Chapter 1

Father's roar startled not just his subordinate, Oscar Brown, but Mother as well.

Mother said, "Darling, I'm so sorry. I'll definitely train harder and grow my sixth tail soon. I'll make sure our next child is born with five tails."

Father didn't have time to bother with her. He quickly strode over to Oscar, his expression cold, and asked again, "Oscar, what are you hiding in your sleeve?"

A flicker of confusion flashed through Oscar's eyes, but it vanished almost immediately. He gave a neat bow and said, "Your Highness, I only have a few secret weapons in my sleeve. Nothing else."

He straightened up after answering and looked up at Father with open concern. "Your Highness, what's wrong? Is there something you need?"

His expression and behavior were so natural that Father started to wonder if he'd imagined my voice. Right then, I spoke up again, [Father, save me. It's so dark in his sleeve. I'm scared!]

Father's gaze shifted from uncertain to firm. His face darkened as he ordered, "Take everything out of your sleeves and show me."

Oscar's heart clenched, but Father was his superior. Disobeying was out of the question, so he pulled everything out of his sleeves, one item at a time.

Just as he had claimed, the sleeves were full of secret weapons. Silver needles, daggers, and bottles of poison covered the floor. At the end, he even turned his sleeves inside out to show Father they were empty.

"Your Highness, there's nothing else in my sleeves," he said.

Father stared blankly at the pile on the floor. Mother leaned over as well. "Darling, what's going on? Why are you checking Oscar's sleeves?"

He suddenly found the situation ridiculous and waved it off. "It's nothing. I must have been imagining things."

His words made me anxious. How could he not have found me? Oscar had always taken me away in his sleeve before. Something had to be wrong.

As I puzzled over it, I realized I was still trapped in the dark. Above my head, a few golden talismans floated, glowing faintly.

I immediately understood and quickly spoke up. [Father, I think I'm inside some kind of pouch. Check if he has something like that on him.]

Father's eyes widened again. He swept his gaze over Oscar from head to toe, then finally spotted a scented pouch hanging at his waist.

The pouch was embroidered with golden cloud patterns and decorated with a thumb-sized pearl. Its exquisite craftsmanship made it obvious at a glance that it was no mortal trinket.

Oscar had served Father since they were children. Every valuable item on him had been a reward from Father, and Father definitely didn't remember ever giving him something like this.

Father asked, "Where did you get that pouch?"

A flicker of panic finally crossed Oscar's face, but he forced it into a shy smile in the next second. "Your Highness, it was a gift from my beloved."

Everyone knew Oscar had saved the Saintess of the Black Fox clan a year ago. The two of them had fallen in love because of that, and their families had recently started discussing marriage. It made sense if the pouch were a gift from her.

Father held out his hand. "Give it here. Let me see it."

Oscar's smile froze. He instinctively reached out to shield the pouch. "Your Highness, I don't think that's appropriate. This is a token of love from the Black Fox clan's Saintess. I don't want—"

Father was in no mood to argue. He raised a hand to snatch the pouch. "Give it to me."

Oscar backed away, then suddenly started scrambling. "I can't, Your Highness. I can give you anything else, but not this pouch. The Saintess said it was her father's keepsake. I promised her I'd take good care of it!"

He waved his hands in protest as he retreated, as if Father were some kind of raging beast.

To soothe Mother after childbirth, Father had just channeled a huge surge of spiritual power into her. At the moment, his body was a little weakened, and he actually couldn't catch up.

In the end, Mother couldn't stand to watch anymore and stepped between them. "Darling, what are you doing? Why would you snatch a useless pouch from him?"

She blocked Father with her body, then said to Oscar, "Oscar, Mitchell is probably upset because, again, our tenth child was born with only one tail. Go on and leave. I'll calm him down."

At that, Oscar turned to leave.

"Don't you dare go! Leave the pouch!" Father roared, his eyes blazing.

Mother said, "Darling, stop this. It's just a pouch. How could it possibly have set you off like this? If you're angry, take it out on me, not some random—"

Before she could finish, Father raised his hand and sent a blast of spiritual power crashing into Oscar, who was just about to run out the door.

With a flick of his wrist, Father clenched a fist in the air. The cord around Oscar's waist snapped, and the pouch flew straight up into the air.

It burst open with a loud pop, and a chubby white fox with nine fluffy tails tumbled out of the sky.