Chapter 137: Chapter 135
The fox froze, his ears immediately stood straight up as his gaze locked onto the energy stone.
Silence.
To my absolute shock, he slowly backed away from me until he was practically pressed against the far wall.
I narrowed my eyes.
’That was suspicious.’
"Don’t tell me..."
The fox tried to take another step backward.
"You don’t want to go back to your senses?"
The fox whimpered.
"Oh, no."
One of his tails slowly covered his face.
"No, no, no."
I pointed the energy stone at him.
"We still need to talk about why you wanted to meet me."
The fox looked horrified.
’Why was he acting like I was trying to exorcise him?’
"Don’t give me that look. I need the human you right now."
I started advancing.
The fox retreated.
I took another step.
He took three.
"Get back here."
The fox shook his head.
"You can shake your head all you want. It’s not changing anything."
Another step.
Another retreat.
"Come on."
The fox whined.
"Don’t whine at me."
Another whine.
"That won’t work."
I hated that it almost worked.
"Get over here."
He bolted towards the opposite side of the room.
"HEY!"
I immediately chased after him.
The next several minutes were possibly the dumbest moments of my life.
We sprinted around the room, dodging over furniture, jumping over a couch, almost tripping several times by his tails.
At one point, I was fairly certain we ran three complete laps around the room.
"STOP RUNNING!"
The fox ran faster.
"You are literally a duke!"
The fox knocked over a chair.
"THAT DOESN’T ANSWER MY QUESTION!"
One tail accidentally smacked me in the face.
"OW!"
Eventually, I managed to grab one of his tails.
The fox ran faster.
"You are literally a duke!"
The fox knocked over a chair.
"THAT DOESN’T ANSWER MY QUESTION!"
One tail accidentally smacked me in the face.
"OW!"
I eventually managed to grab one of his tails, making him panic as he dragged me halfway across the room.
"YOU ARE MAKING THIS SIGNIFICANTLY MORE DIFFICULT THAN IT NEEDS TO BE!"
I finally lunged and somehow landed on his back.
"HA!"
The fox froze.
I wrapped both arms around his neck. "Got you."
The fox immediately started trying to shake me off.
"Nope."
Shake.
"Nope."
Shake shake.
"Still nope."
He began running in circles but I struggled hanging onto his neck for dear life.
"YOU ARE GOING BACK TO NORMAL!"
The door suddenly opened.
"Why do I hear noises—"
Both of us froze.
Standing in the doorway was Sykelion staring at the mess.
His gaze landed at me, then at the duke, then back at me riding on top of the duke’s beast form.
Sykelion’s expression slowly emptied.
"..."
"..."
"..."
Vesphyr apparently remembered he was embarrassed as he immediately tried to shake me off again.
"NO—"
I tightened my grip as he bolted straight out the door with me still riding on his back.
"WAIT!"
I bounced violently as he sprinted down the hallway.
"STOP RUNNING!"
The fox ran faster.
"THIS ISN’T HELPING YOUR REPUTATION!"
Behind us, I could hear Sykelion screaming.
"YOUR GRACE!"
Faster.
"MISS BLANCA!"
Even faster.
We burst into the hallway at full speed.
Fortunately—or what I foolishly thought was fortunately—the corridors were empty.
In other words, no one will witness the humiliation I’m experiencing right now.
At least that’s what I thought.
I really should have known better.
The duke made a sharp turn around a corner so quickly I nearly flew off.
I tightened my grip on his fur. "DUKE, CAN YOU STOP RUNNING?!"
I grabbed both sides of his fluffy neck and shook him but it accomplished absolutely nothing.
The first unfortunate person we encountered was Principal Varek.
He appeared to be walking down the hallway while being escorted—or possibly kidnapped—by two identical men.
Twins?
Why are there twins escorting him?
Actually, that wasn’t even in my top ten concerns right now.
As we shot past them, I made eye contact with Varek.
For one brief moment, time seemed to stop as we stared at each other.
The confusion on his face was so profound it looked painful.
His expression practically screamed, ’WHAT MESS DID YOU DO THIS TIME?!’
I wanted to explain badly but unfortunately, I can’t as I’m in the middle of screaming.
I heard one of the twins say something.
"Wait, isn’t that the crazy girl Boss has been secretly watching?"
The other twin immediately leaned forward for a better look.
"Holy shit, it is."
My eye twitched.
’Excuse me? Crazy? Boss? Watching?’
I also heard Varek say what sounded suspiciously like: "...She’s trouble."
I felt personally attacked.
"HEY!"
Nobody heard my protest because the duke chose that exact moment to sprint even faster.
The twins watched us disappear down the hallway as one of them whistled.
"Boss has terrible taste."
The other nodded.
"Agreed."
Varek looked ready to develop a migraine.
The hallway blurred as Varek and the twins disappeared behind us.
The next victim was Kayden, the man I offered to help find the principal earlier.
He stepped out from a side corridor just as Vesphyr came charging towards him like a runaway train.
Both our eyes widened but the Duke showed absolutely no signs of stopping.
"LOOK OUT!"
The duke was about to slam directly into him when, without thinking, I grabbed a fistful of his fur and yanked hard.
The giant fox immediately veered right, missing Kayden by just a few centimeters.
As we passed, I caught a glimpse of his face.
The man looked completely stunned which was understandable.
"Sorry!" I shouted.
Most people didn’t expect to see a red-veiled student riding a giant fox through an academy hallway.
Then again, most people expected their day to be normal while my day had abandoned normality ever since I came from this world.
Things got much worse after that.
Ahead of us, another door opened revealing Soren and alongside him were the king and queen.
’No. I don’t want Soren to see me right now.’
I flattened myself against the fox’s back as we flew past them.
"Who was that riding on his back?" the Queen asked.
The King watched us disappear down the hallway. "Is Duke Renardon suffering from hysteria right now?"
"Where are the guards?" Soren asked.
Unfortunately, the guards couldn’t answer.
Mostly because they were unconscious and scattered throughout the hallway trying to stop the Duke.
I buried my face deeper into the fox’s fur.
’This was very, very bad.’
As we raced past another window, I caught sight of my reflection and I’m embarrassed to admit I looked absolutely insane.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
It took another ten minutes, three destroyed hallways, two broken doors, and one shattered flower vase before Sykelion finally managed to stop the disaster.
The fox had been sprinting around the academy like a fluffy hurricane until Sykelion somehow caught up to us.
To this day, I still didn’t know how.
The man looked like he had run through all five stages of grief and come out the other side.
His hair was a mess, coat was crooked, and his glasses were hanging on for dear life.
Most concerning of all, he was breathing heavily.
I had never seen Sykelion breathe heavily before.
That was how serious the situation had become.
"MISS BLANCA!" he wheezed before throwing the energy stone at me.
I caught it out of pure instinct.
The moment the Duke saw it again, his ears flattened.
"Oh, now you’re scared?"
The fox whined as I finally pressed the energy stone directly against his fur.
There was a brief flash of light.
POOF!
The giant nine-tailed fox disappeared but I had forgotten one very important detail.
I was still riding him.
The next thing I knew, the ground vanished beneath me.
"AH—!"
Strong arms immediately caught me before I could crash face-first into the floor.
My gaze focused as we stared at each other.
Before he could say as word, I smacked him. Not that hard since he’s still a noble.
"Ow."
"You deserved that."
"I probably did."
Sykelion made a strange choking noise behind us.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
Twenty minutes later, we were relocated to an entirely different room since his original room was no longer available.
According to Sykelion, it was currently undergoing emergency renovations.
From outside, I could occasionally hear hammers, grumbling, and what sounded suspiciously like crying.
I chose not to investigate, mostly because I was afraid of the answers.
Vesphyr was sitting on one side, I sat on the other, while Sykelion stood nearby.
The atmosphere was tense mainly because both me and Sykelion were staring at Vesphyr like disappointed parents.
I leaned forward. "Talk."
Vesphyr immediately looked away. "No."
The Duke who could terrify nobles, merchants, and politicians with a single glance suddenly couldn’t maintain eye contact.
"No?"
I smiled.
Sykelion slowly moved farther away from us.
Vesphyr cleared his throat. "Perhaps we should—"
"Talk."
His ears twitched.
I pointed at the closed door.
"Did you see that?"
"..."
"Did you see the renovation workers?"
"..."
"Did you see your aide slowly losing his will to live?"
Vesphyr looked guilty when he saw Sykelion ready to cry.
I crossed my arms. "You summoned me."
"..."
"You wanted to meet me."
"..."
"You waited an hour."
"..."
"Then the moment I arrived, you turned into a fox, tackled me, licked me, ran away from me, kidnapped me through the academy, traumatized several guards, caused property damage, and somehow made me become the center of the biggest scandal this school will see for the next ten years."
Vesphyr refused to look at me.
I pointed at the door. "Talk or I’m leaving right now."
The Duke immediately looked up, panic flashing across his face.
"No."
"Then talk."
For a terrifying moment, I thought he might transform again.
Finally, the Duke sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck.
He looked at me and quietly said, "...I missed you."
Silence.
I blinked.
Sykelion blinked.
Even the workers outside seemed to stop hammering.
Vesphyr’s face immediately turned red and mine probably wasn’t much better.
The Duke looked away first.
Meanwhile, Sykelion slowly stood up.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"I’m leaving."
"Why?"
"I don’t want to be involved in whatever this is."
Before either of us could stop him, Sykelion walked out of the room and gently closed the door behind him.
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