The Spoilt Beauty And Her Beasts-Chapter 650: You all envy me because I am naturally elegant
The winter wall on the east side of the village was noisier than usual that afternoon.
Several males were working together, carrying thick stone blocks, packing wet clay into gaps, and pressing sharpened wood between the outer layers of the wall so that if another enemy had the nerve to come again, they would meet something more unpleasant than before.
The whole place looked busy and alive. Men shouted at each other from the top of the wall, some in serious tones, some in annoyed ones, and some just because Beastmen liked yelling even when normal speaking would do the job perfectly well.
Honestly speaking, it was very noisy.
Osiris was in the middle of it all, holding one end of a heavy stone slab with a look on his face that clearly said he believed the world was unfair.
Why was he, a noble phoenix, carrying stones like a hardworking ox?
Why?
The answer was simple. Isabella had told him to help.
That was enough.
Of course, Osiris would never say that part out loud. If anyone asked him, he would say he was only helping because the others were too stupid to arrange the wall properly without him. He would say he was bored, and the wall looked ugly, and if he had to live here, then at the very least it should not collapse and embarrass him.
This was a lie.
A very obvious one too.
The males around him were not blind. They had long noticed that Osiris, for all his proud nonsense and useless complaints, always appeared the moment Isabella asked for anything. If she wanted firewood, he was there. If she wanted warm water, he was there. If she wanted someone bullied, he was also there, though in that case he looked much happier than usual.
At that moment, he was carrying a large stone with Luca on one side and Valen on the other.
Luca grunted and adjusted his grip. "Lift it properly."
Osiris instantly frowned. "Say please to me. Do you know who you are talking to?"
Valen, who was on the far side helping direct where the stone should go, didn’t even look surprised anymore. He simply said, "A loud bird carrying rock."
The males nearby snorted.
Osiris’s handsome face darkened. "You all envy me because I am naturally elegant."
Luca rolled his eyes. "Can elegant people hold the stone higher. My arm is slipping."
Osiris opened his mouth to scold him properly.
Then suddenly, his chest burned.
The pain came so fast and so sharply that his whole body froze for one terrifying second. It was not ordinary pain. It felt like someone had pressed a heated brand directly into the center of his chest from the inside. The burning shot through his ribs and into his back, and his fingers loosened around the stone from pure shock.
"Careful!" Luca barked.
The stone dropped from Osiris’s side and slammed awkwardly into the ground, tilting and nearly crushing his foot.
Osiris stepped back quickly, one hand flying to his chest.
His phoenix brand was burning.
Not warm.
Not tingling.
Burning.
His breathing turned shallow. Under the skin of his chest, the hidden mark pulsed like a coal pushed deep into flesh. For one brief moment, the world around him seemed to blur.
He saw light.
Not the weak winter sun above the village.
A different light.
Strange and red, flickering around a dark stone room.
He saw robed figures standing in a circle, their faces hidden, their hands lifted. He saw blood lines painted on the ground in a shape that made his skin crawl even in the vision. The sacrificial circle was large, ancient-looking, and ugly in the way only old evil things were ugly. Not messy. Too deliberate.
At the center stood an altar.
Dark.
Cold.
Stained.
Then a voice echoed from somewhere he could not place, not loud, but enough to make every feather on his invisible wings stand up.
The vision vanished as quickly as it came.
Osiris sucked in a sharp breath and pressed harder against his chest.
Luca frowned immediately. "What is wrong with you?"
Several nearby males also turned. Their eyes sharpened at once. After the last attacks, nobody in this village reacted lazily when someone suddenly looked like they had seen a ghost.
Osiris noticed all of that in one sweep.
So he did what Osiris always did when something was wrong.
He lied.
He lifted his head, forced his expression into something halfway between irritated and offended, and said, "This wall is too ugly. My chest hurts from looking at it."
There was a beat of silence. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮
Then Valen stared at him as if he had just heard the dumbest sentence of the season.
Luca’s mouth twitched. "Your chest hurts from looking at a wall."
"Yes," Osiris said stiffly, removing his hand from his chest even though the burning had not fully faded. "That is what I said. The stones are uneven. I have delicate tastes."
One of the younger males nearby laughed so hard he had to turn his head away.
Another muttered, "He really says anything with a straight face."
Osiris glared at all of them, grateful beyond words that they were choosing mockery over suspicion.
Inside, however, he was shaken badly.
The pain in his chest had lessened, but the memory of that circle and altar remained in his mind like a thorn under skin. He knew that feeling. He knew it too well. It was tied to the part of himself that was still locked away, the part of his phoenix inheritance he could not yet reach.
His powers were still sealed.
So why was his brand reacting now?
Who was touching phoenix-related rituals in the middle of winter?
And more importantly, why did it feel close enough to make his blood notice?
Osiris forced himself to breathe evenly. His face remained careless, but his heart had already started beating faster.
"This is not good," he thought. "This is not good at all."
Luca nudged the fallen stone with his boot. "If your noble chest is done being offended, pick your side up again."
Osiris gave him a deadly look. "One day, when I fully recover my powers, the first thing I will do is burn your eyebrows off."
Valen crossed his arms. "You say this every week."
"That is because your eyebrows continue to offend me every week."
This time, the males around them laughed properly.
