The moment Kal'tsit saw her room had been converted into a "cat room," she felt she could no longer suppress the urge to strangle that bastard Doctor.
If it weren't for the fact that there was a child beside her and she didn't want to say anything with a negative influence, she would have let out a few choice Kazdel curses right now to vent and restore some semblance of sanity.
"Dr. Kal'tsit... are you alright?"
Amiya looked at Kal'tsit, who seemed to be surrounded by a swirling black aura. With three parts worry, seven parts nervousness, and ninety parts sheer confusion, she questioned this "blackened" big cat.
At that exact moment, a cucumber fell because the string holding it snapped, landing right in front of Kal'tsit.
Kal'tsit instinctively wanted to leap backward, but she only leaned back slightly before suppressing her physiological instincts.
Was this a joke? Did that idiot Doctor think she had lived all these years for nothing? Did the Doctor really think she was still that young Kal'tsit who would lose to a mere reflex?
Having gone through years of tempering, she had long ago overcome the special reactions her body had to items like cucumbers or catnip. She would no longer be lured by instinct. She looked at the cucumber on the ground as if seeing the Doctor's face; she raised her foot and crushed it.
Only then did she hear Amiya's nervous voice. Kal'tsit regained her usual indifferent expression and looked at her.
"I'm fine. I just remembered a particularly annoying fellow and felt a bit irritable. Don't worry."
Kal'tsit comforted Amiya in her usual tone, but how could this exceptionally intuitive little rabbit not know the situation? Amiya could only nod to show she understood.
"Was your room also turned into this ghostly mess by the Doctor?"
Kal'tsit thought of how Amiya hadn't gone back to her own room to rest, but instead huddled in Kal'tsit's office. The fire in her heart flared up a few more degrees.
Was there no one to stop that person when they lost control? In the past, when the Doctor lost Sanity, it was just simple pranks. How did it seem like the Doctor was getting crazier and crazier?
"It didn't change much. The Doctor just filled my room with carrots and cabbages, muttering about how the 'little rabbit' is so thin and needs to eat more vegetables, otherwise the New Year won't be good..."
As Amiya spoke, a joyful smile appeared on her face. Recalling the scene of the Doctor stroking her head and worrying about her weight, it seemed the Doctor really cared about her.
However, the well-traveled Kal'tsit heard the problem in those words. Why did that sound less like worry about health and more like... a hidden intent to harvest? Why did every word seem to drip with a hint of killing intent (for a feast?)?
Looking at the secretly happy Amiya, Kal'tsit decided not to break the beautiful image in the girl's heart. Some things she would naturally understand once she was older.
"You should stay in my office for now. I'll go see how Theresa and the Doctor are doing, then come back and find a way to clean up your room."
Kal'tsit looked at the room packed to the brim with carrots and cabbage, wondering where the Doctor had even found so many vegetables. This wasn't a living space; it was a warehouse. She didn't know how Amiya had survived this period. Even if Theresa wanted to help, she didn't have the time. It was likely Warfarin who had taken the time to look after her.
Kal'tsit, who had no children of her own but suffered the hardships of childcare, had a gaze filled with helplessness. Among this bunch of lively people, it was actually her—the one with the coldest personality—who ended up babysitting. She truly worried about how the child would turn out.
After dropping Amiya off at the office, Kal'tsit went straight to the Doctor's office. Since that person hadn't been wreaking havoc across all of Babel, they should be sober now, right?
With this expectation, Kal'tsit pushed open the door she rarely entered. She didn't like meeting the Doctor here; usually, if there was business, the Doctor came to find her.
She pushed the door open and was surprised to find Theresa and Warfarin inside. The two of them were looking at the clearly abnormal Doctor, turning toward the door with awkward expressions as she entered.
As for the Doctor? At that moment, she was holding up a small white Feline, scrutinizing it carefully as if discovering something extraordinary.
"Kal'tsit, you're back. I thought you'd rest a bit first; I was planning to go find you in a while," Theresa said with a smile. Although her voice was steady, her pale face showed she hadn't rested much.
More importantly, Kal'tsit noticed that the Originium crystals protruding from Theresa's side seemed to have increased, and each crystal had grown visibly larger. It seemed that while she was away, Theresa had overused her Originium Arts! Even with a staff to help alleviate the condition, her Oripathy had worsened.
"You used your Arts on others again? Didn't I say to use them as little as possible before I returned?"
Kal'tsit was no longer calm; her mood became anxious. Even her words to Theresa lost their usual politeness and grace. She was truly angry. As a doctor, having a patient who completely ignores medical advice and does the exact opposite is infuriating. For a normal patient, Kal'tsit would have just said "you're beyond help, wait for death." But this was Theresa; she couldn't just ignore her.
"There was no choice. Theresis launched several general offensives with his remaining troops. It seems he wanted to inflict losses even if he couldn't crush us," Theresa shook her head. After her brother's failure in the Laterano campaign, his morale and manpower had suffered heavy losses, leaving his front-line troops stretched thin.
Thus, he gathered his soldiers for wave after wave of impact. Relying on a massive numerical advantage, Babel had suffered a certain degree of loss. Although the Doctor relied on her talent to block Theresis's tide-like advance, the Doctor's own condition was not optimistic. Under the strain of constant command, the Doctor's Sanity had crumbled.
Before losing Sanity, the Doctor had left an important message for Theresa—words written with every ounce of her strength.
The next battle will be the last for a short time. After the battle, Theresis will also need time to recuperate. No matter how many people are sacrificed, we must hold!
Seeing the handwriting on the Doctor's desk—twisted and distorted by pain—Theresa had decided to personally take the battlefield to end the conflict. Yes, before her mind went, the Doctor, fearing she would tear paper to shreds, had used her pen to carve the final message directly into the desk, just in case.
"You lot... not one of you does anything that lets a person worry less!"
Hearing Theresa's account, Kal'tsit understood the crises Babel had faced during her absence. If she had been there, she could have formulated a Sanity Potion for the Doctor or joined the battle herself to lighten their burden.
At this point, the anger in Kal'tsit's heart died down. she looked at the Doctor, who was crouching on the floor, holding the Feline and staring at it. The Doctor seemed to like calling this creature a "cat."[1] Watching the greatest strategist of Babel reduced to this state by exhaustion, she didn't know what to say.
She also understood why Warfarin, who took over the medical department, was here. If no one watched the Doctor and other operators found her in this state, there was no telling what would happen.
"How long has she been like this?" Kal'tsit asked.
"It's been three days since she last briefly regained her Sanity! Usually, she just needs a nap, but this time she hasn't recovered. I haven't even dared to sleep," Warfarin said, her pale face marked by faint dark circles. Kal'tsit had thought they were bruises from the Doctor; turns out they were from lack of sleep.
"Three days? Why so long? What's wrong with her?"
Kal'tsit crouched down to eye level with the Doctor in the corner. She intended to lift the Doctor's hood to check the situation.
"Kal'tsit! What's wrong with you? How did you turn into this? Wake up! I am your dearest Mon3tr!"
With that, the Doctor tried to burrow into the spine of the terrified white Feline. The other two quickly pinned her down. Surprisingly, the Doctor's strength was quite high; the two of them almost couldn't hold her back.
Kal'tsit stood there, completely dazed, watching the raving Doctor. For a moment, she had no words.
[1] The people of Terra usually calls them, "Cloudbeasts".