The Strongest Daughter-In-Law Of The Black Lion Family [EN]: Chapter 75

#75.

“Have you heard about the fox orb?”

“……!”

I couldn’t help but be shocked at his smirking words.

The fox orb was a spiritual object containing the soul of a fox beastkin. The orb, filled with strong energy, could absorb the energy of the person who possessed it or control their mind.

“Could it be!”

And as I expected, Erhaden Roden was trash, the kind that belonged in the waste bin.

“The fox orb has the power to confuse consciousness. Rachel has already ingested it.”

“Already ingested it?”

I tilted my head, puzzled by the nonsensical situation. If she had already been fed the fox orb, there was no reason to bother with the drug.

So, the person he was targeting wasn’t Rachel, but me.

Realizing his intention belatedly, I glared fiercely at Erhaden.

“Now you’ve noticed?”

“…….”

“Hahaha, that’s why it’s easy to deceive children.”

Erhaden chuckled and brought the glass in his hand to his lips. It was the very glass he had just laced with the drug.

“……!”

I stared at him with horrified eyes. I never dreamed he would put his lips to the glass he had drugged himself.

But it was an unnecessary worry. He then casually put the glass down.

I was wondering why nothing was happening when he grinned.

“Surprised, are you?”

“?”

“This is just juice. That powder was my bait to lure you. I already noticed you were suspicious of me.”

“You knew?”

No wonder he was dirtying my ears with those cheesy words. It was all a planned act!

Erhaden said, testing the waters.

“There are a lot of beastkins targeting you. They offered quite a price too.”

My heart sank at Erhaden’s words. Just as I had been waiting for Erhaden to leave Rachel’s side, he had been waiting for the moment Jerakiel and I were separated.

I let my guard down.

I had been so safe inside Jabisi’s secure fence that I had forgotten how dangerous my situation was.

I was Jabisi’s weakness.

Even though I stopped Zakari’s rampage at the wedding, I was still a white ferret who hadn’t reached adulthood.

There were countless families on the Amitaras Continent who were displeased with the Jabisi family. They had been lying low because they would be brutally defeated if they tried anything, but suddenly I appeared.

In their eyes, it would be easier to target me than to target Jerakiel.

No matter how much Taebi was there, she wasn’t an offensive guardian. Seeing that he recognized Taebi, he must already know the characteristics of the guardian.

“You were targeting me from the beginning……?”

“Yes. I’m not stupid enough to lace a drink in a family’s territory.”

He grinned and reached out to me.

“Let’s go quietly.”

At that moment, pheromones bloomed from his fingertips. Before I could do anything, my vision began to lower.

‘What is this?’

Just as I thought my human form had been undone, he grabbed me by the scruff of my neck. He pulled me up to his eye level and grinned.

“The fox form suits you well too.”

‘You crazy bastard!’

I finally realized that he had used pheromones to transform me into a fox. The pheromones of a fox beastkin were specialized for transformation.

He was probably planning to smuggle me out by pretending to be a fox who had hunted me.

‘Do you think I’ll be dragged away like this?’

Erhaden sneered as I glared at him with a fierce look. Of course, there was no reason for me to listen to all that.

“You look angry. Don’t worry, soon…… Ugh!”

I slashed his smiling face with my sharp claws. Compared to Jerakiel, this fox had too many flaws, so the impact was good.

‘Who do you think you’re fooling!’

I took the opportunity to vent my resentment and blew away his jaw in one cool swoop.

Thwack!

“Aaaagh! My face!”

Erhaden screamed and dropped me. It was quite satisfying to see him writhing while clutching his face.

“Bleh!”

I pressed down on my eyes with my front paws and taunted him. Seeing this, he tried to rush at me, but I was faster to run away.

‘I need to get to Jerakiel quickly! And I need to make Lady Rachel spit out the orb before something happens to her……!’

“Get over here!”

Erhaden chased after me with a terrifying face. But he couldn’t catch up to me, who was used to the thirty-six stratagems [a Chinese collection of military strategies] of running away, which I learned directly from Father.

“Damn it! How can a ferret be so fast!”

Erhaden stopped chasing me, cursing. Nevertheless, I didn’t slow down. I had already turned into a fox once because I let my guard down, so I wouldn’t let it happen again.

‘Just you wait! I won’t let you get away with this!’

I busily moved my body, vowing revenge in the future.

After a while, when Erhaden was no longer visible, the tension gradually eased.

Cold sweat ran down my body. My legs even started to tremble, so I clenched my teeth.

I probably didn’t show it, but I must have been scared by the situation just now.

Just as my vision was blurred with tears, I saw Jerakiel in the distance.

“Cheehee!”

I ran to Jerakiel, sobbing. There had never been a time when I was so happy to see him.

Jerakiel, who was half-lying on the chair, widened his eyes when he found me.

* * *

Jerakiel was waiting for Chelsia, who wasn’t coming.

‘She’s too late.’

Quite some time had passed since she followed Erhaden, who said he was going to get a drink.

Rachel, who was waiting for a drink, had long since jumped into the forest after seeing a conspicuous prey.

It was a distinctly different reaction from when she was with Erhaden, when she was unusually quiet.

In fact, it was because the distance from the owner of the fox orb had increased and the effect had weakened, but Jerakiel couldn’t know that right away.

He just thought, ‘She’s been quiet all along, but she’s finally exploded.’

‘Well, she couldn’t have stayed still after seeing that sight.’

Jerakiel recalled the huge yellow lion that had been hanging around in front of him a moment ago.

Father, who openly wagged his tail and said, ‘Try to catch me,’ and Mother, whose eyes sparked as soon as she saw the lion.

‘I hope she doesn’t kill him.’

Recalling that murderous look, Jerakiel was a little worried about Zakari. Since she had been holding back for so long, there was a high probability that Mother would have no mercy. Besides, Mother’s touch was quite spicy.

At that time, Kiara carefully spoke.

“Excuse me, but I think I saw a familiar person earlier, did Jerakiel see them too?”

Looking at her expression, it seemed like she had been hesitating to ask what she had been wanting to ask all along. Jerakiel replied indifferently.

“What you saw with your eyes is correct.”

“I guess I wasn’t wrong.”

Kiara wiped away her cold sweat, pretending to tuck her hair behind her ear.

‘I couldn’t believe it, but it was really Zakari.’

This house couldn’t stand not doing something strange for even a day.

I didn’t know, and didn’t want to know, why he had not only dyed his perfectly fine fur yellow but also appeared as prey on purpose.

Kiara was massaging her throbbing forehead when Jerakiel said.

“Mother has been listless lately.”

It was the same question as Chelsia. She seemed worried about her mother.

Kiara shrugged and said.

“Yes. Recently, she’s been talking less and not receiving guests other than Erhaden.”

“Really?”

“That’s why I thought she was getting better when she invited Chelsia and Jerakiel, but…….”

Kiara also thought Rachel’s recent behavior was strange. It wasn’t like Rachel hadn’t been strange before, but recently she really seemed like a different person.

“It seems like something happened to Zakari at the wedding. She’s been a little strange since that day.”

“Hmm.”

Jerakiel stroked his chin and made a subtle expression. He didn’t know much about his mother either, so he didn’t know how to react.

As Kiara said, the mother he met after a long time had lost her usual liveliness. She was still rough, but there was something unsettling about it.

That’s when it happened.

“Cheechee?”

Jerakiel felt the energy of the bond and turned around. But the Chelsia who appeared before his eyes was completely unfamiliar.