Chapter 99
She was livelier than before, and nowhere near as scared of him.
Soren had nothing to say to that, he lit a cluster of demonic energy over his hand and burned the palm that had touched her, inside and out, three times, like disinfecting it.
"I have no interest in women who get scared into wetting themselves."
Her brows knit and she sat bolt upright, resentment flickered across her face, she scrambled off the bed and marched over, stopping with her crimson lips inches from his face.
He could smell her breath, sweet and warm, faintly like orchids.
"What’s that supposed to mean?"
"You look down on me?"
"It was a struggle, but I bathed every single day!"
"Demon lord, you devoured my Witch Poison, you healed my organs, and now you’re telling me you have no interest in me?"
"What are you even after?"
She pressed forward step by step until her lips were nearly against his cheek.
She huffed and leaned in, offering herself up, Soren raised one finger and pressed it flat against her lips to stop her.
Celeste was more confused than ever, she’d assumed he was thin-skinned, or playing hard to get, and that all it took was making the first move.
What does he mean, rejecting me? Her eyes went a little red, and something surged out of her pupils close to hunger.
Whatever chord his refusal struck, her whole expression changed, she looked ready to cut his chest open just to see what was inside.
Soren found the shift genuinely strange, he unfolded the Strategy Encyclopedia in his mind.
The numbers made a corner of his eye twitch, first time for everything.
[Celeste, Lower-Tier Human Venerable.]
[Dual Cultivation Partners: 0.]
...
[Relationship Tier: Absolute Loyalty.]
That obviously wasn’t where she’d started, Soren went straight to the strategy logs.
[Celeste’s lifelong dream was to possess a physical body capable of moving freely.]
[Devouring the Witch Poison from within Celeste’s body successfully illuminated the title Obedient and Submissive.]
[Repairing Celeste’s internal organs successfully bypassed Deep Affection and Righteousness, illuminating the title Absolute Loyalty.]
[If Master advances his relationship with her a step further, the relationship tier Following to the Death can be directly illuminated.]
Outrageous, way too outrageous.
She’d climbed faster than Ethel, and Ethel was as simple and open-hearted as they came.
Soren put it down to how violently her emotional state had swung.
The bigger the obsession sitting in someone’s heart, the harder they came apart when it finally got resolved.
He closed the panel and let his face settle back to normal, Celeste hadn’t given up.
She had both hands wrapped around the big hand blocking her mouth, hauling on it with everything she had.
"If I wash myself clean, you won’t look down on me anymore, right?"
"You just wait!"
"Today, I’m making you take me no matter what!"
The look in her eyes belonged to a madwoman.
Psychopath.
That was the first word into Soren’s head.
"Nobody manipulates this Ancestor into anything against his own will."
"Well, today somebody will!"
Celeste lunged, her crimson lips slammed against his, and in case he tried to pull back, she clamped down and bit.
A thin line of blood ran from the corner of his mouth, his lip twitched, his eyes went to ice.
Everything he’d assumed about ordinary women came apart right there, he was shocked.
Celeste unhooked her teeth, slowly, and licked the blood off the corner of his mouth with the tip of her tongue.
"Today, this lady gives you two choices."
"One, take me."
"Two, kill me."
Her tone left no room in it, and underneath sat something faint that even Soren couldn’t name.
She backed off a few steps and spread her arms wide, a small arc lifted at the corners of her mouth, opening into a smile.
His blood on her lips stood out hard against that fair, flawless face.
The effect was strange, and it worked, her whole posture said one thing, choose.
"I don’t believe you’ll kill me."
"Otherwise..."
"...you wouldn’t have come all the way to this remote mountain village just to help me."
"Am I right?"
"Whatever your real reasons are..."
"Soren~"
"I’ve got you completely figured out!"
This woman was sick, deeply sick.
She also wasn’t wrong, he’d never intended to kill her or Caspar, put a young woman like that in front of him, that face, that figure, and claiming his heart didn’t move would be a lie.
Since taking over the former coward’s body, he’d settled on living as he pleased in this world, answering to nobody.
Celeste was gorgeous, her heart and body were both untouched, and her tier was already at Absolute Loyalty, he couldn’t dig up a single reason to say no.
The one thing holding him back was timing, her body had only just come back, restored to flawless condition or not, she needed a while to settle into it.
But her meaning was clear enough, now, this second.
Soren thought it over, and something amused surfaced on his face, he was curious what she’d do if he picked option two and executed her on the spot.
He raised two fingers and waited, face blank.
If she held her ground, the girl had real backbone, if she folded and begged, she was another fence sitter looking for an angle.
"Wow, you... you’re such a pest~"
"You want to take me twice in one day?"
Her shy little squirm made his eye twitch hard, two fingers! Why are you not reading that as option two? How did you turn it into option one, multiplied?
Forget it, his tone stayed flat. "You won’t regret it?"
"Never!"
"Why?"
Celeste’s face went serious. "I already told you, I want to repay your kindness."
"Besides, you aren’t as wicked as I imagined, you saved my life, if this lady gave you nothing back, wouldn’t that make me an ungrateful wretch who can’t tell good from bad?"
"Soren, you’ve already planted a seed in me and staked the spot, sooner or later that seed sprouts, if a woman has to choose one man in her life, do I have any reason to hesitate or look around? You’re the choice, no competition."
"And since it’s the same choice either way, why can’t I make it right now?"
That made sense, that made a damn lot of sense.