Because of his build and the scar on his face, Purrcival could easily give the impression of being a rather fierce Felyne at first glance.
But after exchanging a few words with him, Altaïr quickly discovered that he was warm, outgoing, and kind. Purrcival enthusiastically brought out all sorts of delicious sausages, dried fish, squid jerky, and other treats for them to try.
By comparison, his children had rather peculiar personalities. Pawdrick was flashy and frivolous, while Clawdia was proud and stubborn. Who knew where they had picked that up?
Their mother? She was nothing like that either.
The Grimalkyne from the New World was so gentle that she almost seemed like a pushover. Had she spoiled her children so much while raising them that they had turned out this way?
Isis excitedly told them about the picnic in the wetlands that they had just planned. Naturally, Clawdia was going; she joined in whenever Isis did something.
Purrcival frowned. He had promised to spend the day helping Roe dry fish, and they were only halfway done. He was about to decline.
Roe smiled gently and spoke first. "The difficult parts are mostly done, meow. You can leave the rest to me, meow.
Go and spend some time with Clawdia, meow. You haven't seen each other in years, meow."
Clawdia looked at her mother. Of course she wanted her mother to come along too. She had not seen her father in years, but the same was true of her mother, wasn't it?
As they hesitated, Altaïr subtly nudged Sajji in the back with his knee.
Sajji scratched his ear. "How about we help too, meow? Working together should make things go much faster, meow. We still have a few hours until noon, so we should be able to finish everything, meow!"
Purrcival gave Sajji an approving look. "That's a good idea, meow. If we divide the work, it shouldn't take long, meow."
Isis rolled up her sleeves. "Leave the heavy lifting to me!"
Faced with their enthusiasm, Roe's tufted, pointed ears twitched twice. She did not object. Of course she wanted to spend time with her husband and daughter too.
She began teaching everyone how to debone the cleaned fish, remove the spines, marinate the meat with a special blend of spices and salt, then prop the fish open with bamboo strips and hang them up to dry.
Sajji, who was skilled at tinkering with all kinds of machinery, was very nimble with his paws. He learned quickly, and before long, he was working faster and more skillfully than Clawdia, who already knew what she was doing.
Purrcival noticed this while removing fish bones and struck up a conversation. "You've got nimble paws, youngster, meow. Are you a support Felyne who specializes in machinery, meow?"
Sajji quickly bowed his head. "That's right, Senior Purrcival. I'm a support Felyne, meow. I wouldn't say I specialize in anything, but I do use machinery often, meow."
Sensing Sajji's nervousness, Purrcival bared his teeth in a grin. "No need to be so tense, meow."
He lowered his voice. "Thank you for earlier, meow. Roe isn't used to asking others for help. She always ends up shouldering everything herself, meow.
If you hadn't offered to help, she would have stayed home alone and worked until late into the night, meow."
Sajji's ears twitched in embarrassment at the legendary veteran's praise and gratitude. "Actually, Altaïr was the one who prompted me just now, meow."
Purrcival looked at him in surprise, then reached out and patted him on the shoulder. "He nudged you with his knee, but what you said and what you did were entirely your own idea, weren't they, meow?"
Altaïr, who had pricked up his ears and was secretly listening, felt his scalp tingle. Purrcival had noticed even such a subtle movement?
The old Felyne was too perceptive. He had better let Sajji handle this on his own and simply eavesdrop from a distance.
But the more he listened, the more something seemed off...
After thanking Sajji, Purrcival did not leave. Instead, he crouched beside him and began chatting away.
In fact, he already knew quite a bit about Sajji. He knew Sajji came from a wild Felyne tribe in the Great Desert, and mentioned that he too had once been a wild Felyne, using their shared background to build a closer rapport.
He even knew that Sajji was skilled at building machinery, had served with the Loc Lac Rangers, and could not cook a proper Canteen meal...
That information could only have come from a few sources: either Clawdia herself or something Lady Shalan or Pawdrick had let slip.
Most of Sajji's attention was on the fish he was preparing. Between that and his nervousness at being approached by a legendary Felyne, he did not notice much.
Altaïr did, however. Purrcival seemed to be using their casual conversation to verify what he had heard while learning even more about Sajji.
What was he up to?
"Youngster, what do you think of Clawdia, meow?" Purrcival quickly added, "I mean, does she ever do anything reckless in her daily life, meow?
You know, I rarely have time to discipline her, and her mother is too softhearted, so she has grown into this proud, stubborn girl, meow.
You two are partners who fight side by side. If you notice her doing anything clearly wrong, tell us directly, meow. We'll discipline her and set her straight, meow!"
"Meow?" Sajji tilted his head.
Altaïr, who was eavesdropping nearby, recoiled in shock, but Sajji still did not realize anything was amiss.
After all, Altaïr's adoptive mother, Lady Karin, had once told him something similar: "Keep an eye on him. If he does anything reckless, write to me and I'll set him straight," or words to that effect.
As far as Sajji was concerned, Purrcival was simply worried about his daughter. With Clawdia's reckless fighting style, someone really did need to keep an eye on her.
The next time Clawdia tried to charge straight into a Monster's mouth, he could invoke Purrcival's authority and put the brakes on her with far more justification, meow!
With that thought, he nodded. "Everything else about Clawdia is fine, meow. I just think she's sometimes too careless with her own safety, meow.
Felynes may be agile, but we can still get hurt or have accidents, meow. She should be more careful in battle."
Sajji wondered whether he had imagined it. For a moment, the expression on Purrcival's face was not one of worry or anger, but delight and excitement.
Realizing that he had let his expression slip, Purrcival immediately composed himself, reached out, and gave Sajji several firm pats on the shoulder. "Then from now on, I'll leave it to you to help us keep a close eye on that girl, meow!"
He grabbed Sajji's paw, still sticky and slimy from the fish, and pumped it vigorously up and down a couple of times. "Take good care of her, meow!"
Faced with such excessive enthusiasm, Sajji finally sensed that something was off.
But Purrcival had already turned and walked briskly away, leaving Sajji standing there in bewilderment.
Having witnessed essentially the entire exchange, Altaïr walked over to Sajji, tugged at the back of his collar, and led him to a secluded corner of the house.
Altaïr crouched down, his expression grave as he met Sajji's gaze.
After a moment, he leaned closer and spoke in a voice only the two of them could hear. "Well, your answer was pretty vague the last time I asked, so let me make sure.
You're serious about Clawdia, right?"
"Mew..." Sajji twisted away shyly.
Altaïr glanced through the window toward the backyard. Purrcival was trotting over to Roe, who was arranging the drying racks, and excitedly telling her something.
Roe looked surprised at first, then let out a long sigh of relief, as though a weight had finally been lifted from her shoulders.
"...Forget it. Even if you weren't serious about her, it's probably too late for you to back out now."
With everyone working together, they finished preparing the pile of fish before noon and hung them all on the racks in the backyard.
—--
Purrcival's family accompanied Altaïr and the others back to Isis's house. They planned to meet Gordon, Hayata, and the rest of the group before setting out on their long-overdue outing.
But the figure standing in the living room startled Isis. "Uncle Julius?" she blurted.
Julius turned around. When he saw Isis, even the ever-stoic leader of the Guild Knights betrayed a flicker of awkwardness.
Gordon stood across from him, his face dark and grim. When his daughter and the others entered, he opened his mouth but could not find the words for a long moment.
After several seconds, he finally spoke, his voice heavy with resignation. "It looks like... we might have to postpone this trip."
"What happened?" Isis asked in surprise.
Gordon's mouth twisted into a grimace. "Someone's been causing trouble. We need to go teach them a lesson."
"And there's something else..." Julius reached into his coat and produced another scroll sealed with wax. "It's a little early, but...
6★ Hunters Isis and Altaïr, your first assigned mission has arrived as well."
This time, Gordon and Hayata, who stood beside him, were the ones left stunned.
Gordon instinctively reached for the mission scroll in Julius's hand, but Isis snatched it first.
Hayata could not help protesting, "But you two were only promoted a little over a month ago..."
"Just like Father always says, urgent matters wait for no one, right?" Isis said with a smile, cutting her mother off.
"Just getting to share a few meals with all of you has already made me very happy."
Altaïr took the scroll from Isis, broke the seal, and quickly scanned its contents.
Then he looked up and nodded to Julius. "We'll be ready to leave immediately."
There was no time for proper farewells. The High Rank Hunters donned their armor, took up their weapons, and went their separate ways.
* * *
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