"Alicia!?" Allen exclaimed in surprise.
Ryan looked at the cat, then he faced his companions with an amused smile. "I guess this is the second time your cat landed on me..." he told Allen. Then a moment later, he felt Alicia being cuddly with him, which made his smile turn into an awkward one. "Huh. It seems that she has a strong grip. Oh dear..."
Allen may not seem like it, but he couldn't help but feel embarrassed at the entire situation. 'Alicia, stoooop!!!' he exclaimed in his thoughts. For some reason, he really is flustered at what she's doing right now.
'Allen, help! I feel hypnotized by the scent of catnip on him! Pull me away! I'm freakin' embarrassed right now for this disgraceful act!!! He literally smelled like one! Did he bathe in a fountain of catnips or something!?' Alicia told Allen telepathically.
At that moment, Allen realized that Alicia is in her cat form, so it makes sense that she would suddenly react to the scent.
Meanwhile, Ryan seems to be nervous when he's holding the cat. It's as if he's scared that it might die any second now. Allen noticed this, but he disregarded it because he focused more in getting Alicia out from the boy's grip.
'Alicia! Get your grip away from him! Remove your claws from his clothes!' Allen told Alicia in the mind link.
From afar, Felix was able to sniff something. This made him look at Ryan curiously. "You smell like catnip, just what place did you even go?" he asked.
Ryan paused, and thought for a while, trying to recall the past events. "Well, before I went to school, a servant was passing by, carrying a load of catnips on her arms. I remember crashing onto her and got buried by them. I assume that it might be probably where I got the scent from." he stated as he tries to pull Alicia away from him. For some reason, he's unsure about where to touch the cat, because he feared he might accidentally hurt it or something. Though he didn't let that fear show and just pretended to be calm about it. A moment later, he could feel that his clothes are in danger right now by those sharp things.
"Alicia! Let go of him!" Allen exclaimed in fear. "You're better than this! Don't throw away your pride for this degenerate!" he encouraged.
Ryan looked at him weirdly, but he's also amused. "Ouch. My dear friend, I am deeply wounded by your words." he smiled with a hint of sarcasm in his tone. Then later on his expression changed into something in wonder. "And... you do realize that's a cat you're talking to?"
This time, Az went to aid them, also trying to pull Alicia away from Ryan.
"Alicia! You embarrassment of a creature to society! Fight the scent! You can do it!!! Do it for your honor! Your reputation!" Az encouraged as well, completely ignoring what Ryan just said.
Allen nodded in agreement, looking at Alicia in pure determination. "Yes! Just as Az said! After all we've been through, you cannot tarnish your name! Do not disappoint your ancestors! Also, hands off him! He's dirty!" he yelled, looking very scary right now. Everyone could feel him fired up at this situation.
"Hm." Ryan kinda took offense on that. So he let out a hum, then he looked at Alicia who's in his arms. "I guess you would have to try your best, little one. Fighting!" he said, also playing along. "Also, I'm pretty sure their clothes are more fun to tear off with those sharp claws of yours. So please get off of me." he added with a chuckle.
'I don't want to tear anybody's clothes!' Alicia exclaimed in her thoughts.
Meanwhile, Felix rose a brow, looking at them weirdly. "You do know that's a cat you're talking to, right? Don't tell me that you're expecting it to understand you?" he said.
Allen and Az went silent on that. 'Oh, you guys have no idea.' they both thought in unison.
'Wait! On a second thought, I'll cling onto him! As a fan, I can't waste this opportunity!!!' Alicia said in the mind link.
Allen and Az stared at her in horror. "ALICIA!!!" both of them shouted, giving her a scolding look.
At that moment, Ryan noticed something. He also felt confused. "Is it just me or is she clinging into me, not because of the catnip scent?" he said, particularly asking to no one.
"Hahahaha... You're just imagining things..." Az chuckled nervously.
Allen tiredly looked at Ryan and decided to tell a partial truth. "She... likes you? I guess." he answered, but he made his distaste known. Then a moment later, he scowled. "Talk about bad taste." he added.
Ryan smirked, amused at what Allen said. "I guess I should have bathed twice earlier. I guess the scent is really that strong to rub off on me." he said, deciding to ignore Allen's last sentence. Then later on, he felt curious. "Wait a minute, how did your cat get here?" he asked Allen.
"She tends to visit sometimes, she's a smart cat." Allen explained quickly. Thankfully, Ryan accepted that as a reason.
As Allen and Az try to pull Alicia away, Ryan seems to be hesitant on using his strength to take off Alicia from him. This action made Felix sigh and shook his head, deciding to step in so that he can help them.
"You bastards are a bunch of idiots. I had high expectations for the blue-haired creep to pull this off, but it seems he's just as pathetic as you two. Here, let me show you how it's done." Felix told Allen and Az, starting to aid them as well. Once he touched the cat, it made him grunt in surprise. "What the fuck!? Does this cat take a lot of proteins or something!?" he exclaimed.
"Oh? Here I thought you're gonna show us how it's done? What happened to that confidence from earlier?" Ryan smirked, which made the demon irritated.
"Just shut the hell up and quit hesitating on taking the cat away from you. If you don't want to get your fucking clothes ripped!" Felix snapped at him.
"I wasn't hesitating." Ryan denied.
"Yeah, sure. Whatever, you bastard." Felix rolled his eyes, obviously not believing him.
"Really, I'm not. I'm just thinking of a convenient way to get this cat off of me." Ryan said with a close-eyed smiled, trying his best not to grunt. "Well, about this cat... She really has a strong grip. Hey gremlin, just what on earth are you feeding her?"
"I don't know! Anything, I guess? But that doesn't matter right now, just focus on getting her away from you!" Allen answered, feeling a bit annoyed right now by everyone talking.
A few minutes later, everyone was able to get Alicia away from Ryan. Fortunately, his clothes didn't have any severe damage.
Allen carried Alicia in his arms, clearly relieved that they are finally free from such humiliating situation.
At that moment, there was silence.
Then suddenly, a male teacher from afar called for Ryan. This is enough for them to break the awkward silence.
"Well, it's been a great chat, everyone. You can just tell me the continuation of your plan later. Well, if you want to!" he tells them before going to the teacher.
As his back was faced from Allen and the others, he had a smirk plastered on his face, feeling satisfied at the new knowledge he had found.
Allen didn't know about that. In fact, he wasn't even aware. Which means he wasn't involved that time.
'It's better for him not to know for a while. It may not seem like it, but this can actually save his life...' Ryan thought to himself. '...especially in proving his innocence for a certain crime he didn't commit. Who knows, this might also benefit all of us.' his grin grew even wider.
Meanwhile, the teacher couldn't help but feel unnerved by Ryan's creepy expression.
---xXx---
Meanwhile, in a certain place, in a certain time...
"You sure are a nasty one, huh?" Ravana commented. She stood there on a rooftop, gazing at the scenery of beautiful buildings in front of her. "Framing the guy like that... I hate to admit it, but I guess it's a good plan."
The boy with a hood, who's now lazily laying on a bench nearby, smiled. "Well, it's all thanks to what his parents had done back then. Because of that, I was able to do such a perfect frame up." he said.
"Yeah." Ravana nodded. Then she turned to face the boy. "You sure did a great work on making those three believe that Allen Coldwell was involved with the deaths of Larence's biological parents, especially the tragic demise of Rachel's one and only older brother. You even indirectly led them into places and provided fake evidences that are absolutely convincing, even the professionals can be fooled by this."
"Yeah. I may not seem like it, but I'm really a hardworking fellow. I've been doing a lot of things ever since the first time I arrived here." the boy yawned. Then he stared at Alicia with a neutral expression. "It's much more effective if they have conflict upon themselves. Imagine, they're supposed to be in the same side, but they all fight, making them completely distrust each other. And it's all thanks to my efforts."
Ravana narrowed here eyes. "By first time, did you mean your first arrival in the Demon Realm?" she asked.
The boy sighed, looking at the girl as if she's being silly. "Of course! What else could it be!?" he said, pretending to get a bit annoyed.
Actually, that was a lie, he already did this plan ever since he arrived in this world. He had been planting fake evidences from the beginning, even before the demon Ted attacked the school. Honestly, he's kinda annoyed that he wasn't able to make Ryan convinced from the fake evidences provided. He also doesn't understand why Allen could almost... read his moves---he sure do hope that it's just his imagination or just reading too much into things.
Meanwhile, Ravana couldn't help but feel eery at his smile.
"I see. You also took advantage of their trust issues and their bad relationship with Allen. All you had to do was worsen it, making it impossible for them to join forces. Thanks to you, it seems they are very accusing towards Allen, even his comrades got involved because of their connections with him. You successfully made their view of him as a cold-blooded monster, who's pretending to be an ally for humanity." she stated, putting a hand on her chin. "By the way, I expected this Bella girl to go against Allen as well, but it seems she doesn't join Larence much, that's why she wasn't exposed to the fake evidences you've provided. It seems impossible to convince her now, so I guess we'll leave it at that..."
Then a moment later, she narrowed her eyes towards the boy with her. "Even if you did an impressive job, I still don't trust you. I am certain that you'll betray us once you get what you want. Unfortunately, we have no choice but to team up with someone knowledgeable as you, so I guess we'll have to stick with you for a while..." she sighed. 'And while we're at it, I'll make sure to find ways to make the demon king distrust you..' she left those thoughts unsaid.
"Alright then. I don't care what you think. As long as I could reach my goal, then everything is okay!" the boy chirped, putting both hands behind his head. "Let's focus on watching them destroy each other. Then we continue with our plan while they're distracted. I'll leave the rest to you, Raves."
Ravana resisted the urge to gag at the nickname, she stared at him with a look of disgust. "Don't say my name with such familiarity, you lowly human." she spat.
"Hey now, that's so mean. I have a name, you know?"
"Oh, you mean, Will? What a stupid name. Though I doubt that's even your real name, I bet that's just an alias."
Will rolled his eyes. "Whatevs." he says, and walks near the ledge. "Oh by the way, Ravana. There is one thing you got wrong."
"What do you mean?" Ravana growled.
"Despite Larence's distrust towards Allen and his comrades, they were still able to form an alliance." Will pointed out.
Ravana's eyes widened. Then she snapped at the boy angrily. "What!? Why didn't you tell me earlier? This is bad---"
Will raised both of his arms, as if he's surrendering for a crime he had done. "Woah. Calm the fuck down." he said, rolling his eyes at the girl. "Even if they did join forces, I'm pretty sure it won't last long. Plus, this is more convenient. It's good that they're close to each other, then slowly, their plan would collapse cuz they don't get along. Then they would be going around in circles, while we successfully attack the country without them realizing." he started to smile at the thought.
Ravana frowned. She liked the idea, but she hated the way that Will smiles suspiciously.
---
A/N:
I would like to thank and credit MooMaow (for the cat idea and hana-akito (you guys will know soon) for the cool ideas. ❤️❤️
I would also like to thank the readers who drew fanfics of character of this novel. I really appreciate it so much! 😭🤧❤️❤️❤️
Oh, if u guys wanna check out the fanarts, they are in a new book I created. Which is this one:
I also put my drawings of some TPOANV characters in there so that you could know what they look like. 😂😅✌️