I Raised a Nine Tailed Fox Wrongly - Black Velvet Elegy Web Novel

Chapter 9

Ran, trembling like a leaf, lowered his head.

A large puddle of urine had formed beneath him.

The baby fox was only slightly bigger than Silia’s palm.

To him, the falling cabinet must have felt like a collapsing mountain.

Without showing any reaction, Silia hurriedly searched through a nearby shelf.

She pulled out the first cloth she could find and carefully wrapped the shocked little fox in it.

At the same time, she quietly wiped away the pooled urine, absorbing it completely so he would not see.

“You’re not hurt, are you?”

Holding the now-heavy cloth, stained yellow, hidden against her chest, Silia asked gently.

Ran stared up at her blankly.

Silia carefully pressed and checked different parts of his body before finally realizing he was unharmed.

A relieved sigh escaped her lips.

“Thank goodness.”

Still holding both the damp cloth and Ran without hesitation, she headed toward the bathroom.

When she unfolded the cloth, she realized it was the fur sweater she had bought for winter.

‘Guess I can’t use this anymore.’

She dismissed the thought casually and adjusted the water temperature.

The thick foam had long since disappeared.

Ran’s skinny body trembled violently, stirring pity in her heart.

“You’re cold, aren’t you?”

Silia began rinsing Ran’s silver fur with lukewarm water.

She carefully squeezed out the fur soaked with urine, washing it clean together with the water.

Ran stayed stiff as stone, resisting no longer.

“Good boy.”

“……”

“Here.”

Silia placed the duck toy in front of him.

Ran stared blankly at the duck.

While the fox continued staring at it, Silia finished rinsing him and wrapped him snugly in a fluffy towel.

“Do you like the duck?”

She tucked the toy inside the towel wrapped around Ran and started walking energetically.

“Ugh.”

A short groan escaped her lips.

Ran’s drooping ears shot upright instantly.

Turning his head, the fox looked at Silia.

She had her eyes tightly shut and failed to notice him staring.

Cold sweat beaded across her forehead, evidence of the terrible pain she was enduring.

Silia finally opened her pale face-stricken eyes.

Then, after thoroughly drying the strangely anxious-looking Ran with the towel, she entered the bathroom to shower.

A little while later, Silia emerged wearing only a robe.

Her ankle had swollen up like a puffed-up blowfish.

“Of all places, my ankle.”

Muttering as though it were merely annoying, Silia lowered her exhausted body onto the sofa.

As if nothing important had happened.

Ran sat alone in the middle of the living room, staring at her.

For a very long time.

“What is it? Are you bored?”

Up until now, Ran and Silia had fought like complete chaos itself.

Silia was unbelievably stubborn.

Even against a beast—or rather, a yokai—that could not speak and only attacked her, she continued talking to him endlessly.

Ran found it strange.

How could a person remain so unwavering, like a pine tree?

“Ran?”

Ran’s brilliantly gleaming golden eyes turned toward Silia.

She gazed back at him with clear, transparent eyes.

“What’s wrong? You already consumed beast energy today… Are you hungry again?”

Tilting her head slightly, Silia stood and limped toward the kitchen.

‘If you ever meet someone who calls your name, treasure them. Protect them. Understand?’

His mother’s voice echoed in his ears.

Those had been her final words before death.

‘Don’t lose them, Ran. Never let them go…’

That was what confused Ran.

Why had his mother specifically said human?

The one who called Ran’s name could just as easily have been a spirit creature or another yokai.

It was almost as if she had known in advance that Silia and Ran would meet.

“Grruuung…”

Letting out a low whine, Ran followed after Silia.

She was currently agonizing over which snack among the many she had carefully stored away would be best.

Silia picked out some dried beef and limped back into the living room.

“Kyuu.”

Trailing behind her, Ran gave a short cry.

Just stay still. Don’t move.

That was what he meant…

“I’ll give it to you soon.”

But Silia misunderstood completely and busily tore the jerky apart.

Then, with a face as bright and innocent as a child’s, she held the snack out to him with a smile.

“Here. Want to smell it? It has a sweet scent.”

Ran merely stared into Silia’s eyes.

“Don’t like it? That’s strange. They said they used high-quality meat…”

Looking disappointed, Silia sniffed the jerky herself.

It seemed being rejected by the snack bothered her more than her injured ankle.

Ran’s gaze slid toward Silia’s swollen ankle.

The ankle she had injured while saving him.

Her hands still smelled faintly of urine.

She had wiped away Ran’s mess with her bare hands without even changing her expression.

The fox lowered his pointed nose and sniffed at Silia’s ankle before gently licking the swollen skin twice.

It was the very first act of kindness the gumiho Ran had ever shown Silia.

Small, yet unmistakable.

A deeply moving moment.

But Silia…

“So humans really do taste best…?”

Ran immediately stopped licking and lifted his head.

His expression was utterly dumbfounded.

But the oblivious Silia took it as confirmation.

“No humans.”

“Kyung.”

Did you seriously think I was trying to eat your flesh just now?

That was what his cry meant, but Silia only became sterner.

“No. If you harm humans, I’ll have no choice but to lock you away.”

“Awoong!”

“Do humans really taste that good? Maybe you’re lacking spiritual energy?”

Silia shook her head with an increasingly dark expression and stood from her seat.

Sharp pain shot all the way up her thigh, making her face twist automatically.

Ran circled around her anxiously before lifting his head and crying out loudly.

“Kkeuang!”

Now he was even making bizarre noises.

‘He really must be hungry.’

Growing serious, Silia hurriedly moved around.

Ran chased after her immediately, whining nonstop at every step like he was scolding her.

“Waung waung waung.”

Sit still and rest!

“Alright, alright. I know. I’ll feed you right away.”

“Waong waong. Uuuung.”

Your ankle hurts! I’m telling you to rest!

“Goodness, you’re unusually impatient today.”

As she tried lifting the birdcage sitting in the corner of the room, weight pressed onto her ankle and she bit her lower lip.

“I should visit the healer tomorrow.”

Ran felt like he was going insane from frustration.

“Waaaanng!”

“Alright. We’ll eat here today.”

Silia removed the cloth covering the birdcage.

The chicken inside spotted the gumiho and immediately shrieked in terror.

“Eat chickens, not humans.”

“……”

The mystical yokai, the gumiho Ran, finally realized something.

Silia’s ability to read situations was catastrophically hopeless.

And so began the turbulent cohabitation between a fox-like man—or rather, a male gumiho even more cunning than any fox—and the utterly oblivious holy knight, Silia.

“…She took in a baby gumiho?”

A man dressed entirely in white from head to toe stopped gazing out the window and slowly curled his lips into a smile.

His tie, vest, even his buttons were all pure white, making him resemble snow itself.

His hair was equally white, matching his clothing perfectly.

Anyone seeing him would likely mistake him for a high-ranking priest.

Tapping his arm lightly with fingers covered in pristine white gloves, the man continued speaking.

“Then that gumiho truly is a yokai carrying the power of a spirit creature.”

“Not killing it alongside its mother, the heavenly fox, was the correct decision.”

“Yes. If that child Silia recognized it, then it certainly possesses the qualities of a spirit beast.”

The man’s mysteriously gleaming silver eyes clouded over as though recalling the past.

“Silia should be twenty-three now, correct?”

Returning to his seat, the man sat before an immaculate desk without even a speck of dust and picked up a quill pen.

“To endure for twenty-three years. That child truly is stubborn.”

He muttered calmly.

“She struggles so desperately to survive that even I feel uneasy watching her.”

“……”

“But she’ll die in the end. And she doesn’t even realize all her effort is meaningless.”

The man gestured toward the enormous full-length mirror standing beside the window.

The mirror, which had reflected the man moments ago, now displayed Silia instead.

“Look at her. She even became a holy knight just to survive. Such a fearful child. That only makes me feel worse for her.”

The man’s expression darkened.

“Isn’t fate unbearably cruel?”

At that moment, mirror-Silia lifted the fox into her arms.

The fox, glaring stubbornly while resting against her chest, suddenly fixed his golden eyes directly on the man beyond the mirror.

Crack—!

Spiderweb-like fractures spread across the mirror reflecting Silia.

The smiling man’s lips flattened into a straight line.

For an instant, the shattered mirror darkened pitch black before reflecting the man’s distorted face.

“The little fox’s demonic power is considerable.”

“Do you think it acted knowingly?”

“What could such a young creature possibly understand?”

The man murmured calmly.

“When the gumiho reaches adulthood, we’ll have to kill it. By then, Silia will have raised it well enough that it will have become a spirit creature.”

Writing smoothly with his quill, the man gave an order.

“If it grows any further, it will become troublesome.”

“Yes.”

The kneeling attendant disappeared like the wind.

After reviewing documents for some time, the man suddenly glanced toward the cracked mirror again.

Parting his thin lips with something like a sigh, he spoke quietly.

“Isn’t living painful, Silia?”

“……”

“Death would bring you peace. Foolish child.”

His voice lowered to a near whisper.

“Stop enduring it and kill yourself.”

So I won’t have to stain my hands with your blood.