When he realized that it was Feliria his stiff muscles relaxed as he sighed in relief.

Feliria also noticed that it was him and as a sign of joy her tail started to wag.

Unfortunately, this didn’t stop her from drooling on him.

“W-Wait, don’t drool on me! N-no!”

Not enjoying this kind of play he struggles more. But she didn’t let him as she stared at the kitty in his pocket. Baring her fangs at her.

Kitty also didn’t hesitate to bare her still non-existent teeth as she hissed.

“Stop drooling, goddammit! You stupid mutt!”

At his persistent yelling, she turned her attention to him as she frowned.

“Not a mutt!”

‘Not this again!’

He could only roll his eyes at this as she was once again implying how much of a wolf she was.

Which she isn’t. Sera told him she is a freaking werewolf.

“If you are not a mutt then why are you acting like one? Wolves are graceful creatures full of majesty! Is drooling at your friend a graceful thing to do?!”

The immediate scolding got her dazed as she looked at him in confusion.

That gave him the opportunity to get her off him.

Of course, as gently as possible since it was not her who would get hurt in that case.

“Friend? You are a friend?”

“Hm?”

He wanted to wipe his face but her question stumped him a little.

He said the word ‘friend’ as a way to emotionally manipulate despite how horrible it sounds.

An entity that can squash you with bare hands is the only way to tame them. At least in his case.

However, when she asked him this question in this manner, he felt a little pang of a quilt. In the end, Feliria was impaired with intelligence, and didn’t seem to mean him harm.

Sera told him that she was different when closer to her cycle but he doesn’t know her in that way. He only sees a girl with rampant instincts.

Despite that, she didn’t hurt him too much. In fact, she didn’t draw even a drop of blood even when handling him like a child.

The only bad trait he saw in her was hate towards the kitty.

But again, it is just instinct. Dogs and cats fight all the time.  And dogs have tamed wolves.

When he thought of this his expression softened a little.

He just really hopes this girl isn’t playing with him. If she does then he will really lose his trust in people.

If not, then… He will just act nicer to her. He never really was a confrontational person. It is just that an environment like this made him automatically defensive as a way to cope with the situation...

“Yeah, a friend. You know what a friend is right?”

“Friend is a friend.”

When she said this she tilted her head and her ears fluttered a little.

“Friend is someone you know and spend time with. I spend time with you so I am your friend. Do you understand?”

“What difference? I know a lot. I spend a lot. I friend with everyone?”

What an innocent question that made him feel so bad.

“Friends do not hurt each other and instead help each other when in need. They give each other nicknames and have fun.”

“Hmm…”

She started to think very hard. As she pondered he used his sleeve to wipe the drool off.

“We can't be friends together.”

“Hm? How come?”

With a scrunched face she again bared her fangs. He quickly covered the kitty as he thought that she was once again after her but what he didn’t expect she told him.

“Smell funny.”

“M-me?”

He would understand if she told him this yesterday but now?

If someone tells you smells despite washing yourself properly the feeling is indescribable.

As he felt really bad she added a few other words.

“Smells like evil. Lots of. Originally I hunt.”

She added as she was baring her teeth again.

‘Oh, so she found me by smell~ Nay! Why the heck?!’

“Hey,” How can I smell evil?! I didn’t do anything wrong! Isn’t this some kind of mistake?!”

“No.”

The sudden flip of personality shocked him. Just before he felt he could be friends with her yet now he feels she is in danger again.

Yet she didn’t attack him. She seemed to be hesitating.

‘She is really good girl…’

With the given opportunity, he planned to persuade her as she cornered him to the wall.

But as he bumped into it, the painting that hung on the wall fell down.

He didn’t pay it any attention as he had danger before his eyes but just as the painting fell the black stains started to appear on the beautiful painting of the lake.

“You Bastard! How Dare You To Not Listen To My Instructions?!”

At that moment, the falling painting hit his shoulder allowing it to touch him.

The face of the monster appeared and with a furious roar used tendrils of black liquid to wrap around him.

“Ah?! What is this?!”

Shock appeared all over his face as he heard the yell of the monster.

For a second, he didn’t understand what was happening as everything was just too quick for him to process.

But one glance at the painting which was now glued on his shoulder was enough for him to guess what that was.

“Holy fuck, get off!”

Unfortunately, the monster tightened the tendrils over him even more as he felt his bones creaking under the pressure.

“Do You Think You Can Just Leave After Making A Fool Out Of Me?!”

“Ugh!”

He slammed the painting over the wall but it didn’t help.

Although he acted like he was too weak to destroy the painting before, he wasn’t aware that he was speaking the truth.

The frame itself was made out of extremely hard Ironwood. There was no way a human like him could break it.

His eyes showed panic as he didn’t know what to do. He could muster up some fight against some physical beings but this was completely out of his expertise as a human civilian!

Soon, the black tendrils got even to his head and chest trying and starting to seep into his skin.

Seeing that he was on the verge of being squashed, Feliria who saw this narrowed her eyes at the thing that was smelling in the same way.

Firstly, she was perplexed as to why the human who smelled normally the day before smelled like this now.

She didn’t put much thought into it but now she understood.

*Growl*

She bared her fangs in anger and tensed up her leg muscles.

With one powerful jump she fell at the struggling man and once again knocked him down with her pure strength.

Once he was immobilized she held the painting with one of her hands and tried to pry it off without success. Then she chose a more drastic solution as she used the claws.

Then, with one swing she separated the painting with his shoulder.

“Damn You, You Dumb Bitch!”

The monster in the painting was furious when she detached them. However, her eyes showed an even higher level of hatred. It looked like they had some kind of past together.

*Growl*

“Not a Dog.”

“HaHaHa, Fucking Bitch Thinking She Is Something Different?”

The monster got so angry that it started to laugh hysterically as Feliria could only watch.

If she touched the painting the monster could once again attack her.

Looking at her arm that completely blackened she frowned.

“I don’t know about her but I am pretty sure that someone like you who is caged in the painting is more reminiscent of a dog than anything else.”

Suddenly, a voice resounded beside her as the young man got up from the ground and got closer.

“Hah? You Bastar-”

“Shut the fuck up, I don’t care.”

With that, he turned around and intended to leave.

Before that, he turned to Feliria and grabbed her.

“Let’s go Fel.”

This way they left the corridor with the hysterical monster sealed in the painting.

“Aaaargh!!!!”

……..

“Fel?”

As they got farther until they stopped to hear the screams of the painting monster she asked him a question.

“Well, the name ‘Feliria’ is too long and it is bothering to say that every time.”

“Is Fel a nickname?”

With curiosity, she asked this.

“Well, yeah, you can take it that way.”

“So we friends still? You not angry?”

When she asked again her ears were bent down and her tail was between her legs as she looked down in shame.

‘Oh, this.’

“Yeah, I am angry. I will forgive you. You saved me, after all”

“Forgive?”

“Forgive.”

He nodded at this and her expression extremely brightened.

“Friend!”

She jumped at him again and prepared to lick his face.

“Hell no! Stop it! No! P-please, Fel. I have some digni-”

In the end, he couldn’t escape her attack…

……..

After a few minutes, he finally could get her off him. He breathed heavily as he looked at the girl with a swinging tail with a grudge.

‘This is definitively sexual harassment, you stupid mutt.’

Just as he wiped himself again he heard meowing.

*Meow*

At that moment, his eyes widened in horror.

“Oh, kitty!”

He quickly got it out of his pocket and checked it out. He completely forgot about it in the heat of the situation and since it didn’t make noise after he didn’t remember.

“Hm?”

But after checking her out, he noticed that she was completely fine.

In truth, the place on the clothes where she was was the only place that wasn’t tainted by that monster on his chest. There was a circle around his pocket as if something was protecting him from there.

It was already suspicious before that she was completely fine no matter what happened around her. But this was clear evidence.

‘Don’t want to believe that that is just a trait of spirits. This cat is definitely special. I guess she wasn’t taken as a candidate just for show, huh.’

“Little kitty is special, hehe.”

He couldn’t help but cuddle her with this knowledge.

*Growl*

However, a jealous companion didn’t like it.

“Oh come on.”

And so he had to pat Fel too.

She closed her eyes as she wagged her tail again. Dust was flying everywhere so he had to have closed his eyes for a moment.

‘Damn it, I will get asthma at this poin-’

“Ouch.”

There was pain in his hand.

When he looked at it he noticed that there were still some dark droplets in it.

He thought that only his clothes were stained but he didn’t notice this.

When he stopped patting Fel opened her with discontent but seeing his frowning face she didn’t speak.

He then checked the kitty again if she was really fine and then asked Fel.

“Do you feel some kind of discomfort? Pain? When that black thing touched me it left this stain on me and it hurts.”

He then showed her hand at which she bared her fangs.

For a moment, he thought she would turn hostile again but a second after she stopped.

During that time he looked at her body for any of those stains. And he found one.

Right on one of her hands and claws with which she attacked and made contact with it.

However, he didn’t know what to do with it. There was no information.

“Fel, you said this smells like some evil, right? Do you know exactly what it is?”

When he asked this Fel seemed angry as she nodded.

“Evil. Evil entity sealed by Housekeeper.”

‘Ohh. So it isn't a tenant if I understand correctly? Interesting. How refreshing to know that not only tenants but also killing monsters are in this place!’

Knowing that this painting monster wasn’t a tenant wasn’t really a relief in his mind.

It means that some beings were even more opposed to him becoming a Housekeeper since they were literally prisoners here.

“What kind of entity?”

But despite knowing that his curiosity made him ask more about it.

“Bad dream. Called Black Heart.”

‘Hmm?’

“Do you mean nightmare?”

“Bad dream.”

She nodded at his suggestion.

“What does that mean?”

“That it is bad?”

“...”

As he asked her he knew that he won’t be able to get more information out of her so he stopped.

‘Hmm… I can think of it later. For now, I need to find out how to get rid of these stains. It starts to hurt.”

“Fel, what do we do with this black thingy?”

He waved with hand at Fel to emphasize it.

“Wait until it heals or bite off the stained parts.”

“...”

He didn’t know what to feel at the moment. Is she for real? Poor girl…

‘What to do… It seems to sleep deeply in my arm… She said it was evil… Wait!’

Suddenly inspiration came. He took off the waterskin from his belt and opened it.

The Gardener said to him that the pond was sacred. That means the water is sacred.

Since this thing is evil and this water is sacred there should be some reaction, shouldn't there be?

He wasn’t sure. Just because it is sacred it doesn’t need to work the way he hopes.

After all, his inspiration came from holy water. Even though he is an atheist…

Or is he still? Now he knows something like this exists. There is a big chance that some kind of gods exist too.

‘Wait, I am getting distracted!’

So far, the water was beneficial to him so he chose to believe in it. However, he will use only a little water.

“Just a drop…”

And so, he spilled a little of the water on the hand that was stained.

*Sizzle*

“Agh!”

“What are you doing?!”

The arm started to sizzle and smoke came out of it.

He screamed in surprise but was relieved when he didn’t notice any pain or discomfort.

Instead, he confirmed Fel who was jumping around yelling.

“Cam down. I was just surprised. Nothing is wrong.”

Then, he spilled more of the water on top of his hand and even on his clothes.

He would be rather wet than be in that thing and risk it doing any more harm than it already did.

However, that didn’t please kitty who was still with him.

*Meow*

For the first time, it got farther from him of its own accord. He felt his hurt crushed…

“Sorry kitty. It is necessary…”

Once he was done he turned to Fel to help her get rid of it too but…

*Growl*

“...”

‘You too?!’

He sighed and started to persuade her. But she was stubborn and was shaking her head violently.

With narrowed eyes, he thought about how to make her submit.

“Don’t you remember saying to me that I smelled funny?”

So he started with a small detour.

“Yes? Smell with evil.”

When she nodded at it he smiled.

“You even attacked me for it. Now that I got rid of the thing that caused the smell I shouldn’t smell anymore, right?”

“Yes.”

Once again she nodded.

“But you are now stained too which means you are the one who smells funny. Full of evil~”

“:..”

And so for the first time, the young man won a fight against the beast as he made sure every black stain from her disappeared…

“Don’t resist!”

“N-nooo!”

……..

Once they were done he stared at two creatures with resentful gazes.

‘They really dislike baths, huh?’

He wasted quite a lot of water as he had to wrestle with Fel.

Fortunately, she didn’t use her real strength. Otherwise, she would just tear off his head.

But just as he was about to relax he realized his original reason why he even stepped out of his room.

“Shit!”

He didn’t know how much time passed but he could imagine that pink head standing there waiting for him the entire day with confused expressions…

“Fel, can you take me to the living room? I need to do something there.”

“Sure. Let’s go.”

But just as she said that she made a 180° turn and went back from where they came from.

“Where are you going?”

He asked despite already knowing the answer.

“To the living room.”

“...”

So you want to tell me we went the wrong way the entire time and now we need to pass that Black Heart or whatever again?!

But he could only obediently turn with her and follow her. This time, however, she didn’t run so fast and he could easily catch up.

‘Different treatment, huh.’

……..

In the end, they really had to pass through the same place the painting was.

Despite the monster’s ability to move from painting to painting, it was still there unmoved as if contemplating its sorry-ass life.

Nevertheless, when it noticed the intruders it planned to turn into the opposite sex of their race trying to seduce them with charm. That’s how it always is.

When the painting is broken while it is within it gets free. However, that happened just a few times and it was soon caught. So most often it just eats the prey.

But this time its luck was bad. Not only did the prey want to outsmart it, but it also got scott-free from it! Furthermore, it got the protection from that bitch dog who helped to seal it. Twice!

Fortunately, luck was with it as on the same day new prey came.

It felt like the reward for the suffering finally came and so it scanned to turn into their most attractive partner possible.

But when it realized who it was, the body it started forming within the painting collapsed back into a tangle of black slime.

“Y-you!”

It was furious. Did they come to make fun of it?

“Shut it, we are passing~”

Fel didn’t even pay attention to it and ran past it.

He also didn’t stop.

However, on the way, he got a bit closer and opened the waterskin.

“Surprise~”

“What are you- Aaaagh!!!”