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The Tale of the Demon Lord	By : Arianawray Category: InuYasha > Yaoi - Male/Male > InuYasha/Sessh?maru > InuYasha/Sessh?maru Views: 56279 -:- Recommendations : 4 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of its characters, and I do not make any money from these writings.

Chapter List
- 29
- 30
- 31
XXX: What Price?
Hours before dawn, he awoke in his father's bedroom, held in his brother's arms. At once, a sinking feeling rocked his heart when he remembered that Sesshomaru had not wanted to go all the way with him until he had insisted. Maybe it was too much, too soon? Would Sesshomaru regret this development? Would he himself regret it? He had been too hasty, too anxious to act on the feelings which he had only just come to recognise as attraction, and had been driven closer to Sesshomaru by his jealousy of Naraku instead of waiting for the time to be right.
He should have waited for a better time…
But the sleeping demon lord stirred in response to the unsettled feeling in Inuyasha's half-demon aura, and pulled him closer. "You're not thinking of running away from me, are you?" Sesshomaru growled seductively into his ear.
He proceeded to make love to him all over again, giving him so much of his attention and affection that Inuyasha forgot his doubts for a while.
Afterwards, they curled up together in a silence which felt comfortable to Sesshomaru but heavy to his brother. The prince did not know how to articulate his unease, so the verbal plea he made to the demon lord was one that had nothing to do with how he truly felt: "I don't want to see Naraku's face at breakfast."
His eyes looked upon the dark-purple sky and watched it lighten by the merest shade of blue, a warning that the sun was speeding upwards to the horizon.
"I never have breakfast with unwelcome visitors from other lands," Sesshomaru assured him, giving him another kiss. "When they stay at the castle, they are served their morning meals in their own rooms, and I eat in mine. So you and I shall eat together in my room."
"After a bath, okay? We can't eat breakfast or go downstairs smelling like this."
"Smelling like what?" Sesshomaru teased, snuffling around Inuyasha's hair and neck and chest, making him chuckle. "You mean of this most delicious scent of sex and half-demon naughtiness and dog demon lust?"
Inuyasha laughed, quelling his worries again as Sesshomaru's snuffling tickled him, and he squirmed and held him off the best he could, finally saving himself from further tickling – and possibly more sex – by pointing out that the sky was getting brighter, and they should return to their rooms.
"To my room," Sesshomaru asserted as he pulled on his outer robe and picked up the jade pieces he had dropped to the carpet the night before and folded them up along with the oil in the wrapping cloth. "Your attendant can come over to see to your dressing and bath needs."
"Father's bed is so comfortable, though, and I'm so short of sleep, no thanks to you… I don't think I feel like walking down the corridor to your room," Inuyasha murmured. He had slipped on his brother's dressing gown, but now he fell back against the pillows.
"Up," Sesshomaru ordered, taking him by the hand and pulling him into a sitting position. "On my back. Now."
"On your back?" Inuyasha echoed incredulously. "Like just before you squashed me out in the field?"
"Come on."
The playfulness of it all made him feel lighter of heart, and he went along with it.
So the guards along the corridor found it impossible not to stare in amazement as their king strode out of his father's old room and into his own bedroom just before dawn, with the prince riding piggy-back on him all the way as if they were children, the younger one chuckling and resting his chin affectionately on his brother's left shoulder.
They gave instructions to the servant on duty at the end of the corridor to tell the bath-furnace operators to heat the demon lord's bath, then soaked in the hot water together as the sun slowly came up over the horizon.
Inuyasha had a feeling that if Natsumi, Isshin and Sesshomaru's two other wardrobe servants had not hurried upstairs to attend to them upon being informed that they had woken up earlier than usual, Sesshomaru would have taken him again, right there and then in the bath.
As it was, the demon lord had to content himself with running his claws through his brother's hair and washing him with his own hands, deep under the water so as not to embarrass him too much in front of the servants.
Inuyasha would not get out of the water in front of the others, so Sesshomaru had them wait outside the bathroom while he wrapped Inuyasha and himself in their bathrobes.
"What are you still so pensive about?" Sesshomaru whispered when they were alone. "Have I made you unhappy in some way?"
"No. It's just that… it all happened so fast last night…"
"Is that what's bothering you?" Sesshomaru asked. "And here I was thinking that we had taken ever so long to get there."
"Really?"
"Really," Sesshomaru replied, kissing him and taking a weight off him.
Inuyasha smiled and kissed him back, feeling much happier. "I'll go back to my room to get dressed," he said. "It's a lot easier that way, instead of hauling those fussy formal robes back and forth."
"If you wish – but leave your room door open," Sesshomaru said. "You can dress behind your screens. I want to know that there are no closed doors between us this morning, even if you are in another room."
"You really are strange," Inuyasha remarked with a grin, kissing him on the mouth again. "But okay, I'll leave my door open."
"Come back quickly for breakfast."
With that, they parted for the next half-hour to let Sesshomaru's three attendants assemble his elaborate formal wardrobe and groom his long hair, and for Natsumi to get Inuyasha properly attired in clothing that was not nearly as fussy as his brother's, but which was nonetheless fancier than his everyday wear.
Natsumi turned away as usual to let Inuyasha put on the first inner layer of clothing by himself, but that white layer was thin and light apart from its stiffer collar. So when the racoon demon turned back, she could easily see the marks Sesshomaru's kisses and love bites had left on the prince's skin.
"Well? Is Lord Sesshomaru a good lover?" she asked softly and playfully, having picked up the vibes between the royal brothers this morning – a strong undertow of affection that had not been there on all those earlier occasions when Sesshomaru had ordered Inuyasha into his bed.
"You should know," Inuyasha mumbled, reddening.
"Oh dear no, serving the king at his baths is quite different from spending all night with him," she replied.
"I'm not talking about this."
"Yes, Your Highness," she answered demurely, but in the mirror, Inuyasha could see her smile, and he reddened further.
"I can see your face, you know," he grumbled, as she fastened the second layer of his clothing, a light silk robe in a lavender shade.
"I know," she replied, her smile growing wider.
"Oh, stop it!" he growled.
By this time, Natsumi had drawn her lower lip between her teeth and was biting it to stop herself from laughing.
"What?" Inuyasha hissed, careful to keep his voice down as his door was open.
"Nothing," his attendant answered. "Except that I remember someone sitting here only a few days ago and grumbling about how 'pathetic' it was to have his elder brother as a lover."
"Well, maybe it still will be!" Inuyasha snapped in embarrassment, and with a frisson of insecurity. "Maybe every other night after this won't be good, or he'll get bored with me, or I'll get mad with him and go back to the village…"
"Or maybe," Natsumi interjected. "It will all turn out fine."
"Hmm."
By the time she had wrapped the third robe layer in a deep, iridescent blue round his trim frame and tied the sash, Inuyasha was thinking to himself that perhaps all would be well.
But while she was brushing his hair, he thought that maybe everything would go wrong.
When she moved on to conditioning it with a bit of oil, he had swung back to thinking that it might work after all.
And when she finished by carefully smoothing the inside and outside of his furry ears with a piece of soft cloth that had a dab of oil on it, he was absolutely certain that everything would end horribly.
So he grabbed his Tetsusaiga once Natsumi was done with his grooming, pushed it through his sash, and prepared to hurry back to Sesshomaru's room picturing all the ways in which this new dimension of their relationship wouldn't work. But as he rose to his feet and went around the screen towards the open doorway, he found Sesshomaru already standing there, looking into the bedroom.
Natsumi bowed and escaped to the other end of the room where she busied herself with wardrobe matters that were hardly urgent.
"How is it that my robes are more elaborate than yours, but you have taken longer to get dressed and groomed?" Sesshomaru asked in low, deep tones with a touch of playfulness, which sent shivers right down to Inuyasha's toes.
"Maybe it's because you have three attendants and I have one?" Inuyasha returned, feeling suddenly self-conscious about how he looked as he walked towards his brother, who was resplendent in white and ice-blue garments held in place by a dazzlingly knotted sash of green and dark blue.
"Maybe it is because I do not hold whispered, chatty conversations with my attendants, nor do I allow them to tease me," Sesshomaru said, throwing his voice towards the other end of the room, in response to which Natsumi turned around in alarm, dropped to her knees and bowed her head to the ground in apology while blushing furiously.
"Natsumi was only reminding me of something I said days ago," Inuyasha said, taking Sesshomaru by the hand and leading him back to his bedroom before the poor girl sank like jelly through the floorboards.
"That it would be pathetic to be my lover?" Sesshomaru said, as they closed his room door behind them and were alone once more.
"That was before I liked you," Inuyasha replied, embarrassed, but not too worried because he could see the lively spark in Sesshomaru's golden eyes, and scent his pleasure. Carefully, so as not to disarrange his beautifully groomed hair and perfectly draped robes, he pressed his body against Sesshomaru's, and kissed him deeply on the mouth.
"Mmm… I forgive you for that statement you made in your ignorance," Sesshomaru murmured between this kiss and the next they moved smoothly into.
The demon lord tasted now of clean breath and gentle desire, so much the same and yet so interestingly different from last night's passionate, almost angry lust, that the prince was tempted to explore further. But breakfast was on the marble-topped table by the window, and if he messed up his brother's robes now, Isshin would have to be called back – and the chief attendant would probably fire him looks sharp enough to kill after seeing all his hard work undone.
So Inuyasha desisted and drew Sesshomaru over to the table instead, declaring: "I'm really, really hungry after last night. Think we can get some real food down before we devour each other's tongues?"
"Your tongue will be on my menu for tonight, along with several other parts of your body," Sesshomaru promised as they took adjacent stools at the round table. These were the chairs, and this the table, at which Sesshomaru had once held him on his lap while saying things to him that had made him blush with shame and anger.
Everything had changed.
And breakfast had never tasted so good.
~ - ~
"Are you listening to me, Your Highness?" Jaken asked, raising his voice by half an octave.
"Huh?" Inuyasha asked, coming out of what was probably the thirtieth Sesshomaru-themed daydream of the morning, since breakfast.
Jaken sighed and repeated his earlier question, which the prince had not heard at all: "I asked you if you could see anything amiss in the accounts before you."
"Eh? Oh, these figures and stuff?"
Jaken groaned, but patiently replied: "Yes, those figures and stuff. Your Highness should learn to pick out inconsistencies and inaccuracies in accounts, so that others will not be able to pull the wool over your eyes by simply waving sheets of numbers in front of you, knowing that you will make nothing of them."
"Erm… the handwriting is a crime in itself?" Inuyasha ventured hopefully, squinting at the scrawled entries.
"Try again. If this were presented to you for your clearance and approval, would you see anything in it that you would want to ask questions about?"
"Er…" Inuyasha dragged out that noncommittal vocalisation for a long time before speaking his next words. "I would want to know… why we paid seventy gold pieces for the creation and delivery of a… sculpture for the art gallery in the east wing when the art gallery in that wing only has paintings…?"
"Well done," Jaken said, giving the prince a smile. "What about the figures themselves?"
Inuyasha had no fondness for numbers and sums, but he was not incompetent with them. Sticking his tongue out to concentrate harder, he ran through the figures twice, and found that they did not add up. "The total is wrong – it's a larger figure than the actual sum should be."
"Good," the kappa demon said with satisfaction. "That was the easy one."
"The 'easy one'? You mean there's more?" Inuyasha yelped.
Before he could raise any further complaint, and before Jaken could push the next sheet of paper across the desk to him, the prince's sharp nose caught the scent of someone approaching the library – someone who did not belong to the castle.
"So figures are not your strong suit," said a strange voice, even before the person in question appeared in the doorway.
When he did show his face, it turned out to be Hakudoshi, Naraku's middle child. It occurred to Inuyasha then that all the spider demon's children smelt almost exactly like him, and like one another. It wasn't surprising, he supposed, since Naraku had grown them from bits of his own patched-together body.
"I like numbers," the visitor declared starkly, entering the library without waiting for an invitation, and looking around with interest. "What a lot of books you have here – we have none in our home."
"I don't suppose you'd like to read any," Inuyasha mused. He stood up out of politeness, a few moments after Jaken had got to his little green feet and bowed cautiously to the young lord.
"Not at all. Books never interest me," replied the demon of boyish appearance, who seemed to wear a permanent expression of half-scorn and half-amusement on his face.
"Have you lost your family?" Inuyasha asked, craning his neck in exaggerated fashion and purposely casting wide glances around and behind Hakudoshi, as if expecting to see his father and siblings at any moment.
No one was there, of course, except for two of the castle's guards watching carefully from the doorway of the library, undoubtedly having been told that on no account was the prince to be left unguarded in the company of any of the visitors.
"Is this how you spend all your mornings?" Hakudoshi questioned, his voice suggesting a range of emotions from pity to curiosity to envy.
"Yes, most of my mornings are spent having lessons with Jaken-sensei," Inuyasha said in a neutral tone of voice, still wondering what the demon-boy wanted.
"If you became Father Naraku's consort, you wouldn't need to attend morning lessons, or any lessons – at least not of this sort."
Inuyasha raised his eyebrows and glared at Hakudoshi. "Well, lucky for me then that I have no intention of becoming your father's consort, because I kinda like being properly educated, even if it's sometimes a pain."
The visitor trailed his hand along the spines of a row of books as he strolled past a shelf, then he walked right up to Inuyasha and touched his hair without permission. He was several inches shorter than the prince, so it was the tips of that long silver mane that he stroked. "How long your hair is!" he exclaimed with interest. "And it's shinier and much more silvery than mine – how I envy you."
Jaken and the guards tensed, but Inuyasha reacted calmly, saying: "Greater length comes with age. You must be terribly young."
"I was made not that long ago, it's true. But it isn't fair. Byakuya is younger than me, but he is taller and has longer hair than I do, and it's the same colour as Father Naraku's."
"Perhaps if you didn't keep tearing at your hair every time you threw a tantrum – which is more often than you should – it would grow longer," said another strange voice from the library doorway.
Byakuya, the youngest of the three spider children, stood there now, pointing a look of interested amusement at his sibling, the prince and the tutor.
"What are you doing here?" Hakudoshi snapped at his brother.
"I might ask the same of you. Father Naraku did not give you permission to leave his side. I'm here to retrieve you." Byakuya entered the library, faced Inuyasha and Jaken, and bowed in apology. "Do forgive my elder brother for interrupting your lesson. I'll get him out of your way now."
With that, he put a firm hand on the back of the demon-boy's neck and steered him out of the library, but not before glancing at Inuyasha and winking at him, flashing a right eye that seemed to move and bulge of its own accord, independently of the left.
The wink and the sight of the eye with a life of its own gave Inuyasha a distinctly creepy feeling, but Byakuya was otherwise friendly and appeared to be of a far less desultory and childish turn of mind than Hakudoshi, so the prince calmly and politely bowed back as they left the library.
"That was strange," Inuyasha murmured to Jaken when they were alone.
"We must tell Lord Sesshomaru about this later, before you join them for lunch," Jaken advised him anxiously. "Lord Sesshomaru will not like it at all that the lordling touched your hair without asking permission."
"Creepy things," Inuyasha muttered, before taking his seat at the desk again and ploughing on with his lesson, interspersing the learning points with more daydreaming.
Sesshomaru had excused him from the morning's activities with the visitors, who were to first view the art galleries, then watch the guards perform a display drill in the training hall on the other side of the castle grounds. Evidently, they had been on their way to the training hall when Hakudoshi chose to slip away from the party.
It was the two ministers who were playing host to the visitors for the morning itinerary, as Sesshomaru had decided that he would resume his discussions and exchanges with Naraku only from lunch onwards.
The demon lord had asked his brother early in the morning if he would like to visit the galleries and watch the drill – if he did, then Sesshomaru would go along too, as he had no intention of allowing Inuyasha anywhere near Naraku without being there himself. But Inuyasha said he would be bored by the endless works of art and the drill, which would not interest him as it did not involve real battle or proper sparring.
It was good after all to skip the morning itinerary and instead annoy Jaken by not concentrating on these dull rows and columns of orders and purchases and numbers – and of course to daydream some more.
~ - ~
When his lesson ended, Inuyasha was free to race back towards the royal wing. He thought back again over what had happened last night and all that had followed in the morning, and found himself half-fearing as he ran along the corridor of the royal wing that Sesshomaru had somehow changed his mind about the whole matter and decided to mate him to Naraku instead.
But when he knocked at Sesshomaru's door, let himself in and took in the splendid form of his elder brother rising from the desk to receive him, he saw only that Sesshomaru's eyes were lighting up at sight of him.
Immediately, he threw his fears aside once more and jumped eagerly into the demon lord's arms, wrapping his own arms around his neck and his legs around his waist, then diving deep into another searing kiss.
When he felt Sesshomaru's sash shift under his thighs, however, he quickly put his feet back on the floor and gasped: "Oh no, no, no – if I've messed up your robes your attendants will boil me alive!"
Sesshomaru growled as the prince bent to the task of straightening the lapels and neatening the knots he had disturbed, for he cared nothing for his robes or his attendants at this moment and only wanted Inuyasha writhing between his body and the mattress.
But Inuyasha's next words took his mind off the idea of tossing his little brother into bed and jumping in after him: "Hakudoshi came to the library alone while I was having my lessons. Nothing happened, but he did reach out and touch my hair without permission. Byakuya appeared after that and took him away."
"At what point did this happen?" Sesshomaru asked, alert at once.
"About an hour into my lessons."
"That was about the same time the guards reported to me that Kanna dropped her mirror in the art gallery and shattered it," Sesshomaru informed him. "It must have been a distraction to allow the middle child to get away. I do not like it that he touched you. Were you alone with him at any time?"
"No. Jaken-sensei was there throughout, and two guards stood in the doorway watching everything. We were all very careful. Nothing happened."
"If he used any kind of magic on you, you might not know it," Sesshomaru said, striding to the door at once and ordering the servant on duty to summon the healer Satoshi.
"What would Satoshi know?" Inuyasha asked, puzzled, as Sesshomaru returned to his side and examined his hair carefully.
"The wolf demon is not unskilled in magic for healing purposes. He will know a thing or two about its use – and more importantly, how to counter it. I shouldn't have worn you out the way I did last night – fatigue may have lowered your magical defences. Perhaps we should have waited till Naraku was gone."
"So you wish we hadn't done what we did last night?" Inuyasha asked, his concerns rushing back to the foreground.
"I'm not saying that, Inuyasha," Sesshomaru replied, looking into his eyes. "I do admit that I have doubts about whether I erred in going so far with you. After I sensed your worries this morning, I feared that I might have taken advantage of you at a time when you were upset over Naraku. Besides, you are still such a child. But I do not regret what happened between us."
"I'm not that much of a child," Inuyasha protested unhappily. "I sometimes think I should be more of one, and sometimes less of one, but I'm really not such a baby. I'm grown-up enough to be your partner…"
Satoshi arrived just then, putting an end to their exchange. The wolf-demon entered with a look of concern in his eyes which lifted when he saw that the prince looked well.
"My lord, Your Highness," he said. "I heard from the other staff about the breaking of the magic mirror in one of the galleries. Has it affected Your Highness in any negative way?"
"No," Inuyasha said, even more puzzled now. "I didn't even know that Kanna had dropped her mirror until a few minutes ago."
"So Your Highness was not at the scene?" Satoshi asked.
"No. Why are you worried about the mirror?"
"Your Highness, the objects carried by the spider lord's children and entourage are strongly magical in nature, from what I understand, and from what I have sensed since their arrival. The Lady Kanna's mirror is her weapon, so it is unlikely that she would carelessly let it slip and break just like that. I feared that its shattering might have some significance and effect on the individuals present. I took it upon myself to observe the group leaving the gallery from as close by as I could, after learning of the incident. I did not see Your Highness, which worried me at first as I thought you had been among the party. I observed the rest of the group, however, and neither of our two ministers, nor any of their aides, appeared to have been affected in any way. Then when I received your summons to the royal wing, my lord, I immediately feared that the breaking of the mirror had after all harmed His Highness."
"No, like I said, I wasn't there," Inuyasha told him. "But at the time the mirror broke, first Naraku's middle child, then his youngest, apparently stole away from the group and came looking for me."
"The second lordling, Hakudoshi, touched the prince's hair," Sesshomaru told Satoshi. "That is why we sent for you."
The healer approached Inuyasha at once and requested permission to examine his hair. Having obtained it, he lifted the tresses in both his hands and took a deep sniff at them, watched very closely and with not a little jealousy by Sesshomaru.
"I can smell very faint traces of the lordling's touch at the very ends of your hair, Your Highness," Satoshi said.
"Yes, that is where he touched it."
The wolf demon put his hands over the spot where the remnants of Hakudoshi's scent lingered, and seemed to be trying to read with his fingers what had been done to the hair. Then he scrutinised Inuyasha's face and examined his half-demon aura carefully.
"Nothing of a magical nature appears to have been done to Your Highness," Satoshi said, after stepping back. "The lordling certainly touched your hair, but he did not seem to have attempted to place any spells or leave traces of magic on it, or on any other part of you. I am very sure of that."
"Then perhaps something else was done, and we are looking in the wrong place," Sesshomaru said thoughtfully.
But the moment had come for them to meet Naraku and his entourage for lunch, so no more could be discussed about the matter for this time. Nor was there privacy or time for finishing the conversation they had been engaged in before Satoshi's arrival.
~ - ~
"I heard that your mirror broke in the art gallery," Inuyasha said politely to Kanna when he and Sesshomaru joined the rest of the party for lunch. "I hope you were not hurt in the accident."
"I was not. Thank you for your concern," Kanna replied in a voice so thin and insubstantial that her words were nearly inaudible.
"The mirror looks fine, though," he remarked, glancing at the circle of reflective glass.
"It repairs itself," said Kanna even more softly than before.
"There's still a small notch at the edge," Inuyasha commented, his sharp eyes spotting a rough-edged depression near the mirror's frame. "I suppose it doesn't repair itself completely all at once?"
"Some things take more time," answered Kanna.
"Yeah, I guess."
"It's not the first time this silly child of mine has shattered her mirror – Kagura was never half as awkward," Naraku threw in his contribution from across the table. "Some kinds of damage, when inflicted repeatedly, can't be easily repaired."
Inuyasha glared at him, for his words were a reminder of how Natsumi's injuries had been inflicted on her over and over again, to the point where she had almost been unable to heal. It was on the tip of his tongue to snap out something harsh and rude at the spider demon.
But out of the corner of his eye he could see Minister Atsushi, diagonally across from him, shaking his head in a near-imperceptible warning not to flare up. Inuyasha also remembered in time his attendant's advice to remain calm in the presence of this being who took joy in the distress of others.
"We would all do well to heed such wise words," the prince said at last, evenly. His cold eyeing of the spider lord made it clear that he was specifically including Naraku in his statement.
"What a precious creature His Highness is," Naraku laughed, practically devouring Inuyasha with his eyes. "Glaring at me like a pup over this fine spread of food. If it were not the case that Lord Sesshomaru has forbidden anyone else to touch this puppy without his permission, I would reach over the table to pinch those fresh young cheeks!"
"Naraku," said Sesshomaru in a dangerously pleasant fashion. "If you do any such thing I shall be obliged to declare war on your territory."
Hakudoshi frowned and Byakuya raised his eyebrows, while some of the spider lord's aides and staff tittered nervously. Sesshomaru's tone of voice might have made the statement seem a joke, but no one could mistake the ferocious threat blazing in the demon king's golden eyes.
"Well, Your Majesty, we would not want that, would we?" Naraku asked with a twinkle that made his garnet eyes glitter unattractively. "Although I could dream of winning such a conflict, and picture what a charming prisoner of war your brother would make, I am realistic enough to know that I would have no chance of emerging the victor in a campaign such as one you could wage on me. And a king of your rank would be well within your rights to attack me for making further advances to a prince you may well prefer to promise to another, or perhaps… to keep to yourself."
It had not escaped Naraku's sharp eyes that something had shifted in the relationship between the brothers, making the air between them distinctly more intimate. While it angered him to think that his own machinations might have brought about a development he would have preferred not to see, he was also quick to begin calculating new possibilities that might work to his advantage in this changing scenario.
"As I said yesterday, Inuyasha will choose his own mate," Sesshomaru stated, looking at his brother.
"Your care of and affection for your brother is admirable, Lord Sesshomaru, considering it was not so very long ago that you would describe anyone with mixed origins as a 'filthy half-breed'," Naraku smiled, turning to glance from Sesshomaru to Inuyasha. "Did you know that, Your Highness?"
Inuyasha, hurt by the ugly words, flashed a look at Sesshomaru. But the demon lord looked back at him with eyes that burned fiercely enough to melt his injured feelings, and said: "I have uttered many things that in their own time have signified the foolishness of my youth. But I am not that child now, and my brother knows it well. And he will choose his own mate."
"Interesting. Whomever he chooses had better keep him as carefully as he would guard a king's ransom," Naraku remarked significantly, an edge to his voice revealing his disappointment at not having been able to cause trouble between the siblings.
"Perhaps some tribes like to define everything in monetary terms, but in my tribe we do not like to put a price on our family members, for it might suggest that they can be bought," Sesshomaru stated.
"It seems there is no price I can offer that would buy me the prince," Naraku said, his comments verging on the offensive, considering that Inuyasha was sitting right there listening to everything, and they were in the presence of dining hall servants and attendants.
"It seems not," Sesshomaru replied coldly.
"Well, then, it will be a lucky individual who is chosen by His Highness," Naraku sighed dramatically.
"Indeed the person will be most fortunate," said Sesshomaru, looking at Inuyasha, his intense eyes and words imparting to the prince a meaningful and satisfying conclusion to their unfinished conversation from before.
"More fortunate for me if the one I choose also chooses me," Inuyasha said steadily, looking back at his brother.
Naraku, who did not miss the exchange of deep looks, could only smile and seethe.
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The Tale of the Demon Lord