The Divine Beast of the Eastern Continent Arrives
At last, the day of Haetae's arrival had come.
Because of it, the Princess's Palace had been bustling since the crack of dawn. Maids raced about until the soles of their feet were slick with sweat, ferrying hot water and fragrant oils from room to room.
"Come on, Blanc. Lift your chin a little. The fur under your jaw is all matted. Today of all days, you have to be the most magnificent creature in the world. So magnificent that Haetae... that woman... won't even dare look at you."
Kailian sat in a terrace chair flooded with sunlight, a comb in her hand and a look of grim determination on her face as she settled me onto her lap.
I surrendered myself to her and closed my eyes in contentment.
"Kyau!"
Lumia, you come here too. You need your fur brushed as well.
"Keng!"
Lumia immediately burrowed into my arms and shoved her head against me.
I yawned through half-lidded eyes, a shiver running through me at the exquisite pleasure of Kailian's combing.
My butler has finally reached the pinnacle of the brushing arts... This master is deeply moved.
"Kyau..."
That spot feels so good. Scratch a little harder.
"Keng, keng!"
Lumia, nestled in my arms, seemed to love both the vibration of Kailian's combing and the feel of my belly; she squirmed and rubbed her back against my stomach with a needy little whine.
It's a bit of a hassle, but she's my little sister. I have to take care of her.
I stuck out my tongue with practiced ease and began licking the top of her head.
Lick, lick.
My raspy tongue swept across Lumia's downy-soft fur. She squeezed her eyes shut at my grooming and nuzzled her head against my tongue.
"Kyau."
Hey, you little brat, if you keep moving this is going to be hard.
"Keng..."
I pinned Lumia's head with a forepaw and continued grooming. Then I flinched at a sigh from behind me, thick with jealousy and envy.
"Lumia... you're so lucky."
Kailian had stopped combing and murmured it under her breath. Her gaze was locked on the crown of Lumia's head, where my tongue was still at work.
"I want Blanc to groom me too... I could lick Blanc too..."
"Kyau..."
You've got a human tongue... you'd just be slobbering on me, butler. Have some human dignity.
I let Kailian's complicated, slightly unhinged remarks go in one ear and out the other. Listening to that kind of thing for too long gave me a headache. And this wasn't even the first or second time.
When I pretended not to hear, Kailian seemed to sulk and took it out on Lumia.
"Lumia, you're big enough now to do it yourself, aren't you? Are you going to keep making Blanc work like this?"
"Keng?"
It's not hard! It feels so good when big brother does it!
Lumia answered with blissful, oblivious cheer and shoved her head under my chin, rubbing furiously.
Caught between the two girls' little war of nerves, I stared blankly into space. The most important thing right now was the Eastern Empire.
If it was the East, their culture would surely be a blend of Korean, Chinese, and Japanese. And when an envoy came, they typically brought specialty goods from their homeland as a courtesy.
Which meant... I might get to eat galbi-jjim.
"Kyahu-hu-hu-hu..."
Just thinking the words was enough to make my salivary glands explode.
Tender beef short ribs steeped through and through in a sweet-and-savory soy marinade. That soft meat filling my mouth, juices mingling with the sauce... just imagining it made me happy.
Or maybe there'd be bulgogi, or chashu, or sweet-and-sour pork. The fantasies chained one after another. Haetae had already been wiped from my mind ages ago.
Saliva pooled in my mouth until it overflowed.
"Kyau..."
Galbi-jjim... mixed into a bowl of rice...
Without realizing it, I sat there with my mouth hanging open, spinning my little wheel of happiness.
Drip.
The drool beading at the corner of my mouth lost its battle with gravity and landed, with perfect accuracy, on the snow-white crown of Lumia's head.
"Keng?!"
Lumia jerked her head up in shock. The pale fur on her forehead was wet and glistening with my drool.
"Kya— ahem."
Sorry. I must've slipped up while I was grooming.
I looked away in embarrassment. Lumia made a little pout at the dampness, then gave her head a vigorous shake, flinging my drool in every direction.
She patted her head into order a few times with her front paws, then went right back to licking my chin, giggling.
Thank goodness she's such a sweet kid.
If that had been Lina... ugh.
The mere thought of Lina getting hit with my drool and flushing crimson sent a chill down my spine.
"Aigoo, you little pig of a tiger. You were already thinking about food, weren't you? Wipe that drool."
Kailian wiped the corner of my mouth with fond exasperation. Then she tied a navy ribbon embroidered with the imperial crest around my neck.
It contrasted beautifully against my white fur.
"There. Perfect. At this rate, that so-called Haetae from the East won't even be able to meet your eyes."
Kailian gave my cheek a satisfied little squeeze.
Lately it feels like people have been touching my cheeks a lot.
Once we were all dressed, we headed straight for the Imperial Audience Chamber. Kailian carried me in her arms as if I were a treasure, and Lumia trotted along behind us.
Knights and maids lined the corridor and bowed as we passed.
"Kyau."
Everyone's eyes are something else today.
Instead of the usual sappy, doting looks, there was a grim, solemn weight in them.
Rumble.
The massive doors of the Imperial Audience Chamber swung open. At the far end of the hall, upon the throne, Emperor Karsion was issuing orders with a stern expression.
Is that my seat?
Beside him sat a chair that hadn't been there before, decorated in gold — my chair.
"You've come?"
Karsion spotted us and broke into a gentle smile. It was a look I once couldn't have imagined, but I'd grown fairly used to it by now.
Kailian strode forward and gently set me down on my dedicated chair. I rather liked the plush cushion.
Lumia settled onto a cushion right beneath my chair.
"Kyau."
Hi, Grandpa. Have the envoys arrived?
I lifted a forepaw in greeting. Karsion nodded with a look of fond satisfaction, then his expression went stone-hard as he issued a command to the Imperial Chamberlain in a voice thick with imperial dignity.
"Let them enter."
That short, weighty command made the air in the Imperial Audience Chamber sink heavy.
At last I get to see delicious galbi-jjim— I mean, Haetae.
Honestly, I'm a little excited.
A White Tiger? Could it really be true that a Divine Beast was born in the West?
My mind was full of doubt.
I had heard the rumors that a White Tiger had been born in this Western empire, but I hadn't honestly believed them. Among the Four Guardian Beasts, the White Tiger was the most noble, the most fastidious, and the strongest.
A being like that couldn't possibly exist in a Western land like this.
At best it would be a somewhat oversized tiger that had absorbed a bit of mana, or some mutant Magical Beast.
The lion of the Barkan Empire was surely the superior creature.
I had come because the Eastern Emperor had pleaded with me to meet it, but I expected nothing.
If some Magical Beast was sitting there claiming to be a Divine Beast, I would not hesitate to run it through with my horn.
Boom. Rumble.
The doors of the Imperial Audience Chamber opened, and I entered with my head held high, light pouring in around me.
I could feel the envoys behind me wound tight with tension.
"Her Ladyship Haetae, Divine Beast of the Cheongun Empire, now enters."
I rolled my eyes toward the throne. Let's see, then. What this supposedly magnificent White Tiger looks like.
Whether it's a mana-touched mutant or just a Magical Beast.
The Emperor of the Roze Empire, and the woman standing beside him... that blood-crazed princess, was it? The aura coming off her was no ordinary thing.
And the moment I lowered my gaze a little, my breath stopped.
It felt as if someone had seized my heart in a fist. Apart from him and me, time seemed to freeze; the noise of the hall receded into a distant haze.
That's... the White Tiger?
A living being sat there that casually blew every one of my expectations to pieces.
Fur so white it stung the eyes. A luster of genuine nobility. A round, adorable little body that seemed to have monopolized every last scrap of purity in the world.
And the tiny navy ribbon tied around him explosively amplified his cuteness.
And above all, those eyes.
Translucent, shining blue eyes. The eyes I used to sense good and evil simply stopped working. There was no falsehood, no malice. Only an endless, overflowing purity.
The aura pouring from that tiny body. A vast, heavy Divine Power I had never in my entire life dared to feel.
Even a cold like the entire eternal snows of the East compressed into one place was packed inside that little ball of fluff.
It was the cold of a noble absolute being, the kind that made one's head bow of its own accord. And someone seemed to be glaring at me... the killing intent was vicious.
Hahk.
I couldn't breathe. Not from the pressure, not from the killing intent. The moment I laid eyes on that being, an unidentifiable rapture surged up from the depths of my soul.
A thrilling pleasure racing down my spine.
I want to bury my face in that white fur. I want to touch those squishy-looking pink jellies just once.
I've gone mad.
The tail attached to my rear wagged madly inside my clothes, completely beyond my will.
I bit my tongue to barely hold back the smile that kept trying to spread across my lips.
This is fate. A divine revelation that two Divine Beasts are meant to become one.
This marriage talk... I will see it through, no matter what.
He's still a little young, but...
"Kyau?"
What's wrong with that woman. A woman with a horn walked in, then suddenly went stiff at the sight of me, her eyes going round as she stared a hole through me.
That look in her eyes was not ordinary. It was strikingly similar to the dangerous expression Lina and Kailian sometimes wore when they looked at me.
What the heck. That's scary.
She's pretty, but looking at me like that just reminds me of Lina, which makes it even scarier. I bet she'd go around collecting my fur too.
I did my best to avoid her gaze and sniffed the air. An envoy had entered, so of course tribute or gifts should be coming in behind them.
There should be the smell of the galbi-jjim I'd been so looking forward to, the aroma of bulgogi — heck, even the funky scent of fermented soybean paste.
"Kyau...?"
There was no smell at all. Or rather, the only smells were the clean, refreshing scent coming off Haetae and the scents of the envoys.
"Kyauu..."
Don't tell me... there's no food..?
My expectations collapsed in a single instant.
They came all that way and didn't pack a single thing to eat?! There's a limit to how rude you can be!
This is a marriage proposal! Did they come to propose empty-handed?
My ears drooped in disappointment.
I really... I'd been looking forward to this.
The bigger the hope, the bigger the betrayal. I don't care how pretty that woman is anymore.
"Kyau..."
I'm disappointed.
