Chapter 497: Making amends, making moles
“Wait a minute…”
As Tiny the Raijin Hippo brought along the Geyser Hippo on her return to the caravan fleet, some of the sharper members doing clean up at the time, noticed something a bit…off about the latter.
“I know that look…”
When the Geyser Hippo first showed up, it had this air of arrogance and mischief, an aura normally associated with adolescent rebelliousness and general lack of care for the opinions of others.
“It’s not just me right, it looks a bit more…battered, right?”
“Yup. Complete with a sad puppy dog look too.”
“Ah…”
Needless to say, the people couldn’t help but notice that this arrogant attitude was thoroughly replaced with that akin to a submissive child, i.e., the same aura a naughty child had after being thoroughly scolded by their elders.
“Hey…this is gonna sound weird, but is that Raijin Hippo by any chance a mama hippo?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah, actually. Has a little hippo calf by the name of Mini.”
“The…the hippos are named…Tiny and Mini?”
“Yeah, the Fourth Young Master has a very weird naming sense. We don’t really bring it up out of respect.”
“That…yeah no, that makes sense.”
Once Tiny and the scolded Geyser Hippo got close enough to the glacier that had a chunk of the caravan sealed up on ice, the two of them just held their position. This gave Zhen Shi and the Skyscales lead manager an opportunity to stop what they were doing and head over to see what was going on and why it was happening.
“Welcome back, Tiny,” Zhen Shi greeted, “who’s your friend?”
“Grunt.”
“I can see that. He does look sorry for what he did…was that before or after you laid the smackdown on him?”
“Grunt, grunt, grrr.”
“Really?”
“Alright,” the Skyscales manager interrupted, “I have no idea what y’all are saying to each ither, can you please provide a translation to those of us who can’t speak to aether beasts?”
“Oh right, Tiny is saying that she has fully admonished the Geyser Hippo for his behavior and has brought him back here to make amends.”
“Wait, seriously?”
“Indeed,” Zhen Shi nodded, “she was originally going to be just having him act as a carvan guard/beast of burden for the rest trip, but seeing as we’re frozen solid here, she has an additional proposal in mind.”
“Which is…”
“Tiny?”
“Grunt!”
“Mmm.”
Under the guidance of Tiny, the Geyser Hippo swam forward and positioned itself in front of the man-made glacier, careful of not being in a spot where a bunch of humans were milling about.
Evidently that worry was unwarranted as a bunch of the aforementioned humans bailed from around the chosen spot.
“Oh boy!”
“That beast is too close for comfort!”
“Guys…it’s just a third tier hippo beast. Relax.”
“Why do I keep forgetting your branch of the clan specializes in beast taming?”
“Wooo…”
The Geyser Hippo took a deep breath once he had settled in, causing Ignati and Aquarii aether to collide with in its internals, causing steam to billow out of its back.
“Bwoo…”
Once enough steam had built up inside, the Geyser Hippo let out a visible breath of the stuff, blasting the part of the glacier he was facing.
As boiling hot steam made contact with solid ice, the latter gave way and melted back into liquid river water, freeing the contents of the glacier.
The freed raft made a noticeable splashing sound as it landed in the river, looking a bit soggy, but it was better than being stuck in the ice.
After freeing this particular raft from the glacier, the Geyser looked back at Tiny, a pleading look in his eyes.
“Grr?”
“Grunt!”
“Mmm…”
Nobody except some members of the branch clan knew what was said between the two beasts, but the fact that the Geyser Hippo went back to thawing the river glacier made for a pretty good indicator for what was said.
“Huh…looks like we’ll be able to get to destination in a timely manner after all,” the Skyscales manager noted with a pleased look, “I didn’t expect the beast you trained to be able to train other beasts, Patriarch.”
“Oh no, that wasn’t me,” Zhen Shi said while waving his hand, “Tiny here is actually friends with one of my grandchildren, Zhen Liu.”
“Really?”
“Indeed.”
As the two old leaders of their respective groups continued talking, off to the side, Zhen Shi’s sons, the side branch elders, were also discussing about Tiny the Hippo and her apparent “trainer”.
“Alright, little bro, I’m confused. You specialize in raising feline aether beasts, right? Like, my darling Xiao Yue has a fondness for pandas, but that’s still a bear beast. Shouldn’t Xiao Liu also be like…specialized in raising some kind of feline? Or like…hyenas?,” Zhen Hou asked point blank.
In response to this question, Zhen Yan just sorta…shrugged.
“Honestly, I am surprised as you are. I mean, I did teach him how to properly care for and rear all sorts of cat beasts growing up and he still gets along great with mine and my darling’s contracted beasts. We were actually planning on gifting him a cub of his own to raise, but then all this happened,” Zhen Yan answered as he gestured towards the entire caravan fleet.
“Besides, having my son branch out to an entirely new type of aether beast isn’t a bad thing…despite the fact, I swear Tiny only listens to us because her calf likes us.”
“Speaking of your son,” Zhen Long interjected, “do you know where he went? Clean up is going at a decent rate, but if we can employ his puppets, we might able to finish sooner.”
“Once again, I’m not sure,” Zhen Yan answered, “I asked someone earlier and they said they saw him disappear somewhere with Jin Fang and Rianna.”
“At the same time?”
“Yeah.”
“Huh…”
All of the elders, aside from Zhen Yan, shared a look at their youngest brother’s answer.
It was the kind of look one exchanged with someone else, when they just so happened to share the same…less than safe for work kind of thought.
“Like father like son?”
“Definitely like father like son.”
“…I’m ignoring that statement, I am a happily married man now.”
“Doesn’t change the fact that you’re still permanently banned from the brothel back home.”
“Hush you.”
Evidently, none of the elders were wrong about Zhen Liu’s activity not being safe for work, but it wasn’t in the way that they thought…
_____________________________________________
The initial plan after Zhen Liu had opened the door to the Library of Nowhere, allowing himself, Jin Fang and Rianna to drag in their… involuntarily unconscious guest, was to have Logos and Pathos just simply scramble the guy’s memories again and send them on their way.
The two helper spirits had already finished making the preparations necessary to do so, strapping the man to a chair, preparing the necessary formations and [Chaos] and even some props to help really sell the false memories.
=Just about. What about you?=
=Alright, then. Beginning memory scramble in three-=
“Hold up.”
<=Huh?=>
However, just as they were about to do so, Zhen Liu was struck with a sudden epiphany of sorts.
“Hold up…I just realized something important.”
=What is it, milord?=
“We’re about a few days away from reaching the main clan’s compound and last I checked, they still don’t really like grandfather and by extension, us. Right?”
=That is correct.=
“Now keeping this thought in mind, I don’t know about y’all…but this upcoming situation definitely feels like one where having a couple…friendly informants on the inside might be helpful. Just in case they decide to be bastards and try to sneakily assassinate grandfather or some stupid shit like that.”
Logos on the other hand was a bit more…skeptical.
=Milord…the two of us might be able to scramble memories no problem, but to make someone change loyalties is a bit…tricky. Besides, I’m not entirely sure if any of the kaijin you have currently are suitable for extended periods of possession without irreversibly changing the subject in question…,= Logos stated while recalling how when they were beginning music lessons, Jasper ended up showing the acumen well beyond his years.
“Besides, there is a possibility someone might notice the sudden change in demeanor and would definitely notice the change in aether. You sure this a good idea?”
In response to this concern, Zhen Liu waved his hand in dismissal of the notion.
“No, no, nothing like that,” he assured them, “I’m not gonna have the kaijin possess his ass wholesale. I have a slightly…better plan in mind.”
=Oh?=
“Well…,” Zhen Liu trailed off while staring at their unconscious guest.
“This guy already thinks I’m some sort of super expert Aether Overlord with eccentric tendencies…why not continue to play up that idea?”
