U-unbelievable. Through all the tombs I raided, I’ve seen many people get frustrated. However, I’ve never seen anyone take their frustration out on the tomb and destroy it completely after failing to get what they want. This foxkin, Lucia, I imagine she’s the type of person to flip the table when she’s losing a game of go. No, in the first place, I don’t think she even knows how to play considering her intelligence and breadth of knowledge.

Perhaps it’s because she’s the way she is that she was able to come up with such an out-of-the-box method to gain the Slaughter God’s inheritance. Certainly, no sane person would attempt such a thing. The only problem is, with this action, she’s provoked the Slaughter Seeking Sect. They’ve always used the Slaughter God’s Tomb as their tempering grounds, and now that it’s gone, I can’t imagine they won’t seek some kind of compensation from this foxkin. Though, I do believe there was already bad blood between the two parties since the foxkin activated the slaughter formation and got most of their disciples killed this time around.

“Whew, this crown was lighter than I thought.”

The foxkin … caught the giant crown. From this close, it looks like she’s holding up a red sky. A chill ran down my spine, and I averted my gaze. Just by looking at the crown, its slaughter aura was affecting me. There were a few people who soiled their robes and fainted from the pressure. Was I mistaken? Is the foxkin actually an immortal who’s playing around with the feelings of the people beneath her out of boredom?

“Mm? It’s shrinking!”

The crown shrank, and the red hanging over the sky gradually receded. I’m sure everyone in the country was able to see it, perhaps those at the edge could see its actual shape as a crown. The rate at which it shrank wasn’t very fast or very slow, at least it didn’t seem that way from here. I tried to find the best angle to watch, but whenever I wriggled to position myself, the phoenix I was on would shift her wings a bit to ruin the effort I just put in. I couldn’t tell if she was doing it on purpose or not, but even if she was, what was I to do?

“Ooh, it’s changing shape too!”

The crown shrank down to a size that a person could wear. It contorted, bending inwards like an hourglass. Did it know its new owner had ears that would’ve interfered with the crown’s position? I wonder if it’s a trap. Seeing as the Slaughter God had a wisp of will left and didn’t seem to like the foxkin very much, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was tricking her into wearing the crown in an attempt to take over her soul. Should I warn her? No, I have a feeling she’ll think I’m trying to trick her into giving up the crown.

“Boss, the crown looks great on you,” the phoenix below me said and held up a wing. Was it saluting her? “How’s it feel? Did you inherit anything?”

“Let me see….” The foxkin scrunched up her forehead. Then she dropped to her knees and grabbed her hair before wailing and rolling around back and forth on the ground. “It hurts! Gah! What the fuck!?”

“B-Boss!” The phoenix spread its wings and hopped over in one motion. She pecked the crown off the foxkin’s head and held it in her beak. Her voice was muffled, but she could still be heard. “Boss? What’s going on? I thought the crown was digging itself into your head, but it came off so easily….”

The foxkin groaned and rolled like a log towards the barkeep. She grabbed his legs and pulled, bringing him down to the ground. “Pain killers! Give, now!”

The barkeep fumbled with a bottle that he pulled out of his interspacial ring, but the foxkin snatched it and threw the whole thing into her mouth, glass and all. She chomped down with a crunching sound and swallowed all the pills inside before spitting out shards of glass. A low whimper escaped from her lips. “My head hurts! Carving a giant bone of intelligence was the stupidest thing I’ve ever done! Why wasn’t I smart enough to realize that before doing it!?”

“Probably because you hadn’t consumed the bone of intelligence at that time,” the purple lady that the foxkin referred to as Ilya said.

The foxkin sat up and glared at Ilya. “Why didn’t you warn me then?”

“I figured after you carved a bone of intelligence, you’d finally be smart enough to learn to read.” Ilya patted her waist and frowned. When did her arms get untied? “Unfortunately, I don’t have anything with me: no pills, no equipment, no scrolls or learning materials. Well, I suppose I should be thankful I’m still around despite the tomb being gone.” She glanced at the crown in the phoenix’s beak. “It’s probably thanks to that.”

I’m not sure what happened, but it seems like the foxkin’s head is hurting because of her own idiocy and not because the Slaughter God prepared a trap for her. And since the Slaughter God’s Tomb is gone…. “Excuse me, um, Senior Phoenix? Do you think you can set me free now? I’m not needed anymore, right?” I didn’t gain anything except a little bit of slaughter aura from eating ten slaughter fish, but the most important part is that I didn’t lose my life. Yet. If I don’t get away from this foxkin, I’ll definitely lose it sooner or later.

“Boss,” the phoenix said, her voice still muffled by the crown. “Treasure Finder wants to leave. What do you think?”

“Hmm…. Well, I have Ilya now.” The foxkin nodded. “How about this? Give me the almanac thingy and I’ll let you go. Oh, and all your stuff too.”

“…Sure.” Once I’m free, all I have to do is report my current almanac as stolen, and I’ll be given a new one for free. The one the foxkin gets will be disabled, but I should be far enough away by then for that to not matter. However, all my wealth…. But! What use is wealth without my life? I’ll give it up and do my best to never see this damned foxkin again!