“I just can’t believe him! The gall he has to take another woman as his concubine when he already has Big Sister. How dare he do something as outrageous as that! He is just a big lecher!”

“Do not call Elder Brother that! Elder Brother is a Great Demon! You should be ashamed for even thinking of him in such a way!”

Akjai Tang was having an argument with her twin brother Akjin Tang.

Their elder sister, Akjan Tang, could only watch the scene with an awkward expression on her face.

‘I think these two are misunderstanding something.’

Those two were the only two remaining members of her family, her younger sister and younger brother.

Other than the three of them, the Tang clan of White fox demons was practically extinct.

One of her siblings had a rather bad impression of Ren, while the other one could only sing praises of him. Akjai was still cautious of the other Tengu clan members, rarely talking to anyone other than her family members. Akjin on the other hand was regularly participating in clan related affairs and he would frequently follow Ren on his endeavors.

By now, Ren already thought of Akjin as his disciple of sorts, in the field of gardening, not realizing that Akjin wanted to learn how to be a leader from him.

“Big sister, aren’t you outraged? Even with you as his wife, he dares to look at another woman? Not to mention getting her to become his concubine!”

“Great conquerors are not bound by such rules!” Akjin protested.

“But he is cheating on her out in the open!”

“Both of you calm down!” Akjan had just about enough of seeing her siblings blow this argument out of proportion.

Akjan ended up giving chops to the heads of her younger siblings.

“Ouch, big sister”

“Oww…”

Akjan sighed and addressed her younger sister.

“Akjai. First of all, I am not Ren’s wife”

“What do you mean, big sister? Everyone in the Tengu clan refers to you as his wife. They even call you guys the love doves of the Tengu clan! Was that all a lie?”

“They do? That’s…It’s not like I am against it….But our relationship is not like that…” Akjan’s embarrassment was apparent as much as she tried to hide it.

“But you obviously like him, don’t you?” Akjai pressed on.

“I do”

Akjai ended up beaming with a large smile.

Her sister never fell in love before, nor did she ever have interest in anyone. In terms of personality, Akjai sometimes felt as though she had an elder brother instead of an older sister, not helped by the way Akjan acts.

“Big sister, before you met him, you used to be so different. Always dressing in male clothing, acting masculine, getting into fights…everyone who met you thought you were a boy. If we didn’t know better, we would have thought so as well. An overeager tomboy with not even slightest interest in love….”

Looking at Akjan who still was dressed as a male, Akjai sighed.

“You still dress like a boy. But your hair is longer”

Akjai had to admit that aside from the fact that Akjan had now someone she cherished aside from her family, she acted in the same boyish way.

“Oh, I didn’t notice. Should I cut it off again?”

“No, big sister, no! It looks good this way!” Another reason Akjan was mistaken for male so often was because she used to keep her hair rather short.

It was not like Akjan was ugly, but rather than beautiful, she would fall more under a handsome category, in a sense that if she were a male, she would have had no equals. If she were to dress up in a full on suit costume, she would steal all the spot light as the main lead.

Akjai felt a little exasperated how male clothing suited Akjan better than female clothing.

“Is that so? All right, then I will let it grow for a little longer”

“With how much time you two spend together, big sister, we thought you guys surely were together” Akjin scratched his head.

“Well… he did propose to me once”

“HE DID!?” both twins ended up exclaiming together. This was getting more and more juicy by the minute.

“At least I thought it was a proposal, at the time.”

The twins could see the sadness within Akjan’s eyes and her crystalline horns were reflecting the grey color of her feelings.

“Back then, I thought I lost you, along with the rest of Tang clan. After seeing the destroyed village with the remains of the Tang clan members, my world was shattered into pieces. There was nothing left for me to protect. The only thing left for me was death. At least that way I could rejoin my family in the afterlife, I thought. But he stopped me.”

Akjan clutched her fist close to her heart.

“No matter how much I cried, he stood there, patiently, like a tree shielding me from the rain, he embraced me. As much as I wanted to die, he told me to live and told me ‘Let me be your family’.”

“At my weakest, when I gave up on myself and wanted to end my life, he saved me. He saw a value in me, a failure. Words can’t describe how much I needed someone to tell me to live. And there he was….”

“Since then, I have pledged to serve him till the rest of my days.”

Akjan chuckled a little. It seems like thinking of Ren could instantly cheer her up.

“Back then, by ‘becoming family’ he might have meant to become part of the Tengu clan, but back then, his words saved me. And because of that I was able to reunite with two of you. Not even several lifetimes are enough for me repay my debt to him. And yes, Akjin, he is a great demon, one of the few who truly deserves respect.”

“Big sister, if you really love him, aren’t you even bit concerned that he might love another?” Akjai asked.

“It is because I love him, that I wish for him to be happy. If I can help him, even just one bit, to reach his goals, that is enough for me. As long as he is happy, that is all that matters.”

Looking at Akjai, Akjan smiled.

“Akjai, it is not uncommon for demons to have several wives or concubines, you know?”

“But our parents did not do that!”

“I know, but please understand that there is nothing unusual about it.”

“Ok…I understand” Akjai sulkily replied. Apparently she really wanted Akjan and Ren to end up together.

As soon as her disappointed siblings had left her, Akjan whispered.

“Even if it cost me my life, as long I can become a stepping stone for your future, I shall gladly do so.”

Above everything, she just wanted to see him smile. Just knowing that he is happy was enough for her. It mattered not if he returned her feelings; all she wanted was for him to be happy.

* * *

“What in the name of Great Ones is wrong with this clan?”

Lotus Draco was having a slight case of mental breakdown.

By now, every member of the Draco clan had pledged their allegiance to the Tengu clan and were now living inside the Tengu clan territory.

Of course, as part of the Tengu clan, they were required to help out with the work, which mainly involved agriculture. But what Lotus saw within the gardens was rather disturbing.

During the First Trial of the Selection, Lotus and her clan members ended up having to fight gigantic carnivorous plants that kept attacking them.

The worst part? As long as they had a water source, they kept regenerating indefinitely.

They had to torch them from the above to get rid of all of them, but even then, some monster plants survived.

And now, within Tengu clan’s gardens, in one of the many sections Ren manages, the exact same carnivorous plants were abundant.

Unlike how they looked during the First Trial, fading and malnourished, these plants were far healthier and greener.

They look like ordinary fruit bearing plants with over-sized flower of one to two meters in diameter.

But if a demon let’s his guard down, the plant would pounce on him and devour him whole, cutting him into pieces with its countless jagged edges before digesting it within itself.

Not a single Tengu clan member entered this area, in fear of monster plants eating them.

The only one who dared to enter was Ren Karatengu himself.

Strangely, the plants would not attack him; instead they would act like pets waiting for affection as he would pour in fertilizer around them.

Apparently, their fruits are very large and delicious, but due to them only letting him came near them, it was up to Ren alone to harvest them.

Anyone else who tried before ended up being chased by the carnivorous plants.

Ignorant of the monster plants, Lotus ended up following Ren to see where he was going alone. She immediately regretted her decision as soon as she saw the razor sharp teeth of the monster plant coming her way.

It took her by surprise, but soon she found herself running for her life.

But then she ended up slamming into something very large and scaly.

Rubbing the part of her head that ended up hitting the hard surface, Lotus looked up, and to her horror she was face to face with a legendary monster.

The Hydra.

During the First Trial, her group ended up coming across the shed skins of Hydras, but they were lucky enough not to encounter the genuine article.

Hydras are powerful beasts and in terms of power they could potentially become dangerous enough to pose threat to Demon Lords. The more they ate, the more they adapted, and the more powerful they became.

The hydra before her already had six heads, was in the process of growing wings, and was size of a small house.

‘I am dead’ Lotus closed her eyes, waiting for the inevitable.

Hydras were legendary monsters that several demon kings in history used as their steeds.

If a Demon Lord level demon could not defeat a hydra alone, what chance did she have? But instead of being eaten, she heard a voice.

“Fanghead! What are you doing here?”

Lotus opened her eyes and saw a strange sight. The Hydra was licking Ren with its gigantic tongues. By now Ren was covered in large amount of hydra saliva.

“I missed you too, buddy”

Ren ended up hugging one of the hydra’s heads. The hydra was being rather affectionate as well.

“But how? How can you…? I don’t understand…” how in the world is he not being eaten? Why is the hydra acting as though it was an over grown puppy?

So many questions flooded Lotus’s mind.

“Oh, hey Lotus. I guess this is the first time you two met. Lotus, this is Fanghead, my pet. Fanghead, this is Lotus, my fiancée” Lotus’s mouth was wide open at the scene before her.

Her fiancée was treating a legendary monster as his pet. If he is able to tame such a monster, it said a lot about what kind of a demon her fiancée was.

As the Hydra ended up lifting Ren up on top of its head, Lotus could only watch in silence. Even if she wanted to speak, it was as though all her vocal cords were disabled.

Lotus could not deny the feeling she felt within her very being.

It was fear.