“Are you an idiot?”

Uehara’s eyes changed into yellow slits. His fists were clenched as he glared at Chizuki who was kneeling in front of him. When Chizuki had completed her vow, Uehara felt a strange sensation in his soul, like a link had been attached.

He had immediately flew out of Chizuki’s lap and transformed back into his humanoid form, dark chakra surrounding him as he spread his senses all over. He was initially shocked but when he sensed that Chizuki was responsible for the link, he calmed himself down and asked her what happened.

After hearing what she did, anger threatened to throttle him, leading him to the current situation.

“Do you realise the consequences of what you’ve just done?”

Silence.

“I am asking you a question woman?”

Chizuki’s eyes became bloodshot.

[That word.]

In all these few years they’ve spent together, Uehara had never referred to her as ‘woman’ but called her by name. For him to call her ‘woman’ again just emphasized how displeased he was with her actions.

Calming herself down, she forcefully swallowed the lump in her throat.

“Please understand me master. I just wanted to dedicate this little life of mine to you.”

Uehara looked down on her slightly trembling figure.

“What you’ve just done is more than enough reason to kill you a hundred times over.”

He unconsciously began to emanate dark chakra with wisps of yellow. That was his nature energy and dark-attribute chakra. He placed his hand on her forehead.

“I’ll fix this mistake you made.”

Chizuki immediately tried to remove Uehara’s hand.

“NO!”

But Uehara sent a burst of chakra into her, causing her nervous system to shut down and her whole body to freeze. Her sage transformation receded while Uehara continued to touch her forehead and closed his eyes.

Looking deep into his consciousness, he finally appeared in a familiar clearing with green pastures all over. Behind him was a slow-moving river while in front of him was a massive tree. But what he was looking at wasn’t the tree but the man leaning against the tree polishing his great sword.

“Father. I need your help.”

Volkarin stood up.

“I know.”

He leaned his sword against the trunk.

“If this was still the first year when you trained her, I would tell you to kill her with no hesitation. But it’s been what? Nine years now?”

He walked towards Uehara and placed his hand on his shoulder.

“I know it infuriates you to have someone that weak bind themselves to you, especially without your knowledge. But trust me son. That attendant of yours has far more potential than you think.”

He crouched down and ruffled Uehara’s hair.

“And if that isn’t enough to convince you, check the current state of your body right now.”

“Yes father.”

Uehara closed his eyes and his body appeared ethereal for a moment. He investigated every trace of his body, including his soul and what he found greatly surprised him. When he became tangible again, he opened his eyes to see his father smiling wryly at him.

“So?”

“It’s amazing!”

He quickly coughed, visible embarrassment on his face.

“I mean, it is indeed surprising. My need for blood to survive has decreased by at least fifty percent.”

“Exactly boy. Although she’s not a yokai, she has brought you about a hundred years of extra time without needing a yokai inside you. With your need for blood decreased, you can now afford dedicate more time to becoming stronger and therefore, choose a stronger kitsune to merge with you.”

Uehara was silent for a while before he spoke.

“I hate this. This feeling of having to rely on others to survive is…”

Volkarin watched him silently.

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

“Stop whining. You’re a man. This is only temporary.”

Uehara looked up.

“Dad. How do I become a surin? I hate this need for blood and I don’t want to wait until I reach the 5th Gate. If possible, I want to also reject this whole idea of becoming a host.”

Volkarin didn’t speak and looked at Uehara in the eye. Then, his eyes changed shape to form a bright red geometric mandala with patterns covering his entire eye, including his sclera that would disillusion anyone who gazed into them long enough.

“For other vampiric surins, I do not know of a short-term method but since you have my blood in you, you have also inherited these eyes. These are the mandala eyes, also known as the eyes of rebirth.”

Uehara’s eyes glowed red in response to seeing Volkarin’s mandala.

“Rebirth…does that also mean I can change my constitution?”

Volkarin smiled.

“You catch on fast. Your eyes right now are in the initial stage of the mandala. Evolving them further will be difficult as even my eyes awakened at a great price.”

“Price?”

Volkarin sighed as he stood up.

“When I had to watch each and every surin I grew up with being slaughtered in front of me by humans. That was when I awakened these eyes and my body became reborn. This allowed me to break into the 9th Gate and temporarily possess the power of a demigod to kill every single human and a weakened god of the 10th Gate.”

Volkarin became dazed for a bit before shaking his head and continued to speak.

“I don’t want you to have to pay a similar price so I will try to find a method for you to awaken them. Regardless, if you awaken these eyes, your body will become reborn, fixing every flaw that you have ever had. That will include your vampiric aspect, allowing you to become a full surin.”

Volkarin chuckled lightly.

“If you succeed, you may very well become the first hybrid consisting of a surin and a dragon in the entirety of existence. And if you take in a kitsune and become its host, you will possess the power of all three demon races.”

Uehara was becoming excited.

“Can that really be done father?”

Volkarin put a damper on his excitement.

“Not while you’re this weak. Now back to this attendant of yours. Because part of her has been linked to your soul, you have come a bit closer to being alive. Now if we include her massive potential…”

Uehara smiled.

“It’s not a bad deal at all.”

“Besides all that, that woman is incredibly loyal to you son.”

Uehara frowned.

“But I still don’t understand why. I mean I’m sure with how I saved her life, I can rely on her being loyal to me for at most a century.”

“That’s where you’re wrong son. Your logic isn’t off-point. Let me tell you a secret. If there’s one thing I’ve learnt, it’s that when a woman chooses to devote herself to someone, it is extremely hard to shake that devotion.”

Uehara contemplated for a while but soon gave up.

“But how?”

“Well, that’s a woman thing now, isn’t it? But don’t think too much about it. Just trust me when I say that woman is the last person you should ever fear betrayal from because with women, there is only two sides. Loyal or not loyal. There’s no middle-ground for them.”

He walked back towards the tree.

“That’s why, don’t think about it so much. You’ve already found yourself an attendant for when you become a god before you’ve even reached the first gate. Other gods would be envious of you.”

He sat down against the tree and grabbed his sword.

“That’s why, trust in the experience and knowledge of this father and you’ll naturally come to understand what I mean as you grow older.”

Uehara smiled lightly as he bowed.

“Thank you, father. Now I know what to do.”

“Good. Now get out of here. I need time to think.”

Before Uehara could react, Volkarin snapped his fingers and he was immediately kicked out of his own mindscape. When he came back to the real world, his mouth couldn’t help but twitch a bit. But when he finally noticed Suzuki furiously pushing against his hand with tears in her eyes, he couldn’t help but sigh.

“Calm down Chizuki.”

Immediately, she calmed down.

[He called me by name? He called me by name! HE CALLED ME BY NA-]

Uehara flicked her forehead when he saw how she became dazed.

“Ouch!”

He walked off while she rubbed her forehead.

“Let’s go. I want to get to Heiankyo before today ends.”

The two of them were now walking side by side along the main road in silence. After Uehara told Chizuki to come, he didn’t continue speaking from there. Chizuki was nervous and she couldn’t help but glance at Uehara every few steps they took.

Uehara didn’t choose to give her any reprieve from her frustrations. It was his way of punishing her for doing something of this calibre without his permission.

As they walked, they began seeing a few settlements that were built a few kilometres outside the capital. As they continued, the settlements became more clustered and carriages could now also be seen.

“Chizuki.”

“Y-yes, master?

“I am a both a surin and a dragon.”

“Yes?”

She already knew that before. What made her nervous was how calm Uehara was speaking.

“What both races have in common is their pride, and you spat on it.”

He spoke so nonchalantly that Chizuki was becoming more and more afraid.

“I-I’m sorry master.”

“No. You’re not sorry. I can feel it.”

Chizuki’s eyes shot wide open but Uehara continued.

“Do you truly have any idea what you did, Chizuki?”

His voice had slightly rose. Chizuki became meek as she looked to the side. He continued after seeing she was silent.

“You have trampled on my pride. In a world dominated by strength, what you’ve done is shackle me. Your vow caused a piece of your soul to be linked to mine. Aside from the fact that this is the greatest disrespect you can cause me, if you die, the underworld judges will be able to find me through the link we share. I am already an abnormal existence. I do not need to attract attention so soon.”

He looked at her, his eyes glowing yellow due to mild rage.

“So not only have you done what is equivalent to riding on my back like I’m your mount, you have also forced me to always have to protect you to preserve my own sanctity.”

Chizuki shrank away a bit as Uehara glared at her. She couldn’t look him in the eye. Although she understood everything he said, she just couldn’t bring herself to…

“I can tell you don’t regret what you did.”

“I’m sorry, master.”

His eyes returned to normal.

“Since you idiotically bound yourself to me, these will be the consequences. As of right now, you are mine for all eternity. Your surname as Minamoto no longer exists. As my person, you cannot have another surname. So from now on, you will be Aoki Chizuki. You will administer to my every need now, and in the future. You will obediently listen to every word I say without question. Your life and your entire existence itself will belong to me.”

Uehara looked at Chizuki, hoping to see her show some sort of negative emotion like sadness, but imagine his surprise when he saw her crying tears of happiness.

“Thank you master! I swear to dedicate my entire existence to you.”

Uehara couldn’t help but frown. His one petty revenge at seeing her despair failed terribly.

[Annoying.]

[AN: Pardon the late update. There was a power outage in my area of resident. The chapter that was meant to be posted today will be uploaded approximately nine hours from now when I clock off from college. Thank you]