There’s one thing that I’ve learned since being reborn as a cat.

As long as I’m thinking and acting like a human, I won’t be able to live a free and easy life without worries…even in the body of a beast.

Worries come from anywhere as long as I’m alive.

In fact, I’m suffering from them right now.

I run through the town in the darkness of the night.

My destination is, of course, the demons’ house.

It’s not as if a single cat is going to be able to do anything about it…

If they’ve already been captured, I can’t do anything anyway. Even if I find this Yuri person before they break in, I don’t have the means or the words to stop them. I realized after jumping into the fire that I don’t even know who Yuri is in the first place.

…Well, I’ve jumped the gun, so let’s just go…

I wonder? Although I’m supposed to be enthusiastic, I can’t help but instantly feel that this is going to be messy…

While thinking about it, I make it to my destination.

When I look at it again, I see that the fence surrounding the mansion is really high…I think it’s about three meters high. From a cat’s perspective, it feels like 10 meters…

It looks like a fortress…

I don’t think I’m wrong about that since it is defended by deformed monsters.

Now that we’re here, it’s good to know that…nothing is out of the ordinary…is it?

The gates are closed as usual, the demon guards are standing as usual even though the streets are deserted, and several other demons are patrolling around the house.

There’s no sign of anyone suspicious.

Should I take a look inside?

I hide myself in the bushes so the guards and patrolling demons won’t see me.

I activate [Bird’s Eye] to fly my vision over the wall. However,

—BANG!

“Myah!?”

What the hell!?

What!? My vision was shot out by something…?

The areas behind my eyes are tingling and suffocating pain penetrates the back of my brain.

Aah, shit, what is that..?

I’m not sure if there’s some kind of defensive or vision inhibiting magic there?

In other words, “Don’t peep”…As expected, the mansion of the Demon Lord’s subordinates is very well guarded.

While I am unable to move due to the pain in my head, I hear footsteps approach from the street.

The information that I can gather from the footsteps is that there are probably three of them, moving fast, and they seem to be wary of their surroundings.

I curl up in a tiny ball in the bushes and use [Concealment] to cut off any sign of myself.

At the same time, the sound of approaching footsteps appeared from the corner.

—Three demons.

They are walking around and changing positions to eliminate one another’s blind spots.

Well-coordinated movements.

Well-maintained weapons and armor that are well-used.

The demons around town are basically unarmed…does that mean that these three are proper warriors? If I were human, I would think they are soldiers, right?

“Around here?”

“Definitely.”

“…Is there anyone?”

“Damn, they’re quick to escape.”

Maybe…they are looking for me?

When they disabled my [Bird’s Eye] earlier, it gave away my location!? Damn it! It was a careless move on my part…The people I’m up against are demons, and this is the place I stole from.

I wasn’t aware they could…trace it back to me…!

Maybe I’m just scared, but my body is unconsciously curling up tighter.

“Is it another intruder?”

“It must be. I’m sure it’s after the daytime intruder.”

“You mean he was trying to search the house…to get his friends back?”

“We’d better report this to Jens-sama.”

“Yes.”

“The enemy may still be hiding nearby. I’ll send some more men to search.”

“Yeah.”

One of the men leaves toward the entrance of the mansion with his armor clanging, not letting his guard down.

There are two things I’ve learned from this conversation.

One, this Yuri person is probably already in custody.

Two, if I stay here, there are a lot of demons coming.

I’m pretty sure that they aren’t aware that the culprit is a cat, but that’s no reason to face the possibility of suspicion.

…I don’t think I can go any further today.

I’m going to deal with this headache and go back to bed.

＊　　＊　　＊

At the break of dawn, I wake up—

It was a little chilly last night, so my (self-proclaimed) cronies gathered around me and slept in a cat dumpling.

It was surprisingly comfortable.

The warmth of being wrapped up in a fluffy futon and the moderate feeling of being closed in seemed to be just right for a cat’s body and I was able to sleep very soundly.

Yesterday’s headache is completely gone and I’m full of energy.

After stretching, I lightly jumped over the still sleeping cats to avoid stepping on them.

Well…what should I do?

It’s almost certain that they were caught, what should I do now? I’ve got no choice but to save them!

But, how?

As long as I can’t use [Bird’s Eye], there’s no choice but to sneak in directly and check inside.

Of course, if I ended up getting discovered by the demons in the mansion…I’m going to die for sure.

I’ll make this a hide-and-seek sneaking mission.

…It’s still necessary to have at least a little fighting power.

The only thing that seems to be able to damage the demons is Slingshot…Even if I throw a stone or a knife at an armored opponent, it probably won’t do any damage. It would be different if I aim at the exposed skin, but I don’t have the skill to aim that accurately.

As I flip through my Collection Box inventory behind my eyelids to see if there is anything, my eyes stop at the skill column.

I remember that I haven’t tried out the [Virtual Body] ability that was released when I got the Sword of the Rising Sun.

I hope it can be a way to get through the current situation.

At any rate, it seems to be an active skill, so I’ll try activating it first.

　…

　………

　…………

Hmm? Nothing is happening though.

I feel a similar fatigue to when I activate the other skills and I’m sure I’m using it properly, but…what does it mean?

I don’t understand what this is for, so I pull up the detailed information in the Collection Box again.

“[Virtual Body]

You will be able to create a simulated body. The physical capabilities of the body depend on the abilities of the person who activates the skill.

It doesn’t exist in physical form and cannot be physically interfered with, nor can it interfere with anything.

The only items it can touch are items that have been in the Collection Box.”

It can interfere with items taken from the Collection Box?

I take out a knife as a test.

I’m going to make you pick up this knife, assuming there is a body there.

Then.

“Myah!?”

I let out a surprised yelp as the knife comes up.

Some of the cats start to get up, but that’s not important right now.

The knife is floating. It isn’t actually floating, though. There is an invisible body holding the knife.

If it’s floating higher than my line of sight, does that mean that the invisible body is in the shape of a human…?

No way!? It doesn’t matter what shape it takes! It’s a “virtual” body!

I’m just assuming that there is a body out there that looks exactly like I think it does.

This means, wait, wait, wait! If this body can only be touched by the items in the Collection Box, then maybe…!

I take the Orichalcum Armor set out of the Collection Box and equip it to the invisible body.

—It’s a knight in golden armor.

He grips tightly.

He jumps in place.

He shakes his head.

It moves exactly how I want.

…Is this for real?

I have him pick up a piece of wood that has fallen at his feet and thrust it into the gap of the armor…The piece of wood clanks and falls through the armor without touching anything.

Holy shit, right? Isn’t this skill really dangerous?

Hypothetically, suppose that this empty armor fights something. What would happen?

No matter what kind of attack the opponent does, it can’t interfere with the virtual body, so it won’t take any damage and all the opponent’s attacks would pass through. At the same time, I have no physical limitations this way, so I can hit them as hard as I want and I can even move beyond the limits of my own joint articulation.

In addition, the main body, me, is not hurt or anything at all…If it’s not a good situation, I don’t even need to be nearby.

The virtual body’s physical abilities depend on the cat’s body, so we can’t expect much…No, is that really how it is? It can fly and jump without any worries while wearing armor that is surely over two hundred pounds. I wouldn’t be able to move a step in a normal cat’s body.

I’m pretty sure that this means it scales the abilities of my cat body to a human equivalent.

Isn’t that crazy!? Wouldn’t that make it like the Terminator!?

What if, in addition to that power, it was equipped with a powerful weapon?

Wouldn’t that make it the strongest warrior who can fight forever without collapsing?

And—I just so happen to have an extremely rare and high level Sword of the Rising Sun in my possession.

With this, I can even fight these demons!!