Chapter 57
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 57
Chapter Title: I Thought I Was Definitely Strong
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I thought I was strong for sure?
"Hic... sob..."
Just as promised, Eve had received her punishment from Lee Jin-ah, leaving her thighs and butt red and ripe like peaches.
It was the next day after that scolding.
Coming out of her room in the branch chief's office, Eve couldn't slip into Lee Jin-ah's shadow like she usually did.
Whenever she saw her human mom diligently working at the desk, yesterday's punishment came rushing back.
It was clearly her human mom who had spanked her, but strangely, seeing her mom's sad face made Eve feel so guilty she couldn't show her face.
And besides...
'What if she abandons me...?'
Just the day before yesterday, she had humiliated her monster mom in the freezer room.
But in that moment, Eve still regretted the genuine killing intent she had unleashed toward Lee Hee-jung without thinking.
What if that became the reason she got kicked out as the human mom's summoned monster?
And if that happened, she'd definitely get hunted down by the human mom she loved most in the world.
'I don't want that!'
Thud thud thud!
Eve dashed back into her room in the branch chief's office, leaped onto the bed, and wrapped herself tightly in the blanket.
Anyway, today she just wanted to stay like this.
She couldn't face her human mom as if nothing had happened the day after being punished.
It was right then.
"?!"
Her senses, her five senses, her body—even from afar, she could faintly feel it.
Just like the first time she encountered her in the freezer.
In that instant, Eve sensed that the lower half of her mom, the entity named Angel, was standing alone, ready for battle.
And above all, her human mom was currently searching for her monster mom's whereabouts!
'If I find her, she'll definitely praise me!'
Then she'll like me again, right?
She'll love me again, right?
At the very least, it would make up for yesterday's mistake.
With that thought, Eve immediately prepared to leap toward the middle of the mountain where she sensed her monster mom's energy—using the ability Lee Jin-ah had strictly warned her not to use carelessly.
"Armament - Eclipse!"
She spewed crimson-black lightning from her body, her horns grew even larger, and massive gauntlets resembling a giant monster's claws equipped on both hands as she transformed.
"Eve?!"
Lee Jin-ah, sensing Eve's surging power, came rushing into the child's room in a panic.
However, before Lee Jin-ah could stop her...
"Mom! I'll go find Monster Mom!"
"...What?"
Eve flashed a confident grin, forming a pair of wings that crackled like red lightning behind her back.
With that, she shot past Lee Jin-ah, burst through the elevator passage, and boldly raced through the Hunter Association lobby like an arrow.
"Mom! Praise me when I get back soon!"
But Eve's "reconcile with Mom" operation hit a snag right from the start.
"Humans...? But why are there so many?"
Was our mom this popular?
Eve was utterly dumbfounded at the sight of four weirdos from the monster squad, Lee Seok-gyu, and the fellow monster Kersy.
But what she wanted was right there—the lower half of her already dead monster mom!
"Give me that!"
"...? You mean this monster corpse that's just legs left?"
"Yeah! I have to have that!"
Eve stated her goal outright, and Riverin simply looked to her leader.
"Leader! What should we do?"
They had stolen Angel's lower half in the first place merely as a trigger to draw out the Jamsil Monster rumored to be in Korea.
In other words, now that they'd abandoned that goal, was this lower half—belonging to a spawn, no less—really worth battling a humanoid monster over in this situation?
Riverin pondered rationally, awaiting an answer.
"Of course not!"
"...!"
But Catarina just tossed the question back with a hearty laugh.
"That thing would fetch a fortune on the black market! Sure, if we can't hold onto it, we could just hand it over. But Riverin, what do you want to do?"
"Y-You're asking me?!"
She was asking Riverin, the one currently controlling the corpse.
And Riverin replied...
"Of course..."
Of course.
She should hand it over.
Even the dragon right in front of them was overwhelming enough—what if this mysterious humanoid monster joined in? They'd be in real danger.
Her mind was making that rational judgment.
But despite knowing that obvious fact, her instinct as a Marionette Hunter screamed otherwise.
'If I grow until I can fully control this national disaster-grade corpse... maybe I can get even stronger than I am now...!'
A national disaster-grade monster corpse, with only the lower half remaining—something incredibly rare.
Honestly, from a Marionette Hunter's perspective, there was no better practice material.
She might never find another one like it in her lifetime.
A severed national disaster-grade corpse preserved so intact was truly one-of-a-kind.
If she could have her way, she'd just—!
"I-I want it!"
"Oh? Really?"
"Yeah, probably."
"R-Riverin?! Y-You, you're keeping it?"
She could get even stronger than now.
That was the very reason Riverin had become a monster and joined the squad.
So she couldn't give up this experience-point punching bag of Angel's lower half corpse.
"...So you're saying you won't give it up?"
"Yes. That's right."
"Fine. Then..."
Flash!
Her human mom had said not to harm humans, but 'criminals' were fair game.
These weren't proper humans anyway—they'd stolen monster corpses from the Hunter Association basement.
So Eve tensed her legs and charged straight at Riverin.
"Die!"
"Guh?!"
"Riverin! You and Dorothy handle that dragon! I'll take this little monster!"
"Paul! Please!"
Eve's fist, infused with red magic power, clashed against Paul's black blade.
Boom!
In that moment, a shockwave erupted from the collision of their magic powers, and seconds later, both Eve and Paul were pushed back simultaneously.
"Hoh. Not bad strength for a spawn."
"Urgh?! Get out of my way right now!"
Paul had been an A-rank hunter in France, ranked 5th in global hunter power before being branded a monster.
So he was impressed by Eve's unexpectedly strong skills.
And in that gap, Eve shot forward like red lightning, unleashing a barrage of punches so fierce they left afterimages.
"Ora ora ora ora ora-!!"
Boom boom boom boom boom!
In an instant, the ground where Paul had stood cratered, kicking up a cloud of dust.
"Paul!"
"N-No way, i-is he d-dead?!"
No one could survive a direct hit from attacks like that.
Thinking that, Dorothy halted her stomping of Kersy and turned with a tearful face.
But contrary to their worries...
"Haha. I'd survive that unscathed, so don't worry—just keep stomping the dragon."
"Paul!"
"Phew, thank goodness..."
Paul, unharmed by Eve's punches?
The entire monster squad breathed a sigh of relief at his appearance, but Lee Seok-gyu, who had been subtly on guard, widened his eyes in slight surprise.
'Dodging all those punches... That old man's got sharper eyes than he looks.'
Just as he said.
Paul hadn't blocked Eve's wild swings.
He had dodged every single one.
Simply put, he evaded at least two or three punches per second without even grazing them, all from the same spot—that was impressive.
And Eve landed in front of such a Paul.
"Hah... hah...!"
She caught her breath and assumed a fighting stance again.
Whoosh...
"Wha—Huh?!"
A draining noise started coming from her grown horns.
"Ugh...!"
Soon, her transformation released, reverting her to her pre-battle state.
The horn-shaped accessory that had looked like part of her head fell limply to the ground.
"N-No! Mom gave me this precious thing to use!"
Eve hurriedly crouched to pick up the now-unusable horn accessory her human mom had given her.
But that was a mistake.
The moment the spawn averted her gaze...
Shing.
Paul placed his sharp blade right at her throat, ready to end the fight.
"Your skills fall short compared to your potential and gear. That's your downfall."
"...!"
"Farewell. No matter how young, you're still a monster. It'd be weirder if killing you gave me guilt."
Eve tried to turn, but tripped over a rock and fell.
Behind her stood Paul, like an executioner, raising his black blade high to the sky.
"M-Mom...!"
She thought she'd win for sure!
Her mom had said she was a monster who could grow to national disaster grade!
So she fought, certain of victory.
But then came something she'd never experienced since birth.
Defeat.
And death.
As it loomed before her, Eve—who had grown like a greenhouse flower, trained perfectly but never battle-tested—froze completely.
"Farewell."
Her body trembled, and like an ordinary human child facing imminent death, she wet herself in terror.
"U-Uwaaa...! M-Mom... Mommm...!"
And in that moment.
"...! Paul! Dodgeeeeee-!!"
"?!!"
Kaboom!!
Something crashed down before Paul like a black meteor.
It was the monster squad's original goal upon sneaking into Korea—a goal they had now abandoned.
Jet-black skin.
A humanoid monster of surprisingly normal build, clad in rough, armor-like scales.
But the moment they saw it, Cassandra and the entire monster squad thought the same.
To think we'd dared consider this a 'comrade.'
We had no idea of our place.
"Hiiik?!"
"...!"
"Gasp... gasp...!"
"What is this power I'm sensing...? A m-monster?!"
Eve, still trembling, felt a sense of wrongness that she was still alive after some time had passed.
So she mustered her courage and slowly opened her tightly shut eyes.
Peering carefully upward at the figure in front of her.
There knelt a powerful kin on one knee, gazing curiously at Eve—who resembled Lia—with the eyes of the Jamsil Monster.