How long had that person been gone?
A month? Or two?
She couldn't recall. She never had a good concept of time anyway. She slept, ate, and when idle, she went out for a stroll. A day would vanish in the blink of an eye.
Pardofelis lay bored on the rooftop, sunbathing, surrounded by a circle of Twilight Street's stray cats. They had voluntarily gathered in this house, serving as Pardo's few companions.
Since the person missing an eye and a leg left, Pardo hadn't encountered anyone else disturbing her stay in this house. In the first month, she continued her routine of going out to find food, steal things, sell things, and secretly deliver items to the sanatorium. Her life had simply changed from being homeless to having a house to live in.
However, in the second month, she noticed that the kitchen frequently and inexplicably had more food.
And this food wasn't the tired, old dry rations or bad, spoiled ingredients. Instead, it was fresh, high-quality ingredients of all kinds: fresh meat, poultry, vegetables, and fruits, all readily available. The meat was so tender it seemed freshly sliced from the cow.
Initially, she thought someone else was using the house as a base or secretly sending things to the poor. Later, she noticed that the amount of food was just enough for her for one week, ensuring the ingredients wouldn't spoil or the taste deteriorate from being stored too long, yet not so much that she would feel too stingy to eat heartily. It was perfectly portioned.
Pardo immediately thought of Lin, the one who had left. She instinctively realized that Lin was secretly providing these supplies.
So, she came up with a bold idea.
Today was the day the allotted food would run out and needed replenishing. She was lying on the rooftop sunbathing to signal to the person delivering the ingredients that "she was not inside the house."
In reality, her eyes were closed, but she was listening to the movements of the surrounding cats.
Stray cats are generally more alert than domestic cats. Their senses, honed in harsh environments, can perceive many things humans cannot, which is why Pardo specifically brought them here.
"Drip-drop..."
Time slowly crept forward. Pardo was actually quite unsure. If she were just sunbathing without thinking about anything, half a day would pass quickly. But now, she was preoccupied, and time felt surprisingly slow. Her patience was being worn down, and unlike the patience she had when infiltrating mansions to steal treasures, her patience for such uncertain situations was minimal.
"Meow~"
A cat meowed.
Pardo opened just one eye, cautiously observing the calico cat that was licking its paw and meowing softly.
Did it just randomly meow?
"Meow~" "Meow—"
Pardo suddenly opened both eyes. She warily watched several cats standing on all fours, their fur bristling. These were the most capable among the strays, and she had learned some of her own skills by observing them. At this moment, they must have sensed movement inside the house.
She moved lightly and silently on the rooftop, pressing herself against the outer wall, grabbing the railing, and climbing down upside down.
She narrowed her eyes, carefully observing the inside of the window. If one didn't look closely, nothing seemed amiss, but she had specifically tampered with the front door this time.
Before leaving, Pardo had pulled the doorknob down by two centimeters, and it would not naturally return to its normal position. However, the doorknob was now conspicuously back in its normal ninety-degree orientation.
Someone went in!
Pardo immediately returned to the rooftop. After a moment of thought, she shooed the cats away, then leaped onto the surrounding wall, landed lightly on the ground, and walked away without looking back until she vanished around the corner.
"..."
In the quiet, large house, no sound was heard.
After about ten minutes, a person walked out of the house. He quickly scanned the list in his hand to confirm everything had been delivered, then left the house and walked in the opposite direction.
But he didn't notice that the girl, who had ostensibly left to carry out her mission of robbing the rich and helping the poor, was watching him from around the corner using a shard of mirror on the ground. After he left, the girl quietly followed him.
Pardo didn't know why she was doing this. It was just that when she changed her habit from sleeping in a makeshift nest on the ground to sleeping in a bed, she always felt the house was too empty. Sleeping alone on a bed large enough for three people felt hollow.
She would treat this as going to meet the person who was helping her, and at least thank him. As for whether it was Lin... she would worry about that later.
...
"Are you sure you want to take her in? We're getting more and more people now."
The masked man put down the miscellaneous items and glanced at the nun who was speaking to a small, dirty girl with purple stripes on her face.
"...Yes, this is..."
"It's going to be another 'divine revelation' or 'fate,' isn't it? Tch." The man scoffed at this. "You're adopting them and giving the homeless a home because you want to, so stop blaming everything on that non-existent 'God' or 'Fate.' It's boring."
"..."
"Tsk, suit yourself. This is your sanatorium, after all."
The man seemed to notice a slight emotional fluctuation hidden beneath the nun's unchanged expression. He turned his head away and said nothing more. The nun, after watching his back retreat, resumed her conversation with the little girl.
Her gentle words soothed the girl's anxiety.
"Does that big masked brother dislike me?" The little girl asked timidly. Having no family, she was sensitive to the outside world and could perceive that the conversation just now was about whether or not to adopt her.
"No, he doesn't." The nun displayed a gentle smile and softly stroked the girl's head. "He is just... not good with words... Just like you, he is still learning how to interact normally with people. Until then, he can't express his thoughts very well."
"But, he definitely doesn't dislike you. He is very gentle with many people, and he is the same with you."
"I-is that so?"
"Yes."
The nun sighed. She wanted to touch those ugly stripes but held back her hand.
Those stripes didn't hurt. They seemed like mere markings drawn on the body, yet they were truly rooted inside people, stealing their lives.
In the year or so since she started taking in these people, more than ten individuals, including children, had died.
They went from showing no symptoms initially to later developing organ failure, vision loss, shock, and internal bleeding. No medicine, no doctor could do anything about it.
All she could do was pray for them before they died, hoping their souls could rest in peace.
"What, what should I do?"
She murmured, praying sincerely, praying that someone would answer her.
But she didn't know who would answer her. Just as the man had said, she didn't even know who she was praying to.