Chapter 166: Edelweiss's View on Romance!
A bizarre sight could be seen on a certain plain.
Dense stone pillars rose from the ground like the spines of a hedgehog.
And atop one of those pillars, two figures were embracing face-to-face with their heads resting against each other.
The stone pillar had pierced straight through both of their stomachs, skewering them together like candied fruit on a stick.
Even more terrifying was the fact that despite suffering such horrific injuries—
The two were still casually chatting.
"Hey~ Edel-chan~ Still alive~?"
"Thanks to you... I haven't died yet..."
"So if I hadn't said that earlier, you really were planning to kill me?!"
"Hah. Don't pretend I don't know that something like this could never actually kill you."
Edelweiss rolled her eyes at Shiro.
Unfortunately, since their heads were pressed together, Shiro naturally could not see her expression.
"Can you move yet?"
Shiro tried moving his body.
However, the wound in his stomach, nearly four or five fists wide, immediately drained away every trace of strength he possessed.
The fact that their upper and lower bodies were still connected at all was already proof that Edelweiss had held back.
Normally, with such a warm and soft beauty in his arms, Shiro would gladly hug her for a while longer.
But the current situation was simply too ridiculous!
Both of them were covered from head to toe in dark-red blood.
Their bodies felt sticky while pressed together, and the faint metallic smell of blood filled the air.
Whoever said beautiful girls always smelled wonderful was a liar.
Shiro could now confidently tell them—Even a beautiful girl's blood did not smell fragrant!
"I'd like to get down too, but unfortunately, I haven't recovered any strength either."
"At this rate, we should probably be able to leave in a few minutes..."
Edelweiss estimated how much strength she would need to cut through the stone pillar she had created at full power.
There was nothing they could do about it.
During their battle, both of them had gone all out.
Especially during the final exchange.
They had practically done what Ikki did with [Ittou Shura], borrowing strength from the future and burning through everything they had at once.
Both were now completely spent.
The horrific wounds through their stomachs also slowed their recovery.
Being able to cut through the pillar and return for treatment within several minutes was already impressive.
"No... I think it might take a little longer than that..."
"Why?"
"When you calculated that, you probably forgot to include the secondary damage we're taking."
"You know... I feel like I'm slowly sliding downward."
"And the wound around my stomach seems to be hurting more and more..."
Shiro spoke in a hollow voice.
As expected, the method he had tested on Ayatsuji Kaito—severing the concept of damage from one's body—was completely unusable under such extreme circumstances.
Forget concentrating.
Shiro could not even hold his sword right now.
If he recklessly used that ability on himself in this condition, he might accidentally mince himself into pieces.
"But at least according to our agreement, I won this fight."
"Hah? This was clearly a dra—"
Edelweiss suddenly stopped mid-sentence.
Something cold was pressing against her back.
"Um... What exactly is touching my back...?"
"A handgun~"
"And by handgun... you mean...?"
"Exactly what it sounds like."
"I might not have enough strength to cut through this pillar, but I can still pull a trigger."
Even though Edelweiss could not see him, Shiro still wore a brilliant smile as he explained.
"Didn't you say you had no strength?!"
"And where did you even get a handgun?!"
"Did you forget? I told you before about something I have that works like a portable warehouse."
"Your [Gift Card]...?"
"Mm. Just like summoning a Device, I only need enough mental strength to take things out."
"Another world. Amazing, isn't it?"
"Sorry. I genuinely don't have the energy to argue with you anymore..."
Edelweiss sighed.
In every possible sense, she was physically and mentally exhausted.
Being dragged into mutual destruction by Shiro was already bad enough.
Now she was being threatened with a handgun—Something she normally would not even bother looking at twice.
"Look on the bright side."
"In the future, I can bring back plenty of ingredients from other worlds for you."
"If we have time, you could even come with me to buy them."
"And whenever you make desserts, you'll have someone around to taste-test them."
While talking, Shiro remembered Edelweiss's incredible cooking.
His mouth instinctively began watering.
The first time he tasted one of her desserts, he had been completely stunned.
He had even suspected Edelweiss secretly kept some master chef hidden inside her house.
Unfortunately, even if someone handed him those desserts right now, he could not eat them.
The reason was obvious.
Just look at the giant stone pillar going through his stomach.
"You just want to eat them yourself..."
"But even if you say that... what exactly are people supposed to do when they're dating?"
Edelweiss complained helplessly.
It was not as though she had never imagined herself falling in love someday.
But as her extraordinary talent in swordsmanship gradually revealed itself, Edelweiss understood that a normal life was moving farther and farther away from her.
By the time she interfered in the war between the League and the Union and was branded the [World's Most Evil Criminal]—
She had already abandoned any hope of romance.
Now she was suddenly expected to date someone like an ordinary girl.
Even the world's strongest swordswoman found herself completely at a loss.
"Lewd stuff?"
Shiro answered instantly.
"Absolutely not!"
Edelweiss immediately rejected him.
"Then tell me what normal couples are supposed to do."
Shiro's understanding of romance had long since been completely warped by Nene.
As everyone knew, humans only existed in two states—Horny and hungry.
And Nene practically lived her entire life in the state of having already eaten.
As a result, Shiro frequently stayed out all night.
Honestly, it was a miracle Stella still had not discovered exactly what he went out to do.
No.
Maybe she had already figured it out.
Several times, when Shiro returned to their dorm, he found Stella openly occupying his bed.
But waking her up would probably cause her maiden heart to explode from embarrassment the moment she opened her eyes.
So the two silently maintained their strange understanding.
Eventually, it even became more frequent.
Whenever Shiro stayed out overnight, he could almost always expect to find Stella asleep in his bed afterward.
As a result, every time Shiro went to visit Nene, he experienced the strange guilt of having a wife waiting at home while he went out fooling around every night.
Edelweiss naturally had no idea that while Shiro was chatting with her, he was thinking about other women.
Two of them, in fact.
Her face slightly red, Edelweiss thought carefully for a moment before murmuring.
"Hmm... We wouldn't need to deliberately search for things to talk about."
"When we're free, we could drink tea together and eat desserts."
"And occasionally, if we felt like it, we could go shopping together...?"
"That's surprisingly ordinary."
"But isn't that basically what we already did back on the sword peak?"
"Shut up!"
"My view on romance is just that ordinary!"
"I never had time to think about things like this before!"
"Whoa! Stop moving! That hurts!"
"Are you trying to commit lovers' suicide with me right now?!"
…
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