Chapter 414: Cant Stand the Cold?
Chapter 414: Can't Stand the Cold?
Elysia glanced at Elena, Rhea, and Nell for a quick glance. However, they only gave an innocent look. Then, she gave her attention to the snow fox girl. "Your lair? Your new home? What happened to your village?"
"The Snow Village is being hit by seasonal storms, but this year is quite severe and too cold for me to stay there any longer. Finding food is also very difficult. So, I chose to migrate to another place. Please allow me to stay here." Yuuki clasped her hands to plead.
"No one's going to kick you out, though? Like I said, we're only stopping here for a bit." Elysia gave the answer, and it greatly relieved the snow fox girl.
"Thank you very much!" Yuuki gave a slight bow of respect.
"Ah, right! Why don't we appoint this snow fox girl named Yuuki as the guardian of this place? Maybe, we'll come here some other time, right?" Elena put her hands together at her suggestion. These charming hot springs would become the unique, exclusive place for their little group.
"Oh, that's a great idea. It would be a shame if another random stranger found these hot springs and exploited this place." Nell expressed her agreement.
"In that case, we need some disguise and protective formations." Rhea joins the discussion.
"Formation, hmm... I've learned some about it. Let me and Ely do that. You will assist us." Elena gave a wink to Rhea.
"Guardian... Exclusive, protected, divine formation? Woah..." Yuuki swallowed her saliva at the thought of her new position. It was an honor to be appointed by the divine being.
Seeing that the divine being had not spoken or decided anything, she immediately raised her hand to volunteer. "Please forgive my silly actions earlier. But, please appoint me as the guardian of this place! I will safeguard, decorate, and even renovate this onsen chamber for you. On your next visit, I will make sure this place will become a comfortable and beautiful place to relax."
Elysia glanced at the snow fox girl and nodded slightly. "That's not bad. Then, you will become the guardian of this hot springs chamber. After this, we will set up a formation for you."
"Thank you very much! I won't let you down." Yuuki rubbed her hands. She smiled a little because she was going to curry favor.
"A fox is still a fox. It turns out that the characters in the story are quite reflective of the real thing, whether it's a fox girl or a real fox." Elena seemed to know what that fox girl was thinking.
She knew that that fox girl expected something from this. Maybe a refuge, a favor, or something like that.
That fox girl considered and treated Elysia as a divine, then what if that fox girl realized that there were three other divines?
"Hey, what do you mean by that, big breasted golden haired woman?" Yuuki pursed her lips. She didn't like that remark.
"Who knows. Do you feel jealous? You have a pair that isn't bad either. Why do you feel jealous in the first place? Tell me, what else does this cave have to offer besides this nice hot springs chamber?" Elena shrugged her shoulders and changed the subject at will.
"Grr.... Why should I answer your question?" Yuuki covered her breasts in reflex. The difference was noticeable, and she felt a little intimidated.
Not to mention, these girls had seen her naked body, right? In front of the divine too? Yuuki blushed slightly to recall that matter.
'Elysia, please act a bit cold like earlier and help me. I'm a little attracted to this naive fox girl's behaviour.' Elena asked for help via private telepathy.
'Mm, okay.' After saying that, Elysia opened her mouth to help out. "We also want to know. Please answer it."
"Ughrrr, I'll only answer it because of the divine, okay? That doesn't mean I want to answer your question, golden haired woman." Yuuki growled softly. She had no other choice because the divine had spoken.
After grunting once at the golden-haired woman, Yuuki continued to explain. "This cave has eighty-one passageways and nine spacious chambers like this onsen- errr, hot springs chamber. Apart from this place, there is only one area that is not empty, nemely my new house. The other seven chambers are still as empty as usual caves."
"Oh, so it's like that. There's nothing this cave has to offer other than this nice hot springs chamber. It would be your job to polish and make this place into something amazing, yes?" Elena pointed her palm at the snow fox girl.
"Hmph! The one who appointed me as the hot springs guardian is the divine, okay? You have no right to order me around to do whatever you want." Yuuki snorted once again to refuse.
"You're going to make this cave into something amazing, right? This will also be your home, yes? I hope you can show us your promise on our next visit." Elysia spoke while changing Rhea's position slightly so that Rhea wouldn't slip and drown.
"Y-yes, I will make this a beautiful place to the best of my ability!" Yuuki immediately gave a salute.
"Fufu, this fox girl is a bit cute and funny, right?" Elena covered her mouth while asking for opinions from others.
Rhea, Nell, and even the beasts nodded as if they agreed.
Elena played words with the snow fox girl for the next few moments just for fun and information.
Meanwhile, Yuuki felt that her feelings were being toyed with. She already disliked the golden-haired woman, but the divine seemed to be on this woman's side.
Seeing that everything was fine, Zach invited the other beasts to return to the lower level hot spring. They wanted to try different hot springs too, but not the highest one.
"Nee, I remember that you introduced yourself as a reclusive snow fox who lives in the Snow Village far north. You are a loner? So, who are the people living in that village? They also migrated? Or are you the sole resident of your own village? Or maybe, the inhabitants of that village are beasts like the polar bears and the penguins?" Elena kept asking some questions to find out something meaningful, like information about the Beastkin Continent.
Slightly disappointed, this snow fix girl didn't seem to know much because this snow fix girl had been alone in the north for too long.
"Hiks, it's me who chose to live alone in the far north! It's not sinful to befriend some cold-loving beast. When the storm hit, they left me and never came back. That doesn't mean I want to be alone forever. I'm warm but cold and can't stand the extreme cold either. Weird, right? So, what's wrong with that! Uwaah!" Yuuki fled to the edge and sobbed on a rock. She couldn't stand being toyed with by this vicious golden-haired woman anymore.
*Creak* *Creak*
At that moment, a cold aura emanated from the snow fox girl. The temperature dropped drastically and froze the hot spring quickly.
Elena, Elysia, Rhea, and Nell were quite surprised to see that. Elysia immediately took swift action to counter the cold aura by creating an additional barrier to keep themselves warm.
'I think we've gone a little too far... What do we need to do, Sister Elena?' Elysia looked at the snow fox girl with sympathy, then glanced at Elena and waited for a reply.
'Hmm... I guess, I got carried away and poked her on a sensitive topic. Can you calm her down, Ely? I'm not going to apologize, okay? It's a recompense for her attack attempt earlier. Here, I will look after and help Rhea for you.' Elena only gave an easy suggestion. But, she didn't feel sorry for anything.
Elysia scratched her head and nodded. She put Rhea on Elena's lap, then she went closer to the snow fox girl.
Elena used subtle magic to protect Elysia without anyone's knowledge if the snow fox girl decided to attack. That girl was probably just pretending to cry and froze this hot spring for something because of the fox's cunning nature, right?
Elysia used heating magic on herself. The air temperature right in the outermost layer of her skin even rose to more than two hundred degrees Celsius and kept increasing. She literally became a heat source which was perfect for countering the extreme cold.
"Hmm, quite an impressive cold source. A special bodily constitution, or an innate ability?" Elysia tried to analyze Yuuki's body with her sacred vision. She melted the ice and neutralized the cold storm.
"Yuuki, right? Can you calm yourself down? You've frozen this hot spring and made the temperature drop drastically. Ane just playing words with you, please don't take it to heart." Elysia poked Yuuki's back with her finger for attention.
"Huh?" Hearing that pleasant voice, Yuuki stopped her sobs. She turned around to check who touched her.
The divine came to appease her sobs? It was as if she received the highest kind of honor to get such treatment. She knew that the Beastkin Race didn't have any divine being protecting them, but here she met a good and noble Goddess.
"Uwaaa, you are so considerate of me, o kind and noble Goddess! Ah, you are so warm too..." Yuuki almost hugged the divine with her extreme cold body. She felt it was a sinful act and restrained herself, but she saw that her finger already touched the Goddess's arm.
Her eyes widened to see that. Her emotions were unstable, and her curse was raging without her will. Yet, the Goddess didn't get any effect from the extreme cold she emitted? Was she finally able to touch someone without worrying about freezing them?