Loved by Instinct
If that good-for-nothing had known, he would have coveted it to no end. Mother never told him her true Authority. Not to the very last.
Fearing the Authority might be misused, her mother had deliberately passed it off as nothing more than a power that could soothe a beastkin's pheromones. Her pheromones really did have that effect, so the lie had been an easy one.
If Darius, rabid in his hunger for an Authority, had ever learned the truth, he would have beaten the ground in regret. Had he kept playing the tender man and the gentleman all the way to the end, her mother might someday have told him. He had twisted his own fate. That was all there was to it.
Even setting Authority aside, a Divine Beast is special. Born directly of Nature itself, it is the one and only being in the world of beastkin that receives Nature's absolute love.
For that reason, beastkin instinctively feel a deep fondness for Divine Beasts, and some even come to revere and adore them.
Beastkin who have inherited a Divine Beast's blood and thereby gained an Authority, in particular, feel a stronger affection for Divine Beasts than anyone else, and possess an instinct to protect them.
"Ah."
The sigh broke from Bariya before she could stop it.
She had never understood why the tiger beastkin of Caliph liked her so much, cherished her, and treated her with such warmth when she had done nothing at all for them. So that was it. Instinct.
She already had a Divine Beast for a mother, and when Claire passed along even a Divine Beast's traits through the Authority of Transfer, Bariya had drawn closer to a Divine Beast than to any beastkin. The fact that her animal form had no time limit was thanks to that as well. She was someone who could land a serious blow on the hyenas, and she was nearly a Divine Beast besides. No wonder their fondness for her kept surging.
She had thought only ordinary animals, like White, were affected. Beastkin were no different.
Knowing the reason actually puts my mind at ease.
Every beastkin of Caliph was kind and warm. And yet she had never received affection like this from anyone but her mother, so it had always sat wrong in her, catching like a hangnail at her fingertip. Now, she thought, she could take it in stride.
Wait. Every beastkin feels fondness for a Divine Beast?
Bariya frowned. Just in case, she checked the other books that explained Divine Beasts, but they all said much the same thing. That only made it stranger.
"Then why did those hyena bastards do what they did to Mother and me?"
Not only Darius, but every hyena beastkin of Mariner had abused Claire and Bariya. Not one of them had shown the slightest hesitation in treating Claire, a Divine Beast, however they pleased. Was greed for an Authority fierce enough to kick aside even their fondness for a Divine Beast? The books said nothing of it, and she could not ask anyone else. Bariya tilted her head one way and then the other for a long while.
Crack. Slash—slash!
Jake Gillian, Shirca's right hand, watched what unfolded before him with a blank face. Blood sprayed in every direction and soaked not only his shoes but his clothes and his cheek, and still he did not dodge. A tiger beastkin had no reason to flinch from blood—and this was hyena blood, no less.
"Hardly enough to loosen me up."
Shirca seized the hyena beastkin he had just killed by the collar and gave the body a shake. The dead had nothing to say. Losing interest at once, he flung the corpse aside.
In the corner of the dark alley, the bodies of hyena beastkin lay heaped in a pile.
"Anyone left?"
"None. This was the last."
"So it seems, Mother."
Jake and Shirca turned their heads at the same time. Sabrina, drenched in even more blood than Shirca, was drawing out her pipe.
"......Ah."
She had been about to light it when her face suddenly twisted. She tossed the ember to the ground and tucked the pipe back into her clothes.
"You're not going to smoke?"
The sight startled Shirca. Sabrina was not especially fond of smoking, but after she killed the hyena beastkin she hated, she always had exactly one. It was almost a ritual. So why not today?
"I'm raising a little one right now. That sensitive thing would catch on in an instant. It isn't good for a child, either."
Grumbling, Sabrina glanced down at herself and clicked her tongue.
"Now that I think of it, she'll smell the blood too, won't she?"
"If we told her it was hyena beastkin blood, might she not actually like it?"
"Bad for a child's education. She isn't an adult. There's no need for her to be smelling blood this early."
Sabrina was unusually particular about a child's education and safety. She had forbidden even Shirca from fighting hyena beastkin until he came of age at eighteen. These days the two of them went out together and bet on who could cut the beasts down first, but until not so long ago he had grown up sheltered beneath the iron protection of Baden and Sabrina.
This is all because of those hyena brats, too.
Irritation flared again, and Shirca kicked one of the corpses sprawled on the ground.
"They know I'm at the estate, and they still send this many underlings. The little one must really matter to them."
"Do you think the head of Mariner sent them?"
"No."
Sabrina shook her head and pried open a dead beastkin's mouth.
"The shadow unit that only Mariner's head and heir can command has a seal branded on the tongue. These ones are all clean. That said, they wouldn't have sent riffraff against us."
It had ended quickly only because Shirca and Sabrina had stepped in themselves. The skill of the hyena beastkin who had crossed into Caliph land was, without question, above average.
"There aren't many in Mariner who can keep sending men like these."
"Direct family, blood of the head. He's sown so many seeds I can't even begin to guess which one."
Sabrina clicked her tongue and carelessly tossed aside the beastkin's head she had been holding. Unlike Caliph, where a generation produced one or two children and four at the very most, Mariner always had many. The current head alone had fathered six.
"Still, does this mean we've cleaned up nearly all of them?"
At Sabrina's question, Jake nodded at once.
"Yes. Every hyena beastkin confirmed to have entered Caliph territory is here. The blow will have been severe, so they won't be coming again for a while."
"Good. Then tomorrow, we go out."
"Are you planning to travel again?"
Shirca tilted his head. As a rule, Sabrina spent three hundred and sixty days out of three hundred and sixty-five away from the estate. This time she had remained for a full week, and that alone was something of a miracle.
"No. I'll be staying at the estate for the time being."
"Truly? Does Father know?"
She meant to stay even longer?
"I'm saying I'll stay in my own estate. Why should I report a thing like that one by one?"
Because if Father knew, he would weep tears of joy.
Baden loved Sabrina far too much, yet he could not hold her when she hated feeling confined, and so he passed long nights in tears. Shirca made up his mind to tell his lonely father without fail.
"Tomorrow's outing will be with the little one."
That was even more astonishing. She hated anything troublesome and always went out alone, and yet she meant to go with Bariya of all people.
"A thing of only ten, and she buries herself in the library every spare moment. I don't care how much she likes books. It's too much."
Sabrina scrunched her face. Ask whether she was jealous that Bariya spent more time with Baden and the library than with her, and he would die, wouldn't he? Shirca wisely steered the conversation elsewhere.
"That's true. Aside from when I caught—when I brought her here, she's never been outside, so she'll love seeing the city."
"Trying to raise a child at this point in my life is going to be the death of me!"
Grumbling, Sabrina strode out of the alley reeking of blood. Jake, who had been biting his lip hard to keep from laughing, finally managed to speak.
"The mistress truly adores the young lady."
"She does. I never thought it would go this far, either."
All he had hoped was that Bariya would not get on Sabrina's nerves. Not only his mother, but his father liked her far too much as well. Both of them had changed a great deal from being with her. For the better. A father who smiled even in places where Mother was not. A mother who lingered long at the estate. They were sights he had never seen in all his life.
"I told you the little one was a blessing. Truly."
What if he had left Bariya lying in the grass? Bringing the child home might have been the finest choice of his life.
"Waaah!"
The next day, Sabrina set out with Bariya just as planned, and she could not take her eyes off the child for a single moment. The girl's face was squashed against the carriage window like a steamed bun, and she paid it no mind at all, too busy drinking in the world outside. Her brown eyes glittered.
"......We haven't even reached the city yet. You like it that much?"
The question came out blunt, nothing like what she felt. Even so, the child answered with a bright, open laugh, her eyes shining gold in the clear sunlight.
"Yes! This is the first time I've ever gotten to look outside at my leisure. Just the trees and the grass make me so happy. Of course the city will be even more exciting."
The child burst into a giggle and reached a hand out past the carriage window. Feeling the wind, Bariya looked genuinely delighted. Delighted enough that Sabrina was sorry she had only brought her out now.