Chapter 86: What Men Want

Rhos sighed and stepped over another piece of discarded chitin.

“I don’t know. I haven’t exactly had much luck with women, so I’ve never seriously thought about having a type”

He took another two steps before realizing he had been abandoned. When he looked back, the scion was staring at him with genuine disappointment.

“What?”

“Rhos, my brother, you’re a young man. You need preferences. Standards. Something. I’m not saying you need to decide who you’re marrying tomorrow, but you should at least know what catches your attention. Tall, short, quiet, loud, gentle, terrifying, clever, athletic, whatever. There isn’t a right or wrong answer”

Rhos resumed walking once Arlen did the same.

“I don’t think that’s how relationships work”

He sighed again.

“What’s your type, then?”

Arlen answered without needing even a second to consider it.

“Tall, mature, strong enough that I never have to worry about her whenever trouble starts, preferably someone with a commanding presence, tough as nails too. I don’t want someone who’ll start crying because I came home covered in blood. I want someone who’ll ask whether the other bastard looks worse”

He gave a sly lecherous smirk.

“I’m also a simple man, so a great ass and big boobs certainly won’t hurt”

Rhos’s expression became blank. Only one person immediately appeared in his mind.

There was no possible way. Could he be talking about her?

“Are you talking about Monkey Son?”

“Good eye, right? She’s got a figure you can appreciate from across the room. There isn’t a woman in Elderwood who can match her”

He said that with absolutely no shame in his voice. Rhos blinked several times, watching the scion becoming flustered.

Rhos tried reconciling that statement with everything he had learned about Monkey Son during the last three weeks. But nothing good came up.

Apart from the obvious fake name, the woman was lazy. She stole people’s food. She slept during breaks, sometimes before breaks and, other times, during briefings.

She ignored procedures whenever following them became inconvenient to her. She constantly messes with other people for her own entertainment and has an irritating habit of disappearing during working hours.

Somehow, nobody disciplined her.

Rhos initially wondered how someone like that remained employed. That was until he was paired up against her during hand-to-hand training.

He had entered the match reasonably confident. Whatever else could be said about him, martial arts were something he took seriously. He had trained for years, survived actual combat and developed enough confidence in his physical abilities to believe he could at least hold his own against most people.

However, Monkey Son destroyed him.

Rhos barely understood what happened, even now. She simply walked through everything he attempted, read his movements with ease and put him on the floor more times than he could count.

There was no use of a Totem Art, he confirmed that himself. She didn’t possess more strength than him either.

In terms of pure martial skill, Son eclipsed him so thoroughly that the experience had been humiliating.

Rhos’s instincts had been screaming about her ever since.

Whatever Son actually was, she was incredibly powerful.

He couldn’t properly explain how he knew because she rarely displayed anything extraordinary. Yet whenever he focused on her for too long, every survival instinct suggested that provoking her would be a poor life choice.

So yes, Rhos understood why Station 17 tolerated her behavior.

But that didn’t mean he understood why Arlen was so infatuated with her.

“You’re serious?”

Arlen laughed.

“When you meet the right woman, you’ll understand. Give yourself time”

“I sincerely hope I don’t”

The two continued deeper. Their conversation died naturally for perhaps a minute. Rhos was just starting to appreciate the silence until the scion ruined it.

“What about someone at Station 17? Nobody caught your eye yet?”

“No”

Arlen scoffed.

“Come on, don’t dismiss everyone immediately. Poppy is right there. She’s a cutie, she’s fun to be around, she’s hardworking, she’s ridiculously strong for her size, and she’ll probably punch anyone who gives you trouble. Great personality too”

Rhos gave him a sideways look.

“You’re only suggesting Poppy because she’s the closest thing Station 17 has to Son, except she’s shorter, more muscular and has bigger boobs”

Arlen considered that then raised both hands.

“Got me”

“You’re not recommending her based on whether I’d like her. You’re recommending based on whether you would”

“Good taste is universal among men. We all like ass and boobs don’t we?”

“Can we talk about something else now?”

Ignoring the young man’s grievances, Arlan considered his options.

“What about Mulan Fa? She’s attractive, disciplined, dependable, comes from a respectable background and you two would make beautiful children”

“She’s too upright, and she has an unhealthy obsession with her older brother”

Rhos said, pointing his torch ahead.

“Before you say anything. I don’t mean that in a weird way. I’m saying almost every conversation I’ve had with her somehow becomes about how impressive her brother is. I know more about the man than I do her”

Arlen chuckled.

“Family loyalty is admirable. Alright, alright. Then what about Merlin?”

At the mention of that insufferable woman’s name did Rhos’s face immediately sour.

“Oh?”

“Absolutely not. I’d rather much deal with Poppy than with her”

The scion leaned in closer as he asked;

“Now I’m curious. Did something happen between the two of you?”

The young man’s expression darkened further as memories of his first encounter with Merlin surfaced.

“I had a bad first impression”

Arlen laughed under his breath.

“Oh, I understand. The young lady has a very cynical view of men, but she means well. Don’t give up on her yet”

‘I wish I learned that sooner’

So naive he was on his first week as an Exterminator, and almost died because of it.

Suddenly, something brushed against the edge of Rhos’s perception and raised one hand.

The moment he saw the gesture, the change in Arlen was immediate, every trace of his earlier casualness disappeared.

Rhos tilted his head. He sensed something.

His territorial awareness stretched farther into the underground passage, navigating the enclosed space imperfectly compared with an open forest.

These presences were unmistakable.

“You feel that too?”

Rhos nodded.

“Yeah. I thought it might’ve been more of the swarm at first, but the signatures are different from the locust”

Arlen glanced toward the darkness ahead.

“There are people here”