Logged out?
Could it be that, over there, the date was February 14 too?
Also, they really were noisy.
Kain opened his eyes with a headache and saw the three women in front of him arguing.
He had no idea what had started it, but at this point the fight was already in full swing.
Especially now that they were all worked up, anyone else who tried to intervene would just get burned too, so no one bothered trying to break it up.
As for the original cause of the argument, that was unclear. Somehow, though, Melissa and Kaname Chidori had started going at each other.
Later, Tessa spoke up for Kaname and immediately got dragged into it as well.
Melissa, as an Arm Slave operator, sneered that Tessa was just a coward who hid underwater giving orders while front-line fighters like them bled and suffered.
Tessa fired right back, saying Melissa did not understand her work at all, then mocked her for being all muscle and no brains, which was why she was only fit to charge around on the front lines.
"What? Want to fight? Come on. I'll do it one-handed. No, better yet, I'll take both of you at once."
"Oh? You sure?"
Kaname did not look like the rigid, old-fashioned type at all. In fact, she looked like she had been waiting for that exact line so she could throw hands without holding back.
"Who wants you to handicap yourself? If we duel, we do it fairly!"
Tessa, who really did have that little-rich-girl aura about her, was strangely knightly about the whole thing.
"Fairly? Better not, princess. You trip just walking on flat ground. Maybe you should put on an exoskeleton too. Better yet, wrap up your whole body. Wouldn't want that pretty face getting scraped up. Then you wouldn't be so cute anymore. He probably wouldn't like that."
"What is that supposed to mean? Like I'm disabled? Like I only got everyone's approval by selling my looks?"
"I didn't say that. You did."
With that tone and that mocking expression, it was obvious to Tessa that Melissa absolutely meant it that way.
She was furious.
"And you think you're so great? Look at you, smoking, drinking, acting so sloppy. Hanging around men all day like some bargain-bin call girl."
"Hah? Brat, you really think you're that lovable? No hips, no chest, just a dried-up little twig. At least a prostitute gets customers. But a monkey? Please. Who's crossing species for a monkey?"
"Ah..."
"You damn gorilla..."
It had officially turned into personal attacks.
The people around them retreated even farther. No one wanted to get caught in the blast zone.
As for Kain, he just kept eating his grilled meat.
"Do you even know what ru..."
It had already devolved into some extremely indecent territory, with Melissa mocking Tessa for supposedly not being able to do the sort of thing men liked.
That kind of crude talk made the silver-haired beauty blush so hard she could barely think of a comeback.
She simply could not say anything that vulgar.
But even if Tessa could not, Kaname certainly could.
"Sorry, Grandma. Give it a few more years and everything on your body's going to start sagging anyway. All that bounce you're so proud of is going to..."
In the blink of an eye, it changed.
"Glug, glug, glug."
Melissa raised a bottle of liquor and looked at the two of them provocatively.
The final showdown became a drinking contest, one against two.
And since it was a contest, there had to be stakes.
If Melissa lost, then tomorrow morning she would run naked around the island once.
If Tessa and Kaname lost, then once they sobered up, they had to go ask a certain someone for something. They could ask privately. As long as they could prove it with a voice recording or a video that they had gone and asked, that would count.
It did not matter whether the other person actually agreed to give it to them. Just making the request was enough.
Of course, Melissa had already deliberately made it very clear that if they refused to do even that, she would laugh in their faces afterward and mock them for having no charm at all, so no wonder they got rejected.
But if they actually managed to get it, and brought it back in front of her, she would use it on the spot right in front of them.
In truth, Melissa had already figured out exactly how the two little brats thought.
She was setting them up, getting them to drink, because once people got drunk and emotional, it became much easier to provoke them.
Then the two girls would probably do something impulsive.
And if they really did get that thing, there was no way they would hand it over to her. It would only end up belonging to them, because they would not want to share it with another woman.
Even if the thing itself was awkward, that was just how possessive women could be.
So Melissa kept dropping subtle little suggestions here and there, planting ideas about how they could go about getting it later.
All she had to do was sit back and enjoy them embarrassing themselves.
Hmph. These little brats were easy to handle.
"Your turn."
"Th-this time, I'll do it."
Thud.
Okay. Little Tessa was down.
That only left Kaname, who forced down another drink, then collapsed face-first after two more glasses.
"These two brats are your problem now, Sergeant Kain. Take them back to the sub."
As she said that, Melissa slipped something into Tessa's pocket. It looked like a little notebook, but it was actually a booklet-shaped terminal. On it was a video she had secretly recorded while pretending to step away for a bathroom break, further provoking them.
Hopefully they would not just sleep until morning and wake up fully sober. Ideally, they would wake up in the middle of the night with their brains still fogged by alcohol, notice the taunting message she had left behind, get riled up all over again, and do something stupid.
Kain, the one being saddled with the task, could tell that Sergeant Melissa definitely had some kind of scheme in mind.
He did not bother digging into what it was.
He just needed to stay alert.
He picked the two girls up and dumped them into a room on the submarine.
And then it was his turn to rest.
Other than eating, sleep was one of life's great pleasures for him.
Back in the Warhammer world, even if he could return to that ship that felt so safe, the quality of his sleep there was awful.
Whenever he slept, he could vaguely hear countless whispers.
Later, he had more or less figured out why. It was probably because he had been too close to the Emperor, and the prayers of all those who worshiped the Emperor as a god had spilled over onto him as well.
But after leaving that place, whether he was with A2, with Saeko Busujima, or here, his sleep quality was excellent. He slept especially well.
In no time at all, he reached the captain's quarters and tossed the two of them onto the bed.
After that, he returned to his own room, took a pleasant cold shower, and went straight to sleep.
...
Tessa eventually woke up because she needed the bathroom. She pushed away the person clinging to her.
After getting up and relieving herself, she walked back in a sleepy daze.
Then suddenly, something fell to the floor.
What was that?
A booklet terminal?
It did not seem to be hers. Wasn't this Melissa's?
Why had she left it for her?
Tessa turned it on and immediately saw the provocative message Melissa had left behind.
After watching it, she fell silent for a long while.
". . . Who says I can't take a loss? I'm not backing down."
She muttered it under her breath.
Clearly, she and Kaname had lost their contest against Melissa, which meant they were supposed to carry out the agreed forfeit.
As for that forfeit, it was related to that rather scandalous thing she had once seen Saeko do to Mr. Kain during the livestream.
Something along those lines.
She wanted to prove she could do it too, and that she could succeed.
The thought lingered in her alcohol-fogged mind, but before anything reckless could happen, she simply stood there in silence, cheeks burning, the challenge and embarrassment warring inside her.
(End of Chapter)
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