Chapter 555 - 555: Pervert

The punch tore through the air, grazing the boy's white hair.

"That's so underhanded?!"

Even though Lunoire had been on guard, she had still fallen for the boy's trick.

Since the topic involved her body, she naturally could not brush off physical contact as easily as she had claimed.

In Lunoire's eyes, Bell Cranel was an honest and upright young man. She had considered the possibility that he might fire a Firebolt at close range to knock her down, so she had remained wary of his counterattack the entire time.

But never in her wildest imagination had Lunoire expected that a single moment of hesitation would give Bell the opening he needed to slip past her punch and rush straight into her arms.

"Wait! Where are you touching?! If we're fighting, then fight properly!!"

Lunoire instantly lost all desire to continue.

She had taken plenty of heavy counterpunches over the years, but the boy had not thrown a punch at all.

Bell had not even drawn his dagger.

Instead, in that brief instant, Bell seized the opportunity and reached both hands toward Lunoire's chest.

"Seriously!"

Lunoire covered her chest and hurriedly backed away.

What in the world was he thinking?

Was he trying to make her lose the will to fight by humiliating her like this?

No one had ever dared do something like this to her before!

Lunoire was nowhere near close enough to the boy to simply laugh off that kind of intimate contact. Rather than bashfulness, the flush on her cheeks came mostly from anger at being offended and sheer confusion over what had just happened.

"Did Chloe infect you with her perversion or something? I can't believe this! If Ryuu and Syr find out, Bell-san, they're definitely going to make you pay!"

Lunoire vented all her frustration in one breath.

Her rapid-fire accusations came at the boy without pause, every bit as relentless as her heavy punches had been moments before.

"..."

Bell remained unusually silent.

What he had done just now was no accident. He had deliberately acted that way to test the effect of [Netherworld Burial Flame Eyes].

What he saw was supposed to be a weakness. Had something gone wrong?

Bell thought for a moment before asking, "Lunoire-san, have you ever been injured near the front of your chest?"

"W-what are you even talking about?! Of course I haven't!"

Lunoire was completely dumbfounded.

The boy had only said one short sentence, but she immediately unleashed another barrage of accusations.

"You deliberately grabbed me there and even poked it with your finger! What, do you expect me to tell you how it felt?!"

"Bell-san, I really trusted you before this! I can't believe I misjudged you so badly!"

"I am absolutely not letting this go! If you're really sorry, stick your head out and let me punch you twice as hard as I can!!"

In the secluded clearing, the human girl's accusations crashed over Bell like a raging tide.

Fortunately, they were close to the city wall, and no one else was passing through the area. Otherwise, with Lunoire shouting accusations like that, Bell would undoubtedly have been mistaken for a pervert by anyone nearby and quickly surrounded by curious onlookers.

"I'm sorry, but if I let Lunoire-san punch me twice, I probably wouldn't survive it."

Even as Bell answered, his mind remained focused on the details of his Skill.

He had only updated his Status yesterday and still had not fully figured out the effects of [Netherworld Burial Flame Eyes]. This fight had come at the perfect time.

Strictly speaking, Bell's verbal prodding really had caused Lunoire to let her guard down for an instant. But from a purely combat perspective, her actual weakness should have been the brief moment after throwing a heavy punch, when she could not immediately evade a counterattack.

Whether Bell swung the Goddess's Blade or simply punched Lunoire in the face, either one would have dealt a devastating counterattack to the human girl.

Had things gone that way, Lunoire would most likely have staggered backward, recovered her footing, and immediately launched another assault.

That was how tough Bell believed this human girl to be.

By comparison, what Bell had just done barely hurt her at all. It was simply ungentlemanly. Well... more accurately, it was just plain perverted.

Yet judging by the result, while Lunoire continued berating him nonstop, she had completely stopped fighting.

Bell had indeed struck the girl's [weakness] and won the battle with surprising ease.

Seen from that perspective, the Skill [Netherworld Burial Flame Eyes], when combined with the effects of [Luck], might be far more complicated than it first appeared.

Even putting that aside, the progress tied to the number of deaths was already enough to prove how unusual the Skill was.

Bell's thoughts raced. Learning this much from a single battle was already a considerable gain.

But there was something far more urgent that he needed to deal with first.

"I'm sorry. I thought the area around Lunoire-san's chest was a weak point, so I tried touching it to make sure."

Bell recalled the soft sensation, but without revealing the details of his Skill, he honestly explained the reason behind his actions.

Lunoire froze.

She covered her well-developed chest as the blush on her face deepened even further.

"Of course this is a weak point! But it's obviously not the kind of weak point you're talking about, is it?! Could you please come up with a better excuse?! Bell-san, are you a pervert? Are you a pervert? Are you a pervert?!"

For the first time outside of work, Lunoire felt utterly exhausted.

Had the boy simply claimed that what happened was an accident, she could have collected herself and continued fighting.

Had her opponent been anyone other than Bell Cranel, she would not have wasted time arguing at all. She would simply have kept swinging her iron fists until the offender received the punishment they deserved.

But when it came to this boy, Lunoire genuinely did not know how to deal with him. Putting aside her relationships with Syr, Chloe, and the others, she herself thought very highly of Bell.

Combat was one way of communicating what lay within a person's heart.

Just as Bell had seen through Lunoire's techniques and recognized that her fighting style had been forged through countless struggles in a harsh environment, Lunoire could also feel the tremendous effort and dedication the boy had poured into his own training.

Dodging might sound simple, but Bell's [Strength] could not compare to Lunoire's. Without his thoroughly honed Technique and the instinctive responses carved into his body through endless practice, he would have fallen beneath Lunoire's fists long ago.

Both of them had crossed the abyss and struggled forward one step at a time. In that sense, they were kindred spirits when it came to battle.

And yet the boy had betrayed Lunoire's expectations. He had abandoned their clash of fists and suddenly done something so offensive.

Caught between embarrassment and anger, Lunoire simply could not bring herself to continue fighting.

"..."

Faced with the girl's accusations, Bell found himself momentarily speechless.

There was no denying that he had acted deliberately. He could not dismiss what happened as an accident, but neither could he reveal his Skill.

What was he supposed to say?

Lunoire-san, thank you for the experience. Your breasts really are beautifully shaped...

Against such a serious-minded human girl, saying something like that would undoubtedly end very badly.

Just as Bell was wondering how he should apologize, another tavern girl appeared at the scene.

"Huh? Bell went out with Chloe yesterday and disappeared for the whole night... and now, first thing this morning, you're already here flirting with Lunoire?"

Syr slowly approached with a basket in hand.

She blinked, a pleasant smile on her face.

"You two were just talking about weak points and perverts. What exactly happened here?"

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