A Nine-Tailed Love

Chapter 22

Dae-Hyun

We arrived at the village shortly after our small detour and Eun-Ae was smiling and gawking at the decorations and lanterns that were hung up around the village center. Entertainers and street food stalls were busy and the village folk were shuffling around enjoying themselves as they should.

"Oh! Your majesty this is all… so beautiful! You did all of this for me? Really?" She squealed.

I nodded and grabbed her hand. "I did. Because it was my way of helping to keep you safe and I figured why not. We haven't had a random festival in years."

Eun-Ae bounced on her toes and her tails flared and flower excitedly. Her ears perked while she scanned the area around us. "Thank you! Thank you, thank you!" She squealed again and hugged me tightly in front of an entire crowd.

"Oh that must be her." A woman shouted.

"Is that the king's consort? She's a kumiho! How pretty!"

"She's absolutely stunning!"

"We shouldn't be staring at her. You don't know if she's going to turn against us."

I turned to the voice that accused Eun-Ae of bad intentions and narrowed my eyes. "If she wanted to kill me and all of you she would have done it already. Keep your comments to yourself if you're going to bad mouth her. Remember I am the king, I can have you removed from here just like that." I snapped my finger at the villager.

"Such a kind man to offer such a solution to bad mouthing rather than kill a man in cold blood." Another villager mentioned.

"He's such a good king. Now who he chooses as his bride is his concern not ours. She seems nice. She's been here for a month now and hasn't shown any sort of malicious intent. If anything, those wolves have stopped coming around to steal our livestock because of her presence."

Eun-Ae pulled away from me and turned to the crowd with her ears perked and tails down. "I have tried my best to keep you all safe in a way that didn't interfere with your daily lives. I was afraid to reveal myself to you all without frightening you. I have a strange diet that requires a lot of meat but I have done my best to stay away from your livestock and farm animals. I've resorted to eating normal human food and occasionally I'll hunt outside of the kingdom."

I patted Eun-Ae's head and smiled down at her. I didn't need to tell her what to say, or how to address the villagers but from what I just saw, she nailed it right on the head.

"So. If you'll excuse us. We have things to see and good food to enjoy. If you have any concerns, bring it up to the guards and I'll be notified right away." I addressed the crowd before grabbing her hand and walking toward the food stalls.

Eun-Ae lifted her nose and started sniffing the enticing aroma of the street food from the nearby vendors. "Everything here smells amazing!"

I chuckled. "What would you like to try first? There's so much variety. The barbecue is my favorite and then the pork skewers and the fish. Oh the fish is to die for!" I shouted with equal excitement.

"Can I try them all?" She asked shyly.

"Of course, anything you want. What do you want to try first? Let's go try the steamed fish first. Then the skewers… after we can try the barbecue."

We stopped by every food vendor there was and Eun-Ae engaged with the vendors themselves. She made them feel secure and given their responses she managed to put them at ease.

She blended in socially like a natural and I couldn't have been more proud. I knew this would be a whole adjustment but she was making it look easy.

It wasn't long before the lanterns were dimmed and the dancers made their way to the center of the village.

"Hey Blossom, do you want to watch the show?" I asked, jutting my thumb in the direction of the crowd.

She stopped mid bite, held a piece of meat in her mouth and then nodded frantically. I chuckled at her antics and watched her stuff the rest of it into her mouth with the skewer.

"Slow down, I don't want you to choke." I chuckled.

She swallowed her food and licked the sauce off her lips. "Yes please! I want to watch the dancers."

I leaned down, cupped her cheek and used my thumb to wipe the spot she missed on the corner of her mouth before immediately licking it from my thumb. "You missed a spot."

Eun-Ae’s cheeks tinted a shade of red while she stared at me. I smiled back at her and closed the distance between us.

"Your majesty, something has happened to the shopkeeper on the east side of the village!" A palace guard shouted to me.

I stopped and turned around to face the guard. "What do you mean?" I stepped away from Eun-Ae and stormed off toward him. "What the hell happened?"

"One of the shopkeepers who handles the palace orders for vegetables was found dead. He's going to be brought to the coroner's office for an autopsy but based on the amount of discoloration we think he was poisoned."

"So he strikes again. Where's Bool-He?"

"I need to conduct a full investigation on this. But from what witnesses said, he was walking around the outskirts of the east quadrant."

I let out a long breath, pinched the bridge of my nose and shook my head. "Bring me the lead magistrate and the senate."

"Yes your majesty." He bowed his head and ran off in search of the senate members and magistrate.

I felt a tug on my sleeve and turned to see who it was. "What is it?" I asked before actually seeing who it was.

Eun-Ae jumped back and c****d her head at me. "Is something wrong?"

I shook my head and scanned the area around us. There was an eerie feeling in the air and I did not like it one bit. "We need to move out of the open. Let's go follow the crowd."

"You sensed that too?" She asked me.

I pressed my lips into a thin line and contemplated my next move. If we did a quick announcement then we could leave and hopefully no one here would be harmed. "s**t…"

Her ears perked and shifted in all directions trying to locate a sound my human ears couldn't pick up. "That foul smelling man is here…" She scoffed. "We need to figure out why he's here…"

"He's here because all magistrates needed to be present for the festival."

"Did something happen? There's the smell of iron…" She stopped and looked up at me. "Did someone get hurt?"

"Don't fret, Blossom I'll get to the bottom of this one way or another." I replied.

Glancing around I spotted Gon. The look of concern painted across his face. I motioned him to come over to me.

"What's the report?" I whispered hoping Eun-Ae didn't hear me.

Gon let out a heavy sigh. "Harvester in the east quadrant was killed. Bool-He was seen fleeing in wolf form so only the guards knew it was really him, but the witness had taken back to the palace for a statement. Don't worry I have my best men on this."

I nodded and turned back to Eun-Ae who was bouncing on her toes as she watched the performers.