Chapter 284

Chapter 284: Irene Was Full of Drive!

Foxy came downstairs with one guardian on each shoulder. She sat obediently at the dining table, waiting for food, while Irene stood on the tabletop and stared straight at the two retainer chickens.

The two pairs of cross-eyed eyes stared right back at her. Both sides radiated an aura of equal intelligence.

“I think those two have it out for me,” Irene said suddenly. “There’s something nasty in their eyes.”

“No way!” Foxy protested immediately. “Bai Qie and Yan Ju are super well-behaved! Usually they sleep in my tail, and when I let them out, they never fight…”

“That’s because they obviously can’t handle the weird stuff you feed them, so they pass out!” Irene snapped, eyes wide. Nobody could explain how Foxy had raised two chicks into whatever this was, but the cause was clearly tied to her pile of messy “immortal arts” and the spirit-laden things she’d been messing with. “It’s a miracle they’re still alive. You’ve fed them into three days of coma and two and a half days of recovery, and they still haven’t died…”

Foxy froze. She thought it over, then clapped her hands. “So that’s what it is! No wonder they sleep so long after every meal.”

Irene’s jaw dropped. “…So it really is three days of coma and two and a half days of recovery?!”

“Spirit beast metamorphosis is extremely difficult,” Foxy said with a confident wave, “especially for animals shedding their mortal nature. And they started as poultry, so it’s normal they face hardships.” She went on brightly, “Anyway, no matter what, I’ll protect them. I’m really good at raising spirit beasts and celestial birds. Back in my class I was always the group leader for raising small animals. Those two mystic plume sparrows behind our academy were both fed by me…”

She lifted her shoulders to look at her guardians. “Right? I’ve taken good care of you, haven’t I?”

Bai Qie and Yan Ju nodded with dignified restraint.

Irene stared, horrified. “Those two feathered brutes can actually understand?! They look so stupid…”

The moment she said it, Bai Qie and Yan Ju shot into the air. One dove down and pecked Irene on the head. The other followed an instant later, knocking the Little Doll flat on the table.

Irene didn’t process it until after she rolled once. Then she exploded in fury, sprang up, and started brawling with the two chickens while screaming, “I knew it! I knew they had it out for me!”

Foxy panicked and tried to pull Irene away while insisting on the obvious. “But you were the one who insulted them first…”

Yu Sheng had just finished stir-frying in the kitchen when he heard the commotion. At first he assumed it was normal bickering, but halfway through it sounded wrong. He turned off the heat and rushed out—only to see Irene pinned on the table while Bai Qie pecked her head, and Foxy struggling to shove Yan Ju back into her tail.

Yu Sheng stopped dead.

After they finally controlled the chaos and got the story straight, Yu Sheng looked at the doll—now pouting as she fixed her hair—and sighed. “So you insulted them first, then you started fighting chickens, and in the end you still lost.”

Irene stomped. “You don’t have to emphasize the last part!”

Then she snapped, “And what do you mean, ‘lost to chickens’?! What kind of proper chicken flies with auspicious clouds and dives like a lightning arrow?! Fighting that thing is hard!”

Yu Sheng had to admit he was impressed.

“I-I’ll discipline them properly later,” Foxy said quickly, lowering her head like she thought Yu Sheng was angry. “They just started transforming. They don’t understand rules yet.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine.” Yu Sheng waved it off. “Let’s eat first. I’ll bring the dishes out.”

Foxy sprang up at once. “I’ll help!”

“Stay here.” Yu Sheng immediately pressed her back into her seat. “If you carry a plate, you’ll have to come back to wash dishes before you even reach the kitchen door. If I let you carry food, I won’t get to eat this meal.”

Foxy’s ears drooped. “Oh.”

A moment later, the table was covered in a lavish spread.

Even though Irene didn’t need to eat, she always insisted on taking a spot at mealtime. She stood on the table, eyes wide. “Wow. What day is it? We’re eating this well?!”

“The Special Operations Bureau wired the money over,” Yu Sheng said happily. “The discovery reward for Mistbound City, and the reward for rescuing civilians.”

He went on, “And I just got word the resettlement subsidy for Fairy Tale has been approved. It’ll take a bit longer to arrive because it’s a big amount and the paperwork still has to go through the councilor council. But either way, we won’t be short on money from now on. We have to celebrate.”

“Yay!” Irene clapped, then froze. “Wait—when did you buy groceries?”

“Just now, while I was cooking,” Yu Sheng said casually. “Whatever I was missing, I bought from the market on the spot. And this big pot of rice—I grabbed it straight from the Special Operations Bureau cafeteria.” He pointed. “I even took the pot from their serving window. I have to return it later.”

Irene stared at him for a long moment. “…Your door-opening skills are seriously reaching mastery.”

Foxy didn’t comment. Her face was already buried in the rice pot.

Luckily, Yu Sheng had scooped out a bowl first, or the entire pot might not have been enough for her alone.

By the time the meal was basically over—meaning Foxy had started licking bowls one by one—Irene, who’d been unusually quiet for a while, suddenly spoke.

“Oh, right. Yu Sheng, make me another body.”

Yu Sheng blinked, startled. “Huh?”

“Didn’t you say before you’d make me a new body when you had the chance? We hauled back so many good materials from the Special Operations Bureau…”

“Uh… yeah, we did say that.” Yu Sheng frowned. “But why bring it up now?”

Irene’s face was serious. “Make one that can fight better. And if possible, make it normal-sized.”

Yu Sheng stared. “…Is this because you lost a fight to chickens?”

Irene snapped instantly and pointed at his nose while hopping in place. “Who said it was because of that?! Do you think I’m that petty?!”

Yu Sheng didn’t have the courage to nod, so he answered with carefully chosen words and a straight face. “No.”

“It’s because I lost to that C Buckle!” Irene shouted, eyes wide with fury and humiliation. “It’s a disgrace. A damn disgrace! Me—a proper ball-jointed body—losing to a C Buckle…”

Yu Sheng hesitated. “Is that really the key point? And if I remember right, that artificial saintess wasn’t all C Buckle. She had a bunch of complicated mechanisms too. Like that self-destruct lid.”

Irene headbutted him in the chin.

“Yu Sheng, your uncle!”

Yu Sheng yelped loud enough to startle Foxy across the table. He rubbed his chin, wincing. “All right, all right. I get it. You want me to build a precision body to cover the gap in your combat power.”

“Exactly.” Irene planted her hands on her hips. Her eyes were so determined it looked like she wanted to drag every C Buckle doll in the world down with her. “This time, I’ll guide you through a higher-level soul-imbuement rite. We’ll use the best materials, the best frame and filler, and patch every flaw that could make the ritual fail. We’ll make sure I can use the power I’m supposed to have.”

She huffed. “I’m telling you, I’m really strong. How could the real Alice doll lose to some cultist-made, mass-produced fake junk…”

Her resentment flared again mid-sentence. This time Yu Sheng didn’t tease her. He just reached out and rested his hand lightly on her hair.

“All right,” he said. “The Special Operations Bureau won’t have results anytime soon anyway, and we’ve got time. We’ll build you a new body.”

Then he grinned. “Let’s go make an Irene Pro Max.”

“…What kind of stupid name is that?!”