NOVEL NEXT chapter 26
26. The Heroine Has Truly Been Defeated
In the original work, if Valentina loses to the snake monster, she would be bound and taken back to its lair, where she would be assaulted by a group of slightly smaller juvenile snakes. The in-game explanation is that they extract magical power from Valentina to grow quickly.
The out-of-game explanation goes without saying; it’s hard to think of any other kind of defeat play.
However, due to Noah’s interference, it’s now quite difficult for Valentina to lose. After all, she is at least around level 95 now; as long as she doesn’t want to lose, she certainly won’t.
By the way, when Noah first met Valentina, who was still human, a little over a week ago, she already had the strength of level 60.
Meanwhile, the battle nun Clotilde, who single-handedly invaded the Fury Guild, is at level 80, the same as Marlowe.
Though the games are different, the stats shouldn’t differ much. If Marlowe had been present at that time, it’s hard to say who would have won.
Clotilde was tricked by a level 70 succubus at the start of her game, losing her powers; not only did her level drop back to 1, but the succubus’s level also rose to 88, leaping from a mid-level succubus to a high-level one, even gaining the power to have subordinates.
One of the bad endings is that Clotilde becomes the very succubus she despises the most, a lowly creature with almost no rationality, only knowing how to attack men—a truly tragic fate.
But since Noah has already warned her, he thinks that even if she doesn’t fully take it to heart, she should at least be cautious, right? She shouldn’t be so unfortunate as to follow the same path again.
…And yet, she really is.
Because Valentina is slightly gaining the upper hand in the battle below, and with a bit more time, she can achieve victory, Noah temporarily begins to use a magic circle to observe Clotilde’s situation.
It’s nothing; as long as he remembers the magical fluctuations of specific targets, Noah can observe whenever he wants. This is not a difficult task for Noah, who currently serves as a hidden boss.
However, when he observes the scene of the nun from another work inexplicably appearing in this world, he finds himself at a loss for words at her actions.
Because the nun in the scene is currently experiencing the prologue of the original story, investigating the fainting incidents of adult males in a certain city, and unsurprisingly, she has found the first “female victim.”
She doesn’t find it strange at all that a female victim appears in the male fainting incidents; she assumes the person is a victim caught up in another event. She intends to go help, but the person is suddenly kidnapped by an appearing criminal, and she is now desperately in pursuit.
From her anxious and worried reactions, it’s clear she has no idea this is a trap. If things go on like this, she’s likely to follow the original plot’s development.
So, will Noah appear before her to help her?
“…”
The answer is no. Noah merely coldly watches the scene of the nun being led around in circles by the succubus, feeling neither anger nor impatience.
It’s not that Noah doesn’t want to step in and save her; it’s mainly that he doesn’t want to be her male babysitter for life. He has already warned her to be cautious of the succubus that might attack her. If she still falls for it, then Noah thinks Clotilde deserves this calamity.
—
It might be good for her to suffer a bit; otherwise, she would spend her life bound by common sense, harboring a mysterious confidence that the teachings of the church were completely infallible.
Let’s talk about it when she really has a silver mark implanted by the demon in her abdomen and her level drops back to one.
Moreover, Noah is still busy over here.
He still needs to tempt the female protagonist of this side into corruption, alright?
Speaking of which, it should be over by now; he hasn’t heard any sounds of battle since earlier. Is she just lying on the ground, exhausted and gasping for breath?
It seems like it’s time to go over and mock her, further lowering her favorability.
Abandoning the observation of the nun, who is charging headlong towards a future of being defeated by the demon, Noah began to refocus on the reality before him.
Floating in the sky, he looked down, trying to find the corpse of the gray-black giant python.
But strangely, he found nothing.
Neither the gray-black giant python nor the exhausted, collapsed black-winged silver-haired princess was anywhere to be seen.
“Hmm, how strange. Even if they perished together, there shouldn’t be absolutely no remnants left.”
However, Noah didn’t feel anxious about this; instead, he calmly analyzed the most outrageous possibility. If the rampaging giant python self-destructed upon defeat, it wouldn’t be impossible for it to blow Valentina to the brink of death, but there were no signs of such a thing on the ground.
Noah felt that this shouldn’t be the outcome.
“Hmm? What’s this? They’ve moved the battlefield. No wonder I suddenly haven’t heard any sounds of battle since earlier.”
Fortunately, Noah didn’t have to search for too long; he didn’t even need to locate Valentina through her magical fluctuations. From another direction in the forest came the sound of a massive serpent rustling through the fallen leaves.
From the size of the sound, it was definitely not an ordinary snake-like monster; it was most likely that mutated giant python.
Now that he knew the location, Noah didn’t waste any more time and floated over like a ghost.
His personality wasn’t particularly frivolous or carefree.
This demeanor was purely to evoke dislike and hatred.
Just think about it: when you’re exhausted from cleaning up after someone, and that person saunters over with a smug grin to mock you, you’d definitely be furious, right?
That’s the effect Noah wanted.
The so-called evil god, Noah believed, should take pleasure in human suffering. Even if they seemed fond of a particular human, they wouldn’t feel a twinge of regret if they accidentally killed them—an arrogant god who is heartless and doesn’t value human life.
Even if Noah wasn’t of such a character, he needed Valentina to think so.
However, as he drew closer, the relaxed expression on Noah’s face began to turn increasingly displeased.
The reason was simple: the closer he got, the more he realized that the gray-black giant python, leisurely weaving through the woods, was vastly different from his previous impression.
Specifically, the upper half of this giant python was not a snake, but the upper half of a human girl.
Her gray-white hair cascaded over her snow-white shoulders, and her beautiful skin had no coverings at all. Bathed in the sunlight filtering through the trees, it shimmered with a seductive sheen, and two rounded fruits naturally grew there, exuding an enticing aroma.
In the instant their gazes met, the girl’s serpentine pupils instantly dilated, and a twisted, wicked smile appeared on her stunning face, as if she had spotted an exceptionally delectable prey, greedily staring at Noah in the sky.
Noah, who was all too familiar with that face and body, didn’t avert his gaze. Instead, his eyes sharpened, and he scoffed at this embarrassing figure before him with even more seriousness than before.
“…I see, because of my interference, there’s this kind of defeat play after losing. But speaking of which, you really are in a sorry state, Princess. Just look at how ugly you are! Even if you’ve fallen, can’t you resist being governed by the instincts of a monster? What are you doing sticking out your tongue? Do you really think you can eat me?”
—
It’s not wrong, this serpent-like monster girl, also known as Ramia, the female monster who was once the second princess of the kingdom, Valentyna, after being defeated in battle, has become a perverted and alluring monster.