I Was Nearly Killed by My Fellow A-Rank Party, but Now I Fed a Nine-Tailed Fox Deep in the Dungeon. ~ “My Master, I Shall Never Leave Your Side for All Eternity,” the Legendary Monsters Said While Doting on Me. Before I Knew It, I Had Become the World’s Strongest Lord of the Demon Realm~ - Chapter 11 & 12

The Best Revenge Ever!

“Haaah… this feels so good… For thousands of years I’ve tasted every kinda pleasure out there, but nothing beats this…”

While I kept petting her head, Tamamo let out this super blissful sigh, her whole face melting into pure happiness.

“Aren’t you being a bit dramatic?”

“Nah, it’s true. I was way too strong for my own good—no one ever dared to touch my head with kindness like this, without being scared outta their mind.”

Hearing that, the yuki-onna raised her hand real quick.

“If—if that’s the case, then forget relying on some human! Let me do it! I’ll touch Nine-Tails-sama’s head with all my heart and soul!”

“Nope. Your hands are freezing cold. Plus you’re kinda panting and it’s creepy.”

The yuki-onna got totally shut down with zero sugarcoating and just slumped, looking crushed.

“Oh yeah, human girl. You can go ahead and leave now.”

“—Huh!? R-really!?”

Liliana’s head snapped up at Tamamo’s unexpected words.

“Yep. Just having trash like you hanging around is bad for my poor Kuon. I was gonna make you walk out naked, but that’d be poison for his eyes too.”

In this freezing dungeon, that was straight-up demonic thinking.

Tamamo held her hand out toward Liliana, and all the arrows stuck in her legs and body vanished.

“Yuki-onna, stop the bleeding for her.”

“Understood.”

Then the yuki-onna blew a light breath over the wounds, and they froze over instantly.

Liliana’s face twisted in pain for a second, but she must’ve realized that might piss Tamamo off, ’cause she forced a smile real fast.

“With those legs, you can make it back, right?”

“Y-yes! Thank you so much!”

“Then get outta here quick. Don’t worry—I’m not gonna shoot you in the back or anything.”

As soon as Tamamo said that, Liliana started limping away, using her magic staff like a crutch to drag herself out of the dungeon as fast as she could.

“Was it okay to let her go?”

I asked Tamamo, and she reached over to start petting my head instead.

“You don’t need to know this stuff, Kuon… but the real trick to revenge is giving someone hope first—then slamming them into despair. Over and over.”

Then Tamamo pulled a fan out from her sleeve, snapped it open, and covered her mouth with it—hiding this ugly, twisted grin.

“How many humans do you think I’ve watched come and go? That girl’s definitely gonna crawl back to me someday. And when she does… that’s gonna be the moment of the absolute best revenge! Plus those other two I let swim away? They’re gonna get the worst of it too!”

A shiver ran down my spine right then—and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t just from the yuki-onna’s cold air.

Baiting Youkai with Super Delicious Food

“Hey, Tamamo… come on, it’s about time…”

“Just a little longer, okay? Five more minutes♪”

“You said that like five minutes ago already.”

I had my head back on Tamamo’s lap again, her fluffy tails wrapped all around my body while she kept petting me.

We were still deep in this freezing dungeon, so she was totally using that classic “can’t leave the kotatsu” vibe to keep me buried in her tails forever.

Her tails were super well-groomed—obviously mega fluffy, but also nice and warm, plus they smelled really good, like Tamamo’s scent all over.

(Dammit, this is bad… if I stay like this I’m seriously gonna melt…)

But I fought off the temptation with pure iron willpower and told Tamamo.

“We can’t just stay here forever. I wanna get Fokko back to her original body.”

“If that’s all, no worries. The Fokko inside me is super happy being with you like this. No need to rush.”

“Well… yeah, maybe, but still.”

“But yeah, we can’t exactly camp out in a place like this forever… Fine. Let’s head down to town before the sun sets.”

Tamamo finally let me go, then gave the yuki-onna a little wave.

“Alright, Kuon, let’s ditch this freezing hellhole. Yuki-onna, thanks for everything.”

As Tamamo turned to leave, the yuki-onna dropped straight into a full dogeza right in front of her.

“W-wait! Nine-Tails-sama! Please let me come with you! I swear I’ll make myself useful!”

“Nah. You make everything cold.”

“I can control my chill completely! Please! I beg you!”

Seeing how desperate she looked, I thought about it.

(This yuki-onna’s been guarding Tamamo’s shrine all this time, right? Getting treated this coldly after that feels kinda mean…)

“Tamamo, wouldn’t it be fine to bring her along?”

When I spoke up for her, Tamamo let out a big sigh.

“Ugh, fine… if that’s what you want, Kuon, then okay. But stay away from Kuon. Not that he’d ever be interested in someone like you anyway…”

“Don’t worry! I have zero interest in a weak human guy like him!”

I mean, yeah, I already knew—she’d been glaring daggers at me the whole time Tamamo was cuddling me… guess she really hates my guts.

◇◇◇

“Nine-Tails-sama, this way please!”

With the yuki-onna guiding us, we headed back up from the dungeon to the surface.

She knew all the shortcuts, and when there wasn’t even a path, she just blew cold air to make instant ice bridges for us to cross.

“Grrrrr~”

While we were walking, my stomach let out a huge growl.

The yuki-onna shot me this icy glare.

“Weak human. Getting hungry after just this little walk—”

“I’m getting kinda hungry too.”

“Walking this much totally makes you hungry, right!? I’ll make some food right now!”

The yuki-onna said that and started creating these fluffy frozen ice chunks inside an ice bowl.

“Here you go! Nine-Tails-sama!”

“What the heck is this? Just plain ice? I’m not a yuki-onna, y’know. No way I’m eating that.”

Hearing that, the yuki-onna’s face crumpled in shock and she dropped flat to the ground.

“Oh wait, I’ve got Fokko’s favorite right here.”

I pulled a big container out of my pouch.

“Hmm, that bag you’ve got is pretty special, huh?”

“Yeah, this is the Infinite Storage Pouch. It holds anything and it’s super handy.”

I popped the lid open and used chopsticks to scoop up these golden, crispy pieces inside.

They were soaked in sweet broth and glistening all shiny.

The yuki-onna snorted when she saw them.

“Hah! Human! What’s with that thin, flimsy food!? No way Nine-Tails-sama would ever eat something so pathetic—”

“Whoa!? Whoaaaa!!?”

The second she saw the 『aburaage』, Tamamo’s nine huge tails started thrashing around like crazy—she was totally losing it with excitement.