The Bride Of The Sacred Forest God
Chapters 14. Curiosity from Those Faithful to Aragaki

In the morning, Reda woke up with a very tired body.

As a result of crying all night, his voice became hoarse and his eyes became swollen and sick. She had no boiled water to drink because she had run out of last matches yesterday, so the girl was forced to fetch water in the well behind her hut to drink.

Remembering that he had not taken a bath and had gone straight to sleep due to physical or mental exhaustion, he had forgotten that he himself had not been looking for something in the forest to eat. Finished bathing and wearing the clothes she wore yesterday, Reda prepared to search for something into the forest.

“Ryuunosuke is no longer allowed to come here so I have to find food in the forest. Can I go for a while before Ara's place.Nushi-sama yes.”.

The girl remembered she could no longer call Aragaki's name. The last time he called out to her was last night when Ryuunosuke caught up with her.

Intentionally wanting to go to the forest in the clothes she was wearing yesterday, Reda was surprised to see two baskets at her doorstep.

“Basket?”

Reda saw there were many piles of leaves on it. At first glance it was like garbage, but when brought in by him, Reda saw clean clothes in each basket.

After the leaves were cleaned again, the girl saw that there were a lot of cucumbers and fresh tomatoes and yams. There were candles and lighters in one of the baskets. Whereas in other baskets, there is a herbal-scented liquid like the one he uses for bathing and washing.

The girl looked so moved that she let out tears.

“This must be that sweet fox.” he said while shedding tears

But given that Aragaki had ordered Ryuunosuke to forbid him from bringing anything, Reda did not touch him at all.

He tidied the two baskets back and brought them together into the residence. That morning, Reda finally did not look for anything for breakfast and arrived early.

Reda meets Ryuunosuke who is already waiting for her. Just wanting to give him a greeting, Ryuunosuke was surprised by the two baskets brought by Reda.

“Re–Reda-sama, why?”

“This is right Ryuunosuke put it down, right?”

“It...”

Reda placed the basket on the ground and knelt down while stroking the little fox who looked sad.

“Ryuunosuke, I told you, didn't I? Nushi-sama must have seen all this. If Nushi-sama scolds you and punishes Ryuunosuke, I will be sad.”

The girl gave her first smile that morning to the sad little fox, but the fox knew what had happened to Reda. Ryuunosuke knew that that night, Reda kept crying.

Last night, Ryuunosuke replaced his leftover food in a basket placed on Reda's doorstep with cucumbers, tomatoes and yams. When he arrived, he still heard Reda sobbing. It certainly made the fox cry again when he arrived at the Aragaki residence.

Ryuunosuke did not say that he knew Reda was crying all night. He only saw the girl's puffy eyes follow a gentle and friendly smile to cover up his sadness.

“Ryuunosuke, I return this yes. There's nothing I touch so don't worry. All this is so precious. I don't want Nushi-sama to throw it away because it was touched by me.”

“But..”.

“It's okay. Besides, I woke up early this morning so I had time to look for food in the forest. Bring this again yes.”

Who would want to be fooled by that girl? Ryuunosuke knows the truth. The girl came on an empty stomach as there was no food around the old hut. If you want to get wild fruit in the forest, at least the person must walk deeper.

Ryuunosuke was forced to do so and took the two baskets with him. The two went towards Aragaki's room to wake her up.

Before arriving, Aragaki had opened the door of her room and exited to engawa to look at the sakura trees in the courtyard.

“Good morning, Aragaki-sama.” Ryuunosuke saluted while carrying two baskets in his hand

Reda calmed down and bowed in honor of Aragaki.

“Good morning, Nushi-sama.”

Aragaki saw both of them. However, not thinking Reda was in front of him, he simply answered Ryuunosuke's greetings and asked the little fox.

“Ryuunosuke, good morning. What do you bring that?”

“This..basket.”.

“I know it's a basket, but what's inside?”

Ryuunosuke thought his master must have realized his deeds as Reda had said, but he himself was beginning to be afraid to be honest. Even if you lie, it is free. Finally inevitably the fox said the truth.

“Ma–forgive me, Aragaki-sama. This.this is clean clothes and other needs for Reda-sama. Re–Reda-sama must have had trouble finding food in the forest so I thought of giving this to him.”

“Ryuunosuke, I never thought that you would ban my orders like this. I don't care anymore about your obsession with that dirty girl, but breaking my orders is a fatal mistake. You should be punished.”

Hearing that, Reda immediately stood in front of the little fox who was holding back the cry and kowtowed to Aragaki.

“Sorry, Nushi-sama, please forgive Ryuunosuke. I was wrong. This was all because last night I secretly asked him to bring me food because I had not had time to go to the forest to find food, so Ryuunosuke just did my request.”

“...” Aragaki just listened without changing his expression

“I beg you, please don't punish Ryuunosuke. I will accept the punishment. I beg.” Reda kowtowed twice in order to release the little fox from punishment

Of course it's a lie. The little fox tried to explain it to the master but Reda kept saying it was all her fault.

“Ryuunosuke, I forgive you this time. But, I will never forgive that dirty girl. I won't let you out of this place until your whole job is done. Clean up the trash there and do your job.”

“Good.” Reda.

Aragaki left the two men without seeing him. As soon as his master left, Ryuunosuke was instantly hysterical.

“Why lie for Ryuunosuke! Reda-sama does not need to be punished! This is all Ryuunosuke's fault, this is all Ryuunosuke's fault! Reda-sama, we go see Aragaki-sama back and explain to her! Come on get up, let's get up..”.

The little fox was crying again. The morning had just begun and she was crying again for the umpteenth time.

Reda tried to calm her little fox.

“Ryuunosuke, I don't want Nushi-sama to hate you either. Ryuunosuke is a precious person to him. Never think of being punished by him. It's okay, let me be punished. I'll finish my job today.”

The little fox still continued to force her to get up and approach Aragaki to explain the truth, but Reda continued to refuse.

“Ryuunosuke, remember our destination. He smiled and melted his frozen heart. Do not let that goal fail to come true. Understand what I mean?”

Her crying started to stop and the sweet smile from Reda became her spirit.

Ryuunosuke goes to the kitchen to prepare breakfast and leaves Reda who takes all the contents from the scattered baskets.

Many cucumbers and tomatoes are already destroyed and dirty because of the soil, while the clean clothes immediately look like used cloth.

Reda had wanted to take a little tomato that can still be eaten for breakfast. However, he remembers Aragaki's message of not taking anything from the place.

By gulping his saliva and wiping his tears out, he tidied all. He threw away the vegetables he could no longer eat and brought yams and other items into the kitchen for storage. The clean clothes were brought by him to the back to be washed.

Unbeknownst to him, there were two tengu who saw all of it from above.

“You saw it, right, Kuroto?”

“I see. I didn't expect him to lie to defend Ryuunosuke.”

“I know Aragaki-sama must know that too. I was quite impressed by the thing he did for Ryuunosuke.”

Kuroto looked at the girl's efforts with a face filled with curiosity. It is revealed in his heart.

“Why did he get like that? It's her second day and nothing has changed from Aragaki-sama's attitude towards her. Why is he trying to get that far? Does he seriously want to melt the heart of Aragaki-sama who already hates humans? Isn't that almost impossible? Why?”

On the other side in engawa, Nagi and Ginko also saw that. Not much different from the tengu, the two youko also become curious about everything the village girl does.

“Ginko, my brain cannot understand the human mind. Is the girl stupid or is it part of her efforts to grab the attention of Aragaki-sama?”

“I don't know, but the fact that he does care about Ryuunosuke is not a lie. At least that's what I saw from him.”

Nagi did not want to argue about that. Last night, the two of them clearly witnessed how sad Ryuunosuke was when he returned from the old hut where the girl lived. They saw his master's beloved little fox crying while hugging his own tail.

The two youko also saw all the things that the little fox did this morning. Since there was no order from the master, they let Ryuunosuke do everything by himself.

This invited many questions from the two, especially Nagi who had initially rejected his presence.

“Why did it get like that? Don't think that with just that, he can win Aragaki-sama's heart. I want to see how resistant he is to face rejection for the sake of rejection from Aragaki-sama.”

That morning, unnoticed by Reda who had started drawing water at the well, she had been watched by the four loyal servants of Aragaki.

****