Sitting alone on the patio, Sol could only eat leisurely while thinking about what happened a few moments ago.
After Nefertiti left, ‘Sheherazade’ had expressed her desire to discuss with him about something important. He wasn’t sure what it would be about, but he could venture some guesses easily.
In the end, he had no reason to refuse and so decided to wait for her. It was then that she asked him to join her tonight on the roof where the two of them first met. Then, she stood up and left in a hurry.
Meow!
When he was about to finish a dish made out of meat he knew nothing about but surprisingly tasted like chicken, the low cry of a cat startled him as he remembered that there was a little one he forgot about.
Putting his attention on the cat that was crouching in the cage and looking longingly at the meat on his fork, Sol hesitated a short while before asking,
“Hungry?”
He had only asked this question out of habit, not expecting any kind of response. Which was why he was surprised when the cat nodded at his question.
“Heh.”
Of course, his surprise did not last for long. Since it was a magical beast, possessing a certain level of intelligence was not surprising. When magical beasts reached a certain level, obtaining a level of intelligence equal or even superior to a normal human was a given. White Sparrow was a perfect example.
“Do you want to get out?”
Now that he knew that the cat was intelligent, Sol felt a little uncomfortable letting it stay in the cage.
The cat looked at him curiously before tilting its head.
‘It seems like the level of its intelligence is still quite limited.’
Even so, he could feel a high concentration of mana in the body of the cat. This showed that this cat was quite a high-ranked magical beast.
“Whether you stay or run, the choice is yours.”
In the end, he decided to leave it to fate.
Sol shrugged and opened the cage. He honestly didn’t care if the cat stayed or left. In the first place, he wouldn’t have known about its existence if Nent had decided to not inform him.
Back at home, he already had two magical beasts – his nightmare horse, and wyvern. Although their level wasn’t high and they had relatively low intelligence, he liked them quite a bit.
Looking at the opening in the cage. The cat seemed to hesitate a little before it stood up and stretched in the haughty way only a cat seemed to be able to, then walked calmly out the cage and jumped onto Sol’s lap.
“I guess you choose to stay.”
All he received as an answer was a small meowl, bringing a smile to his face.
He tore a part of the meat and gave it to the cat that happily ate it. Once the plate was swiped clean, Sol closed his eyes and began to pet the cat on his lap.
The soft feeling on his hand coupled with the frigid air emanating from the cat gave him the urge to simply sleep and forget all his worries. It was a feeling of inner peace and calm he had not felt in a long while since coming to this place.
In the end, he sighed and looked down at the cat that was using his lap as a bed,
“Since you have decided to stay, what should I call you? Shiro?”
He laughed lightly as he said this name. Back when he had gotten his horse and wyvern, he had named them, Black and White.
He knew that it was pretty lame, but during those times, he still thought he was dreaming or having disillusions and treated the world as a game. He had named his two pets like this because he remembered how the main characters from JP, CN, and KR he read would name their beast companions. Name like calling a tiger, fat cat or simply using the main color as a name. But...
‘Since we are in an Egypt-like world, let’s go with a more interesting name.’
Gently placing his finger under the chin of the cat, he thought in silence for a little bit. Many names flashed in his mind.
In the end, and after making sure of the gender of the cat, he settled for one name,
“Sekhmet or for short Sek. This will be your name for now.”
In Egypt, Sekhmet was a rather powerful and deadly goddess with the head of a lioness. Her name literally meant ‘The one who is mighty.’ She even had monikers such as ‘The one before whom evil tremble’ or ‘lady of slaughter.’ The last moniker was given after she nearly exterminated humanity.
But this wasn’t the main reason he had chosen that name. For one, Sekhmet was the daughter of the sun god, Ra. As for Sol, his name could literally be translated as Sun.
Secondly and most importantly---giving the name of a fire-breathing lioness goddess to an ice-type cat was quite ironic and funny for him.
Sekhmet meowled a little as if to show that she liked the name and jumped out of his lap before beginning to rub herself against him.
Like this, Sol spent a calm afternoon with no particular worries.
A few hours later, long after the suns had vanished from the sky and were replaced by the large moons, Sol stood up on the roof of the palace and gazed at the horizon.
Sekhmet was laying down on his head and was clearly using it as some kind of bed, but he didn’t mind. Spoiling a cat was quite fun if he had to be honest.
Finally, he didn’t have to wait long before he was joined by ‘Sheherazade’. Sekhmet raised her head and took a look at her before ignoring her and closing her eyes again as if she was too lazy to care about the identity of the intruder.
"Hum. So you decided to accept the gift in the end?"
Sol, who was about to shrug, stopped himself in order to not disturb Sekhmet.
"It isn't like I am forced to listen to them."
Accepting a gift meant that you accepted to own a favor to the one who sent the gift. This debt could be small or big.
Even though he quite liked the cat, she wasn't enough to make Sol accept some ridiculous demands.
Nent should also know that. In the end, the small gift was just a way to soften the relationship between the two.
'Sheherazade' nodded at Sol's answer. She wasn't very well versed in politics. Even though the Kingdom of the Dead had a complete hierarchy with nobles and whatnot, there were no political struggles to speak of.
Low-level undead obeyed high-level ones and high-level ones obeyed even higher-level undead. It continued until reaching her father who had absolute and complete control over all of them. Such was the absolute hierarchy of the place for the dead.
Still, she understood that in normal politics, exchange of favors was one of the most basic actions.
This was one of the reasons she loved the underworld even though it was quite a boring place.
For Isis, the world of the dead was the perfect world. No pain, no suffering, no oppression nor discrimination. Everything was perfectly structured.
"I don't want to seem like I am in a hurry, but, why did you call me here?"
He already had an inkling, but he did not wish to be the first one to speak about this.
'Sheherazade', whose thoughts were beginning to wander, was startled out and blushed a little.
Taking a deep breath, she muttered,
"Sheherazade, come out."
A dim green light surrounded 'Sheherazade' for a short while before it vanished and was replaced by a fairly wearing green robe.
The moment that fairy appeared, the aura of 'Sheherazade' went through a startling change as a deep energy of death and life mixed to form a perfect cycle.
"You may have guessed it already, but I am not Sheherazade."
'No shit, Sherlock.'
"It might shock you, but—My name is Isis, daughter of Nephthys."
She introduced herself in a solemn way while observing Sol's expression.
Sol meanwhile was facing quite a difficult situation and his thoughts were flying at lightning speed.
He could already guess that this reveal was something important to Isis.
The problem was...he had already long guessed it.
What was he supposed to do now?
'Should I show a moderately shocked expression? Or give an exaggerated reaction? Or should I just keep a stoic face?'
This was quite the conundrum. In the end, he settled for the simplest answer.
"Well...I already knew about that."
At that moment, Sol wished he had a camera or a phone in his hands.
The expression Isis showed was a sight to behold, something he would never be able to forget.
