Chapter 04
TL-Mechatronic
Scyllia shut her mouth, but couldn’t stand Shula’s intense gaze and answered in a small voice.
“I must feed the fox with the spirit of a living beast.”
“A Nine-tailed-fox eats humans as a main dish.”
“As long as I’m raising it, humans are not an option.”
Shula suddenly burst into laughter, and said the next thing with a stiff face
“Oh my God, Commander. I’m not worried about other people right now.”
“Then what?”
“I’m worried about you!”
This time, Scyllia laughed.
“The fox skills don’t work on me.”
“You already failed at the part where you thought skills would be everything.”
Will a nine-tailed-fox attract people using only its power?
They are creatures born with the intention of attracting people with their face, hair, tone, and even body odor. It was clear that he would grow up to be seductive and decadent, with every glance and gesture.
“Do not underestimate their instincts. You’ll get hurt someday.”
Shula, who warned casually, gave a simple goodbye with a nod and left the house.
I was finally alone.
“Phew….”
Exhausted, Scyllia went back to her room.
As she removed the cloth covering the iron cage, a droopy nine-tailed-fox raised his head. Scyllia looked through the wounds on the fox’s body.
Adding a little exaggeration, he seemed to have better resilience than trolls. It was almost healed.
“Are you bored?”
“Kyurung.”
It was a pity that the nine-tailed fox was trapped in a cage. It reminded me of my childhood, when I was locked up in a room all day.
“I’ll release you, so stay quiet in your room. Otherwise, you will go back to the cage.”
The fox blinked as if understanding.
She opened the cage without hesitation.
At the same time, the nine-tailed fox, which had been stretching it’s body because of its poor condition, shot itself through the window.
It was like an arrow bouncing off from a bowstring pulled with all his might.
Scyllia did not panic.
She followed the movement of the nine-tailed fox with her peripheral vision, which she often used while dealing with three or four monsters single handed, and reached out her hand at the exact spot.
Her eyes were sharp, different from when she looked at Shula.
Tung!
The nape of the fox cub came into her grip.
“Kyuuunnnnn!”
The little fox struggled and howled violently as if it had never been sick.
“Were you pretending to be innocent? Guess it’s a fox after all.
Scyllia reached out to get the fox safely back to the cage, and he did not miss the opportunity. He erected his teeth and mercilessly bit off her forearm.
Scyllia frowned, but that was all. Compared to the pain in her shoulder blade, this much was nothing.
He was so frightened a bubble-like saliva flowed out of the fox’s snout.
“Hey, little fox.”
“Kaag! Kyaaaag!”
“Calm down. Yes?”
The little fox kept groaning softly.
I need to calm the frightened cub.
When she thought about it, a soft voice came out easier than she expected. As if it was her original voice, it was a slightly high-pitched, clear voice. Compared to her usual low and overbearing tone, her throat was also comfortable.
“Shhh…”
As she waited quietly, reason returned slowly, very slowly, to the cloudy eyes of the little fox. “Why are you so scared? It’s okay. I won’t hurt you.”
Scyllia smiled softly, sweeping the foam off the little fox’s snout. As she smiled, her icy, cold face became surprisingly soft and pretty.
It was her original face.
The cub looked up at her with rounded eyes.
“Your fur is all wet from the saliva.”
When the strength in his snout was released, Scyllia released the fox safely into the cage.
“I won’t let you go today. You broke your promise. Don’t you agree?”
The fox, of course, did not answer, but Scyllia didn’t care.
“But you have another chance tomorrow. If you don’t run away, I’ll release you.”
“You will have a chance every day. The choice is yours.”
Scyllia, who taught neatly, closed the cage.
Tak.
The second night of the little nine-tailed fox together with the second best, and saddest Paladin, in the eastern continent, passed like this.
(Note: Note sure if Scyllia is the second best yet, this line took me quite a while. But we will see in the future)
The little fox rarely trusted Scyllia.
After he showed his true color once, he knew that acting won’t work, and was now very wary of her. Although he was a nine-tailed fox that enchants people, it was clumsy in hiding his inner feelings because it was a cub.
“Did he get abused?’
Scyllia read traces of past abuse amid the fox’s extreme vigilance.
If he had lived for 19 years in the Eastern continent, according to the words of the priestess, he would have been with humans for at least two months before reaching the trading ground in the western continent ……
‘Was he captured by humans in the eastern continent?’
I don’t know what happened, but it was certain that the little fox’s aversion to humans did not develop overnight.
Her heart was heavy as if she had found an abused little child. No, it was akin to a baby in the meaning that he still has infinite possibilities.
Knowing what the pain of abuse was like made her feel even more disgusted. Unknowingly, she sweated and her hands trembled.
‘I am strong.’
Scyllia grabbed her sword from her waist and calmed her breath.
“Now no one threatens to kill me.’
She obsessively devoted herself to training. After bringing the little fox into her house, the intensity of training was increasing day by day. Then, the Vice Commander jokingly tried to stop her, saying she would collapse, but it didn’t work,
“I’m a person who has to die, but I’m trying to live, so I have to do this much. This is how I can protect myself.
Scyllia thought so as she swung her sword.
“But, in a situation where it’s too much to protect only me, will I be able to raise the little one?’
The fox was a monster, but neither good nor evil.
He was different from her cursed self.
The cub was an existence in a gray zone, and the outcome depends on how he grows up. If it becomes a demonic beast, Scyllia must eventually kill the child.
She just wanted to avoid it. Killing an abused child with her own hands….
To prevent that, proper education was necessary
Be calm, be kind and do things right. So that he doesn’t think about seducing and eating humans,
‘The child’s life and death are in my hands.
As soon as she thought of that, she came to her senses. The more she thought about it, the more unusual it was.
“In what did the priestess believe in to entrust me with the little fox?’
I couldn’t understand why the future of a nine-tailed fox cub was left to a Paladin of the West. The old woman even told me she used to serve beings and worship Gods and Heavenly Beasts on the Eastern Continent.
The baby nine-tailed fox is not yet a heavenly beast, but is it not a creature with its feet on the edge of such a realm?
Such a precious existence….
“It would be useless to think about it now. Since then, the priestess has completely disappeared…’
Scyllia shook her head and headed to her Commander’s residence.
In the living room, fishy air mixed with the smell of the fox and blood, was stagnant. She opened the window to ventilate and then walked over to the cage,
“Kyaaaaaah!”
The fox immediately raised its fur and stood on guard,
‘I can’t let it go on like this.”
Scyllia crouched down in front of the cage. The little one was growling in the shadowy corner, covered in darkness. A pair of golden eyes flashed.
He was as small as a two-month-old kitten.
‘This little guy is a 19-year-old monster.’
Crouching in a corner, it looked like a lump of cotton wool.
“Little fox. Are not you hungry?”
The fox inflated his body and took only a rough breath.
“I think you should drink water……”
“Kyaaaah!”
The fox revealed his teeth and howled.
Don’t try to bullshit me!
It sounded like it was screaming such things.
“You have to drink water. You bled a lot.”
I heard that if a precious animal is rescued, it is sometimes forced to be saved. I couldn’t wait for the boundaries to be lifted. Even if the fox died of starvation, it seemed that he would not change his mind.
“His personality it’s not normal.’
Scyllia opened the cage.
Realizing that she was not an easy human being, the fox did not move hastily and chased her movements with its eyes. Scyllia felt her muscles tense as if she had gone to a subjugation battle.
It’s not the kind of energy a baby can have.
It was a great spirit.
“The moment I show any gap, my neck will be torn.’
Scyllia spoke to the little fox with a calm face,
“Little Fox.”
She turned her hand over, lowered it under her, and carefully reached out to the little fox. The moment her fingertips were about to touch the shimmering silver fur, the fox swung his claws.
“Ugh!”
She forced herself to endure the pain of her skin being torn apart and grabbed the fox’s body.
To give a lecture, he had to go out of the cage.
“Kyanng! Kyannng!”
When his body was forcibly grasped, the fox’s howls changed. Previously, it was a threatening growl, but now it was more of a terrified scream.
“Shh, be nice, huh?”
As the fox struggled, scratches appeared all over Scyllia’s body.
Even though it was small, it was still a monster, and his claws were terribly sharp. Scyllia’s cheeks were scratched and blood dripped from her forearm. It was a disaster because she had never dealt with animals.
It would have been nice to cover the fox’s body with a towel, but Scyllia had no such trick. She endured the injuries and simply held the little fox in her arms.
“Shh. I won’t hurt you. I won’t hit you. Please don’t be scared. Uhn?”
She soothed the little fox with a soft sound that she had never made before.
“It’s okay. Don’t be scared. You are a cute fox. How can I hurt you when you’re so lovely?”
It was easier to make a warm, tickling voice the second time she tried. It wasn’t difficult for her to come up with kind words. All she had to do was tell the fox what Scyllia had wanted to hear her whole life.
The words she hoped the priests or her friends would tell her.
Words of affection that she so desperately wished for
She gave it to the little fox.
Scyllia opened her pink lips.
“Those who didn’t recognize your loveliness are foolish. You’re from the East continent, but Solar will love you, too. Because you’re such a precious child.”