"Scum-Han, could you pay a little attention to your image?"
Just as Li Zihan naturally placed his hand on the girl's slender neck, which looked as if it would snap with a single touch, and was about to press his lips against hers under her shy gaze, an utterly surreal address sounded in his ear.
The voice came from within Li Zihan's own body.
From the Herrscher Core corresponding to Erosion.
To be able to entrust one's own soul to a Herrscher Core was an authority of a Herrscher. And the only one who could reside within the Core of Erosion...
Was undoubtedly Ling.
The Herrscher of Erosion from the Previous Era, who had single-handedly beaten the entirety of human civilization to a pulp and was likely not very well-liked by the Will of Honkai.
"Is there a problem?"
The boy, startled by the sudden voice, looked somewhat stunned.
"THIS OLD LADY HAS BEEN PUTTING UP WITH YOU FOR A LONG TIME!!"
Ling's voice, who had been dragged along by Li Zihan as his hired muscle because of the possibility of other Herrschers' residual consciousnesses in the cores, was practically incandescent with rage.
When she had been dragged along to work, she had thought her only job was to team up with Li Zihan for a fight...
But as it turned out—she had been forced to watch live sex shows for days on end.
With Sirin, with Ana, with Rita...
Honestly, when Ling first discovered this, she had wanted to stop it. But, since a certain someone was her boss, she was too embarrassed to say anything...
Just pretend I don't see it. That had been her thought.
But—did this bastard have kidneys of steel?!
Ling, who had been discovering that this bastard was doing it with different girls every single day since she began residing in his body, was starting to lose her patience.
Until today—when she saw him holding the girl named Raiden Mei, his hand wrapped around her waist, looking like he was about to start a play right there in the lab...
She finally couldn't take it anymore.
"WHAT ARE YOU, A BULLDOZER OR A PILE DRIVER INCARNATE?!"
Miss Ling, who was forced to listen to the moist, tender moans of different girls every day while residing in Li Zihan's body, could no longer bear it.
"DOING THAT KIND OF THING WITH WOMEN ALL DAY, DON'T YOUR KIDNEYS EVER ACHE?!"
Ling, clearly furious that a certain someone was neglecting his duties and messing around all the time, roared in frustration.
"EVEN IF YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR OWN KIDNEYS, AT THE VERY LEAST, YOU SHOULD CONSIDER MY FEELINGS!!"
"WAIT UNTIL I'VE LEFT BEFORE YOU MESS AROUND AGAIN!!"
They don't ache at all, the boy thought. Do you think my Battle Continuation, my Dracula Stigmata, and my A++ Endurance are just for show? Besides, I can reverse time. The one and only time he hadn't been able to keep up was because his Reality Marble had drained all his mana. As he thought this, he gently stroked the hair of the girl in his arms.
And then—"Little fox, you've already endured for so long. Just endure for a little while longer," he said to the former Herrscher with great seriousness. "Don't you know that a moment of spring passion is worth a thousand gold? If I miss this, your boss will suffer a great loss."
Frankly, this was complete nonsense.
The line "a moment of spring passion is worth a thousand gold" comes from Su Shi's poem "Spring Night." Translated into modern language, it means "In the nights of spring, even a single moment is as precious as a thousand pieces of gold." What old Mr. Su wanted to express was praise for the clear, beautiful, and pleasant scenery of the night, and a deep condemnation of those who lived a life of debauchery, indulging in pleasure and wasting precious time. It was by no means an encouragement for people to find a good time to hook up with girls and roll around in bed. If the old man knew his poem was being used in such a way, he would likely have a heart attack.
Li Zihan knew what old Mr. Su truly meant. But he said it anyway. After all, Ling wasn't from this era; she probably had no idea what the poem "Spring Night" was about. So, he used old Mr. Su's line without any burden.
"MY ASS!!"
Hearing this, Ling's voice grew even more furious. "That's what you said last time! And then you went and did it with that Ana girl, and that Rita girl!"
????
Li Zihan, having no recollection of this, fell into deep thought.
Oh. He remembered now.
When he had been with Sirin, he seemed to recall hearing Ling's voice. But at that time, all his attention had been on Sirin, and he had barely listened to what Ling was saying, just mumbling a few replies to get rid of her.
"Just endure it one more time," the boy, who as a boss was clearly a scumbag of a certain degree, continued to say to Ling. "This is the last time."
"You know it too, right? My body has been affected by the Herrscher Cores and is no longer influenced by time manipulation. I can't reverse my condition with magecraft."
Li Zihan casually spouted a character setting patch he had invented in three seconds. It was a temporary setting he had added for himself. As long as he didn't use time manipulation on himself, who would know that his control over time had been limited by the Herrscher Cores? Even if he had to use it in the future, he could just explain it away as a "temporary breakthrough."
The boy, who didn't lie much but was very good at it, continued, "If I don't vent the Honkai energy in my body soon, I'll die."
Ling, residing within the Core of Erosion, felt her eyelid twitch.
If you don't have sex with girls, you'll die? What kind of H-manga setting was this?
This was bad.
Ling, who had always felt that a certain someone's abilities were like a compilation of H-manga protagonist powers, felt a chill. If things really developed in that direction, a character like herself who gave the protagonist a power-up in the early game would, without a doubt, become one of the love interests in the sequel.
I have to get away from this bastard, and fast. The girl, feeling that the current development was becoming increasingly ominous, shivered.
But before that, she had to save a fallen maiden.
Ling, the master of the Core of Erosion herself, looked at the girl who was about to be claimed by a certain scumbag and took a deep breath.
The Core, symbolizing Erosion, began to operate.
And then—it drew upon the Honkai energy within a certain someone's body.
Like a receding tide, the deep purple markings on the boy's neck began to fade.
"Hey, hey, hey, Scum-Li! Your Honkai erosion problem has been solved by me. You can go back and prepare for the next experiment now."
The voice of the Herrscher of Erosion, Ling, echoed in the ears of both Li Zihan and Miss Mei, causing both of their expressions to stiffen.
"Zihan, your injury—"
Prompted by Ling, the girl noticed that the purple on her lover's neck had long since disappeared. Her moist eyes were filled with embarrassment.
"This doesn't affect our love, does it?"
Li Zihan retaliated by activating the authority of the Sixth Herrscher, rapping it on Ling's head, and then smiled gently at the girl in his arms.
Author's note:
ps1: A bit tired today, so only three chapters. No fourth.
ps2: There will be no more h-scenes for a while. In response to the National Day holiday, from the next chapter on, we will basically only be pushing the plot.