Chapter 76

3rd District’s New House.

It’s not a Bird, it’s New.

At least it could have been a Wolf House.

I feel sorry for saying this to Seira, but it was much newer than the previous house. Overall, the facilities were better and it was spacious. I could even give Lin a room.

As a Gumiho, Lin has grown not only in appearance but also mentally. Her soul’s form is no longer that of a naive child but closer to that of a woman.

If we just look at her appearance, she seems to be in her puberty. It’s said that women are in their puberty from birth to death, but any which way you slice it, Lin is in a turbulent period.

She must be recognized and treated as a woman of that age. Things that were naturally taken for granted in the past can’t be done now.

But I casually threw out a comment because I was bored.

“Lin, shall we bathe together with the master?”

“Yeah. Of course, I’m going to bathe with the master!”

Wait. I didn’t expect her to accept this.

As she boldly responds, I find myself hesitating.

“I was just saying it.”

“Huh? Why not~? Let’s bathe together~”

“Lin has grown up now. You should be able to bathe by yourself. Above all, you can’t bathe with a man.”

Is her sense of chastity still lacking? Lin tilts her head, making an innocent expression as if she doesn’t understand.

“It’s fine with the master!”

“It matters to me.”

“The master doesn’t want to see Lin all grown up? Lin has grown so much, you know?”

Saying such things, Lin lowers her head and puts her hand on her chest. Indeed, a shallow hill has emerged that wasn’t there before…

Gah.

What am I imagining right now?

Stop overthinking!

Remember how Tao-sul ended up!

“It’s absolutely not allowed. If you keep this up, you’ll live as a slave for the rest of your life, you know?”

“Lin likes being a slave!”

“…Lin. I’ve told you many times. Being a slave is not a good thing. Talking like that is absolutely not okay. People in the world will see you strangely. Do you understand?”

“Hehe. Master, your expression is hilarious right now. Well, okay. I’ll let it slide today. Seira~ Let’s bathe with Lin.”

Lin responds with a giggle. It’s ambiguous whether she has truly understood or not.

Every time we bathe, there’s a little scuffle, but it’s not just during bath time. Bedtime isn’t much different.

Lin used to curl up on my belly while sleeping. Naturally, as she’s grown, she can’t sleep in the same position as before.

To be honest, if I were to place Lin on my belly right now, it would probably cave inwards by the time I woke up. But Lin insisted on sleeping on top of me.

“Lin has a room now too. The bed there is nice, so sleep there.”

“The bed is uncomfortable! Lin can’t sleep if it’s not on the master’s belly! Why are you saying this can’t happen, or that can’t happen?!”

Lin yelled at the top of her lungs. The serene tone and demeanor she had maintained until now were torn apart in an instant.

“What if I left my spot and something happens to the master?”

“I’m right next door anyway, and Lin’s grown, so you should do things accordingly.”

Although I’ve cuddled with Mirabel while sleeping, the situation with her is a bit different.

Cuddling with her feels nice like a favorite stuffed animal, but Mirabel, who mistakenly thought she was abandoned by her parents, had severe dependence. She couldn’t sleep unless I hugged her.

But Lin isn’t quite that extreme, especially since I’ve raised her since she was little, giving her a daughter-like feeling. I want to provide proper education for her.

But it doesn’t seem that Lin thinks so.

“Lin has tried hard to stay by the master’s side, but if I knew it would come to this, I wouldn’t have bothered in the first place. Master, if you keep this up, will Lin not be a Gumiho?”

Threatening that she wouldn’t become a Gumiho. I never expected Lin to play this trump card. As her tail grows and she transforms into a fox, she begins to strategize in ways other slaves could not.

If she were to act violently, I could subdue her with a command, but since that isn’t the case, I can’t just push back hard without risking everything for my complete liberation.

“Understood. Let’s sleep together.”

“Okay!”

Lin quickly clung to me, wrapping her arms and tails around me like a pillow. Not allowing me to move at all.

She buried her face into my chest and took a deep breath. Then, she slyly slipped her hand under my clothes and caressed my scars with her slender fingers.

I thought she was just teasing, but Lin’s odd eye shined with a serious light in the darkness.

“Lin… I couldn’t sleep for days because the master was hurt? The master got hurt because of Lin… What if I wake up and the master is dead? It’s so scary, so I lay next to the master every day. I couldn’t endure it without smelling the master’s scent.”

Lin began to share her struggles that she endured alone for a month.

“Actually, I vaguely noticed. People pointed fingers at Lin, calling her a cursed fox, a monster that brings misfortune. Lin knows she’s different from others.”

“……”

“But it was better than I thought. The master complimented me on being pretty. As long as the master thinks Lin is pretty, it’s enough. But after going through this incident, I started to dislike myself.”

Lin hesitated for a moment before continuing.

“Persi wasn’t wrong in what she said. I know Lin made a mistake. But it made me angry because it was too true. I want to stay by the master’s side. It made me realize the reality I was desperately trying to avoid.”

Lin let out a deep sigh, murmuring with a tone of self-pity.

“Why was I born like this? What on earth am I? If I were ordinary like everyone else, I could have been happy with the master. Why am I so unfortunate… Why was I born with this fate?”

Lin muttered as a bitter smile appeared on her face.

Lin has grown. She can not only feel the emotions in her voice but also interpret the meanings in her words. She has established her own identity and recognizes what kind of being she is.

It’s different from the past when she was just a child. Trying to persuade her with sugary words is like offering her a poisoned apple.

“Lin is a Gumiho, and that’s a good thing. You think you could have been happy if you were ordinary? Not at all.”

But had I ever spoken sweetly to my slaves before? It’s always been pure 100% sincerity that I offer to them, not just good-sounding words.

“Think about it. If Lin were an ordinary fox, would we have met in Baeyun Gorge?”

“…No.”

“If she were an ordinary fox, why would I make her my slave? There are plenty of them around. I’m a rather picky slave merchant, you know?”

“But….”

“Did you just say fate? This isn’t like fate. I came to Baeyun Gorge by my own will, and Lin appeared before me on her own. Let’s not brush our choices aside and attribute them to some invisible will of the heavens, okay?”

After shutting her mouth and thinking deeply, Lin finally said.

“…Okay, I understand.”

As if she grasped it intuitively, she nodded her head. Thankfully, it seems to have passed well. I patted Lin’s back, and she nuzzled her cheek against my hand, enjoying the touch.

“Oh right, master.”

“Yeah?”

“Lin has something else she did while you were unconscious besides smelling you?”

The seriousness from earlier vanished as Lin’s eyes and mouth curved into a crescent moon shape. It was the kind of expression she made when she was playing a prank.

Even without obstacles, walking ten steps with my eyes closed is scary, let alone in an unconscious state; no matter how pretty the girl is, it’s bound to send chills down my spine.

“…What did you do?”

“Well~? What do you think Lin did?”

Lin replied while shaking her five tails. We’re still only halfway there, yet the future is shrouded in darkness.

***

“Yu Hwa, it’s been really hard to see your face lately?”

Late at night, a customer came to the Celestial Pavilion. It wasn’t the troublemakers who checked in every day, but rather Hilde, a female lion of Vestia.

Sitting in a chair with a posture resembling that of a third-rate ruffian from an alley, Hilde arrogantly spoke.

“I’m sorry, princess. This old man hasn’t been in good health lately…”

Yu Hwa had repeatedly refused Hilde’s visits. While she claimed to be sick, the truth was that she was lying because she was worried that Hilde would run into Lin.

At their first meeting, Hilde had thrown a punch at Yu Hwa while saying, “Are you strong? Let’s fight!” So even if Lin were acknowledged as a Gumiho now, she still wouldn’t have enough power to defeat Hilde.

If they met now, Lin’s precious tails would surely get pulled out. Therefore, she had been trying to prevent the two from meeting as much as possible, except for today.

“Well, you do look like you’re in pain. You’ve aged a lot while I haven’t been watching.”

Having just started raising a Gumiho, Yu Hwa was beginning to feel the effects of rejecting her divine fate. For her, who is a mythical being, the traces of time could not hide her mystique.

However, the light in Yu Hwa now had faded considerably. She appeared to have aged just like a typical old woman.

Thanks to that, Hilde didn’t harbor much suspicion under the pretext of saying she was hurt, so it’s a relief in that aspect.

“I heard the news. That you meet frequently with that human, the death god slave. I heard he even opened a cat café?”

“That’s correct. After talking with him, I found he was quite easy to communicate with, so I asked him to be my conversation partner.”

“How interesting. I never thought there would be someone in the world who caught your interest. You don’t seem to like me that much, do you? No, I mean, how many people in the world do like me?”

Hilde is aware that her personality is eccentric. She cannot resist when she sees something interesting.

She knows, but as you can guess just by looking at her now, she has no intention of changing. She has the power to maintain her position, so she thinks she can.

“By the way, that death god slave has Hongho with him. And apparently, her tail is a triple-tailed fox.”

“That’s correct.”

“Is that so….”

As if pondering something seriously, Hilde’s expression grew grave, then she lowered her voice and asked.

“Is that a Gumiho?”

“A Gumiho? What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

“Just that. I remembered the nine mirages that Yu Hwa’s bead had shone with. I wonder if maybe a Gumiho that was sealed has come out or something.”

Even Yu Hwa’s reaction back then was strange. She said her divine power had diminished and ended up closing her fortune-telling business, but Hilde’s mind kept drifting towards that thought.

If a real Gumiho appears, the world might be devastated. If that Hongho is a Gumiho, she planned to eliminate her before she grew in strength.

“Are you saying that little fox might be a Gumiho?”

“Exactly.”

“I can’t say for sure. Among yokai, there’s no way to verify each other’s abilities, so I can’t check it myself. However, I didn’t sense any great danger from that child.”

“Is that so?”

Hilde’s gaze sharpened. Her golden pupils flashed with a vertical black line, glaring at Yu Hwa as if she were aiming for her inner self.

Yu Hwa calmly sipped her tea with her eyes closed.

After a moment of subtle tension, Hilde broke the atmosphere with a smirk.

“Well, if you say so, I guess so.”

Hilde drank her tea in one gulp and then set it down loudly.

“Today isn’t anything special. I just couldn’t sleep, so I came to have my fortune told.”

“My divine power isn’t what it used to be.”

“I don’t care. It’s just for fun anyway. I’m not the kind of person who can be swayed by fortunes.”

“If you say so, I might as well tell your fortune.”

As Yu Hwa created a pure white fox bead and handed it to Hilde, she placed her hand on the bead. Soon, Yu Hwa’s tails fluttered as if under a divine connection, and a mystical mist filled the surroundings.

The crystal flashes as it predicts Hilde’s fate.

“The black beast turns its back to the heavens, lowering its feet to the earth. At the end of the path forward, brilliant liberation and calamity shall intersect. No iron exists, yet the fetters shall be eternal.”

As the mist dissipated, the crystal lost its light. After hearing her fate, Hilde frowned.

“What kind of nonsense is this?”

I can’t make head or tail of it.

I don’t even know if it’s good or bad.

“Princess, from ancient times, prophecies have been vague. Because small coincidences that don’t go beyond a certain degree can lead to a new outcome.”

“So you’re saying it depends on how I act whether a good future will come or not?”

“That’s how it seems.”

In that case, Hilde felt that she didn’t need to worry. After all, with her power, she could snatch a happy ending even by running away.

Brilliant liberation.

Perhaps she might have an experience unlike anything she’s ever had before.

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