Shota is surrounded by monsters!

"I never thought I was so blind back then, that I was actually fooled by you."

Shouwu chuckled, then tightened his apron to cover his bare neck, saying, "Congratulations, Mr. Taotie. I'll take you to your future territory. Actually, there aren't many yokai living there permanently; the old Rat Group members have all been driven out. However, there's a yokai nightclub nearby, and there are also Cat Group shops around, so there are quite a few yokai coming and going. Normally..."

"Do I usually need to stay there?"

"No, there's no need. It's just that if something happens there, you'll be the one to handle it. After all, the Nura Clan members often stop by nightclubs on their way, for example..."

Before Shouwu could finish speaking, two people jumped out of the bushes.

"Ah, is this the Gluttonous One? I am the broken-monastic monk Kurotabo. Nice to meet you."

A man dressed in black and wearing a straw hat suddenly jumped in front of Shota, while the big guy next to him wearing a skull necklace was Aotabo, Rikuo Nura's bodyguard.

"I've already met him, Aotabo. He and Kuro are both captains of the Nura Clan's special attack force."

"I said, you two don't know how to prepare..."

Just as Shouwu was about to say something, Kurotabo pushed him aside and said, "Shouwu, you should rest. We'll take Taotie to his territory for a stroll."

"Ah."

Aota-bo nodded, then pulled the bewildered Shota out the door...

"Oh, Taotie, Xiaoqing told me you still need to go to a human school, right?"

"Ah, yes."

The broken monk in front of him was so enthusiastic that Shota couldn't stand it.

“Going to school is good. Like young master, you can learn a lot by going to school.” Kurotabo put his arm around Shota’s shoulder and said, “But since you’re going to school, how about I keep an eye on the order in your territory for you on my way?”

"Thank you very much."

However, it seems like the other person isn't that familiar with me.

"Alright, to celebrate the new cadre, let's go to a nightclub and have some fun! Taotie, it's my treat today, please make yourselves at home..."

So, all they wanted to do was go to the Yokai Nightclub.

Shota finally understood why they were being so enthusiastic: it was simply because his territory was close to that nightclub, so they could use the excuse of helping him to skip work and go to the nightclub. However…

"Isn't it daytime now? A nightclub..."

“For yokai, now is the ‘night’ when they should be resting,” Kurotabo smiled mysteriously, while Aotabo, who had been silent, also spoke up: “Daytime is when they should be resting—enjoying ‘nightlife’.”

That seems to make sense. Shota thought about it for a moment. As a yokai, he was obviously most active at night, but he had been sleeping through the entire night.

As a result, Shota was tricked into a yokai nightclub by two unscrupulous yokai. Although he seemed somewhat unwilling on the surface, Shota was actually quite curious about things like cat-eared girls and fox-tailed girls!

Welcome!

"Ah, it's Aotabo and Kurotabo, the special agents of the Nura Clan! Sisters, come and greet them!"

"Oh, oh, oh, the proprietress is so hospitable." Kurotabo, a regular customer, pulled Shota over and said to the proprietress, who was clearly a fox spirit, "This is our Nura Clan's newest executive, the great demon Taotie. Please treat her well, proprietress."

"Such a young high-ranking official?!"

The proprietress was visibly surprised, and Shota, whose chest was heaving, was momentarily dazed. The fox ears on either side of his head also twitched sensitively.

"Yes. Let's treat them well."

Kurota pulled Shota to a seat, and soon a group of young and mature fox-like women surrounded them, pouring drinks for the three of them while squeezing Shota's arm with their voluptuous figures and saying compliments: "So young."

"So handsome."

"Young man, are you a Taotie? What kind of monster is a Taotie? Is it powerful?"

"Of course Taotie is powerful, a great monster in China. Right now, Taotie is still young. In a hundred years, he will grow into a great monster at the level of a nine-tailed fox."

Aotabo took a sip of his drink and offered an explanation. However, the other fox girls seemed more interested in the handsome Kurotabo and the young, shy Shota, leaving the rugged Kurotabo feeling neglected.

"Hahaha."

Shota chuckled awkwardly twice, his arms linked with those of two fox girls, one mature and one youthful. His arms were constantly touching one soft, large breast and the other a firm, youthful one. His nose was filled with the fox girls' strong aphrodisiac scent, and his ears were filled with their seductive, provocative voices.

pity……

The fox girl's head was entirely made of fox.

"Drink, Taotie-kun!" Kurotabo urged, embracing the women on either side of him, while Shota could only close his eyes and avoid looking at their faces.

pity……

Their pointed noses, intentionally or unintentionally, poked Shota's face.

After downing the drink in one gulp, Shota hypnotized himself, "Those are fingers, those are fingers."

Who has a hole in their finger?

As expected, I still prefer human appearances... at least the face should be human, even if the body is that of a fox like Shota, I'd be more interested.

Even if his lower body is a Tsuchigumo (earth spider), I'd accept it!

Shota forced a smile; it turned out that the so-called monster nightclub was completely different from what he had imagined.

"I am back."

Welcome back.

Shota pushed open his front door. Rea, who was watching a movie on her laptop in the living room, pressed the pause button, while Mashiro, who was lying on the floor with a bottle of ice-cold water in her mouth, sat up.

"From today onwards, we really have money."

With a genuine smile, Shota declared, "I hereby declare that I can upgrade from eating compressed biscuits every day to eating instant noodles every day!"

That's really good news.

Seeing Shota so happy, Rea smiled too and said, "We should celebrate properly."

"A Juice Feast~"

Upon hearing the keywords "celebration" and "wealth," Mashiro took down the bottle of ice water she used to cool down, limply climbed onto Shota's back, rested her head on his shoulder from behind, and rubbed her smooth face against him a couple of times.

Sure enough... a furry face isn't always the most comfortable.

"Alright, alright. This time there won't be any problems. By the way, Rea, help me think of a name. After all, the three of us are practically a yokai organization now. Like something like 'Association' or 'Group', anything will do."

"Okay." Rea withdrew her gaze from Mashiro's ambiguous actions. It would be interesting to do something about it.

"It's really white. I'd like to ask you to copy the Taotie pattern from the internet and just add a diamond shape around it."

"Online?"

"I'll ask Rei to help later."

Shota smiled.

"Shota-kun, do you smell something strange?" Rea suddenly frowned and sniffed his still-intact nose twice.

"No, right?"

Shota's sense of smell was more sensitive, so he didn't smell anything.

"It smells like... um... a woman, a fox?" Rea followed her sense of smell and crawled to Shota's side, sniffing his clothes up close...

"Shouta-kun?"

"I just went to inspect it, Rea!" Shota said seriously. "After we go to the amusement park tonight, I'll take you to the Yokai Shop. It'll be super fun. Trust me, it'll be super fun!"

A completely unpleasant nightclub trip; it was just an inspection tour!

Chapter 44. Views on Love

"Yes! I just went to a nightclub! I got bullied by a bunch of horrible monster aunties!"

Shota's gaze avoided Rea's location and drifted to Mashiro, who knew nothing. As a slime, it was perfectly normal for her to lack a sense of smell. So even if Mashiro's nose was blocked, she wouldn't be affected at all.

Right now, it's best not to think about Mashiro.

"Shota-kun!" Rea, unusually serious, crawled up to Shota and looked up, saying, "That kind of place is no good!"

Although Rea had no reason to interfere with Shota's private life, she thought that going to a nightclub in broad daylight was really not the behavior of Shota-kun... no, it really wasn't the behavior of a good youkai.

"I know it's not good...that's why I said it's just an inspection, just an inspection!"

Shota casually grabbed Rea's shoulder; he didn't want the vampire girl to suddenly start having sex with him—no, to destroy the house with a bang.

"Reiya!"

Looking into her crimson eyes, Shota said in a solemn tone, "As an excellent guild leader, one must be clear about the environment around one's territory. So it is only right that we go to learn about the surrounding yokai gathering places under the guidance of the Nura Clan seniors."

"And, moreover..." He paused halfway through his sentence, scratching his face somewhat sheepishly, and said, "I'm still a bit of a handsome guy, so the aunties sometimes take advantage of me..."

"It was exactly what we expected, hehe."

"So... Shota-kun likes the auntie type."

Rei suddenly said something with a hint of sadness, her long hair falling limply over her shoulders.

“No… I definitely wouldn’t like that kind of aunt.” Shota continued naturally, “While I don’t necessarily like humans, they should at least have a human appearance. That would be somewhat acceptable. But, generally speaking, ordinary humans can’t fall in love with yokai, right?”

Shota counted on his fingers and said to Rea, "On the one hand, even if we met when we were 20 and she passed away when she was 90, that's only seventy years. That's a long time for humans, but for me, and even for you, Rea, it's a bit too short."

"Huh? What?"

Rei didn't react for a moment.

"Don't you know? Both vampires and zombies are long-lived creatures. Even ordinary monsters can live for hundreds of years, which is not surprising at all." As for Taotie itself, his father probably lived for about a thousand years before choosing to end his life.

However, it's quite normal for most long-lived beings to end their lives in their preferred way. For example, vampires; it's rumored that ordinary vampires choose suicide around the age of two hundred. This is because vampires are mostly solitary creatures, walking alone in the darkness from beginning to end, without friends or organization. They either endure the loneliness and become even more bizarre, or they can't bear the loneliness and choose suicide.

Conversely, the yokai in the Nura Clan wouldn't choose suicide—because the Nura Clan is always bustling, and each yokai has something to carry and something to protect. So their motivation to live is even greater.

However, Shota himself... he doesn't know how long he can live. In the end, he will have to wait until he becomes an adult to see if he can control his greed.

After all, the greed of an adult is on a completely different level from that of a pre-adult. This is also for the sake of the continuation of the race. If the greed of a young Taotie were as great as that of an adult Taotie, it would probably have been sacrificed by various accidents long ago.

"A very, very long lifespan?" Rea seemed to be facing the question of her lifespan for the first time. However, even in human form, as a young girl in the prime of her life, she wouldn't have considered how long she could live. Hearing that she could actually live forever inevitably felt somewhat unrealistic.

However, compared to other options, if you find a human partner who grows old and dies while you remain alive in the world as before, it does seem a bit cruel—although from the other person's perspective, it would definitely be a good thing, right?

"However, that kind of thing is still a long way off for me."

Shota gave a casual laugh, thankfully managing to divert Rea's attention elsewhere. Otherwise, he would have run out of things to say if the matter had continued.

"So, Shota-kun, if you were to find a girlfriend in the future... I mean, if you were to, you would definitely choose a yokai, right?"

"Yes. That's right."