Volume 6 Chapter 36 Princess of Karakas Foxes
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
”Do I look like a guard to you?” Klock’s voice cut through the dim air as he stepped closer to the iron bars.
The woman inside the cage narrowed her gaze, not at his face, but at his body.
Approaching a complete stranger—naked, no less—felt questionable even to him. But they’d confiscated his clothes, so he didn’t have much choice. She was in the same condition, though for some reason she still wore long black gloves and stockings. Her breasts and hips were otherwise exposed.
When he stood in front of her, he suddenly realized the truth. Those weren’t gloves at all—they were fur. Fine, black fur covered her slender limbs. From her tailbone and head sprouted a thick brown tail and sharp, pointed ears—hallmarks of a Beastkin.
Dog-type, he guessed at first glance. The other women lying unconscious nearby had the same features. Their ears and tails didn’t clearly distinguish their type, but those fur-covered limbs… these captives must be fox Beastkin.
”…Pervert. Stay away.” Her voice was frail, her head turning weakly toward him.
It wasn’t the weakness of exhaustion—it was the kind that whispered of death’s approach.
”I’m not here to attack you,” Klock said, holding up his hands. “I just broke out of a cell myself. You can’t escape on your own, can you? Let me—”
”I don’t need your help. Leave.”
He touched the bars, confirming he could pass through with his phase ability. The moment he stepped closer to her, her rejection lashed out again, sharp with distrust.
”Relax,” he said quickly. “You don’t want to die in here, right? I just escaped—was looking for an ally.”
”You only want a usable female body,” she spat, her eyes hard despite her weakness. “Go away.”
He froze at her words. He understood perfectly—he was a naked man approaching a naked woman, and yes, his eyes had been drawn to her breasts and hips. Her caution was natural.
But… that reaction was rare on this continent.
She knows men.
It was the only explanation. In a nation with no males, women usually showed curiosity rather than suspicion. This one, however, had the wariness of someone familiar with them.
”…Fine,” he muttered. “I’ll prove it by not doing anything.”
Time was short, so he decided not to argue further. A guard lay unconscious downstairs, and there was no telling when he’d wake.
”Stop! Don’t touch me—stop, Human!”
He slid an arm beneath her and lifted her. She was shockingly light, easy to carry. Her eyes shot daggers at him, and he instinctively averted his gaze; being glared at from such close range was deeply unsettling.
”Put me down right now, or I’ll tear out your throat,” she hissed.
”Seriously, I won’t do anything,” Klock said quickly. “Help me escape, and I’ll help you. That’s the deal—I swear.”
Even though she clearly couldn’t move much, he didn’t want to risk finding out if she could still bite. Carrying her, he continued his pitch. She stayed silent—whether from lack of strength or calculation, he couldn’t tell.
She’s terrifying. Maybe she’s held onto her sanity just by sheer willpower.
Her sharp eyes and well-formed features hinted at future beauty, but her presence was thorn-sharp and dominating. Absolutely the type to keep a man under her heel.
”By the way, I have no idea where to go,” he admitted. “If you know a place, speak up.”
He’d been unconscious when brought here and didn’t know the route. But here, unlike downstairs, there was light—someone walked here before might recognize it.
”…A sealed room. Or somewhere by water,” she murmured.
He raised a brow but didn’t question it. “Alright.”
…Sealed room? Water?
Could it be to counter whatever caused this state—gas, maybe?
Leaving the iron cages behind, he followed a twisting sandstone corridor, the chill of the hard floor seeping into his bare feet.
A fork in the path emerged, lit by red magic stones. Six dark passages stretched out, including the one they’d come from.
”…Left. I smell water,” she whispered.
He hesitated. Could be a trap. Her earlier hostility made him imagine her luring him somewhere dangerous, taking them both down.
”…Fine. Let’s try it,” he decided. If she was to be an ally, he couldn’t dismiss her now.
After some distance, they entered a small, unlit chamber. The sandstone walls were the same, but a soft dripping sound echoed within. A shallow pool reflected what little light seeped in.
”Put me in,” she said faintly. “Miasma can be repelled by water.”
Miasma. The word was familiar enough—poisonous air, whether natural or magical. Likely the cause of the captives’ collapse.
He tested the depth—it reached his knees. Carefully, he set her into the pool. The icy water reminded him of a bath, if baths came with a risk of hypothermia.
”You too,” she urged. “If the miasma gets to you, you’ll be helpless like us.”
He still felt no symptoms. No strange smell. But if it was poison, it could affect Humans as well.
”Cold as hell—nope!” He jerked his foot back instantly. “I’ll catch my death in there.”
A fever here would be a death sentence. Hunger already loomed close. Besides, he was more interested in whether the water was drinkable.
”I’ve only been here a day. I’ll manage a little longer,” he insisted.
”Don’t be stupid,” she said sharply. “You won’t last hours without protection.”
She moved her hands, forming a strange shape in the water.
”Six Roots Purification — Emergency — Command,” she whispered.
A pale light flickered beneath the surface. Klock’s body rocked as a sudden current surged around him.
”Whoa—?!”
The water rose, curling upward in a liquid wall. It surrounded the pool in a perfect dome, sealing them inside.
He stared up, water overhead shimmering like glass. It was a barrier—no air, no miasma passing through.
So she could still cast magic. She must have been maintaining a defense this whole time, fending off the miasma until she collapsed.
Perhaps the others had tried the same.
However, the other girls had already lost their composure earlier.
That meant this one was somewhat more adept at magic than her companions.
”You’re new here, aren’t you?” the fox girl asked, tilting her head. “On your way here, do you know how many levels you descended? We were brought in while unconscious, so we don’t know the depth.”
”Ah, sorry, but I’m the same,” Klock replied, scratching the back of his head. “When I woke up, I was already thrown in a cell. I think it’s been about a day, but I’ve got no clue what’s going on.”
It seemed she was under the same conditions as Klock. Judging from her words, the other Beastkin were likely her companions.
Had they brought in an entire settlement? If so, that was one massive-scale capture.
”…What are you talking about? You don’t have any magical protection, do you?” she said flatly. “If you’d been here a whole day, you’d already be a husk. Or… did you come down from above?”
She spoke as if the matter were bothersome.
”Nah, probably from below,” Klock muttered. “A pitch-black room with no light. …Maybe, but, could it be that this miasma stuff doesn’t work on Humans?”
”That’s impossible,” she said, shaking her head. “The miasma of the Abyss is toxic to every living thing. Without defense, you’d go mad in two or three hours at most.”
”…The Abyss?”
Klock recalled the strange hole he’d seen earlier—dark, yet somehow glowing. Could that small opening really be the great pit leading to the Abyss?
The Abyss was something no one on the Human Continent could claim ignorance of: the most dangerous place a person could set foot in, inhabited by terrifying Demon Beasts. Like the Noirev Highlands, it was a path to hell—enter and you would never return.
Its true nature remained a mystery. Some said it led to the underworld itself, but no adventurer had the will to investigate.
It was the great unknown of the deep earth—the endless hole of the world.
”…Huh. Maybe it’s just a compatibility thing,” Klock said vaguely.
Feeling he might have said something wrong, he quickly tried to deflect. Even in the dim light, he caught the fox girl’s suspicious glance. He decided to busy himself with the water instead.
Cold. Freezing. After crouching partway in, he gave up and sat on the edge.
”…By the way, I’m sorry about earlier,” she said quietly. “I felt like I’d lose my mind if I let my guard down even for a moment. Thank you for helping me.”
Given their situation, her wariness was understandable. Klock waved a hand dismissively, telling her not to worry. She turned her face away without another word—textbook politeness, no more.
It was clear she only wanted to tick the box of offering thanks.
She still seemed highly cautious. Being naked alongside a strange man, it was hardly surprising.
There was a distance between them that wouldn’t be bridged easily. If he acted carelessly, it might only deepen her distrust, and once she told him to “stay away,” that distance could become permanent.
Without even knowing each other’s names, they sat in silence.
This was nothing like with Suzette; this time, they were strangers in every sense. He had helped her on impulse, hoping for future cooperation, but perhaps parting ways for now was wiser.
At present, she was not someone he could rely on, and her strong wariness made building trust difficult.
”…Hey,” she said after a while, breaking the silence. “You said you came from below earlier—was that true?”
There was a gentle splash as her hand stirred the water. For someone who’d been immobilized by poison, her recovery was fast. Perhaps she had used healing magic.
”…Ah, well, I’m not sure,” Klock admitted. “It just felt like the passage was sloping upward. Could’ve been the same level, though—”
”This is the Bastili Hundred Pits,” she interrupted. “This mountain should be structured like a giant ant nest. If you went up, you’d notice for sure.”
The Bastili Hundred Pits.
Klock had heard the name even before coming to the Beast Continent. It was the famous battleground where the Emperor of the Hundred Beasts had spread her legend.
It was said to be the nest of a giant centipede, the size of several humans. A few years ago, the Beast Nation had sent in an elite force, and the Empress herself had taken up her spear to exterminate the creature. The story had crossed the sea to the Human Continent, and the mere thought of such a massive insect had shocked many.
He had since learned that the Bastili Hundred Pits had originally been a giant ant nest, later taken over by the centipede.
”So it’s not a prison?” Klock asked.
”It is a prison,” she said. “The ruins were repurposed into the most brutal detention facility in the world. Any nation or settlement that opposes the Emperor of the Hundred Beasts has its entire clan brought here, to be tainted by the Abyss and meet their end.”
Her expression grew distant, tinged with sorrow. Entire clans—those must have been the girls lying unconscious earlier. They were here because they had defied the Empress.
But “nation”? Settlements he understood, but this continent was supposed to be unified under a single state—Il Rasiella. Or perhaps Humans simply didn’t know that the Beast Nation meddled with lands beyond the Beast Continent.
”…Who are you?” she asked suddenly. “Why is a Human here? You say you came from below, that you’ve been here a day…”
”Ah, yeah. I came to the Beast Continent about three months ago,” Klock replied. “No clue why I’m here. The ‘from below’ thing might just be my mistake. I only woke up a little while ago, so I figured maybe it’d been a day.”
It was simpler to dodge the truth. If this was indeed a national prison, there was one possible reason he might have been thrown in here—but that wasn’t something to tell a stranger.
”…I see. Suddenly dodging the question like that—very suspicious,” she remarked.
Her words made it clear she hadn’t taken kindly to his evasion. Suspicion gleamed in her eyes.
”What’s suspicious about it?” Klock shot back. “It’s not like I’m hiding—”
”I thought it was strange. You’re not ordinary, are you?”
Her form of address changed, and with it came the sense of looming trouble.
”No, seriously, I am ordinary,” he insisted. “Nothing special about me—Humans don’t have a smell, right?”
”Being Human is already unusual,” she said. “But to be fine in the Abyss—that’s abnormal.”
She paused for a beat, then rose to her feet. Klock didn’t bother with words of concern. The atmosphere shifted—heavy, tense. Without warning, hostility radiated from her.
”—Foxfire.”
The word slipped from her lips, quiet yet deliberate. A red mass flared into existence directly ahead.
”Whoa—hot!!”
It was fire, the size of a man’s torso, appearing in midair. It seared the air, its heat prickling his skin.
Klock dove into the water barrier, breaking through its pressure to burst out onto the rocky floor.
”Pffah! The hell’s your problem?!” he shouted. “You go and attack me outta nowhere?!”
”Honestly, I almost fell for it,” she said sharply. “Trying to deceive a fox, whose specialty is deception itself—how arrogant of a so-called Apostle.”
Before he could process what she meant, his instincts had already kicked in. He’d learned his lesson: when things got dangerous, run first, think later.
The water barrier shifted, as if alive, moving with new purpose. It was clearly a prelude to another attack. Klock kicked off the sandstone floor and sprinted for the tunnel.
”You’ve gotta be kidding me! I saved your ass, and—” he began.
”Running away immediately? Just like a rabbit Human,” she called after him. “I am Princess Kuzuha of Karakas. We Foxkin have long been on good terms with the Forestkin. By our covenant and our pride, we will never aid an Apostle of the Abyss.”
Forestkin—an ultra-rare race famed for their beauty.
…And what did that have to do with attacking him?
What the hell was she talking about? He didn’t even know what this “Apostle” was supposed to be. Why was she working herself up over nothing?
Because he looked like a thief, they’d decided to hang him—at least in spirit. That kind of thinking, Klock thought, was ridiculous. He could tell from their eyes they’d been suspicious from the start, but apparently they had mistaken him for something else entirely.
He wished they would just give him a break. He’d already washed his hands of that life and was now nothing more than an unemployed man living off his girlfriend.
He slipped back into the passage he had come from, turning through its crooked bends.
This place had once been an ant nest, later remodeled by some monstrous centipede—or so he’d heard. That alone explained its bizarre construction.
If that was true, the other tunnels probably followed no human-made logic either.
Which meant every fork in the path would be a gamble.
”Stop right there! I won’t let you reach the surfa—ugh!”
The voice rang out for a moment, then faltered.
Had she inhaled the miasma he’d been dodging by staying close to the water?
If she couldn’t survive without that water, she probably wouldn’t be able to sprint after him. In that case, he might not be caught so easily after all.
”That’s what you get for repaying a favor with betrayal, idiot!” he called over his shoulder, just to annoy her.
At the next fork, he hesitated briefly before choosing an unfamiliar path.
He considered doubling back to the lower passage he’d seen earlier, but abandoned the thought. That rat-faced guard might wake up.
Getting caught between a prison guard and a prisoner would mean game over.
…Then again, maybe that guard had gone down because of the same abyssal miasma.
If so, he’d be done for already.
He almost convinced himself it would have been fine to return.
Besides, that fox-girl probably couldn’t make it down there anyway.
It might have been the safest spot—except, of course, for the minor issue of not being able to escape.
He dashed along the winding, gently sloping corridor, grimacing at the thought of a massive centipede digging these tunnels.
Emerging from the darkness, he found himself in a small chamber lit by the glow of magical stone braziers.
The first thing his eyes landed on was an iron cage.
The room was small—unlike the fox Beastkin’s holding area, there was only a single cell here.
Seriously? A dead end?
…Would it be safe to go back?
He couldn’t be sure how badly the fox-girl’s movement had been impaired.
If she’d already reached the fork, walking back would be like stepping straight into her grasp.
The firelight barely reached the darkness within the cage.
Could he hide in there? Would his scent give him away?
He hesitated, feet slowing.
That was when he saw it—a small human-shaped shadow, slumped against the wall inside the cell.
”—”
Their eyes met.
In that instant, it felt as if they were studying each other.
Could it be… this one still had their sanity?
The thought had barely formed when a sudden scream tore through the air.
”Ghhhhh—GAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!”
”Whoa?!”
A loud bang rattled the chamber.
The iron bars groaned as sharp claws scraped against them.
From the back wall, no more than two meters away, the figure had lunged to the front of the cage in an instant.
Through the gaps in the bars, an arm shot straight toward Klock.
”What the hell is this thing?!” he shouted, recoiling instinctively.
It was like staring at a wild beast caged against its will.
The unrestrained ferocity made him want to back away, but something about the figure stopped him.
The girl clutching the bars was small—shockingly small.
…This kid.
She looked like a child.
Even in the dim light, her hair was startlingly white, her canine ears more rounded than sharp.
Her small frame was covered in painful-looking wounds, yet she seemed entirely unconcerned. Her mouth bared a row of vicious, jagged teeth.
She was a Beastkin girl, younger and slighter than the fox.
And her fierce, unwavering gaze seemed to pin Klock in place.
Notes:
• Noirev Highlands – A dangerous mountainous region northeast of the Fossil Wasteland. Known as the ‘Wicked Noirev,’ it is home to exceptionally strong monsters and is best avoided unless with a high-ranking adventurer party.
• Suzette – The older maid from Viscount Fennec. The head maid at the Viscount Fennec’s villa. She is confident, clear-spoken, and professional.
• Il Rasiella – A region within the Beast Country, divided into areas each ruled by a local lord.
Please bookmark this series and rate ☆☆☆☆☆ on here!
Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
Leave a Reply