The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 730: In the Hillerwig Mountains, No One Can Kill a Cat

In the third year of the Age of Anomalies, the steamship "Snow Moon," the first to arrive at Storm Cape in the Wastelands, caused an immense stir.

Every continent, with the exception of the shattered Lennon Archipelago, had believed itself to be the sole survivor.

The passengers aboard the "Snow Moon" were a motley crew: destitute youths, ruined merchants, adventurers hungry for exploration, desperate aristocrats, and preachers. It was clear they all shared one common trait: a gambler's spirit.

Cowards and those who cherished their lives would never dare to cross continents in the Age of Anomalies.

When it became clear that the steamship had departed from Winnelag and carried only humans, the passengers were met with unbridled enthusiasm. The destitute youths became honored guests of the aristocracy, the merchants forged new trade routes, the adventurers received generous spiritual rewards, the aristocrats entered new social circles, and the preachers founded new churches.

As trailblazers, every passenger received a handsome reward. It was around this time that the saying began to circulate: "In the Hillerwig Mountains, no one can kill a cat."

Its origin is unknown; perhaps it was born at some grand feast or uttered by a drunk in a tavern.

The Hillerwig Mountains hug the western and southern coasts of the Main Continent, or more precisely, they occupy its southwesternmost corner. The sprawling mountain range once protected the locals from monsoons and humidity, but with the dawn of the Age of Anomalies, the Hillerwig Mountains became a wall of rock, blocking the path to hope.

The only easy route to the coast beyond the mountains was through the small town of Nis. A few kilometers from the town, a pass cut through the mountains, saving people a half-day's journey to cross them.

For this reason, the native inhabitants living around the mountains voluntarily relocated to Nis or left the mountains altogether to escape the dwindling game that made hunting so difficult.The once-quiet town of Nis burst into life, and the ten-mile dirt road to the coast was even repaired and paved with stone.

There is an old saying in the Hillerwig Mountains: "The sun does not penetrate the deep forest."

It means that even when people live surrounded by the mountains' rich resources, some hunters will still go hungry.

The town of Nis was no exception. Caravans and mountain folk on foot arrived daily, and with each passing day, the number of hungry people grew.

Their presence shattered the former tranquility of Nis. Thefts, robberies, and even murders became more frequent. Even when the town's mayor organized a group of strong hunters to maintain order, the situation barely improved.

However, the new residents also realized that chaos would only worsen the town's plight, so they tacitly reached a kind of balance: simply put, harming people was absolutely forbidden.

Theft, robbery, looting. The town silently permitted the poor who couldn't feed themselves to engage in such acts, but if anyone harmed another person, the gallows was their only fate.

This was the only thing the town could do when faced with a population several times its own.

Although such a compromise would make any lawyer frown, it did effectively reduce the chaos in Nis—but only for humans.

Many animals lived in the town of Nis.

Squirrels, wild dogs, cats, birds.

Because the path to the fertile coast was not difficult, the residents of Nis, unlike those in other villages and towns in the Hillerwig Mountains, did not eat "everything they could catch."

Though much of this was also due to the fact that the townspeople were orthodox followers of the Church of Nature.

However, the relocated residents changed this peaceful coexistence. The wild dogs were the first to suffer, but these gentle animals quickly learned that the strangers who had appeared in town were different from before. Some of them hid in the homes of residents who took them in, while others fled into the Withered Forest and were never seen again.

Squirrels were not easy to catch, and setting traps took too much time. With the exception of a few unlucky ones who were caught off-guard or shot with arrows, most of them were safe.

Therefore, it was the cats who lived in the town that suffered the most. They were not as "smart" nor did they travel in packs like the dogs. For most of the day, they would lie alone or in pairs on warm, dry stones, whiling away the hours. Even if someone passed by, they wouldn't open their eyes, like sweet, lazy elves.

And so, they were completely annihilated. Dirty hands snatched them up with ease, and while the cats rubbed affectionately, thinking they were being petted, they were killed.

Among them were both pets and strays. After all, everyone knows that cats are not creatures to be kept indoors.

The local residents hated and feared the outsiders who made the cats let out such heart-wrenching cries. Every day, the sad sobs of children mourning their lost pets could be heard from the houses in town.

All they could do was keep their doors and windows tightly shut during the day, not allowing their little mousers to run outside, and console themselves with the thought that the outsiders were only killing the unfortunate cats, not them.

It is impossible to pinpoint exactly when things changed, but the locals believe it happened a month after the new residents arrived.

That day, in the afternoon, many townspeople heard the soul-crushing shriek of a cat. In later retellings, some residents claimed that after the cry, they saw a limping, pure black cat flee from the town.

The residents who saw this hated the outsiders and felt happy for the fleeing cat—at least it had escaped the hunter's clutches and would no longer come near this dangerous town.

But the next day, people saw yesterday's black cat, the one that had fled the town, sitting in the very center of town with its hind leg bandaged. It would sometimes follow certain people, only to quickly return.

Some tried to catch it, but the black cat always dodged them nimbly. Strangely, it would then follow those who had tried to catch it. But soon, the black cat would return again.

However, people soon discovered a horrifying truth: those it followed would die a terrible death, their bodies mutilated in the same way they themselves had treated the cats.

The residents began to panic, but then they noticed that the black cat only killed those who had harmed cats. The punishment they received mirrored the cruelty they had inflicted.

People unanimously decided that the cat killers had angered a deity or some other being, and occasionally someone would claim to have seen the shadow of a girl embracing the black cat at sunset.

The black cat left town three days later and never appeared again.

But the natives of the Hillerwig Mountains had already reached a consensus and unanimously decided to adopt this law, which protected them, other people, and the cats.

That is:

In the Hillerwig Mountains, no one can kill a cat.