Kuroka didn't carry out her threats to strangle me.
In principle, I realized this pretty quickly myself, just detaching from made-up worries about canon and engaging my brain.
After all, she tolerated A LOT with that aristocrat she was supposed to end up with and only snapped when he decided to conduct some experiment dangerous to Shirone.
So I had nothing to fear—Kuroka just held onto my neck with a "menacing" look, clarifying that she's no auntie, at most a big sis.
Of course, I couldn't allow such an anime cliche to be established regarding myself, so I declared that she couldn't be my big sis since it's doubtful Zeoticus is her father, and my mother had no other children besides me and won't have any since she was recently killed by fallen angels during some experiment of theirs.
All the cheerfulness that had appeared during this time in the nekomata vanished like the wind!
Of course, I understand that using such a move is nasty and low, but I don't feel anything about it thanks to the potion.
And the main thing is the goal was achieved, and the means aren't so important.
Though logically it would make sense to refuse such a "gift" entirely if my goal is to stay far from canon and its main characters.
But cold reason didn't let me act on emotions and before acting rashly, I calculated all the pros and cons.
And it turned out that telling Zeoticus that first, I wanted one cat, and second, an ordinary cat, would be a rash step.
Not only could Zeoticus dispose of his miscalculation so that Shirone wouldn't end up with Rias, but Kuroka might develop a grudge against me that she'd drive into my carotid artery!
Also, hysterics and freaking out about the wrong "gift" would break the established image.
And yeah, the initial consumption of "Lobotomin" was caused by fear that I might blab and give myself away, plus just the situation itself, and afterward it was already decided to make this the image.
Though I had to switch to a gentler version—"Stoicin", which didn't shut me down to zero but dampened emotions to a near-zero level.
And generally, living with emotions dampened almost to zero became simpler and easier for me.
Next, I decided to finally get rid of the "gift" under the plausible pretext of fulfilling duties to care for "my" pets imposed on me by Zeoticus Gremory.
I was planning to settle the nekomata closer to Rias so she'd befriend them, and as soon as she got Evil Pieces, make them her servants!
It was a precise and calculated plan!
The plan was sound in theory. In practice, I'd failed to account for the most unpredictable variable: Zeoticus Gremory himself.
Turned out he'd already given orders on this topic and settled the cat girls in my room!
Though room is of course an understatement, a big understatement.
Take just my favorite "closet"—you could fit the closet I was used to from my past life in it and still have room for a bed and nightstand!
The bed is also of the "orgy bed" variety—a dozen adults could fit on it!
Why a nine-year-old kid needs that, I can't fathom!
But turned out that's not all!
In my "room" there are doors leading to "rooms" for servants!
And each of those "rooms" is like my apartment in my past life!
And there are THREE of these rooms!
One on each wall relative to the entrance to my main room, which has a separate corridor leading to it, which also has rooms intended as guest or servant rooms.
Yeah, such a small victory for Zeoticus regarding my status, or they just shoved me here right away and Venelana simply didn't argue, she had other concerns—covering tracks of her involvement in the assassination attempt on Ren and his mother.
Well, afterward they just left me in apartments designed for an heir or someone his level.
I didn't know about the additional rooms since I wasn't up for exploring my temporary room—I only made use of the space under the bed, the closet, and the corner where I set up a mini lab, all the rest of the space was covered in fog of war for me, which I had no desire to clear.
Back then I still cherished hope that Venelana would pressure Zeoticus and I'd be sent off somewhere far away.
Though later I thought and decided not to do anything that would give reason to send me off, otherwise this lady might decide it's worth finishing what she started and eliminating me!
Of course, the probability of this is minimal since Zeoticus would definitely assign guards to me, but she could easily wait a year or two, then send more killers, but more professional ones this time.
So I try to balance between not overly aggravating Venelana's paranoia about being a threat to her position and her grandson's status and daughter's reputation, enough that she'd say screw it and try to eliminate me right in the main house.
And at the same time not become a disappointment to Zeoticus so he doesn't send me away from the ancestral nest of House Gremory, where Venelana could eliminate me just in case without any problems.
This by the way is another reason why I continue regularly consuming "Stoicin".
With such stress I'd have already done all Venelana's work for her, stupidly hanging myself or more likely poisoning myself—Ren knew a couple recipes for pretty strong poison, and Zeoticus doesn't spare expenses on my education and I have access to rare and expensive reagents.
Actually because of this I had to stop slacking on magic and periodically consume "Readomitin", which allows absorbing and memorizing huge volumes of information.
Basically, Kuroka settled to the left relative to my main apartments, and Shirone in the room to the right.
Honestly, it stressed me out that there's another room straight ahead and thoughts crept into my head—maybe I should install a yellow brick road with a scarecrow at the crossroads pointing different directions... no wait, that's asking for trouble... which I'll place in the center of my room with signs pointing each way—well, still need to think about what to write, and I hope I won't have to, and the straight path will remain free from all sorts of canon characters!
But all sorts still appeared!
Thank God not in my room!
When I learned that Akeno who showed up at the castle was settled in an analogous additional room like in my chambers but in Rias's location, I crossed myself!
Kuroka choked on cake at that moment.
I had to make faces then, like trying not to show pain, and this was done specifically so the cat girl "mooching off" me would choke, as I wish her every time instead of bon appetit.
And yeah, both shameless cats got into the habit of "mooching off" me.
For some reason Zeoticus decided that in my condition, sweets should help me regain positive emotions or emotions in general, so in my room there were always candies, pastries, and cakes in such quantity that I was thinking about opening a confectionery!
Honestly, I was indifferent to sweets in that life too, and Ren was as well.
Generally I noticed that I have quite a lot in common with this little demon kid, even in little things—same tastes in food, lack of ambition, and interest in alchemy... though I was into chemistry when I was small, and when I grew up I got a bit into distillation... ahem... basically, we had something in common, yeah.
So when I woke up in the morning to munching sounds and crawled out of the closet, which scared the cat girls by the way, I discovered they'd demolished ALL the sweets!