Chapter 54: Yomo

"...Yomo, did you get that?" Nio asks Yomo, who just gives her a smile without saying a word.

’Nio is still pretty cute, but she still talks too much. If she weren’t married to that freak...’ Yomo doesn’t reveal what he thinks of Nio, but to him Nio is just a nice, plump, attractive piece of meat, and if he had the chance he would love to squeeze her until her bones snapped.

’She’d look adorable in a wheelchair. She’d be the first one I wouldn’t kill, but one I’d make a point of breaking every single day forever. That would be so cute.’

"Are you listening?"

"Of course I am, Nio. I’m just waiting to hear the details of your magnificent plans! You’re always brilliant."

’I’d love to tear her wings off and watch her cry while she crawls across the bed, painting the sheets red...’

"..." Nio shoots Yomo a look of pure contempt, even without knowing what he’s imagining about her.

’Ah, that look... that’s quite exciting. I’d really like to gouge her eyes out and put them in glass jars...’

"If you fail me, forget apologizing or anything else. I really will kill you. I no longer need someone guarding every floor, and I can always replace servants by creating new ones, so you’d better not fail me." Nio grows irritated at the way Yomo is eyeing her body.

"I won’t fail, Nio! Don’t worry, I’m good at what I do. I just need to dig up relevant information and, if possible, gain control over them from the shadows. Both are simple tasks! Every kingdom has its weak points." The confidence in Yomo’s voice is extremely high.

"You really had better not fail. Right now I’m adjusting everything with Azalea to sort out how it’s all going to work. You need to speak with her so she can give you a map and sort out the finer details of the plan."

"I..."

’She always talks too much. I already got it, Nio... you could put that little mouth of yours to something more pleasurable...’ He waits, because he knows there’s not much he can do against Nio. He obviously accepts being inferior to her and her wife.

But while Nio lays everything out in exaggerated detail, he thinks about the possibilities.

’Outside the range of her vision, I can make my own moves, can’t I? Even if Moros goes with me, that useless fool is like a rebellious child. He’s easy to deceive...’ Yomo keeps a gentle smile for Nio, but ignores everything she’s saying.

’Azalea... if Azalea helped me with her ability... but she’s a damn witch...’

"Hey, are you listening?! Do you think you can ignore me and I won’t notice?!"

"Never, Nio!! I’m listening to everything, I swear! I already understood the plan!!! I’ll do as you wish!!"

’Only in the beginning, obviously. Sooner or later she’ll let her guard slip. She has bigger problems than having to spy on me...’

"Whatever. Go see Azalea right now. I’ll deliver some things to Moros, and soon he’ll come to you so the two of you can carry out my request."

"Nio, I still—" Before Yomo can speak, Nio forces teleportation on him, sending him to the eighth floor.

"Show-off bitch."

"May I ask who this show-off bitch you’re referring to is?" Yomo looks back and sees Azalea, who came to check immediately on who used the palace’s teleportation to her floor.

"Who do you think?" Yomo gives Azalea a fake smile.

"You should be more careful with that tongue before someone cuts it out."

"Hahaha, what a harsh threat. Why threaten me? You don’t even know who I was talking about."

"I don’t need to think much to know it’s Nio. After all, rotten things will always try to spread their rot to pure things."

"Nio is pure? That’s an offense to all of existence. Grandiose, certainly, but pure? Calling a nightmare dragon pure is the height of blasphemy against everything that has ever been born, lived, and died."

"So it was Nio you were talking about, wasn’t it? Why don’t you shove your pathetic dick into a grinder and turn it on?" Azalea gives Yomo a look of disgust, a common reaction among most of the women in the palace. Even the maids look at Yomo that way.

"Hahaha, it’s funny seeing a plant talk to me like that. Aren’t you the one who offers suspicious drinks to Nio? Actually, I think you’re far dirtier than me, rolling around and rubbing yourself on the things in Nio’s room."

"At least I’ve never done anything against her." Yomo boasts about this as if it’s something grand and not an obligation.

"You haven’t done anything because you’ve never had the chance, you sewer rat. It’s no wonder you live isolated on the first floor. Even Nio doesn’t want you near where she stays. And it’s ironic, because she lets me stay very close to her floor. Seems like we know who she detests most in this palace."

"..." Yomo’s usual passive, gentle expression shatters as he glares with fury at Azalea. The smile on his face vanishes and his expression turns cold.

"Funny you should say that. I have the largest floor in this palace, and I was Nio’s first servant to receive a floor of my own. Don’t think so highly of yourself, you cardboard cutout of a gatekeeper. You’re just a flowerpot in front of a very large door." Yomo provokes Azalea by using her position against her.

As the guardian of the eighth floor, she’s the one who seems to have the least relevance, since if someone reaches the eighth floor, they could easily have a chance of reaching the ninth floor of the palace. Thus, Azalea’s function ends up seeming to be nothing more than someone who buys time rather than someone who prevents others from advancing, so much so that her floor isn’t even designed to make reaching the ninth floor difficult.

CRASH

A massive axe of flesh collides with a naginata. The shockwave echoes through the empty space as Azalea’s eyes burn with fury.

"Take back what you said, you overdeveloped amoeba. You’re just a piece of meat that forgot it shouldn’t be alive without a brain."

"And you’re just a weed that, having been placed before something grand, thought you were more special than you really are. You’re not even worth my time, being one of the weakest apostles."

"No wonder you’re looking after the eighth floor, the floor no invader would ever reach because I finish them all off on my floor. Your entire current usefulness is just luck because the island is beneath the earth." The blades in constant friction produce a screeching sound.

"Urgh." But Yomo, being more skilled, uses his tentacles to grab Azalea’s limbs and break her stance. His axe descends swiftly, nearly splitting Azalea’s torso in two as blood begins to stain the floor.

"Even cutting you is boring." Yomo spits on Azalea’s face. Inside, she doesn’t just have organs and bones, but an entire complex structure of plants at work, which makes cutting her feel more like chopping down a tree. Even her blood is strange, smelling like sap and sticky.

"I don’t have time to waste on you. I have to carry out the request of our favorite little bitch. That scaly brat is always so demanding." He provokes Azalea by insulting Nio as he moves forward, turning his back on her as if she weren’t even a threat.