Chapter 42: Chapter 42
"Phryne, why are you here?" Aisha shouted in shock.
"Because you useless idiot couldn’t even handle something this simple. Why else would I have to come all the way here myself?" Phryne, holding a pair of axes, glanced at Aisha with open contempt.
"Lady Ishtar really did see this coming. She sent me here just in case, and look at that—she was right."
Phryne made no effort to hide her disdain, and that naked contempt stabbed deep into Aisha’s pride.
Aisha bit down hard on her lip, not caring even when the taste of blood filled her mouth.
She wanted to argue.
She really wanted to argue!
But she had already lost... even worse she had been captured.
No matter what she said now, it would only sound like a weak excuse, and it would do nothing except invite even more vicious mockery and humiliation from Phryne.
So in the face of it all, she could only remain silent.
"Hmph. Since you’re so amazing, I’ll leave the rest to you." Aisha closed her eyes after speaking, sparing herself the sight of that toad-like face.
"Don’t disappoint Lady Ishtar."
"Of course! Today, I’ll show you what real strength looks like. I’ll show you what efficiency means! Croak, croak, croak!"
Phryne laughed three times, then turned her head toward Kiriya, her eyes filled with greed and desire.
"Sylvan. I’ve heard your name for a long time! Finally, I get to see you."
"..."
Kiriya’s face was green.
He was currently doing everything he could to calm himself and purge the mental pollution from his mind, so he said nothing.
"If you know what’s good for you, come back with me quietly. That way, you won’t have to suffer, and I’ll even reward you."
At that point, Phryne put on a bashful expression and twisted her barrel-like waist.
"You’ll get to spend a night with beautiful me! How’s that? Isn’t that the greatest reward in the world? No matter what you want to do, I’ll do it with you! Croak, croak, croak..."
"Ugh—!"
Kiriya finally could not take it anymore.
He dropped to the ground and started dry-heaving, his face a terrifying shade of green.
’It was like being trapped in a nightmare with a hideous troll trying to play the part of a princess.’
’No, this was worse!’
’At least if a troll had a sweet voice, a guy could close his eyes and lie to himself a little.’
’But this woman? Even if you close your eyes, that grating voice smashes every last bit of hope to pieces!’
The sudden turn left Aisha stunned.
She had not expected Kiriya, who had been so frighteningly strong moments earlier—the same Kiriya she had failed to defeat even after exhausting herself—to have his defenses shattered by just a few words from Phryne!
What was this supposed to be?
Even ugly people had their own kind of luck?
For a moment, Aisha’s feelings were painfully complicated.
There was relief, heaviness, the urge to laugh, and the urge to cry, all tangled together until she felt miserable.
"Croak, croak, croak! That’s right, that’s the reaction!"
Phryne was not angry at all. Instead, she laughed smugly.
"Being invited to spend a night with someone as beautiful as me moved you so much you almost cried, didn’t it?"
"Good, good. You’ve got taste!"
Kiriya & Aisha: "..."
Was this woman’s brain damage?
Her thought process was completely different from a normal person’s!
Aisha, however, was not surprised in the slightest.
This was Phryne—a woman so ugly it had seeped into her bones, yet who had absolutely no self-awareness.
While Kiriya was briefly dazed, Phryne had already charged forward in a single stride, raising one axe and bringing it down hard.
"Holy shit!"
Kiriya barely had time to shout.
His legs sprang like coils, launching his body away and letting him dodge that heavy axe by a hair.
Boom!
The axe slammed into the ground, splitting open a deep trench.
The gust it kicked up blew both Aisha and Haruhime away, while flying stones struck Aisha’s back and tore open a long wound.
"You’re that reckless? Aren’t you afraid of hurting your own Familia members?" Kiriya asked in a low voice.
"Who cares about useless trash like them? If they die, they die."
Phryne’s grin widened.
"You, though. You’re pretty good! You actually dodged my sneak attack. Much better than the trash back in the Familia, I’m getting more and more interested in you!"
"Don’t talk like you’ve already got me."
Kiriya stomped the ground.
Four wooden pillars as thick as bowls burst up in front of him, rushing toward Phryne like pythons, aiming to coil around her and bind her in place.
"Who’s supposed to be trapped by something that slow?"
Phryne burst into laughter and brought her giant axe down with a heavy swing, chopping the wooden pillars into pieces.
But it did not end there.
Before the broken wood could even hit the ground, thin wooden spikes shot out from the fragments under Kiriya’s control, stabbing toward Phryne’s throat, eyes, and other vulnerable spots.
Phryne simply swept her axe across in a wide arc.
The storm of force it created shattered every wooden spike into dust.
"Kid, don’t try to fool me with toothpicks. If you want to beat me, you’ll need something much bigger and thicker than that."
Phryne’s words were shameless enough to make anyone’s face twitch.
And the very next second after she mocked him, a wooden dragon burst out of the ground.
Its body was more than a meter thick, with a lifelike dragon head, horns, and scales.
A fierce aura washed outward as if a real flood dragon had descended.
"That’s right. Now that has some bite."
Phryne’s eyes flashed.
Facing the charging wooden dragon, she raised her axe and brought it down in a brutal overhead chop.
"Get down!"
Boom!
The imposing wooden dragon had its head smashed apart by Phryne’s heavy axe, and the force behind the blow tore through the rest of its body, shattering it inch by inch.
"See that? This is the power possessed by beautiful me. Isn’t it dazzling?"
After violently destroying the wooden dragon, Phryne looked immensely pleased with herself.
She flicked back what little short hair she had and threw another wink at Kiriya.
Unfortunately, it failed.
Because two more wooden dragons came rushing in and interrupted her pose.
"What a naughty boy."
Phryne’s tone gradually turned impatient.
"Naughty boys need to be punished."
As she spoke, strength erupted through her body.
She kicked one wooden dragon in the forehead and smashed its head apart with a single blow.
At the same time, both of her hands swung backward in a vicious strike, destroying the second wooden dragon as well.
"Now!"
"Thunder Breathing, First Form: Thunderclap and Flash."
---------
Read 30 Chapters ahead and support me on patreon.
patreon (.)com/Newbietranslator
Comments