CHAPTER 22 - First Lesson

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"We … We can do it here …? I-I don't want anyone to hear …"

"W-We're near there, p-please wait …"

Berto initially suggested going to his home as shabby as it was, but Rei instead asked for a more isolated and quiet place far from it.

It was nothing short of a weird request, however Berto didn't have trouble making excuses for her himself.

Just the idea of losing his virginity to a woman who seemed to like him … Berto didn't even care if she was a prostitute.

After all, with just a few words Rei erased his worries about the moral dilemma of losing one's virginity to a whore who does the deed for work every night, as well as the concerns about STDs with just a single sentence.

"I want my first time to be with someone I like …" Rei told him.

With this it was all too easy for them to continue.

But even then, he could tell that there was something different about her, it all seemed a bit sketchy … but in the end what he was feeling directly contradicted what his eyes were seeing.

And he saw a harmless girl who initially had a good lifestyle, but suddenly had her life turned upside down and forced her into starting an entirely new life, at the lowest rungs possible for society.

"Aaaaand … we're here …" Berto said as he halted after a few minutes of walking from the main road.

"W-Were here …? There's nobody around …?" Rei asked for confirmation.

The spot they ended in was an old alley in a deserted part of town, far from any activity except the occasional beggar lying around, but Berto knew the area well enough to make sure that wouldn't be the case …

The place bordered the woods, and Rei could see a dirt mound with the symbol for Ylenism, similar to the symbol of the christian cross with slanted upwards arms.

At its foot was a small worn-down wooden sword, with the insignia of a key carved on it, looking too small for any adult. Most likely it was a toy belonging to a child.

"Yes, that's correct, I've been here a lot throughout my life and I think it's a nice place to hang out …" Berto said, remembering his brother who left north for work.

It had been years since he left, and with no word from him ever since Berto stared up at the starry sky and he thought …

'Can you hear me from wherever you are brother? If you can, witness the moment where I become a man!'

Berto thought about his rising prospects while Rei didn't really understand what he said at all, only scanning the place once and taking in a huff of air to take in any scents to verify if there really are any humans nearby before responding …

"Eh? But there's someone right there though? I didn't know Mister had that kind of fetish …"

"Eh?" Berto turned around to look, only to see that there was nobody where Rei pointed, and a flashing pain suddenly erupting from his back.

Quite literally, the oldest trick in the book.

"Kuhhhk!?" Berto gave out a clear cry of pain as the cold steel punctured his flesh.

It was nothing short of a clear victory.

'!?' Rei couldn't express anything but shock at that moment.

Or at least, that's how it should have been …

'I … can't push it in deeper!?'

At this point in time, it hadn't really occurred to Rei just how much capacity to exert physical force she had lost upon being unified with the Essence of Gluttony.

Bone resistance.

The plan was for Rei to stab Berto's heart through his back, and end it quietly in an instant … however …

She had far underestimated just how much actual force was required to tear through bone and muscle with the strength of a normal girl.

To Rei, who had enough physical force to contest even the Enhancement-type Gifted back in her own world, it never really mattered where she struck, she usually would rip and tear whatever she hit, and the only differences would be whenever the target either dodges her hits, or doesn't die, such as with the cases of Regeneration-type Gifted, or if she simply missed vitals.

Bone, muscle, vital organs, it didn't really matter to her, they usually tore apart all the same …

But now, the situation was about to become much more complicated.

'Shit!' Rei couldn't help but curse in annoyance, as she usually did.

Within the span of all this, Berto had already turned around as Rei drew back her weapon, with him delivering a punch with all the strength he could muster with the form you'd expect from an amateur.

'It's coming. I can see it clearly, you slow bastard!' With her special eyes, somehow left untouched after the undesirable metamorphosis in Maltha, she reacted by raising her arm to block the incoming hit, being reinforced by her other for extra measure, planning on giving out a counterattack as soon as the attack landed.

An adequate response …

'It hurts!?'

… if they were anywhere close to the same level of physical strength that is.

"Gah!?" Rei's entire body gets pushed to the wall with the hit she thought would do minimal damage at best, coughing up saliva due to the severity of the, quite average, impact.

The damage was so unexpectedly great that Rei's head was in a haze as it made direct contact with the wall, but nonetheless thoughts were racing through her head.

'Is it a technique? What did I miss? What's going on?' It never really registered to someone like Rei.

Something as common as the basic strength baseline between men and women, although it got narrower to almost nothing the stronger you were, was nothing but all too vital for her current level.

"Help! Help! Right here, there's someone trying to kill me!" Berto, in a great fit of panic decided to start running, his hands covering up the wound upon which blood was gushing outwards.

'He ran away to ask for help instead of pressing the advantage …?' Rei almost forgot for a moment that she was fighting a non-combatant, and severely struggling with one too.

Rei thought about pulling the same trick she did with Hiro back on the island, using her acting skills and the natural human sense to believe that the smaller female would naturally be the victim of any attempted murder, but cancelled that thought.

Even if she didn't need to take Berto down at that very moment, that would still be someone getting away, spreading a bad reputation about someone who had little to no actual connection with the locals …

Not to mention … her own pride of course.

"Goddammit …" Rei couldn't help but curse as her vision adjusted, seeing Berto rushing to the exit of the alleyway, then going on to grab the bloody knife she dropped upon her failed opening fatal attack.

"Damn it all!" Rei cursed more loudly as she took a split second to aim, and threw the knife …

… landing square just behind Berto's kneecap, making him trip as he made another bloody mess on the floor.

"Hu-Huaaghh!? H-Help me! T-This bitch is crazy!" He said as more blood gushed out of both of his wounds.

He breathed in heavily, taking big gasps of air in his lungs as he went on to reach down to the knife stuck in his popliteal artery.

"FFFuuuu–!!" He screamed once more as he pulled the metal foreign object from the back of his knee, making more blood gush out as he did so.

Rei, taking this vital time, went on to stand once more being assisted by putting a hand on the wall as she walked forward, feeling a viscous fluid running down on the side of her head.

It was obviously blood.

"Goddamn … you!" Rei said as she limped slowly towards her downed victim, to whom was firmly held in the grasp of delusion brought about by the hand of fear, seeing her battered form as the Grim Reaper ready to collect his soul in the coming moments.

Rei then pounced on him, wrestling with him to try and regain control of the knife from the injured and trembling Berto.

"P-Please stop! W-We can talk about this, p-please!" Berto begged as Rei hit him as he tried to grab onto the knife as hard as he could, but found himself unable to stab Rei due to his hesitation.

Wasn't Rei just a harmless girl, wasn't she just some poor woman about to be a lowlife, asking for help? And now that Berto really thought about it …

'I don't even know what her name is …!' Berto said as he managed to somehow adapt to the situation, and butt heads with Rei while she was distracted gaining control of the knife with her superior experience and technique.

"Agh!?"

Berto then smashed through Rei's disoriented form, easily taking Rei's light body off the ground and despite all odds, managed to move himself on top of her to start using his hands to firmly grasp upon her thin and delicate neck …

… Tightening.

"Kuhakk!?" Rei, out of habit, tried to use her hands to brute force removing her victim's hands away from her throat, her life actually starting to be in legitimate danger as she still hadn't really fully registered the severity of the situation until now.

"What the hell are you!?" Berto meanwhile, completely filled with a mixture of fear and anger, found his hands tightening and tightening as he shouted out one question after another.

"What have I done to you? What the hell do you want!?" He really tried to wrack his head, thinking of how he may have wronged his murderer-at-work.

In all honesty, he didn't want to kill, even though in this case it would be completely justified.

Berto didn't want blood on his hands, as he would have to live with the memories of having snuffed out the life of another for the rest of his own.

It was a hard thought to bear, but nonetheless his hands held their place on Rei's throat.

He had already been wounded twice, Rei couldn't have made the message of the situation to Berto any clearer. It was his life or her own.

"J-Just die!!" And obviously, Berto being the average bloke that he was, would choose his own.

'This is bad … I'm … losing consciousness …' Rei concluded due to the clear and continuous decline of visual clarity.

Berto's will to survive kicked in on its own, with Berto resolving himself to rid Rei of her life right then and there simply out of the cause for self-defence.

'This … fucker!'

Unfortunately for him however, his opponent who looked quite pathetic in the moment, was ultimately someone to say the least, had much more experience in surviving than he, and her body kicked into gear as Berto resolved himself.

Rei swiftly drove two of her fingers into Berto's eyes, interrupting his strangulation and leading him to get off of Rei while screaming in pain once more.

"Uwaargh!?" He got to the ground once more as he covered his eyes with his hands, writhing on the ground being in more pain, the will to survive still going strong, but fear overtaking him as he panicked and started limping away after miraculously getting up with a battered leg.

His morale had broken, but …

'It was too shallow!'

Due to Rei's lack in physical strength once more, she couldn't at all pierce through and gouge his eyes out like she really had been hoping for, only irritating him for a moment and turning his eyes bloodshot red as they bled.

But still … it was a chance and the opportunity that would finally prove fatal.

Displaying great dexterity in the time constraint she was presented with, Rei proceeded to pull out a few strands of her hair, which she at least knew for a fact was stronger than normal human hair in structure, proceeded to twist it around for extra durability, and rushed towards Berto with fleeting steps.

'...' Rei looked at Berto, more exhausted than angry really.

She just wanted to get it over with, but she couldn't get over the other presence in her head troddling about.

She could feel it.

The presence of Reina, reverberating throughout her body, an intense feeling of mockery accompanied with a terrible attempt at concealing a laughter of intense ridicule.

She could feel it as if it was something tangibly present in reality, the scoffing and harrowing giggling as her situation was being witnessed.

'I'm tired …' Rei collected herself, making sure she could feel both her legs before her next action.

And then …

'!?'

With a surprising swiftness of muscle, Rei jumped.

'Here!' and used both legs to make a great pushing dropkick targeting the back of both of Berto's knees.

"Guh!?" Working as intended, the balance of the young man, despite being twice that of Rei's size, was knocked off-course and caused him to tumble to the ground.

"Die!" But not before Rei had already made a swift manouevre, using the makeshift hair rope to put it at the front of his neck as they both came to the ground, with Rei on top of the back of the now-struggling Berto.

The hairs of the weakling Demon Lord's vessel dug in tightly to the struggling Berto's neck, with Rei struggling to adjust her posture for strangulation efficiency since it felt like riding an injured buffalo.

'Come on …!' Rei pulled tighter, supported by her legs firmly on the ground.

'Please die, please die, please die, please die …!!' Rei thought to herself in the situation, thinking just how absurd the work she was putting in for just one common man.

He put up an extremely strong resistance at least for Rei's current level, but evidently this was where the line ended.

Gradually …

"B-Bro– … the– … rrr …" Berto's final words echoed that of the person he wanted to see the most, his foolishness made apparent with the last vestiges of life escaping his physical form.

Until after a few more seconds, the thrashing and the kicking, the small whimpers of a body once filled with life came to a complete stop.

"Hahhhh … hahhhh … hahhh …" Rei wiped her brow and clasped her chest, feeling her beating heart making her blood run.

'It's done …'

Taking in large breaths of air herself, Rei went on to lie down next to the corpse of her painstakingly-hunted prey, her chest rising up and down as fatigue settled within her as she tried to collect her thoughts.

It was a hunt completed, but for Rei it actually felt nothing short of humiliating.

Throughout the experience, there was one thing that she was sure of however …

"I need to get stronger … I won't last long like this …" Rei said, looking up at the starry night sky.

She was nothing but lucky tonight, what if it had been quite literally anybody else? Someone who could adjust to the situation quicker, and turn the tables on her with no hesitation after realising that the cards were on their side?

It would have been Rei lying motionless on the ground, and this fuelled her sense of humiliation further as she grit her teeth and clasped her blood-soaked hand hard.

'But first …' Rei looked down once more, and clasped her hands together, upon which the blood on them seemed to be seeping into her flesh, which she saw with interest as she offered a prayer.

'At least that would make things more convenient wouldn't it …?' Rei thought.

"Thank you for the meal."

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