[He laughs, soft and an affirmation of Natsuno's dismissiveness there; lets himself be gathered into the embrace, curling an arm around one of Natsuno's shoulders and soaking in the closeness.

There's a darker edge to the laugh, too, though -- a gleam of teeth in his smile when he goes on.]

Haha, they wish they could have used us like that. The Protectorate was always one of the most dangerous groups in the Underworld, especially during the war -- we tamed our own Celestial Beasts and we could use Celestials any way we liked, just as long as we could capture them. It was a stalemate for control of the worlds. That's why they had to agree to a ceasefire.

[Thus far, a lot of the tale has been told with the sort of detachment and matter-of-factness of a series of events that happened to someone else. That hasn't changed quite yet.]

... All of the other Infernals agreed to it. The Protectorate ended up standing alone after that, apparently.

I asked Father once, if they tried to eliminate the clan the way they did the real Celestial Beasts. It would have made sense, especially back when there were still skirmishes. They didn't succeed either way, though. We guarded our Beasts for years and years and years, and it's almost impossible to track us down if we don't want to be found.

I'm pretty sure there used to be a lot more of us, though.