Looking at the three of them with my head tilted and ears at a right angle, I wondered why they would need to do that.
Raina watched my expression with a smile appearing on her face and then explained, "All the techniques that we handed you have something like that written in them."
I nodded in understanding, but I also noticed an issue with what they were doing and said, "That is only an indicator that the technique might be demonic in nature, but it is in no way a guarantee. An example would be the technique that I made; even though I am not entirely sure why it was needed, but I am still able to understand that it is necessary for any high-level technique to have a way for its practitioners to inverse Qi.
"Though, the way my technique does it is by running the inverse Qi through a specific purification pattern, but regardless, my technique still has it, and it is not demonic in nature."
All of them looked at me, confused by my words, as the elder then asked, "What should we do with the books then?"
I thought about it for a moment and then responded, "Remove the books from circulation and call back the ones that have already been loaned out until we can verify that they are safe to be circulated again."
The elder turned to look at the sect master to confirm my orders but stopped when he saw Raina nodding along with what I said. He then turned and flew out of the house and toward the town.
The sect master was left standing there with Raina glaring at him, and her tail was slowly swishing back and forth in a manner that left me feeling both scared of what she might do and relieved that it wasn't me she was angry with me.
She then turned her gaze over to me, and I felt the hair all over my body stand on end, including that of my tail, as it went straight as a board. Before I could even relax a little, she said to me, "Go inside. I will be with you in a moment."
Not wanting to delay for even a second, I started to run toward the house when I heard her say behind me, "And don't forget to take that whetstone with you."
Slowing down and following her orders, I went into the house and closed the door behind me, but I still managed to hear some of what was said.
The first thing Immediately after closing the door was Raina's angry voice saying, "I don't remember raising an ungrateful man to lead this sect."
I was not able to understand the sect master's response, but I was able to hear Raina's retort clearly. "You're right. She is a disciple. Not an Elder! That means she is here to learn and grow, not do work sorting out the library and scripture halls and cleaning them of demonic techniques!"
The sect master's response was muffled again, but I was still able to hear Raina's response clearly. "You're right. She does have the ability to figure out whether a technique is demonic or not, but it is done through comparison and the finding of errors within a technique, which takes time and research to complete. It may be faster for her due to her ability to find any error in a technique, but even that has flaws in it.
"And regardless of what you seem to think, she is the only one I have heard of having this ability in the entire empire. All the others are either considered national treasures by other nations or are even their leaders by default, and even then, they don't compare to Vale."
Even though I was still unable to hear the sect master's response I was able to clearly hear Raina's increased anger with what she said next. "Exactly! You could issue a sect mission with rewards for when the job is completed. But you didn't. You simply came here and demanded that she do it without any reward or mission attached, as if she were one of the elders of the sect.
"It is like you expect someone from a completely different time and culture to follow the same principles of the empire. But that is where you are wrong! She doesn't revere the strong or bow down to those more powerful than her; she may respect them, but she does not bow down and simply do whatever they order her to."
I was not even able to hear anything after that, but the sect master must have said something because Raina responded, "If your mother told you to do something while she was angry, would you do it?"
I was not able to hear anything again but Raina still replied, "Exactly. Now go find a way to fix this, or you can forget about being sect master. Oh! And find out which of the disciples are trying to enslave kitsunes from the delegation that's arriving in three months."
With that, I started to hear footsteps slowly approaching the house and moved away from the door.
Hearing the footsteps get closer to the door faster than I was moving away from it I ran into the dining room and set the whetstone on the table as I heard the door open. Quickly pulling my sword from my inventory, I started sharpening the blade as Raina walked into the room.
The smile that she gave me the moment she walked in made me nervous, but she said nothing and walked over to the head of the table and sat down.
With that, the room stayed in silence, with the only sounds heard being Yuki in the kitchen and the sword gliding across the whetstone.
This lasted for about half an hour before Yuki came out of the kitchen with three meat-stuffed backed potatoes in her hands. The speed at which I put away the whetstone and sword and sat in the chair next to Raina would have left even me shocked if I was not focusing on the potatoes in Yuki's hands.
I even thought that I heard the sound of something breaking the sound barrier behind me.
Yuki smiled at my reaction while Raina chuckled and petted my head again, but I did not care for anything at the moment except for the potato that Yuki had just placed in front of me. Yuki then placed a set of silverware next to Raina's plate and another next to hers but waited until Raina took the first bite of food before handing me mine.
When I did have the silverware, I immediately started digging into the food and forgot about everything else. The meat that Yuki used was perfectly cocked to have that amazing grilled flavor while still being juicy enough to feel like you are actually eating meat and not chalk that tastes like meat.
Then there was the cheese that was placed in just the right quantity, that it created a goy layer on top without drowning everything else. After that was the fresh chives and cold sourcream that brought down the heat of the food while bringing a taste of the garden in.
To finish it all off and wrap everything together, there was the perfectly backed potato that had been pulled out of the oven at the perfect time so that the inside was easily broken up without the skin being burnt.
In summary, it was perfect and both my heart and kitsune instincts were screaming in joy.
Sadly, all good times must come to an end, and the potato was gone before I knew it. Looking at the empty plate, I could feel my tail and ears drop as I felt sad about not having more to eat, but the next second, I was fine again after realizing I was already full and that I probably should not eat anymore.
I then leaned back in my chair and pulled out the book I had on basic spell structure. Picking up where I left off I began doing research and taking down notes for some things that I had in mind.
Raina laughed at my antics, but I did not care about that at all. Or at least that's what I would like to say if I did not feel my tail twitching around and displaying my annoyance.
Looking up from my book, I glared at my tail, feeling that it was starting to become an issue.
This only caused Raina to laugh even harder as Yuki also joined in.
When they did finish laughing, Raina also looked at that cursed limb of mine, only for her face to go blank and her gaze to shift to me.
That gaze caused a shiver to go down my spine, but before I could run, I was already caught by Raina and dragged down the hall towards her room.