79 Back to my castle

A week had passed since assassins attacked the territories of Elios and Count Tusk. Both were victorious in repelling the attackers, but with the horrible causalities and more and more believing the rumour that Count Tusk was dead, the situation was unstable. However, to Lia this was a good thing.

Now that they were unstable, she could quickly gain control over the territory with ease and have one of Count Tusk's children or relatives as a puppet.

Still, this was a busy time for her so she wanted to stay focused, but a certain woman in her office made that difficult. She was a black-haired beauty that could charm both men and women, though not as much as Lia. Usually Lia would enjoy herself by teasing her, but recently she was less amusing and more annoying. Especially with the way she continuously tapped the floor.

Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap ta-

"I know I said you could stay but would you mind stopping that?" asked Lia as politely as she could.

Jeanne curtly responded, "I'll think about it."

"Ha... Don't you have work to do at the castle?"

"Everything that needs my assistance has already been completed. They can handle the rest by themselves."

"Even so, is it fair for you to dump so much work on them?"

"It's not as if I'm skipping out on my duties. This is also an important task."

"So that's your argument? Listen Kiki, I told you that I would send word the moment we learnt of his location. Can't you just trust me and go home?"

"I do trust you. That's why I'm waiting here. I want to be the first to welcome him back."

"Is that so..."

Unlike Count Tusk's territory, the only causalities Elios' group had were undead so they weren't in too bad of a position. However, everyone was rushing to fix the castle as quickly as possible as they remembered how angry Elios was when Brad wrecked the castle.

This time wasn't really their fault, but they didn't want to give him a poor welcome. Jeanne should also be feeling like this but her urge to see her master again outweighed it.

'This maiden sure is impatient.'

Lia could only wryly smile before lowering her gaze back to the work on her desk. However, before she could start writing again she heard the sound of her suddenly getting up and saw her vanish from the room.

"So he's finally back, huh?"

***

After leaving through the portal, we ended up in some random wasteland, but from the familiar night sky I knew we were still in Lambda.

I wondered why we were sent here until I noticed the old ruin of a house nearby.

'They probably prepared a safe house for him but it got destroyed while he was stuck in that space.'

I was a little interested in where we were, but I was more worried about my castle so I memorised the spatial coordinates and was about to leave but then the fox's stomach growled.

"You're hungry? Now that I think about it, what did you eat in that place?"

"I didn't. Food ran out, over a hundred years ago."

Besides a frown it didn't seem too bothered, but I was uncomfortable knowing that it had to starve for over a century.

'There must be something special about its race, otherwise...'

"I guess we can take a lunch break. Not that I'm sure what time it is."

"Does that mean, fo-food?"

Even though it was acting tough a few seconds ago, the moment I talked about lunch it started drooling. I couldn't blame it though. I could live off the mana in the air in my dragon form, but fasting for a century sounded horrible.

As I set up a pot and a simple campfire stove with earth and nature magic, I glimpsed at the dazed fox and tried to see its status again now that I was supposed to be its parent. And this time it worked.

[(Ash***) Aishie

Race: Eternal Holy Beast

Strength: 234

Agility: 380

Dexterity: 120

Defence: 160

Titles: Holy Beast | Last Survivor | Patient One | Hermit]

...

'I have too many questions, and no way to get answers so I'll pretend I didn't see that for now.'

The moment I took out some meat from my storage, the little fox was already biting down on it. When it acted like this, it wasn't matching its status as a holy beast but though I was its guardian I didn't plan on nagging it. Especially since I couldn't even imagine how much pain he had to suffer to gain the Endurance skill.

That was a skill that made you immune to all curses, negative physical effects and mental attacks, but only those who had endured the most perverse of physical and mental torture could attain it. Even the training addict Brad hadn't gotten it yet, so I knew that this kid had a rough time.

While I left him with a slab of meat, I took out another slab along with some oil and salt and started frying. As the scent touched its nose, the fox instantly gobbled down the meat it had and looked up at me with shining eyes.

'Looks like it'll be needing more than just seconds.'

A few hours later.

"Ahh, *burp* thank you for the meal, um,"

"It's Elios."

"Mhmm, my name is Aishie."

Even though it just ate through a sizeable chunk of my food supply, the fox was still only a bit larger than my forearm, who knows where all that food went.

It seemed that it was starting to get sleepy but that could wait for when we got to my castle.

When I gave Aishie a quick rundown of my circumstances and stretched out my hand so that we could teleport together, it swiftly ran up my arm and secured a spot around my head.

"What are you doing?"

"It's comfy here."

"That doesn't answer my question."

"..."

'This little-!'

I had things to say to this brat, but I held it in and focused on getting us to Night City.

After a bit of queasiness, we were outside Night City so I was about to message Jeanne but she suddenly appeared before I could.

"Master! Welcome back!"

She appeared with the brightest smile that I had ever seen on her face, but it only lasted until she glanced at the top of my head and quickly returned to her usual courteous expression.

I wondered how she would react if I told her that it was cute, but I restrained that thought.

"I'm glad to be back. Can I take it that you managed to repel the enemy?"

"That's right."

"And the causalities?"

"Only among the summoned undead."

"Hmm, and my castle?"

"..."

Jeanne kept smiling but refused to answer me. She knew she couldn't lie to me, so it seems the damage is going to be hard to look at.

"Well, I'm sure you all tried your best. Good job."

"Thank you. By the way, Master, may I ask?"

Jeanne glanced at the top of my head once more with a curious expression.

"Ah, let me meet Lia first."

"Understood."

With Jeanne trailing two steps behind me, we strutted towards Night City. We passed through security without any problem and waiting for us after entering the city was a discreet black and red carriage. Since it was being driven by a succubus I knew this was something Lia set up.

As we rode inside the carriage, I could feel Aishie looking out the window with excitement. From what I got from it while it was chewing through lunch, it didn't live in that isolated space when it was younger but all of its life had been inside its village, so I could understand how new everything must seem to it.

After a few minutes we left the carriage and entered the tower where Lia was waiting for us on the bottom floor.

Next chapter