Cultivation Struggles of a Lowly Fox

Everyone was doing their thing. The Muscle Foxes were bonding with both the Crow Clan and fishes. The bird lady was still preparing the things for when her Contract would be removed, while also bargaining with the Deer Clan about more supplies.

Thanks to the fact that the Crows no longer needed as many Pills, but at the same time produced over 10 times the metals compared to before, it was hard to not take advantage of this.

Moon Aiko was completely oblivious to this, since she was counting her own metals and bringing them over to Mei.

”So...” Mei couldn’t believe that Aiko got permission to loot that place.

”Yes, more metal.” Moon Aiko smiled from ear to ear.

”...” Mei was flabbergasted that Aiko was even allowed to do this, considering what kind of disaster she can cause with her tails.

Mei grabbed Aiko by the shoulders. ”You didn’t steal any fish, right?”

”Of course not... yet.” Moon Aiko whistled innocently. When she said the ’yet’ Mei turned kind of scary, so she was trying to avoid her gaze.

”Don’t do this, we are not strong enough to beat them.” Mei sighed softly. She hoped that White Aiko would be sensible enough and not screw around.

Moon Aiko nodded her head. She was already too embarrassed from ’THAT’ event, so she didn’t really want to be questioned again.

”But I got permission for all of this.” Moon Aiko narrowed her eyes while pointing at those metals. At the same time her tails swished side to side as if saying: Praise me! Praise me!

”You did well.” Mei’s lips twitched at this behaviour, but since Aiko was cute, she would forgive her.

”Also the butler is really cool.” Moon Aiko nodded her head seriously.

Mei raised her eyebrow. ’They haven’t got together yet?’ She was slightly speechless, since both of them were childhood sweethearts.

”You are not inconveniencing them, right?” Mei was worried that some of those clan members might snap at her.

”We are all buddy buddy, especially the Muscle Foxes, so I don’t think so.” Moon Aiko shrugged. They even brought her food from time to time, so it couldn’t be said they hated her.

Sure whenever she smiled those birdies would cover or hide somewhere, but other than that there was nothing that she could really say about that place.

”Good.” Mei nodded her head. It seemed like the Crow Clan mellowed down a lot over the years, which calmed her down a lot.

”Should I bring more or stuff it inside my tails?” Moon Aiko was already collecting some meteorite and other precious materials, since Mei either didn’t want them or wanted her to keep some.

”Sure, but if you need anything from it, you can just take it.” Mei considered taking more, but the problem was-

’The flying continental ships might be filled with just metals and we might not fit...’ Mei awkwardly scratched her head when she looked over the pile of different metals that Aiko brought over.

”Yeah, I will do that~” Moon Aiko hummed happily as she returned to the ashen place.

If she wanted to recover her Witch’s Essence, she needed to stay in the meadow, since for some reason it was naturally gaining a bit of energy over time.

While that might not sound a lot, it was still better than nothing. It would take a few days, maybe even weeks before she had enough Witch’s Essence to do the whole Contract ’cutting’ thingy.

Moon Aiko hummed as she visited the fishermen.

They were happy to see her and some were even giving her metals.

The main reason being that their knuckles no longer hurt and their fists no longer bled.

Yes, their skin softened which was not that a good thing when it came to defences, but they still had feathers, so it was not an issue.

Moreover, since their hands softened, they were able to recover their wing flexibility and be able to fly again, albeit awkwardly.

Most fishermen were unable to fly because their hands were too stiff and sure, they were in their Human Body Form, but that didn’t mean the damage didn’t transfer over.

With stiff hands not only their dexterity lowered, not allowing them to use normal fishing rods, but their wings became just an ornamental thing.

”We are really happy to have you over, but it would be better if you rested more.” The Crow Clan liked the Foxy, since she allowed them to fly again once they recovered a bit more.

One thing you have to keep in mind is that Crows woo their partners through finding and delivering shinies in the shortest amount of time possible. And as you might expect, flight is needed for this, so this fishery should be called the virgin village!

Now, yes, not everyone was virgin, most of the overly old Crows were already wed with everything, but all the youth and middle-aged Crows were still single.

With ’fixed’ wings, they would be able to woo the ladies with the immeasurable minerals and metals that they would fish in this ’river’!

Moon Aiko received those things before leaving the fishery. She had a kind of strange feeling that they might start to worship her if she stayed and she didn’t want that.

The bird lady was nice, as Mei said, but once she started to poach everyone, it would be hard to guess how she would react.

Moon Aiko understood that she could take her jokes only so far, but fortunately, she also believed that she built enough good rapport to avoid the worst of the disasters if something did happen.

”You are still small...” A certain birdie was measuring the Foxy.

”And you are still fat.” Moon Aiko observed the birdie and quickly realised it was the same that she rescued from the underground!

”I’m not fat! I’m just fluffy!” The birdie retorted, she seemed less like the bird lady and more like a certain hotheaded individual.

Still Moon Aiko hoped that she wouldn’t end up like her mother, jumping to conclusions and trying to rip apart anything in her way...

”Mom said you are a bad person.” The birdie tilted her head. ”But you are too small to be a bad person.

”Your mother is a bad person. To think she would masturbate in front of guests.” Moon Aiko was obviously unhappy about being called small. She might be smaller than other Foxes, but she was not THAT small!

”Mom would never do this.” The birdie slapped her wings against her body, protesting against the Fox’s words.

”Believe what you want.” Moon Aiko didn’t really need to convince this birdie, so she was fine leaving it as is.

Sure she might seem cute right now, but her stubbornness already proved that it would be difficult to get along with her.

Moon Aiko simply shook her head and went to the kitchen.

...

As expected, the butler was preparing some yummy food in the kitchen.

”You are right on time, guest.” The butler smiled as he was finishing some meat soup.

The youngest daughter still didn’t know how to consume normal meat properly, so making it into a soup was the best thing he could do.

”Soup?” Moon Aiko felt like that was a strange choice of food.

”Meat soup, delicious milky soup.” The butler chuckled. His lady also liked to eat this here and there, but it was hard to say if she enjoyed it without a whole roast.

...

Moon Aiko waited for the food since she was hungry and a simple taste proved that this butler could theoretically match her future chef!

It was amazing how much flavour he was able to bring out of the meat and soup. Moon Aiko was more used to non-watery food, but she didn’t mind eating this once in a while.

”I’m glad you enjoy it.” The butler chuckled as he handed over a roast to his lady and small roasts to her children.

Moon Aiko noticed that a certain birdie and her daughter were glaring at her.

”What is it exhibitionist?” Moon Aiko kept staring at the mother daughter duo.

*Pfft*

The bird lady spat out her food laughing.

”That’s actually so fitting for her.” The bird lady wiped her tears.

”Mom!”

”Grandma!”

They both yelped like their mother was trying to embarrass them.

”What? Is it not true?” The bird lady always ignored what their daughters were up to, since pretty much nobody was able to approach this place.

As such she didn’t mind at all that her daughter was a... ’free’ person.

”Ugh...” The bird daughter groaned unhappily, while her own daughter was confused.

Did her mother really do something like that? Was that why grandma was agreeing to those things?!

”How are you doing?” The bird lady ignored her daughters and stared at the Foxy.

”This is a nice place, but hard to gather enough energy for the deal.” Moon Aiko was honest, just in case they were already prepared for the Contract cancellation.

”Once I finish things on my side I will help you, but for now just gather it how you would usually do it.” The bird lady didn’t mind her taking her time, since it was important that nothing would go wrong during that time.

”What’s wrong? The deal is not going well?” Moon Aiko was vaguely aware that the bird lady was trying to strike a deal with the Deer Clan in order to obtain something.

”He is a bit of a fickle person, unlike his son, so it’s hard to negotiate things.” The bird lady also didn’t conceal anything, since a certain degree of trust had to be maintained.

”I get what you mean.” Moon Aiko nodded her head. Haggling was very difficult, so she didn’t do it often, and even when she did, the prices were still ridiculous, so much so that she considered just making everything from scratch just to avoid going through that whole ordeal...!

”It’s a pain.” The bird lady groaned.

”En.” Moon Aiko agreed with her.

...

The peaceful lunch was over quite quickly, since the daughters couldn’t bear being ignored and just ran away.

Moon Aiko stayed the longest, since she was finishing all the food that was left over.

”I usually eat the leftovers, but I never imagined you would have such an appetite.” The butler seemed troubled, mostly because his own food was eaten by the guests, so he would have to cook just for himself to be able to eat.

”Sorry... It was delicious.” Moon Aiko was slightly sorry, but she didn’t regret it. The food was really delicious so she didn’t want it to go to waste!

”It’s fine.” The butler liked that praise, since the whole family was usually mute during eating and even after. He didn’t get quite enough kind praise, so he was very happy about this.

Moon Aiko just smiled before waving the butler goodbye...