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Chapter 37
Chapter 2, Princess And I — Episode 37 : Awakening, Part 2
Translated by KaiesV
Edited by KaiesV
Funabashi agreed to single combat, but as soon as the battle became unfavorable, he turned his hand and took Lilith hostage, threatening me.
「Wasn’t this supposed to be a game between you and me? Just because you were about to lose to some asshole doesn’t mean you can’t take hostages!」
「Shut up! I don’t listen to a kid’s prattle. Winning is great, in life and in the game.」
From my point of view, Funabashi is more than a year older than me, but I don’t feel the slightest bit of the leeway he showed me at the beginning.
When Funabashi lifted his chin, his subordinates, who were not much different from the thugs, gathered around me. But one of his men opens his mouth. Soon the faces of the other subordinates had turned blue.
「Fu–Funabashi-san… b–behind…」
Contrary to his men, who were pale, Funabashi had no idea what was going on as he kept his dagger at Lilith’s neck.
「Ah? What? What’s with you guys? Ah, heh?」
Funabashi looked back and saw what he saw….
————Bone Knight
A skeleton in armor, about two times larger than a human and roughly two to three meters long…
No, perhaps the correct term is skeletal warrior. He was armed with armor and a sword, as if he were a foreigner who had been dabbling in Japan. He had no eyeballs, but the back of his head glowed red and suspiciously.
The bone knight breathed, and a bouffant purple breath spread around him from his mouth. Then, all at once, the thugs began to gurgle and cough. I, Funabashi, and Lilith are all safe for now.
I wonder if that’s the miasma?
「This feels shit! You guys, do that skeleton first!」
It was too much of an order. I don’t think even today’s black companies would give a work order to go die… I’ve never worked there, though.
Funabashi’s words are synonymous with it.
His subordinates begin to become confused, perhaps from the effects of inhaling the miasma. Some clawed at their chests, some kept circling the place in circles, some started crying.
「M–My lungs are burning!!!」
「H–Help me!!!」
Eventually, one of them escaped, and as if by a dam, the men who had been under his command scattered and fled before the enemy, ignoring Funabashi’s orders.
It’s a big pinch, like a tiger at the front gate and a wolf at the back gate, Funabashi, though, by a demon that suddenly appeared after taking a hostage named Lilith.
Funabashi, who had been so vigorous earlier, is now a blob, and I’ve agitated him into a pinch with a skeleton behind him.
「I hear you’ve got a lot of moral fiber for a guy who’s trying to win at life.」
「Shut up—!!!」
Not just a winner, but a total loser move.
Funabashi confronted the bone knight who pushed Lilith away with only his left dagger…
「D–Don’t come any closer!!!」
Funabashi buzzes and swings his dagger at the skeleton to keep it from approaching, but it’s not even close, and the skeleton comes close enough to reach Lilith if she reaches for it from its large frame.
I thought the big skeletons were monsters…
「Lilith-sama… we’re here for you.」
The skeleton spoke… Lilith, who had been unconscious, was awakened by the words of the deformed demoness, and slowly opened her eyelids.
「H–Hmm… Gratz!? W–Why are you here!?」
「I have come to bring you back. Please return to Azarkade-sama.」
「No, no, no, no, returning is——!」
Apparently, they knew each other, but it seemed difficult to keep things quiet. Because the skeleton mentioned the name of the Demon Lord.
He took off his iron armor, turned his skeletonized palm toward Lilith, and then turned to the skeleton, who was trying to bring her back.
「There’s a lot of openings!!!」
Funabashi slashed a dagger at the skeleton at the base of the neck. However, the skeleton showed no sign of taking Funabashi’s attack at all.
「This fucker!」
He keep slamming it down, but it’s not working, just metal hitting metal.
「You? The lascivious man who hurt Lilith-sama…」
「That’s right! That brat was useless, I ordered my men to do it. What about that…」
「Drawn Sword【Slash Break】」
I thought for a moment I saw the white blade of a sword that had been pulled out with a span, but then it was delivered.
The thing rolls to my feet with a colossal roll…
「M–My arrrrrmmmm——!!!」
Now Funabashi, whose left hand was also blown away, was screaming and very loud. No, usually it is… Maybe I’m having【Phantom Pain】that’s messing with my senses.
「Silence, peasant.」
Eh!?
The skeleton drew his sword and released it, stroking Funabashi twice in quick succession like a rolled straw used in iaido, and then his head and upper body rolled away in a heap…
The neck was wide-eyed, and the lower half of the body slowly folded at the knees and slumped forward. Guts spilled from the section, forming a red puddle on the ground as I watched.
Ugeeehhh——!!!
I’m used to seeing cross sections. But not the entrails.
The skeleton that cut the bridge of the ship raised his sword with a swoosh, and then, boom! And sheathed it with a blood swing. Lilith managed to escape to my side while Funabashi was distracted by the skeleton, grabbed my clothes and hid behind me.
The skeleton seem to have changed its target as it turn Funabashi into just a lump of meat and slowly come towards us. It looked like he was thinking about how he was going to carve me up while he walked slowly, and his body was about to go rigid.
My expectations were dashed when the skeleton opened its mouth.
「It seems that Lilith-sama has forgiven you, but I need you to convince her to return to Azarkade-sama.」
I thought he was a totally unreasonable person to talk to, but it seems that he is seriously trying to bring Lilith back to me.
But the question remains.
If he were as weak as I am, he could have cut me off and taken her home forcefully like Funabashi. But this guy was trying to persuade me.
But I refuse.
There was no way I could convince her…
「I can’t do that… because Lilith defected to me.」
「Kaname…」
She grabs the breast of my dress with feeble strength, shakes her head and tells me she doesn’t want to go.
「She doesn’t want to go.」
「I’ll keep pushing.」
No questions asked!? If I fight that guy properly, I’m in serious trouble!!!
No matter how much【Phantom Pain】I have, if he dismember me like that, it might not help… And even with Lilith, I can’t fight with a body like this.
What am I going to do?
If I fight, the skeleton will kill me. But I don’t want to hand over Lilith.
Think, me.
Then I saw something.
Again…
I look at Funabashi’s arm, lying there, in fluorescent letters.
Combinable Item【Funabashi Kouhei’s Arm】
It’s labeled as…
I didn’t think I could really bond with an arm other than mine, what’s going on? My body is a magic plastic model…
But that son of a bitch’s arm.
When I look at the raw head, torso and lower body of a guy who is just a lump of meat lying around, I think of that guy’s words about winners and losers.
Even Yurielle and the others can’t revive him after that…
It’s only a matter of time before I, too, get shredded and roll on the ground. What kind of a punishment is it to be brought back by that pathetic Funabashi, torn to shreds, instead of fulfilling Lilith’s wish that she relied on me?
I’ll take my chances.
Even if the God of this world turns his back on me, I have a seriously angelic saint named Marielle to make me smile!!!
Since there was a little distance between us, I jumped in and picked up Funabashi’s arm while doing a forward-around passive stance like the rotational receiver I learned from Shirakaba-san. The notice that went out as soon as I stood up.
【Do you want to combine?】
Yes <——
No
I’ve decided that it’s a「yes」——!!!
When I chose yes,【Phantom Pain】（Purge） was triggered and my arm fell to the ground in a bolt on its own. So now I don’t have to cut them off with a machete.
When I attach Funabashi’s arm to the cut surface, the position and length of the joints are adjusted, although I have no idea how it works, and it feels right, just like my own arm. But the different skin color and the tasteful scorpion tattoo on his arm are still there…
Funabashi’s left arm is now fully acclimated to mine.
Then…
Due to the effect of the level up of【Phantom Pain,】【Mimic】has evolved into【Exceed】
And a mysterious notification.
Learn more
Pause
Unmute
I don’t know what it means, but… I have the skill slots and storage, and I inherit the skills that Funabashi took from Ootake-kun and Aina.
「Ohh… Human. I thought you were sneaking around doing something, but you are doing something quite amusing. Are you going to entertain me from here on out?」
「I don’t have the proclivity to be a fighting maniac! As long as I can protect the loli in front of me, that’s all that matters.」
「It’s not【Slash Break.】」
As soon as this thick-boned Musha finishes speaking, he suddenly pulls out his sword and slashes at me.
At any rate, the buff skills I had, were,
Back Toss
Steel
Titan
Techniques
I put it all on and then caught the sword with my machete.
「You got it…?」
I caught it!?
My hands are shaking. It’s not just the shock of a powerful attack. The other side was surprised, but I was also trembling from the joy that welled up from deep within my body at the fact that I had managed to ward off a skill-based slash from an opponent who I didn’t think was of a higher rank.
You all are playing cheat, if you can use your skills! I’ve been forced to play a lot of bondage games in the past.
From here on out, it’s all my turn…
I wanted to say, “I’ll take my turn…” but I didn’t think I could defeat this skeleton with the skills of Aina and the others. That was when I was about to give up.
【Slash Break】can be mastered. Do you want to learn it?
Yes <——
No
Okay, it’s a yes.
The name has not a shred of sense and sounds like a biker gang guess. But better than nothing!
「I–I remember it! Your Slash Break!」
「Hahahah! I am amazed that you could take away your opponent’s skills. But do you think such an imitation will work on me?」
I felt the skeleton was more excited than ever. I couldn’t read his expressions because he was a skeleton, but his red pupils? The light? Either way, because it looked like it had a big glow to it.
「How about we just hit each other, and that will determine the superiority of the two?」
This guy must have other skills! Are you so afraid of being taken advantage of that you’re not willing to give me that kind of suggestion?
But it can’t be helped. The only thing that can beat him now is that lame guessed slashing skill.
「All right, let’s do it!」
「How understanding.」
The skeleton’s head tilted forward, and then he leaned forward and put his hand on the handle. I imitated him and held the machete at my side. I didn’t know why, but my body did it on its own.
「Let’s go!」
「Ready!」
「「【Slash Break.】」」
Gakkkkkiiiiinnnnn—!!!
When they were released all at once, sword and machete, metal and metal, clashed and sparked violently. The impact of the collision reached from my hands to my brain with a jolt that almost made me dizzy.
The other side clearly had a longer blade. However, I had no intention of being defeated. As we were trying to push each other into the other side, a nasty sound was coming from the point of contact.
Mish-mash, bang!
It seems to have finally gone over the edge and breaks noisily. And at the same time…
「Ridiculous!? I don’t think my martial arts have been defeated by a fake…」
My machete had entered thick-boned Musha torso and made a hole diagonally across his torso. As one would expect, the wound did not reach the bone, but…
But Skeletor is right, it’s still annoying that it’s stronger than the original even though it’s cracked.
After looking at the broken surface of the broken sword close to his face, he sighed and threw the hilt to the ground.
Don’t you know the word “no littering”?
I was only terrified a moment ago, but now I could afford to think about something else.
The thick-boned Musha turned his back to me and started walking slowly, even though he was in the middle of a fight.
What are you doing? I thought, and then he grabbed a head of hair from Funabashi and put it away in a burlap sack. And then he gave me…
「What is your name, my lord? I am one of the four Heavenly Kings, an officer of the Demon Army, Gratz of Silence.」
Four Heavenly King!?
Lilith, you’re in a daze, but you haven’t said a word about anything important!　You should have said something like that first!
But he said his name.
（Like a rival certification.）
「My name is Kaname… Kirishima Kaname!」
Hearing my name, Thick-bone seemed to have a satisfied expression, or rather, his jaw was half open and he seemed to be smiling.
「I’ll remember you! This one has defeated one of the heroes. Kirishima Kaname, I leave this match to you. Until then, I leave Lilith’s health in your hands. I look forward to our meeting again.」
He turns himself around and leaves.
Wait! I could have said that. But I was more worried about Lilith’s condition than fighting, so I immediately ran to her.
Piiiinnngg—!
I blew a wooden whistle and told Shirakaba-san where we were. There was so much going on, I didn’t have time to rant.
「Sorry to keep you waiting, are you alright!?」
「Y–You’re slow… You’ll always be a virgin because you keep a lady waiting…」
「Shut it, if you can afford to say that, you seem to be doing okay.」
But I feel so sorry for Lilith. For not being able to protect her and for what we humans did.
As soon as we meet up with Shirakaba-san, we have to get Marielle to examine this brat!
But first…
「I’ll do anything you say now. Say it.」
「A k–kiss… I want it…」
Again, a kiss!?
However, having issued the ticket that does what it says, I can’t back down.
「Got it, then here it goes.」
I closed my eyes and she became a sullen little bitch… It would have been immoral for me, a high school student, to kiss a loli, but I convinced myself that this girl was legit. I was wondering if I could be a household member again.
I kissed her lips, which were so moist that I wondered if she was wearing lip gloss.
————Chuuu.
Then I thought I heard a lip noise, but then she took my neck in her arms and even put her tongue in my neck! I wasn’t going to kiss this loli with such passion…
So I was going to get mad at her, but Lilith was shedding tears and lost the point of my anger. I don’t know, but the color of the bruises on Lilith and her wounds seem to be healing.
As I stroke her hair and keep her company,
「K–Kirishima-kun?」
「———!?」
I was hugging and kissing Lilith in the forest when Shirakaba-san came running up to us and saw us. As we were breaking apart, Lilith and I were pulling a transparent string between us, which was made up of our own fluids, and there was no way to get away with it.
「I–It’s not what you think… this is…」
「It’s okay, I won’t tell Marielle-san.」
When I stood up away from Lilith, Shirakaba-san saw me and took a step back. Don’t be so sure… I think Shirakaba-san is very tight-lipped. But that’s not what I meant!
Apparently, I have been classified as a toxic hero who has been completely identified as a lolicon by Shirakaba-san.