"So, where is the secret entrance? Is there a lever for it?" Alpheus asked. "I will help to check at least. This is a duty of a good-hearted prince! I feel like being a hero today!"
Furliette looked up after this new dog called Prince Alphie said that he would help her. She got up and stared at Alpheus, full of hope.
"Oh, brave Prince Alphie, please help me to find my boyfriend, Romeow. At least, please tell me whether he is alive and well or not. Because I've been thinking about him every day!" Furliette begged.
Alpheus puffed up his chest like a brave hero. He said, "Yes, Prince Alphie is a good-hearted prince today! I will help you!"
"Thank you, thank you so much, Prince Alphie! You're forever brave in my heart! I will sing your glory as the new hero of this pet shop!" Furliette said. "Romeow is a black cat. His left ear had been scarred. At least the last time I saw him getting inside the vet room, he had a bad scar on his left ear."
Pawtricia sighed. Since this black pomeranian said that he would help, that meant he had accepted all the risks.
"Prince, you can jump from that place—" Pawtricia said as she pointed at a tall rack leading to an opened vent. "The vent has been open for about a week for whatever reason. You can enter that vent, and then follow the vent, you will be able to see the Veteranian's clinic," Pawtricia explained, which raised a question in Alphie.
"How did you know all this?" he asked.
"Obviously, because I've seen a stray cat coming out from that vent to steal the cat food at night. That stray cat said the vent has many exits, and one of the exits leads to the Vet room."
"Ah, okay, then I will go to check! Just make sure to watch over my master. I would be in serious trouble if he catches me doing this," Alpheus said. Pawtricia nodded, though she didn't know what should she do to alarm Prince Alphie if his master searched for him.
Alpheus dashed to the rack and jumped from one row to another until he landed on top of the highest rack. He saw that Sir Junshik Hyung was still busy talking with the female clerk. The female clerk was holding a product, but from how she talked. She was definitely into Sir Junshik Hyung.
'Argh! Why is that female trying to get close to my Sir Junshik Hyung! Does she know that Sir Junshik Hyung is my SUPER MEGA BEST FRIEND?!' Alpheus was annoyed right now. He slightly regretted taking this mission, but a promise was a promise. That cat named Furliette seemed to be very sad about her soulmate called Romeow.
'Okay, let's do this quickly, so I can return to Sir Junshik Hyung as soon as possible! I got to ward off that pesky female who tried to approach him!' Alpheus said to himself. He jumped to the vent and looked around the dark passage with many branches. He didn't know which one would lead him to the vet clinic, so he just followed his instinct.
Alpheus followed the straight line and saw the light coming from the room under the vent. Alpheus approached it and checked where this was.
"Ick! Not this one!" Alpheus quickly turned around after seeing a man sitting on a toilet, wanking his cock while watching porn on his phone.
"Tch, tch, how perverted! At least Alphie and Sir Junshik Hyung never showed our cock in public!" Alpheus said as he felt more civilized compared to that man.
He checked another vent and saw another store. This one was a convenience store, and the clerk was busy playing with her phone.
Alpheus had a sharp vision, and he saw that the clerk was reading something.
'Hmmm, what is she reading anyway? Alphie can't read well… wu….' Alpheus was saddened because he was indeed really bad at reading and writing. But he saw that the girl was squealing cutely.
"Kyaaah~ Look at how Han Ye and Yunyu had a child in this world! OMG, I definitely like this Homewrecker system novel, and this is not an ad at all!" The girl yelled.
"Ahh, what a weird girl…." Alpheus mumbled and went to the next vent. He had to be quick because he was losing his time.
He also started to stick out his tongue because it was quite hot inside the vent.
He hit the jackpot when he checked the third vent and saw a room of white, full of caged animals around, from regular pets like cat and dog to unusual ones like a snake and big turtle.
Alpheus quickly scanned the room, trying to find a black cat with a scarred left ear.
Alpheus found a black cat inside a cage. Indeed, he had a scar on his left ear, though it seemed to have been healed. The black cat named Romeow didn't look to be heavily wounded, but he was so weak, just like Furliette.
He was thin, and the food bowl beside him was still full. Both Romeow and Furliette were worryingly sickly and thin.
A female vet with a white coat came towards Romeow and checked. She sighed when she saw that Romeow, the black cat, still refused to eat.
"Oh, you poor Romeow. Are you still sad that your master abused and left you here? Don't worry, okay? Even if he ditched you here, I would be the one taking care of you in the future," The female vet said. She opened the cage and patted Romeow.
Romeow meowed, but since humans couldn't understand animal language, she translated this as a distressing sign. Romeow was still distressed by his previous owner.
But for Alphie, the meow had another meaning.
"Please let me out of this cage. I want to see my Furliette," Romeow said. "Please tell me that Furliette hadn't been sold to a human. I don't want her to suffer the same fate as I did."
"Oh, Romeow, why do you keep meowing? Do you need something?"
"Meow…" Romeow realized that the vet wouldn't understand him anyway. So he just looked away sadly.
But what Alphie heard was, 'Please release Furliette and me. If you want to take me with you, please take us both. I don't want her to get sold to someone that would hurt her.'
'But I'm not sure if Furliette still likes me or not. After all, I've turned ugly because my previous master beat me up….'
Alpheus knew that the female vet meant well for Romeow. She even offered to take care of him in her house. But that would only depress Romeow even more since he was still worried about Furliette.
"Okay, I got this," Alpheus said to himself. He didn't really like listening to the citizen's requests most of the time because he had better things to do... Like waging war or at least killing 10 headed dragon.
But this wasn't his world, so he didn't have anything to do other than be a good prince and expand his domain slowly.
After getting all the information he needed, he returned to the initial vent and jumped out. He saw that Sir Junshik Hyung was still talking to that female clerk, much to Alphie's annoyance.
He really disliked seeing Sir Junshik Hyung talking with anyone other than him. But he couldn't do much other than disturbing Sir Junshik Hyung, stealing all his attention, at least for now.
Alpheus returned to Furliette and Pawtricia and said, "I found Romeow inside that vet room. He is alive—still with two balls— but he looks sickly, just like you, Furliette."
Furliette was shocked, "H—He is sickly? What happened to him? Is it because of the evilness of the previous owner?"
"No, not really. He is scarred and ugly now. But what makes him sickly is because he got separated from you. Romeow is sad that he had to leave you when he was bought by his previous master. He is even sadder now, thinking that you might've been bought by someone else and afraid that you'll get abused just like him," Alpheus reported everything that he heard.
"He is also depressed because he is ugly. Maybe you don't want him anymore because of his face."
"Oh, my prince, I will never leave my Romeow. No matter how ugly he is. He can wear a plastic bag if he is THAT ugly, you know," Furliette said. "But I will still accept him. I just want to be reunited with my beloved!"
"Hmm… about that…." Alpheus sighed, full of pity. "The vet said that she will take Romeow with her because she pitied her. I don't know if she will take you with her to reunite. Because she doesn't even understand animal language."
Alpheus looked at his master, Sir Junshik Hyung, he didn't like to help, but he didn't want to let a task unfinished.
"I think I can help you, but it would cost you something."