Beastmen Love-Chapter 210: Sea Snakes

Astri is happy that she doesn’t have to worry about buying a ship anymore. The next day, the painter came to bring the paintings she bought, and that’s when she asked him to make her painting tools. She shows him her few drawings there, and he’s impressed by her talent, too.

"I never met a female who can draw and paint." The painter softly says.

"Please, keep this secret for me. I learned this long ago, and it’s something I love very much to do. Can you make the painting tools for me? I’ll be traveling a long distance, and I would like to paint in my free time." She asks him.

"I see... All right. I can make tools for you."

"We will be paying you, of course."

"I would like one of your paintings as payment. I like your style and I want to use it as inspiration to try new styles."

She smiles and nods.

"Don’t tell anyone she will be traveling." Seiryuu warns the painter, and he simply nods, knowing that if she’s not a simple female for having abilities that other females do not have.

Later, Seiryuu takes them to his ship. Astri measures the places and rooms, so she knows where to put everything she is planning. It’s not a big ship like an Aquaterran one, but it will have two bedrooms, and since there will be only three people, it won’t be as crowded.

After measuring the ship, Astri decides to take a walk at the beach. Kenzou, Shinkou, and Seiryuu accompany her, and behind them, there are two guards.

Astri is sensing something in the water, but it’s not Biggie.

"Is there a problem, milady?" Seiryuu asks.

"There’s..something in the water. I can’t say exactly, but it is not giving me good energies." She answers.

Immediately, Kenzou brings her farther away from the water.

"There are kids over there. Tell their parents to take them away.." Astri says, pointing to the children playing next to their parents, who were working.

One of Seiryuu’s guards goes to tell the parents about their children, and that’s when two sea snakes appear and try to grab the children. They are feral snakes, and they’re looking for different food, and children are the easiest prey.

Kenzou quickly opened his nagagi, the top part of his kimono, saying:

"Climb on me, Astri. I’ll take you away."

Kenzou shifts, ripping his hakama, the pants of his kimono, turning into a massive black bear, and on his back, there’s a pattern in white and light brown that looks like a moth. His face is large, with small, rounded ears and a long snout. His eyes are almost as black as his fur. He motions for Astri to climb on him, and she jumps on him quickly.

When Astri looks back at the children, worried, she sees a boy of around 4 years old running away from a snake that is getting closer and closer. Without thinking, Astri jumps off Kenzou and half-shifts in the air.

Before the snake grabs the boy, Astri grabs him and flies up to the sky so they’re not caught. The child couldn’t hold and cried hugging Astri’s neck.

"It’s all right.. You will be all right." Astri pats his back, hugging him back to comfort him.

Astri hears a bear roaring, and she looks at Kenzou, who was running in her direction and motioning to her to leave. She looks at the snakes fighting Seiryuu’s guards, then more snakes appear, and all the males of the beach start to fight them.

She looks at Seiryuu and Shinkou, both are running in her direction, too. She looks at the children; they’re still at risk because they’re still at the beach. Astri flies to Kenzou. freeωebnovēl.c૦m

"The children are still in danger. We need to take them away from there. Call the snakes’ attention and I’ll take the children. There are only two, there." She says to Kenzou.

Kenzou looks at the children and sighs, knowing that they’re for sure in great danger because, even being surrounded by their parents, if a snake takes one of the adults down, it will be an opening to take the children. He has a soft side for children, but he knows he needs to prioritize Astri’s safety.

Astri doesn’t give him time to think, gives the child she saved to Shinkou and flies away. She flies and then she lands near the fight, shifting back to hide her wings.

"Hiii! Little snaaakes!" She called for the snakes, then everyone looked at her. The snakes turned their attention to her and automatically got more interested in her. Kenzou took the opportunity to attack and kill on contact two snakes.

Shinkou opens his long nagagi and shifts to his fox form. He’s big like a wolf, has silvery-white fur with streaks of gold along his spine and tail. His tail is fluffy, and his limbs are lean and fast. His long snout is white and silver, and the streaks of gold start at his forehead back. His ears are gray and their tips are white. And his eyes are very similar to his human form in color and appearance, showing elegance but also that he’s attentive to all the details around him.

He pushes the child Astri gave him to Seiryuu, and then runs to help the others. When Astri sees that the snakes have their attention on surviving, she flies to the children and grabs them. She flies to Seiryuu and stays back, and watches the snakes flying away.

The snakes decide to run away, back to the ocean, and that’s when more guards appear. Gladly, no one died besides the feral snakes. Astri flies and takes the three children back to their parents.

"Thank you... If you didn’t call the snakes’ attention, we could have died." A male says to Astri.

"You’re welcome. Children are our future. We need to take care of them. Be careful now forward, little ones." Astri says, patting the kids’ heads.

They smile, nodding. Seiryuu orders the guards to make stronger patrols near the ocean to avoid feral beastmen from appearing again, and orders the few sea beastmen they have to search for the remaining snakes. Astri looks at Kenzou and smiles widely, then passes her hand on his ear.

"What cute ears you have." She says.

He pushes her, but carefully, making her chuckle.

"All right, sorry. Next time, don’t worry so much about me because I can fly away."

He humphs, he walks to his nagagi, then shifts back to human form and dresses. Astri looks at Shinkou and is impressed by his look. He’s as handsome as in his human form, and she can deny she wants to hug that fluffy tail. He noticed that she was checking him out and wondered if she liked what she saw.

Astri smiles at him, and then she unties her hair to hide the ripped part of her kimono. Shinkou walks to his nagagi and dresses it after shifting back. Astri shows her back to Kenzou, asking in a low voice if her beast mark is appearing through the openings of the kimono. Kenzou, Shinkou, and Seiryuu look at her back. Shinkou and Seiryuu were worried that she was hurt at first, but that’s when they saw her beast mark appearing slightly.

They can see that her mark is big, but is somewhat faded, making them understand even more what she said about her soul not being complete.

"It’s appearing a little." Kenzou says.

Seiryuu removes his haori, which is like a long jacket, and puts it on her shoulders, knowing that she doesn’t want to expose who she is, and also believing that it is not the place and time to expose who she is either.

She appreciates the haori, and then they go back to the Spirit Tree Shrine. Astri changes her kimono and starts to fix the ripped kimono.

"I can buy a new one for you." Kenzou says.

"Aw.. It’s a pity. I like this one so much." She says, still fixing it.

"Well, it is hard to find another one that looks the same, but wearing a ripped kimono is not suited for a Goddess."

She snorts, continuing to fix the kimono, and they smile at her simple way of thinking. She sees things in a different way, she treasures everything she is gifted.

"I’ll be going back to the castle and selecting workers for you. When I’m done, I’ll be back here. Please, avoid leaving the shrine." Seiryuu says to Kenzou and Astri.

Astri keeps on projecting everything, and Kenzou and Shinkou start to build things during the day. Later, Astri starts to make dinner, and Shinkou tries to help her and learn how to cook. He loves to pass time with her, knowing that this is something he would love to do every day.

At night, Kenzou was asleep and Astri couldn’t sleep, so she went outside, lit the fire, and used the table they built for dinner to keep on projecting things. Shinkou was sleeping outside, and he woke up when the light of the fire hit his face.

When he sees her working alone, he wonders why she’s not sleeping. He goes to her and asks:

"What are you doing? You should be resting."

"I’m not sleepy. I have too many things on my mind to sleep. If I don’t put everything in my mind on paper, I will never sleep peacefully." She answers.

He sighs, then sits on her side to watch her.