Otomege Volume 4 Chapter 11

Chapter 11 – Leon’s Turn

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Part 1

I am a coward.

Silence enveloped the arena just for a moment when I proclaimed that.

Even Pierre in front of me halted for a moment before nitpicking my statement.

『And here I was wondering what you are going to say, but you’re actually begging for your life now? It’s too late for that!』

「Who was begging for his life? I was saying that I’m a coward. Do you understand what this means?」

『I have enough. Die already you bastard!』

「You keep barking annoyingly with big words. Learn from our Noelle-chan. She is a model dog who almost never bark.」

Pierre lifted the large scythe when I mocked him to slice my body from up to down.

Marie and the other guys had safely rescued the hostages.

With this there wasn’t any more problem.

Soon it would also be the time for that guy to make his move.

『DON’T MAKE FUN OF MEEEEE!』

I crouched to dodge the approaching scythe and slipped between Arroganz’s legs.

Arroganz fell forward when I touched it just a little while passing it.

『Ouch!』

The inside of the cockpit shook from the impact. Even Pierre felt pain from it.

From his next words it didn’t seem like he comprehended what just happened.

『S-shi! This junk slipped by itself. It made this great Pierre-sama lost face.』

It seemed he thought that Arroganz slipped by itself and got irritated.

「It didn’t slip. It got knocked down.」

『Aa?』

What is this guy saying? Pierre was showing such reaction. His reaction wasn’t really wrong.

「I told you before. I’m a coward. ──I will only fight a battle that I can win.」

『What are you saying──』

「You still don’t get it? I thought that I can win if you’re the opponent, that was why I accepted this duel. Even with you riding Arroganz and I’m unarmored──I still came out here because I have chances for victory.」

『Hah! Don’t get cocky just after getting lucky once!』

Arroganz got up and resumed attacking. It reached out with its left hand to grab me.

I didn’t run away and took a fighting stance. I grabbed Arroganz’s large finger──and hurled its large body.

Arroganz somersaulted in the air like it was a joke. Pierre who was inside the cockpit also got shaken around and yelled.

『B-bastard!』

I watched Arroganz lying on the ground while rotating my shoulder.

I kept talking to Pierre.

「You are really weak, for real. This is all you got even while riding Arroganz. I’ve never seen a pilot as bad as you. No, I guess that’s goes without saying because you’re already the worst as a human?」

『──D-don’t think that the flukes will keep happening forever!』

Arroganz stood up and approached, but I hurled it away once more using its own momentum and told Pierre.

「When something happens for the third time then it’s already an inevitability. Pierre, you can’t win against me.」

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Part 2

Just what in the world was going on?

In the arena, all the audiences were unable to believe the scene in front of their eyes.

A flesh and blood human was hurling an armor around three times.

There were even some people inside the venue who were giving applause in admiration.

「Tossing an armor without wearing an armor yourself? Is something like that possible? Is it martial art? No, perhaps it’s some kind of magic?」

Narcisse got his interest stimulated even while feeling shocked. Louise warned him.

「Concentrate on the duel.」

「I know. But, this still doesn’t change how disadvantageous the situation is.」

But there was another concern.

Leon wasn’t wearing armor, while Pierre was inside one.

The situation was still overwhelmingly disadvantageous for Leon. Pierre was in possession of the advantage when they considered the matter of stamina between the two.

Lion was using Arroganz’s movement to throw it, but he would have no way to do anything if Arroganz kept its distance.

Louise was worried for Leon.

「He has no way to finish this.」

Even if she wanted to declare Leon the winner, Arroganz could still stand up even after falling down.

There was no decisive blow. She couldn’t deem Leon to be the winner as a witness of the duel.

She would be criticized if she declared him the winner in this situation.

Deep in her heart she wished for the match to be decided with a clear winner and loser, otherwise it would complicate the matter.

Narcisse turned his gaze toward Louise.

「Louise, he isn’t your “little brother”.」

Louise dropped her gaze from being told that.

「I know that.」

「Then, don’t side with him too much. He is a foreigner. One day he will return back to his country.」

「──Even I understand that much.」

The situation was progressing to an unexpected direction while the two witnesses were talking.

Clement was running toward Narcisse’s position.

He was looking extremely panicked. His face was sweaty with a serious expression.

「Narcisse-kyun!」

「Mr. Clement? Did something happen?」

Clement’s appearance made Narcisse thought that Pierre might have done something again, but what actually happened far surpassed his expectation.

「It’s awful! Faiviel House is being attacked! They’re in a state of war!」

「──What did you say?」

Narcisse looked to Louise in shock.

But Louise herself knew nothing about it.

「Who in the world is attacking them? I never heard that the situation has become that tense with any other country.」

She couldn’t think of any country that would attack them with the current international situation.

But, there was actually someone attacking at present.

Clement sent his gaze toward the arena. Arroganz that was piloted by Pierre was floating in the air right now from being thrown by Leon.

「I’m sorry that I only have unconfirmed information, but the enemy is only a single ship of the kingdom. No, right now the ship is registered with the commonwealth though.」

Applauses and cheers were breaking out from the audience seats each time Leon threw Arroganz.

It clearly showed just how bad their evaluation of Pierre’s habitual act was.

「──Just one ship? Is Leon-kun’s ship rampaging?」

Clement put his hands on his cheeks and wriggled back and forth while stressing that the information he had was still unconfirmed.

「I don’t know whether it’s the truth or a lie. But, it’s a fact that there is war in Faiviel House’s territory. I heard that Alzer’s combined fleet has been dispatched. That’s why please stop the duel and evacuate everyone from here.」

Narcisse made a bitter expression.

「What in the world」

Einhorn was rampaging in the territory of Faiviel House.

The current owner of Einhorn was Pierre.

Louise immediately tried to stop the duel.

「I can’t watch this anymore. I’ll stop the duel using my name.」

「Got it. Let’s declare the suspension of the duel right away.」

Just when the two of them decided to stop the duel, they heard Pierre’s voice that was mad with rage from inside Arroganz in the arena.

『HOW DARE YOU MADE FUN OF THIS GREAT PIERRE-SAMAAAA! I’M GOING TO EXPLODE YOU ALL!』

The container on Arroganz’s back opened and missiles were fired to the surrounding from there.

「──That guy!」

Louise, Narcisse, and Clement were shocked by Pierre’s doing.

The missiles didn’t only target Leon, they were also heading toward the audience seats──the shield that enveloped the arena flared up strongly, but it couldn’t endure the missiles’ explosions and got destroyed.

The shield just barely blocked the impact, but the smoke that was generated from the explosion filled the audience seats.

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Part 3

Going back slightly in time.

Around the time the duel was going to be started, Einhorn that was anchored in the harbor started moving.

Pierre’s henchmen who noticed that was puzzled by the movement, but they didn’t view it as a problem.

「Who is it who moved the ship without permission? Or is there an order from Pierre-san?」

A thuggish sailor who had headache from hangover yawned while walking in Einhorn’s corridor.

The scenery outside the window was moving. He could see Einhorn was heading somewhere.

「But still, where is everyone?」

He looked around but found no one.

He continued walking for a while before he saw a cylinder shaped robot that was moving by floating.

The robots were the one managing the airship, so the crews in this ship didn’t really have to do anything and could take it easy.

The robot had a single eye with two thin arms attached. The robot didn’t have any leg and moved by floating. He didn’t understand how it was doing that and didn’t care. Then he saw the robot was holding a broom in its hands.

The sailor kicked the robot when it got near.

「Oi, where are the others?」

The sailors’ treatment toward the robots was extremely awful.

Normally the robots wouldn’t complain or resist even when treated like that.

But today was different.

The kicked robot turned its red eye toward the sailor.

「What? Show me the way already.」

Then the robot lifted up its broom and swung it down on the sailor’s head.

「A-asshole! Are you defying me huh!」

The sailor was hit by the broom over and over. He unsheathed the short sword he got on him and prepared to attack the robot.

However, he felt something behind him and turned around.

「──Eh?」

There he found a robot that was even bigger than the cleaning robots.

It lifted up its large and thick arm before swinging it down without hesitation, reaping away the sailor’s consciousness.

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Part 4

In Einhorn’s bridge.

Luxion was floating in there. It was giving instruction to the robots that were moving around nearby.

『The mission has moved to the next phase. The objective is the territory of Faiviel House.』

Pierre’s subordinates were in the bridge. They were tied up and left to lie on the floor.

Einhorn was heading to Faiviel House’s territory──right to the center of it.

There was a fortress of Faiviel House there. Right now Einhorn was heading there.

However, an unfortunate patrol airship found Einhorn when it was going to enter the territory of Faiviel House without permission. The patrol airship moved in order to block Einhorn’s path.

『The airship over there, stop.』

The patrol said that. The tone of their voice was polite. Surely it was because of Faiviel House’s family crest that was painted on Einhorn’s hull. Luxion remembered the voice that was talking to them through a megaphone.

『──if master is here, he will surely say “lucky” in this time.』

The voice came from the captain who inspected Einhorn when it first entered the commonwealth.

It was the man who insulted Arroganz, someone who Luxion wanted to retaliate against.

『Cannon』

The robots moved following Luxion’s order.

Einhorn’s cannon fixed its aim at the patrol airship and fired without any warning.

The patrol airship got shot in its essential engine at its rear and became unable to move. It then slowly went down while bursting into flames. Luxion saw the crews escaping the ship one after another. The captain of that time was the one who ran at the very front and got onto an emergency boat.

『Fire』

Luxion indifferently ordered to attack more. The boat that was boarded by the captain was destroyed by anti-air attack from Einhorn. However Luxion had calculated the height so that the passengers wouldn’t die even if they fell.

The captain was crying and screaming for help inside the falling boat.

But Luxion stopped its revenge with that because Killing wasn’t “Leon’s preference”.

『Good grief, it’s a pain to rampage according to master’s preference.』

Einhorn ignored the sinking patrol airship and continued moving into Faiviel House’s territory.

The remaining henchmen inside the airship heard the commotion and started pounding the door to the bridge violently.

「Oi, what have you guys done!」

「That was overdoing it! Return the ship to the harbor right away!」

「Is this Pierre-san’s order!? ──W-what’s with these things? S-stop! Don’t come here!」

Luxion ignored the noise that Pierre’s henchmen were making.

After Luxion entered the territory of Faiviel House──it started destroying important locations, especially the military installations.

The patrol airship immediately called their allies and enemies were gathering one after another.

But they didn’t attack because they saw Faiviel House’s family crest on Einhorn.

Seeing the patrols Luxion was──.

『Fire』

──sinking them one after another.

It confirmed that the airships were falling to place that had no people while broadcasting voices through amplifier so that the patrols could hear.

『Gyahahaha, we’re the strongest!』

『Ora, murder all of Pierre-san’s enemies!』

『Keep going until the center like this!』

Those were the voices of Pierre’s henchmen.

Luxion had recorded their voices, analyzed them, and then edited their voices into words that suited this situation.

Pierre’s henchmen outside the bridge were flustered.

「O-oi, what are you guys doing!?」

「Stop. Oi, stop screwing around!」

「Open the door!」

They must be thinking that this wouldn’t end up as a mere joke at this rate.

But it was already too late.

A voice came from the patrol airship’s amplifier.

『You bastards! Do you know what you are doing right now!? ──Prepare to fire! Hold it back no matter what until reinforcement come!』

The patrol airships were going to fire, but Luxion had no duty to wait for them.

『Fall』

All the patrol airships were sinking after it fired the cannons several time.

Then the sacred tree’s crest that was formed over Einhorn started growing vines and roots. It was trying to destroy Einhorn that was moving against Pierre’s will.

『What a slow reaction. Also──do you seriously think that you can stop me with just this?』

Legless robots flew out from Einhorn.

Their hands were holding various things like flamethrower or chainsaw. They burned and cut away the vines and roots. And then shining lines ran through Einhorn’s hull.

Several lines on the hull emitted light that broke and erased the sacred tree’s crest.

『Something like this can be destroyed anytime.』

Luxion decreased Einhorn’s moving speed and went around destroying important locations while aiming toward Faiviel House’s fortress.

『Now then, there is no problem over here. ──I wonder if master is alright over there.』

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Part 5

The surrounding was covered by the smoke from the missiles.

Pierre who was watching that from inside the cockpit was desperately moving the control stick.

「W-what the hell! I didn’t do anything!」

Pierre didn’t know that Arroganz had missiles, and he also didn’t plan to attack the audiences. He didn’t care at all about the rabbles, but there were also nobles among the audiences including Narcisse and Louise.

And not only that.

「Why is there my voice speaking out there!?」

His voice didn’t reach outside from inside the cockpit. Instead at the outside there was──.

『I’ll blow up all of you trashes!』

──the voice of someone that was imitating him.

The smoke was gradually clearing up. From there he could see many sacred tree’s crests forming up at the audience seats.

Those crests weren’t just from Narcisse and Louise. Other members of the six great noble houses who came to watch the duel were also immediately putting up their defense.

「N-no! That wasn’t me! I didn’t attack you guys!」

Pierre was tyrannical when facing someone of lower status, but when he was facing someone of equal status──furthermore when there was more than one of such people, he wouldn’t want to quarrel with them even if he would still put on a tough front.

That was because he understood he would be the one losing if he fought someone of equal status.

『Gyahahaha! All of you bastards are trembling on your feet!』

And yet the voice of someone that was imitating Pierre was picking a fight brazenly against all the people here.

「Stop. Stop it!」

He kept rattling the control stick, but it suddenly got locked in place.

An electronic voice started speaking inside the cockpit.

『The plan will move to the next phase.』

「P-plan!? Oi, one eye! You’re listening right!? Obey my order! One eye, answer me now!!」

In respond to Pierre’s yell, another voice──Luxion’s voice echoed inside Arroganz’s cockpit.

『What is it?』

「You son of a bitch, what the hell are you doing!? This garbage is moving around by itself and making trouble for this great Pierre-sama! Stop it right away! Tell Narcisse and Louise that the attack was this armor’s fault! Tell them it wasn’t my fault!」

『──And?』

「Ha, haa!?」

Luxion’s reply to him was cold unlike before.

「Y-you useless familiar! I’ll turn you into scrap when I get back. This armor too. It can’t even kill that trash over there. This damn thing is splattering mud on this great Pierre-sama’s face!」

Pierre kept yelling and complaining that his inability to defeat Leon was Arroganz’s responsibility. Luxion said to him.

『You are misunderstanding.』

「Whaatttt!」

『My master is only Leon Fou Bartfalt.』

「W-what are you──」

『You cannot become my owner right from the start. Also, the trash here──is you.』

Pierre gritted his teeth and furrowed his brows. His expression became really ugly from hatred.

「I’ll never forgive you. I’ll absolutely kill you all!」

Luxion told the angry Pierre.

『It’s impossible. You won’t be able to kill master. You also won’t be able to kill me. But, you were really useful for gathering information. I apologize, you actually aren’t completely a useless trash.』

「BASTARDDDDD!!」

Luxion gave its last words to Pierre.

『Accept the retribution for making fun of my master.』

Pierre cursed Luxion and Leon with a shriek before he saw Leon standing in front of Arroganz with a grin.

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Part 6

The black smoke from the missiles’ explosions was clearing up.

I was taking a stance in front of Arroganz in the middle of the clearing up smoke.

「Arroganz──I’ll take you back right away.」

The audiences around us were running around trying to escape. Noelle yelled loudly at me telling me to escape.

「Leon, run away! Pierre isn’t in his right mind. He is running wild!」

That wasn’t true.

Contrary to his words and behavior, that guy was actually a coward.

He harbored an ambition that didn’t suit his caliber. In addition he was a man who could do nothing except tormenting the weak.

He would unconsciously harbor feeling of inferiority toward opponent of equal status. The backlash from that made him tormented the weak so that he could obtain a feeling of superiority.

Pierre was even more of a coward than me.

Now then──I got no more need to worry after coming this far.

Arroganz lifted up its sinister scythe.

『After I kill you and obtain the sacred tree’s sapling──this Pierre-sama will become this country’s king!』

The dirty voice that made such brazen proclamation while cackling was none other than Pierre’s voice.

I spoke to Arroganz that was letting out that voice.

「I’ll never let Arroganz do such thing. ──Pierre, I’ll stop you right here and now!」

I’ll stop your ambition! I said that line with a heroic expression.

But of course this was just a farce.

In the first place, the armor of this world was like the equivalent of a flying tank in my previous life.

There was no way a human could fight such opponent with only his bare hand.

I could throw Arroganz as though I was an expert martial artist was also completely an acting. To begin with I wasn’t an expert in martial art. Usually I wouldn’t even think to participate in this kind of crazy battle.

──I fought this battle because I could win it!

It would be far more dangerous for me if Pierre came here wearing a normal armor.

Thank you very much for coming here wearing Arroganz!

Louise-san told Pierre to stop the duel.

「Pierre, enough already! I can’t allow this duel to continue further than this. I’m declaring this match suspended by my authority as this duel’s witness!」

『Just try it! If you do that then I’ll just kill this guy and take away the sacred tree’s sapling. No one can stop this great Pierre-sama anymore!』

Louise-san showed a shocked expression.

「──You, just what do you think the oath to sacred tree is?」

She was surely dumbfounded that the duel was progressing into this kind of state even though it was being held under the oath of the sacred tree.

After hearing those words, even Louise-san was telling me to run away.

「Leon-kun, run away from there, quickly!」

『It’s too late! Die, you trashhhhh!』

「Come at me, Pierre!」

Arroganz was rushing toward me. I ran straight into it and took the preparatory stance to launch a palm strike.

I could hear voices from my surrounding telling me to run away.

Aa~, all these supports felt really warm.

Even though I was showered with jeers when I was at my own country, the people of the commonwealth were rooting for me instead. How kind of them.

Arroganz swung its large scythe. Its blade stabbed deeply into the ground.

「This──is the endddd!」

I dodged while making it looked easy and leaped toward Arroganz’s chest──and hit the cockpit’s armor with my palm’s heel.

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A human hitting an armor with their hand wouldn’t deal any damage, but my glove shined and Arroganz let go of its large scythe while getting blown backward until it crashed on the wall.

The audience seats became enveloped in silence. I walked toward Arroganz in the middle of such atmosphere and opened the cockpit’s hatch.

I found the face of Pierre inside glaring at me──.

「How dare you trick──hibuh!」

──My fist punched Pierre’s face.

「Pierre-kun, the duel is still not over.」

Pierre was covering his mouth tearfully.

I grabbed his hair then dragged him out from the cockpit and threw him on the ground.

「Let’s fight man to man from here on!」

The fun started now!

Pierre stood up and heaped up vilification on me.

「This cowardly traasssh! You set me up! A trash knight from third rate country like you dare to dishonor this great Pierre-sama who is one of the sacred tree’s chosen six great nobles! I’ll never forgive you. I’ll teach you what’ll happen to a mere human who try to set up a chosen human like this great me──agah!」

It felt like he would keep going so I punched him. The glove that Luxion prepared for me was a quality item that would keep my fist from hurting even after punching someone.

I gotta thank him later.

Pierre covered his mouth with his hand and trembled while blood was dripping from there.

Pierre’s tooth fell on the ground.

「My tooth. MY TOOOTHHHH!」

I cracked my fist while telling Pierre with a smile.

「Don’t worry. Even Brad who got beaten up by you got his teeth back to normal using healing magic. Magic is really amazing. That’s why, there won’t be any problem with just that much.」

Pierre glared at me and pointed his right hand forward.

The crest on the back of his right hand started shining.

「Oh? You’re going to use your crest──the divine protection of the sacred tree? Look like you have forgotten this duel’s rule huh.」

「Uh!」

As expected even Pierre was hesitating to break the rule of a duel that was held under the oath to the sacred tree.

「Now then, I’m going to extract my pay back from you now, so don’t surrender too quickly. I have a lot of reasons to beat you up.」

「Y-you’re going to beat me up!? You won’t get away so easily if you lay your hand on me! I’ll slaughter your whole family and country! I’ll teach you what’ll happen when you turn Faiviel House into your enemy!」

「Oo, scary~」

The reaction of the audiences toward Pierre’s threat when he got cornered like this was completely chilly.

Voices of contempt toward Pierre could be heard from everywhere.

「To use his family’s power when he is about to lose like this, he is really a scum.」

「To begin with I can’t believe he lose against an unarmed human when he himself was wearing an armor.」

「To lose this badly──」

Pierre began to pick a fight with everyone around him after he heard their comments.

「Shut up you pile of garbage! These **ing trashes, these incompetents! All of you can live in this country is thanks to us the six great nobles! You all parasites and **ty insects, how dare you insult this great Pierre-samaaa!」

The reactions of the audiences toward Pierre’s rant were frigid.

I placed my hand on the shoulder of Pierre who was looking the other way to make him turned toward me. Then I drove a right straight onto his face.

Cheers broke out right after that.

──This guy, just how hated he is?

「It’s not good to look the other way when you’re in the middle of duel. Also, I can assure you that I’m a kind and gentle person, but I’m merciless to those who oppose me.」

「What are──fugoh!」

My left hand grabbed his hair and my right hand punched him over and over.

I focused my punches around his mouth so that he would become unable to speak. The main dish would be after that.

「What’s wrong? Try fighting back!」

After several punches, Pierre’s cocksure attitude was gradually crumbling. He ended up speaking weak words like 「S-stop!」「D-don’t punch anymore」「I-I get it, I won’t tell my family to take revenge so─」 and so on.

He must have few experience of getting beaten up until now because he had been doing nothing but tormenting the weak.

When I let go of his hair, Pierre’s face had turned into this extremely ugly thing.

「Hi, hifs fhy hose──」

It looked like he was trying to say something. It seemed he was trying to say 「It’s my lose」, but surely I was just mishearing it so I continued the duel.

「You’re saying you will never give up!? As expected from someone from the six great nobles Pierre-kun! That guts of yours is really worthy of respect. ──Oraa!」

「Bwagh!」

When my front kick hit Pierre’s stomach, his body easily folded into the shape of “<”.

The academy also trained the students in martial art, but this guy was weaker than anyone I had ever faced before I was wondering if he was just playing around.

He writhed in pain when my fist struck his stomach.

「S-stahp──」

「So you still won’t lose even after this much. That’s amazing Pierre!」

Pierre seemed to think that this beating would continue as long as he still stood. He allowed his body to be blown away by my next punch and fell on the ground.

His hand reached out toward the witness Mr. Narcisse to ask for help, but I immediately straddled his body and punched him.

「Do you think it’ll be over when you’re lying on the ground? It’s too bad, I’m not gonna let it end here!」

I thoroughly attacked his mouth so that he wouldn’t be able to proclaim his surrender. It caused Pierre’s front teeth to be obliterated.

He cried while covering his face with his arms, but I aimed my fist to screw through the gap.

It was amazing that even though I was beating him one-sidedly like this, there were only earth-shattering cheers that came from the audience seats.

「Just how hated are you by everyone huh? I never thought that I will get cheered so loudly when tormenting someone like this in a duel.」

After I said that, Pierre spoke while crying.

「Phlease horfhive me. I, afheathy lhose」

Please forgive me, I already lose, Pierre said with a feeble voice. But I mercilessly punched his face again.

Even for me, I should feel pain in my heart after beating someone so one-sidedly like this. But right now my heart didn’t even itch because this guy was my opponent.

「──What did you do to those who cried and begged for their life until now? Your naïve wish that you will be forgiven when you’re the one begging for your life won’t be granted here. Aren’t you glad that you have gotten a bit smarter from this lesson?」

I said that and swung my fist on Pierre’s nose.

Nosebleed spurted out and splattered on me, but I paid it no mind and continued swinging down my fist.

「Man, you’re really a nice guy! I’m not feeling guilty at all even after punching you this many times! Instead doing this even make me start wondering that perhaps I’m actually a champion of justice!」

If I was forced to mention one good point about Pierre, then it would be his use as sandbag that wouldn’t make you feel guilty at all.

There were also the cheers from the audiences. It made me felt like I was actually a hero.

Well, I’m not a hero though!

「How is it? How does it feels to be the one on the receiving end of what you had done until now?」

Pierre replied to my question with a weak murmur.

「I’hll nheverh horghive yhou」

I’ll never forgive you──It looked like his heart still hadn’t yielded.

Far from that, this guy still didn’t have the slightest intention to reflect on himself. Amazing.

You’re really──the perfect baddie.

「Yeah, that’s it Pierre! Keep resisting just like that!」