His pride as a magnificent Divine Beast still resisted, but today, once again, he made a practical decision.
“Kyu…… u.”
Rounding his big almond-shaped eyes into crescents, he grinned and opened his mouth wide.
“Kyua-!”
“You’re so cute!”
Christina pinched his cheeks and stroked his head, smiling back at him happily.
‘Hoo. Well…… if she’s satisfied, that’s enough.’
He knew it was necessary, but there was nothing he could do about the shame rising from deep within.
Unable to look Christina in the eye because of the burning sensation in his neck, he covered his face with his front paws and rolled over to endure the embarrassment.
“Look at you getting shy. How adorable.”
‘Damn it. I can’t act rudely toward my benefactor either.’
Turning his head away, he hid his trembling lips, curled his tail inward, and huddled up.
At the sight of him looking exactly like a shy baby, Christina showered him with coos about how cute he was.
“Since you’re so smart and cute, I hope you’re always happy. I hope you live your life wonderfully.”
A warm emotion was conveyed through those words.
‘It’s amazing that there is someone who can say such things sincerely.’
Hearing words as ticklish and warm as sunlight, he couldn’t help but admit it.
That Christina’s disposition was gentle and warm.
Because he had never felt it in his previous life, he didn’t know what to name it.
Even after Christina left, he fell into thought.
‘Resentment must be returned twofold, and grace must certainly be repaid.’
He wagged his tail and tapped the cradle.
‘I don’t know what I should do when I receive this kind of feeling.’
The Imugi tried to recall something from his memory that might help in this situation.
‘Come to think of it, that Gumiho bastard seemed to have told a similar story.’
The capricious and self-willed, beautiful yet vulgar, pure yet cruel Gumiho had approached the Imugi without prejudice.
He was somewhat of a bothersome fellow, but thinking that as long as he didn’t cross the line it didn’t matter, the Imugi found him to be a demonic beast he ended up seeing for longer than expected.
There were those who ridiculed the idea of a divine beast and a demonic beast getting along, but rather than those who mocked and compared and lowered their dignity, the Gumiho was better.
‘He was an incomprehensible fellow. But that’s how it was back then too.’
One day, the Gumiho arbitrarily came to where he lived, played around giggling, then suddenly asked.
“—Is training enjoyable?”
“—What?”
The Gumiho’s tail swayed softly.
“—You said you’re cooped up here because you want to ascend. I’m asking if you’re happy doing what you want.”
For some reason, he couldn’t answer readily.
Noticing that momentary hesitation, the Gumiho pouted his lips and muttered, “Fool.”
‘What is with him.’
The Imugi didn’t like what that lip shape implied. He furrowed his brow and replied.
“—Calm down~ That foolishness is rather charming~”
That rudeness of openly calling him a fool strangely grated on his nerves, so he spoke with a slight warning.
“—I’ve told you before, I don’t like it when you speak carelessly. Wouldn’t it be better to keep your mouth shut rather than make me feel that way?”
Seeing him narrow his eyes, the Imugi expected another tiresome tantrum of “How mean! You idiot! I’m offended!” but unexpectedly, the Gumiho simply gazed at him for a moment.
At the unexpected reaction, the Imugi also faced the Gumiho.
“—I’ve found someone I love. That’s why I’m going to become human.”
“—Wha……?”
Was that a joke?
That thought flashed through his mind.
The next thought was: has he gone mad?
The Gumiho, who ate the livers of humans and beasts, had fallen in love with a human.
He couldn’t even fathom how that was possible.
“—Your fox bead will soon be complete, and after a thousand years you could become a Celestial Fox, yet you’re giving it all up?”
The Gumiho let out a soft laugh.
“—Preposterous, isn’t it? When you find someone who loves and cherishes you, you’ll understand too.”
‘As if that would happen.’
He felt he would never understand it in his lifetime.
The Gumiho giggled, straightened his body, and stretched languidly to the tip of his tail.
“—I’m going to go now.”
The Imugi was about to ask more about the circumstances, but since he had no confidence he could empathize, and anyway it was each person’s own story, he didn’t say more.
Sensing it was practically a final farewell, he chose his words carefully.
“—If you become human, you won’t be able to come here. I hope you live as you wish, loved and well.”
“—……Yeah. Thanks.”
The Gumiho hesitated, looking at him as if wanting to say something more.
“—Thank you. Hehe.”
“—? How bland.”
The Gumiho looked at the Imugi with a deep gaze as if taking him into his eyes.
Somehow unable to avoid those eyes, as they faced each other, the Gumiho closed his eyes and turned away.
“—You just……”
“—Hmph! Live well, fool!”
Barking out, the Gumiho vanished into thin air. Watching his retreating figure, the Imugi rubbed his chin.
‘It seemed like he was crying…… was it just my imagination?’
He couldn’t understand that either. He knew that clingy fellow arbitrarily considered him a close friend, but…… he didn’t think it was to the point of tears.
‘A personality incomprehensible until the very end.’
He was a bit curious, but since the Gumiho had already left, he couldn’t ask.
Since he had left anyway, he simply hoped that he would feel that thing called “happiness,” that thing called being “cherished,” to his heart’s content.
But one day, word came that the Gumiho had met a miserable death at the hands of a human who coveted his fox bead.
The reason was that while a wife could be replaced, the parents of the dying man were the only ones in the world.
‘Thinking about it again, that husband bastard was a despicable one.’
Truly foolish, he was a man who had ended up killing even his own child and wife.
The Imugi had punished him, but the fact that he couldn’t kill him on the spot still remained a regret.
‘Though it’s no use thinking about it now.’
While cleanly setting aside what he couldn’t change, he worried about how to remove the white spirit creature attached to him as a sentinel.
‘They won’t leave a young creature alone……. Hmm.’
As he pondered, he changed the direction of his thoughts.
‘Isn’t it fine as long as my training doesn’t seem strange?’
While devising methods worth trying among the things he could do, he fell into a deep sleep.
***
A few days passed.
Having grown accustomed to drinking milk at mealtimes, he finished his private training alone without drawing the spirit’s attention, and was naturally lying in the cradle waiting.
Recently, Christina seemed to have taken an interest in researching other dishes using milk.
Thanks to that, she had said cooking facilities would soon be completed on one side of the lair.
‘Well. For milk to be so delicious and even restore mana. It’s no wonder she would have researched it sooner.’
‘Is this the addiction symptom I’ve only heard about?’ Thinking so, he smacked his lips.
While imagining the savory taste and softness of the milk, he waited until the air trembled from Christina’s teleportation magic.
‘She’s here.’
Seeing the phenomenon now as familiar as the sound of footsteps, he lightly clenched and opened his hands, preparing his mind.
‘It has to go well.’
Today, he planned to give Christina a surprise gift.
“I’m here. Were you good?”
“Kyuu-!”
The Imugi grabbed the cradle railing with both front paws and began to stand, putting strength into his trembling hind legs.
“Kyuuu. Kyu…….”
‘You can do it. I’ve been secretly doing strength training all this time.’
The gift the Imugi had prepared was none other than “standing alone on two feet.”
He thought that seeing this, Christina would realize how much he had grown.
‘If she feels I’ve grown, that white will-o’-wisp-like fellow she sticks to me every time will stick less too.’
Even if she didn’t remove it immediately, he intended to raise himself to the level where Christina thought it was okay to leave him alone.
This standing alone was the groundwork for that.
“Kyu!”
‘Yah!’
He stood proudly on two feet.
‘This isn’t the end.’
Tremble.
Along with a shout, he put strength into the muscles of his shoulders and wing joints, spreading the small wing membranes on his back with a flutter.
“Kyu-uk!”
“Oh my.”
With triumphant eyes, he looked at Christina, whose eyes had widened in surprise.
‘I did it.’
He was proud of the achievement he had worked for while suppressing his childish instincts.
‘Though it’s still lacking, it’s important to show that I’m capable of walking.’
He expected that Christina would take him to more diverse places now that he could walk.
‘At this level, it should be okay to run around a bit even in front of that sticky tag-along.’
Christina covered her mouth with one hand and spoke.
“What to do. Really…… I’m touched.”
‘Huh?’
The Imugi was rather bewildered by a reaction on a completely different dimension than expected.
‘I thought she’d be proud at best. Did I overdo it?’
Worried she might realize he wasn’t an ordinary child, he gauged her reaction, then smiled “hehet” and opened one arm.
“Kyuu. Kya.”
‘It’s embarrassing, but here I have to show as childlike a demeanor as possible.’
Smack.
In the blink of an eye, Christina hugged the Imugi to her chest and nuzzled her cheek against him.