Ch.117Educational Reckoning ON. (2)

After Pingchang… no, Betelgeuse left.

I immediately tried to stroke Marian’s head to calm my mind and body.

But for some reason, our black-haired cutie Marian was nowhere to be found in the base, not even a glimpse.

Perhaps because she’s a superhuman without any hair loss issues, not even a single strand of her hair could be found either.

“Griyanar, have you seen Marian by any chance?”

“Well, why don’t you try asking Leonard? The guy who’s always holed up in his ship.”

“Ah, I see.”

For that reason, though it was still awkward, I contacted Leonard, who had become the only regular male character in this base since Oxianor got gender-swapped.

-“I’m sorry, but I can’t say anything about the Empress.”

“Huh?”

It wasn’t that he didn’t know, but that he ‘couldn’t say anything,’ which only amplified my curiosity.

Before I could ask further, he cut off the communication and blocked me, saying not to ask anymore.

So I was suddenly left wondering where our pure, innocent Marian could possibly be and what she might be doing.

———-

At the same time.

Marian, whom Icarus had been searching for everywhere…

“Did you think I wouldn’t find you if you hid in a destroyer instead of a light cruiser?”

“…What are you talking about, Pirate Empress?”

Not in the Hamburg-class light cruiser that Betelgeuse had designated as her flagship.

Instead, Marian had taken an assault pod with her elite guards and stormed the bridge of a destroyer mixed among other ships nearby.

She was pointing her finger accusingly at Betelgeuse who was there instead of on the flagship.

Despite Marian’s accusatory gesture, Betelgeuse maintained an outwardly calm demeanor, but…

‘How did she figure it out?’

To avoid being targeted and blown up in an unexpected accident during a long-distance expedition, she had been riding in an ordinary destroyer instead of her flagship. She was inwardly flustered that Marian had instantly seen through her “prank” and found her.

But no matter how much Marian maintained her poker face.

Seeing how unfazed she was in this situation, Marian realized that the “woman” she had been searching for was indeed the pink-haired woman right in front of her.

Upon this realization, Marian lowered her accusing finger.

Then, raising her black leather-gloved hand to rest her chin, she smiled maliciously and began to speak.

“Aha, so you’re the bitch who dared to mess with my oppa?”

“…Oppa?”

And since Betelgeuse was running a large clan with over 10,000 “pranksters,”

When she heard the “term” Marian used, she instinctively knew she was in trouble.

Nevertheless, she wasn’t planning to give in so easily.

Knowing that the “Pirate Empress” had surrendered to Icarus, she tried to bring up the matter to leave room for negotiation with Marian.

“Wait a minute, didn’t I make a peace treaty with your Commander? Is it right for you to intimidate and attack me like this? Huh?”

Befitting a clan named after the god of mischief, Betelgeuse desperately tried to maintain her composure and appear relaxed.

Unfortunately, Marian’s response to her “desperate” attempt at negotiation was…

“You seem to be misunderstanding something, so I need to correct you.”

“Huh?”

-THWACK!!

“Keuhaak?!”

“First of all, I don’t have a separate contractual relationship with my oppa yet.”

“Keheuk, cough! Cough!”

While pretending to have a conversation, she suddenly launched her fist toward Betelgeuse’s lower abdomen.

As a near SSS-rank, no, now fully in the top tier of SSS-rank, the impact was so powerful that Betelgeuse, who had been caught off guard by the stomach punch, was lifted into the air with a force stronger than a main battle tank’s cannon.

Thanks to the system’s protection against excessive cruelty, despite taking Marian’s direct attack,

She was spared the fate of being turned into minced meat.

Of course, this only meant she avoided being turned into a bloody mess.

The system couldn’t prevent the pain from the vibrations coursing through the most sensitive parts of a woman’s body from the impact.

Combined with being lifted up and then slammed back down to the floor.

Betelgeuse, not even comprehending what had happened to her, lay collapsed on the floor, coughing and drooling.

But despite this pitiful and miserable state, Marian’s expression didn’t change one bit.

Grabbing Betelgeuse’s pink curly hair as she lay on the floor, Marian

Lifted her up by the hair while Betelgeuse continued coughing, a dark bruise forming on her lower abdomen.

Then she brought her mouth close to Betelgeuse’s ear and whispered:

“Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m going to kill you.”

“Kheuk… uuuh?”

Hearing such sweet words, like a devil’s whisper,

Betelgeuse, who had been groaning in pain, perked up, her pink eyes showing interest.

But that expression didn’t last long, as she became filled with suspicion about what Marian could possibly mean after beating her so thoroughly.

Seeing her reaction, Marian shook her head lightly a couple of times.

She briefly looked amazed that the hair she was gripping so tightly wasn’t coming out.

Then she began whispering into Betelgeuse’s ear again.

“The matter between you and my oppa… ended with my oppa, right?”

“…T-that’s true.”

“And since you gave a positive evaluation of my oppa, I won’t kill you thanks to those bonus points.”

“…!”

Of course, due to the system’s protection, there was never any possibility of Betelgeuse being turned into minced meat by Marian.

But neither Marian nor Betelgeuse herself knew that.

So at Marian’s declaration, a thin ray of hope began to shine in Betelgeuse’s pink eyes.

But right after that.

“But I’m feeling… quite irritated, you know?”

“Ugh…!”

As Marian lifted her hand gripping the hair higher, Betelgeuse, who was much smaller than Marian, suddenly found her feet dangling in the air, struggling in pain.

Regardless, Marian maintained the exact same expression.

Looking at Betelgeuse struggling in her grasp, she spoke calmly, like a judge delivering a sentence.

“So you’ll have to pay with your body until my irritation subsides.”

“…!!”

“It would be best to be careful with your body.”

“W-what.”

“Oh, but once my irritation is gone, I’ll have you delivered back to your base, so don’t worry too much about that.”

Naturally, upon hearing those words, Betelgeuse’s eyes, which had been squinting in pain, flew wide open.

‘No, am I really screwed?!’

Faced with a reality where she couldn’t predict what would happen next,

She felt cold sweat running down her entire body from the tension.

‘W-what’s going to happen to me…?’

———-

Four days after my battle with the clan leader of the Loki Clan.

“Oppa! I’m back!”

“Where on earth have you been?”

When Marian, who had suddenly disappeared, returned looking extremely refreshed,

I felt some inexplicable suspicion, but decided to welcome her back safely first.

In response to my question, Marian just smiled brightly.

Then she put her hand in her pocket and began to speak to me with a satisfied tone.

“Oh right! Oppa? I have a present for you.”

“Hm? A present?”

“Just a moment, it’s somewhere here… huh? Huh?”

I don’t know what she was trying to give me, but realizing that whatever it was wasn’t in her pocket,

She panicked and started frantically patting all over her body.

I was wondering what was causing her to act like this and was about to tell her to calm down, when…

“Ah, I put it here!”

“Oh.”

Having finally remembered where she had put “something,”

Marian reached into her increasingly large cleavage, which was becoming the source of Ignis’s angry glares lately.

From there, she pulled out a portable memory device and placed it firmly in my hand.

“Here you go, oppa!”

“…What is this?”

Perhaps because it had been nestled in Marian’s cleavage,

It retained a warmth that made me feel like I was committing a crime just by holding it, so I couldn’t fully grasp it and held it awkwardly.

Marian shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly and proudly said:

“You know that woman who picked a fight with you last time?”

“Who… oh, you mean Commander Betelgeuse.”

“It’s a video I made while working hard to torment that woman for four days! You can watch it when you have time… or use it as blackmail material if she tries to pull any pranks again!”

“…”

And I had to feel a great deal of bewilderment as I realized this was “that thing” I’d only heard about.

‘What on earth has this crazy game created?’