Supreme Hunter of Beautiful Souls

Chapter 593: You like it.

The silence remained between the three of them for a few more minutes, strange and comfortable at the same time. The vampiric capital continued below them, made of black towers, crimson lanterns, and secrets too ancient to fit inside a single night. Umbra kept her head resting on Kael’s left shoulder, quiet as a satisfied shadow. Inari remained on his right, her nine golden tails moving slowly behind her, shining like threads of warm moonlight against the dark sky.

Kael almost managed to believe the moment would remain calm.

Almost.

Inari was the one who broke the silence.

Not with words.

She slowly raised her face, touched his chin with two fingers, and turned Kael’s face toward her. There was an amused gleam in her golden eyes, but also something deeper. Hunger, longing, gratitude, and a trust too ancient to seem like simple desire. Kael opened his mouth to ask what she was doing, but Inari did not give him time.

She kissed him.

It was not a soft kiss like the one on the forehead. Nor a quick gesture of affection. It was slow, warm, and deliberate, with an intensity that made Kael forget for an instant the city below, the Order of the First Blood, the vampires, Vlad, and anything that was not her presence against him. Inari held his face with delicacy, but there was no shyness in the gesture. It was the kiss of someone who had spent too long meditating inside him, feeling his mana, listening to his heart, protected by his presence, and now wanted to remind him, without any subtlety, that she was there.

Umbra went still.

For one second.

Only one.

Then her eyes darkened.

"Interesting," she murmured.

Kael barely managed to breathe when Inari pulled away, smiling with an innocent air that would not fool even a child.

"Inari..."

Umbra held the other side of his face.

Kael turned his eyes to her.

"Umbra."

She kissed him before he could say anything else.

Umbra’s kiss was different. Less golden, less warm, but just as intense. It was deep, possessive, like night closing its doors around him. Her shadow discreetly coiled around Kael’s cloak, not to truly restrain him, but to make it clear that if Inari intended to start a silent dispute on that rooftop, Umbra would not stand by as a spectator.

When Umbra pulled away, Inari was smiling.

"You got jealous."

"No."

"You did."

"I was correcting an imbalance."

Kael closed his eyes for an instant.

"This is becoming a concerning pattern."

Inari leaned in again.

"Perhaps you should resolve it."

Umbra moved closer from the other side.

"I agree."

Kael opened his eyes.

"You two are suggesting this on top of the highest tower of the vampiric palace?"

Inari looked around calmly.

"The view is beautiful."

Umbra added:

"The shadows are discreet."

"That does not make it better."

"It makes it a little better," Inari said.

Kael tried to raise a hand to impose some kind of order, but made the mistake of looking at both of them at the same time. Umbra had that dark, sulking expression of someone who would not accept losing a dispute she was pretending not to be having. Inari, on the other hand, maintained a calm smile, but her nine tails betrayed a teasing satisfaction, swaying as if each of them were laughing at Umbra.

Kael took a deep breath.

"We are not having a competition."

Umbra touched his chest with her fingertips.

"She started it."

Inari smiled.

"I merely gave thanks."

"You thanked him with his mouth."

"It was very sincere gratitude."

"It was provocation."

"That too."

Kael looked at the sky.

"I really should have stayed asleep."

Inari moved closer once more, lightly brushing her lips against his cheek.

"You left the room in the middle of the night."

Umbra leaned in from the other side, her voice low beside his ear.

"You sat alone at the top of a tower."

Inari completed:

"Looking like you were about to carry the world alone again."

Umbra murmured:

"So we came to distract you."

Kael went silent.

That was as absurd as it was true.

He could argue. He could say it was not the moment, that they were in vampiric territory, that an ancestral investigation was underway, that Sylphie, Irelia, and Amelia were sleeping in the queen’s room, that teleporting amid dimensional instability might be imprudent.

But Umbra kissed the corner of his mouth.

Inari kissed the other.

Kael closed his eyes.

"You are terrible."

"Yes," Umbra said.

"A little," Inari said.

Then both of them tried to kiss him at the same time, and Kael finally lost patience.

Not from anger.

From surrender.

He let out a low, almost hoarse laugh and stood all at once. Umbra and Inari moved by instinct, but before either could pull away, Kael slipped one arm around Umbra’s waist and the other around Inari’s, pulling them both against him. Umbra’s shadow rose in surprise for a second. Inari’s tails opened into a golden fan.

Kael looked from one to the other.

"Let us resolve this."

Umbra blinked.

Inari smiled.

"Now?"

"Before you decide to dispute territory on top of Liza’s palace."

"I would win," Umbra said.

Inari laughed.

"You think so."

Kael tightened his hold on both of them.

"No bets."

Scarlet mana ignited beneath his feet.

For an instant, the tower, the city, the mist, and the red lanterns distorted around them. Umbra wrapped the trio in shadow to hide the displacement. Inari stabilized the flow with a gentle golden glow, her nine tails drawing small arcs of light around the magic. Kael felt space creak faintly, still sensitive after the mess in Yggdrasil’s Original Realm, but not enough to stop him.

The world folded.

And disappeared.

When they reappeared, the smell of the air changed completely.

There was no more blood, cold stone, or vampiric mist. There was old wood, wet leaves, living earth, and the distant fragrance of wildflowers. The house in the grove remained where it had always been, hidden among tall trees and forgotten paths, as if the world had preserved that place in silence during his absence.

Kael had not come there in a long time.

Too long.

For one second, even while carrying Umbra and Inari in his arms, he stood still.

The room was dark, but not abandoned. The curtains were closed, the large bed remained made, and a thin layer of ancient mana protected every corner of the house. There were memories there. Of silent mornings, forgotten books, nights when he had pretended he could live far from crowns, wars, and primordial entities. The grove breathed outside the window, as if recognizing his return.

Inari noticed the change in him.

"Kael?"

He blinked.

Then smiled faintly.

"Nothing."

Umbra looked around.

"This house misses you."

Kael released a low laugh.

"Even the house now?"

"Shadows remember."

Inari touched his face.

"And so do you."

Kael was quiet for a second, then decided that conversation was far too dangerous for someone who had just fled an emotional crisis at the top of a tower.

"You two were competing, weren’t you?"

Umbra raised her chin.

"She started."

Inari smiled.

"You repeated it."

"And I am going to finish it."

Kael took two steps to the bed.

"Good."

Then he tossed them both onto the mattress.

Not with enough force to hurt them, but with enough impact to scatter the covers and draw surprised sounds from both of them. Inari fell laughing, her nine tails spreading over the sheets like liquid light. Umbra propped herself on her elbows, her dark hair falling over her shoulders, her eyes shining with a mixture of challenge and satisfaction.

Kael stood at the edge of the bed, looking at them both.

For an instant, the King of Witches, the Celestial Sun, the man trapped in ancient conspiracies and diplomatic agreements disappeared.

There was only Kael.

Tired, loved, provoked beyond his limit, and finally willing to stop thinking for a few hours.

Inari extended a hand toward him.

"Are you going to stay there?"

Umbra tilted her head, her lips curving into a dark smile.

"Or are you going to resolve it?"

Kael slowly let his cloak fall.

"You asked for this."

Inari smiled.

"Yes."

Umbra answered at the same time:

"Finally."

Kael climbed onto the bed, bracing one hand on each side as he leaned over the two of them. Inari caught the collar of his shirt and pulled him first, kissing him again, slower now, as if she wanted to savor every second. Umbra did not wait her turn patiently; she approached from the other side, kissing the line of his jaw with the impatience of someone who did not believe in turns.

Kael laughed against Inari’s lips.

"You are impossible."

Umbra murmured:

"You like it."

Inari ran her fingers through his red hair.

"And you needed this."

He did not deny it.

Outside, the grove swayed beneath the night wind, leaves whispering against the windows. The old house welcomed the three of them as if it had waited for that return for a very long time. No vampiric guards. No dossiers. No throne. No ancient signature on parchments of blood.

Only shadow, golden light, and the warmth of a forgotten room.

Kael closed his eyes for an instant, letting the entire world remain outside.

When he kissed them again, there was no hurry to solve conspiracies.

Only the silent promise that, for that night, he would belong to no kingdom.

Only to them.