Celia closed her mouth, but then, unable to bear Shula’s intense gaze, gave a small answer.
“You have to feed it the energy of a living animal.”
“I heard you were the main feeder of the nine-tailed fox.”
“As long as I raised it, no one can ate it.”
As she drew a line with a hard face, Shula suddenly burst into laughter.
“Oh my god, Captain. “I was not worried about anyone else right now.”
“then?”
“I was worried about you, Captain!”
This time Celia laughed.
“The magic didn’t work on me.”
“I was already wrong in the part where I thought it was all about power.”
Will the nine-tailed fox really bewitch people with its magical powers?
They are creatures born with their faces, hair, speech patterns, and even body odor designed to bewitch people.
It was clear that he would grow up to be bewitching and decadent, from his eyes to his every gesture.
“Didn’t look down on their instincts. “You were going to get a big nose injury someday.”
Shula, who gave the warning casually, bowed and left the house.
I was finally alone.
“phew… … .”
Celia, exhausted, returned to her room.
As I removed the cloth covering the iron bars, the limp nine-tailed fox raised its head.
Celia looked at the wounds on the fox’s body.
To add a little bit of exaggeration, it seemed like it had better resilience than the troll. It was already almost completely healed.
“Wasn’t it frustrating?”
“Currung.”
I felt so sorry for the nine-tailed fox trapped in a cage.
It reminded me of my childhood, when I was locked in my room all day.
“I’ll let you out, so stay calm in the room. “If you did’t, we’ll put you back in the cage.”
The fox blinked as if he understood.
She opened the cage door without much hesitation.
At the same time, the nine-tailed fox that had been so calm was shot out the window.
It was like an arrow sticking out of a bowstring pulled with all its might.
Celia wasn’t embarrassed.
She followed the nine-tailed fox’s movements with her eyes using her body vision, which allowed her to fight three or four monsters alone, and then reached out to the exact spot.
It was a sharp look in his eyes that was completely different from when he looked at Shula.
chin!
The fox cub’s neck came into her grasp.
“Kyaaaaaaa!”
The nine-tailed fox howled fiercely and struggled as if it had never been so troubled.
‘Were you acting like you were being gentle? ‘I guess someone wasn’t a fox.’
Celia extended her other hand to safely move the fox into its cage.
The fox did not miss the opportunity.
He set his teeth and bit my forearm without mercy.
Celia frowned, but that was all.
This was nothing compared to the pain in my shoulder.
The fox was so frightened that foam-like saliva flowed from its snout.
“Oops, fox.”
“Kaaak! “Kyaaaaak!”
“Let’s calm down. huh?”
She gently encouraged.
When I thought about calming down a scared child, my soft voice came out easier than I thought.
It seemed to be her original voice, a slightly high-pitched and clear voice.
Compared to the low, intimidating voice I usually make, my throat felt comfortable.
“Shhh… … .”
As I waited quietly, the fox cub’s eyes, which had become cloudy, slowly, very slowly, returned to reason.
“Why were you so scared? were you okay. “I won’t hurt you.”
Celia smiled softly, wiping the crab foam off the fox’s snout with her hand.
When she smiled, her cold face covered in thin ice became surprisingly fluffy and pretty.
It was her original face.
The fox cub looked up at her with round eyes.
“Your fur was all wet from the spit.”
As soon as the muzzle relaxed, Celia released the fox safely into the cage.
“I won’t release you today. You broke your promise. Did you agree?”
Of course, the fox had no answer. Celia didn’t mind.
“But we have another chance tomorrow. “If you didn’t ran away, I’ll let you go.”
“… … .”
“You will have a chance every day. “The choice was yours.”
Celia, who taught neatly, closed the cage door.
widely.
The second night of the nine-tailed fox, who was supposedly the best in the East Continent, and the paladin, who was the strictest and saddest, passed like that.
***
The nine-tailed fox could hardly trust Celia.
He must have realized that once he showed his true colors, acting wouldn’t work, so he was now very openly wary.
It was said to be a nine-tailed fox that preys on people, but since it is a cub, it was not good at hiding its true feelings.
‘Had I been abused?’
Celia read traces of past abuse in the fox’s intense vigilance.
As the priestess said, if she had lived on the Eastern Continent for 19 years, the time she spent with humans before going to the Western Continent’s marketplace would have been at most two months… … .
‘Were they captured by humans on the Eastern Continent?’
I don’t know what happened, but I was certain that the fox’s hatred of humans did not develop overnight.
Her heart was heavy, like someone who has found an abused child.
No, it was just like a baby in that it was a young being with infinite possibilities.
I felt even more disgusted because I knew what the pain of abuse felt like.
Before I knew it, I was breaking into a cold sweat and my hands were shaking.
‘I am strong.’
Celia caught her breath as she grabbed the sword hanging from her waist.
‘No one can threaten to kill me now.’
She devoted herself to training obsessively.
Since bringing the nine-tailed fox home, the intensity of training has been increasing day by day.
The vice-captain jokingly tried to stop him, saying he would collapse, but it didn’t work.
‘I was a person who should die, but I was trying to live, so I had to do this. This is the only way I can protect myself.’
Celia thought as she swung her sword.
‘But, can I raise that child in a situation where it was difficult to protect myself?’
The fox was a monster, but it was neither good nor evil.
It was different from the cursed self.
The existence of a gray area that varies depending on how you grow.
If he becomes a yoma, Celia will eventually have to kill the child.
I just wanted to avoid that.
Killing an abused child with your own hands… … .
To prevent that, proper education was needed.
Discreetly, kindly, properly.
Didn’t even thought about seducing humans and eating them.
‘That child’s life and death were in my hands.’
As soon as I thought that, I came to my senses.
The more I thought about it, the more it wasn’t normal.
‘Why did the priestess trust me to entrust the nine-tailed fox to me?’
I couldn’t understand how the nine-tailed fox’s future could be entrusted to a Holy Knight from the West Continent.
I even heard that priestesses are beings who serve gods and spirits in the Eastern Continent.
The baby nine-tailed fox is not yet a spirit creature, but wasn’t it a being with its feet on the edge?
Such a precious being… … .
‘It would be useless to worry about it now. Since then, the priestess has disappeared… … .’
Celia shook her head and headed toward the leader’s residence.
In the living room, the air was thick with the stench of foxes and the smell of blood.
After opening the window to ventilate, we approached the cage.
“Kyaaaaaaa!”
The fox immediately raised his fur and became alert.
‘I can’t keep leaving it like this.’
Celia crouched down in front of us.
A pair of large golden eyes flashed in the dark corner of the cage.
It was as small as a two-month-old kitten.
‘That little guy is a 19-year-old monster.’
As it was curled up in the corner, it looked like a fluffy lump of cotton.
“Fox. were not you hungry?”
The fox puffed up his body and took only heavy breaths.
“I think I’m thirsty…” … .”
“Kyaaaaaak!”
The fox bared its teeth and howled.
Didn’t act like a fool!
It seemed like he was shouting like that.
“You need to drink water. “You lost a lot of blood.”
I heard that when a precious animal is rescued, there are times when they have to force it to survive.
I couldn’t wait for them to let down their guard.
It seemed like the fox wouldn’t change his mind even if he starved to death.
‘You didn’t have a normal personality.’
Celia opened the cage.
The fox, realizing that she was not an easy person, did not move hastily and followed her movements with his eyes.
Celia felt her muscles tense as if she was in a subjugation battle.
This was not the energy that a cub can possess.
It was great spirit.
‘The moment I saw a gap, my throat will be torn apart.’
Celia spoke with a calm face.
“Fox.”
She turned her hand over, lowered it, and carefully held it out to the fox.
Just as her fingertips were about to touch the shiny silver fur, the fox swung its claws.
“Ugh!”
She forcibly endured the pain of her skin being torn and grabbed the fox’s body.
To give it a boost, it had to be taken out of its cage.
“Kyuuang! “Kwaaaang!”
As the body was forcibly held, the fox’s howling sound changed.
If earlier it had been a threatening growl, now it was closer to a terrified scream.
“Shh, weren’t you nice?”
As the fox struggled, scratches appeared all over Celia’s body.
Even though it was small, it was a monster and its claws were scary sharp.
My cheek was scratched and blood was dripping from my forearm.
It was a disaster that occurred because I had never dealt with animals before.
It would have been nice to wrap the fox’s body in a towel, but Celia didn’t have that knack.
She endured being hurt and simply held the fox in her arms.
“Shh. No harm. I won’t hit you. Please don’t be scared. huh?”
She soothed endlessly, making soft sounds she had never made before.
“Were you okay. Don’t be scared. It was a cute fox. “How could I hurt you when you were so lovely?”
After using that warm, tickling voice once, the second time was easy.
It wasn’t difficult to come up with kind words.
All Celia had to do was tell the fox the words she had wanted to hear all her life.
Things she wanted the priest or her friends to say to her.
The words of affection she so desperately wanted.
I told it to the fox.
Celia opened her pink lips.
“People who didn’t know your loveliness were foolish. Even though you were from the Eastern Continent, Solar will love you too. “Because you were such a precious child.”
