The Spoilt Beauty And Her Beasts-Chapter 660: My apologies, It was only a joke
As for Kian, he did not fully understand what the visitor meant, but his instincts were already screaming.
Kian had always trusted his instincts.
They had kept him alive.
And right now, his instincts were telling him that the man standing in his hall with a polite smile had just touched something rotten.
Osiris’s shoulders rose and fell once.
Then, because Isabella had called him, he forced himself to turn around.
That was the only reason he turned around.
If anyone else had spoken, he would not have listened.
If Kian had ordered him, he might have still fought.
If Luca had tried to stop him, he might have bitten his head off out of anger.
But Isabella had called him.
And no matter how angry he was, no matter how much his blood was burning and his mind was screaming at him to rip that smiling face apart, he still cared too much about her to cause trouble in her hall.
So he stepped back.
Slowly.
The movement looked unwilling because it was unwilling. His face had gone cold in a way that did not suit him at all. There was no stupidity on it now. No playful complaint. No fake arrogance. There was only anger.
He came to stand by Isabella’s side again, though "stand" was a generous word.
He looked like a man barely holding a wild beast on a chain.
Isabella glanced at him from the throne.
She did not say anything else to him. She did not need to. She could already feel how angry he was. His whole body looked tight, and even the air around him seemed hotter somehow.
In truth, Isabella herself had finally begun putting things together properly.
The Phoenix clan and species were rare.
Very rare.
Protected too, at least in stories.
And yet Osiris had been found alone, injured, powerless, and half feral, as if he had been thrown away by fate and picked up by her out of pure chance.
At first when they got to the village, Isabella and Osiris himself had simply labeled him as some kind of strange beastman and moved on. Osiris did not know how to explain himself, and Isabella had not forced him to do so. Since he was hers now, that was enough.
But now?
Now, after that reaction?
Now, after that sentence?
Even a fool could see there was something more.
At the same time, the visitor looked around the hall and seemed to realize that the room had become too tense.
Then, to everyone’s surprise, he suddenly laughed.
It was not a loud ugly laugh. It was the kind of controlled laugh people used when pretending that everything was lighter than it truly was.
"My apologies," he said smoothly. "It was only a joke."
Nobody laughed.
Naturally, nobody laughed.
How could they?
The atmosphere in the room had already become so strange that even the furs on the wall seemed embarrassed.
The visitor kept smiling. "Everyone knows phoenix species are terribly rare. A great and proud race like that could hardly be captured, much less used. Besides, most people believe they are little more than myths at this point."
That part was not entirely false.
Most people did believe that.
Phoenixes were the kind of beings spoken of in half-whispers and old stories. People spoke of them the way people spoke of impossible things. Great things. Distant things. Things one would never truly see in real life.
So after hearing the man say that, many of the people in the room instinctively began to relax a little.
If one ignored Osiris’s reaction, his words even sounded reasonable.
No one could argue openly because no one had actually seen a phoenix before.
Well, not no one.
Cyrus had.
Zyran could sense it.
And Kian...
Kian had not been fully sure before, but now he was.
He had always felt that Osiris was not ordinary. There was a strange energy in him, something proud and hot and old. Kian had simply thought he was some kind of rare beast cultivator and had not bothered questioning it. Isabella had brought him in, so that was enough.
But after this reaction?
After that sentence?
Kian now understood that Osiris was most likely a phoenix.
That realization sat heavily in his chest.
At the side of the hall, Ophelia, Shelia, and Luca had also started making their own guesses before the visitor laughed things off. They had not understood everything, but they had felt enough tension to know something strange was happening.
Then, the moment the man began insisting phoenixes were nearly impossible, their courage to guess wavered.
Maybe it really was impossible?
Maybe they were just misunderstanding everything?
Ophelia leaned slightly toward Shelia and whispered, "Do you think it’s possible?"
Shelia whispered back, "How would I know?"
Luca, who was standing close enough to hear both of them, lowered his voice and said, "If a phoenix came to our village, wouldn’t that be a good thing?"
Ophelia’s eyes widened. "Right! We would be so lucky."
Shelia looked thoughtful. "Would they breathe fire all day?"
Luca frowned. "That sounds inconvenient."
Ophelia giggled softly. "What if they laid glowing eggs?"
Shelia bit her lip as if this question deserved serious thought.
The timing was so ridiculous that if the room had not still been half frozen from tension, it would have been hilarious.
Unfortunately for them, Kian heard every word.
He slowly turned his head.
The three of them immediately straightened.
Kian did not even need to speak. One look from him was enough.
Ophelia closed her mouth at once.
Shelia coughed and looked away.
Luca, who was supposed to be the mature one here, suddenly found the floor very interesting.
Honestly speaking, Kian really wanted to ask why his trusted guard was gossiping like a market woman in the middle of something serious. But the city visitor was still standing there, so he let it go.
For now.
The visitor, clearly pleased that the atmosphere had loosened slightly, decided to move forward before anyone could return to the earlier point.
He stood straighter and said, "I only came to visit. The name of your village has spread very far. Some even say this place is advancing faster than certain cities."
The words sounded flattering.
However, everyone with brains could hear the shape hidden inside them.
It was a warning.
