Swordsmaster Fox-girl

Nira and Ihwa were playing cards in their room when their door suddenly swung open.

“Catch this!”

Nira snapped her head toward the door, only to see three blood-red stones being thrown toward her. Being the Mana-eating sword, she knew what these were.

Grinning, Nira snatched the stones mid-air and devoured them hungrily.

Nova—the one who threw the stones—watched Nira eat with her arms crossed.

“You’re going to get fat if you eat like that.”

But Nira was too busy absorbing the Mana to care.

Similarly, Nova dropped the matter when she saw the translucent blue screen in front of her.

[ARC has increased by 0.9]

After that, Nova and Aerin sat right beside Nira and Ihwa. Ihwa prompted the important question before anyone else.

“W-Why do you look like that?”

Nova tilted her head in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“Master, I think she’s talking about the blood on your body.”

“...I thought I wiped it all before coming here?”

“Actually, there’s still some on your ears and tail.”

“Huh…can you remove it for me, Aerin?”

“...As you wish.”

Aerin positioned herself behind Nova and stuck her tongue out. Then, she began licking and sucking Nova’s ears clean.

Nova immediately shuddered in happiness. Though, she still retained enough control of herself to answer Ihwa’s previous question.

“It’s nothing. I just hunted the Red skulls down with Father Richter.”

“You WHAT?!” Ihwa shouted. “Tell me!”

“Okay, okay. So, we found the Red skulls’ base. After beating up the goons, we went up to their Boss, who was a Vampire.”

“And then?”

“Well, the boss was stronger than we thought. Even with Father Richter’s help, we still couldn’t defeat him. However—” I attempted a triumphant smirk. “—my intelligence knows no bounds. I threw Aerin toward the Vampire.”

“...!”

“But I missed. The Vampire laughed, ‘haha, what a pathetic last attempt.’ Then, Aerin turned humanoid and gorged his heart out!”

At this point, Ihwa’s eyes were practically sparkling like stars. Though, her excitement lessened as she asked her next question.

“W-What about Father Richter? W-What did he say about Aerin?”

“Huh…that’s the strange part. He looked as if he wanted to tear her apart, but he stopped and muttered something about being a Priest of Navr first and foremost.”

Ihwa nodded happily. “That sounds like Father Richter.”

“Anyway, you want to see something cool?”

Being a child, of course Ihwa would! 

“Yes!”
Nova stood up—with Aerin still licking her tail—and took out an armor piece by piece from her backpack. Then, she took out the silk and laid it out on top of the armors.

‘Good thing I watched how Druv did this before.’

After some really complicated hand movements, the silk seemingly absorbed into the armor. Then, the pieces shrunk to match Nova’s size.

Nova put the armor on herself with great proficiency. She crossed her arms and stared at Ihwa menacingly.

Her armor creaked as she took several imposing steps toward Ihwa. She stopped and crouched down to test the armor’s flexibility. 

‘Pretty good.’

Then, she stood before a mirror to see herself. 

The armor was a grayish-black color, with exposed joints to facilitate movements better. The visor, although composed of multiple slits, still managed to hide her face completely. 

Overall, it was a really good piece of armor. 

“Aerin, take the scroll out.”

“Yes, Master.”

From her pocket, Aerin took out a rolled-up scroll and handed it to Nova.

Nova then ripped the scroll open and stared at the blue screen before her with scrutiny. 

===
Armor of Fear (★★☆☆☆☆ [2/6]) {Heroic-}

A dark gray set of armor that boasts good protection and instills fear in enemies. Comes with auto-adjustment enhancement (up to 50% of original size)

===

‘Heroic-minus rank?’

…The blacksmith was a better blacksmith that she’d thought. Truthfully, she’d expected it to be Rare-plus at least, and Uncommon-minus at worst. If only Erza was still alive…

‘Well, not use thinking about it now.’

Nova barely knew Erza for half a day, so she didn’t really feel anything when he died. Though, she decided to stop by his ruined smithy sometimes to pay respect like any decent person would.

Then, Nova got out of her armors and put the pieces carefully in the backpack.

“Ready to go back?”

Ihwa nodded. “Mhm!”

As Nova was about to exit the room, she was grabbed by the collar from behind by Nira.

Nira lifted Nova up and made her face her; holding her like she would a stray cat, or in this case, a stray fox.

“Not so fast.”

“What now?” 

“It’s about the story you told our little genius here.” Nira smiled dangerously. “I remembered specifically told you to summon me if things get dangerous. Judging by what exaggeration you told, things did get dangerous.”

“What do you care?” Nova pursed her lips.

“Why. Didn’t. You. Summon. Me? A-Am I that untrustworthy? Even worse than the pushover?”

Nova gulped. She didn’t even need to notice Aerin’s worried gaze to know that this situation was delicate. She knew that unlike her exterior, Nira’s feelings were really fragile when it came to her reliability and general sword stuff. If she said the wrong thing here, Nira would sulk at her for a few weeks at best, and it would be very annoying.

“Answer me.”

Left with no choice, Nova said what was on her mind.

“I forgot.”
“W-What?”

“I really forgot.”
It was the truth. The whole deal with Father Richter took a lot out of her, so she simply forgot that Nira was available…

Nira stared at Nova’s face to find any trace of falsity. Then, she abruptly turned toward Aerin.

“Pushover, did you see this bitch use another s-s-sword?”

Ignoring the slurring at the end of her sentence, Aerin answered,

“No. She only used me. Don’t worry, big sis Nira.”

Somehow, Nira heaved a sigh of relief and let Nova go. “I’ll let it slide for now. Just remember to call me next time when there’s action.”

Nova watched as Nira turned into a sword again and clicked her tongue.

“Annoying.”

.

.

.

.

Nova returned home. She grouped up with Edward along the way and made sure that Edward knew the made-up story that she came up to fool her Mom.

Of course, she also made sure that Edward wore a helmet to obscure his face before Ihwa came over.

After parting way with Ihwa at the forest’s edge, she went back to her mansion. 

Just like that, several months passed, with her meeting up with Ihwa every few weeks or so. She often went to the city to practice healing with Father Richter since she didn’t want her Mom to know that she had a Healing skill.

She also tried to read books on Magic in the library, but it became apparent that they weren’t helping.

Today marked the ninth month since her fight with the Octalicums. And it would’ve been a completely normal day if it wasn’t for the maids’ loud and excited shout.

“THE MADAM’S GOING IN LABOR!”