New law of Beast Taming

"Don't you dare touch her!"

Pupilless black eyes looked back at the female in front of her with pitiful yet curious eyes. The half-phoenix could feel emotions rolling off the divine leader.

Much of what she felt was all tangled up into each other so it was impossible to tell exactly what Charlie Suzuki felt at that moment. But one thing was clear to Ariana - Charlie's feelings were strong enough to make her act out.

"Hmm, even if you ask me not to touch your precious person, my duty is something I need to see through. I am afraid I cannot follow through with your request."

A phoenix did not have a lot of emotional range due to its half-bestial nature. The one who had understood it the best had been Amane. And that was why Amane had been so dear to Ariana.

'I wonder how you out turn out to be, the owner of this familiar energy. Would you be kind and understanding? Or cruel and angry?'

The time for that fated meeting was fast approaching and Ariana was getting butterflies in the bottom of her stomach.

....

"Yoko, we need to do something about that maid before she does any more harm. Elder Hana's resurrection is not normal and we cannot allow this to happen again. Moreover, that maid tried to kill me."

Sakura was pissed off at being captured.

She was angry and frustrated at herself for being caught. But she was equally angry and frustrated at the maid who dared to touch her.

And when Sakura was angry, she tended to lose all reasons for her actions and go after what she wanted to do. This time was no different for her from before.

She wanted to kill the maid but she also needed to exercise caution.

"Sakura, I know you are angry but be careful about how to approach that maid. Since she is Elder Hana's benefactor, we cannot touch her without any solid reason."

Sakura bit her lip in frustration.

"Without any solid reason? She kidnapped me and held me hostage. She also…I don't remember what she did to me but she did something for sure."

Sakura yell-whispered in irritation.

She hated her circumstances and her mental condition. She knew what Amane was saying made sense and that her hands were tied up. Her brain's logical part knew that.

But her heart refused to believe in those conditions.

"Sakura, you are getting a little too emotional. Sometimes, I forget that you are just a normal teenager caught up in all this. Maybe you should go to your room and rest some more."

Sakura leveled Amane with the most betrayed look she could muster. The frustration of her situation caught up with her once more.

'Once again, it was I who was made to leave. This is all because I lack powers, right? That is why Amane must push me away. God, this is frustrating for me as well.'

As frustrated as Sakura felt about this situation, she also knew that Yoko was right and this was for the best.

"Fine, I will go back to my room for now. But you better punish that maid in my stead."

Sakura's unsteady feet were not picking up her weight properly. So, Amane called for a maid to come forth and help Sakura out.

She watched as the maid escorted Sakura out of the room for some time before Amane began to brainstorm how to take advantage of this situation.

First, confronting Elder Hana was out of the question. There were too many eyes on the elder's moment and everyone was busy seeing how she behaved.

If Amane attacked her now, then she would never hear the end of it.

Attacking the maid who helped Elder Hana out was also going to be a bitchy task since Elder Hana would have tightened security around the both.

'So, the only thing left to do is to drag the Jorōgumo to attack us and reveal its true colors.'

Thankfully, it was not going to be difficult for Amane who had lived through a whole massacre of these creatures.

She knew how to drag their salvage nature out and make it appear in front of everyone.

"I cannot believe I am the one suggesting this, but it is time for a family dinner with everyone. A public display of powers should be enough to make everyone back down and accept the reality."

Since Amane had already felt the energy of Jorōgumo coming out of Elder Hana's body, she was not worried about failure.

"I better tell Sakura about this. I need her to stay out of this dinner and not risk her life."

Sakura would hate this plan since she was not involved in this. But Amane was doing this for her good.

As the one who would head the Tsurugi family name in the future once Amane retired and went off to her lazy life, Sakura needed her name not to be tainted by such occurrences.

If Amane had to pull some strings to get her into that position, she would do that without hesitation. After all, it was all for her future life she had envisioned for herself.

.....

It was almost dinner time when Sakura went out of her room.

Yoko had told her about the plan, which rubbed Sakura the wrong way when she heard it.

She also wanted to play an active part in capturing Elder Hana. But Yoko had denied Sakura's request for obvious reasons.

According to Yoko, it would be bad for Sakura to make enemies out of elders when Yoko was already on their hit list. That would sour the future diplomatic relationships with the other side.

Sakura needed to make herself appear detached from the upcoming war.

'And that is why, I need a good excuse to not attend the family dinner on the weekend. And the way to do that is to fight with Elder Hana's exclusive maid.'n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

That was going to be easy for Sakura. She was already feeling quite irritated at the maid because of what happened before.

Not only had knocked Sakura unconscious, but she had also dared to drug Sakura (the blood test had revealed this)

"Sakura, are you here to meet me? I am so happy I crossed paths with you. Come here and I will introduce you to my benefactor who saved my life."

Elder Hana looked surprised to see Sakura crossing paths with her. On the other hand, Sakura was not surprised at all.

After all, she had deliberately chosen this way because she knew Elder Hana would be moving through this place soon.

As expected, the maid was walking behind Elder Hana and showed no signs of recognizing Sakura.

"My lady, it is my honor to meet you. It was a sheer coincidence that I was able to save my lady's life. I hope I can become someone even *you* can rely on."

Sakura's insides burned with anger when she heard the sly maid speak to her.

She wanted nothing more than to drag the maid out with her hair and burn her. But Sakura calmed herself down by taking a few deep breaths. She needed to follow the plan.

"Oh, so you helped my aunt out…hey, aren't you the one who snuck around the mansion when the order was not to move? I also saw you light fire on the other side of the Tsurugi mansion. I think we should punish you for that, right?"

Sakura revealed one of the maid's secrets which made the maid pause for a solid minute before calming down.

"Sakura, what the hell do you think you are doing? This maid saved my life and you are firing off accusations against her? Do you think anything about what that would look like for me?"

Elder Hana gripped the handkerchief in her hand tighter as she leveled Sakura with a glare.

Sakura met Elder Hana's eyes with her own without flinching.

"I know that this maid is your benefactor, my dear aunt. But we cannot allow any misdeeds to go unpunished. Since she risked the lives of so many of our servants and family members, I think we need to have her punished appropriately. Don't you agree, Elder Dao?"

The poor elder who had been addressed out of the blue looked shocked and uncomfortable.

His instinct was to agree with Sakura Tsurugi since she was his friend's daughter. But one look at Elder Hana's face was enough to convince me that it was time to jump ships.

After all, Elder Hana had managed to beat death once and she would help everyone else beat death as well.

"Well, that is…this kid did save Elder Hana's life so we need to be thankful. I think we can pardon her for a little mistake she made beforehand."

Elder Dao spoke up and he had everyone's eyes on him. But since no one disagreed with him, they all likely thought the same thing - they wanted to be on Elder Hana's side.