Princess Clarice always assumed The Hound wanted nothing in the world besides his vengeance on the gods of Azuma. Turns out she was wrong—he wants her, too.
(These two were giving off bitter ex-situationship energy in the silly official Rune Factory comic, so I made this. Please do not throw rocks at me.)
CW: 18+ explicit smut, unhealthy power dynamics, *mildly* dubious consent, breeding kink, very much hate sex with no romance.
Part 1 (of 2)
The Hound was behaving…atypically. Clarice always strove to maintain the standards of vocabulary her royal tutors once expected of her, and so she would not stoop to calling her subordinate’s ceaseless hovering “really weird” or “getting pretty annoying.” She would have simply agreed if someone else said such things.
While it was true that the man who called himself The Hound could not survive if he strayed too far from Clarice for too long, he usually treated their forced proximity with distaste and showed no interest in her daily life. He waited for orders and then obeyed them to the letter. He did exactly what she asked of him and not a bit more. He chafed at Veyron’s instructions to look after the Princess of the fallen Sechs Empire, and Clarice privately couldn’t blame him—it must be humiliating beyond measure for a fallen god to play nursemaid to the woman who killed him.
And now his continued existence depended on hers. Regardless of what either thought of it, that much was true. It was impossible to read whatever thoughts may lie behind The Hound’s icy visage, and a princess would never beg a dog to share his opinion of her. Clarice did, however, feel compelled to seek at least some answers on the third consecutive day of his odd behavior. He simply wouldn’t leave her alone.
“Do you not have other duties to attend, Hound?”
“Oh, I’m sure I do, but I can’t seem to recall any…Princess.” Vague words and a spiteful tone, as always.
“Your carelessness is not amusing,” she bit back. “I asked you to find the amulet of sacrifice. Upon your suggestion, might I remind you.”
“Consider me reminded,” he drawled, and did not make any attempt to leave the tent that served as the war room of what remained of the Sechs Empire. Clarice thumped her hands onto the wooden table, the force of it sending miniatures and placemarkers toppling over. The Hound whistled. She spun on him.
“What is your problem with me?”
“You can’t really be asking me why I might have a ‘problem’ with the woman who struck me down in my prime,” said the insouciant man who leaned against the table like he owned it and avoided meeting her eyes. He picked up a small paperweight—shaped like a beast’s fang—and toyed with it between his fingers. He clearly wanted to bait her into a blame game and dig up the past so he could unsettle her and walk away all the more insufferable. Clarice did not feel like playing.
“What is your present problem?” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Why are you shadowing my every step day and night? I’ve caught you peering over my shoulder as if spying on me twice today already, and it is barely past noon. It is not welcome.”
“Oh, don’t let it trouble you, Princess,” the wretch replied. He started rolling the brass fang between his palms. “I’m only keeping an eye on you like dear old Veyron said I should. I always do as I’m told, after all.” He was rolling the paperweight back and forth quite fast by the time he finished dramatically sighing out that excuse.
“Are you trying to start a fire with that thing? Put it down, Hound.” He wrapped his hand into a fist around it and smacked it down on the table with a heavy thump. Clarice jumped a little, despite herself. He closed the distance between them in only a couple of strides, and then he was standing far too close to her, blowing right past any kind of respectful distance. Clarice pulled back but the Hound grabbed both her arms to hold her in place.
“Remove your hands at once!” she squeaked, trying to sound authoritative. And failing badly, she knew. His grip tightened. “T-this is inappropriate. I would punish you for this, if you were an ordinary man—”
“Ah, there it is,” he said cryptically.
“There is what? I’ve just about had it with you, Hound. Speak plainly.”
“My present problem, as you put it. I’m not an ordinary man, am I?” Of course not, Clarice thought. While he took the form of a handsome young man, this creature was a monster through and through. The monster shifted his grip to her waist and shoved her against the edge of the table. A moment later, she was pinned down by his hips against hers. Clarice let out a choked gasp as two equally intense feelings ran through her at once: horror, and desire.
“So sorry,” The Hound whispered into her ear, not sounding the least bit sorry. His ice-cold breath made her shiver. “I thought I might be free of it, honestly, now that I’ve been reduced to this pathetic form, but it seems…not.”
“F-free of what? Your sanity?”
He barked out a laugh. “Can’t lose something you never had.” Clarice made a half-hearted effort to push him away. The reason didn’t really matter; this behavior was out of line. He ground his hips into hers in response, hard. “No, Princess, you’ll stay put. I can tell from your scent that you don’t hate this.” He grabbed her chin with one gloved hand and pulled away from her ear to look her in the eye, his face a cruel mockery of tenderness. “Do you, sweetheart?”
Clarice forced herself to look away from his piercing blue eyes and willed her own eyes to land on the most boring possible thing in the tent. Anything but The Hound’s smug face; his pretty and almost perfectly human looks made it too easy to forget what he was. Her body, however, could not ignore him as easily. She opted to just shut her eyes before she spoke. “You at least owe me an explanation for this insubordination, Hound. I’ll decide what to do with you when I hear it.” It was difficult to retain the upper hand when her adversary had her quite literally pinned down. He only laughed again, the sound as fake as the rest of his Tagesanbruch persona.
“Very well. I suppose I can indulge you a little,” he purred. “You fought me in my true shape, dear Clarice, so I don’t need to tell you that I am a wolf. A god, too, of course…but still a beast. It seems even though you’ve forced me to reform my body into this…spirit, of sorts, I’m still subject to all the same old instincts.”
“Such as the urge to eat innocent people?” Clarice spat out. She whipped her head around when she said it, putting her only a couple of inches from his face. From his razor sharp teeth.
“Yes, though that one’s been less pressing lately,” he said, surprising her. “I suppose I do have you to thank for that. And oh, relax—I’m not going to eat you.”
“You must indeed be insane if you think that’s what I’m concerned about at this moment.”
He tapped his fingers against her sides. Then, he dug them into her skin so hard it hurt. He grinned. “Don’t worry about a thing, Princess. I’m only going to fuck you for long enough to be rid of this maddening desire. You’ll enjoy your part in it well enough.”
Clarice would have snarled if her throat was made to produce such sounds. “You truly believe you’ll have me? You killed my family.”
The Hound’s wickedly sharp fangs caught a slant of sunlight as he threw his head back, baying. He took his hands off her to rake them through his strange light-to-dark hair as he shook with laughter. Even now, he mocked her. She hated him. She hated him so much. “And you killed me,” he hissed out at last.
“You cannot truly think those two things-–”
“I don’t think anything you don’t allow me to think, Princess. I live to serve.”
“And yet you show me disrespect and disobedience even now.” She finally managed to fully shove him away from her. He let her. She looked at him, all of him—it was true that he appeared…affected by something. She’d never once seen him drink alcohol, but something similar to drunkenness obviously burned through his veins. His face was heavily flushed and his hands shook along with his legs. His breathing came heavy. His eyes kept flicking to her breasts, her waist, the exposed parts of her thighs.
It occurred to Clarice that the arousal she felt might not be entirely her own. There was precedent for this man’s most intense desires to alter and even overshadow her own feelings. He didn’t know that she knew, but the wicked Kamurosaki had infected her with his curse—and consequently his thirst for vengeance—the moment she struck him down. This slender young man was what remained of the legendary wolf god who laid waste to Azuma and eventually made his way to Adonea, where he slaughtered nearly every survivor of the fall of the Sechs Empire. He was, for a long time, the most dangerous being to roam the world. He was spoken of in whispers and appeased with sacrifices. And in this moment, he looked pitiful. The thought of finally having this destructive, wild entity entirely at her mercy, dependent on her for more than simple survival, was admittedly…exciting. He would resent this view immensely, so that feeling must be all Clarice.
“If you mean to serve me, Hound, then cease barking and begging like a mad dog and serve. Get back in the field and find the amulet.” It gave her no small pleasure to deny him. It gave her even greater pleasure to watch the immediate effect it had on him; his handsome face twisting as if pained, his shaking hands balling into fists.
“A mad dog, huh? I’m afraid that’s all I am, Princess. But you keep me around because I get the job done. I’ve been so effective, haven't I? I’ve handed you everything you wanted, everything you needed to get your revenge. And I’ll get your damn amulet. Give me this one thing in return. It’s your fault, anyway.”
She kept him around because he’d quite literally possessed her and she had no choice. She didn’t value his service or his contributions—he was nothing but an enemy she kept closer than her friends, because she had few left, because he ate most of them. What he wanted did not matter. In fact, nothing could possibly matter less. The Hound was the ghost of the calamity that destroyed her home. He deserved the state he was in: dead, diminished, and desperate.
She grabbed the ring of his collar and tugged. He groaned. His face broke into an ecstatic grin so wide she could see all four of his lethal fangs. She leaned close, close enough to whisper in his ear:
“Bring me the amulet.”
“What?!”
“You heard me, Hound. Be a good dog and fetch it for me. If you manage that, we’ll see about addressing your…situation.”
He stood completely still for a moment, his shaking aside, and then turned and stormed out of the tent, ripping claw marks into the draping as he went.
Clarice took a deep breath for the first time that day. She retained some amount of control over that beast. Her concern now was keeping control over herself—because she could not deny how eagerly she awaited his successful return.
I haven't seen all the bonding events or banter with everyone but nothing will change my mind that Clarice and Pilika would be Rival Marriage options for each other (or "platonic rivals" ig, if they're cowards) if this game allowed it they are Very Odd about each other
Fubuki is the other option, Clarice will not escape the Furry Allegations™
It’s never brought up in Clarice’s friendship event dialogue that she killed the main character’s childhood friend—whether you revive them or not, this is fact. I like Clarice but as someone who assumed a bad ending would take place if I sacrificed Subaru, there not being a single reference to her murdering Kaguya was pretty unsatisfying. I guess it wouldn’t have been as easy to make her a marriage candidate or able to receive as much support if they acknowledged this fact but damn, it’s a gaping hole. Maybe her romance should at least be locked behind saving the childhood friend and her apologizing to them specifically in one of her friendship events.
Hey pesky pumpkin/pesky poltergeist, what are your favorite headcanons and ships in writing, reading, or just mental headcanons for rf Goa?
oooooh so many hahaha. I’ll cover ships first. My fav ship is Subaru x Cuilang x Mauro. I think the three of them fit together really, really well—Subaru and Mauro are very adventurous, Mauro’s smarter than he lets on and he and Cuilang have a shared interest in automata, Subaru and Cuilang are both very self-sacrificing… They all like spending time together and have chemistry in all directions. They cover a lot of each other’s weakness, and more literally on that front they’re pretty easily a tank/healer/damager trio haha.
I also like antagonist!Kaguya x Clarice because they have so much in common. I think they’d really understand each other, and probably be more realistic with each other about their expectations of forgiveness/redemption than the rest of the cast. I imagine they’d probably start traveling to help around Azuma because neither seems to be in the right headspace to adapt to quiet village life. I mean Clarice’s romance is largely just scenes of her crying and in Kaguya’s quest it’s clear she like. Doesn’t know how to live in a house.
My fave rarepair is probably Fubuki x Hina. He’s so quiet and reserved, she’s loud and joyful. Both would be absolutely terrifying if they were legitimately angry with you. Also big canine cuddles.
More in the directions of head canons—I think Cuilang and Ikaruga start off hating each other because they also have a ton in common (lost master/father figure, consumed by duty) or opposite (mostly, their completely opposite relationships with food) and neither one is exactly friendly. Cuilang’s nice but socially awkward, so could easily come across as standoffish, and Ikaruga’s introduction as an antagonist speaks for itself. Originally I thought this was a pretty baseless hc, however! in Ikaruga’s romance, there’s a scene where he’s *really* hostile to Cuilang and Zaza for absolutely no reason. Idk why he’d be sus of Zaza but to me this supports that he and Cuilang don’t get along. With Subaru mediating though I think they’d eventually get along and have a scary-good professional relationship. They’d probably deny being friends but they absolutely are.
another hc I have is that Cuilang plays with dolls. I’m writing a ficlet about this actually, because he says he disposes of his dolls because humans don’t need them but like… that sounds so much like a young adult ditching their childhood safety blanket to be ‘more mature’ and I think he’d similarly regret it later. Also, plenty of adults love dolls for display and some adult collectors do play with them. So anyway I think Cuilang plays with dolls and I think he and Kanata have adult doll playdates because A) precious and B) they both need to loosen up and deserve to just have fun.
I’ve got more but those are the ones that are coming to mind right now <3
