A Couple's Fight Is Like Cutting Water with a Knife
Tap. Tap.
"Let's see... this should be about right."
A blonde girl in a blindfold gave a boulder a light rap with her clenched fist.
"Hup!!"
KABOOOOOOOM!!!
The punch she drove home with everything she had shattered the solid rock in a thunderous roar, sending fragments spraying in every direction.
Clatter...
"That should do it, yes?"
Saintess Elia rolled her shoulders loosely and glanced toward a certain spot.
"..."
"Yeah, you did great."
It was Jinwoo who answered, all bright energy, filling in for Ryushia, who stood off to the side with her arms crossed and a thoroughly sour look on her face.
This particular gimmick had been a puzzle that required smashing a specific boulder. If a character with monstrous strength like Elia put a skill into breaking the rock...
"This is what you two were talking about, right?"
An ornate silver chest sat waiting to greet them.
"Ryushia, come on. Cheer up already."
"I don't want to?!"
Even so, Ryushia stayed stubbornly sulky, snorting through her nose with a curt scowl.
"Aww, you're pouting over a couple of belly farts? That's not very manly of you~"
"...Ngh?!"
Jinwoo needled her with a sly little grin, and Ryushia's face flushed red as she sucked in a sharp breath.
"That is absolutely not it..."
"Not it? The way you're huffing and puffing, you've gone full girl."
"Hah?!"
Before she knew it, Jinwoo's slick tongue had gotten well and truly under her skin.
"You! Are you quite finished? I carried you from the very beginning and raised you myself...!"
"That's true, but you're a woman through and through, aren't you? You've been ridiculously feminine lately."
"Absolutely!! Not! No matter what anyone says, I am a real man..."
"Up next: a female whose emotions go haywire with her hormones."
SLAP!!!
Just as the argument was climbing, a single sharp sound cracked through the air.
"Uh..."
"..."
Ryushia had, without thinking, struck Jinwoo across the cheek.
"...Ngh."
"..."
She'd lashed out in a fit of pique, but the regret landed almost immediately. Ryushia stood there in awkward silence while Jinwoo hung his head, saying nothing at all.
"I'll go on ahead..."
Step. Step.
And then she fled the scene as if running for her life.
"Sheesh. You should've known when to stop."
"Tsk... I really don't get how women think."
"If you ran your mouth like that in front of me, I'd have hit you with a back suplex."
"That bad?"
Elia scolded him for taking the teasing too far, then frowned.
"Though Ryushia's strange too. She's a woman, so I don't understand why she hates being called feminine that much."
"That's what I'm saying! She puts on leggings and sways that ass around — she's a born female, I'm telling you!"
"...And that's why you got slapped."
Elia was a complete amateur when it came to romance, and the more she heard about these two, the more her head started to hurt.
"Would you like me to suggest a good solution?"
"What is it."
"Don't fight. Have sex."
"Are you insane?"
Of course, her solution was every bit as blunt as the rest of her.
"Just go inside. It's dinnertime, so she's probably cooking."
"Yeah, like she'd cook for me."
"Wrong! That girl Ryushia is secretly a softie. Sweet-talk her like a real man and she'll spread her legs in bed before you know it..."
"You're not actually a Saintess, are you?"
Elia's filthy mouth was so at odds with her title that she sounded like a construction-site ajusshi who'd knocked back a whole bottle of soju. Jinwoo stared at her with a look of utter disbelief.
"Hah, fine... I'll go check."
"Suit yourself. I'll be here knocking out a few more sets."
Heave.
Elia hoisted a log and got back to work, and Jinwoo headed for the lodging.
He passed through streets that had already gone dark, stepped into the building, and opened the door.
"I'm home."
"..."
Ryushia was nowhere to be seen. Maybe she'd gone out.
"Where'd this girl go now..."
That wasn't great from Jinwoo's perspective either. He'd been quietly looking forward to the warm home-cooked meal she always put together, and the thought of making do with frozen chicken breast made his appetite vanish on the spot.
"Oh... what's this?"
Then he spotted a lunchbox sitting quietly at the edge of the table, and his eyes lit up.
"That's my Ryushia! She didn't want me going hungry after all!"
He hurried to open the lid, stomach already growling...
"Huh."
Inside was nothing but packed white rice, with a single pea planted dead in the center.
"Aww, come on..."
Her sulking came through loud and clear. A lunchbox with one lonely pea stuck in it looked like the cutest little act of revenge. Resigned, Jinwoo started scooping rice to fill his empty stomach.
"Oh— ooh?!"
The moment he took one spoonful, something hidden underneath began to reveal itself.
"Neobiani and chicken karaage. Stir-fried kimchi and corn cheese too?!"
The plain rice had been a fake-out. The side dishes buried underneath were the real deal.
"Th-this is delicious...!"
He chewed through the crispy, still-hot fried coating, took a bite of the grilled beef, and shoveled in the stir-fried kimchi.
"The karaage juices are insane! The meat's cooked perfectly, and the kimchi is spicy-sweet as hell!"
Jinwoo couldn't stop heaping on the praise as he chowed down...
"..."
A shadow was quietly watching him.
"Umai!!"
"Heh..."
The shadow lingered a moment, watching him lose himself in the meal with a look of quiet satisfaction, then slipped away without a sound.
"Hup... haah!!"
After Jinwoo left, Saintess Elia kept right on with her strength training. She'd blown past five sets when—
"So this is the place."
"Hm?"
A demon woman appeared behind her out of nowhere, muttering to herself.
"This much is nothing."
Then she casually hoisted a barbell of tremendous weight.
"...!"
Elia's eyes went wide. The plates on that bar had been set to her usual routine — an ordinary person would have struggled to lift it even a centimeter. So just who was this woman?
"Hey pal, the leather club's one block down."
"Fuck. Off."
"I don't even have a dick, for the record."
She'd tried striking up a conversation, and all she got was a cold snip of a reply.
"These. Light."
Whoosh!!
Even as she said it, the woman lifted piece after piece of equipment like they were nothing, muttering in a tone that sounded an awful lot like mockery.
"...Heh."
Elia let out a hollow laugh. Barging into a gym that only the Saintess was permitted to use, throwing up weights, and calling them light — it was shameless demon behavior at its finest.
"You lift?"
"More than you."
Twitch.
The purple-skinned demon woman shot back even sharper, and a vein bulged at the Saintess's temple.
"Let's see it, then."
Elia crossed her arms and looked down at her with open arrogance. The demon started rummaging for something.
"Add a hundred kilos."
"..."
She slid thick iron plates onto the bar, settled into position...
"HUP!!!"
Heave!
Then, with those slender arms, she lifted the barbell like it was nothing. Up and down, one after another. She filled out fifteen reps and set the bar on the floor.
THUD!!
"Next. You."
"So that's how it is? Add a hundred kilos."
Now it was the Saintess's turn. Unwilling to back down, she matched the challenge and loaded on more weight, gripped the bar with both hands, and hauled up every ounce of strength she had.
"Come on! Come on, come on!!"
Whoosh!
The bar bent like a bow under the massive plates hanging off both ends, and Elia kept going without a care. Her already enormous ass clenched even harder, her short shorts looking ready to split at the seams.
THUD!!
"Your turn."
"Got it."
Sweating only slightly, the Saintess passed it back.
"Add two hundred kilos."
"...Fine. I'll add two hundred too."
And so the two women's battle of pride rolled on...
CRACK!!!
Clatter...
"..."
"Oh my."
The bar, unable to take another kilo, split clean in two.
"Weak. Like you."
"Mind telling me your name now?"
As if the opening round were over, they locked eyes and exchanged words in a low, even quiet.
"Tarkan. Tarkan the Crusher."
"...Guess you came back to life minus the dick, huh?"
The Saintess was a little stunned by the identity behind that name, but she nodded soon enough. Redanis members of Finger rank or higher all had their identities on public record. Someone with this kind of power who wasn't among them would have been vanishingly rare.
"What's your objective."
"You."
Tarkan's mission was to assassinate even the Saintess — to shatter the Holy Kingdom's military strength completely while the nation was still in chaos.
Fwoosh!!
"Haha! Terribly sorry, fair lady, but I'm afraid that's not happening!"
Sensing Tarkan's killing intent, even the Holy Knight Commander who'd been standing by nearby to protect the Saintess stepped in.
"Van, sit this one out. I'll beat this trans girl down myself."
"Reckless."
"I'm holding you accountable for snapping my precious bar."
Tarkan and Elia's gazes collided in midair...
"HUUUP!!!"
"You won't die trembling — you'll get crushed like straw!!"
A-----MEN!!!!!
KABOOOOOOOOOM!!!!
The two women's fists slammed together.
SQUEEEEEZE!!
"Oooh?! My fiancée! That hurts!!"
"Shut up."
Paying no mind whatsoever to the people beating the daylights out of each other elsewhere, Maestro wound thread around a wooden marionette and climbed on top of it.
"Let's have a baby already, okay?"
"What are you talking about! We are merely dolls..."
"That doesn't matter."
"It most certainly does!!"
Maestro's seductive red eyes gleamed as she clung to the wooden marionette. The artist doll, bound head to toe in thread and collapsed on the floor, could only wail.
"Shut up and give me your seed."
"GRAAAAH!! Ryushia!! Jinwoo!!! I beseech you, save me!!!"
Just as it thrashed about to no avail whatsoever—
"Holy shit. I've lived long enough to see dolls trying to fuck each other."
"...We're not doing that yet."
A girl swordsman sat perched on the windowsill, her single-edged blade slung over one shoulder.
"Enough of the bullshit. Betraying us really put some color in that face of yours, huh? Maestro."
"..."
Fingers who had once been comrades, and were now enemies, had come face to face.
