Chapter 77: A Disgusting Skill
Back when Aiden was monitoring the ghouls, his only goal was to spook the butchers and get some more corpses to convert. Yet, what he had gained far outweighed what he had hoped for.
"Is this city the hub of transmigration?" he chuckled.
First, he appeared. Then Milarel also appeared in the vicinity, and now Joan, the sword empress, did the same. It couldn’t be a coincidence anymore, but that wasn’t what Aiden was worried about.
It was Joan’s skill that had him worried.
"Blood Art: Crimson Severance."
It was Joan’s ultimate move. As long as someone possesses blood, the slash would cut through. Most of the recipients of the attack got sliced in half, just like Brock.
I would have been the same, if not for one little thing.
By the time Joan reached the demon lord’s castle, Aiden had already been cursed. The flesh and blood that were the source of Joan’s power had long since rotted, only leaving a skeleton frame behind.
The skeletal frame Aiden had cursed so much was the only reason he didn’t die facing Joan. She was the only one who could have defeated him, and hence, he gave her a rare honor.
The honor of remembering her name and the move that killed many of his generals.
"We should deal with her as soon as possible, my lord," Milarel whispered, standing behind him.
"Don’t be a fool, Milarel," Aiden smirked, shaking his head. "Handling her wouldn’t be that easy."
The people of Earth were too weak to fight against the monsters. How was he supposed to send someone to kill a hero who could be a threat even to him?
"Facing her head-on would be the single stupidest mistake I can make," he said, scratching his chin. "But that doesn’t mean we can’t defeat her."
If he took on all the hero parties face-to-face, Aiden wouldn’t have defeated 777 parties. While strength was important, so was excelling in the art of deception.
He walked up to the floor-to-ceiling window, looking at the desolate land before him.
"Everyone who transmigrates gets a new skill. I got this barrier, you got your transformation ability. Joan must have gotten something new as well."
"I see..." Milarel nodded, understanding why Aiden was hesitant to attack Joan.
"Fighting her outside would be foolish," he continued. "But once she gets inside the barrier, everything will be under my control. As for how to get her here, you know what to do."
"Yes, my lord. I’ll depart at once."
Milarel turned and was about to leave when Aiden grabbed her wrist, pulling her into his arms.
"My lord—?"
Before she could say a word, Aiden kissed her.
"Be safe out there," he said, caressing her face.
"I w-will, my lord..."
Aiden watched her trot away and smiled.
"You love saving damsels, don’t you, Joan? I wonder who will come to save you when you become the damsel."
***
Meanwhile, at the butcher gang’s base.
The atmosphere had changed considerably. The gang members who once toyed with women were now the ones being toyed with. How? Well... they all had received special treatment from Joan.
"I can’t bother remembering your names," she said, waving her blade around. "So, from now on, you’re eunuch 1, eunuch 2, and so on. Anyone has any objections?"
The gang members could only whimper in pain. Their prized family jewels had been taken away. Now, the only true man there was the doctor that stopped their bleeding after they used their knives to mutilate themselves.
The doctor would have suffered himself, if not for the women vouching for him. He was the only one who didn’t touch them, treating them with care and respect.
Joan still wasn’t convinced. All men were ruthless bastards. In her eyes, the doctor was no different. But when the women literally formed a human wall around him, Joan begrudgingly gave the man a chance.
As for the gang members, not all of them followed Joan’s punishment. The natural result was their death.
"Clean this place up," Joan dismissed the eunuchs with a wave. "I don’t want to see a single drop of your filthy blood here."
The girls would watch over the men as they worked. Meanwhile, Joan retreated to the room that belonged to Brock. Despite being a brute, the imbecile kept the room clean, which made Joan nod approvingly.
Now alone, she opened the familiar interface to check her stats.
As expected... I haven’t retained much from the glory days.
By glory days, she meant the days she had spent in the Otherworld as a heroine. However, she had indeed gained a new skill. Unfortunately, the more she read about the skill, the angrier she got.
[Skill: Fertility]
[Every time the user bears a child, they gain a new skill/item/stat reward.]
"What utter nonsense is this!?" she snapped, driving her blade into the screen. "Rewards for bearing children? Do I look like a breeding sow to you!?"
She slashed at the screen again and again, each swing faster and more vicious than the last. But doing so neither harmed the screen nor did it let her vent her anger successfully.
"I fought demons! I slew dragons! I saved kingdoms! And now the reward for my hard work is to spread my legs and pop out babies for power!?"
Joan yelled, thrashing the room as she did. All her life, she had hated men. Even the thought of being touched by them was insufferable to her.
At that moment, she realized that the skill wasn’t a reward for transmigrating but a punishment for her. First, instead of reincarnating in a better world, she got thrown into the broken body of a woman stuck in an apocalypse, and now this?
"If I ever meet the god who made this system, I’ll shove this red blade so far up their divine ass they’ll taste steel for eternity!"
"Every time I bear a child..." she repeated, but even that act disgusted her. "As if I would ever let any man touch me. I’d rather stay weak forever than play this disgusting game."