NOVEL SIMPLE Ch-22-What punishment?
After the strange interaction with the woman touching my head like I was a child for some reason, I started to get a weird feeling about the way she was looking at me. Then the incident with the boy and his brother happened, throwing that thought out of my mind.
Examining the sick brother was not that difficult with the evidence I had before me, but the odd thing was how fast it had set in, according to the family.
While rapid-onset diseases were a thing, they were not that common for lung infections like bronchitis, which the brother was dealing with. Combine that with the cold he was now dealing with on top of that, and I was almost certain something fishy was going on that I did not know about.
Nevertheless, I still diagnosed the patient and gave him some antibiotics and a prescription to help with his body for a short period of time.
With that finished, I was about to talk to the family a bit more about what caused this, however, before I could, Raina grabbed me and dragged me away.
As she was dragging me through the village I tried to come up with a solution to the boy's sickness, but nothing was coming to mind before we reached her house.
When we did, I was dragged through the door into the front courtyard, into and through the building on the other side, and then even further into the second courtyard at the back of the house.
Once we were in the middle of the inner courtyard she had me sit down on a bench next to a flower bed and then walked off to call someone.
Looking around this courtyard, I found myself surrounded by a beautiful garden I would have loved to have in my own house at some point. The walls were lined with vibrant climbing flowers, and in front of them, there was a bed of neatly arranged flowers, creating a perimeter around the courtyard.
Inside that perimeter was a small gravel path going through a patch of clovers that acted as a lawn. In the middle of the lawn was a spring trickling down a set of rocks arranged to make a fake waterfall. At the base of the waterfall was a pond with a small duck sitting on the surface of the water.
As I was observing the courtyard, Raina came back and sat on the bench next to me, causing me to jump slightly and turn my head back to look at her. She then started to ask some questions about what happened to me, so I answered them, seeing no reason to hide anything from her. It is not like she would harm me after all.
When she changed her questioning to what I knew about kitsunes, I got confused as I should already know about anything important.
Or at least that was what I thought until I was told about imprinting and what she did. Even if it was unintentional, I was still upset that it had happened. I was also starting to wonder how much I was not told about my race from the system, as this was the second time something unexpected happened relating to my race, and this time it was fairly important.
After that, she said that she would make up for what she had done, which I was happy about until she used some sort of technique or spell to spin me around.
Once I was sitting that way, she immediately grabbed my tail and laid it on her lap, startling me.
No one was supposed to touch my tail, and right when I was about to turn back around and grab my tail back while shouting at her, she started to brush my tail, causing my body to freeze as a purr unconsciously escaped my throat.
I was about to protest again when a sharp pain shot up from my tail, causing me to yelp.
That did not stop me, though, and I went to complain about this again when another sharp pain shot through my spine.
It still did not deter me, though, and I kept trying to do the same thing, but every time I tried, that same sharp pain would shoot up my spine. She said something about taking care of my hair and fur as if she were my mother, but I honestly could not tell at this point.
This eventually led to my current situation, where I was sprawled out on the bench, nearly falling off of it with a loud purr rumbling from my chest.
My tail was still trapped by Raina for all I knew, though the haze filling my mind was making everything a blur. Even thinking was starting to get hard at this point.
Soon, a gust of wind enveloped me, and then my head was placed on something soft, and something started running through my hair and the fur on my ears. It felt very nice, and I started to purr even louder.
Mother's brushing of my fur and hair felt so nice and relaxing that I was almost falling asleep with my tail wagging around in the air behind me.
Not long after, with my eyes already closed and the world enveloped in a dark, warm haze, everything seemed to disappear.
(Lou Xia POV)
The flight from Vale's place in the forgotten forest was nice and calm, which was unlike Elder Xie, and honestly, it was fairly nice after what happened last time. I even started to think that he learned his lesson after the last disciple he sent flying off the back of a mount, or at least I did until I saw him pull out a beast whip.
The Windstrider beneath us seemed to notice that too, as it launched forward, shattering the wind-resistant barrier in front of us and almost tossing Zhuan Jiahao and me off the back.
To prevent that, we both hit the deck and grabbed a fist full of feathers while using our Qi to hold us down.
I wanted to turn around and look to see if we still had Vale with us, but if I did that, it would break the Qi holding me down, and I could not ask Elder Xie to do that either, as the last time someone did that they got launched off by him as well.
We maintained this speed for the next hour or so until something strange happened. The Elder had taken out a communication crystal and started talking into it before turning around to look at us.
It was then that his face lost all color, and it now looked as if he was on death's door. The most shocking thing was that Elder Xie cursed out loud, which supposedly never happens outside of him talking with a few of the other elders.
Immediately, he commanded the Windstrider to turn hard, and we ended up going back the way we came.
Taking that moment when the Windstrider had slowed down to turn, I looked behind me and saw that Vale had disappeared. This led me to conclude that, somehow, she was the reason for the Elder's current condition.
It was not long after that the Windstrider accelerated again to an even faster speed than before, and it felt like everything turned into a blur.
Traveling at this speed meant that both Jaihao and I needed to use even more Qi to secure us and make sure that we did not disappear like Vale.
Twenty minutes later, we were both running low on Qi, and it felt like we were losing our grip. However, it was at this point that the Winstrider slowed down massively. Comparing this to a few seconds ago, it felt like we almost came to a standstill in the air.
Slowly letting my Qi disperse, I found that I did not need it to stay on the bird, and I could even stand up.
Doing so, it felt like my legs had fallen asleep, though that was nothing compared to some of the body tempering I have had to go through.
Regardless of all of that, I took the opportunity to look around, and I saw that we were back near a village that we had passed over. Cautiously walking over to the side of the eagle, I took a peek at the village below.
From what I saw of the village, there was not much of note until I looked at the village elder's house.
There, in the second courtyard, I saw Vale lying on a bench with a woman brushing her hair. Vale's tail was waving side to side behind her while the woman seemed to be content with the situation she found herself in.
This did not last long, however, as the woman looked up and locked eyes with me, and immediately, a scowl replaced the smile on her face as the world went white around me.
When my vision returned, the world was still the same, but I thought that what they had just done was a warning shot and we needed to leave now before it was too late. Until a voice behind me say, "So you've finally shown up."
Those words made my heart plummet and feel as if I had just been covered in Kaya's ice aura again. Slowly turning around to see who was talking, I laid eyes upon the same woman that was still brushing Vale's hair below us, now standing on the back of the Windstrider.
She did not sound very happy either.
The pressure she exuded was so great that I felt as if my body would be crushed, or at least we would fall out of the sky if she did not want us to stay there.
I was just grateful that she was not looking at me, but the Elder on the other hand, was not as lucky. He looked as if he was seeing his own death in human form.
He then quickly bowed low and said, "I am sorry for the inconvenience and for disturbing you, Ancestor."
From the sound of his voice, it was as if he would die soon for saying the wrong thing.
That was something I totally understood in this situation as well.
The woman, however was still clearly angered by what he said as she responded, "Ancestor is only for the disciples here. For you, that is Sect Founder."
I did not even know that the Elder could get even paler, but I was now proven wrong by the woman I now knew as the founder of our sect.
I had understood why the Elder would call her ancestor, as almost every sect besides the one stuck at the local level would have an ancestor guarding their forbidden lands. Even then, most of those more local sects also had ancestors guarding their forbidden lands too. However, the founders, on the other hand, were always either buried in their tombs or running their sects, never located as guardians of the forbidden lands. And this was also a person who was known for her kindness to her allies but even more so for not having a single enemy.
She was even called the Immortal of Mercy more recently by the empire and its surrounding regions for that same reputation.
Most of the people more powerful Sects have even started to call her a weak-willed woman who sleeps around behind her back and starting rumors to defame her. However I am now seeing with my own eyes how wrong that statement is.
From the state of the Elder, I can guess that she is the type of person who does not have an enemy because they are no longer around to tell of it. Though she seems to be at least kind to Jiahao and me by comparison.
The Elder hurriedly said as if trying to gain her favor and prevent what was bound to happen."How can I help the Sect Founder? If it is to get you anything to help recover the energy you have spent, I have plenty of materials on me."
This did not seem to work though, and it even seemed to make her even angrier as she said, "The reason I don't feel as powerful right now is because I don't want to disturb my dear little Valeria right now, so I am using a clone." The tone she used was both sweet and icy in a way that reminded me of my mother finding out that I had destroyed Grandpa's model project and even cursed his name behind his back as a kid.
I also now understood what was about to happen in greater detail.
She then continued and explained, "Though since this small incident allowed me to meet my new daughter, I guess that I will be a little nicer with your punishment."
That at least helped me to understand what I just saw down below us. It was also now that Jiahao said probably the stupidest thing I have heard him say. "Does that mean the Ancestor won't kill Elder Xei?"
He said that with such hope in his voice that I would not surprised if the Ancestor decided to make him join in on whatever punishment the elder would be undergoing.
When she heard that, I noticed a gleam in her eyes that honestly frightened me a little as she said, "No, I won't be killing him. I would never weaken my sect like that, and there are far worse punishments than death."
I was at least glad that the idiot I grew up with wasn't going to die and was even being given a warning. However, the idiot I call a fellow disciple decided not to keep his mouth shut. Seriously! How come today was the day the always silent boy learned how to speak!
"Then what will happen to him?"
This time, there was some fear in his voice as he seemed to finally realize that he should not have spoken. But it was too late.