CHAPTER 69 - EARS LOOKING AT YOU, KIT!
🙞❤︎🙜
I got up and put the tablecloth back into my inventory while we silently waited for the fox child to finish eating. She was an adorable creature with red fur, bright eyes, dainty little paws, and a fluffy tail. When she was done, she ran up the hill, with Shuye and me hot on her heels. She was quite fast, and I had quite a bit of trouble keeping up with her. Ten minutes later, I was panting heavily and slightly bent over because of the stitch on my side while I gaped at the majestic sight of the Fox clan’s temple. Thankfully, the fox had stopped right beyond the moon gate.
As a result of my staying in the Ancient Hill Forest most of the time, I hadn’t really experienced seeing many of the exotic and beautiful places featured in Adventure Incarnate. Therefore, I was overjoyed at finally viewing truly incredible scenery.
The temple had sculpted eaves featuring foxes and trees. The steeply pitched gable roof was covered in densely packed golden shingles, and the facade was made of red bricks. A large wooden door carved with gamboling foxes stood open, revealing a courtyard that was open to the sun. In the center was a small pond surrounded by huge stone lanterns, azaleas, and plum trees.
“How beautiful!” I exclaimed.
Beside me, there was a soft “puff” sound, and when I turned to look, the pup had turned into a cute child dressed in a set of white robes with an autumn leaf design. Her silk shoes and the bottom of her robes were muddy, and she had reddish-brown hair, brown eyes, fox ears, and a fox tail.
“Hey! You're her, aren’t you?” asked the fox-eared child.
“Oh my gosh! You’re so cute! Can I touch your ears?” I asked.
Alas, before I could make a move, Shuye interposed his body between us and said, “Lady, where are your guardians?”
What a killjoy!
The girl ignored him and addressed me again. “I know who you are. You’re going to marry that ugly!”
“What? Me? No, I think you have confused me with someone else. I’m not here to get married.”
“You’re Baroness Violet.” She sprang towards me and clutched my skirt. “Please marry that big ugly!”
“Eh???” I turned to Shuye. “Does she mean you?”
“Are you saying I’m ugly?” Shuye’s lips twitched.
“Nooooo!” I turned to the little girl and said, “We’re not here to get married.”
“I don’t mean him. I mean that ugly!” She screwed her face up horribly and infused the word “ugly” with extreme loathing. “You know the one I mean.”
She was so cute, but I still had no idea what she was talking about. Instead of answering her, I took advantage of the opportunity to touch her ears.
Mmm. The fur was fluffy, and the flesh was flexible and soft to the touch.
“Yaaah!” The little girl sprang away from me, her bushy tail standing straight up. She covered her ears with her hands and gave me a shocked look.
“Oh, oops.” I placed my hands behind my back and tried to look innocent. “Did I accidentally do something?”
There was a soft “poof” sound, and the girl’s fox ears and tail disappeared. She stared at me wide-eyed, and said, “It’s true what they say about humans!”
“What do they say about humans?” I asked.
“They’re really lew-”
Shuye coughed meaningfully, and the girl shut her mouth in the middle of a word.
The three of us looked at each other, speechless, but we were saved from an awkward situation when a voice rang out.
“Shi-shi! Where are you? You’re going to be in so much trouble when I find you!”
It didn’t take long until the person speaking came into view. She was a tall, gorgeous woman with bright red hair, green eyes, and a voluptuous figure. Her full green skirt went down to her ankles, and her small waist was emphasized by a wide red sash. This was the first time that I saw someone wearing a robe with a low neckline. The front of her green robe had a deep open V that showed off her considerable assets.
The little girl ran to her, saying, “Look! It’s her! I told her to marry that stupid ugly.”
She picked the girl up and walked towards us calmly. “Hello, you must be Shuye and Baroness Violet. I’m Meihui, and this is Lady Hoshi, the titular head of the Fox clan.”
That little fox girl was the clan head? Maybe I shouldn’t have tweaked her ears.
We exchanged the usual greetings and bows, while Lady Hoshi continued to insist that I should definitely marry “that ugly.”
“If you marry that stupid ugly, I’ll let you touch my tail,” she said.
Shuye and Meihui burst out laughing.
“No way! I’m way too young to get married,” I said.
“How old are you?” Lady Hoshi asked.
“I’m nineteen.”
“What?! You’re just a baby.” The little girl pouted. “Aw, that’s too bad…”
“Ahem.” Meihui cleared her throat and got down to business. “About the Emberstone. We got your message, and we’ve prepared the cleansing ritual. Please follow me.”
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
Still carrying the clan head, she turned towards the temple and led us inside.
As we walked behind her, I turned to my Farm Guide and asked him what the girl was talking about. “Why does she want me to get married so badly?”
He bent down and whispered, “I told you that Prince Baiyu can’t be the heir to the Lady of the Westerlands because he’s male. As the strongest female of her generation, Lady Hoshi is our ruler’s heir presumptive.”
“What does that have to do with me getting married?”
“A very small but vocal minority wants Lady Hoshi to marry Prince Baiyu and join the White Tiger clan that way.”
“Oh.”
“Lady Hoshi and most of her fellow Fox clan members don’t want her to leave her birth clan.”
“Poor thing. A child like her shouldn’t have to worry about something like that.”
We entered the temple doors and walked quickly through the lovely courtyard and into a side building where two temple attendants, a male and a female, were waiting for us. I hardly knew where to look because they were both exposing a lot of their chests. It seemed that Fox clan members were the sexy type.
If this was still Adventure Incarnate, I would’ve decried the developers’ need to always include fanservice in the game art.
“According to our records, the evil spirit that was sealed inside the Emberstone was exorcised by one of our priests three generations ago, so you shouldn’t be in much danger,” said Meihui.
“That was my ancestor. He defeated that bad spirit,” said Lady Hoshi.
“Nonetheless, it’s best to be cautious. Some evil residue might still be lingering on the Emberstone, therefore the two of you should be cleansed.” Meihui instructed the attendants to take us to the baths.
The System’s quest information updated itself.
[Investigate the Emberstone:
Deep in the forest is a mysterious stone. Explore the surrounding area and uncover its secrets. (Done)
Check the Emberstone glade for clues. (Done)
Go to the Temple of the Fox Clan and ask them about the stone. Bring five slices of double-fried tofu as an offering. (Done)
Circle the Sacred Tree of Life nine times.]
Shuye went to a building on the south side of the courtyard, while I followed my attendant to the western building. Before we parted, he whispered that he would take care of the offering, which was great because I had no idea what or how much I should donate to the temple.
I was hoping that the ritual would involve a hot spring bath, but it was just a normal wooden bathtub. The female attendant who led me to the place was joined by two others who instructed me to remove my clothes behind the screen and wrapped a thin cloth around my body for modesty. Then they took me to the main bathing chamber, where they poured ice-cold water over my head before they helped me climb into the tub full of steaming hot water.
The priestesses waved wooden wands over me and chanted something in an ancient language that translated as various iterations of “Evil begone!” After a few minutes, they finished their chant and lit sweet-smelling incense in censers, which they swung over me until the entire room was full of white smoke.
That seemed to be the end of it for now. They allowed me to get out of the bath and I toweled off behind the screen. They handed me a thin white robe to wear.
“Um, what do I wear under this?” I asked.
“This is underwear,” they said.
So I put it on and emerged from behind the screen. Three more attendants arrived bearing eight more white robes. By the time I finished putting all of them on, I could hardly walk from the weight of all the cloth.
“Now all you have to do is walk nine times around the Sacred Tree of Life,” they told me.
I looked down at my bare feet.
“Don’t worry, we sweep the ground every day. You won’t be injured.”
The oldest of them led me by the hand to a garden path. At the end of it, I found myself in a circular clearing with a gigantic golden oak tree in the middle of it. Lady Hoshi was waiting beside it wearing a many-layered set of white robes. The attendant silently led me to her and gave my hand to the clan head. Then the little fox girl and I walked hand-in-hand around the tree.
The Sacred Tree of Life had a gold and white trunk and pale green leaves that were shot with gold. Whenever the wind swept through the leaves, it made a slightly metallic rustling sound that was pleasant to the ears. I fancied I could see a faint golden glow all around the clearing that emanated from the tree.
The second time we circled it, I felt a strange sensation as though cobwebs were brushing across my stomach. I felt more than a little queasy when I saw black smoke emanating from the center of my body and being drawn into the Sacred Tree. By the fifth lap, I was feeling lightheaded, but I could clearly see that the amount of black smoke was decreasing, and it disappeared altogether by the eighth lap. I heaved a sigh of relief when we finished circling the tree nine times.
This quest was turning out to be longer than I thought. I hoped the reward was worth it.
[Investigate the Emberstone:
Deep in the forest is a mysterious stone. Explore the surrounding area and uncover its secrets. (Done)
Check the Emberstone glade for clues. (Done)
Go to the Temple of the Fox Clan and ask them about the stone. Bring five slices of double-fried tofu as an offering. (Done)
Circle the Sacred Tree of Life nine times. (Done)
Ask Prince Baiyu the true reason why the Emberstone was lost.]
Lady Hoshi silently instructed me to sit on a bench, and she went back to her spot beside the tree. Shuye arrived a few minutes later, also wearing many layers of white robes, and went through the same ritual as I did. However, the quantity of black smoke that came from his body was much greater compared to what I had experienced.
The sight made me feel queasy. During my daily life, I stayed on the farm or the forest and lived a quiet, simple life. The fact that the Sacred Tree was needed to purify Shuye and me was terrifying because it showed that there were forces beyond my comprehension that had somehow affected us without me even noticing. The System hadn’t even given me a quest to ritually cleanse myself. I shuddered at the thought that all of that dirty black stuff had been inside my body and mentally vowed to stay away from quests unless it was absolutely necessary.
It just wasn’t worth it to meddle with things that I didn’t understand. A quiet life on the farm was what I wanted.
When Shuye and Lady Hoshi finished circling the tree, three attendants appeared and ushered us to an elegant reception room. My Farm Guide discreetly handed a large bag of gold to one of them, and I was offered some tea and snacks, which I gratefully accepted.
Lady Hoshi smiled mischievously at me. “You owe me a favor now, right? That means you have to marry that ugly.”
I ignored her words and asked her something that had been bothering me. “Is the tree going to be okay? That was a lot of black smoke. I assume that black stuff was the ‘residue.’”
“You saw it? Yes, that was the residue of the evil spirit. The tree will need some time to recover, but it’s strong. Something like that wouldn’t be able to hurt it,” said Lady Hoshi.
I noticed that when it came to official Temple matters, she acted much more adult, like her solemn manner during the ritual.
“What black smoke?” asked Shuye.
“She’s talking about the evil emanation from the Emberstone,” said Lady Hoshi.
The two of them then went into a technical discussion of spirits, evil emanations, residue, and so forth. They used a lot of archaic words, but I got the gist of it. The Fox Temple would take responsibility for the Emberstone and send their people to move the artifact to a safer location where it would be resealed and purified.
They discussed the details while I drank tea and ate osmanthus cake, a steamed rice cake made with osmanthus flower syrup and sugar. It wasn’t as good as the Demon Chef’s cooking, but it was quite an elegant tea snack.
After Shuye and the clan head finished discussing the details, we said our goodbyes and walked outside the temple where the little fox girl tugged at my skirt and whispered, “They told me that humans are adults at age nineteen, so you can marry that ugly!”
“Children should mind their own business,” I said.
I patted her on the head, and she ran back to her attendants.
“Cute kid,” I commented to Shuye. Waving goodbye to her, I turned to leave with my Farm Guide. “Let’s go back home.”
I was exhausted and wasn’t looking forward to going down all those steps.
However, that proved to be unnecessary because a familiar figure was waiting for us at the top of the stairs.