“Higanbana, isn’t that a bit too much? I can tell that Asagao wanted to talk to you sincerely and yet you still avoided her. Ah, but it is inevitable though because we don’t know what might happen to you when you are with her.”

“Whether it’s alright or not, I don’t think I can stay any longer in that place…”

I can only feel a bottomless pit of coldness in my chest whenever the thought of Asagao rejecting me erodes my mind. It hurts and I can feel it suffocating me like something thorny is strangling my neck. Moreso whenever I think of tainting Asagao with this vile obsession of mine called love.

I feel so stupid, I feel so useless, I feel like I am not worth anything anymore. I want to crash down somewhere but I don’t want to drag anyone, that’s why I don’t want to go to that meeting anymore. It’s not even an exaggeration to say that I tried to sell my whole kingdom for a girl.

For that, I just decided to go home…

As soon as I told mother that I wanted to leave immediately, she arranged a talk with Violetta, one of King Ashfon’s aide and explained my situation to her. Fairly enough, she agreed to use her Warp for us which I am grateful for.

We got home immediately and safely, however, there’s one thing I want to complain about…

“Why are you here?”

“Oh, oh…don’t mind me! Ahahaha! You need some medication as your mother suggested so I came here to provide you with it. Well, I am quite short on ingredients so I’ll try finding some here.”

“I don’t need you here.”

“Aw, so cold. I am officially here as an ambassador too. I would like to discuss some matter with the beast queen, you, you see.”

“Beast queen say begone vile creature.”

“Oh, have you heard? Asagao is my apprentice back in the fairy forest mansion. She did a lot of funny things there. I could tell you some as past time!”

“…You…have my attention…very well…”

It’s a trap set up by this woman called Mimosa, I know.

But I don’t think there’s any harm letting her stay here. Mother agreed to this before as she asked for assistance so I don’t have the need to ask her approval for this. It’s just that I find her attitude creepy and overbearing.

Not that I can’t bear with it. I think she is just talkative and overly curious about a lot of things despite someone smarter or more intellectual.

“By the way, Beast Queen, you are strikingly cute. Can I have your spit?”

“……”

I know I am not the one to talk but that’s just creepy and out of the blue. She doesn’t even hide her vile intention that got even a disapproving look from mother. I can’t believe Asagao agreed to work as her apprentice…

“Ah, sorry, sorry! You yourself can feel it right? I am an Arcana Magician.”

My body immediately tenses from her words. My guard elevated to a degree and I immediately jump towards mother’s front to protect her. I immediately release a Flame of Purification in my arm and glare at that woman.

“O-Oh…such vigilance. You seem so ready to react at any given moment when there’s an enemy huh. Guess you ain’t the Beast Queen for nothing. By why so much hate?”

“I can’t recall any good memories with Arcana magicians, except Lady Violetta who takes good care of Asagao.”

“Yeah, I guess I’ll get creeped out by me too.”

I can feel something in my head snapping and desiring to set this woman ablaze.

No, lets set her on fire.

I threw some normal fireball around her.

“UGYAAHA?!”

“Fireball. Fireball. Fireball.”

“WHY?! STOP! UGYAAAH!”

Though her scream is like music to my ear, her exaggerated screams are just too much for me to bear too. However, even though I threw dozens of fireball towards her, she just dodges them easily. I bet her screams is just comical effect.

Honestly, I’ve seen her once fighting.

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She is a top grade warrior who relies on her concoctions, agile and flexible body, and her impeccable reflexes to dodge even the most lethal attack with ease. Her tricky and devious strategy in combat might be proven a disadvantage for me.

I can see why Asagao respects her even for a little despite her shitty attitude. Not bad, she just has a shit personality.

After feeling a sense of satisfaction, I stop. Mimosa’s expression can’t be clearly described with her thick glasses but I can faintly tell that she is remorseful for what she tried to ask of me.

“Yeah…I get the message…but you see, that’s just how my Arcana Magic works.”

“What do you mean? What will you even gain by revealing your secrets?”

“Secrets? Nay, knowledge is something you spread for the benefit of the masses! My Arcana Magic is a really useless ability unless I consume someone else bodily fluid. By doing that, a screen or something appears in my sight indicating all of the people’s abilities, statuses, their parameters, fighting skills, and even their future potentials.”

“If other bodily fluid will do, why ask for spit in the first place?”

“Yeah? It’s easy to acquire and there’s a naughty suggestive meaning to it. Ahahaha!”

“Fireball.”

“UHGWAAA!?”

After firing a large fireball with intent to really hurt her, I marched away from that place together with my mother who is quite bewildered of our exchange.

This woman is absurd. I kind of get how Asagao feels whenever I answer satirically like that.

“Higanbana.”

“Yes, Mother?”

“You’re awfully getting close to your new friend.”

“She’s not…”

“I’d like to go ahead and prepare a proper reception for her. Despite being a little…whack, she is still an ambassador from the Fairy’s side.”

“Then I’ll go.”

As mother said, I can’t ignore the fact that she is an ambassador. I can be rude as much as I can to her personally but when things turn into a serious business, I have to put up a face.

“Ah, please don’t leave me behind! Or more like, I am also here to make some medicine for you! However, I am missing some ingredients. I want to look around to see if I can find anything here.”

“There’s the market and then there’s the forest a little away from here. You can pretty much sure find anything you want as long as you wander around.”

“I’ll get lost. This is your capital, right? And your island is scattered with waters surrounding it. I’m worried I might get assaulted by some thugs!~”

“There’s a lot of things I wanted to retort to but I can’t find the energy to deal with you. If Asagao really did work under your supervision, even temporarily, I can already imagine the everyday disgusted glances that she’ll throw at you.”

“Bingo!”

I’ll throw you out in the sea.

“Fine…I’ll go with you while mother makes the preparations.”

“Yay! Let’s go to the forest!”

As per her suggestion, I take her to the forest. In all honesty, I can’t even sense a tinged of hostility from her. Asagao does trust her so I should too or else I’ll just get tired of staying too vigilant around her.

As planned, mother parted from us and Mimosa and I went to the forest to collect ingredients for my medication. If I can’t control my burning urges, especially around Asagao, I’ll be stomping on her ideals.

I got used to Alstroemeria’s talkativeness and I like it a lot. She is not annoying, she is pretty cute, and she is the second to my heart after Asagao.

However…this one is on another level.

“So, Asagao went and use this soap then her mouth got all bubbly! Ahahaha, the look on her face when she got mad is so precious! She didn’t talk to me for a whole day though!”

“That’s given you freak.”

“You see, Senya has been complaining about her back lately. I think I’ve been giving her too much medicine to rely on so I’d be really glad if she stops moving around and getting it on with a lot of girls!”

“Restrain her.”

“There’s one girl I really like to take a deeper look! I think you know her! She is Topaz! It’s not every day that you’d get to have a closer look at a sentient devil! If possible, I’ll strip all of her clothes and dearly examine every nook and cranny of her body.”

“…That’s interesting…”

“My assistant, Ardisia, doesn’t talk with me too much anymore in the middle of her work. I’d wish she get more intimate with me as her superior. I think she is too stiff to even take a joke from me.”

“The person is working. Stop bothering her.”

“You know, there’s just time where I just want to walk up to a girl with big boobs and grope her. Then I’ll say damn girl, that some crime level rack you got there. Or some girls with firm butt and smack it to redness.”

“Same here.”

“Really?!”

“Ah…no!”

I got swept up by her pace that I stopped thinking much about her words.

Well, good thing that we’ve arrived at the forest before anything becomes worst.

“We’re here.”

“Whoa, it’s quite far from the capital. Is this a secluded place?”

“No, this vast forest is our family’s property. We still have not thought of how to use it so we just keep it this way. It’s a lot helpful though even without being renovated.”

“Yeah? Let’s go!”

Mimosa shows a very interested countenance as she observes the entirety of the forest just from the entrance. Her eyes then move from left to right, top to bottom, and even back and forth, rotating her body stupidly.

I think she is really trying to find something. I guess I am a little rude to her earlier. I’ll give her a little credit for being honest…

Well, I don’t I already get what kind of personality she has. If I’ll describe it in words…

“A friend that nobody wants.”

“EH?! What was that?!”

“That’s you.”

“Uweee…! That’s a little painful!”

But I think what I said is quite accurate.

Even though I am saying something awfully rude again, Mimosa never halted from looking around, however, at that very instant, she stops.

Her face glows in a serious glare at something and the air around her immediately digress into battle mode. She drew her glasses away and put it in her pocket and at the same time, drew out some bottle of vials with differing colors.

It got me confused. I don’t feel anything. Even my instinct is not kicking in. There’s neither hostility nor bloodthirst…

“Little fox, it’s time for you to go home. NOW!”

It was not a suggestion or even a request. It was an order with tone saying I must absolutely do it or else I’ll get in a serious trouble.

Guts.

Instinct.

Disturbance.

Intuition

None of it is picking up anything. Even if I try to sense any magical power in the air or even any residual magic, there’s nothing, not a trace, not a single speck.

“Ah…too late. You should have escaped…little fox.”

“What’s out there? I can also fight you know.”

“Hey, …it’s not actually an enemy you should be facing directly…”

I follow the place where she’s been staring at.

What follows is someone appearing out of thin air.

That’s where all the danger signs came rushing at me like a flood. It paralyzes me as my whole body experienced a shock.

A man from the wolf clan…? Came out…

This presence is something…Asagao dearly hate…

“Bad…this is bad. You are actually better than I thought.”

“Oh? I just sniffed out some really pugnacious power of arcana. I am the same as you so I know how we actually smell towards each other, especially when on the opposing side.”

“Ahahaha! This is really bad! I shouldn’t have expected anything less from the Black Dragon Warlord’s direct descendant!”

“And? Who might you be?”

“Oh, my apologies. I intruded into this territory and yet, I am being rude. Allow me. I am Flow, the current Arcana of Gluttony. I have no namesake to speak of so let it end like that.”

“How awfully humble of you. Then, I am Mimosa. As you said, I am a direct descendant of the Black Dragon Warlord. Much of my past is not exactly a musical sheet for someone else.”

“Ah, how wonderful. We’ve been away from the stage for so long that I hope someone still remembers us. Bad…this is bad…I’m awfully getting excited.”

“I heard an awful detail from Asagao and apparently, you are the one who killed her servant.”

“Oh, I’m rather famous then?”

This…guy?

She made Asagao…sad?

“You…I’ll fight you to my fullest. I don’t even know why you and your little group are appearing now but at least, could you let this little fox girl go?”

“Ahahaha! Bad…really bad…! The last time I fought with little girls, I got my arms cut off. I’m actually quite bad with them now so I think…yeah…sure.”

“How kind.”

Mimosa then tugs on my clothes.

“You…go. Stop standing in a daze you fool.”

“That…guy…”

“No motives, nothing in particular or so to say, he showed up. Beast Queen Higabana, go.”

“He made Asagao…sad. I know that…I know it when Asagao is really sad!”

“Tsk!”

I’ll fight this guy and kill him.

This is one of those guys who exist solely to make her suffer and cry!