While Mito and Shizuka attended to Oda, the two vixens slowly moved closer to him.
Shizuka leaned lightly against his shoulder.
Her warm breath brushed across his neck before her voice slipped softly to his ear.
"My lord... you have likely never had the pleasure of being attended by a Kitsune in her true form."
There was a soft, dangerous note in her voice.
Her fingers glided slowly across his chest, almost playfully, as though testing how quickly his breathing would change beneath her nearness.
At the same time, Mito drew his other arm a little closer to herself and smiled shyly.
"My lord... this is the first time I have been allowed to serve such an important guest."
Her voice was gentler than her mother's.
"So please forgive me if I still glance toward Lady Shizuka now and then."
The long sleeves of the two Kitsune brushed across Oda's arms as they moved around him with graceful ease.
Oda lifted his gaze and looked into Shizuka's golden eyes.
For a moment, he felt as though they were drawing him deeper and deeper into a silent abyss.
The scent of the two women grew stronger.
Sweet.
Warm.
Intoxicating.
One might almost have believed mother and daughter were sisters, so flawless was their appearance.
Shizuka smiled faintly.
"My daughter is only thirty years old. Her training as a courtesan has not yet been fully completed."
There was the barest trace of pride in her voice.
"But believe me, my lord... she learns quickly."
Mito's fingertips moved with more hesitation than her mother's, yet no less attentively.
It was as though both women, each in her own way, wanted to find out how easily a man like Oda Nobunaga could be thrown off balance.
And Oda could already feel how dangerous it was to underestimate even a single breath in this house.
A soft moan echoed through the room.
"As it seems," a calm voice said,
"your companions are enjoying the attentions my ladies are giving them."
Both of Shizuka's hands slid to Oda's head and slowly turned it toward her.
She leaned closer to him,
until her lips were only a few millimeters from his.
Oda could taste the sweetness of her breath.
For a moment, he wanted to close the final distance.
But Shizuka did not allow it.
There was only a faint, knowing smile on her lips.
At the same time, Mito rose
to make room for the woman who had just entered the room.
Tamamo.
Slowly, almost soundlessly, she stepped closer and, with perfect naturalness, took the place Mito had just vacated.
By her mere presence alone, she seized control of the room at once.
Shizuka released Oda's head
and, in parting, gave him a gentle kiss on the neck.
"My lord," she said with a courteous smile,
"our time is over. I hope our services have pleased you."
Oda's eyes were still clouded with desire.
He managed only a brief nod.
Tamamo's gaze briefly passed over Shizuka and Mito.
"You two will take over Tika's guest. She is with the general at the moment."
Both bowed at once.
"Yes, Lady Tamamo."
When Oda turned his head the other way, his breath caught.
The sight of this woman left room for no other thought.
A goddess.
Nothing less seemed to suit her.
Her long golden hair framed her face in soft strands.
Her figure possessed a beauty that seemed almost unreal.
Her hips, her bearing, the nine golden tails that draped around her like a shimmering cloak—
everything about her radiated a dangerous perfection.
Tamamo noticed his reaction at once.
And in that moment, she felt confirmed.
For seven years, she had not personally attended a man.
Not even the Emperor had been able, in all that time, to persuade her to offer more than her presence and her art at festivals.
Slowly, she placed one hand on Oda's leg
and let it glide upward in a calm, almost playful motion
until it came to rest on his chest.
Then she leaned lightly against him.
Her body heat flowed into him,
while her scent and nearness once again threw his breathing out of rhythm.
"As I see," she murmured in a gentle voice,
"you are already close to your limit."
A faint smile appeared on her lips.
"Which is hardly surprising."
Her golden eyes rested on him.
"Even a male god would lose his composure before two seven-tailed Kitsune."
For a moment, her sweet breath brushed against his ear.
Then her voice grew calmer.
Almost businesslike.
"But the true pleasure must wait."
She leaned back just a little,
without releasing him entirely from her spell.
"We are here today to speak of business."
Slowly, Oda's mind began to clear again.
These Kitsune are dangerous, he thought.
The room was still filled with soft sounds.
Muted moans,
whispered voices,
the sounds of the pleasure his two companions had already lost themselves in.
Among those sounds, Oda thought he could also make out Mito's voice.
And that alone made it even clearer to him
how perfectly this house understood how to command breath, desire, and silence alike.
Oda tried to focus on the conversation.
But every time he felt her nearness too strongly, his mind threatened to drift once more into that sweet haze this house summoned so masterfully.
At last, he forced himself to lift his gaze.
"What is the truth behind these phases of the Kitsune?"
A faint smile crossed Tamamo's flawless face.
"Oh? Of all the questions I expected, that was not among them."
One of her hands moved gracefully before her mouth.
"It would seem... that many years ago, a vixen truly captured your heart."
Oda said nothing.
Tamamo's golden eyes remained fixed on him.
"It is quite simple, my lord. We Kitsune are a people without men. Ours is a race of women."
She said it calmly, as if speaking of something entirely ordinary.
"For our race to continue, we need the help of willing men from other peoples."
Oda's eyes widened slightly.
"So you need the seed of other races to ensure the continuation of your people?"
Tamamo's smile deepened ever so slightly.
"Put so directly... yes."
Then her hand slowly moved across his chest.
"But not at all times."
Her breath was warm against his ear.
"We can only conceive when we enter heat."
For a moment, Oda only looked at her.
Tamamo's voice remained calm.
"Such a phase begins for us about every twenty-five years. For the span of one lunar cycle, we are able to conceive a child during that time."
Oda's thoughts drifted involuntarily back to his last meeting with Reika.
To her eyes.
They had not been clear back then.
Not that bright blue he remembered—
but rather a gaze as though behind a fine veil.
Tamamo watched closely as something shifted in his face.
"Most Kitsune spend that month in isolation," she continued.
"Because during that time, we choose very carefully whom we permit to give us a child."
Then her gaze grew a little colder.
"But sometimes it happens that a man is too strong. Or a moment becomes too uncontrolled."
Her fingers paused briefly on his chest.
"And then a Kitsune may become pregnant, though she did not wish it."
"So... when a Kitsune becomes pregnant, she returns to Kyoto?"
Tamamo's eyes remained on him, as though measuring every single breath.
"Yes. Every Kitsune returns to our clan lands and raises her children there together with the others."
Her voice stayed calm.
"After ten years, most of them return to the houses and work once more as courtesans."
Oda tried to process what he was hearing.
Suddenly, Reika's words echoed through his mind again.
You have given me a gift that I will carry in my heart for centuries.
His eyes widened.
Tamamo's lips curved into a faint smile.
"Oh... it seems you have assembled the last pieces of the puzzle yourself."
Oda's voice was barely more than a whisper.
"I have a child with Reika... don't I?"
Tamamo tilted her head slightly.
"Well... I would certainly still call a fifteen-year-old little vixen a child."
Tamamo watched as his eyes slowly cleared and the desire within him gradually faded.
"Is she here?"
With a calm motion, Tamamo drew a fan from her long sleeve and opened it.
"No."
Her voice was calm.
Almost too calm.
"She is in our clan lands."
Her golden eyes rested coldly on him.
"A child has no place in a house like this."
The fan moved lightly before her face.
"Or are you perhaps a man who believes children belong amidst such houses?"
Her gaze narrowed.
"If so, that would reveal a far more telling part of your character than I would care for."
Oda lowered his gaze slightly.
"No. I only wanted to see her."
Tamamo nodded slowly.
"Good."
For a brief moment, her voice softened again.
"But that is something you must discuss with Reika. That decision is not mine to make."
Then her tone changed once more.
Calm. Clear. Final.
"Now then. You wished to speak with the Kitsune of an alliance."
She closed the fan again with a soft snap.
"Then I must refuse you at once."
Oda lifted his head.
Tamamo's eyes gleamed coolly.
"We are not permitted to openly interfere in the affairs of humans."
A faint smile crossed her face.
"For our... little problem, an exception has already been granted to us among the supernatural peoples."
For a moment, her gaze drifted past him.
"Because we have no men."
Then she became serious again.
"But the Pact of Babel is clear in this matter."
"The supernatural must remain in the shadows."
Tamamo slowly rose and glided almost soundlessly toward the door.
But before she could fully leave the room, another Kitsune entered.
Reika.
She stopped at Tamamo's side.
Tamamo turned her head slightly toward her.
"You missed him, didn't you, Reika?"
Reika lowered her gaze for a moment.
Then she nodded.
"Yes, Lady Tamamo."
Her voice was quiet.
"Back then, I gave him my heart."
An almost invisible smile touched Tamamo's lips.
"Then enjoy the night with him."
She opened the door a little wider and stepped outside.
Before it had fully closed, the first soft moan of ecstasy could already be heard from within the room.
Tamamo's gaze turned cold.
The seed of betrayal has already been planted in your general.
Enjoy your last year, Oda Nobunaga.