Chapter 1331: 89. Anticipation

"Thank me?"

Veins bulged on Muen's forehead, and his back teeth ground together with an audible creak.

She had displayed the most humiliating close-ups of him and Miss Dragon on such a huge curtain, and she expected him to thank her?

Miss Dragon was one thing. Whatever grievances and tangled history existed between those two had nothing to do with him.

But why drag him into it?

And with that kind of framing, it made him look like he'd been forcibly—

"Am I wrong?"

Mela blinked, her large amber eyes filled with innocence and curiosity.

"Back then, that woman did all sorts of things to you. Not only in human form, but once again in dragon form. You're not seriously going to tell me that's some special kind of play between the two of you, are you?"

"I......"

Muen's expression collapsed.

But immediately afterward, he turned serious.

"That still doesn't give you a reason to deliberately take it out and toy with me!"

As soon as he finished speaking.

An invisible ripple began spreading rapidly outward with him at its center.

The phantom image of a city abruptly appeared within the Sea of Flowers.

The old, dilapidated walls were covered in moss, contrasting with the flowers carpeting the ground and somehow creating a mysterious, dreamlike atmosphere.

And Mela, dressed in her strawberry-print pajamas, looked extraordinarily conspicuous amid this ancient and desolate landscape, as though someone had deliberately circled her for emphasis.

"Oh?"

Mela raised an eyebrow.

At that moment, she could feel the entire surrounding space seemingly come alive, radiating intense hostility toward her.

Even the flowers she herself had cultivated now seemed to bare their teeth and claws at her.

"A Divine Kingdom? Interesting. Kid, you've only gotten a little stronger, and your courage has already grown quite a bit. You actually dare attack me now?"

"This isn't courage! This is a man's dignity!"

Muen roared.

The alchemical core behind him immediately began operating at maximum output, burning against his skin with painful heat!

Time Stagnation!

Dong——

An ancient bell rang out.

Everything within the Divine Kingdom's domain seemed to lose its color in an instant.

Flowers, walls, buildings......

Including Mela.

She still maintained that mocking posture.

White hair, red eyes, a lollipop in her mouth, and that infuriatingly smug expression.

Even without considering everything she'd done, that face alone was enough to make anyone's fists clench hard.

And once they were already clenched as hard as possible, there was only one thing left to do!

"Accept your punishment, you damn old loli!"

Muen didn't hesitate for even a moment.

Nor did he make the mistake of underestimating Mela merely because of her adorable appearance.

He poured everything into the attack and drove a punch straight toward that beautiful face capable of sending his blood pressure through the roof.

Time Stagnation.

Impossible to resist.

Even this old loli should—

"Should I call you naive? Or stupid?"

Within that gray-white world, Mela suddenly moved.

Like an old faded photograph being restored to full color.

Her amber eyes turned toward Muen, the mockery in them becoming even more obvious.

"Forgot already? Eternal Clock still doesn't completely belong to you."

Dong——

The same bell rang.

The Time Stagnation Muen had unleashed with all his strength was instantly dispelled.

But even after breaking Time Stagnation, Mela still neither dodged nor moved aside.

As though deliberately putting on a demonstration, she simply allowed Muen's full-force punch to come straight toward her.

Then......

Her hair shifted slightly.

That was all.

Muen's fist reached within mere centimeters of her before it could advance no farther.

Because a small, pale hand had opened its five fingers and effortlessly caught his fist.

A white-haired little loli stopping a grown man's full-force punch barehanded.

The sheer visual impact of the scene immediately changed Muen's expression.

Damn it?

Forget Eternal Clock.

Even the difference in physical strength was this huge?

This was no ordinary old loli anymore.

This was......

An iron old loli!

As expected, once something had lived for a thousand years, there would always be some aspect of it that was ridiculously abnormal.

Miss Dragon had been like that before......

And now this old loli too!

"Recently I haven't been able to read your thoughts, but somehow I get the feeling...... you're thinking something unpleasant again."

Mela still looked perfectly relaxed.

Only the corner of her mouth had curled into a cold smile that went beyond mere mockery.

Muen inwardly cursed.

Every warning instinct in him suddenly screamed.

But it was already too late.

Before Muen could even react, he felt......

The world spin.

Everything in front of his eyes instantly flipped.

One moment he seemed to be looking down at the sky, and the next his back slammed heavily into the ground.

His blood and energy churned violently inside his body.

With his current physical strength, merely making intimate contact with the ground shouldn't even have broken his skin.

Yet at this moment, it felt as though a giant hand had plunged into his body and was stirring everything around at will.

A strange force roamed everywhere inside him, throwing his entire body into chaos and leaving him completely unable to gather even the slightest strength to resist.

"Damn it......"

Muen's focus suddenly sharpened.

He tried to activate his Divine Kingdom and break free from Mela's bizarre method of attack.

But the instant the thought appeared, he felt a smooth little finger flick his forehead.

His consciousness instantly scattered.

Muen's vision went black for several seconds.

During that time, every trace of his ability to think vanished, and the mental power he had barely managed to gather was casually shattered apart.

When his awareness finally returned, he was already sprawled miserably on the ground.

Mela sat on his back, clearly using him as a human cushion while her little feet swung back and forth.

"I...... I surrender. I surrender......"

Muen couldn't even raise his arm.

He could only struggle to lift one hand slightly, formally announcing the catastrophic failure of his attempt to rebel against his teacher.

"Oh my, oh my. Who was it just now talking about a man's dignity?"

Mela tilted her head, her smile meaningful.

"Cough, cough...... Teacher Mela, you don't understand. The phrase 'a man's dignity' is normally something a man says to his woman when he wants to reassert his authority as a husband. But I'm merely Teacher Mela's most, most beloved student. How could a student possibly have any man's dignity in front of his teacher? At most, I have a tiny, insignificant amount of face to preserve."

Muen forced out a smile.

"Just leave me a little bit of that face."

Damn it.

The accursed old loli was still far too powerful.

The wind was unfavorable. Retreat for now and plan the counterattack another day.

A true man had to know when to bend and when to stand tall!

One day, he would......

"With skin as thick as yours, you still need me to leave you some face?"

Mela giggled.

Her little snow-white foot, soft and round like a steamed bun, mercilessly ground against Muen's cheek.

"But the fact that you actually dared attack me, and even managed to exchange a few moves, does make me rather pleased in terms of your growth."

"Hehe, you're too kind! Too kind!"

"I wasn't praising you."

Her snow-white foot suddenly pressed down harder.

She was obviously only stepping on his face, yet Muen felt a mountain-like weight crush his entire body.

Even with his current physical strength, he quickly became unable to endure it and could only slap the ground repeatedly in surrender.

"Teacher Mela, mercy...... A little lighter...... I'm injured. I was seriously wounded just recently, and I still haven't fully recovered. If this keeps up, I'll die...... Hiss...... I'll really die."

"Seriously wounded? Please. A little scrape like that means nothing to you now. Forget having that thing crushed. As long as that thing itself remained intact, you'd probably be able to recover from anything. Only those poor little girls blinded by love would fall for your act and worry themselves sick over you."

Mela ground her foot down a few more times before finally hopping off Muen.

Muen let out a long breath.

But as Mela walked toward the curtain from before, his heart suddenly tightened again.

"What are you nervous about?"

"N-Nothing."

"Relax."

Mela glanced back at him with a smile that wasn't quite a smile.

"I know you're worried about that woman. With her personality after a thousand years without tasting a man, if she saw this recording again, she'd probably explode on the spot. The kind of explosion where she'd casually crush a certain someone one more time."

"Not at all, not at all. I just don't want such humiliating footage of myself preserved."

Muen continued smiling.

"Let's pretend that's true. But you can relax. I'm not going to spread these recordings around, and I won't casually show them to that woman either."

"Teacher Mela, I absolutely love you to death......"

"After all......"

Mela interrupted him.

She licked her lips, a wicked gleam appearing on her face.

"Something this wonderful...... simply showing it to her whenever I feel like it could never compare to bringing it out at the crucial moment and delivering...... a fatal blow."

With such a perfect piece of leverage in her hands, how was that woman supposed to compete with her?

And on top of that, because of this brat, the two of them had somehow ended up with an incredibly strange difference in status.

They were both old monsters from a thousand years ago, yet in terms of seniority, they were already separated by an entire generation......

At this point, there was no longer any need whatsoever to argue over which of them was older.

At that very moment, Mela's thoughts raced.

Countless ways of teasing, mocking, and tormenting that woman had already formed in her mind.

She really was looking forward to the next time they met......