Chapter 163: What is love? (2/2)
But the one who caught his attention the most was the one who led them. He was a handsome middle-aged man with black hair that reached his shoulders and profoundly dark eyes. He wore a professional suit that failed to completely contain the bulging mass of muscles hidden under it.
Rakna used Flash Step coupled with Shadow Step to appear as swiftly as possible in front of him and his group. Almost all of them nearly stepped back from the sudden apparition and Rakna fully immersed himself in the role he was about to take before speaking up coldly and with a prevalent flair of superiority as if everything was below him.
”Hybran Blacksteel. You may refer to me as Obsidian. I am here to discuss my pupil.”
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A few moments earlier. Somewhere in Old Eden, in the Fox Branch of the Nine-Tailed Clan, Kaelith was sitting on a porch that bordered an interior garden hundreds of meters wide.
Next to her was an older woman that most wouldn't fall short of calling a goddess. Her beauty felt like a blessing to the living. Her aura of maturity and strength, conveyed by the nine tails that were of a vibrant shade of dark red, was simply too overwhelming for ordinary mortals.
Her appearance was a carbon copy of Kaelith save the obvious difference in age and her hair that was cut shorter. Their relationship was confirmed the moment the younger woman spoke.
”So, what do you think, mom?”
Kara Yahkshasa, the Matriarch of the Nine-Tailed Foxes and Kaelith's mother. She chuckled softly at her daughter's question and sipped on her tea before answering, ”That is natural, Kae. But do not misunderstand. You feel jealous not because you fancy him, but because you are being a little possessive of what is probably your first genuine friend in over a decade.”
”That isn't much better now, is it?” Kaelith snorted and fiddled with one of her tails on her lap.
Kara smiled gently. ”Tell me… were you scared that you were enamored with that boy?”
”W-well, it would be uncouth and unbecoming of me to suddenly fall for a rude brat after only a week of knowing him!” She countered with a small blush.
”But would you be against the idea?” Her mother followed up with a knowing tone.
”…not really.”
Kara giggled. ”Kae, hear me out. Strangers can sometimes feel a strong connection as if they had known each other for years. It is not shameful to feel happy around someone that you met just recently. But… even if I will not tell you to stay behind it, I have to teach you where the line stands.”
”The line?”
She nodded sagely. ”What do you think falling in love means?”
Kaelith blinked. ”What's wrong so suddenly? That's an odd question coming from you.”
”Just answer, dear.”
”I don't know… How would I know?”
”You are right. We don't know. And it is because we don't know that it leads us astray,” Kara said with a melancholic smile. ”Kae, would you fight for him?” She asked.
Kaelith's eyes widened a bit. ”I think I would…”
”Then… would you die for him?”
The younger vixen froze at the question. ”I… I don't know.”
”What about him? Would he die for you?”
Kaelith looked down for a brief moment and shook her head with a wry smile. ”Wolfy… I don't see him die for my sake. He's not one to sacrifice himself.”
Kara laughed lightly. ”I see… Then, you can keep your worries for now. As long as you don't answer these questions positively, it is not a love that either I or your father would acknowledge.”
”If you say so,” Kaelith replied with a chuckle and leaned back until she was lying her back on her tails as if they were a luxurious cushion. She looked at the sky outside where three suns formed a triangle and grinned. ”Then I guess I'll just have to get to know him better and pressure him until he admits he would die for me,” she declared and her mother cackled.
”My Lady!!” A sudden shout startled the mother-daughter pair as a maid entered the room. She was quite a young four-tailed fox girl and the fact that she could enter the matriarch's quarters this way showed how close she was to her.
”Nina?” Kara sent her a worried look. ”What's wrong?”
”You have to see this!” The young girl said and took out a small device. She placed it on a table of the room and a large high-definition screen was projected above it.
Kara and Kaelith instantly recognized the view of Black Steel's city hall and for some reason, the cameraman was filming upward as if he was scared of catching what was below in the picture.
The two vixens were confused by that at first but when they saw the scrolling text at the bottom of the screen summarizing the situation, their expression became aghast.
”| Lord Obsidian, we need your spoken permission to film you. Your Lordship's Clan is unyielding about this rule. Could you permit it? |” The voice of a nervous reporter sounded and was followed by a loud grunt.
”| I allow it. |” The voice was authoritative, prideful, and noble at the same time. Right after it stated its permission, the camera finally shifted down and the three foxes were met with the image of an ebony wolf with nine tails, looming over Hybran Blacksteel.
Kara frowned. ”So, he is the cause of the Elders' latest headache… Obsidian… that does not hint at any of the wolves' divisions. But… those tails are not illusions and Hybran would definitely be able to discern an impostor. So, he is truly one of us… who could he be?”
Kaelith was silently watching the faceoff between the Nine-Tailed Wolf and the mayor of Black Steel when she saw a shocking scene. A certain therian with an albino snake around his neck went to the wolf's side along with Gray Whisles, the Clown Warlock, and a woman she didn't recognize.
”Wolfy…?”