I Raised a Nine Tailed Fox Wrongly - Chapter 10

Chapter 10

While serving at the garrison, Silia spent every spare moment studying gumiho.

“…A young fox yokai gains the ability to transform into the appearance of a human child upon reaching ten years of age, and becomes an adult at twenty years old…”

Silia lowered her head so close to the book it was almost touching the pages as she read intently.

It was an extremely rare book obtained from the Eastern Continent.

She had reread the sections about fox yokai until they were practically worn out, yet one question still remained unresolved.

‘The priestess said Ran would become an adult in one year. That means he’s nineteen… so why hasn’t he transformed into a human?’

Quite a bit of time had passed since she began living with Ran.

Yet Silia had never once seen him take human form.

‘Strictly speaking, Ran isn’t an ordinary fox yokai.’

Ran was a baby gumiho.

The only one in the world.

‘Is that why? Maybe gumiho are simply different…’

Pressing her fingertips against her temples, she flipped to the table of contents section describing gumiho.

Compared to ordinary fox yokai, the section about nine-tailed foxes was surprisingly short.

Very little about them was actually known.

Slowly, she turned the page.

“…A gumiho forms an obsessive attachment to only one mate in its lifetime. Therefore, when dealing with one, its mate must never be harmed. Should one recklessly provoke a gumiho standing at the gateway to becoming a spirit creature, a terrifying calamity will surely follow…”

‘So gumiho are monogamous.’

Silia found the idea strangely fascinating.

Most monsters and yokai did not even possess the concept of mates.

Like beasts, they simply met different partners during breeding seasons and produced offspring.

‘Does a gumiho’s mate have to be another gumiho?’

Silia sank deeper into confusion.

‘There seem to be so few of them that they only exist in legends. Do they live lonely lives alone until they meet another gumiho?’

Silia completely forgot that she herself could never even dream of romance or marriage as she worried over this.

‘No, probably not. Maybe they date fox yokai with two tails or something.’

But she could not imagine it at all.

Ordinary yokai lacked rationality. The moment they saw humans, they lost themselves in bloodlust and attacked wildly.

A wicked creature like that dating Ran…?

Would they even be able to hold a conversation when their intelligence levels were so mismatched?

Then she suddenly wondered why she was worrying about something like this in the first place.

‘Ran will figure that out himself… Wait. Only one mate in a lifetime? What happens if the mate dies halfway through?’

Watching Silia anxiously pace around during her entire shift while sipping tea, Schula merely shook her head.

Regardless, the moment Silia returned home, she did not even unpack her belongings before beginning her “lesson.”

“Ran, listen carefully, alright? For females, strength is everything. Health! Power! Choose a strong female. One that’ll live a long time. Okay?”

Half-asleep and nodding off, Ran yawned so widely it looked like his jaws might split apart before looking up at her.

Silia ignored every single gesture screaming I’m bored to death and continued stubbornly.

“Of course, you’re already half spirit creature, so your standards should be high. Strength alone isn’t enough. Evil and stupid yokai won’t satisfy you. If possible, pick someone kind.”

“Haaaaaawng.”

Ran yawned again.

“Don’t look so bored. Look at this.”

Silia rummaged through her bag and pulled out a book.

Then another.

And another.

She had said look at this, yet thick books kept pouring endlessly from the giant bag. Which one was he supposed to look at?

Soon, books about yokai were piled like mountains on both sides of him, and Ran silently stared at them.

Silia busily searched through the countless bookmarks she had inserted to find the exact page she wanted.

The hardcover bindings were worn and frayed, colorful sticky notes protruding between the pages.

She must have been terribly busy exterminating monsters across the Empire, yet somehow she still found time to buy and study all of these.

Ran stared at the books for a moment before looking back at Silia.

There were so many that even she was getting lost.

“Ah, found it.”

She opened one directly in front of Ran.

Her eyes held absolute confidence that he could read.

“See this?”

“Kyuu.”

“It says gumiho only have one mate for their entire life.”

“Kyuu.”

Ran barely glanced at the words Silia pointed to, staring only at her face instead.

Oblivious to his persistent gaze, Silia continued passionately.

“It’s your species’ instinct. Your nature. Even if you don’t want to, you could end up completely tied to a single female. Like imprinting, the way ducks do.”

“……”

“So you need to choose carefully. Someone kind, strong, and long-lived. Understand?”

She furrowed her brows like she was genuinely worried.

“If your mate dies in the middle of your life, how heartbreaking would that be? Or what if she plays with your feelings and abandons you halfway through…”

Quietly listening to her, Ran lowered his eyes and licked her hand with his soft pink tongue.

Even his ears tilted backward in concentration as he licked her carefully.

When Ran moved to her other hand and continued diligently licking it too, Silia spoke.

“This won’t do. If you’re ever worried while choosing a mate, come find me. I’ll judge your mate for you.”

Now she was even trying to play mother-in-law.

And what did she mean, when choosing a mate?

A gumiho had no authority to choose such a thing.

It belonged to the realm of instinct.

Wasn’t human love similar?

Whether one wanted it or not, once someone attracted your heart, you inevitably fell for them little by little, like clothes slowly soaking in drizzle.

The difference was that a gumiho could never escape that love for eternity.

Though Ran was still young, he had understood that truth since birth.

Like a hunting instinct, it was knowledge he had entered the world already possessing.

Hadn’t Silia herself said it?

Instinct. Nature.

Those were exactly the right words.

‘Mother also had a yokai who remained her lifelong mate.’

His father had been a six-hundred-year-old snake yokai.

An enormous serpent.

Though he ultimately died protecting Ran’s mother, he had been wiser than most humans.

When yokai of different bloodlines mixed, offspring usually inherited only one side.

Ran had inherited the fox bloodline.

But occasionally, he sensed that the serpent’s blood still slumbered inside him.

And serpents were infamous for being every bit as obsessively attached to their mates as gumiho.

‘A mate…’

Suddenly, Ran found himself wanting to grow up quickly.

Strangely, whenever he looked at Silia, that desire intensified unbearably.

“…You let the gumiho roam freely?”

At that moment, a sharp voice echoed from near the entrance.

Ran lifted his head toward the door.

Schula was entering.

“I asked her to check whether you’re growing properly and if you have any illnesses.”

Silia explained kindly.

Of course, the real reason was because she wondered whether Ran’s inability to transform into a human was due to some physical issue.

But she kept that part to herself and simply carried over the cage containing food while leaving the horrified Schula behind.

“How about eating in the bedroom today? You’ll probably feel more comfortable too.”

Animals knew instinctively who liked them and who disliked them.

Ran was no exception.

He disliked Schula, who treated him like a ticking time bomb ready to explode at any moment.

That rude priest acted warmly toward Silia while remaining openly hostile toward Ran.

“Commander, don’t tell me you’ve been letting the gumiho wander around like this the whole time?”

“He doesn’t attack anymore. He’s become very gentle.”

Silia now knew how to relax around Schula too.

Schula blankly stared at Silia’s softened, lovely expression before scratching her reddened cheek awkwardly and grumbling.

“Even so… surely you don’t let him roam free while you sleep too?”

“Don’t worry.”

“But that thing is male.”

Schula licked her dry lips while staring at Ran.

“No matter how tame he seems, don’t lower your guard too much. Beasts follow instinct. You never know when they’ll act unpredictably.”

Schula observed the way Ran stared fixedly at Silia with meaningful eyes.

‘So it’s true he’s become gentler. But this doesn’t look like tameness exactly…’

Schula narrowed her eyes.

Unlike the oblivious Silia, Schula was extremely perceptive.

She carefully tried to identify the innate instincts and impulses of a male gumiho.

‘He definitely seems fond of the commander.’

Schula reached a conclusion surprisingly close to the truth.

‘Isn’t he acting deceptively innocent right now?’

“Today I brought a chicken species said to exist only in the Peopleos region. Big, isn’t it?”

Completely unaware of the tense atmosphere between Ran and Schula, Silia smiled while presenting the cage containing the prey.

It was hard to believe this was the same woman who transformed completely during battle.

“Come on, let’s go to the room.”

Ran obediently followed Silia into her bedroom.

She left the cage containing the chicken open before returning to the living room.

The chicken was so terrified it had frozen solid like ice.

Leisurely, Ran pinned down the chicken’s body and bit into the back of its neck, absorbing its spiritual energy.

Normally, after consuming the energy, he would chew the meat as well to satisfy his hunger.

But today, he strangely lacked the appetite.

‘The spiritual energy is too weak. At this rate, even after another year passes, I won’t become an adult.’

The rule about fox yokai reaching adulthood at twenty only applied to those who consumed human spiritual energy.

Ran ate only beasts.

An unknown longing scorched through his tails and crept closer.

Even when humans had abused him, he had never desired adulthood this desperately.

‘Why am I so frustrated?’

Whenever he looked at Silia—whenever he saw her clear, innocent face—he became inexplicably anxious, as though his chest might burst.

Sometimes she would grow deathly pale and lock herself inside her bedroom.

At those times, she would not even allow Ran inside.

After a long while, she would finally emerge drenched in cold sweat and immediately head for the bathroom to shower.

At those moments, Silia smelled like pain.

And every time Ran smelled it, he felt a terrible hunger.

So intense that he wanted to lick every inch of her body clean just to consume that scent and erase it forever.