A while ago, before Rox went on a hunt with Au and Juba, he let Au know that Juba was above her in rank.
"Au, Juba, my mount has been granted a ninth-tier system by me which makes her rank in my eyes the same as Zairitz. I can not let you mount her because that would mean you are above her. But... If you can convince her to let you ride her then you can.". Rox said after mounting Juba.
Au politely bowed her head and said; "Yes, My Lord." and followed Rox on foot.
Rox knew allowing Au to ride Juba would make their journey faster but he is currently trying to build a hierarchy of his subordinates under his [Ruler's Reach] skill. In his mind, anyone who is directly acknowledged by the Seed System and given a ninth-tier system should be above the rest.
After talking to Au, Rox caressed Juba's back and said to her; "Same as I told Zairitz to not abuse her power, you shouldn't also abuse yours.".
"Yes Master, I won't." Juba paused for a while and as if she was struggling with what she wanted to say next, she opened her mouth although she doesn't speak through her mouth and said; "M-Master, can I get more of those sweet cooked rabbit meats?"
At the banquet, Rox first gave Juba a whole rabbit to enjoy which she did. When the banquet was almost over, Rox wanted to find out if Juba would eat the cooked rabbits so he picked a few and served them on a plate for Juba.
Juba initially found it weird. She was satisfied after gobbling up a whole rabbit and she was yet to taste cooked meat. Although she had her reservations, it was food served to her by her Master so she decided she would at least taste it.
The moment she tasted it, a whole new world was opened up to her. She cleaned her plate and asked for more.
Rox let Eu give her a second serving and a third serving after which he finally said 'No'. He had been passing Juba food for a week. As such, he knew just how much food Juba would have every day. In fact, Juba barely finished any of the meats he used to pass to her.
After the second serving, Rox realized Juba kept on eating just because of the taste of the cooked meat and nothing more. Because of this, Rox didn't let her have any more cooked meat.
Since Rox didn't want to fatten her up anymore, he decided he would not let her overeat which led to this situation.
Rox once more said 'no' to her request.
"Please, Master. This is my first time tasting something so sweet and now that is all I can think about. Please, just one more serving."
"No. I know you can survive for days without food so I am not going to let you eat more until we have our next meal together. Put it in your mind that you would not get more than three servings too."
After this, there was an awkward silence for a while before Au started introducing Rox to the fauna of the forest.
While they were moving forward, Au would try to touch Juba's fur every now and then but she was able to stop herself each time.
In her mind, a Great Mo, Also known as a Pink Cheetah is a very powerful beast that should be revered. A beast so powerful and fast that when you meet one, you simply have to surrender. If it is not hungry, it may allow you to leave with your life. If not, you have to say goodbye to your precious life since there is no way you can escape from it.
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Now, she is with one of these powerful creatures and she wants to just touch it to satisfy her curiosities.
How soft is a pink cheetah's fur?
Can she touch one and live to tell about it?
Can she befriend Juba?
These are some of the things that have been occupying her mind lately.
When they reached the rabbits' warren, Rox asked Au and Juba to stand aside whilst he was fighting the rabbits.
During this period, Au and Juba had their own conversation. They knew Rox would be able to easily deal with the rabbits because in their minds all the abilities Rox showed when he was wearing Kuma were Rox's own power.
As they were watching, Juba initiated a conversation between herself and Au; "Hey, I know you want to touch me. I have one thing to ask of you. If you accept, I can let you touch me as many times as you want."
"Yes, ... I want to touch you. By the way, how should I address you?". Since Rox told her Juba was above her in rank, she didn't want to do anything that would offend Juba.
Because of how she was raised, she is not one to go against authority unless ordered by a higher authority.
"I don't mind you calling me Juba." As a cheetah, she really didn't care about those norms. She now knows about them because the system chose to educate her when she was appointed as Rox's divine mount but apart from learning how to address her Master and how to behave around him, she found the other information useless.
"Okay... Juba, what do you want to ask of me?". Au asked politely.
"Can you help me ask for more cooked meat from master?"
Au was about to say yes without thinking about it but she stopped and considered it for a while. Just as she was about to give her answer to Juba, she saw Rox beckoning her over.
After a short conversation with Rox, Rox teleported away to go and deal with the eagle and they continued their conversation while watching Rox.
"About your request, I don't know if The Lord would accept it if I help but you would have to let me ride-" Au suddenly stopped talking and with an astonished face shouted; "What!... He already defeated the great eagle?"
"That's my Master. I am going to go over there.". Juba suddenly started running to Rox's side.
"Wait! Let me ride on your back there and I'll help you.". Au stopped Juba and put forward her condition.
After hearing Au's condition, Juba walked slowly to her while saying; "My back is only for Master but for the sake of sweet delicious cooked meat, I'll allow you to mount me just this once."
*******
On Rox's side, he had to waste more than 2000(MP) to teleport to the eagle which was a little more than five hundred metres away from him in distance. To Rox, the [Sight Teleportation] wasn't fuel efficient. He is fast enough to traverse that distance in about a second by running with little cost to his stamina. He only used teleportation because of the fact that he didn't want the eagle to notice his approach.
Both sides have skills that allow them to see afar so it was easy for them to spot each other. The eagle was actually watching Rox's battle with the Rabbits using its [Eagle Eyes] skill.
After the battle with the rabbits, Rox's [Area Awareness] skill informed him that he was being watched from afar and after looking around for a little bit, he saw the eagle.
After realizing that the eagle was stronger than him, he had to quickly come up with a plan to defeat the eagle so that he wouldn't lose face in front of his subordinates.
It is true that his subordinates can not betray him because of his [Ruler's Reach] skill. He can force his subordinates to do whatever he wants even if they don't want to do so but as a person who was raised on Planet Soyzy as the next ruler of more than ten per cent of the planet, he had to set the standard.
Not only does he want to prove to himself that he is not ruling with an iron fist. He also wanted to prove to his subordinates that their lord was dependable.
After defeating the eagle, he hid in the mist and drank an (MP ) potion to hide the fact that he almost depleted his mana.
One starts feeling tired when their (HP) or (MP) goes below ten per cent.
After making sure his subordinates would see him in 'perfect' condition, he got out of the mist to meet his subordinates.
"Did something happen in the brief moment I left?" Rox asked after seeing Au on Juba.
Au hurriedly jumped off of Juba, bowed her head and said to Rox; "No My Lord, we just had a short conversation and I asked her to bring me here when we saw you were done with the eagle. Sorry for mounting your mount Lord.”
After hearing Au's reply, Rox chose not to pry and jumped onto Juba sitting gracefully on her back. "Juba, since you brought her here, I hope you don't mind letting her join me here while we return?”
”I mind not Master, but can I get -”
"No.”
”Please-”
”No.” After failing to get Rox's permission, Juba turned her head to Au signalling to her that it was time for her to do what she had to do.
Initially, Au was thinking of making a subtle suggestion to Rox during their next meal to increase the amount of meat servings that Juba gets. Unfortunately, Juba started asking for more meat the moment they met their lord and threw the ball into her court the moment Juba failed.
This placed Au in an awkward state forcing her to say; ”My Lord, can I also ask you to give Juba more meat?”
Right after saying so, she realized her statement could also be interpreted as her questioning her Lord's judgement and immediately knelt down and started pleading. "I'm sorry, My Lord. I..."
"Hahahaha haa”. After seeing how both Juba and Au acted, a few possible scenarios came to his mind and he realized why Juba let Au ride her and laughed.
”I'll let you have four servings every now and then just because you let me remember an agreement between a certain dragon and a demon.”