The Foxes’ Commotion

<Side : Craise Seherablade>

『Martyr’s Moon – 11th (Evening)』

【Day 1 of Imperial Invasion】

“Creyss!”

I was lost in thought with my eyes closed when a familiar but unwelcome woman’s voice suddenly broke through.

“Miel.”

That name belonged to one of the two Divine Beasts protecting the Empire: the Fox Deity with blood-red hair. It was Miel.

In terms of age, I was technically older, but she didn’t care about such things and always acted in her own way with an overbearing attitude.

“You’re coming to find me… the Empire must be in trouble.”

And when I slowly opened my eyes to look at Miel, she looked completely different from how I usually knew her.

“M, Miel…?”

Her tail, which she always groomed to be glossy, was drooping, and her eyes, which always sparkled with confidence, were filled with anxiety and unease.

Her ears were listlessly folded, and her fingertips were trembling.

“You, you… didn’t you meet Lily this morning and talk to her…!”

Miel asked me about Lily in a hurried voice.

It was a side of her I had never seen before, the Miel who always said she had to show majesty to make the Empire’s people look up to her.

“Yes. Lily came to see me. We just had a casual conversation. But… why are you asking? I thought you and Lily weren’t on good terms…”

Miel, seemingly consumed by trembling and impatience instead of her usual arrogance, paced around the room anxiously.

“Haven’t you… seen Lily since then?”

“…? No. I haven’t seen her since she came this morning. But why…”

“Kugh…”

Upon hearing my words, Miel fidgeted, tapping the floor with her toes and clicking her tongue.

“What’s wrong? I’ve never seen you like this before. More importantly, have you tried going to her room? She might be there…”

Lily and Miel are the Divine Beasts who protect the Empire’s day and night, respectively. When one is awake and protecting the Empire, the other cannot interfere.

The only time they can meet is at twilight, when day and night intersect.

A rabbit wouldn’t be able to enter the Fox Den long after twilight. She must know that…

“I did! No… no, it’s not like she disappeared. But… she wouldn’t open the door. No matter how much I pounded on the door until the frame broke, no matter how much I scolded and cursed, Lily wouldn’t come out… Did you do something to Lily!”

Anxiety symptoms showing as depression followed by a burst of anger…

Seeing the Fox so anxious, a sight I had never witnessed in her life, I felt more awkward than offended, even as she glared at me with suspicious eyes.

“Of course not… I exist on a different dimension than you Divine Beasts. I, who was trapped in the same dimension as humans by the Empire’s founder’s wish, don’t have the power to harm a Divine Beast in a higher dimension. Nor do I have the will to. As you know, I can only exert physical force.”

Then I quietly added.

“Rather, I want to ask you. Why are you suddenly looking for Lily, when you’re not usually close to her… and are actually enemies.”

Then Miel took a step closer and raised her voice. This… was an unexpected reaction…?

“Me doing something to Lily…! That’s ridiculous. Where did you get such nonsense!”

Feeling puzzled by her excessive reaction, I still noticed that Miel’s tail was drooping and her trembling eyes revealed her anxiety. She was definitely strange.

“Then why can’t you hide your anxiety so much? It’s not like you. Your ears, which were always perked up, and your tail, which was always sparkling, have lost their light and are drooping… Even I, who have always disliked you, am a little worried.”

“Why, why am I so anxious…?”

Was her pride hurt by my concern…? Or is there something else?

Miel hesitated for a moment before opening her trembling lips and gritting her teeth.

“I had a dream…”

“A dream…? Do Divine Beasts dream? Ah… I guess you might.”

Unlike Lily, who was born from the wishes of the Empire’s people, Miel is a being who was reborn as a Divine Beast, so it’s not strange for her to dream, but…

A dream is the cause of her anxiety? I didn’t think that high-nosed Fox would make such a fuss over just having a nightmare.

“It wasn’t… just a dream! Everyone was Depraved, and I was transformed into a vulgar form, dressed in a seductive outfit, fawning over an unidentified being! Me, Miel… in such an unsightly form…!”

As she spoke about the dream she had, Miel’s voice trembled and her tail curled up even more.

Unable to hide her anger and humiliation, the Fox continued.

“And the sound of trumpets was heard, and the Sexual perversion collapsed, and Purple mist spread, and a bright red wave swept through the Empire… Everyone was swept away and ruined without exception. Without leaving a single exception…!”

But I… just felt like Miel’s dream was nothing special.

In the first place, I don’t dream, I don’t need sleep, and I can’t believe that a tyrannical Fox who manipulated the Empire with her own hands under the name of Divine Revelation would be like this just because of a strange dream.

Honestly, I still think the Fox is conspiring with the Rabbit to put on an act to embarrass me.

Or even if there is no falsehood in Miel’s reaction, it just seems like she’s making a fuss.

“You’re being too sensitive over something that’s just an unpleasant dream… I keep saying this, but it’s not like you.”

As I tilted my head and questioned her, Miel distorted her face with anger and shouted.

“You don’t know!! A person who doesn’t dream can’t possibly know what a dream is! It was so vivid. Even now, the memory of that time is digging into my body, still making me uneasy…! This silky red hair was dyed an eerily glowing orange… and a vulgar chest, and even a male’s genitals that shouldn’t exist on me, a woman……!”

“What are you talking about…… Ah, I see. You vented that anxiety on Lily, didn’t you. You must have invited the Rabbit to your room under the guise of counseling and tormented her… The reason Lily is missing now might be because she wanted to get away from you.”

Considering the bad blood between the Rabbit and the Fox, the current situation seems to be nothing more than a Fox’s scheme to grill and eat the Rabbit under the pretext of a nightmare.

That’s how much distrust has accumulated due to the Fox’s various misdeeds, such as trampling on talents who would lead the Empire to a brilliant future for the sake of the Empire, and manipulating the past emperors from behind to control the Empire as she pleased.

“Kugh… you damned bitch…! I knew I couldn’t communicate with a monster like you. You’ll never know what Lily is to me! I’m just worried about Lily, who doesn’t even react, but you’re trying to slander me with such crude speculation…!”

Then Miel mixed in curses and spewed out something similar to resentment at me.

I was a little taken aback by her sudden explosive reaction, but the anger that the Fox was emitting now was nothing more than a child’s tantrum that lacked authority or justification, so I calmly closed my eyes and waited for the Fox to finish speaking before opening my mouth.

“If you’re going to belittle me as a monster, I don’t know why you bothered to come to me. Anyway, the Lily you’re looking for so much isn’t here, so you should look for her somewhere else if you want to find her.”

“Damn it… damn it…!”

Miel was seething and raising her tail high, muttering more incomprehensible curses, but soon she managed to suppress her anger and turned around.

“Spirit of Smoke… no, Creyss. You probably can’t believe that I’m this anxious. I can’t believe it either. That I’m this desperate because of a fleeting dream that’s no different from a butterfly’s dream, a spring dream, a dream under a tree…”

Miel, who had lowered her head and changed to a detached tone, spoke to me as if warning me.

“But I have observed it. The signs that this nightmare will become a reality… starting from the dark side of this Empire…”

“……?”

“An abnormally increased number of sexual intercourses between men and women. They were indulging in pleasure and hedonism, smoking cigarettes while scattering Purple mist, drinking white alcohol, and inhaling drugs of unknown origin.”

“Isn’t that… just everyday life for those in the back alleys?”

“Then I wouldn’t have brought it up. It’s just that I saw the Purple mist from that nightmare spreading from the back alleys by chance, and at that moment, Lily disappeared… That was enough reason for me to freak out.”

Leaving those words behind, Miel completely disappeared, and I was left alone in the room again.

“A dream… huh. If something from a dream actually came out, it’s understandable that she’s showing ominous signs, but…”

The strange sense of incongruity I felt from the Fox’s unfamiliar anger and anxiety.

“Purple mist and Depravity. A red wave. The Sexual perversion collapsing with the sound of trumpets… That’s a fairy tale…”

While I was bothered by her strange behavior, I shook my head and brushed away my distracting thoughts.

Then I got up from my seat and slowly looked out the window.

The Empire’s night sky was quieter than ever, and the back alleys below the Imperial palace didn’t seem any different from usual, but…

“Maybe… I should check the situation.”

As the Spirit of Smoke, I can do most things by using smoke.

I can condense smoke to have the same durability as rock, turn parts of my body into smoke to evade enemy attacks, and spread smoke around to identify people or objects within a certain range.

Right now… I’m going to spread the smoke lingering inside the Imperial palace out to the back alleys that caused the Fox’s anxiety.

Quietly… and very quickly, the invisible smoke heads towards the Purple mist-filled back alleys…

Closing my eyes, the moment I came into contact with the Purple mist there……

“Eehit…!!?!?!? Ah, ahh♡!@!&@###”

–Pshhh…♡

An intense pleasure that made my whole body burn, and a tingling sensation like being struck by Lightning magic spread throughout my body…!

T, this is… d, dangerous…!

If I don’t withdraw the smoke right away…… I can’t…!!

“W, what… what was that……!!”

This sensation I’ve never felt before… W, what on earth is going on… What, what is the identity of that Purple mist……

“Ahh…♡ Ah, it’s still not gone… Even though I only touched a very small amount…!!”

While feeling suspicious about that unidentified mist and strange pleasure, I… remembered what Miel had said.

“And the sound of trumpets was heard, and the Sexual perversion collapsed, and Purple mist spread, and a bright red wave swept through the Empire… Everyone was swept away and ruined without exception. Without leaving a single exception…!”

Hah… is that a lie?

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