Chapter 13

Being grounded is a foreign concept that I fail to fully comprehend. Why would having to stay in my own ancestral home to cultivate in a safe and extremely luxurious environment be considered a punishment? It isn't like I am planning on leaving any time soon either since I need time to reflect on all that I have learnt from the hideous over glorified lizard and my powerful and wise eldest brother. Really, not being allowed to leave my house for a few months isn't a big deal.

The second part of the punishment is way harsher in my humble and very accurate opinion. Being forced to write an essay detailing my plans everytime I go outside for more than two hours is a bit too much, especially when said essay needs to be approved by both my parents before I can leave the house.

How are you supposed to have fortuitous encounters if I am not allowed to visit random places at random times? It isn't like I can plan for fortuitous encounters, that's why they are called that in the first place.

In order to come up with a good opening paragraph for my future essay explaining why visiting the jade court again is an idea worth considering even if the place is so filled with convoluted plots and betrayals that even poisonous snakes feel ashamed when they compared themselves to those experts, I went to take a midnight stroll in the gorgeous gardens belonging to my family. To no one's surprise, the view was undoubtedly beautiful, albeit not in the way I was expecting.

Under the shadow of the purple moon, Kuroka was enjoying a drink, absently humming a nice-sounding melody I did not recognize. An alluring sight I did not dare to immediately interact with as I remembered the words that my father once told me when I was just a little kid.

...

-Riser, if you ever see an angry woman in need of some good advice or calming words…Don't.-

..

Wiser words have never been spoken.

And while it doesn't seem like that at first glance, I can tell that Kuroka is not in a good mood at this very moment. The ground is covered with empty bottles of sake (not even the good quality stuff that people drink for the flavor), and the trees around her could be mistaken for pincushions given how many tree branches are stabbing them. The nekoshou herself appears to be somewhat sweaty, her clothes ready to fall at the slightest movement.

For a girl who likes to present herself as an easygoing and whimsical cat, she surely is bad at dealing with stress. And while I would love to offer her a quickie, the book is pretty clear about bedding female leads before they confess their genuine love toward the Young Master in question. Trying to sleep with them before that will end with them running aways, something that I do not want to happen since I genuinely enjoy Kuroka's presence here.

I open my mouth, but immediately think better of it. Instead, I make my presence known by warming up the surroundings and sit down beside Kuroka in silence.

With some curiosity gleaming in her yellow eyes, she pours a cup of sake for me and continues humming her soft and sweet melody, ignoring my presence for the next ten minutes. No words are exchanged at any moment, Kuroka throws bemused glances at me trying my best to swallow the bitter alcohol but there are not any interactions beyond that. I play with the idea of whistling a song, but I cannot think of any that would fit this moment.

I don't know how to deal with this kind of situation.

The minutes goes by; there are times when Kuroka seems to want to utter a word only to stop herself at the last second. This silence is getting a bit boring, but this isn't unpleasant by any means.

"Kuroka is a very nice name, isn't it? It rolls off the tongue." She comments out loud, but I am not sure if the words are even directed at me. "Names like mine manage to be a little subtle without becoming pretentious."

One does not need to be a genius to realize she isn't talking about herself. Sadly, I lack the necessary context to know what to say, but I doubt that I would know what to say even if I had said context.

"It does fit you like a glove; your voice is indeed quite soothing."

"Right? It fits me without being degrading at all." She nods to herself, only pausing to sip the sake left in her cup. "Names like mine are the best."

I would argue that names that start with the letter R are also great, but this is likely not the time for that.

"It is such a nice name."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

''Do I?'' Kuroka holds her chin as if she were considering the question and then sniggers. ''Not really. Who the hell wants to explain their daddy and mommy issues to other people?"

''Do you want to hear?'' She asks.

No, not really.

Who the hell would want to hear about other people's miseries? Actually, I can think of a lot of people that would rejoice in the suffering of others, but most of them are villainous cannon fodders fated to have a painful and pathetic death at the hands of random MC because they decided to commit unnecessarily evil deeds in front of him for the sake of being assholes.

"More like I feel like I should.''

"Go figure, lover boy wants to hear what the flight risk has to say." She rolls her eyes with derision before sighing and looking away. "Sorry, I shouldn't be this scornful. Not to you at the very least."

I wave the apology off. As long she doesn't try to cut my balls with a holy artifact or convince a random guy with some weird justice boner to do the same, I wouldn't take it personally. Young Masters need to be thick skinned in order to survive in this cruel world.

"I am pretty damn sure that your family already knows about this anyways. I have a little sister; that fatass of the Nebarious Clan wanted to perform some experiments on her, the same ones he performed on me, so I killed him. Nothing weird, right?"

Personally, I would have skinned him alive then forced him to eat said skin while boiling him to the death in a tub filled with some weak acid if he had dared to do anything similar to Ravel, but I nod anyways.

"And then…I ran away." Her hands begin to draw circles on the ground as if she was trying to distract herself from her own tale. "Oh, I also killed a bunch of servants that actually liked her because they turned in strays after I murdered their king, something I knew would happen when I killed the bastard.''

"My initial plan when I accepted your job offer was to check on my sister and run away with her once again after things calmed down a bit." She confesses nonchalantly. ''But those fucking Gremory, they are treating her…well. She sleeps in a warm and comfy bed, eats good food and they even spoil her with candy, too much candy in fact for a growing up girl who never brushed her teeth as much as she should. They also gave her a stupid new name, but I can hardly blame them for that since she wasn't answering to her real and much nicer name.''

She shook her head.

''What was I supposed to do? Force her to become a fugitive like her sister? Hell, I know that the Gremory did not do anything wrong, but I can't help but resent them more than a little bit even when they are making my sister happy."

I have no idea what should I say, so instead of opening my mouth and ruin the moment I put a hand on her shoulders. She barely even acknowledges it is there.

''The only reason I followed you to Romania without complaining was because I wanted an excuse not to think about it too much. I was more than willing to abandon the dhampirs to their luck the moment you even whispered about it. The only person I am afraid of hurting is my sister...and she is arguably the person I hurt the most.''

That is a lie, or at the very I refuse to acknowledge that statement as the truth because I got to know her over the past few months. Kuroka is a good person who stayed by my side even in times of dangerous tribulations. She could be a bad person and I still would consider her a good person.

Unfortunately, if I were to share those thoughts with her, I suspect that she would push me away for reasons we are not supposed to understand. I don't want that to happen, but I also don't want her to feel sad.

"As a Young Master, I do not know a lot about being a good person." Being selfish fits me better. "That said, I believe you are a good sister."

Kuroka doesn't reply immediately, but after a minute of looking at the fake moon in the sky she finally exhales.

''Can we have chicken for lunch?''

''Sure, chicken with rice is actually this Young Master's favorite food.'' Especially since our chefs work with the best spiritual rice in all the Underworld. ''Although, I could have sworn that salmon was your favorite food.''

''That's racist ~ nya.'' She grins and caresses my chest in a sultry and very enjoyable manner. ''Everyone know that sexy cat girls love to be filled with roasted chicken.''

''Seven out of ten. I feel that you missed another obvious pun. ''

''I can make your night a ten out of ten if you want.''

I close my eyes and sigh. Following the Holy book's teachings could be really painful sometimes.

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Valerie's POV:

Eighty-nine minutes and forty-three seconds, that is the average amount of time that Kuroka spent looking at the fake moon in the garden at night for the past four days. Because of that the dhampir subtly advised Riser Phenex that a midnight scroll is good the clear one's mind.

Two hours and thirty-three minutes; that was the time that her dear prince of the unholy kingdom blessed by the sun needed to rescue the damsel from her own unhealthy behavior. And that was counting the time he spent he wandered aimlessly around the garden.

The nekoshou was still a flight risk just as she herself pointed out during their conversation, but one without any ill intentions toward someone relevant for their survival so it didn't matter. The most logical course of action would be to avoid any form of interaction with her beyond what was strictly necessary for the sake of keeping both Gaspy and Riser Phenex safe.

''My fair lady, your eyes burn brighter than any light mortals' eyes have ever seen, yet hither I'm afeared of the being kept apart from thou. Therefore, I plead thou to grace me with thy presence when the seventh art is shown to us after the sunset.''

But why would anyone choose the most logical path instead of the one that they want to follow? That would be just plain silly.

Since Valerie didn't like watching Kuroka make that expression, she only needed to make sure to do something about it. That will be the best for everyone.

''Are you talking about the movie night?'' The damphir gracefully nodded.

After finding out that there was a thing like moving images, there was NOTHING that could prevent the dhampir from actually watching one with her own eyes.She would enjoy those movies or she wasn't Valerie Tepes, the last descendant of Vladimir Tepes, the legendary vampire that fought in the name of Christianity against the Turks for some strange reason.

The fair and dangerous lady that she would not attempt poison unless she did something to Gaspy, studied her figure and grinned in a scary manner.

''I do have something I want to watch, are you fine with that?'' I slowly nodded as Kuroka was playfully wagging her tails behind her back. ''A beautiful story about two young women getting to know each other intimately and discovering a new pleasure that neither of them have ever imagined before.''

The black-haired maiden started to get closer to the dhampir while swaying her hips in a seductive manner…this was getting dangerous.

''I-I was actually thinking about something like Mulan or Camelot.'''

''Don't worry, we can also see those later.'' Her faces were now so close that they could feel each other's breath. ''Are you interested? I could give you a little spoiler.''

Valerie's legs almost failed when Kuroka planted a chaste kiss on her cheek.

At this point, thinking about the forbidding secrets of life and death hidden inside the Graal seemed like the safer option. To make things worse, Kuroka started chuckling at how red her face likely was. Only for that, Valerie would erase her name from the list of people that she wouldn't poison if things went south.

''Valerie.'' Kuroka lazily called her name as she was leaving. ''You are safe, there is no need to try so hard.''

There wasn't any reply to that statement.

It was precisely because Gasper and she were safe that she had a reason to feel afraid.

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Movies nights are a strange but marvelous human tradition; the time when two cultivators would watch their seniors perform heavenly defying arts or watch a fight at the distance in order to hope to gain some insights is long gone. Nowadays, a cultivator only needs to look around the internet for a while, buy a few things and they would soon be able to appreciate the peerless wisdom contained in those movie pictures.

The experts that appear in those Xianxia stories even had the insight to put their movies in the fantasy section so their secrets wouldn't be revealed to simple mortals. Hiding things in plain sight, truly inspiring.

Valerie is sitting between Junior Brother and me, while Kuroka is lying on another couch not leaving enough space for little Ravel who was forced to sit in her lap.

The first movie that we watch is a pretty nice lesbian porn movie with an unexpected deep plot and decent characters and setting…and a lot of hot lesbian sex. I really like this movie.

Sadly, not everyone share my opinion. Valerie is red as a tomato, telling Gasper to close his eyes while she covered his ears with her hands. Kuroka is doing the same with Ravel, but I suspect that my sister is peeking every now and then.

The second one is also nice. The movie is called Camelot and it has a lot of interesting musical numbers in it.

The third is interesting to say the least; the fourth one is refreshing; the fifth is unique; the sixth…

At that point, the only ones left in the room are Valerie and me. Kuroka left after the second movie, and Ravel and Gasper after the fourth. I don't appreciate how my sister grabbed Gasper's hand to guide the half-sleep boy outside the room, but I decide to trust my Junior Brother…for now.

''It is getting late for the morrow is soon to come…or maybe that means that it is getting early.'' Valerie muses.

''Does my little moonshine want to do some other thing?''

''Like what?''

''Well, how about talking about ourselves?''

We know very little each other, thus our interactions feel somewhat...forced and shallow at times.

Much to my shame, I still am not sure about what type of female lead Valerie is supposed to be. At first, I thought she was the elusive childhood friend that would make the MC stronger by being unwillingly separated from him for an undetermined amount of time, but then...I got proposed and accepted because I was thinking with my dick at the time.There is a chance she is some kind of poison mistress like my mother, but that still doesn't tell me a lot about her. For all I know, she could be one of those obsessed Young Master's wives that will bring me ruin because of her petty jealousy.

The only thing I really know about her personality is that she is a person of culture and has great taste since she immediately proposed to my handsome-self minutes after we met for the first time. I wish she would be a little bit lewder and jump on boner, but she appears to want to take things slow.

Well...there is another thing I unfortunately know about her.

''When I was a child, my older brother took me to a convention with a lot of people dressed as animals. I thought it was cute at first, but a few months later I learnt that furries were a thing.''

Although I swore to not hold that against Revive because it isn't strange for a devil to be into that kind of thing, I wished that I had been older than five when that happened.

''What is a furry?'' This poor mortal.

''I will tell you about them some other day.'' She nods very slowly, probably already guessing what kind of conversation that would be.

''Well, there was that time when I created a very big rat farm for those days when they wouldn't give me food. At first it was hard for me to tell which rats were sick and which ones were safe to eat, but after a few months that wasn't a problem anymore.'' She puffs her medium sized but surely soft chest in pride. ''An idea worthy of Merlin himself.''

I blink…and then blink again.

''I can't tell whether you are trying to manipulate me by telling that particularly sad story or if you actually can't see what is wrong with that.''

The dhampir almost tilted at that.

''Tis true that I recognize the sorrow dwelling in this tale of mine, yet this queen of yours fails to see why she would need to mani-''

''Because you are afraid of my reactions.''

It isn't hard to notice that all the snacks that Valerie selected for this night are my favorites, meaning that she probably spent a decent amount of time asking the servants around the mansion. The dress she is wearing right now is vermilion, which is my favorite color. Hell, even the movies that she chose but Camelot fit my taste perfectly.

Being feared by my wife does not feel right.

''...Would fair Kuroka be offended if I say that the cat is out the bag?'' Valerie asks in an almost amused voice that doesn't fit the whole situation.

''Knowing Kuroka, she would approve of the pun and then use it as an excuse to flirt with you.''

''To be fair, you were trying to fish information about me.''

I nod. Denying that fact would be useless at this point.

''I assume that you are afraid of me mistreating you or Junior Brother even though that won't happen, am I right?''

Valerie shrugs.

''Aren't you afraid of me poisoning you for some reason?''

It appears that we were planning on courting the other and having them all for us for our own safety. That is quite smart of her all things considered....and somewhat depressing.

'We really do not know what the fuck we are doing.''

And doesn't that suck?

''We could always treat this as a learning experience.'' She offers after a while.

My holy book didn't prepare me for any kind of emotional conversation that doesn't involve convincing people that I am awesome and worth following.

...

Rule 46

If you aren't sure about what to say, lying is a viable choice more often than not.

...

But this is probably one of the few cases where that isn't advisable.

''So, is this little moonshine in love with her husband?''

''Not yet, but I would like that to happen sooner than later. Thou art the sunlight prince that rescued this now crowned princess from the foul beast known as the calamity that follows the crescent moon.'' She pokes my biceps with her index finger. ''Besides, you are rich and my type appearance-wise.''

That's understandable. I am everyone's type.

''And it isn't like you have given me a reason to be scared but feeling afraid for Gaspy is just common sense given my past.'' It is telling that she didn't include herself in that sentence.

Sighing, I grab the TV remote control and choose another movie to play. This one is about a mortal martial art called Karate, but maybe I can find something insightful in it if I pay enough attention.

''I not planning to send Junior Brother in a dangerous mission anytime soon; that would go against my best interest''

''What is the point of owning a powerful Sacred Gear user if you are not making him fight or bragging about him?''

''A safety net mostly. The idea is training him until he becomes so strong that nobody would dare to slap me. I am not interested in courting death anytime soon. ''Really, I just want to defy the heavens in peace and not having to perform those weird funeral rites ''

She nods, leaning on my shoulder.

''Are they that bad?''

''Not really, but one of my ancestors came up with them while suffering from a bad concussion. We actually have a fake legend to make them appear more profound.''

...

Long ago, in the days when the gods still walked the earth, long before the lightbringer rebellion, a phoenix sang beautiful melodies to the morning sun. They were songs of love and sorrow, because the vermilion bird took pity on the little star in the sky because one day it would die while he would continue to live until there was nothing else that could be burned in the world.

The immortal bird's daily routine continued for years without any kind of interruption. Gods were born, died and fell into oblivion, and the bird's song continued.

One day, the Phoenix fell asleep and when he woke up the sun was already setting. Proud as he was, he ordered who at that time was the god in charge of the sun to return the sphere to the sky so that it could hear his beautiful voice.

The god, whose name had already been forgotten, fearing the wrath of the immortal bird, explained that this was impossible because that would go against his nature, something that no god was capable of doing without very serious consequences. In an attempt to calm the phoenix, he offered to find someone who would listen to his song in the sun's place.

Understanding that he was asking for the impossible, the phoenix accepted the offer and waited. The sun god quickly visited the nearest village and spoke to one of the children who was about to go to bed:

"You are a mortal, and I am a god. I bring you the gift of light, therefore you are meant to obey me. Run to the top of the mountain as fast as your legs allow you. Do not fear as no beast nor man will dare to stand in your way.''

When the boy reached the top, his prize was a beautiful song that no mortal today can boast of knowing, and marveling at it, he too began to sing. This was a pleasant surprise for the phoenix who was used to singing by himself and together they sang until the boy's throat went dry. The great immortal, disappointed that his fun had ended so soon, ordered the boy to climb the mountain every morning to sing alongside him, an order that the boy was happy to follow.

And the seasons passed, every morning the sun was greeted with their song. So many virtuous melodies filled that mountain and so many poems were said.

But one day the boy did not appear. The phoenix waited, and waited, but his kid did not come to the mountain. Angry, he visited the mortal village and demanded to be shown the house of his other voice. When he entered the house there was only a little girl crying and when he asked her where the child was, wiping her eyes she pointed at a withered old man laying quiet on a bed. Soon the bird understood what had happened. The boy became an adult, then an elder and then nothing.

Filled with sorrow, he ordered the girl to leave the house. And when he was alone with the corpse he began to cry and even the sound of his crying was as beautiful as a song, a solo. Extending his flames, he covered the body of his child hoping that he, like a phoenix, would rise from his ashes, but this was in vain, the black dust remained dust.

His tears watered the black ashes and by the time his eyes finally dried he could see that the girl was crying next to him. Humiliated by being seen crying, he thought of punishing the little mortal, but before he could do anything, she said:

''Thank you.''

Hearing this, the Phoenix left the village as he sang a sad song.

My peerless storytelling abilities were enough for Valerie to ignore the film in favor of watching me with an almost childish fascination until the tale reached its end and then some more.

...

''So you are a descendant of a majestic creature that blessed the sun with its song while I'm the last child of Cain, the eternal sinner.''

I inwardly cringe a little after hearing the last part, but the excitement contained in that smile of hers is too much for me to tell her that vampires are the product of a failed experiment. As they said, happy wife, happy life.

''Of course, my family boasts of our peerless bloodline. I work hard to refine it even further in order to surpass the weakness imposed on the devils by the heavens' will and I promise you that no Junior Brother of mine will fall before reaching true immortality.''

Gasper better works his ass for that; I literally made enemy of an ancient evil in order to recruit him.

''Hey, Riser. Would you cry for me as the phoenix in that tale did for his friend?'' Her voice is painted with curiosity as our eyes meet.

Right now? Probably no.

''Would you, little moonshine?'' I sagely deflect the question to not look like a complete asshole.

After a minute of staying silent, my little damphir wife stand up on the couch and points at me with a conviction similar to the one Junior Brother showed when he swore his loyalty to me.

''My sunlight prince, heed to my words. I make a sacred oath in front the heavens and hell. You, Riser Phenex, will fall for me.''

Cute.

The fact that she is only a little taller than Ravel made this attempt to be epic even more enjoyable to watch.

''You dare to decide this Young Master's fate?'' I say in the haughtiest voice I can muster. ''A crime worthy of ten thousand deaths indeed, but I feel generous. You are forgiven…as long as you explain how you are planning to achieve that.''

Valerie immediately takes a little notebook from her pocket and starts to write before I can even finish the sentence.

''Maybe some poisoning here and there, poems, serenades under the moon, a few threats to the right people, maybe learning to cook a little bit and a lot of work behind scenes and…'' She mumbles her future strategies.

Some of those are very worrisome and others outright scary, meaning that she has been speaking to my mother.

''Anything else?'' I am scared of the possibility of more morally ambiguous ideas.

Valerie stops writing and swiftly grabs my head for… a chaste kiss on my lips. While admittedly disappointing, forcing something a bit riskier would be in poor taste after our conversation. For now, I would have to settle to enjoying the soft touch of her pink lips and sweet smell.

The dhampir seems quite proud of herself, smug even. She even took her notebook from her pockets once again and crossed a few things in it after the deed. Did…did she actually plan out all of this bullshit?

...In for penny, in for a pound.

''As a young master, it is only right for me to swear to the heavens the very same thing.'' I gently caress her silky hair, feeling its softness. ''One day, my little moonshine will have no option but to genuinely smile while receiving my affection.''

There are a lot of words to describe Valerie's smile at the moment, yet not a single one felt like it was enough. I don't know if it is fake, but I will enjoy it nonetheless.

''So...?'' She asks after noticing that my hand is still caressing her hair.

…

''This…was not supposed to happen before the second poem.'' Little moonshine pouts between my arms while sitting on my lap.

I ignore her words in favor of selecting yet another movie. The movie marathon was her idea and there are like four movies left.