"Haaah—!"
"Hah—!"
In the inn, Shichen and Stark sat side by side on a bed, staring intently at the bright screen in front of them.
Shichen had set up the TV himself. For him, getting it to work and finding stuff to watch wasn't hard at all.
On the screen, a handso Giant of Light was unloading every move he had on a monster, beating it so badly it was barely hanging on, wailing the whole ti.
The Giant of Light shimred in red, purple, and silver.
Then, all of a sudden, he shifted into a red form, his strength surging. Every punch made the monster scream in agony.
The Giant of Light stayed completely unfazed, just kept pounding away. Anyone who didn't know better would probably think he was way too brutal.
But then ca an even more brutal scene. He leaped up, chopped downward with one hand, and cleanly sliced off one of the monster's horns.
"ROAR—!" The monster scread even louder.
The Giant of Light still didn't care. He calmly gathered energy and finished it off with a Delacium Beam.
Then he flew away without another glance.
"That was aweso!" Stark shouted, so hyped he was practically flailing around.
"You really do love the Horn Breaker, huh?" Shichen laughed.
"Of course I do! The Horn Breaker is the coolest! I'm obsessed!"
"Yeah? Sa here."
Was there anyone in the world who didn't like the Horn Breaker?
Impossible.
Unless they were just being contrarian.
"No surprise there, Big Bro. You've got great taste, just like !" Stark said proudly.
"Heh. Good for you. But why do you like the Horn Breaker so much?"
"Because I want to beco a hero like him!" Stark declared, full of energy.
"Like him?"
"Yeah! Demons all have horns too, right? I want to be like the Horn Breaker and go around snapping demon horns!"
"…You're serious?" Shichen looked at him strangely. He hadn't expected that to be the reason.
"Completely!"
"Alright, then." Shichen patted Stark on the shoulder and stood up.
Studying the Horn Breaker wasn't a bad thing.
In this world, demons were humanity's mortal enemies. Stark wanting to follow that example wasn't a problem at all.
Shichen didn't worry about demons going extinct, either. With the Demon King gone, humans and demons were destined to remain enemies no matter what.
"Big Bro, where are you going?"
"You keep watching. I'm heading back to sleep."
Rewatching the Horn Breaker brought all kinds of new insights, but Shichen didn't need to sit through all of it again.
Pushing Horn Breaker propaganda on people was already one of his hobbies. He'd have plenty of chances to rewatch it later.
"Big Bro, you're not staying?"
"Nope. You watch by yourself. Just rember to sleep early—you're training again tomorrow," Shichen reminded him.
"Got it!"
Shichen left Stark's room and didn't go back to his own.
His room was empty, so there was no point.
With a blink, he teleported straight to Serie's palace.
She was still fast asleep, completely bare, looking like so flawless work of art, tears still clinging to the corners of her eyes.
Shichen didn't wake her. He got into bed, pulled her into his arms, and got ready to sleep.
This felt right.
He was already used to sleeping with Frieren in his arms. Sleeping without holding soone just felt wrong now.
"Mmh…"
Serie murmured and slowly opened her eyes.
The mont she saw him, she jumped.
"Y-you ca back?"
Her voice shook—rare for her—because her legs were still weak.
"What, scared?" Shichen asked with a grin.
"Scared? Obviously not!" Serie instantly forced herself back into a smug sneer.
"Really?" Shichen's hand started wandering.
"W-wait… fine, I'm scared, okay? Don't do anything stupid." Serie hurriedly pinned his hand down.
"Knew you were all bark."
"Mmph!" Serie froze, not daring to move.
"Relax. Sleep. I'm ssing with you."
"Y-you really an that?" she asked, still not convinced.
"I do. Haven't you been complaining that I never sleep here with you?"
"That's only because Frieren and the others aren't here, isn't it?" Serie shot back.
"So you are smart."
"Don't—"
"If you know what's good for you, then just sleep."
"…Fine."
The next morning, Shichen opened his eyes and looked up at the unfamiliar palace ceiling.
Pretty extravagant.
Good thing he didn't care about that kind of thing. It all felt flashy and tacky to him.
Having them was worth more than anything.
He withdrew his hand and looked it over. Nothing had changed, except for a bit of the usual slick trace from where her body had been.
Maybe it was because of his physique.
He had a divine body—
"Mmh…"
Serie woke too, probably because sothing was missing. The first thing she saw was Shichen's face right in front of her.
For one brief mont, she was happy.
Then she crushed that feeling and sneered.
"You're up this early? What, already in the mood again?"
"Oh? Back to acting arrogant already?" Shichen tugged her cheek.
"Hmph."
"You want another lesson this early?"
"Hmph. I'm not scared of you."
"Yeah? Morning's perfect for so exercise. Let's see how brave you really are."
"Bring it. Like I'm afraid of you."
"Heh." Shichen laughed and shook his head, then started "disciplining" her again without rcy.
It didn't take long before she was too exhausted and started begging.
That never made him stop easily, of course. He kept her working up a sweat.
Her stamina was way too bad. She needed proper training.
Serie really never learned. Every ti it was over, she forgot the lesson and went right back to acting arrogant.
She was completely hopeless.
Weak, but addicted to the fight.
Shichen didn't mind at all. If anything, he liked her that way.
He was pretty sure Serie did it on purpose—kept acting mouthy just so he'd "punish" her.
Classic tsundere behavior.
So he played along.
This was the Serie he liked.
If she stopped acting cocky, it would feel wrong.
By the ti noon was getting close, she was covered in sweat, skin glistening.
He carried her to the bath, washed her up, and before he was even done, she'd already fallen half asleep.
After cleaning her up properly, he carried her back to bed, tucked the blanket around her, and left.
When he returned to the inn, he dragged Stark out and took him outside the city to keep training.
This ti he made it harder—two puppets at once, and, to match Stark's dream, he even gave them horns.
As expected, Stark got even more fired up, imdiately swinging his axe at their horns.
Of course, it wasn't that easy. Shichen had also increased the puppets' dodging ability, so Stark couldn't just casually chop them off.
He had to get stronger.
Watching Stark get all excited, Shichen didn't know whether to laugh or sigh.
Demons in the future were really going to have nightmares.
Sooner or later, this world was definitely going to get its own legend of a Horn-Breaking Maniac.
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