Chapter 8: The Wild and the Tamed Heroine

Two centuries ago, the eastern Magic Continent had forged the Magic Nations’ Alliance to push back the missionary armies of the Sacred Nation Alliance, a northern coalition of theocracies.

Four distinct territories anchored this alliance.

Falsbane, a royal magic monarchy.

Soron, an applied-magic engineering duchy.

The Marsofian Union, a confederation of monster-hunting mercenary houses.

And the Arcane City of Naxos, a reclusive order of mages.

Of the four, the Marsofian Union was easily the most chaotic. It had no crown, no throne, and certainly no soft, spoiled prince class waiting to inherit power they never earned. Falsbane nobles were born into privilege through mana-blessed bloodlines, but Marsofian nobility had to be earned and re-earned in blood.

A House’s standing there was measured strictly by its Kill Ledger, a record of every beast, rogue mage, and war contract its warriors had completed. Twelve Houses held permanent seats on the Circle of Fangs, the ruling council, ranked solely by their numbers on that ledger.

For over four generations, House Dunamis had held the First Fang.

Right now, the courtyard of the Dunamis Mansion looked less like a noble estate and more like a slaughterhouse. A massive crowd of rugged, heavily scarred men stood raising their weapons and cheering at the top of their lungs, entirely surrounded by a pile of battered, bleeding suitors whose weapons lay shattered in the dirt. They were barely conscious.

The cause of this brutality sat comfortably on the upper dais.

Prussia Dunamis.

A breathtaking, tan-skinned woman with short, tousled black hair that fell in messy waves around her sharp features and cool, half-lidded blue eyes. Her fierce attire resembled that of an Amazon warrior, pieced together entirely from the hides and bones of beasts she had slain with her own hands.

Aside from her striking face, another attention-grabber was her wildly voluptuous, well-endowed body, proudly displaying a massive, bulging cleavage.

Down in the yard, desperate men were screaming and weeping, begging her to marry them. One particularly pathetic suitor was actually rolling around in the dirt, wailing at the top of his lungs and stripping.

"SPIT ON ME, LADY PRUSSIA!"

Prussia simply looked down at them with disgust.

"None of you pathetic excuses for men deserve a woman."

Behind her, a grizzled veteran in heavy dragonhide black armor bowed his head respectfully.

"Agreed, Lady Prussia."

This was Korgan, Prussia’s longtime minder and shadow.

"Perhaps you’ll find better options in Falsbane."

Prussia gave a sharp, skeptical shake of her head.

"I doubt it. Falsbane men are entirely too feminine and—"

Before she could finish, one of the more unhinged suitors lost his remaining shreds of sanity. Foam bubbled from his mouth and his eyes glazed over with a love-dazed madness as he sprinted straight up the stone stairs.

"O, Prussia! I am entirely devoted to you! I love you with every beat of my worthless heart!"

Prussia’s eye twitched. Annoyed beyond measure, she didn’t even bother standing up. She viciously hurled her dragonbone spear straight through the charging man’s arm and tore it into a bleeding mess.

...

Meanwhile.

Back in Falsbane, Adonis was walking down the dark castle hallway with uncharacteristically shaky steps.

As a man of peerless beauty, Adonis had never been known to sweat. He prided himself on always looking effortlessly elegant, but the system update detailing Prussia Dunamis’s criminal rap sheet was genuinely terrifying.

Ping!

[Heroine ’Prussia Dunamis’ has beaten Suitor Lord Galdur into a coma for breathing too loudly in her vicinity.]

Ping!

[Prussia Dunamis has snapped Duke Garrow’s collarbone because he used perverted lines on her.]

Ping!

[Prussia Dunamis has fed Baron Walt to a dire-wolf for sending her garbage poetry.]

Adonis chewed frantically on his thumbnail, his face pale.

"This chick’s a psycho... how on earth am I supposed to charm her?! And to top it all off, she isn’t even a losing heroine that I can easily farm points from!"

He looked thoroughly depressed.

And the fact that he was currently standing outside Queen Minerva’s private chambers only made him feel worse. He simply didn’t have the emotional battery for another round of mind games with that demanding woman.

With a tired, helpless sigh, Adonis reached out and pushed open the huge double doors.

The first thing he saw disturbed him.

A genuine, eerily soft smile on Queen Minerva’s face.

The queen is smiling? The Queen can smile? And it actually looked affectionate. Since when did she ever make a look that didn’t involve being blunt or demanding.

Adonis was so entirely thrown off by the smile that he failed to notice her body immediately. She wasn’t wearing her gala dress anymore. Instead, she was wrapped in a loose, transparent red silk red that was tight around her body. A squint of the eyes and you’d see the shape of her hard nipples standing up.

Her raven hair was damp and stray water droplets trickled down into the deep, tight valley of her bursting breasts that looked like overfilled balloons.

She tilted her head.

"Are you staring at my breasts?"

"Absolutely." ಠ_ಠ

"Noted."

The chambers were awkwardly silent.

Adonis shifted uncomfortably, unsure how to steer this bizarre conversation.

Minerva slowly extended her dainty, pale hand, holding her palm completely open and gesturing expectantly for something to be placed in it.

Adonis was genuinely confused.

"Huh?"

Minerva wiggled her fingers, making a more insistent gesture with her empty palm.

"My gift. I would like my gift now."

Adonis crossed his arms over his chest, shooting her a haughty, deeply offended side-eye.

"Oh, so NOW you want it? You certainly didn’t waste any time turning it down in front of the entire peerage and making a complete fool out of me."

Minerva’s smile faltered into a slight pout.

She narrowed her eyes.

"That was for a strategic reason, and you know it. Since when did you grow such an arrogant attitude? Or perhaps you’re volunteering to be severely punished instead? Hmm?"

She folded her arms under her heavy breasts, pushing them up even higher as her beautiful face assumed a stern look.

[Ding! Target Minerva is deeply charmed by your stubbornness. She thoroughly enjoys playful banter with you because she finds interacting with you far more comfortable than anyone else in this suffocating palace.]

Adonis smiled inwardly.

’Aha. So all she needs is a little push.’

He fished out the gold necklace in his jacket, and casually spun it around his index finger like a toy.

"Well, since my craftsmanship is so utterly unappreciated around here, I suppose I’ll just go toss this worthless piece of trash into a dumpster. Or maybe the horse shit down at the royal stables would suffice as its final resting place."

He peeped at Minerva and grinned internally when he saw her small mouth drop open. Seeing the ice-cold queen squirm was always a treat.

Just as Adonis headed for the door, he felt a sharp, desperate tug at his tailcoat jacket.

"Hm?"

He glanced back over his shoulder. Minerva was clutching his sleeve with a trembling hand and a bright red face.

"Fine..."

She muttered with an uncharacteristically small voice.

"I won’t punish you. I won’t do anything. Can you please just give me the present now? Truthfully... I have never received actual jewelry as a gift from a man before."

She turned her head away sharply, sporting an adorable, full-blown pout and bright red cheeks.

She was dying of shame. It’s embarrassing to look so needy when she was significantly older than him, a reigning queen, and also his stepmother! Yet somehow, this bastard prince didn’t fail to kill her composure and reduce her to a flustered mess.

Adonis raised an eyebrow, holding back a smirk.

"What about my father? Surely the king—being your husband and all—must have showered you with plenty of—"

Minerva cut him off sharply.

"I am talking about a man I actually care about, you fool."

Adonis turned his body slowly back toward her.

"You... you care about me?"

Minerva looked up at him slowly, with big, soft red eyes that weren’t murderous or filled with the possessive urge to put a choke collar on him.

Adonis smiled inwardly.

’Heh. My extensive research into romance novels will never fail me. Golden rule: if a woman confesses, always repeat her exact words back to her so she believes you are just as emotionally exposed as she is. It sets the mood for a kiss.’

He looked down at her as Minerva stepped closer, wrapping her arms around his waist and pressing her forehead tightly against his chest.

"Unless, of course... you don’t like older women."

Adonis’s face instantly hardened like stone. He’d prepared for this exact moment his entire life. Not the noble fantasy of saving a pathetic heroine, but rather imagining a dating sim with a gorgeous, insecure, older trophy wife who needed a firm hand.

He reached down, gently placing his fingers under her delicate chin, and tilted her face upward.

"Older women are gold. And since you’re so much older than me, that just makes you a gold mine."

[Your smooth delivery has rendered Target Minerva critically vulnerable! Affection Level increased by +10!]

Minerva’s face went from a healthy red to pale. Suddenly, her grip around Adonis’s waist tightened with terrifying, unnnatural strength, squeezing him so hard that his ribs felt like they’d snap like burned biscuits.

Adonis gasped with bulging eyes.

"Gah—! Can you maybe let go of my spine for a second?"

"I will not."

"You’re crushing my internal organs, Erva!"

"I’m not letting you go, Little Fifth."

Slowly, Minerva raised her head. Her light, strawberry-tinted lips turned bright red like they were stained with fresh blood and she has a sexy, sinister smile on her face.

"Boy... kiss me."

Adonis held her chin firmly, leaning down the final remaining inch to press his lips straight against hers.

[Ding! You’ve tamed your first Losing Heroine!]

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