Youngest on Top - Chapter 163

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 163

But I had no time to argue with Mikhail.

Ssssszzzzz—

The scorpion beast’s deadly venom melted the ground beneath it.

‘How in the world did someone drag such a creature all the way here?’

I was utterly dumbfounded.
There should have been chaos on the way here, yet I heard nothing of it.
How could I have missed any warning?!

‘First, I’ll crush the scorpion. Then I’ll deal with that bastard.’

Golden, sacred divine power surged into my fists.
I leaped forward and bounded directly above the beast’s head.
And before its pincers could pierce me, I moved swiftly—

Boom!

My powerful fist crashed down upon the scorpion’s crown.
A direct hit!

In that instant,

‘…Huh?’

A sense of wrongness flashed across my senses.
Following my instincts, I threw my body to the side.
At the same moment, the beast’s pincer sliced through empty air.
The very spot where I had stood just a second before!

‘It’s unharmed…?’

I had naturally expected the beast to collapse.
That impact should have shaken its very core!

‘But instead of collapsing, it’s counterattacking!!’

Of course, the red-tailed poison scorpion’s exoskeleton was hard.
But it wasn’t durable enough to withstand my fist.

Boom!
Crash-crash-crash-crash-crash!

Even as that happened, the creature’s attacks continued relentlessly.
The stinger-tipped tail struck down indiscriminately at the spot where I stood.

‘It’s launching a barrage this quickly?!’

The tail stinger attack was powerful, but it required time to reuse.
It wasn’t an attack that could be unleashed so recklessly in rapid succession.

‘At least not in the human realm.’

Screech—!

The scorpion creature’s pincers slashed forward with razor-sharp ferocity.
The forest grazed by the pincers was torn to shreds.

A cutting power so horrifying it sent chills down my spine.
A fragile child’s body would be cleaved in two from merely a glancing blow.

‘This doesn’t make sense. The red-tailed poison scorpion I saw in the desert definitely….’

Never possessed such offensive power.
But that’s not why I’m shocked.

I have seen a red-tailed poison scorpion with this level of attack power and
defense before.

‘In the demon realm.’

The red-tailed poison scorpions in the demon realm were like this.

‘…Dodging won’t help.’

This place is on the outskirts of the Regime.
The entrance to Sekrita Forest teems with people.
If I fail to strike down the monster here, the casualties will be catastrophic and irreversible.

I stood before the creature.
The shadow of the colossal monster completely engulfed me.

Kiiieeeek—!

A sickening screech that scraped against my eardrums.
From the raised crimson stinger, venom dripped like molten lava.
The tail bearing that stinger descended upon me in an instant.
Aimed directly at me.

* * *

“I’d like a bear-shaped one, please.”
“Right away, one bear-shaped cotton candy.”

Randel accepted the bear-shaped cotton candy and smiled.
He planned to give it to Saelika when she returned.

‘She’ll love it.’

His gaze turned toward the forest’s interior.
More precisely, toward where Saelika had entered.

‘When will she be back?’

Saelika certainly hadn’t gone to pick flowers.
He’d considered following her but decided against it.
If she caught him, she’d see right through his scheme to monopolize his daughter for the day.

‘With so many rivals, I need to play it cool in front of my daughter.’

Randel, heading back to the picnic mat, flinched.

‘What was that?’

Something felt off. My intuition was screaming at me.
Randel didn’t ignore this sensation.
He turned his steps toward the forest entrance where Saelika had disappeared.

.
.

How long had it been since he entered?
Randel sensed a presence.
A look of dismay flickered across his face.

‘Damn.’

The moment Randel turned around, a voice reached his ears.

“So it was you all along, Randel.”

Kaiser glared at Randel with a terrifying gaze.
But Kaiser wasn’t alone.

“You traitor!”
“Lord Randel, how could you do such a thing!”
“I am deeply disappointed!”

A torrent of accusations poured down upon Randel.

“Monopolizing the youngest’s affection all to yourself!!!”

Jealousy blazed in the eyes of these grown men.
Randel let out a sigh.

‘This is troublesome.’

He had known he would be discovered.
But he had wanted to avoid this until his happy date with Saelika was completely finished.

“Wait, that’s—!”

Just then, Debon Elder pointed with a shocked expression on his face.

“C-cotton candy!”

The teddy bear-shaped cotton candy that Randel was holding.
The faces of the adults who saw it turned deathly pale.
As if they’d witnessed a thug wielding a sinister weapon!

“How dare he lure my precious one with something so cute and melt-in-your-mouth like a demon!”
“Did he say he’d give cotton candy if she followed him?! If the youngest’s teeth rot from eating that sticky stuff, what then!”
“I bet he peeled off the cotton candy bit by bit while telling her stories about the teddy bear family?! Such a despicable trick!!!!”
“No, this can’t be!!”

Admiral Ekellan cried out loudly, clutching his forehead with a shocked expression.
Cold sweat trickled down his handsome jaw.

“Sae must have peeled off pieces of cotton candy and fed them to that traitor’s mouth too….”

Peeling off pieces and feeding them to each other’s mouths.
That was the unwritten rule when sharing cotton candy.

Admiral Ekellan had always dreamed of that moment.
He had a son and nephews, but none of them would share cotton candy with him.

So Admiral Ekellan could only watch others sharing cotton candy in the park.
Endlessly, forlornly, and in solitude.
But then.

“How dare he beat me to it…!”

The Admiral’s violet eyes gleamed darkly.
And that sinister aura instantly spread to the Temple Priests around him.

“The tiger… fed her cotton candy?”
“Damn it, sharing cotton candy with the youngest is the dream of every Temple Priest!!”
“He’s stolen the ‘soft and tender moment of father and daughter with cotton candy’ that everyone dreams of!!”
“Just because you’re her godfather, does that make you everything?!”
“Do it again! Tell her to choose Dad again!!”
“I cannot acknowledge such a despicable man as the precious one’s father!!!”

The Temple Priests rose to their feet.
Among them, Admiral Ekellan cried out with determination.

“It’s discrimination that only Temple Priests can become Godparents!! Let me in too!”
“….”

In that moment, Randel understood Saelika’s feelings.

‘Is this why Sae tries to avoid and escape from the adults?’

Never had there been such madness.
It was terrifying.

Of course, Randel had planned to spend a happy time with Saelika, feeding each other cotton candy.
But.

‘We haven’t even eaten the cotton candy yet.’

In reality, the teddy bear remained completely intact without a single bite mark.
Yet the adults, already consumed by all manner of delusions, saw nothing else.

That was when it happened.

“…!”

Randel’s head snapped up in alarm.
Admiral Ekellan and Kaiser, along with the other Temple Priests, felt it too.

“This is….”

They forgot their bickering and stared intently toward somewhere deep within the forest.
Without hesitation, they threw themselves in that direction.

* * *

The adults who had been racing through the forest came to an abrupt halt.

“A barrier.”

Just as Kaiser said, a barrier was unfolding.
It was not a defensive barrier.
Randel, having gauged the nature of the barrier, opened his mouth.

“An illusory-class barrier formation.”

A barrier that concealed appearance, distorted sound, and prevented the perception of impact.

“It’s been set up so that nothing happening inside can be perceived from the outside.”

As Sirius said, ordinary people would sense nothing at all.
But they could feel it.

“Tremendous power is exploding within this barrier.”
“The rabbit must be inside. With such violent power erupting, I wonder if it managed to avoid being caught in it.”

Mogen’s face grew anxious.
Kaiser glared at Admiral Ekellan.

“This barrier—your son did this, didn’t he?”
“…Yes, but. Mikhail didn’t do it out of malice. The boy lacks reason sometimes, but he’s not a bad child. He’s still one of us. For now, at least.”

It was an excuse that hardly qualified as one.
Randel cried out fiercely.

“How exactly do you manage your children!”
“Your son kidnapped my child in the desert, confined him!”
“You should have kept your child away from mine!”

Your child keeps tormenting my child!
The adults erupted in outcry.

Admiral Ekellan, father of a troublesome son, could not bring himself to argue back and closed his mouth.
But he wanted to speak.

‘That child is mine too….’

The apple was also a child born from Admiral Ekellan’s heart.

“First, we need to rescue the youngest.”

Sirius Elder brought the situation into focus.
Indeed, even at this very moment, I could feel an enormous surge of power.
Sae, trapped within this vortex, must surely be in grave danger!

Kaiser extended his hand, channeling sacred energy into the barrier.
With a crackling noise like static, the landscape before us warped and distorted.

Clang—!

The sound of the barrier shattering.
And with it, the forest that had been spread before us collapsed.
What was revealed—

Trees severed and felled.
The ground torn asunder.
Forests melted in places, twisted into bizarre shapes.

Not a forest on the outskirts of a city, but ruins as if from a great demon war.

Kyieeeeeee—!

A bone-chilling screech from the demon beast echoed through the ruins.
An oppressive cry that would have left an ordinary person paralyzed and helpless.

And in the midst of it all—

Boom!
Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom!

—Sae was beating the demon beast like a madwoman.

“….”
“….”
“….”

The adults, who had been fully prepared to rescue Sae, fell silent.
Could it be that the explosive surge of tremendous power they had sensed—

Was that Sae’s punching?!

The enormous scorpion monster lay overturned, exposing its pale underbelly.
A small child perched atop it, both fists clenched tightly, pummeling—thud, thud, thud!—into its belly.
With each blow,

Kieeeeeee—!
The monster shrieked—no, screamed—its body writhing in agony.

Crack! Screech—!
Its massive pincers thrashed wildly, tearing through the forest.

Boom-crash-bang-boom!
Its tail flapped frantically, the venomous stinger stabbing at the ground.

To anyone watching, it was clear—

“It’s crying out for mercy?”
“Its final desperate throes for salvation.”

The cause of this devastation was unfolding right before our eyes.
It was Saelika’s fists.

“Wow, she’s really targeting only the sensitive spots.”
“She’s not just striking randomly at painful areas. She’s deliberately avoiding the vital points.”
“She’s concentrating her blows on the weaker sections of its exoskeleton while avoiding anything fatal, maximizing its suffering.”

In other words, she was beating the monster without killing it, torturing it methodically!
The adults erupted at this cruel display.

“That’s my daughter!”
“Truly our tiger cub! The ability to instantly identify an enemy’s weaknesses and control her strikes!”
“It’s far harder to beat something without killing it than to kill it outright!”
“And our youngest has mastered that difficult skill!!!!”

The adults beamed with satisfaction.
Yet others present wore expressions of displeasure.

“Ah, even so, we can’t have our dear Sae’s beautiful hands getting hurt.”
“That’s right. Our youngest’s hands are golden hands. We can’t afford even a scratch.”

Well, they truly were golden hands.
Golden radiance dwelt within both fists.

Had the scorpion monster understood the Temple Priests’ words, it would have raged even in its dying moments.

“Is that what you should be saying now!! Humans are even more vicious than demons!!!”

So it cried out.
Fortunately(?), the scorpion monster did not understand the Temple Priests’ words.

* * *

The red-tailed venomous scorpion ceased all movement entirely.
Saelika rose to her feet.
The sight of the child standing atop the colossal monster was as majestic as a beast that had conquered a great mountain.

‘Hmm, with this level of defense and this level of stamina, it makes sense.’

Even for Saelika, I hadn’t simply beaten the monster to the brink of death and toyed with it.
I was conducting a test.

‘It’s really similar to the Demon Realm.’

It was absurd.
And there stood before me the very person to interrogate about this absurdity.

“Mikhail.”
“Yeah, wasn’t it fun?”

Mikhail descended toward Saelika with a grin.
Saelika immediately grabbed Mikhail by the collar.

“Fun?! What’s fun about this?! Are you insane?! Did you drag a monster from the Demon Realm? Setting aside whether that’s even possible, what were you thinking—.”
“Why are you mad?”

Mikhail tilted his head in confusion.

“I brought you a gift as an apology, out of kindness.”
“What?”
“Artemisia is going to subjugate the Dantallian Desert anyway.”
“….”
“I found this in the Dantallian Desert.”
“…!”

Saelika’s eyes widened dramatically.
Surely not.

“You’re saying this is a demon beast from the Dantallian Desert?”
“Yeah, it’s gotten incredibly strong, hasn’t it? If you’d gone to subjugate it as planned, it would’ve been a disaster, right?”

Saelika found herself at a loss for words.
It took her a moment to comprehend what Mikhail was saying.
Because it was absolutely absurd.

“So you’re telling me you dragged a demon beast all the way to the Regime just to inform me of this?!”
“It was truly difficult work. But since it’s a gift for our dear Saelika, I pushed through!”

His expression was utterly self-satisfied.

“Yet our dear Saelika only gets angry with her kind and gentle brother. It’s really too much. Sob…!”

Mikhail made an exaggerated show of wiping away tears.
Saelika’s blood pressure skyrocketed.

“You could’ve just told me with words!!!!”
“Where’s the fun in that?”

Mikhail broke into a radiant smile.
Saelika finally grabbed the back of her neck.

‘These two lunatics….’

Why was she on the verge of a hypertensive crisis when she was still so young?

That was when it happened.

“This… this can’t be…!”

Admiral Ekellan muttered in shock.

“M-Mikhail showing such kindness for someone else…!”

My child has changed!

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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