The Spoilt Beauty And Her Beasts-Chapter 639: Can i protect him?

The more she said it, the colder she felt, even though the brazier beside her crackled warmly.

Gates.

Fifth City was obsessed with gates. Metal gates that locked people in, spiritual gates that only certain blood could trigger, secret doors in mountains and ruins that only special beasts could sense.

Cyrus had told her just enough for her to picture it. The mountain full of cages. The rooms where rare beasts were sorted like goods. The missions where he had led his "brothers" to hunt and drag back living treasures.

No wonder they could not let him go.

It was not about affection, or even control. It was about using his blood like a key.

"Bubu," Isabella said quietly. "Is there anything about Fifth City in that file?"

{Scanning.}

A brief pause.

{There are indirect references. ’The iron city that sits on broken bones.’ ’The watchers who pretend to guard the gate but only guard their own greed.’ But no names. The prophecy is older than this generation’s Fifth City. Older than the city’s current master.}

Isabella’s lashes lowered slowly. She felt the babies move inside her again, as if they did not like the words either. One gentle kick brushed against her skin. She rubbed that spot, coaxing softly in her heart.

So this mess had started long before Cyrus was even born. He had simply been born with the wrong hair and the wrong blood in the wrong place.

Her gaze drifted toward the window. The wooden shutters were closed against the wind, but she could imagine the scene outside clearly.

The high wall. The dark sky. The faint glow of torches. Somewhere along that line of stones, a tall red-haired man moved like a quiet shadow, pretending he did not feel the cold.

Her chest tightened again, this time not from fear, but from a strange mix of tenderness and anger.

"Host," Bubu said more gently now. {You are very quiet. This is not like you. Usually, after hearing something outrageous, you curse first and think later.}

Isabella gave a short, breathy laugh. "I am still deciding which part to curse first."

She leaned back and tilted her head against the wall. Her eyes were half closed, her thoughts spreading out like ink in water.

She thought of Cyrus breaking his tracker and running. She thought of the way his hands had trembled slightly after he killed the masked attacker who insulted her. Not from weakness, but from the awful realization that it had felt good. Too good.

She remembered the suffocating aura that had erupted from him, pressing even her spiritual sense flat for a moment. If that was only the beginning of what the prophecy called "god-shaking power," then what would happen when it fully woke up?

More importantly, how many people out there were waiting for that moment with greedy eyes?

She did not doubt Fifth City for a second. They were not the kind to admit defeat. They were the type who could cut off all four limbs and still crawl forward if there was profit ahead. Now that they knew Cyrus was alive, they would never forget it.

No. They would watch. They would wait. They would sharpen their knives and polish their cages and count the days until the Red Beast became "ripe" enough to harvest.

The thought made Isabella’s fingertips grow cold.

"Bubu," she whispered, "can I really protect him from that?"

She had never been afraid of being targeted herself. If someone liked to cause trouble, she liked to send them flying. But this was not a small village bully.

This was a city that had been trafficking beasts for who knew how many years. And Cyrus was not just a man she liked to tease. He was tied to something enormous and ancient, something even her system archives could not fully read. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

{Host,} Bubu said, surprisingly soft, {you are asking a strange question.}

"Why?"

{You are the one who walked into a strange world, adopted a village, tamed a lion king, adopted a red snake, picked up a phoenix, and put up with an annoying panther daily and turned a deserted place into a small force that even Fifth City and the great cities are beginning to notice. You still doubt whether you can protect one male?}

Isabella pursed her lips. Her first instinct was to say, "Those things just happened," but she swallowed it back. Even she knew that was a lie. She had worked hard. She had calculated every step. She had smiled, acted cute, begged, threatened, dragged people along with her, and used every advantage this "goddess" title gave her.

She also knew that if Cyrus really became the center of a world-level storm, she would probably be the idiot who stood in front of him with her little fan, cursing fate while blocking lightning with her face.

The realization made her want to laugh and cry at the same time.

"Then maybe," she said slowly, "I should start thinking about how to protect all of them from the world, not just him."

Her gaze, though it was blocked by the wall, seemed to stretch past the village, past the woods, past the snow. Somewhere far, far away, in a city built on bones, people in expensive robes were probably discussing them like pieces on a board.

Fine.

If they wanted to treat her people like a game, she would also learn how to play.

{Host is getting that scary tone again,} Bubu said, a little thrilled. {System suggests that if the world wants to snatch your red snake, your lion king, and your phoenix boy and annoying panther, the world had better be prepared to get bitten back.}

Isabella let out a small laugh that held no real softness. "If Fifth City cannot let things go, then they can keep holding on," she said. "Let us see who gets tired first."

Outside, the wind howled against the walls. On the distant watchtower, Cyrus turned his head slightly, feeling for a brief moment that someone was looking at him with gentle, stubborn eyes.