Reborn as a Succubus: Time To Live My Best Life!-Chapter 283: Loyalty, Part Forty-One

{Melisa}

The bar was about as lively as a graveyard at midnight. Which, given that it was usually packed with wannabe revolutionaries plotting murder and mayhem, was still kind of refreshing, though, two days in a row like this? It felt weird.

[I'd bet they're still plotting murder and mayhem,] Melisa thought as she stepped inside. [They're just doing it somewhere else today.]

The only people in sight were Vira, looking bored behind the counter, and some old guy nursing what looked like his eighth drink of the afternoon. The kind of dedicated alcoholic who probably wouldn't notice if the place caught fire, let alone overhear any conversation.

"Melanie!" Vira's face lit up. "You're early again~"

[Wow, someone's happy to see me,] Melisa thought, sliding onto a barstool. [Almost makes me feel bad about what I might be doing to her brother soon. Almost. I mean, he started it.]

"Couldn't stay away for long," Melisa let her tail's heart-shaped tip brush against Vira's arm as she settled in. "Though... it seems pretty quiet here today."

Vira's expression twitched for a moment, probably a bit of annoyance, before she quickly got it back under control.

"Yeah, if you're here for the revolution, you'll have to wait." Vira rolled her eyes. "My brother and his... friends are out."

[Ah, well, there's the confirmation. Now...] She thought about it for a beat. [How do I approach this?]

"Trouble in paradise?" Melisa asked, letting concern color her voice.

"It's nothing." Vira grabbed a glass, probably just to have something to do with her hands. "Just my brother being... my brother."

[Right, because that's not ominous at all.]

"Come on," Melisa leaned forward, letting her shirt gap just enough to be interesting. "You can tell me. Maybe I can help? After all, I have been known to be... convincing."

Vira's eyes dropped to Melisa's cleavage for a moment before snapping back up.

She sighed.

"It's stupid. They're just... scouting some place out. Some kitsune's house they want to hit later this week."

Melisa stopped.

[What?]

"What?"

She managed to keep her voice level, barely. Her tail, though, had gone rigid.

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"I know, right?" Vira didn't seem to notice Melisa's reaction, too busy working herself up. "Like, who looks at everything that's happened and thinks 'you know what would be smart? Pissing off more people in Syux!"

"..."

[Okay, calm down,] Melisa told herself. [There are plenty of kitsune in Syux. Hell, there's practically a whole district of them. No need to panic yet.]

"Which kitsune?" she asked, trying to sound merely curious rather than like she was about to vibrate out of her skin with anxiety.

"Oh, you're not gonna believe this." Vira leaned in conspiratorially, close enough that Melisa could smell whatever cheap spirits she'd been sampling. "Apparently they've got some connection to that Blackflame bitch. The Summers, I think?"

Melisa's heart damn near stopped.

[They're...] Melisa blinked. [They're going to...?]

"The Summers?" she repeated, amazed her voice wasn't shaking. "Aren't they like... important or something?"

[Important enough that I'm going to turn your brother into a pretzel if he goes anywhere near them,] she thought, her magic itching under her skin.

"That's what I said!" Vira threw up her hands. "But nooo, Koros says it'll 'send a message' or whatever. Personally, I think he just wants to prove his dick is bigger than Blackflame's."

[Well,] Melisa thought grimly, [he's definitely about to find out whose magic is bigger.]

"Hey." Vira's brow furrowed. "You okay? You look like someone just walked over your grave."

[More like it seems like I'm going to be digging a few.]

But right now, she had a role to play.

"Just thinking about how much better use we could put that dick of his to," she said, forcing a sultry smile. Her tail started moving again, wrapping around Vira's wrist. "Though personally, I'm actually kinda glad he's not here today. I can think of better things to do than talk about your brother."

"Oh?" Vira's concern melted into a wide smile. "What kind of things?"

"Well..." Melisa stood, making sure to press her breasts against Vira's arm as she did. "We could go upstairs. Keep chatting someplace even quieter."

[And then as soon as you fall asleep, I can go warn my family that your psychotic brother is about to try something spectacularly stupid.]

"... You really are convincing," Vira breathed, already fumbling with her apron ties.

[And your brother's soon to be impossible to identify without magic,] Melisa thought, but she just grinned and pulled Vira toward the stairs.

"Told you so."

---

{Koros}

Isabella Summer bounced down the street like she was starring in her own personal parade, her tail swishing with enough enthusiasm to probably generate wind power. If Koros didn't know better, he'd think she was just another airheaded academy student whose biggest worry was whether to fuck her girlfriend, that Blackflame bitch, before or after class.

[Though from what I hear, the answer is usually both,] he thought, watching from his perch on the roof.

Keeping his eyes on that girl made his mind drift, though.

For a moment, he was transported him back to another morning, years ago. Different pink hair, different circumstances. Three humans, cornering Vira outside the market. The way Koros's knuckles had been covered with blood after he beat the shit out of them. The way two of his teeth had been knocked out when their friends joined in.

And that didn't even scratch the surface of what he and his sister had been through, throughout the years. All that fighting, all that abuse, and now...

[Now, we can make these people pay,] Koros inhaled slowly. [Human or not, I guess.]

"Boss?"

The voice pulled him back to the present. Dax was giving him that look, the one that said he'd probably been trying to get Koros's attention for a while now.

[Focus,] he told himself. [You can brood about the past later.]

"What?"

"How're we gonna do this?" Dax scratched his horns nervously. "I mean, that's the Summers we're talking about. That older one's a veteran mage, I hear."

"We're not suicidal," he said, watching Isabella disappear around a corner. "We'll do it at night, like we tried with Folden's place. Hit hard, hit fast, and get out before they can respond. And, hopefully, this time goes better."

Because Dax wasn't wrong – those two kitsune could probably handle his entire group if they fought directly. According to what people have been saying about her product...

[Those wands of hers aren't just for show,] he thought. [If it's true that they enhance magic, she's probably got the strongest ones at her disposal.]

"Seems risky," another voice chimed in. "Even at night, they'll be dangerous."

He was right. One misstep and they'd be turned to ash.

But, there was someone who could possibly help with that.

Koros's mind drifted to Melanie, to the way magic had come so naturally to her. To those eager eyes and that quick smile.

[Now there's a thought.]

"We might have some help," he said slowly.

"Who?"

"That new girl, Melanie. She's got potential."

"The one Vira's fucking?"

"The one who can do magic," Koros corrected with a glare, though technically both were true. "Having another magic user on our side would even the odds."

[And she seemed so eager to prove herself,] he thought. [Pretty thing like that, probably desperate to belong somewhere. To matter. Most people wouldn't dream of attacking these kitsune. Not with the kinds of connections they have. But, her? Maybe...]

He'd seen that look before, in other recruits. The ones who'd do anything to feel like they were part of something bigger than themselves.

"Yeah, I think I can talk her into it. For sure."