Ms. Nine Tailed Fox

Chapter 26

"Don't hit my mom... don't hit her..." a child's pitiably fragile sobs drifted closer, stirring Seraphina awake.

Seraphina lifted her hands, her mind slightly disoriented, and ran her dainty fingers lightly across the bewitching doe eyes. Her long, bashful eyelashes drew tiny, faint strokes on the round fingertips as she blinked hesitantly. For her eyes could not catch even a speck of light, she had to confirm whether they were indeed open.

As expected, Seraphina muttered, to discover that the darkness had robbed more than her eyesight.

So, a shadow can neither see nor speak.

"Who are you calling a mom, young lady? Your mother is the grand duchess. Not a lowly servant!" A shrill old voice reprimanded, and a dull, muffled sound of a heavy object slamming a human flesh became louder and more rapid.

"I was wrong... I won't call her mom. She's not my mom... she's not my mom... please... stop hitting her," the child's pleading wails grew frailer in intermittent chokes as the tender body failed to keep up with the hysteria.

How come every memory I get to inherit turns more twisted than the other? First, a bloody tyrant weeping like a heartbroken maiden, and now, a little child... Seraphina could not help lamenting as the voice entering her ears was too young, too young that it sounded closer to Little Eve's than Aine's.

"Please, stop... please... she will die if you hit her more..." the child's hoarse crying drifted away as it came.

Since this is Khilen's memories, there is no need to guess who the child is, Seraphina did not try to suppress the discomfort within her, accepting it as it came.

Fiddling with someone's soul has never left a pleasant aftertaste in Seraphina. On the contrary, it was awfully bitter and exasperating, something that could be neither swallowed nor spit out. At least, that was the case with both her predecessor and the fallen angel, Aklis. Moreover, she never bothered to wonder if those memories would ever turn sweeter, even in the slightest. However, given that Khilen was that person's shadow beast, Seraphina hoped this time to be different. Ultimately, reality proved to be a jester. It laughed cruelly at her ignorance.

The same bastard children... yet so totally different. Really... how foolish. To take it for granted that every little girl born into this house would be boundlessly endeared... as I have.

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On a mountain summit, a lone wolf grappled the monstrous creature once again, its bared fangs sinking in the other's maggoty flesh. Ferocious growls constantly erupted from its heaving chest as the brutal force it clashed with reverberated through the whole terrain. With sheer force, it dragged the wretched thing back to the hollow center of the nearly filled chasm. This magnificently lethal wolf that ploughed through frozen land hot on the cursed duchess's trail was none other than the young heir's shadow beast, Ysir.

As callous the young wolf's bared fangs were, the wounds reflected, however, were far from fatal. After all, a shadow beast shared its owner's emotions. Hence, the heir's scalding emotions at the sight of this abominable creature ran hammock through the immature wolf's uncomplicated mind. In the end, it simply could not bring itself to be ruthless.

However, the same was not the case for the monster. Fiendish, were the bites and claws that mauled the shadow beast's body, and the foul viscous oozing from its decay invaded with each collision madly.

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"Lady Cecilia, it is time for your medicine," the same old voice harshly tore the silence.