I'm Easy to Raise

The dispute sparked by Radel had temporarily subsided, and on the way back to the White House, Kas was deep in thought regarding Keck Bloodfire and the Shaman Baize.

As the blood-sworn brother of Malik Axe-Breaker, Keck Bloodfire made it clear that the War Chief of the Black Ember Tribe held a certain fondness for him; the legacy of his forebears had certainly provided many conveniences.

Yet, this existed under a premise: that his own ambitions did not directly conflict with those of Bloodfire.

Bloodfire would likely kill anyone to obtain what he desired.

As for Shaman Baize, Kas found him quite strange. Setting aside the moral constraints of theocracy, his craving for Radel was no less intense than Bloodfire's, yet he was doing his utmost to conceal the fact that he had created Radel.

Perhaps it was fear of the Great Shaman and Her Tribe, or perhaps he understood that letting the Blood-Ash Furnace burn without end would eventually reduce the Black Ember to nothing but ash...

Lost in thought, his mind drifted between the Black Ember Tribe, the Four Causes Alchemy, and the Sacred Number Theory... When his weary, numb brain ran out of inspiration, it actually became quite rational and calm.

Dawn had yet to arrive; it was the deep of night when the moonlight had faded, and Kas pushed open the door to the White House, which was illuminated by the hearth fire.

He saw the large head of Seneya slumped over the long table, sleeping soundly, a trail of unruly saliva leaking from between her teeth as if she were dreaming of the scent of roasted meat.

Looking into the inner room, the newly acquired slave, Isidore, was snoring away wrapped in a thick blanket, the dust and grime washed from his face and hair, revealing a weary countenance.

What had he done...

Kas narrowed his eyes, his palm clenching involuntarily.

He was not fond of the institution of slavery and did not care to emphasize the relationship between master and slave.

If Isidore was clever enough, he wouldn't mind spending the energy to bring him back to Her Tribe, raising him as a tool who understood the southern world.

But the premise was that he had to be clever enough...

Seneya was his wife in name, and Miss Aowu was quite silly; she would stick out her tongue and pant when roasted meat burned her, and every time he teased her until she was angry, she would wag her tail the moment he coaxed her.

Imagine your silly, easily deceived pet sleeping with her head on a cold long table.

Meanwhile, the new slave was washed clean and groomed, sleeping soundly on the bed; anyone's first reaction would be irritation.

If he dared to deceive Seneya, Kas wouldn't mind letting this clever southerner know the methods the Rishiman People used to punish slaves.

"Wu~"

Catching a familiar scent, Seneya's nose twitched, and she groggily rubbed her sleepy eyes. She lifted her head to look at Kas, who had just stepped through the door, and let out a dissatisfied whimper.

Kas closed the door, speaking with a hint of apology:

"Sorry, did I wake you, Miss Seneya?"

"Wu~" Seneya shook her head and pulled a bowl filled with boiled meat from beneath her cloak:

"Wu~"

The meat in the bowl was still warm, meaning it had been taken out only recently, even though it was now the dead of night.

Kas remained silent for a long time; a certain string in his heart seemed to have been plucked, a crisp echo reverberating through his soul, refusing to settle for a long while.

He let out a long breath, his weary face softening into a gentle smile:

"Were you waiting for me to come back? You silly girl, I told you I was attending the banquet and might be back quite late."

Seneya didn't seem to understand the words, insisting on shoving the wooden bowl into Kas's hands.

She stood up and walked to the wooden cabinet, carefully pulling the handle to retrieve a wooden cup and a pitcher filled with ale.

She poured the wine with great caution, like a little girl who had just learned how to live a normal life, the pitcher looking like a toy about to be crushed in her large, clawed hands.

She watched with total concentration as a thin, long stream poured from the tilted spout, filling the wooden cup on the table bit by bit.

But a slight movement of the pitcher caused the stream to suddenly widen, the flow becoming so turbulent that it threatened to tip the cup over.

"Wu~"

A large hand gripped the cup just before it could spill. Seeing Seneya's ears droop in disappointment, Kas shook his head with doting affection.

He downed the ale in the wooden cup in one gulp, set it back on the table, walked behind Seneya, pressed against her back, and took hold of her furry hands.

Just like teaching a small child, he lifted the pitcher with his right hand and held the cup with his left, whispering:

"You need to learn to observe the flow and the cup. At first, you can hold the pitcher lower, because the cup is very light; if the flow is too fast, it will knock it over...

But the best way is to hold the cup itself, so that even if the flow is heavy, you can easily catch it."

"Wu~"

Seneya tried pouring the wine again. With Kas's help, she succeeded this time, letting out a whimper that sounded like a victory.

She turned her head and noticed that those familiar eyes were filled with exhaustion and tenderness, the deep blue pupils much dimmer than they had been during the day.

She hurriedly turned around, her nose twitching all over Kas's body, her mouth emitting anxious whimpers.

She looked like a puppy that had lost its meat, scurrying around the forest in a panic.

She searched for a long time but found no injuries, then lifted her head, her eyes brimming with tears as if she believed Kas had been cursed as well.

"Aowu~"

"I'm fine, you silly girl, just a bit tired." Kas smiled and rubbed Seneya's soft, pleasant-to-the-touch ears, realizing one thing.

If a girl waits for you in the dead of night, falls asleep on the table, and holds a bowl of food prepared just for you...

He looked at Seneya's flawless, delicate eyes and the way she concernedly placed food and wine before him, sighing inexplicably in his heart.

Damn it, why are there so many shitty things happening in the Sorrow Mountains... If this young woman were a normal person, I would snatch her back to the tribe to be my wife even if I had to use force.

But right now, I can't even understand her speech, and she just acts silly, knowing only how to eat, act spoiled, and wag her tail.

Right, I can't understand her speech... but she possesses normal human intelligence, so I can teach her how to read!

Action follows thought; Kas immediately pulled Seneya to sit beside him, dipped his finger in some wine, and wrote the word [I] in Reshman on the tabletop.

"Miss Seneya, this is the word 'I'."

Pressed against his side by Kas, Seneya no longer showed her initial resistance; she rubbed her sharp claws together, emitting a series of inexplicable Aowu sounds.

"Aowu~ Aow~ wu~"

"?"

His puzzled gaze prompted Seneya to explain through action.

She extended her index finger, and her sharp claws easily traced back and forth on the wooden table; her focused, earnest expression clearly showed she wasn't just doodling.

A minute passed, and she stopped her tracing, her ears drooping in disappointment: "Wu~"

Kas frowned, staring at the tabletop graffiti that looked as if it had been slashed randomly by thousands of blades, analyzing what exactly was going on.

Seneya possessed normal intelligence, he was certain of that, but she lacked common sense and life skills; perhaps she was the daughter of some great clan leader who had never done manual labor.

Based on this premise, she should have been educated, at least capable of writing a grammatically fluent letter in Reshman.

The patterns gouged into the table by her claws were extremely chaotic, but the general traces could be distinguished; the claw marks moved from left to right, and their vertical lengths were almost uniform, following standard writing conventions.

Is it another witch... Even written expression has been deliberately blurred; this already touches upon cognitive ability. What kind of curse has Seneya been subjected to?

But I am the Great Wise One with an intelligence stat of 5!

The ceiling of intelligence in the Sorrow Mountains!

What is a cognitive impairment to me? I will figure this sentence out!

Kas widened his copper-bell-like eyes, staring fixedly at the erratic claw marks on the table, though his exhausted inspiration made it difficult to deduce anything further.

But for Seneya's sake, for the sake of his beloved dog-girl, he popped the last Lip-Blue Berry into his mouth.

A haze once again shrouded his vision, and countless claw marks twisted and turned in his eye sockets like slippery loaches, as if his brain were growing.

A line of elegant text was laid out on the wooden table.

Thinking it was an important clue related to the curse, Kas endured the boiling blood flowing like hot chocolate in his heart and the stinging dust sticking to his skin.

He slammed both hands on the table and leaned down, staring intently at the characters.

[I am actually very easy to raise, Kas. Your cooking is really delicious. Can we have meat grilled on a stone slab next time? The dried meat is so hard to eat.]

He turned his head in disbelief, and what met his gaze were Seneya's clear, limpid eyes.

Those eyes were like stars shining in the pitch-black night sky, brilliant and pure, untainted, and filled with an expectation he could clearly understand.

The sweet taste of fresh blood spread from his throat into his mouth; Kas knew he could finally no longer withstand the successive tortures and was about to vomit blood.

But couldn't you have written something with key information? Why are you always thinking about food!

You... stupid dog!

Having overexerted his mind all night, he finally vomited blood amidst the silly cuteness of the werewolf lady and passed out.