“Woof…woof…?” Neanderke barked, voice trembling with every woof he uttered.
Sinmosa nodded and barked back at the Cerberus. As if right on cue, Sasani came up from behind and gave the stunned Cerberus a triumphant look before pointing all three of his noses high into the air and snorting proudly. Ever so deliberately, he strutted up to his wife and gently but intimately rubbed against her.
“Awooo!!! Seeing Sasani, his bitter rival, snuggle so blatantly against Sinmosa, Neanderke immediately flew into a rage and howled like an angered wolf.
Just as the incensed hellhound was about to pounce however, Sinmosa barked gently at him. “Aroo woo woof.”
Hearing her response, the anger in him immediately dissipated and so did his contorted expression. What remained instead was forlorn look, as if there was nothing worth living for in this cruel world.
While I might not understand the tongue of the hellhounds, a convoluted and messy relationship like theirs, a relationship that could probably give those korean drama shows a run for their money I might add, wasn’t all that hard to figure out by filling in the gaps with one’s imagination.
Simply put, in the midst of hunting for food, Neanderke stumbled on what might have been an actual enemy in the past, judging by the anger he displayed on first sight. However, he found Sinmosa soon after and that anger faded. Unfortunately, before he could approach her, he found a certain little puppy hanging around her. To his horror, he found out she was their child…
Unable to accept a shock like that, not to mention that timely snort from Sasani, he immediately flew into a rage but was abruptly stopped by his goddess once more. At that point, she probably said this to him: “You’re a good man(dog), I’m sure you will find a better girl(female dog) in the future.”
The moment she said that, his entire doggy heart crumbled.
This wasn’t just a matter of meeting one’s rival in love and being exceptionally angered, this was but nothing cruel and unusual punishment! Inhumane even! In fact, he wasn’t even a human but a dog…
Still, the fact that his goddess had married and even given birth to a child was already a done deal. After a moment to calm himself down, he finally came to terms with this cruel reality.
This time, Sasani chose to stand aside so as not to incite his rival any further. Neanderke and Sinmosa then proceeded to converse together. Honestly, there really wasn’t much to talk about now. All she did was to explain to him that they were merely passing through and wouldn’t cause any harm to the clan.
Clearly out of it, Neanderke merely gave a few cursory responses before drifting away with an ashen look on all three of his dog faces. Before leaving however, he barked one last time. Naturally, I still didn’t know what he said but the words left Sasani in a shock.
Looking at the slowly disappearing and slumped figure of Neanderke, I couldn’t help but feel a little curious so I asked Sinmosa: “What did that hellhound say just now? Sasani seemed rather agitated by his words.”
“I asked Neanderke not to pass on news of our presence to the clan but he said that it was his duty to report anything of note to the elders…” Having explained that, Sinmosa gave a helpless shake of her head to Sasani. While it might have looked like she was addressing Sasani, she instead spoke in the tongue of the devil: “What has to come will come in the end, we can’t avoid it.”
‘Looks like they really didn’t want their kin to know of their return…’
‘Honestly, what they did was truly a debacle for the clan. They should’ve known what kind of response it would trigger…but I guess sometimes men(dogs) just can’t control themselves, especially when it comes to matters of the heart…’
While Sinmosa might not have given too much details on how they got together, I could roughly discern some information from the way Neanderke acted just now.
Their departure from the clan was definitely planned well in advance and neither planned to give the clan any warning about it; they probably thought that they wouldn’t ever return to the clan again.
Thus their kin probably assumed that they had gone missing or had gotten into trouble. Given that assumption, was it any wonder that Neanderke was so excited when he saw Sinmosa? As for that hostile reaction to Sasani, I was pretty sure that it had more to do with the two of them being at odds with each other.
I wasn’t planning to stick my head into the affairs of their clan either way so Neanderke’s departure really didn’t matter to me. If we left Sasani behind and rushed off towards the east…
Not long ago after Neanderke left, a visibly anxious Sasani could be seen pacing around incessantly. He must have really wanted to leave for the clan territory right away, out of fear of something bad happening.
Given what Neanderke said before leaving, we would most likely meet that hellhound again, then however, he wouldn’t be alone.
Truth be told, I kinda pitied Sasani right now, mostly though, I was delighted at his misfortune…after all, he should have known that such an unorthodox relationship would earn them both the scorn of their kin.
Moreover, he was the older of the two and being older, he naturally should have known better. Even if it was the two of them who committed something wrong, the older one had to take all the responsibility for it…or at least most of it. In such instances, the older one was always at a disadvantage, especially given that Sinmosa was a female…in a certain sense, Sinmosa was probably innocent in the eyes of others; Sasani was the one who should be quartered and sliced up…simply put, this sister-loving dog needed to be shot a million times!
Just as I had expected, the moment we crossed the borders of the hellhounds’ territory, the bull-like silhouette of an unknown Cerberus and Neanderke could be seen quietly watching us from an elevated position.
The moment Sasani laid eyes on Neanderke and that unknown Cerberus, his face instantly froze up and stayed that way for a long way.
‘Looks like there’s going to be another show to watch.’ Seeing that troubled look on that sister-loving dog, I couldn’t help but want to chuckle.
Trying his best to act calm, Sasani slowly trotted forward as if he never saw those two at all. Unfortunately for him, that gigantic Cerberus gave a long, drawn out howl the very next moment. Given the volume of that howl, I wouldn’t be surprised if even the deaf heard him. Sasani knew that the gig was up so he obediently changed course and trotted towards Neanderke.
“My apologies, Mister Mo Ke, it looks like we will have to spend some extra time here…”
With regards to that summon, neither Sasani nor Sinmosa dared to ignore it seeing as it came from an elder. Thus, she had no choice but to apologize to me. She attempted to explain what was going on to me but it might as well have been her way of voicing out the situation to herself: “That’s our uncle…usually he treats us well but he tends to be a little too strict…”
(TL: Uncle in this case refers to the younger male cousin of a father rather than a sibling of said father.)
‘Oho, so that’s their uncle, no wonder he’s so huge. I just knew his level couldn’t be low, he probably has some status in the clan as well. For their family to have such a scandal…how unfortunate it must have been for them…’
For some strange reason, seeing Sasani act like a wilted eggplant just gave me so much joy. If I had to describe what a wilted eggplant was like, it would be that it was even limper than usual. I honestly didn’t know why I felt so happy about his misery, but I knew for sure that I was happy and that was enough for me.
‘Poor Neanderke…’
“Mama, that big doggie is so strong…” Being one of the rare moments she wasn’t playing around with Cinderel, Mo Na returned once more to her perch atop my neck. As she sat there, eyes sparkling and head resting on my own, she stared unblinkingly at Uncle Hellhound: “Mama, that big doggie looks so fierce.”
Like she said, Sinmosa’s uncle truly looked powerful. If I had to judge from his stature alone, he was definitely a lot stronger than Sinmosa, making him at least Six-stars…
“Mhm, that hellhound has to be at least Six-stars but don’t worry, he’s not an enemy…” I reached out and patted Mo Na on her little noggin.
Having just said that, I spotted a flying hellhound zipping over my head and into the horizon…
Mhm, that was the legendary slapped-by-your-uncle slap. A slap that surpassed the speed of light and broke the fourth wall.
“Rawr!”
Uncle Hellhound roared at Sasani who was about to climb up to his feet and in a couple of strides, charged up to the struggling Cerberus and swatted him down with a paw. Even from such a distance away, I could hear the *slap slap slap slap* of his swats as if they were right beside me.
Just from that alone, one could see how much force were in those slaps.
Naturally, Sasani didn’t dare to fight back and merely stood there. After another ten or so more slaps, the beating finally stopped though not because Uncle Hellhound pitied Sasani but because Sinmosa stepped in to plead, with Cinderel right next to her.
The little puppy, upon seeing her papa get bullied like that, bravely rushed up and bit the bad Cerberus in his left shin as a way of getting revenge for her papa. She tugged and sawed at Uncle Hellhound’s fur with all her might but unfortunately for her, her widdle teeth simply had no bite behind them and couldn’t even leave a scratch on the old dog’s fur.
