“Why are they so afraid of Ugly Duckling?”


  “Perhaps they have taken Ugly Duckling to be their totem. They do look rather similar.”


  Amy and Babla were sitting on a short wall in the small courtyard, and talking to each other with wonder as they watched two orcs kneel on the ground, present two grilled fish to Ugly Duckling respectfully, and then press their foreheads to the ground respectfully.

  Ugly Duckling stared at the grilled fish on the plates with glowing eyes. However, it didn’t rush to eat, and instead extended both its paws, and tapped lightly on the two orcs’ heads.

  The two orcs looked up and bowed twice with their palms pressed together to Ugly Duckling excitedly and respectfully before getting up and leaving happily.

  “Meow~”


  Ugly Duckling only started eating the grilled fish happily after the two orcs went far away.

  “Hmph. This fellow will become super fat if it continues to cheat the people for its food here. It’s not going to fly even if its wings grow out,” Amy complained disdainfully as she looked at Ugly Duckling’s increasingly rotund back.

  “Do the ducks on your continent have to fly when they’re fully grown? Is there an upper limit on their weight that they could be sent to the table? For example, 5 kg or 10 kg?” Babla asked with wonder, even though she, too, had no idea how the ducks on the moon grew up.

  “Oh……” Amy’s eyes lit up, and she thoughtfully said, “This is quite a good idea. Anyway, we can’t put it into the oven if it gets too big.”


  Ugly Duckling, which was happily eating, suddenly halted, and turned around slowly with a terrified expression.

  “Eat, continue to eat. Must make yourself full.” Amy had an innocent smile.

  “Blah……” Ugly Duckling opened its mouth, and a piece of fish fell to the ground.

  It looked at the two fish on the plate longingly, but after hesitating for a moment, it ran to Amy with a swinging tail. Its round body seemed rather agile on the pebble ground. It intended to jump into Amy’s arms when it leaped in front of the short wall.

  Splat……

  However, it only reached about half of the wall’s height before it crashed into Amy’s feet, and slid down the wall gradually.

  “Ugly Duckling, don’t you know your weight?” Amy looked down at Ugly Duckling. There was resignation in her smile.

  “Ugly Duckling is really so stupid……” Babla had already bent over with laughter, and she almost fell off the wall.

  “Meow~”


  Ugly Duckling looked up at Amy aggrievedly as it tried to regain its status by acting cute.

  Mag came out from his room, and walked to the short wall after he heard the laughter. He hugged Amy gently to prevent her from falling off as he smilingly asked, “What are you laughing about?”


  “Take a look, Father. This fool Ugly Duckling is becoming fatter as it has duped the locals for food ever since it arrived,” Amy replied, pointing at Ugly Duckling.

  “Did those people come to send it food deliberately again?” Mag glanced at that porcelain plate on the ground with surprise

  Since last night, there had been chefs sending delicious food that they made specially to the small courtyard. However, it was not meant for them, but specified for Ugly Duckling.

  The Gray Temple’s intel did mention that the Falk Tribe worshiped an existence called the Flerken. It should be some kind of mysterious and powerful feline species, and thus the Falk Tribe was very respectful to all kinds of felines.

  “I heard they called Ugly Duckling Lord Flerken. Is Ugly Duckling that species of cat?” Babla asked.

  “They really called Ugly Duckling Lord Flerken?” Mag looked at Babla with surprise. They didn’t use this form of address easily.

  “Yes. Those two chefs called it that earlier, and they left very happily after Ugly Duckling touched their heads.” Amy nodded in agreement.

  “Flerken…… orange cat…… Could it be some kind of special coincidence?” Mag looked at Ugly Duckling with a frown. After pondering for a moment, he walked to the yard’s door. “I need to go out for a while. You all be good and stay at home.”


  “What is Father going to do?” Amy looked at Mag’s retreating back.

  “Maybe he has some important errands to run.” Babla shrugged as she wasn’t very interested.

  Mag got a shrine painting of Flerken through Heyman. This was something displayed in every home in the Falk Tribe, so it wasn’t anything rare. Heyman wasn’t suspicious when Mag asked to have a look. He only told Mag certain things that he should take note of when he passed him the painting, and he had to return it to him in time after he was done admiring it.

  From these details, Mag could see that Heyman placed a great importance on this shrine picture and how much they respected Flerken.

  Mag returned to the small courtyard, and unfurled the picture in his room.

  A giant fat orange cat was drawn right in the center on the paper made from animal skin with orangey-yellow paint. It resembled those super fat cats that no longer cared about their figures. It seemed to have a ball in its tummy.

  The amazing thing was that there was a pair of white wings on the back of this orange cat. However, this pair of wings was different from those of the birds. They looked like two palm-sized fat and round clouds, which were like two cute decorations stuck on the orange cat’s back.

  If it weren’t for the big orange cat’s bright piercing eyes that seemed to contain the starry sky and sea within them, Mag would have thought that it was some family’s cat which had a pair of small wings stuck to it unwillingly.

  “Isn’t it just a freaking orange cat?” Mag couldn’t help swearing after studying that picture for a long time.

  He finally understood why those chefs were treating Ugly Duckling like a god. Apart from that pair of tiny wings on its back and being slightly slimmer, Ugly Duckling seemed to have walked out from this painting.

  “The wings……” Mag muttered. Ugly Duckling had a pair of symmetrical white wing patterns on its back too. Could this be some kind of coincidence?

  Although cats were not common house pets yet, he had seen many cats after coming to this world. The majority were black cats and white cats, followed by the gray ones and tortoiseshell ones. However, only they had the one and only of the usually commonly seen orange cats.

  Furthermore, everyone who had met Ugly Duckling would give it a second look with the expression that said “how could there be a cat of this color in this world”.

  “No matter if it is a black cat or a white cat, an orange cat that can fool people is a good cat.” Mag rolled up the painting with a smile.