Gasps of realization spread through the crowd.
Kitsune’s were easy to spot and name. This was because the color of one’s tails was different depending on your bloodline. For Ri’s tails to be so snow-white, it was clear and obvious that she was from the Snow Clan. If those tails were black, she’d be from the Void Clan. If those tails were golden, she’d be from the Heaven clan. If they were silver, she’d be from the Jikan Clan. So on, and so forth.
However, usually, other than being quite beautiful in outward appearance, snow-white tails didn’t come with any sort of cache until Ri. This was why their first reaction was to drool over Ri’s beauty, and not her power.
Now that they knew the truth, they couldn’t help but drip in a cold sweat. Many of them had been thinking about approaching this young lady to wow her with their powerful statuses. Now that they realized that they were about to show off their little ability in front of an Emperor, they couldn’t help but thank their lucky stars that this passerby had saved them from themselves.
Any woman who ranked so highly in the Epistemic Tower world was arrogant beyond belief and also had many guards up. It wouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone if Ri lashed out and killed them all. This was because the martial world was still very conservative in many circles, and the reputation of a woman was highly important. So, often times, the most powerful of women would draw a fierce line between herself and her pursuers.
In line with this logic, strong women were thus only pursued by the strong, and weak women were only pursued by the weak. Only if you were strong could you guarantee you wouldn’t die if you rubbed a strong woman the wrong way.
It was only now that the crowd realized just how stupid they were. They were so blinded by lust that they hadn’t even thought of counting Ri’s number of tails!
“She… She has ten tails!”
“Have you ever seen such a thing?”
“No, never! Even the best geniuses of the Void, Heaven and Jikan clans only have 7 or 8! Only Aki Void has 9. How could she possibly have 10?!”
As the crowd was practically losing its mind, an inconspicuous person left the surroundings, three black tails waving around behind him.
‘This is my chance! If I get this information back to the Palace, I’ll be rewarded!’
He scurried away down an alley, not truly looking where he was going before he slammed into a solid figure that sent him tumbling back.
He fell to the ground with a loud crash.
At first, he wanted to vent his frustrations by yelling at the man who bumped into him. But, when he looked up he saw something that sent shivers down his spine.
A tall man, draped in a black cloak, wearing a mask of silver and gold. Although he didn’t say anything, this murderous aura he exuded shook him to his core.
The reason he was planning on berating the cloaked man was because the fabrics of the cloak were exceedingly cheap. Because that was all he could see, initially, from his vantage point, he assumed that this man had lowly status. As a man of the Void clan, despite being lowly there, he could raise his head high almost anywhere else.
But, when he was about to yell, all of his bestial instincts told him to not offend this man, or else his life would be on the line. So, he simply got up without saying a word, bowed in apology, before scurrying away again.
From beginning to end, the cloaked man didn’t say anything, only watching the three black tails of the Void clan member bounce as he ran away.
‘Why didn’t you stop him?’ The voice of the old man resounded.
“I don’t want to kill indiscriminately. This is his only chance. If he offends me, I’ll kill him. I’d like to see just how much these Void clan clowns plan to push me.”
Although Dyon didn’t know what happened to Ri during his absence, knowing the way of the world, he didn’t doubt that the Void clan had given his woman trouble. But, despite knowing that, he wouldn’t go around killing every Void clan member he saw for no reason. However… If they gave him a reason… They would feel his wrath.
At the end of the day, though, Dyon was in a good mood, because as soon as he rounded the corner and left the alley, he saw a beauty that took his breath away, lightly smiling as she looked down at him.
The breath of the still lingering crowd was taken away when this happened. They had never seen this beauty smile, as she was constantly hiding it up until now. But, for whatever reason, she seemed to be smiling down at them, as though she was a Goddess looking favourably upon her people.
Their hearts beat wildly, their visions blurring with tears for an inexplicable reason. They could sense the emotion in this smile, and it made them want to throw away everything to protect this woman with their lives. Even the women in the crowd couldn’t help but get lost in the moment.
Suddenly, their goddess disappeared from her seat, causing them to sigh. How could they be worthy of seeing such a scene for too long? The fact they had seen it at all was enough of a blessing.
But, that was when their goddess suddenly appeared again, this time on the ground, right in front of them. The guards of the restaurant couldn’t even react as the fragrance of a woman blew past them.
Were they seeing correctly, was their goddess really rushing toward them?
However, that was when a cloaked figure suddenly appeared before them all. No one could see his face, and he was definitely within the normal parameters of a human, yet his back seemed to block their vision out entirely.
In the next moment, their goddess rushed into the open arms of this cloaked figure, clutching her small hands to his chest and hiding in his embrace.