For about ten minutes, Hastur kept waiting to see what reaction Ariella would have, but she had no reaction at all. The cat swayed her small tail, nestled against his feet, and let out soft meows, as if urging him to hurry up and hold her.
Hastur reached out and gently stroked Ariella's head, then carefully looked into her eyes. There truly didn't seem to be anything special about them.
Could it be that she drank a fake potion? Hastur glanced again at the glass vessel on the floor that had already been licked clean.
"Meow."
Seeing that Hastur wasn't paying much attention to her, Ariella leaped up, jumped straight into Hastur's arms, curled herself into a small ball, closed her eyelids, and fell asleep.
"Perhaps it just doesn't know how to express what it's feeling right now."
"Or maybe the Assassin potion is naturally well suited to it, allowing it to adapt to this sensation very quickly."
"When Susie accidentally drank the Spectator potion back then, there didn't seem to be any particular reaction either. It was only several days later that Audrey discovered something unusual about it."
Hastur thought about many things. He lowered his head and looked at Ariella curled up in his arms. After tidying up the items in the room, he opened the door and went out.
....
The next day, after waking up, Hastur immediately went to check on Ariella.
He saw it squatting by the window, a pair of deep blue eyes staring at the pedestrians passing below, occasionally licking its little paw.
Had a strong hunting instinct been born? Hastur didn't disturb it and instead chose to observe quietly.
At this moment, Ariella seemed to have a little more soul than before.
He felt that this was probably his own illusion, projecting too much imagination onto Ariella at this moment.
Digesting a potion was not a short process. Ariella was just a simple little kitten. It didn't possess the complex, summary-oriented wisdom of humans. Most of the time, it relied on its instincts.
"Meow!" Ariella, squatting by the window, noticed that Hastur had woken up. It took two small, elegant steps, then leaped straight over.
The distance was about two meters.
Although Ariella could probably do this even on ordinary days, it wasn't this effortless before.
This should be the strength granted by the Assassin potion, making its limbs stronger and more agile.
"Hungry?"
"Meow!" From this cry, Hastur understood, it really was hungry.
Holding Ariella, he walked out of the room, handed it to the maid responsible for taking care of it, and then went to the washroom to clean up.
After finishing his tasks, Hastur finally carried the already full Ariella downstairs.
While eating, Hastur asked Butler Neil whether there had been mice in the house recently.
Butler Neil awkwardly replied that there had indeed been traces of mice in the back kitchen lately.
Even though he had instructed the servants to carry out corresponding extermination measures, mice would still occasionally appear.
This wasn't a problem their household alone could solve; it was a problem of the entire city of Backlund.
Although the sewer system solved the problem of water accumulation in Backlund on rainy days, it also became a natural home suitable for rats to inhabit and reproduce.
As a result, a special profession had even emerged, rat catchers.
They were responsible for accepting commissions and going to employers' homes to catch rats.
From time to time, the authorities would also organize personnel to inspect and clean places like sewers where filth accumulated.
It was said that this was one of the measures actively promoted by Emperor Roselle, claiming that it could effectively reduce the occurrence of plagues.
Plagues caused by rats and insects, this had already become common knowledge for many people.
Regarding this, Hastur suggested letting Ariella give it a try.
Butler Neil quickly refused, saying that those rats crawling out of the sewers were far too filthy.
Ariella ate cat food specially prepared every day, and if it accidentally ate a rat, it might cause serious problems.
After thinking it over, Hastur agreed. There were certainly plenty of people nearby who had put out rat poison. If Ariella accidentally ate a poisoned rat, that would be very dangerous.
It would be better to wait a few more days, until Ariella learned not to eat the rats and only focus on hunting them.
Before heading out, Hastur left Ariella at home, instructed the maid to take good care of it, and then took a carriage to the Glaint residence.
Because Glaint was a beast tamer, Hastur didn't want Ariella in its current state to run into him, in case it suffered a stress reaction.
After arriving at Glaint's home, Glaint happily pulled Hastur along to the back garden, saying he wanted to show him the recent training results.
That little hunting dog, under Glaint's command, performed quite well in areas such as pouncing on prey and searching for traces of prey.
The only regret was that this wasn't a forest after all, so the displayed training results were discounted quite a bit.
Glaint said that they needed to specifically go near a forest for training in order to further train the little hunting dog.
"That's a very good suggestion. Let's head to the outskirts this Saturday," Hastur proposed.
"No problem. My Hogg has been looking forward to this day for a long time."
Hogg was the name of the golden retriever raised by Glaint.
"What do you think about inviting Miss Audrey as well?"
"Of course! It'll be just right to let my Hogg compete with Susie and see who's smarter." Glaint stroked the golden retriever Hogg's head, looking very confident.
Hastur glanced at him with an almost imperceptible look of pity.
If he remembered correctly, Susie should already be a Sequence 8, right? If Glaint's golden retriever were really compared against Susie, it definitely wouldn't be her opponent.
Thinking of this, Hastur smiled and told Glaint that he should try to arrange some fancy tricks, things like carrying a plate while walking upright, moving forward on wheels, jumping through flaming hoops, and so on.
He was very much looking forward to how Susie would respond then.
Before leaving Glaint's house, Hastur agreed with Glaint that he would be responsible for inviting Audrey.
This time, Hastur planned to invite Count Hall as well.
Ever since the last time he attended a gathering at Count Hall's house, he hadn't contacted Count Hall or Audrey again. This time was a very good opportunity.
If he could take advantage of this opportunity to bribe Count Hall a bit, his Briber potion would be almost fully digested.
For Hastur, there weren't many secrets to the Briber sequence, making it relatively easy and simple to act.
As for advancing to Sequence 6, the Baron of Corruption, there was already some direction. He only needed to wait for that Count Gill to die, then go compete with the Church of Steam for it.
Judging by the timing, it was about right.
....
At night, Hastur's invitation was delivered to Count Hall's residence.
The invitation was addressed by name to Audrey. Although Count Hall knew about it, he did not interfere.
In the room, after reading the contents of the invitation, Audrey looked again at Susie lying in the corner by the wall.
"Susie, Mr. Hastur is inviting us to go to a countryside estate for an outing. You're included in the invitation too."
Without lifting her head, Susie said, "I won't feel happy about that. On the contrary, I've always been a little afraid of that Mr. Hastur."
"Why? Mr. Hastur is a very nice person."
"I didn't say there was anything bad about him. I just simply feel that he's very dangerous."
Audrey thought for a moment and said, "Compared to Glaint, who do you think is more dangerous?"
"Glaint." After Audrey's guidance, Susie had now memorized quite a few people.
"This countryside estate trip also includes Glaint. He even said he wants to train a golden retriever that's smarter than you."
"Audrey, can I refuse?"
"No." The corners of Audrey's mouth curved into a smile.
The invitation mentioned that the golden retriever Hogg trained by Glaint possessed many excellent little skills, just like a circus performance.
It would be a good chance to briefly draw Susie's attention away from books, so she wouldn't absorb too much knowledge.
After chatting with Susie for a bit, Audrey stood up and left the room, heading to Count Hall's room.
The invitation indeed invited her to go to the countryside estate for leisure, but it also mentioned inviting Count Hall.
In Audrey's view, this was because Mr. Hastur had been frightened by the respected Count Hall last time, so he chose to communicate with Count Hall through her.
After Audrey explained her purpose, Count Hall said in surprise, "He wants to invite me to hunt in the countryside forest?"
"Yes. Baron Campbell also said that he has recently trained a fine hunting dog. Although it's still quite young, it's already a capable hunter."
"This Saturday, I might not necessarily have time."
"Then I'll help the busy Count Hall decline Baron Campbell's invitation."
"Forget it. I haven't gone hunting in a long time either. Some matters can wait until next week."
Audrey blinked and smiled. "You wouldn't happen to be worried about leaving your lovely daughter alone in the countryside, would you?"
"I do have that concern, even though you've already grown up."
"Then I'll trouble the respected Count Hall to keep being busy and worried."
In the end, Audrey left with a smile.
On her way back to her room, she ran into Hibbert. After some questioning, when he learned that the invitation did not include him, Hibbert immediately said that this Saturday he and Greg just happened to be going to a countryside estate as well.
Such a hastily fabricated excuse could never fool a Spectator.
But Audrey didn't expose it. After returning to her room, she began writing a reply.
Come to think of it, this was the first time she was properly writing a reply to Mr. Hastur. She needed to think carefully about it.