Fluffy Murderer

"Come on, everyone! The food is ready!"

After saying that, the children ran towards the dining room and took their seats. With a smile, Sasha one by one filled each of their bowl with the beef stew that had just been cooked. She kept her eyes on those who already had their bowl filled, making sure that they didn't start before others.

"Alright. Now that everyone has their…"

"Fou!"

The attention of the nun and the children went towards the new resident of the orphanage. The little critter that has become the mascot of the institution.

"Big Sis, you forgot Fou's portion!" One of the children said as he pointed at the animal.

"Foufou!" The animal seemed to agree with the statement.

"Ahaha, sorry about that, Fou," Sasha said as she prepared the food for him. "Here you go."

"Kyu~" He made a face that indicated he was happy.

"Now that everyone has their bowl filled, let's start with praying to the Chief God for her blessing that allows us to eat today."

Everyone began their pray, including surprisingly Fou. Though to be fair, he simply closed his eyes and lowered his head, likely simply respecting the tradition of the orphanage.

As she and the children ate their meal, Sasha couldn't help but stare at the white-furred animal. She had been looking at every available record regarding rare animals, yet none of them matched the physical appearance of Fou. The nun had even wondered if he was an animal from the Demon Realm, but that was very unlikely; Fou didn't emit anything to indicate that.

In any case, his arrival had been a boon for the orphanage. Some of the children wanted to adopt a stray cat or dog that they found on the street. However, because some were allergic to the animals, she had to ban them. Fou didn't cause any issue with the allergic kids and was thus allowed to live with them.

He was a pet that everyone could play with.

"Ah, so tiring…"

Sasha was currently lying on the sofa. After they were done eating, it was up to her and some of the children to take care of the dishes. That, along with navigating through a crowded market to buy the ingredients, caused her body to become sore in the end.

"Fou!"

Before she could do anything, the white-furred animal jumped into her. To be more precise, into her breasts.

"Ah, Fou!" The nun exclaimed as he kneaded her chest. "Stop! It hurts!"

One thing that she noticed after taking care of him for several days was that the critter loved soft things. There was a small incident where a child lost his favorite pillow. After searching through the whole building, it was discovered in the closet, being used by Fou as a bed.

Apparently, he considered a woman's breasts to be a suitable place to sleep.

"I am back!"

Sasha turned her head towards the door – slowly to make sure that she didn't disturb Fou – and saw that it was Lucian who entered the building. She noticed that the blonde was looking at the animal, likely wanting to pet him. Because he was asleep, however, the younger hero reined in her temptation.

"Welcome back, Lucian." The nun greeted her. "Did something happen today?"

"Is it that obvious?" She asked back.

"It's only when something important is about to happen that you return here."

"Hey, that's not true! I frequently visit the orphanage!"

"But I am not wrong about something happened, am I?"

Instead of answering it, the young hero merely sighed. She walked towards a chair near the sofa and took a seat there.

"I will be leaving the city along with the Ice Flowers." The blonde stated. "We're going beyond the border of Lescatie itself, in fact."

"Oh, this would be the first time you leave the kingdom, right?" The green-haired woman said. "Where are you going?"

"Hmm…" She tried to remember it. "The Cisalpine, the Aragon-Castille, and the Swamplands. We will be basically visiting our neighbors. Before that though, we will be visiting Reisläufer."

"Reisläufer?" She recognized the name. "The mercenary republic?"

"Yep. Another heroic order is on a mission at the moment and thus the Ice Flowers are short of local manpower. To deal with the shortage, we will first visit the city-state and hire some mercenaries and adventurers."

While the states of the Order possessed their own military, there were times when they were not enough and had to be supplemented; in other words, hired swords. The terms "mercenaries" and "adventurers" were often used interchangeably, but the latter was usually more specialized in fighting against the monsters while the former was also involved in interhuman conflicts.

The rivalry between the various factions in Lescatie obviously made the situation worse.

"I see," Sasha stated. "If that is the case, then I pray that you and others will return home safely and sound."

"Thanks for that."

When the next day arrived, Lucian was no longer in the orphanage; she had departed towards Salvarion before the sun even arise.

Once the morning sunset in upon the city, the nun decided that it was time to clean the front yard of the building. Thus, she exited the orphanage with a broom in hand. The green-haired woman had not event swept a quarter of the yard when a commotion took her attention away from her current task.

"Fou, stop!"

"Come back here, Fou!"

"Don't go!"

"What…?"

Before she could realize what had happened, Fou suddenly emerged from the building, jumping through one of the opened windows. A boy tried to catch him midair but missed his target. Wasting no time, the animal ran towards Sasha – passing between her feet – before going into the street.

"Ah, Fou!" The nun dropped her broom and started giving chase.

It didn't take long for both of them to exited the slum area of the city and entered the better part of it. During their…journey, several people watched the woman trying to catch the animal. Those who knew her tried to help her, but to no avail, as the nimble creature was beyond their ability.

"Fou, please, stop!" Sasha shouted as the white-furred critter turned to the right at a crossroad.

When she made the same turn, the green-haired woman stopped at the sight in front of her.

People. Many of them crowding the street. Some of them were shouting as loud as they could, offering various items to the rest of the people.

"T-That's right." She spoke to herself as she continued her chase. "This way is to the market."

The nun tried her best. However, with so many people on the street, moving around was quite a hassle. Furthermore, the market was also filled with wild animals, all of them hunting for scraps that some merchants threw away to feed themselves.

"By the gods, Fou!" Sasha spoke as she wiped the sweats on her forehead. "Why did you decide to just suddenly run away?"

It didn't take long for him to find the carts that were heading towards his destination. It was basically the size of a small city, yet because it was not a proper one, it must be provided by this city to be able to survive.

Anyway, after finding the carts, he jumped into one of them and hid between the barrels. Once he made himself comfortable, he remained there, waiting for the cart to move.

It happened five minutes later.

He didn't even try to peak outside to look at the scenery, not wanting to risk being discovered. It didn't matter much in the end though; nothing could beat the scenery of his old home.

After more than half an hour of traveling, the cart finally stopped. Curious, he raised his ears, trying to figure out the reason to no avail. He could hear some people talking, but they were too far to be heard. The vehicle suddenly moved again, causing him to become confused.

It was only by looking outside that he figured out the reason; the cart he was in had just passed through a gate of a high wall. The reason it stopped earlier was because of the checkpoint.

He couldn't help but wonder why nobody inspected the inside of the cart though. Nevertheless, he wouldn't look at the horse's gift in the mouth.

Once again, the cart stopped moving. He decided to wait for a while, wanting to be sure that this was indeed the final stop. After waiting for more or less fifteen minutes with the vehicle didn't move, he went towards the back of the cart and jumped off of it.

Looking around for a bit confirmed his deduction. The cart he rode on was parked alongside others in parallel formation. He also saw several people in armor performing a military drill.

He had reached Salvarion.

While it was indeed the duty of the soldier to put their life on the line, most of them prefer a boring day. One where they would wake up, take a bath, eat breakfast, performing a drill, maybe get scolded for making a mistake or two, eating lunch, pray at the church, performing another drill, eat lunch, and then go back to sleep.

Kirsch was not one of them.

When she was not on a mission, the woman was confused about what to do with her free time. After being picked up by the Order from the slums, her entire life has been endless training and mission. Thus, when she reached the point where her training was simply repeating what she had learned and having a less frequent mission, she had no idea what she should do with the free time.

That was why she always wandering around. It was better to move her feet rather than just standing still in confusion. Nevertheless, there was a feeling that she was…incorrect in the course of action that she took. Maybe she could copy the activities that some soldiers did when they…

The heroine immediately stopped walking upon noticing a small white animal in front of her. Judging from how it looked around, it was likely trying to figure out where it should go next. When it finally noticed her, the creature immediately ran in the opposite direction, causing her to give chase.

Could it be an animal that was sent by a rival faction to spy on the Order of Holy Ice Flowers? Maybe a test subject of one of the mages here that escaped containment? Perhaps simply a new pet of one of the heroes?

In any case, it was better to be safe than sorry. She should catch the animal.

It was proven to be harder than she thought. While she was faster than the white creature, it was nimbler and knew how to run away from someone faster than itself. Namely, every time there was an opportunity to make a turn, it would take it, forcing her to slow herself down else she would be unable to make the same turn in time.

Kirsch calculated that she had been chasing this animal for five minutes, give or take a few seconds. It was quite embarrassing, for a hero of the Order being unable to do such a simple task. She better intensified her training after this.

When the two of them make a turn (she wouldn't be surprised if they had been running in a circle), there was a door opened in front of them. The creature decided that instead of kept running in the hallway, it would go into the room.

Upon entering the room, Kirsch realized that it was an armory. She made a note to inform her superiors about this negligence. The armory was not supposed to be open without any supervision.

"Fou!"

Immediately, she turned her head towards the source of the voice. Her eyes widened as she saw the animal flew towards her, making a pose that indicated it wanted to kick her. Normally, she could easily dodge such an attack. After all, what could a small critter like it could do that a monster could not?

Apparently, she made a mistake.

"Gah!" The kick hit her in the nose, sending her flying towards the shelf filled with helmets.

When the heroine crashed into it, the shelf lost its balance and fell on top of her. Satisfied by the result, Fou ran out of the room, making sure that he would be gone when someone came to inspect the noise.

"Mmm~" Paula slowly chewed on her food. "Who would have thought that cheese could go together with meat? I used to think that it could be used to accompany sweets only."

"That's how the food is usually eaten, Paula," Olivier said as she sighed. "You're the only one who believes that."

"Well, she could be quite airheaded," Alameria stated. "Maybe we could forgive her for that."

Currently, the Three Musketeers were having a meal –minced meat made into a patty garnished with melted cheese along with the assorted mashed potato and vegetables – at the cafeteria. While the dish looked rather underwhelming considering their status, for them, all that matter was the taste.

Besides, being heroes, there was always a possibility of a mission going wrong which would force them to eat their boots. If that happened, even eating poverty food was preferable. At least it was real food.

"Fou!"

Olivier, who was about to put the meat on the fork into her mouth, stopped midway and slowly turned her head towards the floor. There, staring at her – or more specifically, her food – was a white-furred animal. It was small, the size of a cat or a squirrel.

"Huh, never seen that kind of animal before." Paula, who heard the voice, commented. "Definitely not native to Lescatie."

"I agree." The leader of the Musketeers said. "Any idea what kind of animal is this?"

"Nope!" She shook her head. "Alameria, what about you?"

"…"

"Err, Al?"

Not hearing any reply, both of them turned their attention towards her. Their eyes became wide in surprise upon seeing her.

Alameria was frozen where she sat except for her hands, which were trembling in fear. Her face became pale and cold sweats started to form on her forehead. Out of nowhere, one of the rising star heroes of Lescatie had become so terrified to the point that her fight-or-flight instinct froze.

For what reason, they didn't know.

Before any of them could ask her, the white animal suddenly jumped onto the table. Slowly, it walked towards Alameria's position. The two other Musketeers couldn't help but focus on the animal for some reason. When it arrived in front of the blonde, it looked at her dish before looking at her face. It then did it again.

"Here you go…" Alameria weakly said as she slowly pushed the plate towards the animal.

"Fou~" It made its excitement apparent before feasting on the food that was offered.

"Um, Alameria, I am sure it's not allowed to give our food to a wild animal," Olivier stated. "At most, just the scrap."

As she said that, the blonde moved her hand forward, intending on grabbing the animal. However, it was suddenly stopped by her fellow blonde, who grabbed her hand so tight the Musketeer had to hold back a groan.

"Don't," Alameria said. "Just…leave it…alone. For the…safety of…all of us."

"Err, Al?" Paula said worriedly. "While I don't know what kind of animal that is, it's definitely not something dangerous. At worst, it would just bite or scratch you."

"W-Wha…?" The blonde looked shocked at the statement. "A-Are you serious?! Look at it! It's nothing short of a murder machine!"

"Fou~" Having finished its meal, the animal wiped its mouth with its right front leg.

"Um, Alameria," Olivier hesitantly said. "Are you feeling…alright? Did you eat something that tastes…strange these last 24 hours? Did you touch something that doesn't feel right?"

"N-No, girls, I am not hallucinating!" She pointed at the white-furred creature, looking almost hysteric. "Come on, you can feel it, right?! The aura of hatred that it has towards…!"

Before she could finish it, the animal touched her finger with its paw. This caused her to froze, words stopped coming out of her mouth. It was then followed by her falling to the floor, her body not changing its pose in the slightest.

""Alameria!""

As the Musketeers went towards their fallen comrade, the white animal simply made a shrugging-like move before jumping off the table, intending on continuing its adventure.

"Hmm…"

"Is there something wrong, Wilmarina?"

Lucian watched as the leader of the heroic order tapped the desk using her quill. Her eyes were closed and her head leaned to the left, supported by her hand.

"Nothing. It's just that…" The blue-haired girl sighed. "Priest Noscrim is…expecting too much of this newly-created order."

The blonde scoffed a bit. Such was the animosity between Wilmarina and her father that whenever possible, she would act as if he was not someone related to her. She remembered how in one of his letters, Elt stated that at best, Priest Noscrim was merely a "sperm donor."

Still, she wondered what she meant by "expecting too much."

"What do you mean?" The girl decided to ask.

"You see, while there are those among us who have to make a name – like me and the Three Musketeers, to name a few – the Order of the Holy Ice Flowers itself is still in its infancy." The heroine explained. "We literally don't have any reputation to build on. And yet that guy – in his infinite wisdom – decides that it's a good time to recruit some powerful individuals!"

"Well, considering how powerful that guy is," Lucian commented. "Maybe he already has solutions for that issue."

"I suppose carrot and stick could do that." Wilmarina sighed. "I do hope there would be no stick though since I doubt it would work for some of the people that Priest Noscrim after."

"Who are…?"

Before she could ask the question, both of them were distracted by a noise.

KNOCK

"Huh?" The blonde raised an eyebrow.

KNOCK

"Is someone…knocking on the door?" The blue-haired girl became confused as well. "Then why only once…?"

KNOCK

"…at a time?"

"Let me check it." Her second-in-command said.

She slowly approached the door as the sound of knocking continue. Her right hand went to the hilt of her sword, just in case.

When she opened the door, Lucian saw that there was no one on the other side of the room. However, upon lowering her head…

"Fou!"

"Fou?!" She exclaimed. "What are you doing… No, wait, how are you even here in the first place?"

"Who is it, Lucian?" Wilmarina asked.

"It's Fou." The blonde picked the white-furred animal by the scruff. "This little guy."

"Oh?" Her eyes widened a bit. "I have never seen an animal like that."

"Me neither. Several days ago, Sa – I mean, Lady Fullmoon returned from her errant with this guy accompanying her. It took less than a day before he became the official pet of the orphanage."

"I see. You know, I just notice, but don't you think his fur has the same color as Elt's hair?"

"Huh, now that you mention it…" Lucian then remembered that she wanted to ask something. "Ah, right. So, who do we want to recruit?"

"Well, there are several people." The heroine picked up a paper. "However, there's one that stood out among others."

"What for?"

"Mainly, his abilities. It's not only that though." Her stare became hardened. "For some reason, people that were sent to investigate him were unable to gain his physical description, despite the existence of many witnesses."

"That is…suspicious." She commented. "Any clue on why?"

"According to the investigation, there appears to be some sort of 'mental block' in their minds, one that prevents them from recalling the appearance of their target."

"That's…" The blonde became speechless. "Who is this person?"

"A wizard, one that proclaims that he's the best one in the world. If he has anything to do with our informants, then I am willing to agree with that statement." Wilmarina read the paper, making sure that she got the name right. "He has many aliases, but he most often goes by the name of Merlin."

Unknown to both girls, upon hearing the name, Fou – who was hugged by Lucian close to her chest – made a face of fury.

Finally, I was able to finish the chapter.

Sorry for the (very) late update and the rather somewhat underwhelming chapter. The more I think about how to improve it, the harder it becomes to write it.

If you have a question or suggestion, feel free to tell me.

Review, please!