Chapter 228

228th Episode

Preparations Must Be Thorough, But Bags Should Be Light

228 ? Preparations Must Be Thorough, But Bags Should Be Light #2

“Um, that, Antiope-.”

“Um, Mr. Hassan-.”

Our words overlapped.

I hid my embarrassment by taking a few sips from the ice-filled glass handed to me. My teeth hurt.

“Why, is there something you want to say?”

“Um, that, I heard you met Vice Vein….”

Vice Vein?

At the mention of the name, I recalled Bacchus’s executioner, the heresy inquisitor Vice Vein—a bizarre guy who used to bathe in expensive wine.

“That guy seems to have an exceptional sense for cultists. I heard he praised you, Mr. Hassan. I wonder, how exactly did you manage to grill him?”

“Well, it wasn’t anything special really.”

What came to mind was nothing more than sharing some insults about the cultists with the guy, and downing a large gulp of some potent drink in one shot.

If that guy spoke so highly of me through someone else, it was pretty clear he took a liking to me.

“Anyway, I’ve heard that you’ll be invited soon to the extermination of a Named Monster. Are you planning to take down Vice Vein then?”

“What will you ‘take down’?”

“Isn’t it the Temple Knights you’re trying to overthrow? That’s why I’ve come up with a great stratagem to defeat that guy—.”

“Uh, what?”

“Since he likes alcohol, slip some poison into his drink the night before. Hydra venom, for instance. That should do him in, and you’ll get a fine corpse out of it.”

Antiope was talking about something akin to a cult activity now.

Is she delirious from the heat?

But the even greater shock came next.

“That’s why I had this Hydra venom stored beforehand.”

Drrr-k.

Antiope lowered the zipper-like thing on her collar down to her chest, revealing her drenched collarbone and nape. Just as I thought her overly plump chest might burst out, it jiggled. From between them, she pulled out a diminutive glass bottle.

Inside the glass bottle, the size of a thumb, glimmered a single droplet that fluoresced under the light.

“I bought it for three gold coins from a skilled witch in Sodomora. This much should be enough to k*ll even Vice Vein.”

“Th-That…”

k*ll a Shrine Knight?

If that happens, my peaceful daily life would likely fly away instantly.

“So, what do you think? I heard from Paranoi that your principle is ‘think and act before receiving orders.’ Did I do well?”

The information surged forth like a dam releasing water.

I could definitively say this:

Antiope had broken down.

Like a string-cut puppet falling to the ground.

Like a cricket disassembled by a child’s hand.

Antiope had finally malfunctioned.

And what caused her breakdown was likely… me.

But until our last meeting, it wasn’t this bad. Did I give her too much of a shock?

While I was pondering how to deal with this, Antiope spoke.

“So, can I be rewarded as well?”

“Reward?”

“Weren’t you going to reward me for doing a good job? I’d like it if you could massage my shoulders again….”

Drrr-k.

After pulling the leather suit that was covering her shoulders down, she lay down in front of the bed. She must want her shoulders massaged.

When I moved my hand to her exposed back and shoulders, I could see flowers and clouds that looked like something out of a children’s sketchbook. Of course, I’m the one who drew them.

Oddly enough, there’s even Pikachu on her left arm and Charmander on her right.

Her sweat-soaked Pikachu and Charmander, because of the leather suit she was wearing, looked incredibly pitiful.

I slowly moved my hand, still gripping the cold ice glass, to her shoulder.

“Ahhh… It’s so cold…”

“Ah, sorry.”

“No, it’s nice and cool. It feels refreshing… Hmm, in many ways, it’s refreshing… Hmm… Hassan-sama, I am really, really grateful that you’re giving me this reward. Hmm, aah-.”

Certainly, her body was burning hot to the touch. Though Hippolyte also had a rather high body temperature, it seemed Antiope, her sister, was the same.

But wearing tight leather armor from neck to ankle must have been unbearably hot, enough to make anyone delirious from the heat.

“Um, could you also press on my back… please? Hmm, ah… Just like last time, you know, the one with the satisfying ‘cracks’….”

Crack.

“Kyaaaaaah-!”

The moment I applied firm pressure to her back with the palm of my hand, Antiope screamed as if she’d been stabbed by a sword. Simultaneously, a bolt of electricity zapped from her right hand.

“What the… Thunder!”

I was genuinely startled. Can static electricity come off someone’s hand this strongly? While I stood there flabbergasted, Antiope, lying face down, chuckled.

“Ah, this? Fascinating, isn’t it?”

Zzzzzzt.

Indeed, a spark of electric blue light flickered around her right hand. And it wasn’t just any trick—it was the S-rank secret art of the Thunder Severance, something I definitely recognized.

“Can you use magic as well?”

“Nope. The daughter of Mars can’t handle magic. But, well…One day, this happened— Lightning came out of my right hand, and flames came out of my left hand….”

Fwoosh.

Soon, a small flame appeared on her left hand.

“Hassan-sama, this must be the grace you’ve bestowed upon me….”

“Grace…?”

“This… these strange tattoos, of course.”

Antiope extinguished the electricity and fire from her hands and straightened up.

As a result, her ample br*asts jiggled vividly right in front of my eyes. However, what she pointed at with her finger were Pikachu and Charmander.

“With this power, I think I can become even stronger. I will destroy this world that has driven me into such agony. Hassan-sama, let’s create a hell together!”

“Ugh… Shut up…”

Is it really because of these drawings?

Now that I think about it, I seem to recall that Antiope’s strange ink absorbed the karma of the drawings she inked on her body or something similar.

Then this wasn’t entirely improbable.

So, with no other option, I wiped the Pikachu drawn on her shoulder.

“Wha, why–?”

But Antiope yelled as if I was erasing the most precious thing in the world. Ignoring her reaction, I wiped Pikachu off her shoulder too.

Swoosh, swoosh.

“Wha, why!?”

Taking the chance, I also wiped clean the magical seals of the Binding Magic inked on her stomach.

If some strange power were to burst out from her stomach, the world would surely be in peril, after all.

But it seemed Antiope was greatly shocked by the disappearance of her rather ridiculous tattoos.

“…Are you going to abandon me? Am I no longer useful to you?”

“I’m sorry, Antiope. It seems I’ve made you this way. You don’t need to cover your body so much anymore.”

“It’s hot in the summer to wear leather clothing. You can redraw whatever you want on your body.”

“R-Really…?”

Raising her index finger, Antiope let strange ink, resembling black tears, drip onto it. Carefully, she wrote the word “Hassan” on her lower abdomen.

“I’ve written what I wanted! No, not quite.”

And to my astonishment, the words “of the Holy Warrior” were written beside “Hassan.”

Antiope’s condition was even worse than I imagined.

“Um, Antiope.”

“Yes? Is there something else you want to say? Actually, you were about to say something to me earlier, right?”

Though Antiope spoke articulately, her eyes were half-dead.

I didn’t want this incident to escalate any further, especially if it involved the assassination of the Shrine Knights. Thus, I decided to confess something I had been holding back.

“You see, this… I’m not a god.”

“U-Um…?”

“I lied to you. I’m just a human.”

Before this situation escalated further, I felt the need to shoulder the responsibility for the lies I had told.

The dice had been rolled, and now the only thing left was Antiope’s reaction.

“…Lies? That’s what you call lies? Why, why would you tell me such lies…?”

“It’s the truth.”

“A-Alright. Is this another test? Will I be punished again if I make a mistake? Do you intend to control me as you wish…?”

I was rendered speechless.

No matter what I said, it felt like I was hitting an impenetrable wall.

With a faint hope, I grasped Antiope’s wrist, and words appeared:

“Name: Antiope, Keeper of the Pictures lv. ?? 34

Condition: Menstrual Irregularities” Heatstroke” Resignation”

Her condition now included two new additions: “Heatstroke” and “Resignation.” I examined the veins glowing above her body.

There was a red spot just above her elbow.

What was it again? The Cheongneung Acupoint, right?

It was the emergency acupoint pressed to treat people who were overheated and struggling to breathe.

When I pressed it firmly, Antiope let out a loud scream, “Aaaaaaaaah!” She then lay down on the bed, her large br*asts trembling as she heaved deep breaths.

“Ah-uhh-.”

As I kept holding her elbow, some more words appeared in front of me.

Ding.

The words “Heatstroke” and “Resignation” were simultaneously cured. Additionally, a new notation revealed that my current mission value had reached 275.

“Umm…”

“How about it? Do you feel a bit calmer now?”

“…”

But Antiope said nothing, she only pulled her zipper back up.

“Antiope, I—.”

“—No, does this mean you won’t even give me time to dream?”

“Huh?”

“…I knew it all along. I sort of figured out that you weren’t really a god and weren’t truly a cultist.”

“Really?”

“I’m not stupid. There aren’t any clumsy cultists like you or fake gods either.”

Antiope lay down on the bed and silently stared at the ceiling. Her previously dull eyes flashed with a bright brown hue, much like when I first met her.

Swoosh.

She eventually sat up, leaned against the wall, and took a puff from a pipe lying on the floor, flicking her finger to produce a spark.

“Huh.”

She drew a deep breath and exhaled a puff of smoke into the air.

“Still, you owe me for letting me dream. For a short moment, I had the power to use magic or something. I have no idea what exactly happened, but I shot lightning and flames out of my hands.”

“d*mn it,” Antiope muttered.

“Shooting out lightning. I must’ve been insane. Was it the heat getting to me?”

“Probably. It’s unbearably hot after all.”

“Thinking about it now, it pisses me off. Sure, it was partly my fault for attacking you guys recklessly. But as my head clears up, I feel embarrassed about what I’ve done.”

Antiope scratched at her now ashen hair, showing just how embarrassed she was.

I said, “That’s how it is, really… Anyway, since we’ve sorted out our misunderstandings, let’s just get along. Keep quiet about the fact that you lost to us or about what we did— we shouldn’t spread that around.”

“Of course, it must be kept secret. Who wants their future ruined? Bah. Why did I even do that? Still, you did look like some terrifying guy back then. Ugh, so embarrassing.”

Eventually, Antiope tapped her heels on the blanket with her foot, stirring up some dust.

For my part, it was a relief that things were smoothing over and I wouldn’t carry the weight of guilt. Luna had remarked that my recent behavior made me seem changed, and the events with Antiope surely played quite a role in that.

This was a relief indeed.

“Still, I can’t let this stand alone. It’s kind of unfair that I’m the only one with embarrassing memories.”

Swoosh.

Antiope extended a well-proportioned foot toward me. Despite not being an expert in feet aesthetics, it was undoubtedly a lovely foot.

“…What’s this about?”

“…Show some respect to my foot.”

“What?”

“…You deserve an embarrassing memory too. That way, we can keep each other’s secrets. Don’t you think? So, kiss my br…, my foot.”

Are you serious? Kiss the foot?

Even the wicked Elpride wouldn’t have ordered something like that. Asking someone to kiss a person’s foot—it’s as demeaning as it gets. Isn’t it?

“Hurry it up!”

She squirmed her toes impatiently, her determination set.

There had been a fleeting moment when I wondered if revealing the truth might lead to a fight with Antiope. Her level now was 27, mine was 25, but I had a decent store of mission points. If things got rough, subduing her by force was certainly a backup plan.

But if I could resolve the issue without bloodshed, simply by swallowing my pride, wouldn’t that be the best outcome?

Thus, I took a deep breath and grabbed her small, soft, warm foot.

Mal-ling.

At that exact moment,

Crrrrk—

The door opened, and Hippolyte appeared, drenched in sweat. Her brown eyes darted quickly between me and her sister, Antiope.

“Why… Why are you touching my sister’s f-foot? Antiope, why are you letting him? Aren’t you a sworn person of purity?”

Hippolyte glided toward me at a speed so fast her knees didn’t seem to move.

Before I knew it, her hand was aiming for my throat, my neck hairs standing on end at the terrifying whistle her hand created as it sliced through the air.

How did I dodge that?! The thought of what might have happened if her hand had caught my throat made my bl**d run cold.

She had tried to grab my neck.

How did I avoid that? Was this what training was for?

Still, Antiope’s ankle was surely clutched by Hippolyte.

“U-Uh, sis, sis, just, hear me out. Sis, it’s, it’s, sis! Sis!”

“…Hassan, since you managed to evade my hand, I’ll let you off this time. Leave now if you don’t want any trouble.”

“Thank you.”

The door closed behind me with a sound, and inside, a commotion resembling flapping chicken wings echoed loudly.

“Aaaaah, sis, sis!”

“I’ll show you what happens when you behave this way-”

Though faint sounds of argument were audible, they were drowned out by the surrounding noises. After a few minutes,

“Hassan, you can come back in now.”

When permission from Hippolyte came, I opened the door to see Antiope curled up on the bed, her body swelling with hives as she trembled.

“I heard you were giving her a massage?”

“…That’s right.”

Hippolyte’s lethargic half-opened eyes made me understand the feeling of a mouse in front of a cat. I too, was trembling when Hippolyte sighed and spoke.

“Antiope is still a child. You need to look after her.”

“…Sis, you treat me like a kid every day. I’m an adult. Let me do what I want-.”

“Hmph, you still don’t understand, do you?”

Is it a sibling fight? Having fought with my little sister countless times, I somewhat understood.

However, being part of this family time was slightly awkward, making the back of my neck prickle. Just then, Hippolyte said,

“Hassan, there will be no training today.”

“Is it a rest day?”

“Instead, we’ll start gaining actual field experience from tomorrow. We’re closing the Abyss Rift.”

What’s that?

I was pondering this when Antiope, curled up on the bed glaring at her sister, cried out in shock,

“Are you talking about heading down to the lowest level of the gorge? Seriously? Sis, you must’ve been heatstruck too!”

[Author’s Comments]

Today, the indoor temperature of the house reached 32 degrees…

When I breathed in, the air felt unbearably hot, and when I turned on the fan, it only blew out lukewarm air, which left me deeply surprised!!

It was truly a day where I felt that extreme heat could genuinely harm a person, so I decided to include a heatstruck Antiope.

Making someone wear a latex rubber outfit covering them from neck to ankle during the height of summer did feel a bit mean to me…

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