Empress vs. Hero (3)
Lucas slowly savored the calamity that had just slammed into his face.
This woman is no ordinary opponent.
It was an unvarnished, honest assessment.
The earth stretching for kilometers around him had long since been reduced to smoldering ruin by the seething flames of her magic. She possessed none of the privileges of an otherworldly cheat, yet at such a young age she had already reached this height. Honestly, it was rather impressive.
That was not all. Despite the clear gulf in power, she never once flinched. Those blue eyes still blazing with fury were proof enough. That spirit and courage were impossible to dismiss, even for a man of Lucas’s thoroughly rotten character.
The Hero stroked the cheek where the halberd’s blade had bitten deep.
It stung far more than a little. In his previous life it would have felt like getting slapped by a woman.
But put another way, that was the full extent of it.
In any case, it was the first pain he had felt since arriving in this other world. Lucas was experiencing something close to the classic line, You’re the first one who’s ever done this to me.
Originally the Hero preferred obedient, submissive women and had zero interest in a woman’s combat prowess. As long as there was a hole to fuck, any unnecessary resistance only annoyed him. And as the absolute pinnacle of power with no equal, such people were unnecessary to him in the first place. Simply put, he had nothing to miss.
Still… this bitch does inspire a certain amount of respect…
Looking at her face calmly, aside from Darin there was hardly a woman who could match her. That body optimized for childbirth looked quite delicious as well. Given her strong desire for conquest, he wasn’t sure whether she was still a virgin. Women who used their bodies that hard usually had equally strong appetites.
If she’s a virgin, then as a wife. If not, a concubine or a breeding sow…
She had a filthy mouth, but even a personality that fierce would mellow after enough training. A woman like Darin who arrived already complete was nice, yet a tomboyish girl like this would have her own special flavor when broken in.
I’ve been reeling in a lot of big catches lately.
Meeting women of exceptional charm one after another recently had been enjoyable. The fact that Darin was no longer a virgin was truly regrettable, but would this fierce bitch still be pure and offer him a little consolation? He would find out soon enough once he checked.
The circumstances, however, remained puzzling.
How could a woman in her twenties like Darin have given birth to a twenty-year-old daughter?
Whether some special artifact had made it possible, or she was a homunculus created through alchemy… he could not yet know. The question would be settled the moment he captured Darin herself and asked.
He could decide how to treat Darin later; there would still be time.
“Hey.”
His tone, slightly softened, was directed at Piel. It was a friendly remark aimed at an enemy filled with hostility, yet she only scrunched up her face as if looking at a bug when the Hero called her name.
“You a virgin?”
She had wondered what he was about to say, and of course it was a stupid question.
“Fuck off.”
The Empress sneered and raised her middle finger. Even though her full-power finishing move had failed to land, her attitude remained utterly unshaken, as if she should have been at least a little intimidated.
“Heh heh. Yeah. That’s the way.”
At this point even that vulgar speech felt familiar. The Hero’s gaze returned to the white-haired girl. The more he looked, the more she resembled that annoying barbarian bastard in countless ways.
But that was only appearance; her personality was the complete opposite. Unlike Akael, she had a straightforward nature with no dark corners, and he liked that.
Maybe I should leave her alone a little instead of training her right away?
Keeping her around with a hardcore tsundere vibe didn’t seem bad either.
He had considered turning her into a half-cripple and using her as a meat toilet simply because her defiance was so irritating, but that would be a waste. Perhaps her personality was like this only because she had never met a man stronger than herself.
Giving her one chance is the right thing to do.
Lucas decided to show mercy to this promising candidate for his cock-house.
“This is a bit sudden, but honestly… I’ve taken quite a liking to you.”
From the Hero’s perspective it might not have been sudden at all, but to Piel listening it was beyond sudden—it was insane. She was fighting for her life with everything she had, and he suddenly declared affection? Her killing intent toward this lunatic of a Hero only swelled.
“Ha. Of course. You see every hole to fuck as your personal cock-house.”
“It’s not like that. I really like you, okay?”
“Ugh, fuck…”
Goosebumps rose along the girl’s arms. She could not even grasp what it meant that this crazy bastard claimed to like her.
He just saw a fierce bitch and got a conquest urge. That’s all.
The Empress had dismissed countless men who harbored designs on her mother. She was thoroughly practiced at reading their minds.
A crazy bastard like that… is going to violate my mother…?
The Hero’s moronic behavior fanned the flames of the Empress’s wavering fighting spirit.
And without even a few exchanges of dialogue, Piel realized that this Hero’s way of thinking was fundamentally different from ordinary humans.
It felt as though he did not see people as fellow humans at all, but as mere livestock or breeding sows. As if the world revolved solely around his own thoughts, and he could not spare even a moment to consider another person’s feelings.
“Does this feel like a game to you?”
“Whoa whoa—why are you making that face and flipping out all of a sudden?”
As a barbarian of Bayorn and as a warrior, Piel was engaging in a sincere struggle no matter who the opponent was. She could not possibly like the Hero who was clowning around so playfully. Expressing fondness here was nothing more than pouring oil on a burning house.
“Calm down for now. How about it? It seems impossible for you to win anyway. Why not surrender here?”
“…What?”
Piel looked disgusted, her expression utterly dumbfounded. Regardless, Lucas simply continued preaching his thoughts. He felt a little dirty about it, but the breasts revealed below her face looked truly soft.
“If you submit now, I’ll make you my breeding sow. That’s better than becoming a half-cripple or dying, right? Depending on whether you’re a virgin and how you behave, I might even make you my wife.”
It was a sharp, sinister remark from the Hero. From the beginning, in this other world he saw everyone except Darin as dolls or NPCs. There was no need to hide his thoughts from such people.
“Honestly, I don’t know if Darin is your mother or whatever, but I just want to have some sex—do you really have to interfere this much?”
“……”
“No matter how special your feelings for each other are. Darin’s chastity isn’t more important than your life, is it? She’s not even a virgin to begin with.”
He was a lunatic, yet the words coming out of his mouth were not entirely wrong.
Whether she was an unfilial daughter or not, with this kind of gap even if she felt sorry for her mother she would have no choice but to lower her sword. It was like a human trying to stand against a mountain-like natural disaster—impossible from the start.
And while it was tragic that her mother would be violated, even as a child she would hesitate to burn her own life resisting. You needed at least a slim chance before you could throw a decisive move.
“…Shut your fucking mouth.”
But the Empress only twisted her beautiful face into something grotesque and chewed on her rage.
“If you want to pass through here, you’ll have to step over my corpse.”
She was more worried about the wounds her mother would receive than about her own life.
Just offer her body a little to get through the crisis, then watch helplessly while her mother was raped? And do it with a submissive heart after abandoning all desperate resistance…?
That would remain as guilt and wounds until the day she died. Not only for her, but for her mother as well. Living with that humiliation would truly be worse than being dead.
“If I submit to you here, even if I live I won’t be a living person.”
The Empress’s blue eyes glowed faintly with blue fire. It was the underlying power and conviction needed to oppose the Hero’s holy power. Some might call it foolish, but for Piel, upholding her duty as a child was far more important than her own life.
She was a barbarian of Bayorn who knew honor before she was a woman. If there was something she meant to protect, she would protect it even if it hastened her death.
“Ah, this is really frustrating.”
Irritation rose on the Hero’s face because of this foolish woman who did not know how to negotiate. A nobody bitch was putting on airs just because she had a little power. Who was going to acknowledge her for that? She was utterly dense.
“You need to kill that dog-like personality a bit and learn how to bow your head sometimes. Being so stubborn for a woman…”
The Hero’s gaze turned to the armaments blazing fiercely on both sides of the magic swordsman. Even though mana consumption must have been severe, she still seemed to have quite a bit of energy left.
Well, he understood she was impressive. But showing off that kind of aura in front of him—the Hero—was meaningless.
“Considering your power, you’ve never had to read the room until now. But not in front of me, right?”
The beast’s eyes that had been speaking kindly hardened into something murderous. When dealing with a female, showing only an easygoing attitude was not good either. It was absurd that she offered nothing but shitty reactions when he was being affectionate for the first time in a long while.
Should I turn this bitch into a half-cripple and fuck her before I spend the night with Darin?
He had wanted his first climax of the day with the woman who smelled of mandarin oranges, yet right now the Hero felt like correcting the habits of a woman who did not know how to respect men.
“I don’t like women who talk back more than necessary. I might be holding back because you might be Darin’s daughter and because I like you, but…”
His elegant mouth corners twisted into something eerie and opened.
“If you go too far, I’ll want to kill you.”
The Hero’s Holy Sword and golden eyes began to glow simultaneously. All the combat until now had been mere play. Those eyes that had looked easygoing like a playboy’s now held killing intent like a male lion chasing prey.
He had shown this much consideration, so submit—that was the meaning. It was also a final warning: if she ignored the mercy shown by someone of his caliber, she would definitely regret it.
From the beginning, even if an attack of that level struck his face, or a meteor-fall magic came crashing down—if he put his mind to it he could annihilate this woman along with everything else.
The reason he had controlled his power was partly because the combat style he was seeing for the first time looked interesting, but ultimately because Piel was a beautiful woman. If the opponent had been a sweaty male bastard, he would have been reduced to blood powder long ago.
The strongest man who had conquered the continent now harbored clear hostility. From those glowing golden eyes one could feel the will to turn even a woman into a bloody mess if she scratched his nerves more than necessary.
“Go ahead and try if you can.”
But the barbarian favored by the Queen of the Mandarin Trees merely counterattacked with her sharp tongue.
“A moron who can only think with his dick—shut your mouth.”
“Shut up and pick up your sword.”
A barbarian who knew honor submitting to a beast bastard trying to fuck her mother…
“If you don’t want to die.”
…would only happen after she met her death.