"T-that's not what I meant…" Alice's voice trembled. She had a dozen things to say—questions, confessions—but something more pressing stopped her.
"I have guards following me…"
"Hm? Is that supposed to be a threat?" He squeezed harder, his thumb and index suddenly taking hold of her hardened nipple.
"Hng~ N-no, it's for your safety…"
As soon as she finished speaking, Ashen saw two fast-approaching figures from the hallway.
He released her breasts. After all, they were about to have company, and he had no intention of letting anyone else see Alice in such a compromising state. But his tight embrace remained persistent.
"Ah~"
No, it tightened even more.
Within seconds, the vague shapes became clear, though Ashen had already identified them long before. His hyper vision left little to guess.
A man and a woman, both young, both radiating a distinctly inhuman aura.
Pathwalkers, no doubt. Once someone advances past the seventh step, the fusion with their chosen Sin begins, and their presence shifts, no longer purely human.
And with each step, the remnants of humanity would peel away, until it felt as though a higher life-form had finally emerged.
Experienced Pathwalkers can usually suppress it, but these two clearly hadn't mastered the trick.
The man's wild crimson hair framed a face twisted in fury. His brown eyes burned with a shade so intense they nearly matched his hair.
Rage distorted his expression the instant he saw the scene before him: the woman he revered most, wrapped in another man's arms.
"Let go of the lady! You… lowly soldier!" he bellowed.
"Stop it!" Alice's voice cut through, but the man didn't hear a thing.
He saw red… only red.
With a roar, he lunged forward, swinging a wide hook aimed straight at Ashen. From his fist to his forearm, then his shoulder, crimson flames burst to life, crackling with fury.
Ashen didn't stay still. The moment the man moved, his body responded
Mana sprang to life and frantically rushed to his eyes. The Interpreter unfolded in a blink, allowing him to see where the strike was going to hit precisely.
He spun around, with Alice still in his embrace.
The daggers that had unknowingly turned sharply toward the rushing man's direction, a snap away from attacking, were dragged away with their owner.
Alice only saw a blur, and in the next moment, she watched the red-haired man's fist harmlessly strike the air before he passed by them.
Mana flared further in Ashen's veins and rushed in waves to his eyeballs, pushing the boundary of his vision to the Conversionalist.
Now, the man's movements became laughably simple to read.
Being dodged so easily by the man he called lowly further infuriated the red-haired guard, making the crimson flame on his now two arms flare much higher.
"You DARE!?"
What truly drove him mad was how he'd done it, with his idol draped comfortably on the dirty soldier's shoulder. She even held on to him as if she didn't mind the closeness.
"DIE!"
He rushed again, this time much faster and stronger, the fists and kicks leaving almost afterimages, each one making a sharp sound against the air.
His prized skill, the one he'd been hailed as a genius for, increased his overall physical strength the more he fed it, and the fuel was his wrath.
So even as he raged, in the back of his mind, he was certain that his adversary was already a dead man.
Unfortunately for him, his opponent was Ashen, the man who never lost a duel back in the Bloodwall since the perfect puppet project.
The man's fury burned brighter with every strike, crimson crawling up his arms like a living inferno. Each punch came faster, heavier, yet Ashen slipped through them with almost insulting ease.
In his eyes, no matter how much he attacked, it only looked like flailing around compared to the veterans of the Bloodwall.
Whoosh—
Ashen moved with steps too casual for someone in the middle of a fight. Even with a woman cradled in his arms, he never faltered. Every kick that sliced the air missed by inches, every blazing fist met only empty space and a faint afterimage of motion.
Crack—whish—bam!
The rhythm of violence filled the air, but none of it touched him. His expression stayed calm, almost bored, eyes tracking every motion like he was reading from a script he'd already memorized.
Then, in one effortless shift, he hauled Alice to rest on his forearm as if it were a seat.
Her weight barely slowed him. She draped over his torso, her earlier fluster somehow already processed and evaporated.
Now, only a bored look mirroring Ashen's stayed on her face as she gazed at the red-haired man still attempting to "rescue" her.
The last person, who watched the spectacle unfolding and was almost amid the dramatic turn of events, didn't join her fellow companion in the scuffle.
Unlike him, she was more observant, and immediately noticed that the lady she was tasked with protecting was anything but uncomfortable in that stranger's arms.
Moreover, she knew for a fact that Alice had a dozen preemptive means to protect herself, even if she was caught unaware.
The absence of such methods more than cemented her conjecture.
And above all else… as a woman, she knew the look Alice was giving the stranger was the farthest thing from dislike.
She should have stopped her colleague's foolishness, especially after she heard the lady's order to stop, but she simply couldn't take her eyes away from the breathtaking scene.
Each step, each sway, flowed with rhythm, almost reminiscent of a dance. Her body spun lightly in his grasp—whoosh—her hair fanning through the air as he pivoted around another failed strike.
To the watching woman, it no longer looked like a fight… it looked like a performance. A samba of chaos and grace.
Her poor colleague became little more than background percussion, his fiery swings clashing like misplaced drumbeats against their perfect tempo.
Ashen dipped, twisted, and turned, his movements dangerously smooth and intimate.
Alice's arm draped over his shoulder as though she were entrusting herself to a steadfast ship she knew would carry her through any storm, while the flames around them flickered, painting their dance in hues of crimson and gold.
It was choreography. And he was leading.
But that was only from the woman's perspective.
Ashen sighed softly, irritation flashing in his eyes. The enraged man lunged again, his flaming arm carving through the air.
FWOOOSH!—
Step.
Ashen sidestepped. The attack brushed past his shirt, heat licking his skin.
"Enough."
BAM!
His foot slammed into the man's stomach with bone-deep force, folding him forward mid-swing.
Before the man could gasp for air, WHAM!—Ashen's heel came down in a brutal axe kick that crashed onto his back, driving him onto all fours.
The flames sputtered, guttering under the blow. The man wheezed, rage turning into disbelief.
Ashen shifted his grip, tossing Alice gently upward—whoosh!—as if time itself slowed for her.
Then he spun.
THWACK!
A clean roundhouse tore through the air and connected with the man's cheek, the impact snapping his head sideways as his body launched into the wall on the right.
KRAAASH!
The flames died instantly. Silence followed.
Fwup~!
Before the dust even settled, Ashen caught Alice mid-fall, pulling her back into his arms, her body pressed close in what could only be described as an octopus hug.
"Oh… my god…" A soft exclamation rang from the side, but he didn't pay attention.
He exhaled, calm once more, as if the entire fight had been nothing more than an annoying detour.
"So? Who's the simp?"
Alice tilted her head, not understanding at first, before it dawned on her that he was talking about the unconscious man in the distance.
"He's with my security personnel." The nonchalant tone only made the statement more absurd.
Ashen glanced to the side at the flattened corpse-like body, then back at her, his expression saying more than words ever could about the competence of her "security."
Eventually, he shook his head. "Back at Esperra, you always had these white knights hounding you on social media. Now, even here, they can't escape your charm…"
He muttered resentfully, before smirking teasingly at her, his hands tightening around her thighs. "Love, you're really such a sinful woman…"