[10.1] Stray Cats Want Steak!

I opened my eyes to see Zephyr peering down at me. He jumped away in fright, "I didn't hit you! That was someone else!!"

I sat up from the bed with dull eyes. My mind was still hazy from the previous memory.

Zephyr noticed something was off with me and frowned, "Oi… What happened?"

I rubbed my head as I thought back, "I just remembered something."

He tilted his head, "Isn't that a good thing?"

Is it?

I shrugged, "I remembered my parents, but then the memory changed. I think it was the memory of the original owner. There was a woman..."

"What did she look like?"

"She had…" I trailed off and furrowed my brow, "She…"

Zephyr raised an eyebrow, "She what?"

I scratched my head in confusion, "I... I don't remember what I was talking about."

His face twitched, "You said there was a woman?"

I met his eyes, "I did?"

He frowned, "You don't remember what you were talking about just now?"

I shook my head, "I remember. It was about a memory concerning my real parents."

"And?"

I furrowed my brow, "And?"

"You don't remember the unknown woman?"

The unknown woman? I rubbed my head. I could almost feel as if the memory was still there, but I couldn't retrieve it. The harder I tried to remember, the more I felt like it was slipping away from me.

Finally, I let out a sigh. "I can't remember."

Zephyr was in a daze as he rubbed his chin, "Odd…"

I shrugged and laid back down on the bed. I let out a sigh, "I'm suddenly craving lemon tarts…"

Zephyr let out a huff, "You're the strangest human I've met…. And I've met a lot of humans."

I jumped out of bed ignoring him. I waved my wand to clean myself up before looking around with a frown. I rubbed my stomach, "I'm hungry."

I descended all the stairs with Zephyr in tow. I went to the kitchen and looked through all the cupboards. Everything was completely empty. I paused. Why is there no food in any of these cupboards!?

Zephyr jumped up to see into the cupboards and frowned, "There's no food…"

I clicked my tongue, "I'm starting to wonder how that snowman survived like this. He doesn't clean and he doesn't even have food. How is he not dead!?"

Zephyr's eyes glistened, "Maybe he is immortal!"

I rolled my eyes and walked to the stairs. I stopped at the bottom and looked up as I recalled the many flights of steps it would take to get to the top. There's no way I'm climbing all those steps.

I pulled out my wand and waved it. Suddenly, a block of ice formed at my feet and lifted me in the air. It glided along the stairs without me ever having to lift a foot.

I smiled triumphantly, "There. I have invented the elevator."

Or should I call it an ice-levator?

Heh. I'm hilarious.

I flicked my hair with a haughty smile, "I should make sure to get a patent."

"W-Wait for me!" Zephyr scrambled after me as soon as he realized he was being left behind. His foot slipped on the ice left behind by my elevator causing him to slip backward, "AH!"

His head was smacked face-first onto the hard floor, rendering him unconscious. I ignored him and continued up. I hesitated when I passed through the Headmasters' work area. I frowned at the mess, "A dirty work area isn't good for the mind."

I waved my wand again. The papers and boxes all lifted into the air and sorted themselves out. I nodded with pride when I noticed it was now clean. I looked back ahead and started lifting the ice-levator back up the stairs. When I got to the top, I stepped off and walked to the Headmaster's room. His door was open and he was clearly deep in thought as he stared at a new plant. He hadn't even noticed me enter.

I cleared my throat, "Ehem."

He flinched and looked at me as if he was surprised to see me. Then, as if he remembered that he now had someone else living with him, he moved away from the plant and looked at me with a serious expression. "Yes?"

"I'm hungry."

"Oh…"

We stood there in silence before I frowned in irritation, "I said that I'm hungry."

"Right!" He finally caught on, "Then we should eat something…. What do you eat? Food?"

I stared at him incredulously, "I'm human, aren't I? What else would I eat?"

He coughed, "Yes of course… Let's go downstairs and see what there is."

I don't really think there is anything down there, but it would be interesting to see his reaction when he realizes he adopted a child when he had no food in the cupboards.

As we walked back to the stairway, he paused when he noticed the trail of ice leading up the stairs. He raised an eyebrow, "What's this?"

"Oh…" I frowned as I realized I must have left behind an ice trail, "That's from my ice-levator."

"You're… What?"

"Ice-levator."

"..."

He stared at me silently as I stared back. Finally, he muttered, "And that is?"

"It's how I got up these stairs. I didn't want to walk up, so I just stood on an ice chunk and used magic to climb for me. No energy was needed."

Except for the spell, I guess.

He glanced at my legs, "Is there something wrong with your feet?"

I looked back at him innocently, "No. Why?"

His face twitched, "Why didn't you climb the stairs normally?"

I made a face, "Too much work."

His expression turned cold, but I ignored it. He waved his wand and a huge ball of fire shot down the steps, melting and evaporating the ice.

My eyes nearly fell out of my head.

...Now I understand how the plant was mysteriously set on fire.

He walked down the stairs and I followed behind him. Part of the railing was on fire as we passed it. He casually reached his hand out and summoned a handful of snow to put out the fire. As he kept walking, I felt my face twitch at his nonchalant nature.

We walked past his work area which was now clean. He paused as he stared at it, "...Why is this clean?"

"Because I cleaned it?"

"...With magic?"

I rolled my eyes, "What else? Surely you don't expect me to clean with my hands."

The corner of his lips twitched, "Let me guess... Too much effort?"

I nodded quickly, "Exactly! You understand!"

I strolled past him with a smug smile. He watched as I walked back to the bottom floor. The Headmaster froze when he saw Zephyr laying on the ground, unconscious from hitting his head after he slid on the ice. The Headmaster's eyes narrowed, "...This little boy is your familiar?"

"Yup! That's my cat." I kicked his sides in an attempt to wake him up, "Oi. Get up. We are getting food."

Zephyr sat up immediately, "Food?!"

The Headmaster sighed and moved to the cupboard. He opened up each one before freezing.

Each one was empty.

One even had cobwebs.

I snickered as he turned to me with a dark expression. He spoke indifferently, "Shall we go out to a restaurant?"

Zephyr and my eyes twinkled as we shouted simultaneously, "STEAK!"

We both turned to each other surprised by our timing. The Headmaster's expression twitched, "There is a good steak restaurant nearby. We can walk there."

I started pulling on him, "Then what are we waiting for?!"

Zephyr rushed out the door screaming. He didn't even wait for us as he ran to the left, "Foooood!!!!"

The Headmaster and I both watched him with a frown. The Headmaster spoke, "It's the other way."

Zephyr stopped in his tracks abruptly.

Then he flipped around and started running the other way, "FOOD!"

The Headmaster blinked, "...Am I feeding stray cats now?"

I rushed after Zephyr, "Wait for me!!!"

The Headmaster frowned as he quickened his pace to keep up with us. Zephyr and I both arrived at the restaurant before him and pushed our faces against the glass. We both drooled as we looked inside and saw the expensive meals and decorations.

A waiter noticed us and came over to shoo us away, "Go on! Only paying customers are allowed here!"

I stomped my foot proudly, "We are paying customers! Now fetch me your highest quality steak! Medium rare!"

Zephyr jumped up and down, "I want mine so rare it's still mooing!"

He broke out into mad laughter, "I want to drink the blood!"

I made a disgusted face, "Ew. Zephyr. That's gross."

He stopped laughing, "...But it's delicious."

"Okay, but you don't go around shouting about drinking blood. It's weird."

"...Have you tried it?"

"...Maybe."

He grinned, "It's good, right?"

I coughed awkwardly and scratched my cheek, "It does have a lot of flavor…"

Passerbys stopped and began to whisper to each other. The waiter was furious we were now ignoring her. She shouted over our conversation, "I said go away! We don't serve your kind here!"

I flinched then turned to her with a frown, "...Our kind?"

Zephyr whispered to me, "Did she find out I was a demon?!"

The waiter didn't hear him, "Yes! Your kind!"

I looked at her, "And what kind is that?"

She looked me up and down with a disgusted look, "Poor."