A part of me was glad to see how uncomfortable Renn was around the saint… but deep down it was also concerning.

My wife really didn’t like the way she was acting. The Chancellor was treating Renn the way she would treat a reverent being. A deity, almost… and obviously Renn was not ready for such fealty or respect. It didn’t just make her uncomfortable, it was genuinely disturbing her. To the point that every time they were together, or talking, Renn looked like a cat about to pounce and run away in pure fear. Her ears stood on edge, her tail got all puffy and even her pupils got all thin and focused, as if pumping full of adrenaline or something.

If Chancy even noticed, or cared to, she didn’t show it. She spoke and mingled with Renn without hesitation, and in fact seemed to even try to search her out at any given opportunity. Several times Renn had come to find me, likely just to have a moment to relax, and then Chancy showed up asking questions or trying to get Renn to go focus her attention on some other matter than myself. I’d be… amused, if not even a little proud that someone was trying so hard to distract Renn from me, but I just couldn’t be with the way my poor wife was feeling.

“It’s terrible, Vim… She absolutely refuses to change how she’s acting around me, and even gets all angry and defensive when I ask her to! As if I was the one being rude or something!” Renn shouted into her pillow, grumbling loudly as her tail squirmed around in the air and around her… occasionally smacking into me or the bed as it did.

“Hm… I too have experienced such fervent fealty, it’s not as good as it sounds, I know. But you’ll learn to just accept it,” I said gently as I reached over to again gently pat her on the back.

She felt warm, even through her shirt. She really was agitated…

“How…? It’s like I’m not even talking to a person, but some kind of book! She responds and talks with… this matter of fact tone that makes me feel as if she’s just repeating rehearsed lines or…!” Renn looked up from the pillow she’d been both complaining into and biting on occasion, and I noted the red eyes. Not from tears, but a form of them… she genuinely was upset.

“Well, eventually you just learn to accept them for who they are. You’ll learn you can’t change her. No matter what. Even if you killed her, she’d just die with a smile on her face… as if it was destiny or something. For people like that you have to learn to just let them be. Put up with them, keep them at a distance, but in the end just accept them,” I explained how I used to do it.

“Easy for you to say…! You aren’t nagged by her at every waking moment!” she complained and put her face back into the pillow, this time not to growl into it but to gnaw on it.

I smiled as I heard and felt her actually tear into the pillow, to the point it even seemed to rip a little. She didn’t seem to care though, and it didn’t bother me much. As far as I was aware it, like most of the furniture and other items here we’d be leaving it all behind.

Renn and I were staying in one of the smaller houses here in this location, and surprisingly we had the whole house to ourselves. Even though it not only had several rooms, and there were enough people here to use them. Odds are it was on purpose, and I wasn’t going to argue or point it out and especially so since it seemed Renn didn’t wish to either.

We planned on leaving in the morning. The wagons were all packed, everyone was ready and healthy enough for travel, and the weather was fine now but was about to get nasty supposedly and thus they felt it was time to hit the road. We’d be setting off to Lumen, and it shouldn’t take us more than a few days even with the several wagons slowing us down… at least, unless the weather did indeed get bad, or nasty, as they claimed it would.

And it likely would… since the Chancellor was not just a saint, but one of the better ones.

So, with us leaving soon… I had expected, per usual, for Renn to ignore me. To focus instead on other members, ones she deemed more important than myself… yet here she was. With me. Alone. In a room… on a bed…

Tearing apart a pillow…?

“Blah,” she spat out a weird looking conglomeration of feathers and stuffing, and then went to glaring angrily at the pillow as if it was what had been bothering her this whole time.

“How about the others here…? Are they all likewise tugging on your tail?” I asked her. I had noticed several of the children, and the younger women and mothers, had been trying to get to know her. Though with difficulty, thanks to Chancy’s hovering around her constantly.

“Huh…? No. The rest have all been very nice. Many have even privately apologized, or tried to, for Chancy’s strangeness. They’ve all been nice, I think,” she said with a small frown as she thought about it, and I knew at this very moment she was genuinely reliving the last couple days of our stay here… remembering each and every conversation and moment as she did.

“Then don’t look at these days as things to hate, but instead endure. Don’t let the annoyance she brings upon you taint and ruin the meetings and friendships you’d have gained otherwise. It’s not fair to yourself, or them,” I said.

She nodded slowly as she considered my words. “You’re right… and I can’t really hate the stupid saint either… she’s not actually being mean or rude, I just… don’t like how she acts around me, or with me, is all,” Renn said.

“Hm. Personally I’m glad for this moment, I now know how to act the next time you and I have a big fight. I’ll win for sure now,” I said.

“Don’t. You. Dare!” Renn sat up and smacked me with the pillow, hard enough to make the small tear from her chewing to rip open even more and cause more feathers and stuffing to fly out of it.

I smirked at her and chuckled. “Some women prefer a man to worship the very ground they walk upon. Are you saying you don’t?”

Renn’s tail twitched, in the way that told me she was about to smack me again… but instead she hesitated and then went to pondering my words. “Hm… I have heard that, actually. By many,” she noted.

“Oh…?” Was she actually considering it? It seemed she was…

Renn’s ears then twitched and she shook her head. “I don’t want you to be like that. I don’t want a servant, I want a partner. An equal,” she said.

Smiling at her, I kept myself from chuckling as I nodded. “I’ll never be your equal, Renn… though I’ll try, always,” I said.

Her face got a little pink as she huffed at me and went to hugging the half torn pillow. “Shush,” she said stiffly.

Well, it was true. At least in my opinion. “Not to ruin the lovely moment… and I am not sure if I actually want to ask, but… has she mentioned anything? Chancy?” I asked.

A pair of beautiful, slightly misty, golden eyes blinked a few times at me… and I realized I had likely just indeed ruined a perfect moment. One that might have been able to… well…

“No. Not directly,” Renn then answered, honestly.

“But indirectly,” I confirmed.

She nodded. “So far I’ve heard her speak of a great calamity… one I assume is this volcano you and the others have spoken of, and then also some kind of attack. A big one… one that causes deaths. A lot of them. I don’t know if she speaks of, like… a monarch or a god, or something, but…”

“When…?” I dared to ask.

Renn shook her head and squeezed her pillow even closer. “She only said it in passing, and I was too bothered to ask. I… probably could though, if you want me to. She’s not like Light, or the Chronicler or any of the rest, Vim… she’s… well…”

“Dutiful. Particularly to you, yes. I’ve noticed.”

She sighed and her tail slumped down, going still on the bed near my left leg. “Yes. It’s so sad. How’s she so old and wise yet so foolish…? Were they really all like that, Vim?”

“Regrettably they were all odd in their own ways, yes. Only a few were like her, though. As I used to say, I’d always found Celine to be the easiest of the bunch to handle… and that’s saying something since I genuinely avoided her half the time,” I said.

“If so, how did you almost fall for her?” Renn asked, a little too seriously.

“I never had…? I know you might not believe me, Renn, but I had never had such feelings for her. I possibly could have, in a way… maybe, in some weird twisted alternate fate, but no. I’d felt a kinship with her, since I related to her desire to build a world where those like you could live happy and safe lives, but I had not felt for her as I do for you,” I said.

“Hm… you’re lucky this bedroom smells of burnt wood else I’d have kissed you just now,” Renn then said.

Burnt… wood? Did it…? Maybe it did… there was a fireplace in the corner of the room, though neither I nor she had lit it recently, and neither had it seemingly been lit recently either. “You know I’ve been meaning to ask, you get kind of frisky when I speak of other women. Is it your way of trying to make me forget them or your way of proving a point?” I asked.

“Don’t say that stuff aloud, idiot!” she said and smacked me again.

I nodded, admitting defeat and switched topics. “When’s the last time you spoke to Renka?” I asked.

Renn paused a moment, and then gave me a look. “Going straight to her after talking about your past lovers is really concerning, Vim… are you hinting at something?”

It was my turn to get angry as I grabbed a random pillow from behind me, and smacked her with it. I of course did not hit her anywhere near as hard as she had been hitting me, but the impact still made her let out a small noise and laugh as she fell backward onto her back because of it.

“You’re lucky your lips likely taste like old leather and feathers or else I’d kiss you, idiot!” I said, using her own words against her.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author’s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

A happy laugh filled the room as she rolled onto her side and reached over to grab the pillow she’d dropped during her fall. Instead of grabbing it though she ended up grabbing my leg, but she didn’t change targets. She pulled herself closer to it, wrapping her arms around it as if it was the pillow instead. “I deserved that!”

For a small moment I could only stare at her, she who was wrapped around my leg in such an odd position. Her tail was squirming wildly, but this time in joy instead of pure annoyance and anger. She… looked adorable like this, and I was a little surprised to see her act so childish.

Renn could be childish. I knew this well… but it was rare for this side of her to show itself. Maybe the stress of the recent events had finally taken its toll, and this was her way of letting off steam.

A part of me wanted to keep teasing her, or at least grinding the knowledge of how ridiculous it’d be for me to fall for a god into her head… but instead I let her be for a moment. As to both let her enjoy the moment, and myself.

Maybe I’d been neglecting her lately. We’d actually been spending a lot of time together recently, since I was so concerned over letting her out of my sight… but that didn’t mean I was truly focused on her. Lately either my own mind had been occupied on other things, or hers has, and as such even when together we had been… distant. Together, but not.

When had our little times like this become so rare…? We used to do this all the time, almost every night. Now though…

“Ah… I missed this…” Renn whispered as she buried her face into my leg, not far from the nook of my knee.

I blinked at that, and for a small moment couldn’t breathe… because it was proof of my earlier thoughts, and also the same thing I had just been thinking.

I too missed this. These moments. Alone… without worry…

Reaching out, I gently patted her on the thigh. Thanks to her angle, and how she was lying next to me, it was the only real place I could do so… unless I wanted to do so to her rear. And although she’d probably let me, I didn’t want to steer this moment in that direction.

“Just remember Renka’s probably snooping on us as we speak,” I said gently, both to tease her and to gently remind her.

Her tail went still in the air for half a moment, and then she chuckled. “Ah, she isn’t. She promised me she’d not snoop anymore during our private moments. Her own very words,” she said.

Oh…? When had that conversation happened, I wonder? “If only they weren’t liars, then maybe I could believe that,” I said.

“Hm…” Renn hummed as she slowly slid upward, pushing off the bed as to turn and look at me. As she did, I had to focus on her eyes as to not see the way her hair loosely dangled around her. It was a mess, thanks to all the roughhousing and her earlier fit while she complained over Chancy.

She looked dangerous tonight.

“They’re liars, Renn,” I said softly, since I noted the look in her eyes. She wasn’t really doubting me… but she was assessing me. Studying me, the way only a cat could.

“I believe you Vim,” she said back, just as softly.

I nodded. “Want me to prove it?”

Renn sat up a bit more. “Prove it…? How?”

Smirking, I gestured lightly at the world around us. “Come on out, Renka.”

Renn’s ears perked up as she fully sat up now, in a hurry, as she looked around in shock… and as expected, nothing happened.

No god appeared. No illusion was summoned.

Nothing changed.

“Huh…?” Renn kept looking around expectantly, almost a little too much so, but nothing happened even after she did.

“Hmph.” I coughed as Renn turned back and looked at me, now with a small glare.

“Why do that…? I had actually expected her to show up!”

“So had I, honestly. But it proves my point either way,” I said with a nod.

“How so? She didn’t appear! So she’s not listening!”

“Says who? If she was listening but didn’t want us to know, she’d pretend to not have heard me just now and would just stay hidden. So that’s proof she’s likely listening,” I said.

Renn blinked at me, and then started to laugh. “What a childish argument!” she said loudly, then fell back downward onto her side. This time she landed directly on my leg, in fact both of them, as she rolled around and giggled happily.

Sighing at my strange wife, I decided to change topics again. I didn’t like how much she seemed to be enjoying our talking about Renka. Or how excited she had just seemed to have her show up. “Speaking of childish… have you noticed something interesting?” I asked.

Renn continued to giggle a little, and then eventually rolled over to look at me. “Hm…?” she responded with a happy smile and a flick of an ear.

“There’s a lot of children, Renn. Suddenly,” I said.

“Ah, yes. A few others have noticed too, and blame me. Or us, I guess?”

“Us…?” I paused a moment as to figure out what she had meant. I had been intending to imply something else, for her to realize something important, but now I was more concerned with whatever she was speaking about.

She nodded softly. “Yeah… I’ve been told we’re fate’s hands, interfering with the world! Since we’re so lovey-dovey and happy, other people are becoming the same, and having more children because of it!” she declared as she raised her hands to the ceiling, as if to praise whatever divine figure she felt was responsible for such a thing.

“That’s ludicrous,” I said.

“Ludi-what?”

“Absurd. Preposterous. Comical. Outrageous. Foolish. Idiotic. Daft. Stupid. Nonsensical. Ridiculous. Absurd,” I said, listing a bunch of similar words.

“You used absurd twice,” she pointed out.

“Because that’s how absurd it is!”

She giggled at that. “I know… but I still really like to believe it. Even if it makes no sense, since so many like Fressi were born before we even met. So… why bring it up? What am I supposed to notice about it? If anything it makes me really happy, Vim, so I hope you’re not about to break my heart,” she said.

Ah, so she had just been teasing me. “As far as you’re aware… what kind of ratio are we at?” I asked.

“Ratio…? What do you mean?”

“Of men to women.”

Her beautiful, half-flushed eyes, blinked at me… and then she hummed as she thought about it. “You’re saying there’s not enough men. And… you’re right, aren’t you? In fact I’ve been told half the villages over on the other lands were full of women, with no men at all. How are there so many kids amongst them, but not us, with us having more men on average…?” she asked, realizing my meaning.

“Exactly. Especially with, from what I’ve heard and noticed, many women are now doing all they can to have kids. Because they had not such opportunities before coming back here,” I said, thinking of Yangsi.

“Like Yangsi!” Renn sat up a little as she shouted her name.

I nodded. “Right? Kids aren’t too surprising… but if there were such large swaths of disconnect between them over there that there are now those like them, acting the way they do, why are there so many? Isn’t it odd?”

Renn hummed and nodded. “Yeah… should I find out?”

“I don’t know. This is something I usually don’t try to pry too much into, since it’s a more personal issue. One I avoid confronting unless specifically asked to do so. But…”

“But it does lead to more questions, such as why they were separated in the first place over there. We have a few villages of only women, was that the way it used to be? Back then? When the Society was more normal?”

“Only to a point. There’s always been a few, for one reason or another… but I think it’s more than just the fault of them separating by the sexes over there.”

“How so?”

“I think they had not allowed children until recently. By design.”

“By… you mean they hadn’t allowed kids to be born? How would they do that Vim?”

“If enough people obey it’s not impossible. It’s just… they were over there for over a hundred years, Renn. There should be more generations. Even for our people. Yet there’s seemingly not,” I said.

“Hm…” Renn didn’t say anything for a moment as she pondered it. “But… what of all the people you’ve never met before? I’ve met a lot of people recently who have told me they’ve never seen you, or didn’t know you, or were born over there. Some of them even have kids themselves,” she pointed out.

“A small fraction. And most weren’t born over there, but instead born during the trip or not long before it happened. So they just don’t remember ever meeting me… and Renn, you should know by now that I’ve been having difficulty with remembering people. My forgetting people I had only met once, briefly, is understandable. As it would be for everyone but you,” I said.

“You say that as if I’m the weirdo.”

“You are!”

“You’re all the weird ones! Especially you! Forget remembering names or faces, how do you not remember the exact way you smile or grin during our little flirty moments? How do you not remember the warmth of your hand on my back when I woke up half-asleep from a nightmare back in the beginning? You’re the weirdo for not being able to remember such lovely moments!”

What…? Why’d she suddenly bring up such things…? And hand on her back…? I’ve done that plenty of times; I wonder which one she spoke of? And why was she accusing me of such things anyway? It’s not as if she’s ever asked if I’d remembered such things or not…

“Though… I do need to give you credit. You do remember the important stuff, at least,” Renn then said, changing her tone a little.

“Hm…?”

An oddly happy grin grew on her face as she nodded. “I like how you remember people’s quirks.”

Quirks…? That was one of my words… had I ever said it in front of her before? Wonder when? “Oh…? You mean like how you sometimes nibble on your own tail in your sleep?” I asked.

Renn giggled at that and shook her head. “I mean… everyone else, Vim. Like Harly, or Yangsi, or Saphra… You remember their important details, their personality traits that make them… them? I guess? I like how you do that,” she said.

Didn’t she just complain that I didn’t remember such things…? “Well… not sure why that’s worth such a compliment, but I’ll happily take it while I can,” I said.

“Hm. By the way, was Yangsi related to Yangli and the rest? To Prasta?” she asked.

“Huh…? No. Yangsi is a monkey. Or well, an ape. She’s not related to the lizards at all.” I could see why she’d think so though, their names were similar.

“Ah, okay. Also, since we’re on this topic can I ask about Saphra?”

“Sure…?” I wasn’t much in the mood to talk about others like this anymore. I wanted to focus on her. And especially so the lovely way she was looking at me right now, while half lying on my lap, but… it was probably for the best that she kept distracting us with odd topics.

“She’s… half a snake,” Renn said.

I smirked and nodded. “Rather obvious, yes.”

“Shush. I uh… mean… How do you think that works? Exactly?”

“How… does what work?” I asked.

“You know…? Her lower half? How does she go from… this, to that?” she asked while gesturing at her own self. Meaning obviously her more human form.

“She just does…? Are you asking how it actually works, physically and organically, or…?”

“Well, I guess I’m asking how she’s so… non-human? No one else I’ve ever met was so much so like her, you know? Even my grandparents weren’t that non-human. They had fur, and claws and stuff, but were still like me? Two legs, two arms, and stuff? And my great-uncle was a monarch, so he being a cat makes sense… have you ever seen a half-cat person? Or a half horse? Or a fish?”

I chuckled at her and nodded. “I’ve seen them, yes. Though… not in the way you think,” I said, thinking of the poor victims of the many experiments I’d encountered in the past.

“Hm… can you tell me about them…?” she asked, a little too seductively for my taste.

Taking a deep breath, I sighed and nodded. “Well… I suppose I should take this moment to justifiably tell you of some of the atrocities, first…” I started, both to tell her the truth… and to maybe also plant the tiny seed of doubt in her heart.

Doubt in Renka. In the gods. In the rest of them.

Doubt justifiably planted, in my opinion.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep