly complaining as she did so, "But I don't understand why we have to do this behind its back."
"It's a cat, after all. It's not like us." Colmar answered lightly. "Signing the Silent Contract was already something we had no choice but to do. As for everything else, the less it knows, the better."
As she spoke, she pulled a thick stack of parchment from her robes, gave it a shake in the wind, and unfolded it.