The System Sent Me to Breed an All-Female Amazon Tribe

Chapter 429: Push me Away, or Pull me Closer? A Young Girl’s Delusion

At my young age, my body looked very mature.

The years had been kind to me in that regard, granting me a form that was far beyond my Amazon years.

My breasts were ripe and full enough to steal people’s husbands, my curves and shape were enough that I could lie to be mid twenties and get away with it.

It was a power that I had never fully understood until that moment, a weapon that I had never considered wielding.

Plus, I was in my nightly garments which were sheer, so only a woman would not become aroused by such a body.

The thin fabric did little to conceal what was beneath, and I knew that the sight of me in that state would be enough to turn any man’s head.

It was a dangerous thought, but I could not shake it.

And an idea came to me sharply, cutting through the fog of my anger like a blade:

I... would steal the men from mother and make her feel the absence she made Deva and I feel, as she falls from grace.

I would take from her what she had taken from us.

I would make her understand the loneliness, the neglect, the constant feeling of being second-best. And the fool called Rhine was to be my starting point.

***

"Wh-What is the meaning of this, Marina?!" The young handsome man flushed and tripped on himself the moment I began to undress.

His red eyes went wide with shock, his face turning a deep shade of crimson that spread from his cheeks down to his neck.

He had stumbled backward, falling over a chair that was in his path, his hands raised in front of him as if to ward off an attack. "Hedone will be so angry... No, she will skin us! She will flay us alive and hang our hides from the city gates! Let us... talk about this. Let us just talk, please."

I had lured him into my chambers, after I sent Deva to pretend I was in dire need of care, among other deceptive tactics and lies used to manipulate the situation in my favor.

I had spun a web of half-truths and false concerns, painting a picture of a young girl in distress who needed the comfort of a strong, handsome man.

Deva had played her part perfectly, her wide eyes and trembling voice selling the performance with heartbreaking sincerity.

He barged in huffing, shaking my shoulder and asking if I were okay.

His hands were warm on my skin, his grip firm with concern, his face etched with worry.

He had come running at the first hint of trouble, so desperate to be the hero that he had not stopped to question whether the damsel was truly in distress.

Idiot. Why would you even shake a hurt person in the first place.

A truly injured person would have cried out in pain, flinched away from the rough handling, would have shown some sign of discomfort.

But he was probably too caught up in his own self-image as the rescuer to notice the inconsistencies in my performance.

However, I acted, bent down and kissed his lips, which startled him.

My mouth pressed against his before he could react, soft and warm, and unexpected.

He made a small sound of surprise, his body going rigid against mine, his hands freezing on my shoulders.

For a brief moment, he did not know what to do: push me away or pull me closer.

My plan was to take him to the paradise my mother had not taken him to.

I would veer this one’s gaze to myself and away from the prostitute. I would make him forget her name, her face, her very existence.

I would consume his thoughts the way she consumed the thoughts of all her men, and then I would discard him, the same way she discarded us.

How childish the thought was, that it feels me with embarrassment even now.

Looking back, I can see how naive I was, how foolish to think that I could compete with my mother on her own terms, to believe that seduction was the path to revenge.

I was just a girl playing a woman’s game, and I had no idea how badly I was about to lose.

"Haha. You want to outdo your mother, yes?" Rhine suddenly said while I was halfway done taking my clothes off, his voice calm and knowing, completely at odds with his earlier panic. "When I saw you that time, I saw the jealousy in your eyes: you love your mother very much."

"Wh... what are you talking about?" I squinted, my eyes narrowing with embarrassment as I quickly straddled him on the ground, my legs around his waist and my arms looping around his neck in a gesture of desperate confidence.

My heart was pounding in my chest, a frantic rhythm that I hoped he could not feel, and I forced my voice to remain steady and seductive.

"Mother is beautiful, I will not deny that. But I say confidently I am many times more beautiful than her. I have real youth on my side, and a body that men have already begun to notice. And... I am a virgin. Count yourself blessed amongst many men who will never have this opportunity!"

Again, the embarrassment from those young days is something I still live with till this day.

The memory of that moment, of my desperate attempts to seduce a man who had no interest in me, still makes my cheeks burn with shame.

I was so foolish, so naive, so utterly convinced that my body was the only weapon I needed to win against my mother.

Rhine held my waist and took me off him with surprising gentleness, his hands firm but not rough, lifting me as if I weighed nothing at all.

He set me down beside him on the floor, then he patted my head with the kind of affection one might show a child, and said the most stupid thing I have ever heard:

"I am...