“Normally, a beastman acquires the Awaken skill upon maxing out his level. Using the skill awakens the latent power in his blood, eventually resulting in Evolution. However, a curse has been placed on the Black Cat tribe to prevent them from acquiring Awaken, even if they hit max level. You’ve seen this firsthand.”
That’s what happened with Fran.
“Now, the girl sidestepped the curse and found an alternate way to acquire Awaken, and then evolved anyway. Perhaps it is the latent power of the Black Cat tribe that allowed her to evolve after a single use of Awaken, but regardless, this opens up the possibility of something similar happening again.”
I see. Equipping me would be enough to make anyone evolve…
“Precisely my point. Any beastman at any level could evolve by simply equipping you. I will not allow the laws of the world to be broken in such a way. Besides, the penance of the Black Cat tribe would have no meaning if anyone could pick you up and evolve,” the goddess said, staring at me intently.
Wait, was I the one on trial here? Was my existence about to be…cancelled? Please, say it ain’t so!
I returned the goddess’ gaze with anxiety. She pointed her finger at me.
“There are two ways for a Black Cat to bypass the restriction that we have placed on their tribe.”
W-wait, was I safe? Was she just leading me on? Which one was it?!
“Will you please calm down? I have no intention of destroying you.”
Oh, thank you! Thank you so much!
“If you will let me finish. The first method involves lifting the curse on an individual. A Black Cat must kill a thousand Fiends or a single A-Threat Fiend. The curse would immediately be lifted, and that individual would be able to evolve.”
Uh, was she allowed to tell me these things? She’d gone to the trouble of wiping Lumina’s memories and restricting her speech. It seemed odd that she would give me all this information so readily.
“Because the girl has already evolved, regardless of how she achieved it, the restrictions on Lumina no longer apply. She will tell you later, so I might as well tell you now.”
I…guess?
But Jet and I weren’t Black Cats. If we were restricted in speech, wouldn’t that be the same as putting a gag on Fran? I couldn’t imagine Fran asking me and Jet to leave so she and Lumina could talk. I hoped the gods would forget about that so we could all talk like normal people.
“Familiars and summons are not subject to this. And you are one of my vassals, which makes you an exception.”
Right, she could read my thoughts… Wait, did she just say I was her vassal? That sounded very important.
Excuse me? I’m your vassal?
“One of my vassals, if we’re being accurate.”
T-tell me more!
“No. We are talking about Evolution.”
Dang it.
“The other method breaks the curse for all members of the Black Cat tribe. The tribe must band together to defeat an S-Threat Fiend or a vassal of the Evil One. Accomplish that, and the sins of the tribe will be forgiven, and they will be accepted back into the Ten Tribes.”
Lifting the tribal curse as a whole seemed almost impossible. An S-Threat monster was a world-ending cataclysm. For the Black Cats to kill such an entity by themselves…
“It goes to show you the gravity of the sin they committed.”
I’ve been hearing about this sin a lot, but what was it, exactly?
“It goes back to the Black Cat Elder at the time, who was also the Beast King. They broke the seal on the Evil One to absorb his power into their bloodline. It worked…half the time.”
Absorb his power? How was that different from becoming Fiends?
“It was much worse, for starters. Part of the royal family evolved into half-Fiend, half-beastman creatures. Half of them succeeded in getting stronger, though most of them went berserk and were killed by their brethren. We could not allow the powers of the Evil One to be used for personal gain. We eliminated the royal family and those who obtained his power, and took Evolution from the remaining Black Cats.”
That…was a lot worse than I expected! Using the Evil One’s powers to become demigods was like picking a fight with the gods themselves.
“We had made it clear that using the Evil One’s powers for personal gain would not go unpunished.”
And the Black Cat King had ignored this commandment. No wonder the gods were furious.
Now I know how serious their crime is.
“But with you, any Black Cat can evolve without so much as thinking about penance.” She didn’t glare at me, but her words stung. “Evolution is the lost dream of the Black Cats. But evolving in an improper way, without paying for their sins, will only lead to an even greater sin. One that might lead in turn to an even greater punishment.”
Dare I ask for an example…?
“Extinction of the whole species,” the goddess said frankly.
B-but—
“I said it might, which means it might not. Even so, try to understand the gravity of your actions.”
Y-yes, ma’am.
Her brief statement struck the fear of the gods into me. I wondered again if my life was in danger.
S-so what should I do now? I swear I won’t let anyone other than Fran use Awaken. You have my word!
“And you speak truly. Even so, it is too weak to be a guarantee. I cannot allow the existence of manatech which lets its users evolve at no cost.”
Oh no…I knew it…
“Calm down. Like I said earlier, I have no intention of destroying you. I will not do anything so violent as that.”
I-I see! That was the closest shave I’d had since coming to this world!
“Let me get to the point—”
Snap.
Huh? What just…?
My blade glowed in the brief moment the Goddess of Chaos snapped her fingers. What did she just do?
“I’ve locked your User Registration.”
My User Registration?
“Yes. You are permanently linked to your current user until death, and cannot be used by anyone else. Should anyone
