I got into school for nothing-166
I got into school for nothing (166)
Lesson 34. Free Subjugation - 1
A Shiksinrang, or God-devouring Wolf, refers to a wolf that devours gods.
In Norse mythology, Loki's son Fenrir, who devoured the chief god Odin during Ragnarök, is the prime example of such a being.
Since coming to Union Academy and studying the histories of various other dimensions, I learned that similar legends to Fenrir's tale were passed down in other dimensions as well, with only their names differing.
—In fact, there were quite a few cases where even the names matched, but given that the Tower of Babel itself originated from Earth, raising an issue about it would be meaningless.
Then, what about the Nine-tailed Fox? On Earth, it's a great yokai originating from East Asia, and like Fenrir, it can also be easily found in the legends and myths of other dimensions.
It's famous for its nine tails, its ability to wield supernatural powers, and the tale of it seducing humans to devour their livers is famous.
In China, it was depicted as Daji, the wicked woman who became the concubine of King Zhou of Shang and ruined the nation; when it crossed into Japan, it was depicted as Tamamo-no-Mae, who bewitched the Emperor.
“And Rucell inherited the blood of both of them?”
“It’s a miraculous probability. Especially since those who inherit the blood of ancient Divine Beasts like us don’t find it easy to have offspring.”
“That makes sense.”
Without even needing to examine them individually, Kanid and Lucia’s abilities were the strongest in the Wolf Fang Tribe.
If the two of them could easily have children—this expression might not be polite, but they would have surely borne as many strong children as possible to strengthen the tribe.
At the very least, now that Rucell has entered the Academy, they should be trying to have more children, if only to create a successor....
“Son-in-law, that’s a bit of a different story. It’s true it’s difficult—but we’re not even trying.”
After pouring Ban Yuwon’s glass to the brim, Kanid wore a bitter expression as he poured the remaining, more-than-half-full bottle directly into his mouth.
“It’s my fault. If I hadn’t been so overly ambitious in my youth, I wouldn’t have made a contract with that entity....”
“Rucell alone suffers enough. We can’t give the Constellations any more weaknesses.”
Instead of the hesitating Kanid, Lucia explained.
Sure enough, Ban Yuwon soon realized.
They were worried that a Constellation might try the same trick on them that it had pulled on Rucell.
‘Wait, but I can somehow—’
Ban Yuwon briefly gazed at Rucell, who was purring contentedly and acting cute in his arms (this was due to the alcohol he had consumed), then pressed down and swallowed the words that were about to escape his lips.
Somehow what? Would he really say that if they had a child, he would subjugate it again to protect it from a Constellation?
That would merely change the owner, but the leash would still be there, wouldn’t it?
For him, who had agonized over his relationship with Rucell for so long, to step forward and call that ‘help’ would be impudent beyond measure.
“Rucell’s Heart Furnace... can’t be said to be completely resolved.”
So, he brought up something else instead.
“I’m still researching how to resolve that somehow. So... please wait a little longer.”
“Thank you.”
Perhaps he had sensed the hesitation or guilt in his words.
Kanid grinned and patted his shoulder.
“Our daughter has truly found a good master.”
“She said he was a master worthy of her soul.”
Lucia supplemented in a calm tone.
Feeling unnecessarily embarrassed, he avoided her gaze, but Rucell tightly clutched his sleeve and burrowed deeper into his embrace.
“She seems to be asleep.”
“I trained her strictly.”
“Just in case, I’m saying this, but please don’t tell me what kind of training you gave her.”
Just the idea of training to make children was scary enough, but with a Nine-tailed Fox as the instructor, could there be a more terrifying combination?
He stroked Rucell in his arms and gave a wry smile.
If she was the daughter of a Nine-tailed Fox, it was only natural that she would be born with the talent to bewitch people.
“Cherish her.”
“Of course.”
At Kanid’s words, Ban Yuwon nodded his head firmly.
It was something he had been prepared for from the moment he was bound in a master-servant relationship with Rucell.
“—Ah.”
Just then, Slothy, who had slowly approached, embracing a liquor jar, saw Rucell and sighed softly.
“The princess beat me to it.”
“Didn’t I tell you to practice seducing men, Slothy?”
“It was too bothersome then....”
—Thump. Even as she set the liquor jar on the table and retorted to Kanid, Slothy’s eyes were fixed directly on Ban Yuwon.
It was as if she had locked onto him, unwilling to let him escape.
Ban Yuwon honestly thought it was a good thing Rucell was there.
If she hadn’t been, he might have been devoured in an instant.
“It’s not too late even now, so try your best.”
“Yeah, the Nataehu shine in war. A great chance to appeal.”
“War....”
At the words Slothy had casually uttered, Ban Yuwon’s body tensed.
She was already preparing for the coming war.
Even though beast-kin were wildly excited everywhere, throwing banquets and drinking freely, Slothy, as the forest’s caretaker, was calmly assessing the current situation amidst it all.
No, perhaps even the beast-kin who seemed so carefree right now—.
Ban Yuwon stroked Rucell’s head, who showed no intention of getting up, and asked Slothy.
“I heard enemies are coming from the sky too; can you monitor that area?”
“Yes, the leaves whisper to me.”
At that point, it felt less like controlling trees and more like being a spirit user.
Just then, Dokgo Yeon appeared from behind, carrying a huge pile of food.
“When I said I was with you and your party, they gave me plenty from everywhere. Eat up.”
“Thanks.”
Ban Yuwon took the sweet pastry Dokgo Yeon offered (it was a sweet pastry made by hardening tree sap), took a bite, and asked.
“By the way, have you two been together this whole time?”
“Because we fought.”
Ban Yuwon flinched at the words Dokgo Yeon uttered nonchalantly.
Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t noticed at first, but Slothy had many scratches on her body, and her hair was even more disheveled.
Dokgo Yeon, on the other hand—Ban Yuwon didn’t need to worry about her.
“She was strong. She wasn’t a worm who just rushed at me after seeing your abilities.”
“You really have no filter in your words. Why did you two fight in the first place?”
As if she had no intention of answering such an obvious question, Dokgo Yeon simply turned her head.
Slothy, on the other hand, tilted her head and replied nonchalantly.
“Stress relief?”
she answered.
“She was strong. Strong men really do attract strong women.”
“Hey, what the—!”
And then, as if she felt something was lacking, didn’t she just add that?
Those words seemed to treat Dokgo Yeon as Ban Yuwon’s woman, so he hurriedly tried to step in and deny it, but....
“Hmph, we are merely a team undergoing training together. Just because we move around together doesn’t mean we’re all family. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t lump us in with yourselves.”
Dokgo Yeon was the first to step forward and cut off that misconception.
It was a statement that could be taken as quite offensive depending on how you heard it, but perhaps, as Slothy said, she had released her stress through fighting and became subdued?
Slothy heard those words and tilted her head as if something didn’t quite make sense, then, with a shrug that implied understanding, she sat down next to Ban Yuwon.
“Anyway, you’re popular.”
“I guess I am quite popular.”
His inability to lie was annoying at times like this.
As Ban Yuwon replied calmly, Slothy, with a look of firm determination, leaned her head on his shoulder.
“Then I’ll yield the first spot to the princess. I want to be second.”
“...I told you not to display such vulgar behavior in front of me.”
Ah, so there was a reason they fought after all.
Ban Yuwon shook his head, watching Dokgo Yeon raise her fighting aura again, and Slothy, annoyed yet rising to meet the challenge—subtly caressing Ban Yuwon’s hand in the process—.
He was certain that if he interfered in these two’s fight, nothing good would come of it, so for now, he decided to ignore it and do what he needed to do.
“Is that what they call the Mirror?”
“It’s a tool to access the Union Net. By the way, isn’t the chieftain able to as well?”
“We connect through shamanism. We don’t use it often, though.”
Ban Yuwon quickly finished his business, put the Mirror in his pocket, and then, just in case, offered to transfer the spare Mirror he had, but Kanid refused, saying he had no intention of drawing more external affairs to this planet.
As expected, they don’t particularly like being connected to the outside world.
This special activity meant that the problem was so severe that they had no choice but to send a rescue request to the Union, even considering their dislike for external connections—.
“Rucell has completely fallen asleep. I apologize, son-in-law, but could you move Rucell to her room? Do you see that hole marked with pink fur on the biggest tree over there?”
“I should take her there?”
“Yes. We seem to have discussed most of what needed to be said, so you should rest as well.”
Was he perhaps intending to put the sleeping Rucell and Ban Yuwon in the same room and make them ‘achieve a great deed’?
If that were truly the case, it would be underestimating Ban Yuwon’s patience.
He, who had shared a room with a defenseless woman (Light) for an entire semester without anything happening!
Ban Yuwon scoffed inwardly at Kanid’s cunning trick, then picked up Rucell and rose from his seat.
“—That’s what’s called vulgar!”
“Humans are really uncomfortable; it would be much easier if they just took everything off...!”
He looked back to see the drunkards, who had been partying, spreading out and applauding Dokgo Yeon and Slothy, who had begun a fierce battle that was impossible to tell if it was sparring or a real fight.
Looking at it that way, Dokgo Yeon seemed to have assimilated among the beast-kin faster than anyone else—Ban Yuwon sighed and entreated Kanid.
“Her language is rough, but she’s genuinely not a bad kid. Please cover for her if she makes any mistakes. I’m counting on you.”
“Haha, of course. There’s no way I’d be rude to my son-in-law’s woman, is there?”
“No, what I mean is, she and I aren’t like that... never mind.”
There was no way to resolve a firm misconception stemming from racial differences.
Ban Yuwon sighed and stepped back from the spot.
“Then rest well, son-in-law!”
“Just do as you’ve been taught.”
He responded to the incomprehensible words thrown by Kanid and Lucia by nodding his head, then pushed off the ground and reached his destination in a single bound.
Entering the fairly large hole, sure enough, there was the sight of a room that Rucell would have used before coming to the Academy.
Charming furniture, several books, toys, and a large, wide, soft-looking bed.
“It’s a little touching.”
The concepts of everything that met his eyes proved the records, the history, that Rucell had accumulated in this world.
As she was a special person to him, even more so, such minor records were touching.
Thud.
“Huh? Oh....”
The light pouring through the hole disappeared, and he quickly realized the hole had closed.
Was this another one of Kanid’s tricks?
But Ban Yuwon’s eyes could pierce through all darkness, so there was no way he would panic just because the hole was closed. He planned to lay Rucell on the bed, then simply open it and leave—.
“Heh heh heh.”
A seductive laugh echoed.
The moment he heard it, Ban Yuwon realized his calculations had been wrong from the start.
“You were pretending to sleep?”
“Yuwon, were you fooled?”
Rucell, who had been in his arms, now had both arms wrapped around his neck and was looking directly at his face, at a distance where their noses could almost touch.
“I clearly confirmed you were asleep... with my Authority.”
“Then I guess I properly fooled you. Nine-tailed Foxes are famous for tricking people, did you know that?”
“So you learned that.”
“It would have been impossible in the past, when I was half-baked. This is all thanks to Yuwon.”
Even in the darkness, he could see Rucell’s brightly smiling face.
Thinking, ‘My Authority still has a long way to go, after all,’ Ban Yuwon obediently raised the white flag.
Soon, Rucell’s beautiful smile filled his vision.
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