CHAPTER 98: CHAPTER 98: HIS PREVIOUS FOX

After they landed, Zerra heard a suppressed chuckle of amusement. But to her ears, they sounded like someone was making fun of her!

Cassias’ suppressed laughter morphed into a cough in an instant. He smoothed out Zerra’s porcupine-like fur.

She was still glaring ferociously at him.

"Don’t look at me like that. It’s you who decided you didn’t want me to hold you as we flew through the sky..." He muttered.

Well, indeed. She refused to be held by him and climbed onto his head. The satisfaction of using her small paws to stomp on his head lasted only for a few seconds. For the next fifteen minutes, she was absolutely terrified!

At first, Zerra was quite skeptical about flying in the sky after the sun had begun to rise, but Cassias convinced her. He told her that with his mental ability, it was still safe to fly around for a while.

He would use his power to cover up his real appearance. The explanation made Zerra’s fur rise a bit... because at the higher level, mental ability seemed to have the same hypnotizing effect just like her fox clan’s ability.

"Your temper is so bad," Cassias commented.

Zerra snorted and gave him a look. Wasn’t she always like that, anyway? But she didn’t care. She ignored him; her eyes were on the human survivor base ahead.

She wasn’t in human form right now, so how should she ask them? Then, her eyes shifted to Cassias. She tapped his hand.

Strangely, he instantly understood again. It made her incredibly puzzled, but before she could ponder about it further, Cassias was already walking toward a patrol guard.

Judging from the camouflage uniform he was wearing, he must be from the military.

"May I speak to your lieutenant general?" Cassias directly asked him.

Zerra was horrified, staring at Cassias with wide eyes. Why did this man become so arrogant that he directly asked for their lieutenant general?

She clung to his wrist, trying to stop him from getting kicked out. Just look at how casual he looked right now, in a black jacket and slim-fit trousers. He looked like a man strolling around for a walk.

Just as Zerra guessed, the soldier’s eyes became as wide as saucers. She watched as his face morphed into an angry scowl, obviously offended.

"Who are you, asking for our Lieutenant General like that?" He stared at Cassias in anger.

"I am his cousin," Cassias calmly answered. Zerra’s hanging heart suddenly became calm. Oh, she was worried for nothing; he was still the male lead after all, but... she looked at him suspiciously. Was he bluffing or...?

However, she did remember that the Virethorn family indeed had some of its members in the military. Maybe it was really Cassias’ cousin. No longer feeling worried, she became more relaxed in Cassias’ arms.

"Anyone can say they are Lieutenant General’s cousins. You are not the first one. Some even told us they are his father and mother! Don’t use this tactic to scam us for supplies or a place in the main base!" The soldier had a fed-up expression on his face.

It seemed like he had suffered a lot from scams. But Zerra wasn’t interested in this right now. She was dying to find her parents, and every passing second made her grow even more anxious.

Cassias brushed her fur and pinched her paw to calm her down.

"I am not a scam." He said calmly. "Your lieutenant general is surnamed Virethorn, right? From the Virethorn family? Just tell him that his cousin, Cassias Virethorn, comes for a visit."

The soldier took a few steps forward, and he analyzed Cassias’ face. It looked a bit familiar. Where had he seen it before? Lieutenant General? However, he couldn’t compare Cassias’ face with his Lieutenant General. Because he was a low-rank soldier, he had only managed to see him from afar.

Seeing Cassias’ calm countenance, coupled with his clean appearance, he began to have doubts. When his eyes fixed on the snow-white fox on his arm, he was a little astonished.

Someone even bothered to keep a fox in the apocalypse, keeping it clean and well-fed, he thought. Well, he was lucky that Zerra couldn’t hear his thoughts...

He began to doubt Cassias’ identity. Maybe he was right.

The soldier cleared his throat. "Wait here. I will ask my superior about this."

Without waiting for Cassias’ response, he hurried away toward the base.

Zerra bit her lip, and her eye twitched. She had a feeling that she would soon turn into a human again. In anxiety, she tapped Cassias’ wrist, trying to convey her message to him.

"You are going to turn into a human?" He asked.

She nodded frantically, not wanting to transform in public. Someone might catch her mid-transformation, and she might be sent to the Research Institute then!

"Let’s find a place..." Cassias trailed off as he walked, carrying her.

They arrive at a bathroom in a nearby building. Cassias set her down. "I will keep guard outside. You can change in the room. Don’t worry, I already put mental power as a wall around this area."

Zerra entered the bathroom. She was still bashful transforming around Cassias. She had transformed into human or fox form a few times in front of him. Despite that, it was also an extremely private matter for her.

It was also embarrassing to have someone watching her, even if the transformation effect was instantaneous and unlike those werewolves in movies.

She came out after a while, wearing loose trousers and a white T-shirt.

Cassias sent her a smile, yet it didn’t lessen the sudden awkward atmosphere around them. They walked together back to the base.

Zerra wouldn’t lie that working with the male lead or having the male lead favoring her fox form had its perks, but she also still couldn’t get over the fact that he found out her true identity as a fox.

"Cassias," she called out.

The man turned to her, raising his eyebrows.

Why did she feel he was teasing her? It must have been her imagination. "Why do you like fluffy animals so much?"

Cassias’ expression stiffened for a moment. Zerra wondered whether she had asked the wrong question. It had something to do with his past, huh? She had never seen him act like that around cats or dogs though, so why a fox now?

"I used to have a fox..." he paused. "She had snow-white fur just like you."

Her curious eyes darted to him. "Where is the fox now?"

"I don’t know." He shook his head. "It used to be my favorite animal, but I think it must have died. I saw the traces of blood and some dogs..." he trailed off.

Zerra looked at him with pity. "Sorry about that."

"It’s fine. It was a long time ago anyway," Cassias muttered expressionlessly. However, Zerra could see that he was a little disturbed. His gaze occasionally would lose focus, as if remembering his fox.

"But you still can’t treat me as that fox. I am different." She emphasized. "I am a fox with my own fox rights."

A stunned look crossed Cassias’ face before a chuckle escaped his lips. "Yes, yes, you are different. Of course, I won’t regard you as that fox."

She rolled her eyes. The male lead was sometimes a liar, so she would only half-trust those words.

"Sir, the man who claimed to be your cousin was here before... I didn’t expect that he was also a fraud." A voice filled with indignation floated to their ears as they approached the area where they had met the soldier earlier.

When the soldier saw Cassias and Zerra, he was a little taken aback because had been no girl beside him before.

Thinking that Cassias’ purpose was to deceive him and abduct a girl, he pointed to Cassias tremblingly. "Sir, it’s the man. It’s the man! He hadn’t been with a girl here before. I am afraid he might deceive some innocent girl and plan to abduct her from our base!"

The moment they stepped closer, Zerra heard such an outrageous claim. She widened her eyes. Did she really look that easy to fool and abduct?

"I am not abducted!" Zerra took large strides and argued with the soldier. "Do you think I am so easy to be deceived?"

The look in the soldier’s eyes seemed to say yes, but he didn’t say it out loud. "T-then, don’t follow any random person on the street, little girl..."

Little girl? Her face twitched. She glared at the soldier. "I am already an adult."

Cassias cleared his throat, now standing behind her. "She is my fiancee."

Zerra pursed her lips. It was a rare occasion when Cassias would publicly announce their relationship like that. In the apocalypse, wasn’t their engagement supposed to be void too?

She even forgot the existence of the engagement ring.

"Sir..." the soldier was utterly confused now, turning to the Lieutenant General behind him. Only then did he notice the similarities with Cassias...

"Evan," Cassias greeted his cousin. Zerra finally realized the lieutenant general’s presence too. She subconsciously straightened her posture.