Chapter 169: Who Is the Bitch Talking About??

Chapter 169: Chapter 169: Who Is the Bitch Talking About??

’Thank goodness I was careful.’

’Otherwise, I’d have been sold off while still foolishly learning to read in this attic!’

「Downstairs in the living room.」

Completely unaware that he had just been labeled a pervert, Lance was squatting on the floor, petting Xiaohai’s head with a helpless smile on his face.

"Yeah, Uncle Rein, Xiaohai is definitely a little too mischievous."

Rein reached out with a large, calloused hand, grabbed Xiaohai by the scruff of its neck, and lifted it into the air.

Xiaohai’s four paws dangled in the air, its round eyes filled with bewilderment. It didn’t seem to understand why it was suddenly weightless.

The old soldier carefully examined Xiaohai’s underbelly.

"Oh, so she’s a little bitch."

Rein nodded, his tone filled with the certainty of long experience.

"Right. When training a wild little bitch like this, you have to use different methods than with a male."

"You can’t be too harsh, or her little brain will hold a grudge."

Suspended in midair, Xiaohai seemed to sense the scrutiny in the old soldier’s gaze. It squirmed uncomfortably and let out a "WOOF WOOF!" at Rein.

It was as if she were protesting the undignified position and demanding that Rein put her down immediately.

Rein let out a laugh and gently placed Xiaohai back on the floor.

The moment her paws touched the ground, Xiaohai went right back to her playful antics, wagging her tail and running excited circles around the two men’s legs.

「Meanwhile, in the attic.」

With her ear pressed tightly against the crack in the door, Ella heard that utterly humiliating term: "little bitch."

Her entire face instantly flushed crimson, and the tips of her ears felt like they were about to start smoking.

’Isn’t that the exact same vulgar word from those forbidden books I used to sneak glances at?’

’The one those depraved noblemen use specifically to strip canine Sub-human girls of their dignity!’

As she spiraled into a vortex of shame, anger, and paranoid thoughts...

...she clearly heard another sentence float up from downstairs.

Lance watched Xiaohai frolicking and barking on the floor. He smiled and said to Rein:

"Looks like she really likes your new home, Uncle Rein."

"But before you officially start her training, you should probably go to the market and get a sturdy iron chain."

"Until she’s fully trained, it’s best to keep her on a chain whenever you go out. We don’t want her running off."

CRACK!

To Ella, listening from the attic, those words struck like a bolt of lightning from a clear blue sky.

Her knees buckled, and she lost all strength to support herself.

With a soft thud, she collapsed onto the cold wooden floor, completely devastated.

’This sanctimonious-looking Dragon Descendant... to think he’s so twisted, so utterly depraved!’

’And to think I smelled that pure aura on him and naively considered running to him for protection.’

’If I’d really been foolish enough to go to him last night...’

’...wouldn’t I already be tied up and humiliated, treated like his personal pet?!’

’I was wrong. So, so wrong.’

’The Azure Moon and Golden Covenant... it’s all a pack of lies.’

’The Dragon Descendant has no intention of abiding by those rules. He’s perfectly inherited the Dragon Race’s shameful vices: greed, lust, and a penchant for collecting ’prey’.’

’He clearly wants to ravage me in the most twisted way imaginable!’

’So that explains everything.’

’This supposedly kind Rein is actually just a wicked henchman, planted here by that perverted Dragon Descendant.’

’He deliberately trapped and captured me, then used all sorts of cruelty to force me to learn how to read—all to please my ’master’. It must all be to satisfy some unspeakable, twisted fetish of that Dragon Descendant!’

’I will never submit to such forces of darkness!’

She heard Lance’s footsteps downstairs; it sounded like he had finished his chat and was now pushing open the front door to leave.

Ella forcefully lifted the back of her hand and roughly wiped away the tears of terror welling in her eyes.

The fear in her eyes was gone, replaced by resolute fury.

Her sharp little fangs bit down hard on her full lips, drawing a trace of blood.

In her heart, she swore a venomous oath at the departing figure.

’So his name is Lance...’

’You filthy-minded, shameless, disgusting Dragon Descendant!’

’I, Ella Lunaris, would rather starve to death—I would rather jump from this attic and fall to my death—than be chained up and humiliated by you!’

’If I find even the slightest chance to escape...’

’...I will pounce on you without a moment’s hesitation and tear out your throat with my own teeth!’

Just then, she keenly heard the heavy sound of a cane striking the wooden planks of the staircase.

’The pimp’s accomplice is coming up.’

Like a cornered she-wolf, Ella shot up from the floor.

She arched her body, brimming with explosive power, her muscles tensed to their absolute limit. She was ready to take him down with her.

As the wooden door—the barrier to her freedom—creaked open from the outside,

Ella didn’t hesitate for a second. With a guttural roar, she spread her arms and lunged viciously at the figure in the doorway.

Reality, however, is often harsh.

What met her was all too familiar: the Secret Silver Threads, as tenacious as vipers.

[Silver Thorn Binding] activated once more.

With a sharp SNAP, Ella was instantly bound in mid-air, trussed up like a rice dumpling and once again hung unceremoniously from the attic’s rafters.

This time, however, even while hanging upside down,

Ella refused to submit as she had before.

Her eyes were bloodshot as she struggled desperately in mid-air.

Even as the sharp Secret Silver Threads cut deep into her skin, slicing into her flesh and drawing crimson blood that dripped down her arms,

she did not stop resisting. Her eyes were fixed on Rein’s neck, as if she could tear him apart with her gaze alone.

"I, Ella, will die before I ever submit to you perverted scumbags—"

Her furious shout was cut off mid-sentence.

Her voice died abruptly, as if she were a duck being strangled.

Because, as she hung upside down, her gaze happened to sweep across the floor.

There, she saw with perfect clarity...

...squatting quietly beside Rein’s crippled left leg were two stray puppies. They had been washed clean and smelled fragrant, and they looked awfully familiar.

The two little dogs had their heads cocked, staring up with bewildered expressions—the way one might look at a lunatic—at the madwoman thrashing about in mid-air.

Two dogs and one person stared at each other in the attic.

The air seemed to freeze solid.

’No way...’

A terrible thought popped, unbidden, into Ella’s not-so-clever head.

A wave of indescribable embarrassment made her instantly stop struggling.

Meanwhile, Rein, standing in the doorway, wearily raised a rough hand to his faintly throbbing forehead.

"You really are cut from the same cloth as that idiot, Celeste."

The old soldier heaved a deep sigh.

He didn’t need to think hard about it; he could guess what happened with his eyes closed. This wolf pup with her scrambled brain must have been eavesdropping behind the door and twisted his words about the puppy into some kind of nonsense.

After all, these sorts of ridiculous misunderstandings, born from a severe lack of intelligence...

...were something he had experienced countless times during his years partnering with Celeste, to the point where he had lost the will to live.

Rein looked at the Wolf Girl hanging in mid-air, her face beet red, looking like she wanted the floor to swallow her whole.

’He silently prayed for some unknown soul.’

’He didn’t know what poor bastard with eight generations of bad luck would end up with this girl, whose intelligence was so ’touching’.’

’In any case, he, an old soldier, had truly suffered more than enough in that department.’