Chapter 109: The Fox and the Maid (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 109: The Fox and the Maid (2)
A massive crowd of onlookers had gathered before Vestia. A black curtain barred their way.
Vestia, looking as if it were covered by a black bowl, was so colossal that it could be seen from other cities dozens of kilometers away.
No one could enter. Hammers bounced off it, and magic was useless for peering inside.
Overnight, an entire nation had been engulfed in a mysterious phenomenon.
No one could even begin to guess what this strange event was, or what was happening inside.
And on the deserted opposite side…
Mirabelle and Morgana, two witches who had teleported to Vestia in an instant, appeared. Mirabelle placed a hand on the barrier to analyze its composition.
“It’s a power similar to mana, yet alien.”
“It’s spiritual power. The kind primarily used by monsters called yokai, who live in the East. They use sorcery, not magic.”
“Sorcery…”
Mirabelle shrouded her hand in indigo mana.
The barrier, which should have been unbreakable and impervious to any attack, was pierced with absurd ease. Mirabelle’s hand slid right through.
She analyzed the mystic power she felt on her hand.
“It’s similar to magic that interferes with the mind.”
This entire, enormous barrier was a device for mental manipulation. Breaking it by force was out of the question. If they shattered the barrier, the minds of the people inside would be damaged.
The safest and most reliable method was to have the caster dispel it herself.
“Morgana, we’re going in.”
“Okay~”
Mirabelle and Morgana erected mana barriers. A faint magical glow enveloped their bodies.
“That won’t be enough.”
Fwoosh!
After checking Morgana’s mana barrier, Mirabelle layered her own mana on top of it. The barrier surrounding Morgana grew even thicker.
“Wow.”
Though it was a simple exclamation, Morgana’s admiration was genuine.
She was a Great Witch, powerful enough to have seized her position as an elder of the Magic Tower by force. Having poured centuries of time and passion into the single pursuit of magic, she was confident she wouldn’t lose to anyone in that regard.
But in the face of Mirabelle’s magic, all that confidence vanished. Her skill was on a level that would make any Archmage look like a commoner.
Even in the minor application of a mana barrier, the difference in their class was stark. A sense of awe washed over Morgana. She was the kind of leader worth following.
Having erected physical and mental mana barriers that wouldn't be scratched even if a meteor fell or a god tried to tempt them, the two walked into the barrier.
Unlike its dark, gloomy exterior, the inside of the barrier was filled with a mesmerizing, seven-colored light. As this was Vestia, the nation of beastkin, most of the citizens were beastkin.
The people, having stopped whatever they were doing, stood on the streets staring blankly at the light. Their pupils were unfocused, their mouths agape.
They looked as if they were having a pleasant dream.
Though not of their own will.
Men and women, young and old, regardless of race, all wore the exact same expression. It was an incredibly bizarre sight.
Mirabelle and Morgana continued on. Though they glanced around, taking in the city, their steps were aimed straight for one destination.
“It’s here.”
The place they stopped was the Celestial Pavilion, a building suffused with an Eastern ambiance. The instigator of this whole mess was inside.
The building’s walls were apparently no defense against the sorcery; a tiger beastkin was staring up at the sky with a dopey expression.
When Mirabelle went up to the second floor, she encountered the first people who seemed normal since she had arrived in Vestia.
“You are…”
A white fox and a dark fox.
It was Yuhwa and Heukbi.
Yuhwa, the Celestial Fox, had lost her power by betraying Heaven’s Mandate, but Heukbi was different. Although her fox orb had been absorbed by the gumiho, the orb was originally an object created from spiritual power.
Losing the fox orb didn’t mean her spiritual power had vanished.
In the brief moment Rin had deployed her sorcery, Heukbi had created a small barrier to protect both her and Yuhwa’s minds.
It was only because Heukbi was also a yokai fox with some expertise in sorcery that she had managed to hold out this long. Protecting themselves was the best she could do; breaking Rin’s sorcery was out of the question.
“You…!”
Yuhwa’s eyes widened in shock upon seeing Mirabelle.
When Yuhwa first met Karami, she had touched the shackles extending from his soul and had a brief encounter with Mirabelle. She had a history of tucking her tail and running, overwhelmed by Mirabelle’s immense presence.
Though this was their first time meeting in person, one could say they were already acquainted.
Mirabelle wasn’t the only one who knew Yuhwa. Morgana looked down at Yuhwa, who was cowering inside the small barrier, and sneered.
“Yuhwa, you’ve gotten quite pathetic since I last saw you.”
“Morgana…”
The Celestial Fox, Yuhwa.
Another of her titles was the Witch who reads the flow of fate. Of course, having lost her power, she was no longer a witch.
“What business do witches have in Vestia?”
“We came to retrieve our Master.”
“Master…? Don’t tell me you’re his slave, too?”
Heukbi couldn’t hide her surprise. The aura emanating from Mirabelle was so deep it was unfathomable. Her presence was truly comparable to the cosmos itself.
She couldn’t believe that such a profound being was also Karami’s slave. This woman looked like she could conquer the world in an instant if ordered to.
“Morgana. I’ll be right back. Please protect them while I’m gone.”
“Okay~”
Mirabelle gripped her staff tightly and glared at a corner of the room. Her eyes saw only an ordinary office, but she could feel it on her skin without even needing to use detection magic.
The dissonance of another space.
Her Master was beyond it.
Mirabelle slashed the air with her staff.
*
“Master, try one of these.”
Rin, who had let Karami use her tails as a pillow, popped a grape into his mouth. Like a baby bird, Karami readily accepted what Rin fed him.
“How is it? Delicious?”
“Oh, it’s amazing. I’ve never had grapes this good before.”
“Right? They’re actually just ordinary grapes, but I cast a little spell on them, telling them to be delicious. It’s a grape of love, filled to the brim with Rin’s affection.”
The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Rin was personally putting into practice a method for seducing men she had picked up somewhere.
A fantastical taste that couldn’t be replicated with real grapes. When filled with Rin’s affection, they became just that much more delicious!
…was what she said, but it was all nonsense. It was a grape of love in name only; in reality, she was just deceiving his sense of taste with sorcery.
And it wasn’t just his taste that had been altered by her sorcery.
A twilight sky where the boundary between day and night had been erased.
Stars that looked like scattered silver sand.
A carpet of white clouds lay on the ground, where a crystal-clear lake was nestled, with carp swimming freely within.
Unlike the gloomy world outside, it was a dreamlike place that made one’s spirit melt into the space itself. This was the Dream Garden, created by Rin’s sorcery.
A paradise on earth that made one forget the passage of time. It was all Rin’s ploy to captivate Karami’s five senses and make him never want to leave her side.
“How about it, Master? You don’t want to leave now, do you?”
“It’s not that I don’t want to leave, it’s that I have to.”
But Karami’s answer remained the same.
Rin’s elegant brow furrowed.
“…Is some slave you don’t even know more important than Rin?”
“I do know who she is. Even if I haven’t met her yet.”
Though it was the honest truth, to Rin’s ears, it sounded like nothing more than a cheap play on words. He was clearly just making excuses to leave her side.
It seemed he hadn’t fully immersed himself in her paradise yet. But Rin still had an ace up her sleeve.
“Master, want to do something really fun with Rin?”
Rin was a gumiho.
A yokai with an exceptional talent for bewitching people, especially men.
The scent she exuded, every little gesture of her hands, was optimized to drive a man mad. If she entangled him in the flesh and made him drown in lust, not even Karami would be able to escape.
Rin’s tails gently bound Karami’s limbs. Her long, slender fingers danced up his stomach to his neck, then softly tickled his face.
“Heehee.”
The corners of Rin’s eyes curved faintly.
A giggle escaped her lips at the thought of doing something fun with her Master.
Rrrrip!
It was then that the sound of something tearing filled the air.
A diagonal rift split the air, and an uninvited guest burst in.
“Oof.”
Perhaps because she had made the rift a little too high.
Mirabelle entered with a little hop, holding the hem of her skirt.
“Huh?”
Karami’s eyes went wide as saucers at the sight of Mirabelle, who had appeared out of nowhere. When Mirabelle’s eyes met Karami’s, a bright smile bloomed on her face like a flower.
It was a radiant expression she hadn’t worn once since they had parted.
“Master!”
“M-Miss Mirabelle? How did you get here…?”
“I came to get you!”
Mirabelle scampered toward Karami with adorable little steps. In that instant, a spear of fire shot toward her with transcendent speed.
BOOM!
The spear struck Mirabelle and exploded, erupting in a cloud of smoke.
“Rin?”
Rin’s arm was outstretched toward Mirabelle. Her expression had become completely serious. She watched the smoke, her eyes narrowed to slits.
Whoosh!
A gust of wind scattered the smoke. A barrier was deployed around Mirabelle, who held her staff out in front of her. She was completely unscathed.
Rin wasn’t particularly surprised, as she had expected as much. A smirk twisted her lips.
“Would you mind not approaching my Master so carelessly?”
“So it’s you. The monster fox who was by my Master’s side.”
“Monster fox? I have a beautiful name my Master gave me—Rin.”
As she spoke, Rin pulled Karami into a possessive hug as if to show him off.
“The same goes for me. The Master himself certified it, naming me Mirabelle—the prettiest and cutest name in the world—meaning I would bring about a miracle.”
No, that was your original name, Karami thought.
And your late father gave it to you.
Some filial daughter she was.
While Karami was mentally retorting, the two women continued their standoff without so much as a blink.
“Besides, you’re not the Master’s slave anymore, are you? So I think calling him ‘Master’ is a sham.”
“Once a slave, always a slave. Not even death can part us.”
Hello? Neither of you are my slaves anymore.
I went through hell to liberate you, so why do you keep calling yourselves slaves?
Ah, of course, unlike the self-proclaimed slave Rin, Mirabelle truly was Karami’s slave. Even if she had put the shackles on herself.
“I will be taking the Master with me. Please release him.”
“No. The Master is going to live here with Rin forever.”
“The Master is destined to bring the joy of liberation to many more slaves. He has no time to stagnate in a place like this.”
“That joy… I won’t hand it over to anyone. It belongs to Rin and Rin alone.”
Their opinions clashed sharply, with neither side willing to back down an inch.
Mirabelle stared intently at Rin, while Rin met her gaze with cold eyes and a smirk.
“There’s no need for further discussion. You dare imprison my Master. You deserve judgment.”
Saaaaaah…
A small, indigo dot appeared in the air.
A shimmering haze undulated from the dot, then swirled out like a gale-force wind, coalescing into the form of a giant Reaper holding a scythe.
Rin didn’t back down either. Pushing Karami behind her so he wouldn’t get caught in the crossfire, she rose to her feet.
Thump! She stomped on the ground, and a pink spiritual power erupted from her feet, taking the shape of a colossal gumiho.
KYAAAAAAAAOOOOO!
The Dream Garden trembled at the gumiho’s roar.
Rin laughed ferociously.
“Judgment? Go ahead and try, if you can. But you should worry about your own fate first.”