The Sword Saint’s Second Life As a Fox Girl

5-35 Kirin

Erin had to blink twice, and then thrice, before she could eventually come to terms with reality.

“How could such an adorable creature exist?” her inner thoughts continued to scream such words. There were simply no other words that could briefly describe the small creature in her palm.

The adorable creature was a blue cat, so to speak, but it had traits and features that of an aquatic animal. It had fins, gills, and a fish-like tail. Instead of paws, it had webbed claws, talons, to be exact. The talons were sharp, Erin could tell, but it was of no threat to her. It had been clawing and scratching at her hands all the while it was in her grasp. It could not so much as even mar Erin’s skin.

The adorable creature didn’t have a name according to Erin’s appraisal. Its race was called Kirin.

Erin frowned in confusion.

The Kirin that Erin knew of looked nothing like the Kirin in her grasp. To begin with, Kirin was a creature with half the blood of a True Dragon. A Demi-dragon, in simpler terms. They bore tremendous semblance to a True Dragon. However, this Kirin in her hand resembled a cat more than anything, a cat with fish traits. Not to mention, it had no scales, but fur.

There was nothing else in her Appraisal that might suggest anything special about this very Kirin, other than the last sentence.

[The forms and appearances of Kirins are determined by their growth environment and circumstances.]

The last line of the description certainly provided much insight into the peculiar appearance of this Kirin… but not all of its mystery was explained.

“Huh… it had fins and gills… those I can understand but… why a cat?”

Erin couldn’t arrive at an answer or even a speculation. For a Demi-dragon to look nothing like a Dragon at all was simply… incredulous. Regardless, there was no reason to doubt Appraisal unless it was capable of giving falsehoods.

“It can’t, can it?” Erin solemnly wondered.

In the midst of her pondering, Erin felt a tremor in her hand, the hand that was grasping the cat-looking Kirin. It was using some kind of breath attack but it only tickled Erin at best. After all, the Kirin was only level fifteen. In hindsight, it was weak but only if one compared it to Erin and her companions. In truth, a little less than half of all the adventurers are below level twenty, or so Rigetta had told Erin.

Feeling pity for the Kirin, Erin released her grasp. The Kirin immediately launched itself towards Erin’s face. Erin did nothing and simply let the Kirin crash into her face. The result was as anyone could expect. Not only was Erin unhurt, but the Kirin even hurt itself but only slightly. It was akin to a normal person punching a sturdy rock with all his strength. Of course, the ordinary person would only end up hurting his hand without leaving a crack on the rock.

The Kirin fell back into Erin’s palm after bouncing off of her face. It was quick to get back on its feet. It snarled and hissed at Erin, glaring with its big black eyes. If it wasn’t for the glint in its eyes, it would have looked terrifying. But alas, its glare only accentuated its endearing aspect.

Erin couldn’t help but smile at such a creature in spite of its blatant hostility. She even stuck her finger out and poked at its soft and squishy cheeks. The Kirin seized the opportunity to bite down on her finger but to no avail. On the contrary, its assault only elicited a giggle from Erin.

Seeing its fruitless attempt at hurting its foe, the Kirin pouted, its cheeks inflating. This sight only served to encourage Erin’s teasing further. She ended up squeezing the Kirin’s cheeks between her thumb and index finger, tittering as she did so.

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Perhaps it finally had enough of Erin’s insolence, the Kirin hopped off her palm and spewed energy bolts at her face. While Erin did wince from getting hit, it was only at the level of being struck by pebbles, tiny pebbles. Then, she let out a genuine wince. She touched her cheek and saw bloodstain on her fingers.

Erin raised her brows.

The Kirin was now floating in the air. Its whole body was glowing. Multiple convergences of blue light appeared around it.

Erin read the Appraisal result once more. The Kirin had only three Arcane Arts. Dragon Mystic Arts and Water Magic were under Magic Arts. The last one was an Innate Skill, Waterborn. This skill seemed to be an amalgamation of the aforementioned first two.

“Shite!” Erin muttered and took cover behind the throne as the barrage began.

In seconds, the barrage reduced down the throne into nothing but a pile of rocks.

“What have you done, Erin?” she admonished herself as the Kirin prepared another barrage. Erin closed the distance between them with Fleet Foot and grabbed the Kirin— or at least she tried to.

The Kirin moved out of her reach before she could catch it. The energy cores followed the Kirin.

Erin sighed. “I really don’t want to hurt this cute thing.” She had to admit, she had been too aggressive in her approach but she couldn’t help herself. After such a hectic battle, the embodiment of cuteness was suddenly in her palm. It was no different than picking up a stray by the roadside and giving it plenty of pats and caresses, except that the stray was feral and possessed Arcane Arts.

The barrage began once more, streaking towards Erin.

“Forgive me,” Erin said and shot a lightning bolt at the Kirin.

It saw the attack coming and moved away, but the barrage persisted from where it was launched.

Erin conjured an Arcane Aegis to block the barrage. After it ended, Erin once again shot a Lightning Bolt at the Kirin.

It dashed out of the way but in its new spot, Erin was waiting with her palm open. The Kirin squealed in horror and surprise, but it was too late. It had dashed right into its captivity inadvertently.

This trick was only possible due to Erin’s Spatial Sense. It was more useful than she had assumed. Her senses were already acute and sharp themself, coupled with Spatial Sense, she could even predict one’s move and intent before any attempt or effort was made. However, the drawback was the mental toll. The amount of information her brain had to process was immense.

“Slippery little fella, aren’t ya?” Erin grinned as she gazed triumphantly and warmly at the adorable in her grasp.

The Kirin struggled. It flailed, kicked, and clawed at Erin’s palm, demanding to be let out.

“What to do with you?” Erin mused. The answer came immediately when her gaze wandered to the body of water outside of the room.

It would be best to release it back to its habitat, Erin assumed.

However, when she trod close to the water, the Kirin began to lash out frantically. It had been frantic before but Erin could sense this time was severely more intense than all those previous times. She didn’t know why but she had an idea.

Erin walked away from the water and the Kirin calmed down.

“...Huh?” Erin blurted out. She might have been mistaken. It was possible. Therefore, she approached the water once again.

The Kirin lashed out once more like a rabid beast. It calmed down when Erin turned away from the water.

“It’s afraid of water…?” Erin was at a loss. She appraised the Kirin again and peered at its Innate Skill, Waterborn. It was an inherent skill of all beasts and monsters that was born and nurtured in water, giving them various benefits when being underwater. It appeared to be a lesser variant of Water Exalted but that was only a matter of course. Water Exalted was a Unique Talent.

Nevertheless, it was beyond strange that a Waterborn creature would be afraid of water. It was no different than humans being afraid of stepping on land.

“...How did it even get here in the first place?” Erin questioned.

There didn’t seem to be any other room in this place. This Kirin couldn’t have swum here by itself considering its fear of water. It was most likely brought here by someone or something else. But for what reason?

Erin groaned. “Damn it… Why do things have to get so convoluted… No, before thinking about that, how do I even leave this place?”

Erin thought about swimming but she was not a good swimmer, certainly not good enough to swim back the way she came from without running out of air first. Also, she didn’t feel good about leaving the Kirin here, in a situation where it couldn’t fend for itself. She didn’t want to be presumptuous but that was just how the circumstances looked to her.

Even if she could swim, the Kirin feared the water too much for her to take it along.

“Damn it… If only that insufferable idiot is here.”

Right on cue, the space in front of her began to blur and ripple. A hand poked out of the distortion and then the rest of the body followed.

“Aedan!” Erin exclaimed in surprise and joy.

“Sup,” said the Dragon-kin with a nonchalant smile.

Erin furrowed her brows. She didn’t know what he just said but at this point, she was used to him spouting out some strange and foreign word or sentences every once in a while. “How did you get here?”

“With this,” Aedan answered as he displayed a small metallic plate with a string attached.

“And what is that?”

“A spell plate.”

“Spell plate? Like a Spell Crystal or a Spell Scroll?”

“Yes.”

“Is that even possible?”

“As long as the materials used are mana-conductive, it’s possible. Crystals and scrolls are easier and cheaper to enchant.”

“And what spell did you enchant?”

“Gate. Spatial Magic. You can see it as a long-distance teleportation spell but it can be used by many.”

Erin narrowed her gaze. “How did you find me?”

“I am your mate now, as you are mine. You can say… we share a bond that transcends time and space. This goes for all the girls that I considered my mate too.”

“You mean the girls you have bedded?”

“Bedding them doesn't make them my mate. Love is required. It’s a… Dragon thing.”

At this point, Erin was way past being surprised by Aedan’s secrets and capabilities.

“So, where the fuck is this place?”

“I do not know. Let’s just get out of here first.”

“Yeah, let’s. But before that… what the hell is that in your hands?”

Erin paused and looked down. The creature in her hand had become docile before she knew it. Docile to her, at least. It was staring at Aedan warily. “...I think it’s a Kirin,” Erin said.

“Hmm...It’s definitely a Kirin but… in all the years of my life, I have never seen a Kirin that looked absolutely nothing like a Dragon. This is very curious.”

The Kirin, seeing Aedan leaning forward, shirked as far away as possible from him, though it shirked barely an inch away since Erin’s palm was only so vast.

“Stop that,” Erin said, shielding the Kirin from Aedan’s gaze upon sensing its fear.

“Definitely a Kirin. It knows what I am.”

“Shouldn’t it be thrilled instead?”

“...It should but that’s only if it’s raised in a natural environment. The fact that it looked like an aquatic cat more than a Dragon, speaks plenty about the type of conditions it was raised in. It probably doesn’t even know it itself is a Kirin.”

“So, you’re saying this Kirin is the result of some twisted experiment?”

“It’s a possibility. Or it simply had a very unfortunate growth journey. Anyway, what do you intend to do with it?”

“...Can a Kirin be domesticated?”

Aedan sighed. There was instantly a look of submission on his face. “Of course, you will ask that.”

“Well, can it?”

“No— it’s what I would say if this Kirin is normal but since it looks like a cat. We can try.”