Chapter 127: Louise's past
The duo was tightly embraced, cuddling like lovers of nine past lives.
Leon couldn't have omitted any details about his relationship progress with his vampiress.
Under Louise's sweet and cold smile, Leon spoke about their hardships and events. He felt Louise's grasp turning stronger a few times, pulling on his shirt. Sometimes, Louise simply gazed into Leon's eyes, confirming whether he was fine. And it was mainly because of the vampiress that he had changed and grown stronger — that he continued climbing up the mighty stairs of the Freya World!
"Louise…" Leon's tone became weaker and a little shaky. "Are you disappointed with me? I've tempered Alexandra Aquarisen's memories, forced her soul to split, and formed a different personality with opposite memories. I had done that in the heat of the moment, and realization struck me later. What I did is the same as The Human Emperor's practices, right?"
Leon had been concerned about that for a good while now.
He could blame his class for taking that route and even Alexandra Aquarisen's short temper, but Leon knew the choice had been on him. He toyed with the dragon's memories, made her suffer through the same method as The Human Emperor, and kept her by his side.
Even worse, Leon started enjoying her presence, too. It wasn't just Alexandra's beauty but her kind side that sought a new path and purpose in her life.
Leon didn't know how the first soul reacted to all those changes. In fact, he didn't care and began believing that his dragon maid was real and genuine, solely because her soul was real and her memories were only 'tempered'. Her life with him was actually not fake, and everything was genuine.
Louise glanced deeply into her master's golden eyes, not finding the traces of the affection he had showered her after their reunion, meaning that the dragon maid was… simply a maid. "Master has given her choices. She decided to give birth to a second personality and face her. People can create second personalities without any skill, Master… It's convenient to blame stuff on others."
Leon and Louise knew that those words were nothing more than excuses.
"But I don't like it." Louise hid her face in her master's chest and whispered. "Don't do it again."
"I swear I won't." Leon stroked her hair and reassured, promising an oath he would heed, even if circumstances urged him to control someone's memories.
Leon believed he'd never receive the skill to control someone's mind after his oath. After all, he lost Monster Collector Class and became Eros, whose path differed from others. He was nearly confident that such memory control skill would never appear in his skill window.
[You have completed your new bond's first quest — Louise's Cuddling!]
[Louise's Cuddling! (1/???) - Louise is a legendary fox girl whose body hides many hidden powers. Before those return to her side, you can shape and bring them out through cuddling! Cuddle whenever you can with your fox girl to strengthen her bond with you and give her a warm sense of security. This might impact your legendary skill, Nine Fire Spirits Art.]
Louise easily formed a bond with her master and started a new quest without even noticing it. Now, her eyes flashed with the same message, reading the content a few times. Smiling, Louise pressed herself more onto her master.
"I want more cuddles." Louise hummed into her master's chest.
Leon welcomed his fox's affection with open arms.
"Master, would you like to listen to my story?" Louise asked as she started melting into Leon, getting too cozy in his embrace but not enough to fall asleep.
She had slept for too long and was too agitated, for her heart yearned to share her life with her master.
Leon naturally wanted to know everything about her. "Yes."
Louise faintly curved her lips and began from the beginning. "I was born in a common family with one elder brother and little sister. I don't remember much about them because I was forced to leave my house pretty early. It was because my family lacked the money to survive."
When poverty struck, it was common for women to become slaves or prostitutes. Even many married women decided to ruin their lives in this way. It was common across the world. But in the scarlet fox tribes, slavery was banned, so only the latter occupation was possible.
Louise's mother didn't want to face such a fate as she loved her husband deeply. She knew he couldn't live with her having that occupation as her part-time job. He would do what poor and jobless men did — work in mines or in any simple and heavily demanding physical work.
In this case, who would take care of their children?
"In our tribe was the popular Amaterasu Path School, where scarlet foxes went through Amaterasu's teachings, trying to grasp the skills she had left for our people. Our elders wanted someone like Amaterasu to appear in our tribe and usher in a new era. This school was demanding and forced kids to live away from their families, and it was rare for them to see their parents. Not everyone could enter that school, too, but my mother prayed to Amaterasu, as though that legendary girl was a goddess, and hoped that my siblings or I would manage to get enrolled in that school. I passed the first tests and received that honor…." Louise sighed and paused, thinking about her younger self, who didn't know much about the world. "In this way, my family no longer had to worry about their income as the tribe paid and protected them. As for me, I went through training and faced many difficulties alone. The school was where results mattered the most, so it was hard to make friends. I also had problems because I couldn't bring mana outside my body, so I went through different courses and didn't have time to become closer to losers like me. But I worked hard, Master. I accepted my flaws and polished what I was good at. I came to love fighting and grew confident in my skills and future… I respected teachers and absorbed their knowledge… But that wasn't enough. When I was twenty-three years old, the teachers gave up on me and decided that I no longer could follow Amaterasu Path and should do different work. I lived nearly my entire life in that school, so I didn't know how to refuse… I didn't know what to do… And I joined the Dark Lantern Squad, where…. I killed, plotted, and executed orders for a living."
Louise shivered in Leon's arms.
She had learned much stuff in that squad and became a cold fox whose adorableness was gone. She saw the broad world and learned about many people, only to see them through the cold lens at the very end.
Louise's work required her to only know whether others were useful for her tribe or dangerous. Because of it, she ignored everything else she had learned about others.
And now that her memories of her time with Leon returned, Louise saw how cruel she had been and how much stuff she had missed. She had hurt innocents, and it hurt her that she didn't question her elders and simply listened to them. The consequences of her and her squad's actions had allowed her race to keep their lands for a long time and develop new relationships with others.
But deep inside, Louise wasn't a girl who wanted to do dirty work. She forced herself to become cold, which no longer applied because of the warmth coming from her master's embrace. Louise also produced those lovely and hot feelings that spread all over her curves, for her heart simply boiled for her master.
"I'll shoulder that burden with you, Louise." Leon's words kept rocking her heart. "I want you to be with me, so that's what I ought to do, right? You see, you were a hero for scarlet foxes and a villain for other races. Even if your tribe is gone and the consequences of your actions will haunt you to this day, we'll together deal with them so you can keep living a life you always deserved — a life where you're an adorable fox girl free of any burden. Therefore, forget about them and only remember the important lessons you've learned. You have become stronger — I felt that(Leon pointed at his shirt and red stains, making Louise swallow her lips) — and you have seen more of the world and its people. Enrich your and mine life with those good experiences, and just smile."
"You really don't mind?" Louise naively asked, knowing that she possibly irked her master.
But Leon kept smiling and nodding. "We're both bad people. Perfect fit for each other."
"We aren't charity, too! We're in our world… Master isn't a mindless killer but a nice, kind, caring, and handsome man… I'm a legendary fox girl, too… We're free to live by our standards, right, Master?" Louise remembered one of the first lessons Leon taught her after being freed from The Human Emperor's hands.
She was no longer the same and had hundred years of difficult experiences. But because her master accepted her and Louise was naturally jealous of the vampiress, Louise had her eyes on her master! She wanted to make him smile more and have hotter life!
"Right. That's our path in this cruel world." Leon patted Louise, feeling much better now that her past no longer gnawed on her conscience.
Louise also talked about her past more casually. "Have you learned about the dwarves already, Master?"
"Yes. I know what happened to your tribe." Leon replied, secretly having a few doubts about Louise's story.
For example, Louise's mother prayed to Amaterasu as though she was a goddess. But wasn't that title akin to someone wielding divine authority in the Freya World? Amaterasu could easily leverage The Oracle's space and come out, so she had strong and equal powers.
But after recalling Amaterasu within her, he felt like she had ordered her people to simply forget about 'the sun's prowess' and her being a deity. No one could speak about Amaterasu as someone who owned the sun but simply think of her as a powerful fox girl.
Since she loved that name, it was normal for Louise and others to tell stories about a mighty fox girl known as 'Amaterasu', no more. Leon was convinced the elders knew the truth, though. Perhaps, because of it, many other races disliked the scarlet foxes and were more eager to erase them.
And since Amaterasu's tribe suffered near-extinction not just once but twice, Leon no longer had any doubts about them being 'worthless' of her powers.
Leon only disliked how Louise was clueless about some stuff and barely wielded those powers. But he wouldn't betray Amaterasu's trust and kept that to himself.
Louise often alluded to the sun and was unconsciously aware of things anyway. It wasn't like she knew what kind of power dwelled within her, but because of her knowledge about Amaterasu, she could imagine herself wielding something similar.
The sun.
Louise was Leon's sun anyway. And he was hers.
He couldn't think of anyone else with only her in his nest. "Soul Weapons."
Thus, Leon started a talk Louise wanted to talk about.
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