Simon Stone smiled faintly and replied simply, "I understand."
After speaking, he lowered his head and continued to help Fiona Fox smooth her hair.
White Ape quietly lowered his head and turned to walk back.
After he left, Fiona Fox asked in somewhat halting words, "Monkey King, aren’t you going to cultivate today?"
"Today is a holiday. No cultivation."
"Holiday?"
"Mm."
"Then can you play with me?"
"Well..." Simon Stone smiled awkwardly, "I’ve never taken care of children before, so..."
"Oh." Fiona Fox lowered her head in thought, then looked up and asked, "Can we talk then?"
That’s fine.
This little fox demon, if you count her real age, must be nearly a hundred years old. But for demons, age is only counted after transformation, so by that measure, she’s just a child of about ten.
To be precise, she’s an orphan around ten years old. Not every fox gets to transform; most demons lose their families before then.
For a child of about ten, Belle is much more mature than she is.
After all, one was raised in a monastery, the other in the wild. Maybe because demons aren’t social, their minds mature later than humans.
Simon Stone, can I ask you a question?
Go ahead.' Simon Stone kept smoothing her hair, actually wanting to style it like Belle’s, but he’d never done it before and had no comb. He kept messing it up, feeling awkward.
Luckily, the little fox demon was too innocent to notice, so Simon Stone’s pride was spared.
She fiddled with her fingers, then finally looked up and asked, "Simon Stone, where are you from?"
Why do you ask?