Chapter 923: Siren?
"... You've definitely found an interesting partner, Siren."
Scathach's attention s.h.i.+fted away from Kali and Victor and onto the woman with long brown hair; she growled, "Don't call me by that name."
"Siren?" Victor turned his head, confused, until realization dawned on his face; he looked at Scathach with a curious gaze.
"Oh?" Dun Scaith's smile grew.
"Hmm, it seems you haven't told him about your old name, Siren."
"As I said, don't call me by that name. I changed it when I completed my training with you."
Sensing an opportunity to tease her beloved disciple, Dun Scaith decided to delve deeper. "Fufufu, denying your origins isn't a good thing... Si-."
Scathach's eyes glinted dangerously; she knew her teacher's personality all too well, just as her teacher knew hers. Even though they hadn't seen each other for many years, they doubted that either of them had changed. After all, the essence of such stubborn Beings such as Scathach and Dun Scaith tended to endure the pa.s.sage of time.
Therefore, Scathach didn't mind threatening her teacher; she had to demonstrate her Power now, or this woman might become uncontrollable and say things she shouldn't.
Both master and disciple knew that a threat from Scathach was not a joke; she would genuinely attack if pushed too far. So, Dun Scaith's next reaction was not surprising to Scathach.
"Scathach." Dun Scaith promptly changed the way she addressed her, as provoking a True Dragon was not part of her plan.
Seeing that her threat had worked on her teacher, Scathach lowered the intensity of her gaze. She then looked at the woman for a moment. With her newly gained Dragon Eyes, she could clearly discern what kind of monster her teacher was.
'So many Runes within herself' This level of complexity even surpa.s.sed her with her Draconic Runes. 'As expected of the 'Rune Monster'.'
Merlin, Dun Scaith, and Victor were simply incomparable Beings in their respective fields, with the latter being even more abnormal than the others.
'I wonder what kind of development she will have when accessing the Draconic Runes' Scathach's eyes gleamed once again, this time with different feelings.
She was curious and excited at the same time. Scathach began to plan for this possibility to become a reality because this way, she would have one more opponent to spar with.
Victor had become simply too strong for her, and even though she had become a Dragon, it didn't change the fact that he was still much stronger. Scathach had no shame in admitting that if they fought seriously, she would lose, and lose badly.
For this very reason, she didn't 'declare' her intention to have a duel between them to determine the nature of their relations.h.i.+p; after all, this was their favorite little game.
Scathach was undoubtedly his Wife and lover; she thought of herself that way. It wasn't a duel that would change her mind, but it was this very duel that kept things spicy between them. She wanted to duel with Victor when she was at the peak of her new Race; only then would she find true satisfaction.
It might seem strange and incomprehensible to others, but for Scathach and Victor, it worked very well.
"Tell me, Professor. Why did you come out of your seclusion now?"
"What a foolish question, my disciple. It's as if you don't know me." Dun Scaith scoffed, then looked at Victor. "Why else would I come? I came to study... That new Rune you displayed in the transmission is something I've never seen in my life."
Victor raised an eyebrow with amus.e.m.e.nt upon seeing the gleam in Dun Scaith's eyes; it was the same obsessive look he saw in Hephaestus, the eyes of a maniac for their craft.
Plans began to form in Victor's mind, and he smiled inwardly. He immediately understood how to draw this specialist closer to him.
It was a completely different approach from Kali... You had to demonstrate greater knowledge than her in her own field, which was somewhat questionable, given that, according to Scathach, this woman was a monster like him...
"You came out for something as simple as that?" Victor asked with genuine interest.
"Something simple..." Dun Scaith felt slightly offended by those words; if that was something simple, then what was complex to him?
"Interesting... So, what do you consider complex, Chaos Dragon G.o.d?"
"Just call me Victor, after all, you're my Master's teacher." Victor spoke neutrally, then raised his hand, and an object appeared in his hand, emerging directly from his shadow.
[Thank you, Kaguya.]
[Mm.] Kaguya smiled with satisfaction in his shadow; she missed this feeling.
What appeared in Victor's hand was a failed prototype of a weapon when attempting to use Draconic Runes in a technological device to enhance performance. The goal of this technology? A weapon, precisely a hidden weapon for his personal a.s.sa.s.sins, a weapon that could act both at close range and very long range.
With just a word, the weapon would switch from a sniper to a melee weapon or a short-range weapon. This was a small project he had undertaken while bored.
"I consider many things complex, but for you to understand, you need to see this." He showed the weapon to her.
Dun Scaith raised her eyebrow as she took the object and examined it; then, she widened her eyes in shock. She couldn't read the Draconic Runes, but she could understand the purpose of the object to some extent.
"You're crazy... Opposing Runes don't work like this."
"Mm... That's true, but at the same time, they do."
Victor reached into s.p.a.ce, and his hand disappeared into a kind of black hole. This was an ability that was a combination of the black hole he had thrown at the Elder G.o.d, the use of the black hole, and his basic understanding of s.p.a.ce that he had gained from observing the Runes on the bag he had received from Alexios, along with his Wife's Powers.
Victor had created something like an inventory for himself with a storage capacity that varied according to his Energy... And since he had a lot of Energy, the s.p.a.ce was essentially infinite.
Victor pulled out a Deagle, a successful prototype of the weapon he had given to his beloved daughter.
"Take it; this is another prototype." Victor showed the Deagle to Dun Scaith.
When she a.n.a.lyzed the Deagle, her eyes showed a lot of confusion because... she couldn't understand anything! She could see that the weapon was entirely made of Runes, but there were so many of them! And all were united in a language she had never seen before; there were even opposing Runes in these weapons.
Again, she couldn't read the Runes, but with her experience, she could somewhat grasp the purpose of these Runes.
"... What is this?" She murmured in shock.
"Something simple." Victor smiled.
"Simple..." Dun Scaith's eyebrow twitched at that word.
Victor chuckled internally; he was being dishonest with this woman. After all, this weapon was not made solely with Runes, and he didn't create it alone. This was his work with Hephaestus, but she didn't need to know that.
Victor pulled out another Deagle, this time the same version of the weapon he had given to his daughter.
"Try to understand this... This is something I consider complex for now."
"What do you mean 'for now'...?" Dun Scaith asked as she examined the object, and this time... She didn't understand anything! NOTHING! There were more Runes on this small object than on the previous one!
"Our Faction will revolutionize Runes again, of course, and this weapon will become something simple... Especially now that I have a Dragon G.o.ddess of Technology in my group."
A silence fell around them; Dun Scaith just stared at the weapon, and her whole body trembled. Her face was completely covered by her long brown hair.
"... s.h.i.+t," Scathach muttered when she saw the state of her teacher. She knew this reaction all too well. 'Darling is definitely cunning; he understood my teacher's personality with just one look... But he made a mistake.'
Dun Scaith looked at Victor, her brown eyes gleaming with obsessive desire, her face flushed.
'She's a complete pervert for her craft... Much more than Hephaestus.'
She let the weapon fall to the floor and lunged toward Victor, grabbing his hand. "Please! Let me join your Faction!"
"Ehh... That's a bit difficult," Victor made a slightly confused expression. "After all, we're not recruiting right now, you know?"
"We have to organize my Faction, not to mention that we need to focus our efforts on advancing our technology even further. Advancing current technology to a level of a thousand years into the future is not simple, you know?" Victor spoke with a strained expression, as if he were having trouble making the decision, while at the same time, he dangled more bait for Dun Scaith.
He even showed her a hologram of his future projects. "Look, you see? This isn't something easy to accomplish."
Dun Scaith's body trembled even more when she saw the project, which was a type of technological s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p. She saw notes about covering the entire s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p with Runes.
The more she read about the project, the more her body shook. This was revolutionary! Her mouth watered at the thought of this becoming a reality, and just imagining it was driving her crazy.
'I take back what I said. He completely expected her to be a pervert for her craft.' Scathach shook her head from side to side as she watched how he had lured the big fish called Dun Scaith in with just a few words.
'He's truly a playboy,' Scathach internally scoffed.
Dun Scaith looked at him horrified. "Impossible...! You have to let me in! Come on! I'll do anything for you!"
"Hmm... I may or may not make a deal."
"Spit it out! Tell me what you want! Except my body, I'll give you anything."
"Oh? Why not your body?" Victor asked curiously.
"I am an honorable woman and a warrior. I will only give my body to my Husband and the man I acknowledge. I'm not so desperate for knowledge that I would sell myself." She scoffed.
Yes, Victor's knowledge had reignited her pa.s.sion, but she wouldn't lose herself because of it. She still held her principles, principles she had nurtured throughout her life and pa.s.sed on to her disciples.
Respect yourself, no matter what. She was a Rune Scholar, but before that, she was an ancient woman, a warrior, and a teacher.
"Mm, I can respect that," Victor nodded; he could fully respect that mindset.
"But don't worry, I'm not interested in your body." The source of this content can be linked to n0vlbn
Dun Scaith raised her eyebrow, slightly irritated to hear those words from someone like Victor. "... Right... What do you want?"
'Women,' Victor internally chuckled when he felt Dun Scaith's dissatisfaction.
"In exchange for working with me, I want a loyalty contract."
"A loyalty contract?"
"Of course, do you think I would let someone study my technology so easily?" Victor scoffed.
"The contract is simple, as long as you don't betray me, nothing will happen to you, and you won't lose the knowledge you've gained."
"Hmm... I can accept that. Of course, I'll read the contract before agreeing." Dun Scaith said. Now that she was calmer, she could see the logic in Victor's words.
"Good." Victor smiled, and then he added, "Of course, you should also be willing to tell me embarra.s.sing details about Scathach."
"Wait, what?" Scathach interjected.
Dun Scaith smiled. "That's something I can easily do."
"No, you can't! You-"
"Don't worry, Honey. I won't ask anything about your past that you don't want me to know, Siren." Victor spoke gently.
Scathach s.h.i.+vered when she heard that name come out of Victor's mouth, and Scathach's flushed expression when she heard him speaking that name was quite satisfying to Victor.
"I'll wait for you to tell me in person."
"... Thank you, Darling." Scathach felt quite sweet now.
Dun Scaith felt uncomfortable with this pink atmosphere; it was too sugary for her single heart.
"Of course, embarra.s.sing details are not included in that category." Victor smiled cunningly.
"You-." Scathach was about to say something, but Dun Scaith interrupted with laughter.
"Fufufu, I remember a day when Scathach went bear hunting for me with only the strength of a Human due to the limitations of my Runes, and she got quite beaten up that day. On that day, she-."
"Wait, don't say that!" Scathach covered her teacher's mouth to prevent her from blabbering!
A glint of amus.e.m.e.nt appeared in Victor's eyes, and when Scathach saw that, she groaned inwardly, knowing that the next few days would be quite stressful for her.
....