Cat Of The Apocalypse

Britannia was in the middle of a spiral of chaos.

An order had come down to evacuate the capital, and movement had begun—nobles and commoners alike.

Despite how unreasonable it was, everyone obeyed for a reason.

It was because not only the royal family, but even Elaine—the Saintess—had gone out of her way to come to Britannia and warn them of the danger.

Because she had no stake in the succession struggle, her words made the nobles realize this was no time for internal fighting, and at the same time helped dampen the public’s backlash.

“I didn’t notice during the Founding Festival, but… just being here makes me feel sick…”

“It can’t be helped. Back then, the ‘Cat of Endings’ was still sleeping.”

As Elaine muttered in her unguarded, honest tone, Mordred beside her shrugged.

It had only been a short time, but after persuading various nobles in the capital together and rallying the common folk, the distance between them had closed—just a little. They weren’t friends, of course—more like the sort of relationship where you could at least vent now and then…

“I don’t feel anything, but is it really that bad?”

“Yes… those with high mana should be sensing it. That eerie presence—like condensed negative emotion. So… how will the ‘Cat of Endings’ attack?”

“That’s the thing—I don’t know where it comes from either.”

Mordred answered with an apologetic look, and that was understandable.

In his first life, by the time he returned from an expedition, the ‘Cat of Endings’ was already rampaging.

In his second life, even when he stayed on guard, gathering knights and planning countermeasures, it revived before they could act.

“All I know is that at first, small ‘Cats of Endings’ show up from somewhere and gather mana— and once enough is collected, the enormous main body appears.”

“Hm. You’re oddly half-informed.”

Elaine looked at him with suspicion, and Mordred could only give a bitter smile.

Even if he said this was his third life, no one would believe him—and even if they demanded proof, the contents of the notebook were visible only to him.

So rather than waste time on explanations, he wanted to use that time to evacuate even more people.

“What is that, I wonder? It’s noisy…”

“Please—let me speak to someone important. I’m begging you.”

Following Elaine’s gaze, Mordred saw a common boy trying to head toward the castle, stopped by knights.

Had he gotten separated from his family?

Either way, they could leave it to the knights. Mordred thought so, but…

Beside him, Elaine raised her voice.

“What happened? I will listen.”

“Elaine-san?!”

“If you ignore someone in trouble right in front of you, can you still call yourself a Saintess? Arthur-sama would reach out a hand.”

He tried to scold her that this wasn’t the time, but she glared back. Even as they spoke, Elaine was already walking toward the boy.

“Y-you are… Lady Elaine. We will handle this—”

“Leave it to me. You all should secure other areas.”

“Yes!!”

Whatever happened to the way she acted around Mordred— the knights flushed and nodded at the modest, gentle aura she displayed.

A frighteningly strong dual nature.

“My name is Elaine. What happened? If you’ve been separated from your family, I will help you search.”

“Elaine-sama?! My name is Neil. There’s something I need to tell you about the ‘Cat of Endings’ sleeping in Britannia!!”

“Huh?”

“Why would a child know that?”

It was no wonder Elaine and Mordred both cried out in shock.

To avoid panic, the public had only been told a disaster was coming.

Only a handful of nobles and knights should have known about the ‘Cat of Endings.’

“Neil!! Where did you run off to?! This place is dangerous!”

A blond maid came rushing after him, completely out of breath, and Mordred recognized her.

“Mordred-sama?! Why are you here…?”

“You’re Marianne, Gawain’s younger sister, aren’t you? What’s your relationship with this boy?”

Marianne looked startled for an instant, then immediately bowed and got to the point.

“He’s a child from Arthur-sama’s orphanage, and I often help him study. And… while looking into this disturbance, he discovered something important and insisted he had to tell someone important.”

“Hoo… from Arthur-sama’s…”

“Ah. The boy Arthur-niisan personally allowed to come and go from the castle, huh. I’ve heard he’s very sharp.”

If he was connected to Marianne, it wasn’t strange that he knew the situation. Mordred’s guard lowered.

He knew Gawain doted on his sister, and since she was here, it meant someone had been consulted in advance.

“Then tell us. What did you find…?”

“Thank you for listening, everyone. Marianne-sama told me about the ‘Cat of Endings,’ and I thought I should do whatever I could—so I asked permission to visit the royal library archives. And I found several documents.”

As Elaine nodded, Neil continued, tense but determined.

“What they said was that the ‘Cat of Endings’ favors negative emotions… and that its familiars appear from the place in Britannia where negative emotions are strongest, and then at the end the main body goes on a rampage.”

“There are an enormous number of books in the archives. How did you find sources like that?”

“That’s… I loved reading, so after Arthur-sama gave me permission, I was there all the time…”

Neil answered, embarrassed, but it couldn’t have been easy.

Even in Mordred’s second life, when he had subordinates research the ‘Cat of Endings,’ sources were scarce and fragmented. Neil must have sifted carefully.

“I see… so that’s why they appeared all over the slums last time…”

Mordred muttered, recalling it. This was going to be even more troublesome than expected—he wanted to clutch his head.

“I see… where do you think negative emotions gather most strongly in Britannia? If we can narrow it down, I believe I can sense the ‘Cat of Endings’.”

“Then… it’s probably the prison. There are many criminals there.”

Marianne answered Elaine’s question, and it was a reasonable point.

But in Britannia, where the gap between rich and poor was severe, the commoners’ districts had been stronger. Most likely, there had been many who held resentment toward the country.

“No… the ones with the greatest dissatisfaction are the streets where the commoners live. The extreme wealth gap, the nobles’ privileged status—people harbor enormous negative emotions, far beyond what’s in a prison.”

“Is that truly so? In a country where it shows this?”

Elaine cried out, shocked at Mordred’s bitter words. If everyone had been like the Arthur of today, maybe it wouldn’t have happened…

But reality was different—or so Mordred thought, as he looked at Neil, a commoner…

“Respectfully, Mordred-sama, I don’t think that’s true. Sure, there used to be dissatisfaction, but I think it’s decreased a lot recently. The orphanage meals have improved, and Arthur-sama shows up all the time, so public safety has gotten better.”

“What…?”

Mordred stared at Marianne like he couldn’t believe it, and she answered with a troubled look.

“That’s right… because Arthur-sama donates to the orphanage and visits regularly, the nobles of his faction followed his example. As a result, the wealth gap hasn’t exactly shrunk, but the people’s dissatisfaction has decreased quite a bit.”

“Just as expected of Arthur-sama. Changing the country already, even though he’s still a prince…”

Elaine beamed, delighted as if it were her own achievement. Then, with a teasing smile, she spoke to Mordred.

“Your brother has always been outstanding, it seems. Well, I knew that, of course…”

“Yeah… seems so…”

“Then Mordred-sama and I will go check. Neil-san, Marianne-san—thank you.”

Leaving Mordred’s complicated expression behind, Elaine put on a saintly smile and headed toward the prison.

And when they arrived in haste, what awaited them was an overwhelming density of negative emotion—so intense that even Mordred, who lacked mana, could sense it.

“Looks like we hit the mark… This is on an entirely different level from the ‘Five Great Plague Beasts’ I know…”

“Yeah. No mistake… The ‘Cat of Endings’ is in there!!”

Hearing screams that sounded like prisoners—and feeling the grotesque aura—both of them broke into cold sweat.