Ch.57I Thought I Would Be Strong?

“Sniff… sob…”

As promised, Eve’s thighs and bottom had turned peach-red after receiving punishment from Lee Jin-ah.

The day after that scolding came.

Eve, who had come out of her room, couldn’t casually enter Jin-ah’s shadow as she usually did.

Because whenever she saw her human mother working diligently at her desk, she remembered yesterday’s punishment.

Even though her mother was clearly the one doing the hitting, strangely, remembering her sad face made Eve too ashamed to show herself.

Moreover.

‘What if I get abandoned…?’

Although she had insulted her monster mother in the cooling chamber the other day.

Eve still regretted unconsciously releasing genuine killing intent toward Lee Heejeong in that moment.

She worried she might be expelled from her position as her human mother’s servant monster for that reason.

And if that happened, she would certainly be hunted down by the human mother she loved most in the world.

‘I don’t want that!’

Pitter-patter!

Eve ran back into her room in the branch director’s office, jumped onto the bed, and wrapped herself tightly in blankets.

Anyway, today she just wanted to be like this.

Because after being scolded, she couldn’t face her human mother the next day as if nothing had happened.

That’s when it happened.

“?!”

Her senses, all five of them, could faintly feel something despite being far away.

Just like when she first encountered her in the cooling chamber.

In that moment, Eve sensed that the lower half of her mother, the entity named Cheonsa, had risen on its own and was fighting.

And above all, her human mother was currently searching for her monster mother’s whereabouts!

‘If I find her and bring her back, she’ll definitely praise me!’

Then she’ll like me again, right?

She’ll love me again, right?

At the very least, it could make up for yesterday’s mistake.

Thinking this, Eve immediately prepared to leap toward the middle of the mountain where her monster mother’s energy was detected, using the ability Jin-ah had strictly warned her not to use carelessly.

“Armament – Eclipse!”

Emitting crimson lightning from her body, she transformed into a form with more prominent horns and gauntlets like a giant monster’s claws equipped on both hands.

“Eve?!”

Jin-ah, sensing Eve’s strengthened energy, hurriedly entered the child’s room.

However, before Jin-ah could stop her.

“Mom! I’ll find monster mom for you!”

“…What?”

With a confident grin, Eve formed a pair of wings like red lightning flashing behind her back.

Then she immediately rushed past Jin-ah, broke through the elevator shaft, and boldly dashed out through the Hunter Association lobby.

“Mom! You have to praise me when I come back!”

***

But Eve’s “make up with mom operation” immediately ran into difficulties.

“Humans…? Why are there so many?”

Was my mother this popular?

Eve was simply dumbfounded seeing the four members of the Villain’s Troupe, Lee Seokgyu, and Kersy, who was also a monster.

But what she wanted was right there—the lower half of her monster mother who was already dead!

“Give me that!”

“…? You mean this monster corpse with only legs remaining?”

“Yes! I absolutely must have that!”

Eve immediately stated her purpose, and Riverine just looked at her leader.

“Leader! What should we do?”

The original reason for stealing Cheonsa’s lower half was merely to serve as a trigger to draw out the monster of Jamsil said to be in Korea.

In other words, now that they’d abandoned that purpose, was Cheonsa’s lower half really worth fighting an anthropomorphic monster, even if it was just a child?

With that thought, Riverine waited for an answer, but.

“Of course not!”

“…!”

Katarina boldly returned the question with a question.

“Do you know how much that would sell for on the black market! Of course, if we can’t protect it, we might as well give it up. Riverine, what do you want to do?”

“M-me?!”

She asked Riverine, the current controller of the corpse, for her opinion.

Then Riverine…

“Of course…”

Of course.

She should give it up.

It was already challenging enough dealing with the dragon in front of them, and if this unknown humanoid monster also attacked, they could find themselves in a truly dangerous situation.

Her mind was clearly making this rational judgment.

But despite knowing this obvious fact, her instinct as a Marionette Hunter was, well…

‘If I could grow until I can fully control this National Disaster-Level corpse… maybe I could become even stronger than I am now…!’

A National Disaster-Level monster corpse with only its lower half remaining was hard to come by.

Honestly, from a Marionette Hunter’s perspective, there was no better material for practice.

She might never find something like this again in her lifetime.

That’s how rare it was to find a National Disaster-Level monster corpse in such a cleanly severed yet intact state.

If I could, I would just!

“I-I want to keep it!”

“Oh really?”

“Well, I figured as much.”

“R-Riverine?! Y-y-you’re keeping it?”

I can become even stronger than I am now.

That was Riverine’s purpose for joining the Villain’s Troupe, even becoming a villain herself.

That’s why she couldn’t give up the experience-yielding sandbag that was Cheonsa’s lower half corpse.

“…So you’re saying you won’t give it to me?”

“Yes. That’s right.”

“Really? Then…”

Pop!

Mom said not to hurt humans, but she said it was okay to kill “criminals.”

Since those who stole a monster corpse from the Hunter Association basement couldn’t possibly be decent humans, Eve immediately put strength in her legs and began charging toward Riverine.

“Die!”

“Ugh?!”

“Riverine! You and Dorothy handle that dragon! I’ll take care of this little monster!”

“Paul! Then I’ll leave it to you!”

Eve’s fist, charged with red magical energy, clashed with Paul’s black blade.

Bang!

At that moment, a shockwave from the collision of magical energies erupted between them, and seconds later, both Eve and Paul were pushed back.

“Hmm. You’re quite strong for a little one.”

“Eek?! Get out of my way right now!”

Paul, who had been ranked 5th in the world hunter rankings and served as an A-rank hunter in France before being branded a villain, was impressed by Eve’s unexpectedly strong skills.

Meanwhile, Eve began throwing a barrage of punches so fast they created afterimages like red lightning.

“Ora ora ora ora ora!!”

Bang bang bang bang bang!

The ground where Paul had been standing was instantly cratered, raising a cloud of dust.

“Paul!”

“C-could he be d-dead?!”

There was no way he could be alive after taking such an attack head-on.

Thinking this, Dorothy stopped stomping on Kersy and turned around with a tearful face.

But her worry proved unnecessary.

“Ho ho. I’m perfectly fine, so don’t worry and keep stomping on that dragon.”

“Paul!”

“Phew, thank goodness…”

Paul survived Eve’s barrage of punches?

While all the Villain’s Troupe members seemed relieved at his appearance, Lee Seokgyu, who had been quietly observing, opened his eyes wide in surprise.

‘To think he could “dodge” all those punches… This old man has better eyes than he appears.’

That was exactly right.

Paul hadn’t blocked Eve’s wildly thrown punches.

He had simply dodged them all.

What was impressive was that he had dodged every single punch—at least two or three per second—without even being grazed, all while staying in the same spot.

Eve landed in front of Paul.

“Huff… huff…!”

She took a fighting stance again while catching her breath.

But then…

Swoosh…

“Huh?!”

A weakening noise began to emanate from her grown horns.

“Ugh…!”

Eve’s combat mode was suddenly deactivated, returning her to her pre-transformation state.

The horn-shaped accessory that had looked like part of her head fell limply to the ground.

“Oh no! That was something precious mom gave me to use carefully!”

Eve quickly lowered herself to pick up the horn-shaped accessory that Jin-ah had given her, now unusable.

However, that was a mistake.

The moment the baby monster took her eyes off him.

Shing.

Paul immediately placed his sharp blade tip right in front of her throat, intending to end the fight.

“You have good potential and equipment, but your technique is lacking. That’s your downfall.”

“…!”

“Farewell. No matter how young you are, you’re still a monster. It would be stranger to feel guilty about killing you.”

Eve tried to turn around quickly but tripped on a rock and fell.

Behind her stood Paul, already raising his black blade high like an executioner.

“M-mom…!”

She had thought she would definitely win!

Mom had told her she was a monster that would grow to National Disaster-Level!

So she fought, expecting victory.

But now she faced something she had never experienced in her life.

Defeat.

And death.

As these loomed before her, Eve—who had grown like a greenhouse flower with only well-structured training and no real combat experience—naturally froze.

“Goodbye.”

Then, trembling all over like an ordinary human child, she even wet herself at the realization she was about to die.

“U-uwaaa…! M-mom… Mommy…!”

And at that moment.

“…! Paul! Get awaaaaay-!!”

“?!!”

Boom!!

Something fell in front of Paul like a black meteor.

It was the Villain’s Troupe’s original purpose for sneaking into Korea—a purpose they had now abandoned.

Jet-black skin.

A surprisingly ordinary human-shaped monster covered in rough, armor-like scales.

The moment they saw it, everyone in the Villain’s Troupe, including Cassandra, thought the same thing.

To think we tried to make this our “comrade.”

We all didn’t know our “place.”

“Hiiieek?!”

“…!”

“Huff… huff…!”

“What kind of power is this…?! Is it a m-monster?”

Eve, who had been trembling, felt strange that she was still alive after so much time had passed.

So she gathered her courage and slowly opened her tightly shut eyes.

Looking carefully upward in front of her.

There was a powerful member of her kind kneeling on one knee before her.

The monster of Jamsil was curiously looking at Eve, who resembled Lia.