Chapter 169
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 169
Chapter Title: Villain Cut
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[Kim Sanghyeok]
Help me
"?"
Seridwen Evelyn, who had been handling her schedule in the US after wrapping up her role as coach for the second-year exchange match, received a single message.
Her dilemma didn't even last three seconds.
"Quasar. Something urgent came up. Sorry, but you're on your own."
The golden-haired, green-eyed woman called "Quasar" flinched.
"What are you talking about? Fight the beasts without our dealer? Hey! Seridwen!"
Seridwen had already launched her body toward Korea. Her speed was so incredible it felt that way.
Even if someone caught a glimpse of her passing by chance, they'd probably just think a black streak had zipped across the sky.
Returning to Korean territorial waters, Seridwen Evelyn immediately spread out her detection network, pinpointed Kim Sanghyeok's location, and landed.
'If Kim Sanghyeok reached out to me, it means no one else can handle it.'
Soon, she spotted Kim Sanghyeok struggling amid a storm of destruction.
"Eek!! Tax-chan! Go easy! Don't kill her!"
'What the hell is that?'
SF...? Cosplay?
A purple-haired girl wearing goggles was wielding a single scythe, battling some kind of black entity.
Seridwen gauged the opponent's strength and felt a twinge of unease.
'Since when did Korea have villains of that caliber?'
She's strong.
If the "Death Tax Collector" was a villain, even Seridwen might need to draw her masterpiece to stand a chance.
So how was Kim Sanghyeok still alive?
Soon, Seridwen realized something was off about the situation.
'That purple-haired girl isn't the villain?'
On the contrary, she was protecting Kim Sanghyeok from the villain...?
Even in the ten seconds it took to distinguish friend from foe, countless things around them turned to dust and scattered.
A storm of destruction raged right in the heart of Seoul. Evacuation seemed complete, but the surrounding environment crumbled and shattered moment by moment, cracks spiderwebbing endlessly across the ground.
'The black villain...'
The black villain was fighting whatever was protecting Kim Sanghyeok.
'Kim Sanghyeok wasn't the one in danger?'
Villain "Zenobia." She'd heard the name in passing.
A melee-type villain using a full-body integrated masterpiece. A black-skinned figure from India called Kali Masi—everything but the skin pitch-black.
She melted into the night, hard to spot, but kept lunging attacks at the high-leg girl.
The shockwaves alone sent vibrations like bomb blasts rippling through the area.
"Gah!"
Zenobia took a brutal beating, her prized masterpiece armor half-shattered, before being slammed into the ground.
Even after the opponent could no longer move, the Death Tax Collector's relentless assault didn't stop.
She hoisted Zenobia's torso—now neutralized by the massive scythe—and swung it wildly around, pulverizing every bone in her body,
then impaled her humiliatingly on the scythe's tip like a trophy for the defeated, before unleashing a barrage of devastating double hooks!
"Tax-chan, that's enough. Any more and she'll die!"
Seridwen grabbed the Tax Collector's arm.
"Seridwen!"
'Who would've thought I'd rush to help my boyfriend and end up saving a villain's life.'
Zenobia was on the brink of death.
Ribs pierced through her skin, her face unrecognizable mush.
Her black masterpiece lay in shattered fragments across the ground.
And the being that had reduced an S-rank villain to that state—
Seridwen held her tight.
"Kim Sanghyeok. What the hell happened here? Can't you control her?"
"Well... it seems like I can control her, sort of..."
"Isabella? What happened to Isabella?"
It startled her.
Kim Sanghyeok was cradling the unconscious Isabella in one arm.
"She's out cold, but she'll be fine."
"You can relax now. I'll handle everything."
Sanghyeok's trembling stopped.
Seridwen smiled faintly.
'That's my boyfriend.'
He needed the mental fortitude to overcome crises like this.
The important part was that she was here to help...
"I'll figure out something with Tax-chan. She seems to listen to me."
"Good. Then I'll deal with the uninvited guest."
Like a hyena drawn by the scent of blood,
something else was there. Seridwen detected it and exposed the other presence lurking in the space.
It was a young woman with massive goat horns sprouting from her head.
"Zenobia. What a mess."
The line sounded like mocking a comrade, but her tone was ice-cold.
Pale skin like a corpse, huge breasts and thighs.
Arms and legs bound behind her, swallowed by space—no visible joints. Like a taxidermied specimen, preserved in lifelike form.
If you swore to hang a person on the wall instead of a portrait, that's what it'd look like. Vulnerable, bizarre.
But all the more an unpredictable villain.
Seridwen didn't miss the mana extending from the goat horns.
The intangible whip reaching out as if to retrieve Zenobia's body incinerated the moment Seridwen pointed at it.
"...Intruder. Master Hunter. Seridwen Evelyn."
The goat-horned, pale-skinned, busty woman spoke.
"Sorry, but I have no idea who you are."
'Talking to what looks like a corpse... hard to get used to.'
Everything was pallid. Her hair a faded blue, utterly bloodless.
But it wasn't ventriloquism—the suspended woman was really speaking.
"Hand over Zenobia's body. That's all I want."
"You want me to just let go of the villain who tried to kill my boyfriend?"
"The scattered masterpiece fragments on the ground should be compensation enough."
Fair point.
The floor was littered with beast cores worth enough coins to live luxuriously for a lifetime—shattered into fragments. Anyone would go mad scooping them up.
But realizing that wasn't the right negotiation tactic against a Master Hunter, the goat-horned woman corrected herself.
"Hunters have no obligation to capture villains, right?"
She was saying, 'You don't need to stick your neck out for this hassle.'
"Exactly. If I did, I'd have wiped them all out before heading to the airport."
"......"
Centered on the goat-horned woman, beasts rose.
Humanoid forms sprouting grotesque demonic body parts—not quite human.
Otherworldly demons. Each one rivaling an A-rank hunter, and the villain summoned dozens at once.
"Wanna say that again?"
"Should I kill you now? And all 1,532 of your family behind you."
"......"
"Ah, make that 1,531 now."
Hearing that, the goat-horned villain withdrew all the otherworldly demons.
"You weren't planning to charge me with that cute little masterpiece, were you?"
"......Monster. Mana's pouring out endlessly."
"Unlike you lot, using my abilities means I have to blind the satellites first."
"Tax-chan! No! Seridwen's on our side! She's protecting us!"
Seridwen glanced back slightly.
'This high-leg girl is way stronger than that villain... How'd she know I was aiming to kill her just in case?'
"Seridwen! Tax-chan thinks you're gonna attack her. Say something!"
"Sorry. I'll hold off on killing. You've got sharp instincts."
"What were you aiming at?"
The villain just tilted her head.
"The sky."
Seridwen pointed upward.
The villain looked too, but saw only the empty night sky.
"Nuh-uh. Higher up. Way higher."
"Higher...?"
The moon gleamed unusually bright. The goat-horned villain seemed to realize something.
"I... I'll head back..."
"What about your friend Zenobia?"
"Not worth more than my life."
The goat-horned villain melted into space just as she'd appeared, vanishing.
"What was that? That goat girl just now?"
"A villain who showed up looking for an opening. How'd it go? Control your weapon okay?"
"Seems like she listens better if I stay close."
I haven't tried clinging like that.
A little jealous. Seridwen stared blatantly at the busty high-leg girl.
"Kim Sanghyeok. You've got a lot of hidden authorities stashed at the academy, huh?"
"Ugh..."
"Two I didn't even know about."
"Sorry. Couldn't really explain..."
An authority that dominated space itself.
And this time, one that summoned a minion as strong as himself.
Which god favored him so much to shower these gifts? Seridwen was more than a little curious.
'Secrets to gaining authorities'—info you couldn't hear anywhere, and SS-rank hunters would line up offering fortunes for it. Trouble brewing. She sensed rivals multiplying.
Seridwen pulled out her phone and sighed.
"Seridwen?"
"Looks like I'll get summoned to the Blue House for breaching Korean waters at full speed..."
"Couldn't be helped to catch the villain."
"That one?"
She pointed at the dying Zenobia.
"That's on you, Kim Sanghyeok. I didn't do anything."
"But still..."
"If it's a hassle, say Isabella did it. She'd probably love that."
"......Think she'd like it? She called her big sis."
Seridwen froze.
"Family's a villain?"
...What a tragic backstory.
Seridwen furrowed her pretty brows. She spent so little time in Korea over the last five years that she didn't know these tearjerker tales.
Like the connection between Zenobia and White Devil.
Same type of masterpiece. That was the extent of her thoughts.
"I'll listen if you wanna talk. You've gotta have a lot bottled up."
"Thanks for the advice. No—thanks for helping."
"......Gonna treat me like a professor at the end?"
Seridwen puffed her cheeks, sulking.
"Do that. I dropped everything to come here..."
"......"
Her cheeks flushed redder.
Acting all cutesy and defenseless to a younger guy...
Mortifying, but... the way he held Isabella looked so dependable...
Sanghyeok set Isabella down gently, stood, and pulled Seridwen in.
"Eep!"
"C'mere."
"Uh, yeah..."
Squeeze.
Seridwen nestled into Sanghyeok's embrace.
He immediately petted her head like a puppy, his other hand kneading her butt.
"Hah, haa... hnng..."
"Feel good?"
"So good... keep petting me..."
"Good girl, Seridwen."
'Good girl' echoed in her empty mind.
Just one minute—no, ten minutes of this, and she'd roll over belly-up. That's how confident Seridwen felt.
'Kim Sanghyeok's hands are too good...♡'
Smack. Smack.
When his fingers reached her lips, Seridwen sucked them without resistance.
"What now...?"
"Gotta watch over Isabella. More villains might show."
Slurp... "Make Isabella your girlfriend too?"
"First, figure out how to send Tax-chan back... She won't let go."
The high-leg beauty Sanghyeok called Tax-chan hovered by his side, expectant.
"......Kinda seems like she wants something naughty?"
"No way... Not even from you."
"What about me♡"
Nuzzle nuzzle.
Seridwen soaked up Sanghyeok's naughty touches all over her body right up until people arrived on scene.