Chapter 274: Stash

“No… Pronos isn’t a woman,” Rakna deadpanned and the small Hydra puffed up his cheeks to the girls, perhaps trying to show off his manliness. “And you should know this already, foxy.”

“Yes, well, we never know,” Kaelith crossed her arms. “How many stories have I heard of creatures turning out to be female and ending up smitten with the one they followed for so long.”

“…don’t compare me to a novel character.”

“Shut up, that’s exactly what you are.”

“I’m perfectly real, thank you,” the therian sighed. “All right, this is enough. The situation is harder for me than you here. Stop making this difficult,” he ultimately declared and glared at Higure who whistled innocently.

“…fine, but I will find and throw away your alcohol stash, mom,” Kaelith scoffed and Kara instantly paled, finally losing her amused composure.

“S-sweety! You can’t do that to me! Please!” She cried whilst latching around her daughter’s torso like a child throwing a tantrum.

“M-mom! Get off!” The younger vixen embarrassingly tried to pull her away.

“No! Not until you promise not to harm my dear stash!”

“Why are you personifying it?!”

“Those children are too young to be thrown away!”

“Are you seriously putting me on the same level as your alcohol!?”

Rakna sighed for what felt like the hundredth time today as he watched the two women grapple with each other. “Come on, devourer, you must give me some credit,” Higure spoke up next to him and he raised an eyebrow at her. “Look; don’t tell me that you cannot appreciate the eye candy,” she said shamelessly whilst pointing at the two vixens with her paw.

The therian shifted his attention briefly to the rather captivating… wrestling, before looking back at the lioness with a blank expression. “There is no credit to give.”

“Eh~? Damn, if even that doesn’t work, we have a lot of work to do in the future,” Higure remarked and chuckled to herself before finally getting rid of her overflowing hilarity. “But, well, it’s about time we stop playing around ladies,” she raised her voice, looking at the mother-daughter pair.

The two fox women stopped their small struggle to face her before separating themselves with a curt cough. “Right, that went a bit too far,” Kaelith said bashfully. “But that’s mom’s fault.”

“Excuse me, but I didn’t expect you to pull the alcohol stash card,” Kara pouted.

“…I’ll never understand women,” Rakna muttered to himself. “Actually, scratch that. That sounds silly. I’ll never understand horny wo…” He paused and looked at the ceiling for an instant. “Scratch that too; I’ll never understand people.”

Higure sweatdropped at the gradual decline of his statement. “That’s coming from the one capable of smelling emotions and scheming their thoughts like a machine…” She butted in sarcastically.

“Regardless,” he ignored her and pointedly stared at Kara. “We’ll need to have a proper talk about what you said.”

“Oh~? About the getting along better part? I am all for it right now,” the older vixen said sultrily but promptly sobered up when she saw how unkindly he was looking at her.

“It is not amusing, nor fortunate. What you described sounds nothing more than a curse,” he added and she switched to a more solemn attitude. She folded her hands on her lap and calmly returned his stare.

“A dark and bloody pit,” she uttered gravely, her eyes squinting. “Is that how you look at yourself?”

“…” Rakna raised an eyebrow but remained silent. Had she used a skill on him? It wouldn’t be that much of a surprise for her to be capable of breaching his Sloth. Just as Kaelith probably could. Or perhaps… she was just relying on a sixth sense to understand him. He couldn’t tell.

“Hm, as the Dusk Lioness said,” Kara hummed. “There is work to be done. One day or another, one of us, one of your friends, or perhaps your eventual introspection, will make you realize. It is not just because you cannot avoid people falling into the ‘pit’ that it is a curse. The bottom is what you make of it. Who cares how many you ensnare?” She smiled gently. “So as long as you offer them what they were looking for inside, is that so wrong?”

The therian’s eyes widened ever so slightly and Kaelith finally couldn’t hold it in, “Okay! Stop! I let you two say whatever you wanted, but now I need an explanation. Mom, what are you both talking about?”

“Hoho, sweety, that’s a secret,” Kara said with a renewed impishness, and Higure, who seemed to have caught on to the nature of their discussion, grinned and gave the vixen a thumbs up; as far as her paw allowed it anyway.

Kara returned it in kind, further confusing Kaelith, while Rakna was busy trying to break a dam in his mind that had stood strong for years now. What the older woman had told him about the odd ‘charm’ of his soul was startlingly truthful to him.

Because he knew that somewhere inside him, in his core that had been invaded by animal instincts when he bathed in the Eion blood, something was trying to break out. Originally, he had always assumed Obsidian Blood had been the outcome of that bestial instinct and he was correct to some extent.

But it would have been more correct to call it a side-effect; barely the fumes of a much bigger fire emerging. The thing that he always buried, which constantly tempted him to indulge in his carnal side, was perhaps more necessary to him than he expected.

‘Maybe that’s why I keep my distance…’ He thought. ‘Maybe that’s why Harvester was the Nirvana Skill I awakened to. Because my soul is desperately trying to harvest others; harvest what it lacks.’

“Rakna? Are you okay?” Higure inquired worryingly.

“But letting it out goes against all my rational instincts… what a stupid predicament,” he abruptly muttered with a self-deprecating comment, and the lioness was taken aback. “I’m fine, Higure.”

“Are you sure…?”

“Yes, and I have something to tell you. You too Pronos. And you two bickering foxes,” Rakna raised his voice and they all turned toward him. He grinned at them, his eyes fluctuating with three colors meshing together; red, blue, and purple. “I’m counting on you,” he said and the colors blended into pitch-black before once again fading out to purple.

Kaelith opened her mouth wide in shock at first but something told her that there was only one thing she could possibly answer. In fact, it was as if she had been unknowingly waiting for it to happen ever since she met Rakna.

“You can… count on me,” she beamed and Higure had a similar reaction, while the older vixen had a very soft look across her expression for a moment.

“Yes, you are definitely getting closer, Devourer,” the lioness said with a light laugh.

“How they grow up so fast,” Kara jested whilst wiping an inexistent tear.

Kaelith’s expression immediately soured. “Stash,” she uttered emotionlessly.

“I am so sorry,” the fox matriarch responded without missing a beat.

⠀

* * *

⠀

“So, what is it that you wanted to talk about?” Kaelith asked as she sat after leaving to fetch a drink for herself.

“You should know; what happened after my clone self-destructed?” Rakna retorted.

“Ah, right, that insect did say you directly looked at him at some point,” she said in distaste. “Did you get a clear look?”

“Mostly. I saw their outline, and obviously the scorpion tails. Amusingly enough, I now have a skill that could have allowed me to see it, but I sadly didn’t have it at that time. Who was it?”

“Hm, well, as you probably guessed, it was a Nine-Tailed Scorpion. After I… roasted him a bit,” she cleared her throat. “He ultimately said that he was tailing you, not because he intended to, but because it was a coincidental chance to gather information on you as per his clan’s directives.”

“And you didn’t kill him?” Kara asked in genuine puzzlement.

Kaelith groaned. “Mom, you’re supposed to be the role model here. I couldn’t kill him without real proof or even a trial. You’re the Matriarch, for god’s sake. Act like it for once.”

“Why should I care? I’m just a figurehead,” the older vixen shrugged. “That boring stuff is perfect in your father’s hands instead. They go hand in hand.”

“…did you just call dad boring?”

“Of course. Look, how can you even compare him to our little Rara here?”

“Firstly, don’t call me Rara. Secondly, don’t bring me up in that conversation. That is frankly very awkward,” the therian said with a blank expression. “Thirdly, why are you even the Matriarch if you’re divorced, an alcoholic, and a lazy butt?”

“…my dear Rara, you didn’t need the extra adjectives there,” Kara replied with an equally deadpan tone. “Also, you can ask Kae for the answer to that.”

Kaelith rubbed her temples. “Essentially, wolfy, I’m the reason why she is the Matriarch. As you know, I am the next on the line to the head of the Nine-Tailed Foxes. I was chosen by my father as the heiress, and by law, my mother receives the title of Matriarch from it, even if she is not bound to the Patriarch by marriage anymore.”

“Hm…” Rakna mused. “Is there a particular reason you were chosen as the heiress?”

“Because I’m the strongest child obviously,” she flashed a smug grin.

“Right, miss level 900… something.”

“Hey!” She exclaimed indignantly. “It’s 956! I worked hard for it, okay?!”

“Yes, I’m sure of it. But with all that aside, does that mean the Scorpions know about my race?”

Kaelith instantly calmed down and hung her head low. “Yes… at the very least, he saw your clone turn into a werewolf. I’m sorry about that. When I noticed him tailing us, it was already too late.”

“Don’t mind it. If we’re going to give blame for something like that, then that would mean I’m also in the wrong. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to blame myself,” he jested and the vixen made a wry smile.

“Hm, but there is one good news though,” Kara remarked in between sips. “Certainly, the whole of the Nine-Tailed Scorpion’s branch is probably already in the know about you. At the same time though, it’s very unlikely for them to release that info unless it advantages them. And, while this revelation could indeed become bothersome to you if it goes public, it’s not to the point that it will significantly detriment you.”

Rakna scowled at her in unspoken inquiry and she shrugged.

“The scorpions keep to themselves,” she added. “The only instances that they would disclose what they know about you are; if you either become their direct enemy or if they sell the information to a buyer. They are also quite involved in the underworld, so assassination attempts on you could be a possibility if there is someone wealthy enough to hire them. In which case, their intel will be put to use. But I don’t think anyone is daring enough to target you at the moment. Much less seek the scorpions specifically.”

“I see… then I suppose I just have to continue doing what I’ve done until now,” the therian said. “I don’t have many other options since I can’t fight them off on my own yet.”

Kara smirked. “You are saying that as if you’re not far from it.” He responded with a flat look and the vixen’s mouth twitched. “You are not… right?”

Rakna snorted. “Give me a year or two. By then, I predict I will be at least level 500. At that point, forget if I can survive or not, I should be able to leave the System on my own. And I’m not basing that on confidence alone; that hat said it himself, and despite being obnoxious, Wis hasn’t said anything that yet disproves his trustworthiness.”

“Really… apologize to every hard worker out there,” Kaelith sighed.

“Truly,” Higure shook her head in agreement.

“A year, is it?” Kara smiled. “I certainly would love to see that happen. Just thinking of the waves that you would make by alerting Eternal Night makes me shiver in anticipation.”

Rakna snickered. “I would be lying if I said I didn’t agree with the sentiment. But anyway, it’s about time we speak business,” he added and the girls tilted their heads in confusion. He flashed a brief smile at them and leaned back on his seat.