Meisian didn’t leave immediately but chose to stay a while. Once Weiderly was out of the picture, Gaiuz immediately leaped to his paws excitedly and greeted his little sister.
Gaiuz: “Sister, it has been awhile, you seem even more beautiful than before.”
Meisian: “Gaiuz, you seem more disgusting than before.”
Gaiuz: “Can you not call me disgusting?”
Meisian: “Can you distance yourself from me?”
Gaiuz: “…”
Meisian: “…”
With just a few lines, the mood instantly took a nosedive. A while later, Meisian spoke up once more though with a scrunched up look as if she was looking at a pervert: “Speak, is Anmi with you?”
“He is with me right now but I didn’t mistreat him.”
“Then I’ll be off.” Upon receiving that definite answer, Meisian turned around and left without any hesitation as if she was trying to avoid the plague itself.
“…am I that detestable…” Watching her float away like that, Gaiuz couldn’t help mumble to himself in a half doubting, half dejected tone. However, his sullen mood quickly recovered: “O Sister of mine, I know you love Anmi but that trash doesn’t even have the courage to step on the Elemental Segregation Platform, the only one who can keep you company and willingly sacrifice himself for you, is me…”
Like that, the comedy skit between the three siblings came to an end and next up was…
Not too far away from the platforms was our mobile Cat Nest, in other words, we heard everything that was said just now. For Gaiuz to be despised like that, was honestly well within expectations.
Eyes as dark as the abyss itself, Gaiuz glared at Anmi while coldly asking: “You saw everything?”
At that, Anmi unabashedly laughed: “I saw it, it was pretty funny. I swear there’s nothing funnier than when you three get together.”
Immediately, the Prince’s already darkened mood worsened: “Then I’m sure you saw me shaking my paws as well, that’s the signal to kidnap Weiderly and you all actually ignored it!”
“That’s the signal? I don’t remember you telling us that beforehand?” Anmi deliberately blinked twice while putting on an innocent look on his face: “So that’s why, nyah…I thought you had suddenly gone mad for a second, I almost ripped a gut laughing.”
“…” Even though his answer was rather piercing, it did however remind Gaiuz of a certain, crucial point. And that was the fact that we didn’t settle on a signal beforehand and that he had only mentioned that he would call for us. Thus, the blame laid squarely on Gaiuz himself.
‘So all that was just a silly own goal on his part…should’ve just told him to toss a cup as a signal instead. Assuming there was a cup to be thrown…
“Blast it, and that was such a good opportunity too…” Finally realizing his error, he immediately changed the topic to avoid any further embarrassment: “Well, since this time is a bust, we’ll just have to wait for the next opportunity. Remember, the next time you see my paws shaking like that, I want you all to charge ahead and take down my foolish brother.”
“Kay.” Anmi lazily answered.
“That’s all for now nyah.” Having said that, Gaiuz drove off on his platform.
“I thought he was having a seizure too…to think that was him trying to give us a signal…too bad he didn’t inform us of that beforehand.” Anmi muttered as he watched the Prince disappear into the distance. While he might have said that however, he wasn’t at all shy about following it up with a snide remark: “I told you guys he’s a moron.”
“Whether or not he’s a moron is none of my business, I just want to find a way to enter Abaddon…”
The fact that these cats were crazy wasn’t news to me at all, what bothered me was how were we going to solve this problem.
“Don’t worry, the competition will end really soon.” Since the discussion has ended, we will probably have to wait a little till Gaiuz sees the need for us to step in.”
“Then what are his chances in a fair fight?”
“All three of them should be pretty evenly matched.” Anmi paused for a second in thought and then shook his head: “There’s no way of knowing till they actually compete. Like I said before, Gaiuz will definitely call for us when he needs us.”
“Let’s wait then.”
The next day, once everyone(cat) had rested up, the battle for the throne officially started. For the most part, it was the same few battles we passed by on the way to Weiderly’s castle. Still, it was rather refreshing to see a bunch of cats messing around.
The competition proceeded at a rapid pace, and also with a frenzied fervor. After three days of gruelling battles, all the battles(events) had ended except for the Try-not-to-laugh Challenge. Given how evenly matched the scores were, this last challenge would definitely be the tiebreaker.
In short, the cat who was able to fully utilize this challenge to score points would become the Cat King.
On a side note, the judges for all the events thus far was an elder.
The Try-not-to-laugh’s rules were simple: each side was to send out 10 contestants who would face off against each other. Once a side had been declared the winner, the remaining contestants would each score a point.
First off, Gaiuz Vs. Weiderly.
Both sides sent out their contestants to the match area next to Domeh Lake. Because this was the final event, all the cats from each side attended as spectators.
Forming up into clearly demarcated ranks, the twenty cats took up their respective spots on the grass patch, with the right being assigned to Weiderly and the left being assigned to Gaiuz. Under the auspices of the judge, the two of them then exchanged their greetings and after a short chat, broke off. Because the side that started first obviously was at an advantage here, the starting side was chosen randomly.
As for how, it was really simple…the judge plucked two strands of fur from had and had two contestants choose one. Whoever picked the longer fur would start first.
In the end, it was Gaiuz’s cat that won, earning the Second Prince a massive advantage. However, the first cat they sent out to compete was a little…
The first thing that Purgatory Cat did was to furiously tumble about in grass patch, eliciting absolutely no response from Weiderly’s cats. Instead, another cat from his team went “heh.”
“No.7 from Gaiuz’s team has been disqualified.”
The judge immediately called out that potato who laughed at his own teammate…
“I object, it shouldn’t count if we’re the ones who made him laugh.” Gaiuz immediately stepped up to contest the ruling, clearly not happy to be handed an own goal right from the start.
Unfortunately for him, the judge cat would have none of that: “As long as he laughs, it’s a loss. I don’t care who is the one who caused it. Objection overruled, the match continues.”
“That crooked referee…”
Just like that, Gaiuz: -1, Weiderly: 0.
For the second round, the cat from Weiderly’s team stepped out and then fell to the ground. He arched his furry back and gave a long drawn out yawn before…sleeping.
‘What the heck is that supposed to mean? Also, why the hell are the two of you falling asleep…don’t tell me sleepiness is contagious? But then why are all the Weiderly cats still perfectly fine?”
After roughly two minutes of napping, the judge announced that Gaiuz’s team had lost another two more cats…as for Weiderly’s, it was still at full strength.
For the third round, it was now back to Gaiuz’s team on the offense, this time, they sent out their ultimate weapon…a cat trying to bite his own tail…normally, it wasn’t possible for a cat to bite his own tail thus, Gaiuz’s kitty cat could only spin around comically as he tried his to bite his own tail. Needless to say, it was a comical sight that successfully caused two of his teammates to laugh…this time however, three of Weiderly’s cats laughed as well.
Truly a pyrrhic victory…one that we couldn’t afford right now; as of right now, Gaiuz had already lost half of his team while Weiderly had only lost three.
Unable to stand this any longer, Gaiuz yelled furiously from the top of his platform: “You stupid furballs, what’s the point of laugh yourselves…”
As he yelled that, his rear paw started frantically tapping his platform… ‘Is that the signal? Looks he’s had enough of this event.’
Thanks to that clarification from him, we now knew what to do. Still, acting as an insurance, Lohmi came running up to us quietly –she was the cat assigned to assist us in this mission.
“With His Highness Weiderly’s guard weakened, there’s no better chance than now to attack. As long as we pin him down quickly, the results of this battle won’t matter at all.”
‘So that’s why he had this event scheduled near the end…I thought those contestants looked rather familiar as well…so it’s those potato guardcats…’
“Are you sure this will succeed? There’s still over a hundred cats by his side.”
With all his cats acting as spectators now, trying to ambush the Eldest Prince sounded like nothing short of foolishness to me.
However, Lohmi clearly stated as such: “Don’t worry, all this is legal under the rules of succession. Even if Weiderly’s cats try to stop us, our own cats will step in as well. They’ll definitely be able to buy enough time for you.”
“As long as a Cat King hasn’t ascended, all sorts of tricks are perfectly fine.” Lohmi added. “It’s settled then, we’ll act right before the event ends.”
“Speaking of events…this competition of yours is really bizarre…”
