Chapter 188: Breaking the Shell (1/2)

Tossing away the now-dead corpse of the female imp, Nine-finger turned his attention back onto me: “Since that moron killed herself, how about Master tell me instead; what exactly is ‘that thing’?”

“…” ‘For the love of all , have you no decency?! There’s no way I’m telling you that, not even if you kill me! But then if I don’t tell him, would he strangle me as well? And kill me by accident before stupidly exclaiming with a shocked face: “If you don’t want to talk then so be it, was there a need to kill yourself?”…’

“That thing means that thing, what else can it be. Don’t you even know that, and you consider yourself a male, hmph.” Just as I was fretting over my inability to throw out a tsukkomi, the tender but clearly disdainful voice of a loli came in for a hard swing at Nine-finger. Looking down in response, I was stunned…

‘That devil egg…it hatched?’

A conspicuous crack had formed across its egg shell and from within, a tiny loli head sporting an eggshell cap could be seen sticking out of it. She craned her neck around and surveyed Nine-finger, all the while keeping her body hidden within the egg shell except for her beautiful face and two little hands grasping at the sides of the egg shell. Looking at her, I was suddenly reminded of a manhua scene where a tiny dinosaur just popped out of its egg —just too adorable! Unfortunately, the little kid’s first words were just…

Hatch? Wait, why did it hatch all of a sudden?

Even though there was an egg shell blocking the view, her face was fully unobscured; it was one of a human child’s, assuming you ignored that slight but noticeable tinge of reddish-pink.

‘That’s not the appearance of a newly-born imp…does that mean this little kid already has an original sin protecting her?’!

“D*mned brat, what do you know?” Clearly not happy about being made fun of by a newborn, Nine-finger stomped off towards her with a sullen look on his face: “I dare you to say that again.”

“Like this one is going to listen to you, bleh leh leh leh, *sticks out tongue*”

‘Even her insults sounded so milky smooth and adorable…but now’s not the time for acting cute, Nine-finger’s a bad, bad devil, don’t you know?! There’s no way the little thing can handle him on her own…’

“You asked for it!” Railed an incensed Nine-finger, not at all interested in anything else but what ‘that thing’ was, especially not her show of adorableness. To him, if someone dared to get in his way, that just meant he had one more shot at interrogating someone with a different method.

“Run away, QUICK…you can’t beat…him…” And then, what I wanted to say was completely cut off.

Just as I was worried that Nine-finger would flatten her into a pancake with his fist, the little kid gave a light ‘hmph’, extended forth her bare-skinned right hand and flicked her finger. Immediately, a snaking whip extended out from her finger in rapidly billowing clouds of darkness that finally gave a mighty crack before slamming Nine-finger out of sight and out of mind.

“Mama, did you see how great this one was just now?” She uttered a string of words that left me completely dumbfounded. However, that wasn’t the only surprise I was about to get. Her little egg home wiggled ever so slightly as she squatted down and then, with an adorable hop, leapt a feet into the air. Like that, she made her way towards me…

‘How did she even hop with her egg? Didn’t she just squat down, what happened to the laws of physics?’

‘Hold on…laws of physics aside, what did she just say before hopping? Mama? What the heck is a mama? Is she calling me a mama?’

“Mama, this one finally found you!” Pressing her shelly half into me, the little scamp wrapped her tiny arms around my head and rubbed her baby-tender face against mine just like how an energetic and adorable house pet would.

“Aren’t you making a mistake? I’m a male, so it should be Papa.”

Yet, the little scamp would have none of my explanation as she continued to rub against me in a satisfied manner: “Mama smells so fragrant, so so nice, there’s no way Mama’s a Papa.”

“…but…but…I’m really a male.”

“Mama’s lying, there’s no scent of a male coming from Mama at all.”

“…” ‘Ah…this again, breaks my heart just listening to it…just let me spend some alone time with Quiet, don’t ask me who Quiet is.’

(TL: Some reference/pun about a female character in MG V.)

“Blasted brat, you dare to hit my face, don’t you know that only Boss can do that?!” Before I could continue this discussion however, Nine-finger, who had just been sent flying by a whip, climbed to his feet once more and charged at us fist raised: “Die!”

“You’re too loud.” Frowned the little scamp before swinging her darkness whip once more and sending him flying away. This time however, he flew much further, dropping right into the lava river with a resounding *ploop* and an anguished cry.

‘Ah, it’s over, just like that? Somehow it all feels so surreal…’

“Mama, did you see how great this one was just now?” Her eggshell-wearing head bobbed up and her eyes practically sparkled with pride as if to say ‘praise me, praise me more, quick.’