She was right…’Cats climb the wall, Dogs crawl through the hole’, that saying was intended as an insult in the first place. If Sinmosa and Sasani were to jump over the wall using brute force, that would defeat the purpose of not taking the hole in the first place. The designer of this insidious, ingenious and infuriating trap clearly intended for the cat steps to be main focus and tool to bully the Hellhounds. As long as they do not use those steps, the result would end up the same.
“In that case, let’s just stick to the old way then, let’s walk in.” If I had to stand by and watch Sinmosa and Sasani get humiliated alone like that, I would rather not climb the wall. This husband and wife pairing was our main fighting force against the prince so leaving them outside to wait wasn’t an option either.
Strictly speaking, the only reason we had to go through all this nonsense about assassinations and princes in the first place was because of my request, in other words, it was a personal matter. Furthermore, one could say that the couple already repaid their debt by escorting me into the territory of the Purgatory Shadowcats. Yet the two of them still chose to accompany us all this while. If I had to make them suffer again because of my personal affairs, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself then. As such…we crawled through that hole together.
Under their slightly confused yet appreciative eyes, I took the first step through the main entrance of the castle.
‘Hmph, a warrior’s character won’t be besmirched by such lowbrow insults, such blatant racism and discrimination is in itself deplorable. Not only did they not highlight their strengths, they only made me look on them even more.’
Like that, No.3 and Big 4 entered the hole as well, with Mo Na, still hugging Cinderel in her arms, following closely behind. Last to enter were Sinmosa and Sasani.
“They entered the hole, they entered the hole.”
“I don’t need you to remind me, I can see for myself, can’t I? Haha, they really entered the hole.”
Just as we expected, the mocking sounds of the guards came echoing through the hole not long after we left. ‘I bet that’s probably all they have to entertain themselves with.’
Ignoring them, we calmly entered the castle and found ourselves in a carbon copy of Meisian’s castle. Just like before, Anmi was waiting for us at the entrance to the main hall. This time however, he had on a rather surprised look as we walked towards him.
“What are you guys doing together? You all took the hol…door?”
I bet he thought that us devils would’ve just flown over the wall while Sinmosa and Sasani took the hole themselves. In the end, we came through as a whole and while that might have earned us another round of unnecessary ridiculing, I didn’t think so at all.
All I felt then was a sense of comradery with the two of them, our relationship as a group being strengthened in the process. As the saying went, ‘there are three bonds of steel in life: one where we bore arms together, one where we shared the same window and one where we went to a br*thel together.’ If I might be so bold as to so say myself, that was exactly what we went through just now.
(TL: Depending on who you ask, there may be three, four or five. Usually, there’s four. The five are, if I’m not mistaken about the last one: bearing arms together, sharing the same window, going to the br*thel, sharing an account and sharing a steel window. Naturally, some of the those aren’t meant to be taken literally. Bearing arms means serving in the army together or going through a war together. Sharing a window means living together. Brothel refers to knowing each other’s dirty secrets. Sharing an account means having a relationship involving shared interests. Steel window probably refers to jail. Essentially, the saying just means being a bro.)
Turning to face our newest travelling companion, I immediately vented my feelings, no holds barred: “Maybe the Hellhounds might not be as agile as you all, but does making fun of another race’s shortcomings make you all that excited? Deriving self-confidence by putting another down is just scummy.”
Were I my usual self then, I would have never taken such an illogical action, after all we still needed Anmi for our upcoming mission. In order to force Weiderly to give up his succession rights, fighting was unavoidable. Should he decide not to vouch for us in front of the elders then, we would definitely end up being beaten up into devil pancakes.
In that sense, Anmi was our protective talisman; offending him now was clearly a bad idea. Still, I just had to say something because those cats truly seemed like a crazy bunch to me.
“To be honest, that saying didn’t start out as an insult…” Even after my harsh words, not only did he not lose his temper but instead he calmly explained the situation to us, all the while having on an understanding expression: “Initially, that saying was meant to highlight the different strengths of each race, it’s just that it ended up being twisted over time…”
“So that’s how it is…”
‘Still, how is crawling through a hole, a strength? Someone explain this to me please, I’ll be online all day waiting, anxiously in fact.’
While we were all being honest here, I kind of regretted snapping at him already. I was truly worried that he would simply walk off in an angry fit, thankfully, he did no such thing. The fact that he even tried to explain it to us was surprising in of itself.
Such a method of speaking, where one used words to convey a meaning contrary to their outward meaning wasn’t all that rare to be honest. For example, using words to deliver a praise which ran the risk of being construed as an insult…such situations happened often back on Earth as well…especially given how arcane some Chinese sayings were…
After listening to Anmi’s explanation, Sasani and Sinmosa softened their expressions as well.
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