Creak. The door opened with a small noise and two people entered the door. From under the bed, Leo couldn't see them, but he was able to remember the scent of one of them. It was the same as the person that picked him up and brought him here. 

"So, I heard that you brought a new beast home today. Where is it?" One of them asked curiously and from the sound of her voice, Leo was able to say that it was a she. Not only was her voice very soft and pleasant to the ear, but it also contained a hint of authority, giving it even more charm.

"Uh, but I left it on the bed. Where is it?" The second person whom Leo recognized as his abductor was startled and rushed toward the bed. Her voice sounded like the voice of the first one only that it was more naive and filled with youthfulness.

'Siblings? Big sister and little sister? Or maybe mother and daughter?' Leo pondered.

"Hmm, maybe it understood what kind of person you are and chose to escape. I mean, the last beast you brought home ended as a stew and I was feeling like eating braised meat today." The Big sister chuckled as she watched her sister run around inside the room.

"Stop joking, Celia. Last time it was an accident….The stew was good tho…. No, what am I thinking about? And you, don't just stay there, help me." The young sister said angrily. Leo that was still under the bed and listening to their discussion wasn't very pleased by what he was hearing. Stew? Braised meat? Who was braised meat? Leo had to get a hold of himself to not blast the room apart. 

"Haha, an accident can still happen." Celia chuckled lightly.

"No, sister, this time I will take good care of her. Also, it is a cat.. a cat. How can you think about eating a cat?" The young sister retorted.

"Oh, so it was a cat, what a pity." Celia said, sounding very disappointed.

"Sis, what if it already escaped?" Maria asked, as she anxiously looked around the room.

When she saw her sister like that, Celia was a little speechless. 'Why are you just walking around? Can't you look under the bed? Where could it be hiding if not there.' 

 "Maria, she is still in the room. Try to use your brain and your nose a little. They are not there for decoration." Celia couldn't take it anymore and advised her little sister. 

"Ah yes, you are right, I should do that." Maria said as he excitedly started to sniff around. 

'Sigh.' 

"Yeah, I found it, it is under the bed." Maria shouted as she crouched and looked under the bed. However, she saw nothing. 

“It is not here.” Maria's ears drooped a little when he didn't see Leo. 

Seeing the sad look in Maria’s eyes, Celia reached towards her and stroked her head softly  “Don’t worry, your friend is there, okay. Let me.” 

Celia crouched beside the bed and when she looked under it, Leo was surprised to see her directly starting at him. “Petit, petit, petit. I know you are there. You certainly don’t understand me and are afraid, but you don’t need to worry. We mean you no harm. Can you come out?" Celia said as she smiled beautifully and beckoned to him.

'And another one in front of whom Shadow cloak is useless.'

“Yes, we won’t harm you, little guy. Please come out, ok.“ Maria quickly added as soon as Celia stopped talking.

'Hey, did they think I would trust them when they were talking about braising him just a moment ago?' Leo laughed at the two girls. Still, he wasn't as tense as before. Thanks to the fact that he was able to see them directly when they looked under the bed, he was able to confirm that they were both weaker than him, with Maria being at rank E+ and Celia at rank D. Also, Leo was able to make out their features, while the two were very beautiful, what attracted Leo's attention was the cat's ears on top of their heads.

'Uhm, demi-human. And they didn't seem to hold bad intentions.' Leo muttered as he stared at the magnificent cleavage of Celia who was still looking at him.

"Hey, come on. We won't do anything bad to you." Celia insisted.

'Anyway, it is of no use to overthink.' Leo muttered as he stepped out from under the bed. Now that he was able to see them more clearly, he could confirm that they were truly gorgeous. As soon as he was out, one of them, Maria, rushed toward him and took her in her embrace without saying anything. 

“I’m glad you finally came out.” Maria said as she started to stroke Leo fur.

“Yes, you don’t seem to be holding bad intentions toward me.” Leo answered. Yes, Leo was able to talk. Hum, no he was not exactly talking but only using the telepathy skill he just bought to convey his thoughts to them. Anyway, it was cheap, just 2 SP.

“Who’s talking??” startled by the sudden reply, Maria and even the smart looking Celia started looking around warily. They certainly didn’t expect Leo to be able to understand them and even less manage to reply.

“Oy, ladies calm down, it’s me.” Leo said as he struggled out of Maria's grasp and jumped on the bed.

“WOW, how is it possible??” the surprised Celia and Maria asked simultaneously.

"Is it your first time seeing a talking Tom?" Leo chuckled as he looked at the surprised expression of the two sisters.

"So it is really you. Are you a Spirit? Or maybe a Blessed?" Celia asked with shining eyes. Her voice seemed to be filled with expectation.

"Hum you should introduce yourself first if you want  to know about me." Leo said.

“We are sorry. So, I guess we should start by introducing ourselves.” Celia quickly replied as she now held more respect in her voice when speaking to Leo.

“I am Celia, a Catwoman and one of the leaders of the Redwater settlement. And this is Maria, my sister.” Celia said, giving a quick and straightforward introduction to Leo.

“I’m Leo, nice to meet you. So… “ Leo replied, but before he could continue, she was interrupted by Maria who seemed even more excited.

“Wow, you even have a name. You should be a Blessed. Celia, maybe he would be able to help us.” Maria said while Celia just nodded.

“Hum, hum, I can understand that for some reason you are excited but can you please not interrupt me,”  Leo asked Maria.

“I’m sorry.” Maria said as she started to look down.

“Don’t, I’m not angry but, I would like it if we could avoid jumping steps, ok.” Leo said to comfort Maria, but it was Celia who answered him.

“Don’t worry, she understands, you can continue with what you were saying.”

“Okay, if you say so. I was asking, why did you take me with you when you found me?”  While this question may sound weird, Leo had his reasons for asking it. While Leo wasn't the kind of person with trust issues, he was sure of one thing: people rarely or maybe never act without a good reason. So you couldn’t blame him for being cautious when someone popped out when he was in a moment of weakness to lend him a ‘helping hand’ that he didn’t really need.  

After a slightly awkward silence, Maria replied timidly, “ I honestly didn’t have a particular reason for saving you. I was in the forest when I heard the commotion created by the beast’s fight. I was going toward the place where the fight occurred when I saw you. I had always loved cats, so I couldn’t bear it when I saw you in pain. That’s why I went towards you and took you with me. I was just trying to help you.”

While Maria was speaking, Leo never stopped looking at her, and from her behavior, Leo knew she wasn’t trying to deceive him. While he wasn't completely convinced, he decided to believe her for the moment.  Shaking his head, Leo said. “Sigh, I am thankful that you tried to help me, but I hope you understand that it wasn’t a good idea to take an unknown beast home with you. It could become dangerous.”

Once again, it was Celia who replied to Leo. “ Don’t blame her. Since her childhood, she has always been a really kind girl, but she is also a little silly and doesn’t think too much before acting. Fortunately, until now, it didn’t give us any important trouble, and it even led you towards us.” Celia said as he looked at Maria with a gentle and loving gaze.

“Aish, I guess you are right. You should have suffered a lot to look after her. “ Leo replied, making Maria blush a little from embarrassment. 

“Anyway, now that all the doubt is cleared, I would like to know where exactly we are.” Leo asked

“Ok, I will tell you everything I know in that case.” Immediately after, Celia gave Leo an extensive lecture about the kind of place they were currently in. During Celia’s lecture, Leo stayed focused and didn't miss a single word that left her mouth. 

The forest he was currently in was called the Amarach forest. It was a forest mostly filled with savage beasts below rank C, with some beasts reaching that rank nonetheless. Also, it was a forest that covered nearly 1000 square miles, but it only represented a little part of the vast region, called the Wildlands, it was part of. Celia said she didn’t know much about the Wildlands, but from what she managed to learn, it was the biggest and most dangerous danger zone of the continent. 

Opposite the truly dangerous region of the wildlands, the Amarach forest was a relatively safe zone. It was situated in the outer circle and only contained low-ranked beasts. Apart from the savage beasts, the forest also had many humanoid monsters and beastkins settlements. The Redwater settlement was such a settlement. It was hidden in a valley surrounded by mountains. The entrance was well hidden and easily guarded, providing them a safe place for a long time. As for the settlement name, it came from the many ponds that were in the valley. Since during the night, the water in the pond turns red, they gave the name Redwater to the settlement. 

“What could threaten you when you had such a good settlement.” Leo inquired suddenly. Since the beginning of their discussion, Leo already noticed that something was troubling the two and they seemed to be hoping for his help. The moment he asked that question, the air in the room turned grave, and a troubled expression made its way on Maria, and Celia's faces. 

After a brief moment of silence, he finally received an answer from Maria this time. Listening again to their explanation, he was able quite easily to get a grasp of the situation and it was true that it was somewhat challenging, to say the least. 

The continent they were on was a continent mainly populated by humans. Beastkin or demi-human were a minority, with most of them living in settlements like Redwater, in mountains or forests far from the human city. It would have been good if it was the only issue; the real problem was that most Humans discriminated against demi-humans and considered demi-humans as 'inferior beings' no matter how human they may look. Since they were regarded as inferior beings, they were often hunted down and sold as slaves. Not to say that there was no human slave, but demi-human were the primary ‘goods' on the market since human slavery was normally forbidden.

Until now all this could be considered a ‘normal’ problem since thanks to how concealed their settlement was, they managed to escape the slavers for a long time. The only that got captured were those that were careless when going out. It was only recently that the trouble they faced started getting severe, starting with most of those that left the settlement never coming back. But things got worse when some day ago, a group of traffickers managed to find the settlement and raid it. They managed to kill all the traffickers. Unfortunately, many of their powerful warriors lost their lives during that attack because one of the traffickers was a rank C. Now there were only four rank D in the settlement, with Celia being one of them. And as if it wasn’t enough, they had found traces of orcs wandering near one of the settlement entrances, putting them even more on edge.

'Orcs.' Leo muttered as a light flashed through his eyes. He never forgot what he went through because of the orcs and planned to take revenge one day. It was only that till now, he was focused on growing his power and hadn't come across the orcs. But now...

“Sigh, you are truly in a difficult situation,” Leo said as he was already seeing how much all this was going to be a pain in the ass. Remembering that it was outside that Maria found him, he couldn’t help but look at her weirdly. 

“ What were you even doing outside alone?”

“ I argued with Celia and ran away.” Maria replied, obviously embarrassed. 

“Ah, seriously, I give up. But please don’t take any unnecessary risk like that again.”

“Hum, I won’t.”

“Good enough. Now that I know what is troubling you, can I know what that blessed and spirit thing you were talking about and how the fact that I am one can be of help to you?”