Chapter 16: Kotaro Enraged
At a pub in the castle town of the Nation of the Dragon King, the festivities were going well into the wee hours of the night. There, a man and a woman both entered together. The pub was filled with people swigging booze and getting drunk. Everyone was so engrossed in drinking and conversation that even if anyone were to catch the two out of the corner of their eye, they would soon be forgotten.
The man and woman sat at a table in the back of the pub that was already occupied by two hooded individuals. Both wore baggy robes with hoods covering their faces, making it hard to tell if they were men or women.
Without exchanging a single word, the hooded duo handed over a bag to the inconspicuous pair. Quickly checking the contents, the man raised an eyebrow. No one in the noisy crowd around them was paying the group any mind.
“I assume the other preparations are set?” the man asked.
One of the hooded individuals silently nodded while the other placed a large cloth sack on the table. It hit the surface with a loud clank, signifying that it was holding something heavy.
The woman reached her hand inside and pulled out a jingling length of chain from within.
“You said the target is a Beloved, right? This is a risky job, so we’re charging you a hefty retainer,” declared the man.
“And you’re sure you’ll succeed?” asked one of the hooded individuals, finally speaking up.
The woman smiled in a smug manner. “Who are you asking here, pal? Reapers never fail. Beloved or not, once we have a target, we’ll kill them for sure.”
“Payment will be upon completion.”
“Hey, fine by us,” said the man with an air of confidence. Neither the man nor the woman doubted their success.
With negotiations done, the hooded duo left money for their drinks and left the establishment.
◆ ◆ ◆ ◆
“Nyaaah.” Ruri yawned, stretching her cat body after pleasantly awakening on a delightful morning.
(Maybe the scent pouch did its job?) Ruri remembered to put the pouch underneath her pillow last night, and it felt as though she slept better than usual.
Jade, resting beside her, started to awaken as well. Since he was off from work today, he was waking up much more leisurely than he would normally.
“Good morning to you, Jade-sama,” Ruri said while peeking at Jade’s face, prompting him to gently pet her tiny head.
Once she reverted back to human form, she went to go eat breakfast with Jade, who was dressed more casually since it was his day off.
When Ruri would eat by herself, she would have her meals brought to her room, but when accompanying Jade, she would head down to the Dragon King’s special dining hall. The long, rectangular dining table was far too big for a mere two people to use. Regardless, Ruri didn’t sit on the opposite side of the table but instead beside Jade for some reason—so close, in fact, that it was a waste of perfectly good space. However, since the wait staff placed the meals closely together on the wide table as if it were natural, Ruri accepted all this as a difference in human and dragonkin social behavior. Even if Ruri had wanted to enjoy her meal at more of a distance, Jade wouldn’t allow it because...
“Here, Ruri,” Jade said, holding out his fork to her as if it were business as usual.
“No, I can eat by myself,” Ruri said, declining. However, Jade wasn’t willing to take no for an answer; he pushed the food next to her lips. Ruri had no choice but to open her mouth and chew. She wished he would just let her eat on her own like a regular adult instead of some child, but Jade seemed intent on feeding her.
After repeating the process a few times, Jade seemed to be content, so she conceded and tried to eat in this manner, but it still left her feeling awkward all the while. It was going to take a while before she was used to all this.
Once breakfast was over, Ruri once again turned into a cat and climbed on Jade’s lap. He read aloud a simple book for children for her study purposes. Normally, Agate would administer her lessons, but whenever Jade had free time like this, it had become routine for him to read to her while she sat on his lap.
As Ruri studied handwriting and spent a relaxing time with Jade, Claus abruptly burst into the room without knocking.
“Your Majesty, that girl is at it yet again!!”
Jade’s face instantly frowned in displeasure.
It had become common knowledge for anyone working in the castle that “that girl” referred to none other than Azelda. After getting into a fight with Ruri, everyone figured she’d learned her lesson since the spirits didn’t obey her, but it seemed she was back to her old selfish ways. At this point, addressing her with the title “Beloved” was a misnomer. Granted, Ruri had no intention of amending said misnomer since Azelda was getting exactly what she deserved.
“What is it this time? Found someone she wants to add to her groupie pool? Dissatisfied with one of the soldier’s behavior? Found a maid more beautiful than herself?” Jade asked.
“She barged into the garden while Lady Celestine was enjoying her tea and blamed her for why the spirits wouldn’t listen to her. She started off aggressive and the spirits are already on a hair trigger! Right now, Lord Agate is holding them back, but he can’t hold them for much longer!”
Jade breathed a single heavy sigh.
Azelda’s requests covered a broad range of spoiled behavior. There was one day where she gave Jade’s bodyguard, Finn, an order to join her entourage and serve her. There was another day where she was dissatisfied with the behavior of a soldier who denied her audience with Jade and demanded that he be fired. And on yet another day, she saw that her entourage couldn’t take their eyes off of a beautiful maid in the castle and accused the maid of seduction.
Her selfishness was gradually growing more intense by the day. Every time, she would try to get her way by using the spirits, and each time Ruri would wind up holding the spirits back. The spirits followed Ruri’s instructions more than Azelda’s, which upset Azelda so much that she would relieve her anger by being selfish, creating a vicious cycle. The general consensus of everyone in the castle was that they desperately wanted her to leave.
Ruri hopped off of Jade’s lap and said, “We should hurry over there; Celestine-san is in danger, Jade-sama.”
“Yes, let’s.”
“You can give her a proper scolding. You don’t have to worry about the spirits lashing back with me around! Please, really lay it on her!”
“If there’s no worry of the spirits, maybe we should just send her back to Cerulanda,” Jade said, suggesting an idea that would likely be met with a standing ovation from everyone in the castle.
They all sprinted toward the garden before danger befell Celestine.
“Hey, looks like fun,” said Chi from behind, tagging along. Kotaro and Rin soon followed.
In the garden, Agate was trying to stop Azelda’s whining tirade. Celestine glared silently at Azelda, and the spirits were poised to strike at any moment—it was an extremely chaotic situation to say the least.
Agate saw that Ruri and Jade had arrived and a wave of relief drew over his face.
Ruri made containing the spirits her top priority and dashed over toward them. “Guys! Stop, stop! Don’t attack her! Break it up!” she ordered.
“Oh, it’s Ruri!”
“You heard her, break it up!”
“Okie dokie!”
Spirits were docile and cute by nature. Once Ruri said to stop—something she’d been doing over the past few days—they all smiled sweetly and followed her instructions. That meant that the only spirits around were following either Ruri or Celestine.
Azelda’s face was red from anger. “W-Why?! Why are you leaving?! Come back here!”
Once the spirits left Azelda’s side, the people who had been watching the situation on pins and needles breathed a little easier.
Jade walked in front of Azelda. “Lady Azelda, this is a problem. I have repeatedly requested that you refrain from entering sector one since the Beloved of the Nation of the Beast King is staying here.”
Once Azelda saw Jade, her enraged face took a complete turn. “Oh my, it’s you, Dragon King. It’s not my fault. This girl keeps getting in my way. It is her fault that the spirits have stopped listening to me. You should admonish her for sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong,” Azelda said, fawning and snuggling against Jade.
Jade nonchalantly regained his distance from her. “Celestine is not the one who did that. Your conduct as of late has been intolerable, and if you proceed with this misconduct any longer, we shall respectfully ask you to return to your nation. Are you all right with that happening?” Jade said, using stronger language than usual because he knew that Ruri was higher in rank than Azelda.
The onlookers enthusiastically turned their eyes toward Jade as if to congratulate him and say, “Yes! That’s telling her!”
“How could you say such a thing? I am a Beloved! Do you think you can just get away with speaking to me like that?!”
“Unfortunately for you, the spirits who serve your selfish whims are prioritizing the words of our nation’s Beloved instead of yours. This nation will not tolerate your selfish whims any longer.”
“Wha?! ‘Selfish whims’? I am simply asserting my rights as a Beloved.”
“If our nation is not to your liking, then you are free to return to Cerulanda where they will heed your wishes. Our nation has no intention of being toyed with by you any more,” said Jade, refuting her as bluntly as could be.
Azelda stood there, wordlessly flapping her mouth in a fruitless effort to speak until she finally managed to say, “I am not being selfish. You are blessed by the spirits thanks to me, so it’s only natural that you listen to what I say!”
“Indeed, your presence keeps the soil bountiful,” Jade confirmed, “but that does not give you the right to do whatever you please. The people around you are at fault for inflating your ego, but you yourself need to learn to be a bit more compassionate.”
“How dare you say that to me! After all the good I do for the land here, this nation would be nothing without my presence!”
“This nation already has a Beloved of its own. We needn’t go through the trouble of welcoming a Beloved troublemaker into our fold. Our nation does not deem you necessary.”
“Hngh...!” Azelda choked out, her body quaking and her face red in what was either rage or embarrassment.
Jade turned his back to her as if to say he wouldn’t waste his breath on any further discussion. “Come, Ruri,” he called.
“Right away,” Ruri replied, coming back to him.
Just then, as soon as Ruri passed by Azelda’s side, she felt an intense pain and a jolt run through her body which landed her on the ground.
“Nyan!” Ruri yelped.
“Ruri!!” Jade screamed in a mixture of panic and terror.
“Urk!” Ruri grunted, quickly realizing that Azelda had punted her as Jade’s cry echoed through her ears. She tried very groggily to stand to her four feet, but Azelda followed up with a stomp of her high-heeled shoes, which she proceeded to dig into Ruri’s body.
“Nyaaa!” Ruri cried out sharply. She was unable to produce human noises in her cat form, so her shrill cat cries echoed throughout the garden.
“Shut your mouth! How dare you try to make a fool out of me!”
“Stop!!” With sheer horror on his face, Jade dashed over, shoved Azelda off of Ruri, and picked her up gently as to not touch where she had been stepped on. “Ruri! Ruri! Are you okay?!”
“...Yes... I’m... fine...” Ruri tried to say to calm Jade’s nerves, but the pain wasn’t making that easy. It made sense considering her small cat body had just had Azelda’s heel grinding into it.
“Ruri!” Rin called out in concern, coming over to her side.
Jade glared straight at Azelda with a stare as frigid as a tundra. Azelda winced for a second before immediately tensing her brow. She was going to speak, but before she could get a word out, something suddenly blew Azelda’s body backward.
“Eeek!!” she shrieked as her body slammed onto the ground.
Ruri, Jade, and everyone else watched on in confusion as to what had just happened, but the culprit was soon identified. It was Kotaro, who was slowly walking up to Azelda, an intense anger radiating from his being.
“How dare you. Do you know what you’ve done? You have no right to hurt Ruri. Know your place, you vile brat!” Kotaro shouted as an electrifying pressure emanating from his body took hold of the entire area.
This display made the normally confident Azelda go pale as she looked at Kotaro with a face filled with fear.
“You inflicted harm upon Ruri right in front of me, so I assume you’re ready to meet your maker.”
“Uh... uh...” Azelda’s body started to levitate. “Huh? Eeeep!!” She fluttered her legs in resistance, but she continued to float higher and higher into the sky regardless. “Noooo, somebody...!”
Everyone stood completely still, unable to come to her aid as her body lifted high into the sky. She was then flung around in all directions—up and down, left and right—tossed around like a toy in a bathtub.
“Eeeeeek! Help meeee!!”
“Wait, Kotaro!”
Whether Kotaro didn’t hear Ruri’s cry or he chose to ignore it, he didn’t stop.
After a while, Azelda’s body halted in midair. Just when it seemed he was done, she went higher and even higher into the sky until, as if the strings were cut, her body started to drop.
“E-Eeeeeeeek!!”
Kotaro was going to stop before she hit the ground—or so Ruri thought—but Azelda showed no signs of slowing as she plummeted down. At this rate, she was bound to smack straight into the ground.
Ruri frantically cried, “Kotaro, stop it!!”
Azelda’s body then came to a dead stop just a few centimeters away from the ground. Had Ruri not stopped Kotaro, she would have undoubtedly collided with the earth below.
Relief drew over Ruri as she shuddered in fear. Meanwhile, Azelda shivered in unbridled terror. Her buckling legs couldn’t hold her weight and she collapsed to her knees on the ground.
Kotaro looked at Azelda, her face still positively frozen in fear, with an icy glare. He then turned toward the spirits around him and spoke.
“This person has laid hands on my precious contract-bearer. Heed my words, spirits! As of now, you are not to help, intervene, or interact with this person in any way, shape, or form!!” declared Kotaro.
That was a direct order from a high-level spirit to all lower level spirits. Spirits would absolutely comply with any order a spirit higher than themselves delivered. And considering how this was an order from Kotaro, a supreme-level spirit, any and all spirits other than his supreme-level spirit brethren were to abide by it.
The spirits were not allowed to offer her aid. That essentially meant that Azelda was no longer allowed to receive the blessings of the spirits, the power that made Beloveds who they were.
On this day, this world lost one Beloved.
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