Chapter 152: Unchanging Facts

"...Nio, do you feel more feminine now?" Typhon asks Nio, who stops walking while holding the staff in her hands. She skillfully spins it around in her arms as a slight distraction, carrying it because she has no holster to attach it to her body.

"What kind of question is that supposed to be?" Nio gives Typhon a strange look as she asks such a bizarre question.

"Nio, I feel like some things have changed. Your behavior is more...confident, your walking is more precise, and your movements are more feminine. Before, they were kind of stiff, like someone trapped in the wrong mold."

"...Are you trying to humiliate me?" Nio furrows her brows at Typhon as her pointed ears twitch up and down.

"No, I’m just glad you accepted a part of yourself. It’s something important for your happiness as a woman." Typhon says something that even she herself doesn’t fully understand, which is the biological importance of someone’s gender. To her, Nio accepting things as they are is a step toward being happy, ignoring the fact that Nio is in hell and has plenty of other bigger problems than merely being a girl.

"...I’m not answering this bullshit you’re talking about—" Typhon grabs Nio’s tail and then squeezes it, crushing some scales. Blood drips onto the floor, but at that very same moment, Nio’s tail pulls forward, slicing Typhon’s hand and striking her in the face, brutally scratching her left cheek.

"W-What the hell are you doing? That hurt." Nio says, turning toward her while hiding her bleeding tail behind her back. Typhon puts her hand over her cheek, hiding the exposed bone so she won’t look disgusting to Nio.

"I’m showing you that your body reacts at the right time now. Before, your body reacted slower than your mind. Now it’s instantaneous. Congratulations, Nio. You’ve grown." Typhon strokes Nio’s head with her other hand as the wounds on her face and hand close.

"You’re trying to pick a fight and don’t know how to ask for one, huh, Typhon?!"

"No, I eagerly look forward to your growth, and I’m genuinely happy about it. If you feel offended by me breaking your scales, then you can cut off my tail in exchange." Typhon offers, leaning closer to Nio.

"I don’t need that. Just don’t attack me anymore." Nioh watches the exchange between the two and bites her lips, thinking about everything they had talked about regarding killing Typhon, and now Nio is acting as if nothing had happened.

"..." Typhon holds Nio’s head with both hands and slips two fingers into her mouth. Nio thinks about attacking her, but when Typhon presses her fingers against the right side of her mouth above her tooth, Nio’s face takes on a soft blush. Her tail excitedly slaps the floor as her right leg lifts its tip and repeatedly taps against the floor while resting on her heel, saliva dripping from her mouth.

"A gift for making it through the third and fourth floors so quickly. Nioh used to love it when I did this to her before. Unfortunately, she became less sensitive." Nio feels pleasure without imagining how risky what Typhon is doing actually is.

The pleasurable reaction doesn’t come from some erogenous area or anything like that. In reality, Typhon is pressing several nerves connected to the brain and forcing a pleasure response. A millimeter of error would cause facial paralysis. Many dragons had problems with Typhon trying to learn this before she got the hang of it.

And the fact that Nioh "is less sensitive" is literally because Typhon used this so much on her that she permanently and incurably lost some sensitivity in several of those nerves. That’s why Typhon doesn’t plan to do this to Nio very often.

"W-Wow...that...that felt really good..." Nio murmurs as Typhon removes her fingers, running her thumb over Nio’s lips to wipe away the saliva before cleaning her hand with a handkerchief she pulls from her clothes.

"...Aren’t you going to lick it?" Nio asks before realizing what she just said, then blushes a little at having asked whether Typhon wasn’t going to lick her saliva.

"That would be strange for you, so I’d rather avoid it. But if you don’t mind, I’d like to taste your saliva. Could you kiss me?" Typhon doesn’t deny that she would lick it if it weren’t for Nio’s emotions right now.

"No, and don’t do those delicious surprise attacks. Next time I’ll bite your hand and rip it off!" Despite her tone, Nio felt that it was good, so she isn’t too critical about it since she doesn’t know about the risks.

Nioh can’t help but stare in disgust at the way the two of them talk as if they’re a couple.

"..." Typhon looks at Nioh and sees no real reason to reward Nioh, because she doesn’t see any actual growth in her.

"..." The fact that Typhon ignores her stirs her jealousy as Nio stops in front of an inn.

"I want to sleep in a bed. Typhon, do you have money?"

"I do...could you give me your hand so I can put a coin in it?" Typhon got money as early as the second floor. She stole it from everyone who was captured by her monstrous plant form.

"..." Nio extends her hand, waiting for the money. Typhon crouches down, opens her mouth, and licks Nio’s palm, leaving a coin that she took out of her stomach.

"...Damn it...stop regurgitating things for me..." Nio shakes her hand, tossing the coin away and sending some of Typhon’s saliva onto the floor.

"I’m sorry if you find it disgusting, but I can’t stop. It’s the only inventory I have at the moment. Since [Inventory] doesn’t work properly, all I can do is store things in my stomach and bring them back out when necessary. Besides, my stomach is reliable. Now, shall we go inside? I think you really need to rest in a proper bed." Typhon changes the subject, touching Nio’s shoulder and leading her inside.

’Disgusting...so disgusting, vile, repulsive, revolting, abhorrent, detestable, filthy, unpleasant, despicable, hideous, rotten, sordid, miserable, damn women who act like insect repellent.’ Nioh thinks of all kinds of nasty things about the two of them as she follows them inside, where Nio asks for a room and pays with the coin.

Nioh’s anger mainly comes from Nio NOT doing absolutely anything to her greatest enemy right in front of the two of them, which makes it seem like Nio lied about everything they discussed and planned against Typhon. This attitude from Nio deeply infuriates Nioh.

"Typhon, where did you get the money? Wasn’t it supposed to be difficult? I doubt you sold your time, after all, you told me not to do that." Nio questions as they climb the stairs to the only room that was available and that they will have to share.

"I stole it on the second floor."

"...Of course it would be something like that..."