11 [The 9 Lives of the Cat]

When Naal opened her eyes, she was lying on hard, uncomfortable ground. Looking closer, she realized that it was stone, which was not really the best material to serve as a mattress.

The woman had a headache... She tried to sit down softly but lost her balance and fell back, realizing that her hands were tied behind her back. Memories of the situation she was in came back to her, and anguish came over her again.

"Where is Arun... And Astera?" She murmured to herself, getting up with difficulty. A hand rested on her shoulder, and she jumped, screaming in fear.

"Calm down, I'm here." Alden's voice echoed behind her, and she pulled away from him, glaring at him.

"You... You're a murderer! You killed Arun! You don't have the right to do what you do!" Naal's raging voice echoed on the board. She was alone, left to herself in the hands of this madman. How could she cope?

The boy sighed, approaching her every time she recoiled.

"A murderer ? Yes, this is not the first person I kill with my hands. To survive, you have to kill, miss. You don't learn that in the city, huh ?" Naal was terrified of the hatred she saw in the stranger's gaze.

"Why... Do you hate people of the city?" She asked in her trembling voice, trying to gather the little courage she had left to find a way out of it.

"It's a long story, to tell it now would be a little complicated. I suggest you wait until we get together in my village. But to give you the short version, I guess you were not aware of the existence of this place, or of other humans outside the city, is it?" Alden spoke, pointing to the immense savannah that lay beneath Naal's eyes.

Indeed, she would never have thought that there was such a place beyond the sea. She had always been told that there was only the city that had survived a series of natural disasters that occurred a few years ago.

"No, I didn't know." She confessed, lowering her eyes. Alden approached again and squatted in front of her.

"It's precisely for this reason that the people of the city are hated by all. Because they act as if we don't exist, and they let us die while they live in luxury and tranquility."

Alden got up and grabbed Naal by the hair, dragging her behind him on the steep ground. She tried to struggle to free herself but the boy's grip was too strong for her.

"However, from now on you will be different, Naal. You'll become my wife, as tradition wants." Announced proudly the stranger, whistling to the heavens.

It only took a few seconds for the huge black vulture to join him, landing on the plateau generating a great gust of wind.

"Come on, we still have some way to go. Don't worry, I won't kill you. I have to keep you healthy, otherwise I'll be a very bad husband." Alden placed his future wife on the back of Vikion, the large raptor who was his pet. They should be returned to the village in a few hours, just before night falls.

---

Further in the savannah, another person also reopened his eyes, breathing again when he should have been sleeping forever.

Arun gasped suddenly, coughing uncontrollably. His lungs were burning, and he felt like fire spread through all the veins in his body. The pain eventually subsides after a few minutes, leaving the veterinarian lying in the grass.

He was not... dead? The young man straightened hard and inspected the spot where the spear of the stranger had been planted. Yes, he was dead, he had not dreamed. The blood that stained his clothes was sufficient proof of the wound he had received.

When he lifted his top, he noticed that there was only one scar left, where a bloody hole should have been opened in him. How was it possible for him to be alive again? Had he been resurrected by the same force that made him reincarnate in this world?

"Arun, how are you?" Mili's voice rang in his head, surprising him a little. The vet got up and looked around him a little. Everyone was gone.

"Yes, now it's a little better... Is it thanks to you that I'm not dead?" Asked Arun. After all, he did not know much about his pet who seemed to know the system better than the vet himself...

"In a way. Do you remember the [affinity level] that the [pet pact] allowed you to increase with Astera?" The veterinarian remembered the function he had heard from when he left the world of pets. He had not had time to ask Mili what it really was for...

"Yes I remember." Replied the young man, waiting for more explanations.

"Since I'm your pet, the [affinity level] you have with me is already at its peak. Thanks to the system, the pets with whom you have the [affinity level] at its maximum give you a power that can serve you in some cases."

It was still not clear, but Arun was beginning to understand the usefulness of this new function. The [pet pact] was therefore used to increase the [affinity level] to acquire new powers.

"Since I am a cat, the power you enjoy through our [affinity level] is called [The 9 Lives of the Cat]. You are dead, Arun, but thanks to this ability, you have been able to resurrect for this time." Mili declared, finishing his explanations. Arun sighed in relief and smiled all alone.

"I'm really lucky to have you!" The young man said. He would never have thought that such a skill existed. This system was finally even more practical than he had imagined...

"However, be careful, you can not just put yourself in danger knowing that you are going to be resurrected. I don't know why, but it might not work twice, although my skill is called 'the 9 lives of the cat'." Mili warned him. He did not want his owner to die unnecessarily.

"Yes, anyway, I don't really want to feel this pain a second time... But I'll have to help Naal, I can't leave her like this." Arun was determined to save his customer, who was in trouble by his fault. He hoped that she did not suffer too much... And especially that Alden did not reserve her the same fate as him, even if he had said that he wanted to make her his wife.

"Just be careful, I have a bad feeling. But I won't stop you from going there." The little cat warned again, worried about the veterinarian's health.

"It'll be fine." Answered Arun seriously, inspecting the landscape around.

Astera was no longer there... Alden was gone on the back of a bird, so the first thing to do was probably to find the raptor. Venturing into the tall grass of the savannah, Arun began searching for the giant black vulture hoping to find it quickly. There was not a second to lose.