174. I'm your bitch.
174. I'm your bitch.
─Kwaaaang!
"Keuk... What kind of power, e, eeek!"
He knew.
─Spat, sgagagak!
"──Hut?!... My arm..."
He knew, at least, that this guy, Chrono, was strong.
After all, he was the male who defeated me.
Because he was the male I spread my legs for, the one I embraced, the one I acknowledged.
That much, I believed he would be strong, and he actually was strong, and even right now I could feel his strength firsthand.
'But this...'
It wasn't at a level that could simply be dismissed as strong.
A power that surged past 'strong' and reached 'overwhelming.'
Mars looked at the blood streaming down her arm and calmly steadied her breathing once more.
"[The arm...it seems to have no effect. I'm sorry, Mars. I'll make it as painless as possible, and end this quickly!]"
"...I keep telling you, I'm normal!"
Using the power gained through Chrono to oppose Chrono was disgustingly twisted, yet despite that, she had to bring it out now.
"[Advent─Ares' Apostle]"
A blazing flame.
A sacred force coiling around her entire body.
Crude but sturdy armor and an ignorantly massive greatsword.
Unlike before, a sense of omnipotence that 'she could do anything.'
Mars lifted her greatsword once more and kept Chrono in check─
'───!!'
Her back.
Behind her.
Below her neck.
Her fine hairs stood on end.
Her entire body snapped taut with tension.
The nerves all over her body bristled and every muscle focused on a single action.
─Sgeuk!
"Hhh! Hee!"
She tumbled forward.
Simultaneously, the ponytail she had coiled back was torn half off.
"Shi.... shiiip....."
If she had been even a little later, she would have been cut.
Her neck. Cut by Chrono's scythe, it would have fallen.
'I die.'
She might die.
At that single fact, her Adam's apple gulped audibly.
Tension, she had been feeling it for a while.
She was also on guard continuously.
But she couldn't react.
The dodge just now was also not due to reaction, but something that happened in the realm of the unconscious under instinct.
"[Ah, ah.... This isn't right. You shouldn't do this....]"
Chrono let out a voice full of regret as he gathered the strands of Mars' hair scattered on the floor.
"[Mars' charm point is this pretty hand grena... I mean, her hair, isn't it?]"
"....You bastard..."
A sudden remark about a hand grenade.
Normally she would have smacked the back of his head telling him to quit joking, but now was different.
'Me... facing me doesn't even make him tense?'
It was an insult.
She was facing Chrono with all her sincerity, with all her strength.
Yet Chrono's own sentiment was far removed from battle.
"This.... fu───cking bastard!"
To him, she wasn't even an 'object of threat.'
At that single fact, Mars spat out her fury and ran at him, but──
─Spat... sgagak!
"Eut.... Hhhng...!!"
She was cut once again.
Cut and cut and cut continuously.
─Shagagak! Pishut, sgagak!
"E... eeeek...!"
It hurt.
But it didn't hurt.
Because Chrono's blade only ever grazed Mars' skin.
As if he would never inflict more pain than that, he cut no deeper.
Even though he could have cut enough.
Even though he could have cut enough to kill her, he didn't.
"Fuck.... Fuuuuckk!!"
She stood a class below.
Instinctively, no, just looking at the immediate reality she could feel it.
"You son of a bitch, you're playing with me?!"
She would rather he treated her roughly.
She wished he would crush her face and sever her arm.
If he had beaten her until she couldn't even breathe, she wouldn't have felt this miserable.
─Sagak!
"Geuk! Euh.... Aaaaaaaahk!!"
But he didn't.
Only a single layer of skin.
He caused her no more harm than that.
"Fuck! Fuuuuckk!!"
And that fact was far too humiliating for Mars.
He could kill her, but he didn't.
He could end it, but he didn't.
Because, to the opponent, this was merely 'play.'
Because to Chrono, Mars was just a weak 'female' not even worth antagonizing.
And just because such a female throws a tantrum at the male, no male in the world would get angry and step up in response.
"[I'm sorry, Mars. Does it hurt a lot? Usually, these are on the back of the hand or the top of the foot, or the womb area... It's a lot harder than I thought.]"
"This.... fucker..."
Blood streamed from all over her body.
Simultaneously, the flowing blood returned to its original state.
Even the hair cut off earlier returned to its original state.
Her torn clothes too.
Her wounded hand too.
Once more, to the original state, to the original form.
"Fuck.... Fu, uuckk...!"
Her hands trembled.
Her body trembled.
Because of rage.
Only because of rage.
Because of the rage that she had become a mere toy to someone.
So, this...
"[But don't worry, Mars. I think I'm starting to get the hang of it now!]"
"Eut──!"
..was absolutely, not fear.
'Get up.'
I'm not trembling because I'm afraid.
I'm not afraid. I'm not scared.
'Fight.'
I'm not scared.
Looking at Chrono, the man I love the most, I...
─Spat..... Sagak!
"Kya........ eut, euk...!"
That I feel fear
That I feel terror
That I want to run away
That I felt such an overwhelming 'gap in class' that could never be overturned even if I devoted my whole life to effort
"Euh.... Aaah! Aaaaaaahk!!"
Absolutely, not.
I can't let that be.
That, at least, I must not tolerate.
"Do you see me as a fucking doormat! You think I'll just sit there and take your bullshit!"
So she gripped her sword even tighter.
She resisted. She resisted her own instincts, her own emotions.
All she needed was the burning rage alone.
The fire of rage that overcomes fear, that devours even herself.
And so, after burning her rage until her whole body was kindling...
──Shagagagagagak!
"──Aaaaaaaaaahk!!!"
Ultimately, until both her knees touched the ground, her entire body was ripped to shreds.
....
..
.
"Hhhuk..... hhup, eut..... hhheup...!"
Her whole body ached.
It ached as if cut by a blade.
There were no wounds. Because Chrono had healed her.
Yet despite that, the pain continued to be felt.
"Eup.... Ueuk.... Kolok!"
The Advent, was long since released.
The blazing fighting spirit had also long since cooled down.
"[I'm sorry Mars... Quickly... I have to break the brainwashing quickly...]"
"Euh.... Euh-euh, eugeuk, kkadeudeuk...!"
Yet the reason she didn't let go of her sword was just one.
To not lose to fear. To not crumble before her own weakness.
Even now when she wanted to run away at this very moment, even now when her knees had already buckled, Mars did not let go of the sword in her hands.
Because she couldn't collapse.
Because she didn't want to collapse.
Because in front of Chrono──she could never show herself collapsing.
So she forced her hostility to burn, forced her empty rage to burn, and asked.
"Hey... Why do you keep saying I've been 'brainwashed'?"
A question she perhaps should have asked from the start.
Even a trivial question was fine.
Mars just needed a moment, even a very slight one, to gain some composure in her heart.
It was, so to speak, her final struggle. To this, Chrono answered.
"[Well, it's because Mars was brainwashed, of course?]"
"No, so what the hell!... are you... looking at to say that you fucking bastard...."
Her hostility... she tried to burn it, but it cooled down.
'....Fuck..'
I can't stand this.
I absolutely can't stand this.
Now that her knees had already given out once, something inside Mars had long since been broken.
She couldn't face him.
She couldn't face Chrono's eyes.
Just as a mouse cannot face a cat,
The 'defeat' and 'helplessness' carved into Mars's entire body soon changed into 'weakness' and 'fear,' placing shackles all over Mars' body.
Even now, if she didn't grip her sword, her whole body couldn't contain its trembling.
"[What am I looking at to say that... Well, isn't it obvious?]"
Chrono spoke toward Mars.
"[Because Mars, isn't the type of girl who would swing a sword at me.]"
"What...?"
In some ways, absurd
"[Because Mars, isn't the type of girl who would betray me.]"
"........"
And in some ways, obvious
"[I understand Mars hating me right now. Getting angry and trying to kill me, it's all because of your parents, right?]"
".....What..."
Only then did Mars look into Chrono's eyes.
Chrono's two eyes. The eyes of the man she had kept avoiding.
"[Because otherwise, there's no way you'd try to protect parents who are selling you off to another man, right?]"
"You.... that's...."
She knew his eyes had turned wild.
But she hadn't tried to understand more deeply.
She was just furious that her father was dying right before her eyes
She was irritated at the immediate trouble he was causing her
She was upset because it seemed he kept treating her lightly
And now, reaching this point, Mars could finally understand.
"...Right. The premise itself was wrong from the start."
Chrono had said.
He would break the brainwashing.
Chrono had said.
Mars wouldn't betray him.
"Right now, the guy having the hardest time was right here.... Fuck, I guess blood really can't be fooled after all."
Chrono had heard from Papa.
That exam or whatever, he was going to kill him.
Chrono had heard from Mama.
That if he failed the test, she would immediately betroth me to another man.
"...I must be a real idiot."
Chrono had gotten angry.
Angry that Mars, that I, was being handled roughly.
Chrono had gotten serious.
Raging that I would be taken away by someone else.
"Ha."
And I had raised my sword.
Toward the person who was doing this for me, I got angry asking what the hell he was doing.
"Fuck."
Only now did she realize
Something she had realized far too late
But something that, even if belatedly, she could at least still turn back
Mars quietly looked down at her two hands.
"......Haaaah."
Two hands trembling violently.
Two hands holding the hilt of the sword, refusing to let go.
When she forcibly pried them off, the vibration from her hands gradually tried to spread throughout her entire body───
'─Shut up for a bit, my heart.'
Because now wasn't the time for that.
'In the first place, would that bastard even kill me?'
He wouldn't kill me. He can't kill me.
If he intended to kill me from the start, he would have done it already.
So....
"Hey.... you son of a bitch......"
Get up.
But don't pick up the sword.
Because it's obvious that if I pick up the sword again, he'll throw a fit calling it betrayal.
"You... Am I that untrustworthy to you....?"
Don't let your voice tremble.
Don't let your body tremble either.
Confidently.
Heartily.
As if this much is nothing.
"Fuck.... Chrono, you bastard, you've grown a lot! To think I'd end up making you worry about me."
Forward.
And forward again.
And when she reached right in front of him like that.
"But bastard, you've banged me so much and still don't get it?"
"[What does that── mmp, eup....??"
She pressed her lips to his.
Deeply. With all her strength.
Leaning her body against his slightly.
After deeply kissing him like that──Mars spoke.
"I'm, your female."
"............."
Forcing a bright smile
"So don't be scared, you idiot."
"...........Ah..."
She tapped his cheek pat-pat.
"Mars...."
"...Bastard."
The light gradually returning to her eyes.
He didn't look like an absolute powerhouse, only like a pushover. Honestly, if asked if he looked reliable, the answer was not at all...
"I love you, and only you, like crazy."
With those final words, Mars fainted on the spot.
Incidentally
[....I love you, too.]
Really.
Sincerely.
".............."
In front of the main gate of the underground arena.
Mars Mama, who had brought all the guild members to watch the situation.
If Mars' actions had failed, the plan was to suppress by force at that point, but she should say it was a relief that it ended well....
"...If it turns out like that, does that man become the next guild master?"
"Hey you bastard, looking at this situation, that's what comes out of your mouth?"
"Ack! Shit! You really hit me!"
'......Indeed.'
First, the result itself seemed to have ended well, but
Ultimately, going around and around, it was true that this man had ultimately finished off the Ares Guild's guild master.
And in the Ares Guild, the meaning of the guild master meant the 'strongest person' within that guild.
Therefore, Chrono, who had defeated such a 'head,' gained the 'right' to become the guild master of the Ares Guild....
"...Haaaah."
Did he perhaps know that saying?
The saying that if the alpha male is defeated by another male.
All the females that male possessed would go to the victorious male.
As that saying was commonly circulated within the Ares Guild as well.
"Everyone... please go back now."
The Ares Guild. When a guild master changes.
There existed a custom where all the females owned by that guild master would be taken into the arms of the next guild master.
One might wonder who the hell would follow such a nonsensical custom...
"I, still have things to prepare."
...Seeing as how the current guild master himself had taken the wife of the previous guild master, it was also an inescapable practice.