Chapter 8

I stared at Himong with my mouth hanging open, unable to figure out what to ask first.

Himong shook his head at the sight of me, then plodded over to the sofa and sat down.

“Come here, nya. Himong has a lot to discuss with Ayrbet-nya.”

I also had plenty to discuss with this overworked cat with a bald spot on the back of his head.

When I reluctantly followed and sat down on the sofa, Himong placed his sticky-rice-cake-like front paws on the table with a thump.

Then, acting like a detective grilling a suspect, despite being a cat, he asked:

“That dungeon. Was it the one Ayrbet-nya had cleared in the previous dimension, nya?”

“That’s right! It was a dungeon I cleared before, and the gate opened while it was still right before completion!”

I jumped like an innocent suspect being framed and answered.

Himong nodded knowingly, as if something clicked.

“I knew it, nya…”

“Knew what? You know something, don’t you?”

“Himong investigated, nya. It seems the reason a dungeon appeared in this dimension is because of Ayrbet-nya.”

“What? Why me? What did I do? I didn’t do anything!”

“Well, this dimension, nya… it hasn’t been long since it was created, so it’s extremely unstable, nya. And then an impurity like Ayrbet-nya slipped in, nya?”

I was speechless at this rude cat calling me an impurity with such a cute face.

This world was the one from the novel I read in my past life, and it was at the very start of the story.

And since I was a possessor in this world, I was indeed a kind of “impurity” that wasn’t part of the original narrative.

According to Himong, that impurity happened to be me, which caused the dungeon I once cleared to be generated here.

I had hoped and hoped it wasn’t true, but in the end, he was saying I was the cause of all this chaos.

The villain who came to ruin my sweet second life was… me?

How does that make any sense!

I grabbed my hair and thrashed around in frustration, then asked Himong again.

“How can that make sense? Even if I possessed someone, how could a dungeon appear in a romance fantasy novel world!”

“That’s why you shouldn’t have gotten possessed in the first place, nya! Do you know how much trouble possession cases cause the Bureau’s agents?”

“You can’t blame that on me! It’s not like I wanted this! I died, then opened my eyes and I was here, what was I supposed to do!”

“That’s something even Himong can’t do anything about, nya.”

Himong shrugged like a civil servant handling a difficult customer.

Ugh… this infuriating cat…

Does he have any idea what a possessor goes through?

It’s not easy adapting to a new world without letting anyone find out!

I wanted to shake him by the scruff and demand to see his supervisor, but since I am a civilized person who loves animals, I barely held back.

More importantly, I needed to find out what would happen to my possessed life from this point on.

“If the dungeon really appeared because of me, does that mean more dungeons could appear?”

“That could happen, nya. This dimension hasn’t stabilized yet, so even Himong doesn’t know what might occur, nya.”

“What do you mean ‘not stabilized’? What does that mean?”

“You said this dimension is the world of the novel Ayrbet-nya read, nya? Dimensions created like that are naturally unstable, nya.”

“Then after it stabilizes? After that, dungeons won’t appear?”

“Himong asked the director, and he said that is likely, nya.”

It was the first hopeful thing Himong had said since he appeared.

I crawled across the table on my knees to get closer to him, then grabbed his plump, fluffy front paws and clung to him.

“When does it stabilize? Can’t you make it happen faster?”

But the unforgiving cat shook his head, shaking off my hands.

“That isn’t something anyone can do, nya. When the story that forms the foundation of this dimension reaches its ending, the world’s construction will be completed, nya.”

“So things just have to follow the novel? And once the story ends, this world becomes stable?”

“That’s right, nya. The true beginning of this dimension starts after the novel’s conclusion, nya.”

With a solemn expression, Himong meowed out nonsense.

Apparently, newly created dimensions needed time to settle.

Despite the grand name “Dimensional Management Bureau,” Himong was clearly a low-level employee who could barely do anything.

In any case, all that mattered was that the world would be fine as long as events followed the original story, but the problem was that the novel The Butterfly Garden’s Secret Affair had an ending nowhere in sight.

“What if a dungeon break happens before that? What if one of the main characters dies?”

“Then this world will never stabilize, nya.”

“Oh no…”

I was doomed.

This life was doomed too.

No matter how I thought about it, there was no solution.

How was I supposed to prevent a dungeon that could appear anywhere, at any time?

If a dungeon appeared on some deserted island somewhere and exploded, the world would be finished, and so would my life.

What sweetness? With my luck, I should’ve just died yesterday.

I sprawled across the sofa and sobbed pitifully.

“Ayrbet-nya.”

Himong called my name with an unusually serious expression.

Since I kept sniffling without replying, he gently placed his soft, moist little paw jelly on the back of my hand, the same hand he’d pushed away earlier.

“Don’t worry, nya. If a gate forms, Himong will notify you right away, nya. Ayrbet-nya just has to stop the dungeon before it breaks, nya.”

Could he stop saying serious things with absolutely no solutions? This useless low-level bureaucrat cat…

“And what good is it if you notify me? Do you expect me to clear it alone?”

I asked dryly, too stunned to even be angry, and Himong’s ears drooped down.

With his ears hanging and his little paws clinging to my hand as if it were a fish, he looked up at me with Puss-in-Boots eyes.

My sharp frustration melted like warm butter at the combined attack of those huge pupils and twin paw-jellies.

He was cute. Too cute.

Ah, far too cute.

My lips curled up before I realized it, and Himong quickly took advantage, acting even more pitiful.

“If this dimension doesn’t stabilize properly, Himong will get scolded by the director, nya. Himong’s fur might all fall out, nya.”

“Hey, even so, how am I supposed to clear a dungeon alone?”

“Ayrbet-nya can do it, nya. Himong believes only in Ayrbet-nya, nya.”

This shameless cat?

No matter how cutely he meowed, he was still basically telling me to do all the hard labor alone.

I was about to collapse on the sofa again when I suddenly remembered yesterday’s dungeon and straightened my back.

Wait… what if I’m not alone?

I definitely wasn’t the one who defeated Laneier yesterday.

Someone else had been inside that dungeon. Someone awakened, someone strong enough to kill monsters.

On top of that, the dungeon had already been 99% cleared the moment we were sucked in.

Since dungeons in this world were some kind of dimensional glitch caused by my presence, who knew what state the next one would spawn in?

Even if I had to go in alone, as long as it was like yesterday, where I only had to defeat the dungeon’s boss, it might be doable.

I was living as a frail duke’s daughter now, but in my previous life I had been among the strongest of the S-rank awakened.

I knew every dungeon-clearing method by heart, so as long as it wasn’t one of those S-rank dungeons that required mutual destruction with the dungeon boss, I could probably manage.

Whether I could or not, if I wanted to stop Himong’s hair loss and protect my sweet, overflowing second life, I had no choice but to try.

“All right, I’ll try. But you have to tell me the moment a gate opens, okay?”

“Leave that to Himong, nya!”

The chubby cat, adorable but not reassuring in the slightest, spoke with exaggerated confidence.

Even if I could handle the dungeons caused by me, the original plot was still a problem.

The engagement announcement at the Butterfly Garden was supposed to be the opening scene of the novel, but that had already gone off track, which made me nervous.

I grabbed Himong’s paw as he tried to slip away and asked:

“About the story moving according to the novel. It doesn’t have to be exactly the same, right?”

“It should be enough for the events that happen to the main characters to happen properly, nya.”

“Really? That’s a relief.”

At next week’s banquet, Heide and Larienne’s engagement would be announced.

That meant the original story would officially begin.

I hoped nothing would happen that day.

“You can’t know in advance when the next dungeon will appear, right?”

“That’s right, nya.”

Himong lowered his head gloomily as he answered.

The round bald spot in the middle of his round head was devastating.