"Do you remember what I told you?" In the Empress Borough, inside the luxurious villa of the Hall family, Audrey placed a package the size of a Rubik's cube into the small leather pouch hidden among the golden fur on Susie's belly, asking with some concern.
Although this was Mr. Sades' work, among all of Audrey's bags, it was still one of the cheapest ones. Well, after weighing the options, she could only apologize to Mr. Sades.
"I know. Bury the package in the woods, then hide quietly and see who comes to retrieve it," Susie nodded obediently, repeating Audrey's instructions.
Hearing Susie's words, Audrey nodded lightly, then emphasized again:
"The other party very likely knows about the existence of Beyonder animals, so you need to act as much like an ordinary dog as possible."
"But I am a dog to begin with," Susie said, somewhat unable to understand what Audrey meant by this statement. It was like suddenly hearing someone tell you to disguise yourself as much like a human as possible.
"Well, then just be careful," Audrey found herself momentarily speechless, because she didn't know exactly how to act more like a dog either.
So, she could only trust Susie!
"Good luck!"
...
From a concealed hole in the outer wall of Earl Hall's luxurious villa, a large golden retriever emerged. It must be said that not only cats, but dogs too can apparently squeeze through holes that look much smaller than their bodies.
Perking up her ears and looking left and right, though this wasn't her first time, Susie still vigilantly surveyed the surroundings for a full circle before trotting away from this secret exit.
Though Audrey had spoken seriously about it, Susie's adventure was unexpectedly easy. About five minutes later, she had already arrived at the grove where they often took walks. Like others of her kind, she quickly dug a hole and poured the small package from her leather pouch into it.
After completing this task, Susie carefully covered the earth back over it, then uneasily stomped on it a few times before trotting into the nearby bushes.
Only a pair of dog eyes were visible through the gaps in the leaves, quietly waiting for whoever would come to retrieve the item.
If Audrey knew this was how Susie was conducting her stakeout, she would probably want to demonstrate the instant fainting technique she had learned from her etiquette teacher. But in Susie's understanding, this was how dogs should secretly observe. If Audrey hadn't told her to hide well, she would probably have just sat openly by the roadside, basking in the sun while waiting.
Though it was called a stakeout, Susie's covert observation didn't last very long. About ten minutes later, Susie's nose twitched slightly, and then a black figure entered her field of vision—
"My goodness, it's actually a cat?"
Susie almost cried out in surprise, but immediately pressed her paw over her mouth. The black cat that had entered Susie's field of vision was completely unaware, walking with elegant steps as if a king surveying his territory.
Originally, Susie suspected she might be overthinking things, thinking this might just be a stray cat passing by. But soon, she saw the cat come to the place where she had buried the item. After sniffing lightly, it used a completely different, elegant posture—utterly unlike a dog's—to dig up the soil.
For a moment, Susie felt she had received a spiritual shock. So digging holes could be done so elegantly too?
Susie just crouched there in the bushes, quietly watching as the black cat retrieved the package from the pit with almost no dust on itself. However, just as it was pawing the small package out of the hole, it suddenly turned its head and glanced at her with what seemed like a contemptuous look.
"It discovered me!" Susie was startled by Lily's gaze and immediately turned to flee toward the Hall family villa, while Lily let out a disdainful meow and picked up the package, running toward the west.
...
"Woof! Woof! Woof!"
In the piano room of the Hall family villa, melodious piano music flowed beautifully, but just as the piece approached its climax, a series of discordant barks disrupted the melody.
Audrey, who was practicing piano, suddenly stopped her hands, her beautiful eyebrows slightly furrowed. She looked at Susie, who was crouching at the door with her tongue hanging out, and showed a helpless expression—
"Susie, interrupting someone's piano practice is not something a lady should do!"
"But I'm just a dog," Susie said with a bit of grievance. Audrey was immediately left speechless. She looked around, then beckoned to Susie. "How did it go? Did you see clearly who came to retrieve the item? What did they look like?"
"I didn't see a person. The one who came to retrieve the package was a cat," Susie said, using somewhat awkward grammar to describe her day's observations. Audrey's small mouth opened very unladylike to the extent that her little tongue was visible.
But she quickly realized her impropriety and immediately closed her mouth, saying with some surprise:
"You're saying the one who came to retrieve the package was a Beyonder creature like you? No wonder when I asked about pets drinking potions last time, Mr. Devil's reaction was different from The Hanged Man's..."
"Whether it's a Beyonder creature or not, I don't know, but I think I was discovered by it. Also, that cat is very similar to you."
"How could there be a cat that looks like me?" Audrey was a bit confused by Susie's somewhat poor grammar. Susie shook her head and said:
"Not in appearance, but in feeling... Well, that's right, just like you said, that cat seemed like a lady..."
"A cat that's like a lady? What pathway could that be?" Audrey's heart stirred with curiosity, and she even thought of exchanging experiences about raising Beyonder pets with Mr. Devil.
...
On the other side, Lily had already returned to Snow's house with her Sequence 8 potion formula, wearing a humanized expression that said "come praise me."
This was her first time "independently" carrying out a mission. Although she still had some of Snow's will attached to her, the fact that she hadn't received any commands throughout the entire process made her quite proud.
"Well done." Snow, who had withdrawn his spiritual imprint, placed Lily on his shoulder and used his index finger to scratch the little one's chin. Then he unwrapped the package, properly stored the Beyonder materials inside in tin boxes with spiritual preservation, and stored them in the basement. Although Lily acted as an assassin by catching mice every day, she still had quite a way to go before completely digesting the potion.
"Meow~~" Watching Snow busying himself there, Lily suddenly let out a somewhat tsundere meow, then actively nuzzled Snow's cheek with her head.
Snow was slightly stunned for a moment, then realized:
"I know, I'll give you a bath later. You didn't go catch mice today either... Really, I've never seen a cat that loves bathing as much as you do..."
"Meow!" Hearing Snow's words, Lily immediately showed a disgusted expression, twisted around and jumped off Snow's shoulder, and deliberately swept his earlobe with her tail.
(End of Chapter)