"You were messing with me?"
"Well, not entirely."
"Such as?"
"I really do want to eat you after all, Master~"
Her seductive tone dropped into a low, husky register. Dressed in the garb of a Japanese Priestess, the fox spirit half-knelt on the soft grass. Like a four-legged beast on the hunt, she stepped forward with graceful precision, forcing Samael, who had instinctively drawn back, against the towering rock behind him.
Her dangerous golden beast eyes brimmed with aggression, and the pink tongue curling over her lips and teeth revealed a hunger that could not be hidden.
She was serious.
"…I thought I was imagining that feeling…"
Slumped in front of the boulder, the patient fell silent for a moment, recalling that faint sense of danger from earlier before murmuring thoughtfully.
Then Samael glanced at Tamamo-no-Mae, who was now close enough to touch, and frowned.
"Then why did you save me just now?"
"Because my love for you is serious too, you know~"
The fox spirit before him replied with a sweet smile. The sadistic delight she had shown while toying with life moments ago shifted seamlessly into shy allure, as if she and Samael were lovers flirting in the middle of a heated romance.
"Hm?"
"Well, only a soul personally chosen and patiently nurtured tastes truly exquisite. If one wishes to enjoy a real delicacy, it must first be nourished with sincere affection. No falsehoods mixed in. Otherwise, the flavor spoils, and that would be such a waste."
Tamamo-no-Mae leaned close to Samael and sniffed him, looking deeply regretful, her expression full of longing.
"So when will my little fruit finally ripen? What a problem. I can hardly wait."
As that rotten fox's fingertips teasingly brushed across his cheek, Samael felt like a chick plucked out of its pen, waiting to be cleaned, skinned, cooked, and served at the table.
Water it with love until love grows, raise the target until it ripens, then serve it up and eat it?
Come to think of it, that twisted idea over in Japan could not have come from you, could it?
Samael could not help recalling a report he had read in his previous life. In a Japanese elementary school, there was once a class with a title like "Cherish Food, Cherish Life," but the actual content made one's back break out in a cold sweat and shattered any normal sense of values.
The method was that every child in the school could claim a small egg and write their name on it. Of course, it was not limited to eggs. There were also little animals like piglets and calves. The children would then care for them bit by bit as they grew. Once the chicks hatched and the animals grew up, the project was almost over.
And the fate awaiting those animals was that, at the end of the course, the children had to kill them with their own hands, cook them, and eat them.
Many of the elementary schoolers cried as they ate. The scene once spiraled completely out of control. The children could only be forced to accept reality, and in order to complete the class, they had to sob and snot their way into playing butcher, slaughtering and eating the little animals they had raised with love.
Likewise, legend said Tamamo-no-Mae had the same wicked habit. Once she found a soul she liked, she would descend beside the host and remain by their side, tending them as one would tend a fruit, until they had fully ripened.
So despite how harmless, gentle, and considerate this rotten fox usually appeared, in truth, this woman really was craving his body in every sense of the word…
"But don't worry. Before you truly fall in love with me, I, Tamamo, won't harbor any wicked intentions toward you. After all, only a soul genuinely steeped in affection becomes the finest delicacy. I do have that much patience."
Under Tamamo-no-Mae's teasing smile, Samael seemed to remember something. His snake eyes quietly met her golden gaze as he asked calmly,
"Then how many times have you succeeded so far?"
"…"
The air froze at once. The smile on Tamamo-no-Mae's face stiffened, and the corner of her mouth twitched. Behind this posturing rotten fox, several shadowy tails of light drooped limply, looking utterly dejected.
Seeing this, Samael understood.
Those who fight Beasts must be careful not to become Beasts themselves. And when you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back into you.
By the same logic, emotion was undoubtedly a double-edged sword.
While Tamamo-no-Mae poured her feelings into her "prey," she herself was also affected by those feelings.
She kept saying that men were so easy to manipulate, and that she chose to serve and cultivate the targets she fancied only to steal their souls.
Yet in the end, not a single ruler who had ever come into contact with this demon consort had truly died by her hand.
So to this day, Tamamo-no-Mae had never once tasted the flavor of the little fruit she had planted after it had fully ripened.
"Well, that isn't the point…"
Under the quiet gaze of those snake eyes, the Beast of Calamity had already had her true nature seen through. She came back to herself, realized her lapse in composure, and immediately let her eyes drift aside as she dryly changed the subject.
Then, to recover lost ground and seize control of the conversation again, Tamamo-no-Mae's eyes shifted. She leaned forward, her bewitching face closing in on Samael's cheek with an oppressive, seductive beauty, while her thin cherry lips released a sweet breath.
"But you could become my first meal…"
The Beast of Calamity lightly tapped her pale, bamboo-shoot-white fingertip against her cherry-colored lips. Every gesture carried a natural allure, like a blooming poppy.
Even if bees and butterflies knew it was a peerless poison, even if they only smelled its fragrance or tasted it once, they would never be able to pull away. Like moths to a flame, they would linger in its embrace until their minds were hollowed out and their bodies withered to skin and bone. In the end, they would die in that flower field with satisfied smiles on their faces, reduced to fertilizer that nourished the thing itself.
"Taking responsibility again and again, carrying everything again and again. It's exhausting, isn't it…
"Fighting for the faintest chance of a miracle in a desperate situation, falling from the peak straight into the depths, wounded all over, forcing yourself back up, then getting hurt all over again. Don't you think that is far too hard on you?
"But I will never abandon you. Come, take my hand. Those who climb upward from the bottom of the abyss are the ones I love most. I will guide you toward the very peak of happiness.
"This time, don't bother with all those troublesome little matters. A life of wine and pleasure is fine. A quiet pastoral life is fine too. A king has the right to choose his own life, the right to desire, and the right to enjoy…"
Tamamo-no-Mae's whispers were like clear, sweet wine, becoming softer and more intoxicating with every word. It was a height that even the finest ASMR trigger sounds could never reach, enough to make someone want to abandon everything on the spot and sink into that beautiful dream.
Amid those soul-melting, bone-softening murmurs, the distance between the two of them grew smaller and smaller. Their hot breaths were already spilling across each other's skin.
"Come now, open your heart. Entrust everything to me. Cast off those burdens, set out on a journey, fall madly in love with me, and then, at the end, let me obediently eat you. I promise I'll give you a first experience unlike anything you've ever known…"
Their eyes met. The intimate atmosphere spread around them, and those alluring lips drew closer inch by inch.
"Cough, cough…"
But just then, a sudden, cool, dry cough rang out, and the intimate contact that had seemed about to happen naturally came to an abrupt stop.
Tamamo-no-Mae's fox ears shot upright. She stiffly turned her neck and saw that, beneath the flicker of several Rune symbols, the surrounding air rippled like water, revealing three familiar figures standing before her with their arms crossed.
***
...
If you'd like to support my work and unlock advanced chapters, you can follow me on p-@-treon.
[email protected]/PinkSnake (50 Chapters Ahead).
You can also follow as a free member to read a few advanced chapters.
***