"Huh? Who told you to stop clapping?!" Gold snapped.
At once, they resumed, softer this time, their paws tapping nervously against one another.
"The moment I sensed the irregularity from afar, I thought I was hallucinating," Gold said, stepping down from her elaborate chair and beginning a slow walk toward them. "It is not the first time I've had the sudden urge to oppress Specter Wolves that I actually see things... but this time, I was correct."
She stopped directly in front of them just as #79 hurried back inside, panting hard, holding a rag in her jaws.
"Ah, that napkin
belongs to Onee-sama," Gold said with a casual melody. "Return it at once, or I will feed you to her when she starts asking questions."
#79 yelped and bolted out again.
Gold turned back to the wolves, her golden eyes glittering as her smile widened.
"Congratulations! You are now my subjects," she announced with a chuckle. "You should take pride in this. After all, I am basically the kindest fox you will ever encounter here. I will not harm you if you simply obey. I only intend to use your bodies as test devices for practicing my dominance ability. Got it?"
The wolves paled visibly and nodded at once.
But then Gold's expression darkened, her voice dropping to a chilling edge.
"If I tell you something, you reply with 'yes, my Princess' or 'yes, your Majesty'. Is that clear?"
"Y-Yes, your Majesty!" they chorused in unison, their voices trembling.
***
Soon, time became unclear under the dominating iron grip of Gold.
The wolves had no sense of day or night, for they were kept almost entirely indoors. At night, they were forced to sleep crammed together in the closet—told, solemnly, it was "for their own safety."
A few of them had suffered slaps and the sting of being stepped on, but otherwise, they learned to serve well: brewing tea, cleaning her chamber, praising her beauty, and even carrying vital reports of secrets from the Specter Wolves' domain.
Slowly, they began adjusting to this strange new life of servitude, especially since no one from their kin had come searching for them.
"Eh?! She really did something so cringe-worthy?" Gold cried out in delighted shock one evening, as #79 confessed Shizuka's ridiculous habit of licking the ice off her ice throne, because she was too lazy to open her mouth and request a glass of water.
"Yes, my Princess," #79 responded obediently. "Sometimes we literally have to lift her off the throne, or she would never move at all."
They all laughed together, mocking Shizuka's indolence.
"But, your Majesty," Aniki ventured as he knelt before Gold, massaging her feet, "is there some secret to your exceptional glamour and divine authority?"
(Note: Please, imagine a literal wolf kneeling and massaging Gold's feet like a humanoid).
Gold flushed at once, puffing out her chest as she was perched proudly upon her massive bed. "Hmph! There is no secret! I was born this way, you know! Onee-sama did tell us that we inherited a fragment of Haha-ue's divinity."
"Ah, most impressive!" Aniki nodded reverently. "But… despite your past raids upon our domain, her Majesty has been unexpectedly kind to us. May I ask why?"
Gold looked away quickly, her face growing hot. "W-Well... You were the ones who were nice to me f-first... so..."
"Your Majesty!" the wolves cried in unison, bowing low until their noses brushed the floorboards. "We will follow you forever!"
"I'm also glad to be your Queen!" Gold chirped, "Now let's continue till we eventually make a castle!"
Indeed, perhaps life under Gold was not so unbearable after all…
Not until the fateful day Onee-sama decided to inspect Gold's room for contraband and cleanliness did things go truly sideways.
Gold had the wolves tied up with a rope while they were, as usual, massaging her and reciting passages from her little book on control and seizing power.
Then she shoved them into the wardrobe and cast a high level misdirection and illusion spell.
The spell was advanced, the sort that Aniki—surprisingly good with magic—had taught her, but Onee-sama saw through it and broke free without much trouble. She had not been supposed to notice the wardrobe at all.
When she realized the trick had fallen apart, Gold abandoned her captives and fled their fortress, like a shameless noble.
The wolves were then marched out of the palace by Onee-sama and Tamayō. But the problem was; the smiles on the kitsunes faces were grotesque and chilling, like something that did not quite belong on anything benevolent.
Aniki and the others knew where they were being led. It was obvious: they were walking toward their execution.
Onee-sama had subsequently ordered them to run for the threshold and to avoid using Shadow Movement.
They could have still tried using it to escape, but both Onee-sama and Tamayō were cosmic-level sorceresses, and the wolves feared the unpredictable consequences of defying them.
So they made a plan.
He proposed that one wolf act as the deliberate decoy, moving slow and clumsy to draw the Kitsunes' attention and cruelty. While the foxes focused on that unfortunate one, the others would surge forward at near-lightning speed.
Specter Wolves run terrifyingly fast, and more so when their lives are at stake—almost as fast as sound. A few seconds could be all they needed.
But likewise: a few seconds is all that would be needed for the foxes to vanquish them.
Before the wolf in charge of distraction perished, two wolves in the center would use [Wolf's Howl] to boost the speed of those ahead, increasing their chance to reach the threshold.
The wolves who would be at the rear accepted that they might be sacrificed in the attempt.
#79 and #99 objected with dejection at first, but the majority agreed and the vote carried.
All of this was set in motion in less than a moment; mental communication is fast, though surprisingly harder to maintain than spoken words.