Chapter 128
‘Hehe. I properly upheld the dignity of a True Ancestor!’
Though I maintained a haughty, expressionless face on the outside, inwardly I was feeling extremely pleased.
The Heavenly Demon had definitely been impressed by the trick I had shown her.
The system window floating before my eyes was proof.
[Lord's Great Deeds]
[Current Completion: 77%]
The completion rate had gone up by 1 percent.
Of course, I hadn't really snatched a flying mosquito; it had been a trick of the eye…!
Well, this was still my ability.
Controlling the mosquito and regulating my grip so I didn't accidentally crush it—that was my skill.
- Bzzzz!
No. 9 buzzed as if in agreement.
At that moment, the Heavenly Demon asked me,
“Where do you plan to go next?”
“Umm….”
I pondered her question for a moment.
I had treated her to an entire cow at the restaurant and eaten snacks with her on the street, so couldn't we part ways around now?
But the completion rate of Lord's Great Deeds and the wish ticket the Heavenly Demon had promised floated into my mind.
‘Since I'm already working on her favorability, I might as well make it a little more certain.’
One place I had discovered while searching yesterday, as I prepared to go out, for ‘good places to go when spending time alone with a woman’ flashed through my mind.
“Follow me. This One shall let you experience amusement!”
“Amusement?”
The place I led the Heavenly Demon to was a large arcade.
Flash, flash!
Colorful neon lights and the popping sounds of arcade machines.
As soon as she entered the arcade, the Heavenly Demon looked around with an unmistakably unfamiliar air.
She had clearly lived her life without taking any interest in places like this.
‘Your first time at a K-arcade, huh?’
Hehe. Even though I'm a homebody, when I did go out, the places I visited most were PC bangs and unmanned arcades like this.
I had chosen a place where I knew my way around.
I decided to lead the Heavenly Demon around and let her try out various machines.
The first place we settled in was in front of a rhythm game.
“This is a rhythm game! You just have to match the beat.”
“Oh?”
The Heavenly Demon listened intently to my explanation, then sat down and immediately tried playing.
Tap, tap-tap, tap!
The Heavenly Demon's fingers moved rapidly.
“It isn't particularly difficult.”
The Heavenly Demon struck every note falling on the screen perfectly, without making a single mistake.
‘……She's way too good?!’
I considered myself something of a veteran, but I wasn't even in the same league.
“Ahem, ahem. You're pretty good for your first try!”
I quickly took the Heavenly Demon to the next game.
Next was a basketball game.
Smack! Smack! Smack!
Every time the Heavenly Demon lightly flicked her wrist, the basketball traced an arc and was sucked into the hoop.
A succession of perfect clean shots that didn't even touch the rim.
‘She's a complete human shooting machine.’
She probably hadn't even used martial arts, yet her distribution of force and trajectory calculations were mechanically precise.
“…Let us proceed to the next.”
“Are you not going to play?”
“J-Jinjo mastered these sorts of things long ago!”
“I see.”
Feeling deflated, I hurriedly took the Heavenly Demon to the next machine.
The third place we headed to was in front of a punching machine.
“Ah, this is a device for measuring martial prowess. This One has used one a few times before.”
The Heavenly Demon looked at the punching machine's leather sandbag.
Its straightforward appearance meant she didn't particularly need my explanation.
Then she soon lowered her stance and drew her fist back to her waist.
Goooooo.
‘Huh?’
A faint current of air began to swirl around the Heavenly Demon's fist.
‘Wait, if this person hits it seriously, won't the building go flying instead of the machine?!’
There are other people here too—this is going to be a disaster!
I was aghast and reflexively reached out to grab the Heavenly Demon's wrist.
Squeeze!
***
“…….”
The Heavenly Demon quietly looked down at Jinjo's hand gripping her wrist.
A small, white, soft hand.
There was so little force in the grip that it was hard to tell whether she was even holding her.
However, the problem was—
‘The Protective Aura…… did not react.’
The Heavenly Demon Protective Aura.
It was an absolute defensive mechanism that automatically protected her body when it sensed an external impact or threat.
Even if an ordinary criminal with no knowledge of martial arts suddenly touched her, it would normally generate at least a slight repulsive force and send the other person flying.
But when Jinjo's hand touched her body, the Heavenly Demon Protective Aura remained still.
‘Unless she was as weak as a child or cat, there was no way the Protective Aura wouldn't react.’
A brief question flashed through her mind.
Was it because all murderous intent and hostility directed at her had been perfectly absent?
Or had she controlled her strength with such extreme delicacy that she had even deceived the flow of qi?
If not that, had even her own Protective Aura failed to classify the Jinjo before her as an enemy?
One thing was certain: the Heavenly Demon Protective Aura had judged Jinjo to be ‘harmless.’
Whatever the reason, it was astonishing.
From childhood until now, not even the maidservants or elders of the Divine Cult had dared touch the Heavenly Demon's person carelessly.
Had anyone ever touched her first, so fearlessly, before?
And had she ever enjoyed such a trivial amusement alone with someone else?
She could not remember.
But one thing was certain.
‘…It is warm.’
Jinjo's hand was extraordinarily warm.
***
“You must not recklessly use force in this place!”
I quickly let go and admonished her.
The Heavenly Demon stared blankly at me with her black eyes.
She looked a little surprised, too.
She must have been startled when I suddenly grabbed her wrist to stop her, but it couldn't be helped.
‘Phew, we almost lost an entire arcade.’
“I see. Then This One shall let this pass.”
Perhaps she accepted what I said, because the Heavenly Demon obediently lowered her fist.
To change the subject, I immediately led the Heavenly Demon to the next machine.
“Instead, let us play this.”
I pointed to a claw machine filled with all sorts of cute stuffed animals inside.
No one would get hurt or anything break with this, at least.
But, unexpectedly, the Heavenly Demon had no knack for claw machines.
“…Hmm.”
As the machine's claw repeatedly dropped the stuffed animals without enough strength, the Heavenly Demon's brow furrowed ever so slightly.
“Something is strange.”
The rules of this entirely different kind of trickery, unrelated to martial arts, seemed to be throwing her off.
“This One shall do it!”
After the Heavenly Demon kept failing, I tried it this time.
Of course, I failed the first few times, too.
‘Ah, damn. I feel like I can get it with just a little more….’
But I was slowly getting the hang of it.
It wasn't just about control; you had to understand the laws of claw machines.
Having played a lot of games, I had the advantage.
‘If I stack the stuffed animals like this….’
After a few more tries, at last, a stuffed animal was pushed out and fell into the chute.
“Success!”
I took the stuffed animal out from beneath the machine.
It was a fluffy white fox plushie.
I held it out to the Heavenly Demon.
“Take it.”
The Heavenly Demon accepted the fox plushie almost reflexively and blinked.
“Are you giving it to This One?”
“Ahem, it is a gift from Jinjo! Consider it an honor.”
Heh. I'm much better at games than the Heavenly Demon after all. If I give her a stuffed animal, her favorability will go up too, right?
Today's meeting was a complete success.
***
The Heavenly Demon stroked the soft white fox plushie.
She had received countless rare items, elixirs, and treasures from powerful figures and guilds in various countries.
But it was the first time in her life that she had been given such a small, humble, cute stuffed toy.
‘Heheh. This isn't a bad feeling.’
A faint smile spread across the Heavenly Demon's face.
“It was an enjoyable amusement, Jinjo.”
“Was it? Then let us head out now!”
It was just as we stepped outside the arcade.
“Aaaaaah!”
People's screams rang out.
- Kreeeek!
Soon, a hideous roar could be heard.
A monster had appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the street and was threatening the people.
A grotesque head with a rooster's comb and beak. A muscular human torso.
It was a monster shaped as though a snake's tail, writhing like a whip, had been forcibly sewn onto it.
“Eek, eeek!”
“Save me…!”
People were fleeing in panic, but some had frozen in fear.
"Kree, kree!"
Thick saliva dripped from between its grotesquely gaping beak as it greedily glared at them with bloodshot eyes.
The Heavenly Demon assessed the situation with an unwavering gaze.
‘Hmm… A monster has been released into the city?’
There was no sign that a Gate had opened, so it seemed to be a monster that had slipped out of an undiscovered Gate and hidden itself in the city.
This sort of thing did happen occasionally.
Judging by the size of its qi, it was roughly an A-rank monster.
‘I suppose I should capture it.’
It was just as the Heavenly Demon was about to impassively take a step forward.
She paused.
Her footsteps came to a halt.
At some point, the parasol that had been standing beside Jinjo had been closed.
Instead, Jinjo was holding a gigantic black scythe that towered well above her height.
‘That weapon…….’
Just then, the Heavenly Demon's eyes widened slightly.
“This One shall show you a very small part of This One's authority.”
Jinjo lightly swung the scythe——.
At that moment.
The Heavenly Demon Protective Aura, which had been quiet until just before, began blaring an alarm like mad.
And at the same time, the Heavenly Demon saw it.
An illusion of her own head falling to the ground.