17 White Fox

Kit stood motionless as he watched the pale figure left in a flurry. Her cold words resounding in his head: You can stay if you want, but I don't feel the same.

An injured look flashed across his face. Despite the kindness she had shown him, his young miss was also extremely cruel, she heartlessly rejected him without any reservation.

Kit felt like his heart had been forcibly ripped out, empty and dead, yet at the same time so painful he could hardly breathe. He wanted to run after her, hold her tightly so that she may never run away from him.

...But could he? She would loathe him even more...

Kit had seen the flash of anger in her eyes when he tried to stop her from pushing him away. Her normally calm pale golden eyes had flashed with such malice that it was enough to strike fear into a grown man's heart.

...Yet the fire in his heart only grew...

Like a madman on the brink of desperation, he yearned for the untouchable flower that he couldn't have. And, of course, the ice-cold poisonous flower didn't even disappoint him one bit as she delivered the most brutal blow to his ego; just a flat-out rejection.

Yet he's willing to give her everything... everything except... abandoning him.

When she had asked him to leave, Kit had panicked. The continuous restraint that he placed on himself finally broke and in his last final hope, he threw caution to the wind and blatantly revealed his emotions. Of course, as the saying goes, play with fire and get burnt, and he had no one but to blame it on himself.

Kit couldn't remember how long he had been standing there moping around until he heard the approaching footsteps.

... Has she come back?

Perhaps after what just happened, she might not want to see him so soon so Kit immediately blended himself into the shadows. After all, he was still standing around like a creep in front of her room...

Yet when he noticed the scene in front of him, his expression turned complex.

Ai, who was dressed in a fine set of nobleman robes, was accompanied by a woman with pure white hair. A woman who was taller than Ai.

Kit frowned slightly. Ai's body structure, by no means, is petite, she could be considered taller than an average in height and yet this new woman stood at least a head higher. But his concentration on their heights was suddenly broken when the new woman suddenly called out, "Wifey, wait for me!"

... Kit immediately paled. That voice. He knew that voice...

Ai sighed helplessly. Ever since they left the brothel, this Hayama, the neighbouring prince had been constantly on her nerves. She had tried to reason with him to stop him from calling her "wifey" but the stubborn man refused to back down. He had insisted that not only did she take advantage of him when she was drunk, she also left him without any money and thus him ended up in a brothel.

Ai wanted to retort; somehow he ended up in the brothel because he ate too much and didn't have money to pay for it so why was she being blamed again. But considering his position as the prince, she didn't want to openly offend him so she had suffered in silence.

Only when closer to her house, Ai hastened her footsteps, unable to bear the incessant chatting any longer. Not only that, Hayama had also leaned on her as they walked. He had clutched her arms in death grips as they walked through the red light district and his whole body leaned on her like a drunken sailor.

...Ah hello your highness, your body is not that small...

But frankly speaking, Ai didn't know why he was doing that since he himself seemed to be in discomfort, bending his tall frame to hold her arms tightly. Yet that strange creature had continued to stick to her like a clingy beast, making her disoriented throughout.

Ai sighed once again as she waited for the prince who was apparently taking his own sweet time to walk over. Looking at the scenes left and right, Hayama looked very fascinated.

Ai rolled her eyes... Prince, what are you looking at, it's pitch black out there and the only light available was from the moon and your weirdly luminescent white hair. Even then, everywhere else was completely shrouded in darkness.

Finally reaching her, Hayama smiled happily as he held her shoulders gingerly. It was not that he wanted to take his own sweet time as her very expressive eyes were accusing him of. It was because he noticed the silhouette of a man lurking in the shadows.

Taking his time, Hayama had ready the poison needles under his sleeves as he approached closer. But other than the slight movement in the beginning, the shadow had yet to make a move and Hayama narrowed his eyes slightly.

It didn't seem to be a foe but he couldn't be so sure so he slightly moved his body closer to Ai.

But Ai, thinking that Hayama wanted to lean his oversized body to her again, immediately leapt out of his grasps.

Hayama scowled. This woman... always trying to escape from him...

Perhaps he had leaned onto her too close? But it should be fine since he had always seen his father doing the same thing to mother empress and he only wanted to try out on his own.

"Your Highness..." Ai called. She felt a bit nervous since she saw his scowl and somehow worried that she might have offended the prince. In her previous life, she could be considered a true god of pestilence, offending people left and right with her wild unrestrained behaviours. In fact, it wouldn't be that surprising if all these people she offended came together to plot her family's demise. But now that she was desperately trying to protect her family, that option of behaving wildly was no longer an option and she has to be extremely careful with her approaches.

Seeing the frigid-looking young miss, Hayama smiled again as he tried to ease whatever that was worrying her.

"So wifey... where is our room?" he asked happily, trying to divert her attention back to him.

Ai froze. Don't tell me I have to go through this conversation again...

"Your Highness..." she began as she looked around for Kiya to send the prince to the guest room. But remembering that she had sent away Kiya to send a letter to her brother, her heart grew heavy with dismay.

... The other servants should be sleeping now and where is Kit when she needed him?!

As if hearing her thoughts, a figure stepped out from the shadows. Kit respectfully bowed as he told her, "I will escort the prince to his room, Miss Shizuka."

Ai had never felt happier seeing Kit but her happiness momentarily froze when she noticed how he had addressed him. Was he still affected by her words? He is still young, he shouldn't be hung up on such childish crush.

Anyhow she desperately wanted to rest and if Kit was helping her, she was more than happy to accept so she nodded happily and walked off to her room, ignoring the protests from Hayama.

A few moments later, Kit and Hayama heard the sounds of a door closing and the two men immediately turned to glare at each other.

"What's a dirty spy like you doing here?" Hayama was the first to start.

"You're one to talk, White Fox" Kit replied, recalling the hideous name that the so-called prince named himself with. Who the hell called themselves White Fox anyway.

"Haa... It seemed that I let you off easy when you snuck into my country, seeing how you can maintain your snarky attitude." Hayama shot back as he narrowed his eyes dangerously.

"Leave, you don't belong here." Coupled with the recent rejection he received, Kit felt like his anger was reaching the boiling point. It seemed that his young miss has the true talent for attracting creeps. Just casually going out for a walk and she had already attracted a stray creep. A creep that was not even from Shinto!

Hayama rolled his eyes. Why is a dirty spy like Kit Koyozoki commanding him, he should be feeling grateful that he let him off unscathed when he was found snooping around and sticking his nose into where it doesn't belong. In fact, if he knew this would happen, he should have just thrown him to his guards! He knew a certain female guard that would very much enjoy a new pet. But Koyozoki was very young back then, doing the dirty works for his queen or whatever he called it.

Sighing, Hayama replied, "Just show me the room, Koyozoki."