Volume 6, Chapter 48 – Uncontrollable Subconscious

Accompanied by the sizzling sound of water evaporating, the Red Element Stone was completely soaked, and Nola’s hand stopped in mid-air.

Nola was first stunned by the sudden change, then her expression gradually changed. The courage she had finally mustered was interrupted by Fia. She glared back at Fia, gritting her teeth.

“You’re the crazy one!”

“You stuck your hand into the fire, and when I stopped you, you scolded me.” Although she didn’t know what happened to Nola, the Red Element Stone had been extinguished. Fia released Nola’s wrist with relief, took a small step back, and pointed at the wine cup on the table. “Anyone would think you got drunk and couldn’t think straight.”

“Would I be drunk from one cup of wine? Meddling—”

Nola stopped halfway through her sentence. She had felt before that responding to Fia’s concern with harsh words was too awful. Now that a similar situation had occurred again, she naturally recalled her previous reflection. Instead, she curbed her rudeness and curled her lips impatiently.

“Think carefully about what race I am.”

“Fire cat. What about it?”

“Huh? You don’t know?”

Fia’s innocent tone made Nola raise her eyebrow at a strange angle. But thinking that Fia had lost her memory, she had to resentfully take a towel from her storage item to wipe the water off the Red Element Stone and the iron plate, sighing helplessly at the table.

“Just like Charm Cats need to replenish energy, we fire cats also need to replenish flames regularly. If we don’t replenish fire after vigorous exercise, fire cats become slow-witted like starving ghosts, trying every means to get fire. When extremely hungry, we’d even want to lick red-hot charcoal twice. So I was replenishing fire just now, not ‘couldn’t think straight’ as you put it.”

Speaking of this, Nola paused, defending herself with a slightly smaller volume.

“Besides, just seeing you and Claire hand in hand isn’t enough to make me want to live or die.”

But your expression doesn’t look like you didn’t take the daytime events seriously at all, Nola. This is pure self-hypnosis, Fia retorted in her mind.

As if looking for something, Nola tilted her head to look behind Fia, her tone as if interrogating a prisoner.

“The door is still closed; how did you get in? Can your invisibility ability penetrate walls?”

“Not to that extent yet.”

As she spoke, Fia pulled over a chair quite familiarly and sat beside Nola—normally she should have sat opposite Nola. Fia’s lack of distance made Nola quite uncomfortable. Coupled with the faint floral fragrance from Fia, Nola, who had a sensitive sense of smell, felt uncomfortable all over. The pleasant scent, beautiful face, and elegant temperament revealed everywhere made Nola feel inferior by comparison. It was like a commoner summoned by a noble and beautiful princess; even just standing side by side would make one feel ashamed of one’s unworthiness, fearing the smell on one’s body would be smelled by the princess.

Fia picked up the wine bottle on the table and looked at it, saying lightly.

“I came here to visit half an hour ago. Just as I was about to leave, I saw you upstairs, so I wanted to see what you were doing here.”

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What Fia didn’t say was that because Tsukuyomi had explained the special business of this tavern to her, when she saw Nola coming to the tavern, she thought Nola came to find Charm Cats to relieve her depression, treating Charm Cats as Claire to vent.

Although Fia felt Nola’s single-mindedness toward Claire would definitely prevent her from finding a substitute, she couldn’t help but quietly follow her invisibly, wanting to see what Nola was up to. After all, Tsukuyomi explained that beastmen had a weak concept of chastity, especially males. Most wives in beastman families wouldn’t have conflicts with their husbands even if they knew their husbands went out to find Charm Cats; they even thought it was normal.

Seems I really had a feud with Fia in my past life to run into her like this.

Nola simply gave up questioning. Having wiped the Red Element Stone, she sat back in her seat, but deliberately put some distance between herself and Fia. She had just returned from the front line. Even after using [Clean] and [Dry], she was still worried that sweat smell would remain on her body and be laughed at by Princess Fia.

Not everyone’s magic was as absolute as Fia’s. Low-ranking magic casters using [Clean] only had 40%-70% effect. Nola wasn’t a magic caster by origin, so she also couldn’t clean her clothes 100%.

It was worth mentioning that Nola had never smelled sweat on Fia, as if she didn’t sweat at all, which Nola found incredibly weird.

“So you quietly came in through the window?”

“Exactly.”

“Tch, how long did you watch me?”

There was a tremor in Nola’s voice. If Fia saw the scene of her smashing the wine cup in anger to vent the bitterness in her heart, she could stop being a cat.

“Basically, you seemed to remember something terrifying, were scared enough to stand up, then suddenly looked like you wanted to kill someone and reached for the stone. Did you think of a terrible past?”

Fortunately, Fia didn’t discover it. Nola breathed a sigh of relief, her expression relaxing. She ignited the Red Element Stone in the iron plate with magic again, saying indifferently.

“Sort of. Before meeting Claire, my parents were killed by Fire Cat nobles. Although I killed those people with my own hands, the scene back then is still hard to forget. Seeing fire reminds me of failing to escape the fire back then and being captured by soldiers emerging from the flames.”

Deep impression to this extent…

Fia and Nola’s descriptions sounded light, but what Fia actually saw was not light at all. Just now, Nola was tense all over, her eyes full of fear, like a helpless child—a pitiful look that would make one feel concerned and want to go up and hug her for comfort.

Better not mention Nola’s past.

Fia put on a curious look enough to sweep away the gloom, craning her neck to look at the burning Red Element Stone.

“So you fire cats can replenish flames just by putting your hands in the fire? Innate fire immunity? In that case, wouldn’t you have a huge advantage facing me? I’m good at using fire and have the title of Witch of Calamity Flame.”

“Don’t think of us as too powerful. Thinking fire cats can ignore flames just because there is ‘fire’ in the name is a misunderstanding only people who haven’t seen the Fire Cat Tribe would have. If we were really that strong, we would have moved to the Molten Flow in the south long ago. There is fire everywhere there, perfect for us.”

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A trace of teasing appeared at the corner of Nola’s mouth. She extended her hand flat over the flame.

“Extend your hand over the flame, then use the Fire Cat Tribe’s innate magic to absorb the flame. This transfers the flame’s magic power into your own body.”

As her voice fell, Nola chanted a spell in an inaudible voice. Soon, white flames ignited on her cat ears and tail. Correspondingly, as if suction was generated in Nola’s palm, the flame shot up straight. The dancing fire cluster baked Nola’s palm directly. Fia could clearly feel the flame losing temperature in this process. What was on the table now was just a violently jumping thing with the appearance of a flame; even if paper were put there, it wouldn’t ignite.

A bit like my [Plunder], except [Plunder] takes magic power from others, while Nola absorbs the heat of the flame.

In just three or four seconds, the flame on the Red Element Stone weakened until it completely disappeared. The white flames on Nola’s fiery red cat ears and tail also gradually diminished. She shrugged.

“That’s considered complete. My rank is higher than ordinary fire cats, so I need extra flames. The process just now needs to be repeated about ten times.”

“Isn’t this very simple?”

“It is very simple. The problem is that fire isn’t so easy to get, especially for ordinary people without magic. So Red Element Stones are a must-have for travel in our Fire Cat Tribe.”

“No, that’s not what I meant. I mean, Nola looked like she wanted to kill someone when looking at the Red Element Stone before, but now she’s as relaxed as eating and drinking. Didn’t you say you fear fire when seeing it? I thought Nola would hesitate for a while.”

“Huh?”

Fia’s blinking eyes while speaking made Nola dazed.

The fact was indeed as Fia said. The process of eating flames just now was as natural as eating and drinking; she didn’t recall the fear of being in the fire back then.

It must be because Fia distracted me, giving me no chance to think. Just like beastmen in estrus can’t control their desires easily, but if a knife is held to their neck, they will calm down immediately.

Fia sat at a close distance where she could lean her head on Nola at any time. A pleasant scent that made it impossible to calm down always drifted from her collar and jet-black hair. Moreover, she was shorter than Nola, lively like a fairy with transparent wings, too dazzling, like sitting next to a sun. Nola couldn’t help but notice her.

Did inferiority and concern for this elf princess overshadow the fear of the past for a moment? There must be factors I struggled with before, but the former is also an undeniable fact.

This elf simply doesn’t know how charming she is. Even I, a fellow woman, find her cute and sometimes can’t help but want to take a few more looks.

Wait, even a fellow woman can’t help but want to take a few more looks? Could it be that because of estrus, I unknowingly developed a subconscious feeling of closeness to this beautiful elf?

Suddenly, Nola noticed a terrible possibility.

Because my subconscious feels I might develop goodwill with this elf, I can’t help but care about her endlessly. Thinking she shines like a fairy is also because my body, without the permission of my surface consciousness, subconsciously treated Fia as an object with whom feelings can be established? That aroused desire to protect, and the sense of inferiority toward a noble princess, are all based on these?

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Hey, this is the bastard who stole my Claire and inflicted violence on me (spanking). How can I have feelings of closeness to her? Even if I’m in estrus for Ying, I absolutely shouldn’t have thoughts about this bastard elf. The subconscious during estrus is too reckless!

For a moment, Nola secretly cursed her disappointing body, even feeling she had to find a way to solve the estrus problem. Even though she dared to guarantee she didn’t like Fia, and Fia didn’t know she had such terrible subconscious thoughts, she didn’t allow herself to have this idea. How could there be such an absurd thing as developing feelings of closeness for someone who stole her lover? If Claire knew, her cat life could end right there.

As her consciousness flowed to this point, Nola’s body stiffened. She moved her eyeballs quietly, observing Fia’s profile beside her from the corner of her eye. The exquisite nose tip under the dim light, and the long, slightly curled eyelashes, all made this black-haired elf princess look as lovable as a porcelain doll.

—No, I shouldn’t think she’s cute here, right? Even though I realized I shouldn’t think Fia is cute, I still think so disappointingly! I should imagine her as a baring-fang-and-claw ghost, an old hag past her prime. That would be worthy of my treatment. What kind of fool thinks the other party is cute after being punched? Even a dog knows to hide from its owner after being beaten, let alone I am a proud cat.

This is a pig, this is a pig, this is a pig…

Nola began to repeat constantly like self-hypnosis. But she found that even if she imagined the elf beside her as a pig, she was a very cute one among pigs, cute enough to make one want to hug and knead her severely.

She was stunned, cursing herself in her heart as hopeless, simply a shameless stupid pig. But this process only lasted less than a few seconds before she came back to her senses.

I must have got the direction wrong. This bastard elf’s cuteness is an objective fact, not because I’m in estrus. Plus she always inadvertently makes some seductive movements, and her care and gentleness toward me… No matter how I imagine her as something ugly, it’s just a clown’s futile effort. Personal subjective thoughts cannot distort objective facts.

Better just admit the fact that Fia is cute and stop struggling to trouble myself. After all, cuteness is one thing; my subconscious feeling inferior, thinking Fia is charming and developing a feeling of closeness is another. The latter is uncontrollable behavior after entering estrus. When estrus ends, it will naturally return to normal.

So thinking Fia is sparkling now is reasonable; just face it openly.

Courage gathered in her chest. Having thought it through, Nola puffed out her chest boldly. But before she could speak, Fia’s question reached her ears. Fia opened her mouth in a puzzled ‘o’ shape, tilting her head to look at Nola.

“Just asked why you suddenly aren’t afraid of fire; did you need to think for so long?”

Isn’t it because you seduced me?

The courage that just welled up to her throat was stuffed back into her stomach by Fia’s sentence. Nola felt stuck, unable to go up or down. She had to cough twice to cover up the embarrassment only she knew.

“Cough, ahem… I struggled with it before; not caring now is only natural. As long as I imagine the Red Element Stone as those soldiers who harmed my parents back then, it’s not so scary.”

“Is that so… it’s good you can think that way.”

But Fia didn’t think that was the truth. If just imagining the Red Element Stone as the soldiers back then could overcome fear, Nola should have stopped fearing fire years ago, instead of absorbing flames with practiced ease just now.

However, she was smart and wouldn’t tease someone in a place easily touching their tragic past. She asked further.

“Since it’s just absorbing the energy of the flame, that means any kind of flame will do, right? If Nola creates flames with magic and then absorbs her own flames, wouldn’t it have the same effect?”

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“Eating your own flames only makes you hungrier. It’s like a vampire sucking their own blood. Would you eat your own flesh when hungry?”

“What about someone else’s flames? Like two fire cats eating each other’s flames.”

“That won’t work either. First, what you eat isn’t as much as what you consume. Second, the taste is too bad.”

“Huh? There’s such a thing as the taste of flames?”

Fia could understand that energy would be lost during conversion, which was why Nola said what was eaten wasn’t as much as consumed. But the taste of flames was incomprehensible to her.

Nola waved her hand, her expression as if stating a matter of course.

“Of course there is a taste. The taste of flames can only be felt by us fire cats. Generally, the richer the magic power in the flame, the more euphoric the taste. The taste of burning wood is average. Red Element Stone is considered relatively delicious. If it’s a magic ore with a high concentration of fire elements, eating it once makes one linger and forget to return… You might not have a direct feeling from my description. Wood is like black bread so hard you can’t chew it. Red Element Stone is refined flour bread. If it’s a nutritionally deficient fuel like dead trees or beams, eating it is no different from eating rotten rats; just smelling it makes one want to vomit.”

“You’ve even eaten rotten rats…”

Nola glanced at Fia, wanting to take the opportunity to mock this noble for not understanding the life of the poor. But when she saw Fia’s delicate and moving face, and those magnificent ruby eyes shining with charming allure, the disparaging words instantly lost their sharpness, turning into a light sigh.

“There was no food when fleeing. To survive, I could only eat corpses left by other animals. Our beastmen’s digestive ability is much stronger than you elves’. Digging gopher holes, catching bugs on tree stems—these are all means of survival. Meat is better than eating weeds and acorns anyway.”

“If Nola were a child like Tilulu, I would definitely have started comforting you already.”

Although Fia just looked down at her swinging calves under the table, Nola could still glimpse genuine sympathy and concern in Fia’s eyes.

This gentleness made Nola feel the joy of being understood, but also made her unable to accept it frankly. To divert attention, she injected magic power into the Red Element Stone again, and it rekindled.

“Hmph, that’s all in the past. My purpose in becoming the acting clan chief of the Fire Cat Tribe is to prevent the tragedy that happened to me from appearing on others. Cold Night needs order.”

“I think this wish will definitely be realized in your generation.”

Her gaze sweeping over the tabletop, Fia also saw the dancing flames reflected in her eyes. As if remembering something, she suddenly straightened her back and reached out to the Red Element Stone. Then, amidst Nola’s dumbfounded gaze, she grabbed the burning Red Element Stone in her palm. The entire Red Element Stone was extinguished under Fia’s grip. Not only was Fia not burned, but she also looked at Nola with eager expectation in her eyes.

“Since the more magic power a flame contains, the more delicious it is, how about Nola try mine?”