I'm the Only One With a Different Genre - Chapter 194

Chapter 194

A Duel of Blood… No, a Sparring Match!

***

For some reason, the temperature inside the tent seemed to drop even further. Jess, maintaining her gentle smile, looked at the stiffened male beastmen who were nervously avoiding her gaze.

“So, what are you going to do about it?”

“Th-That is…”

The beastmen trembled as they recalled Jess’s merciless hands, which had beaten them just enough to keep them alive. Their bodies instinctively shuddered as they were about to submit, but then Lian, comfortably resting in Jess’s arms, came into their view.

“A duel! I demand a duel…!”

Their pride, which had been suppressed by overwhelming fear, surged up and spilled out of their mouths.

“If… If I defeat that guy in a duel, please give me a chance to be your mate!”

The smile on Jess’s lips vanished, leaving only a cold expression, as frigid as a snowstorm in the mountains. The hyena beastman faltered for a moment, but he somehow managed to convey his words.

Despite the cold sweat running down his back, the hyena beastman forced a bright smile.

‘If she sees me destroy that guy easily, the captain will surely accept me as her mate!’

In his mind, he vividly imagined Lian rolling on the ground in defeat, while Jess, her face filled with love, clung to him.

His eyes wandered upward in a daydream, and his expression slackened, making his face look grotesque. He was unaware of how ridiculous he appeared, thanks to the gag filter.

The other two beastmen also couldn’t hide their excitement, their tails, which had been hanging down, slowly rising. Jess, however, crushed their hopes with a single sentence.

“Why bother? I’m the captain, aren’t I?”

“…!”

Just like that.

Could anyone stop an emperor, who possessed overwhelming power, from raising a commoner woman to the position of empress?

To the beastmen, where power was everything, Jess was as mighty as a polymorphed dragon emperor. Even if she chose a weakling like Lian as her mate, there was nothing they could do. No, there was nothing they should do.

‘…I… I might die.’

Only then did the male beastmen realize the gravity of their actions.

They had dared to raise their voices in dissatisfaction after Jess had declared Lian as her ‘mate,’ and even though she had given them a chance to back down by asking “So?”, they had foolishly barked in defiance.

Ignoring her words was, in essence, a challenge to her leadership. The only one who could ignore the captain’s words was a new captain, one with greater strength.

The beastmen’s tails naturally curled between their legs, their ears drooping as they trembled. Their bodies slowly lowered as if a great weight was pressing down on them, forcing them to kneel, heads bowed deeply. Their postures became so submissive that it seemed as though they were about to bury their faces in the ground.

As Jess contemplated whether to kill the beastmen in front of her, like a cat toying with its prey, Lian raised his hand slightly.

“Um… if it’s alright…”

“Hmm?”

Jess immediately softened her expression and looked at Lian. Her eyes were filled with affection, as though stars would spill out of them. She scratched her cheek with the hand that had just lifted Lian, her face brimming with tenderness. After seeing her previous fierce expression, this one felt even more ticklish to Lian.

‘So, she can make that kind of face too.’

Recalling the sultry expression she had shown earlier, Lian felt his face heat up and hurried to speak.

“Beastmen explore each other’s strength through combat, right? So, while a life-or-death duel is out of the question, wouldn’t a sparring match be… okay?”

At Lian’s acceptance of the beastmen’s challenge, the ears of the male beastmen, which had been drooping, perked up. The female beastmen, who had been watching the spectacle from the sidelines, widened their eyes in surprise.

“But… are you sure?”

Jess gently poked Lian’s cheek with her finger, her question filled with concern. She was asking if he was okay, considering he wasn’t in his original body. Lian responded with a soft smile.

“In the world of beastmen, we should follow their rules, right?”

“If it’s too hard, you don’t have to. I’m the strongest one here, after all—”

“Jess, you’re like family to me… So I want to get used to the culture of my family.”

As usual, Lian used the word ‘family’ to imply their bond as ‘sworn siblings.’ However, the word ‘mate,’ which Jess had mentioned earlier, echoed in his mind, causing him to stumble over his words.

‘Should I clarify that I meant it in the sense of a close brother-sister relationship…? Ugh… But if I do that, it’ll be like outright rejecting Jess’s confession! Th-Then again, if I’m not going to accept it… I have Noah…’

His thoughts spun in circles, from ‘If it’s not meant to be, I should say no!’ to ‘But… I don’t dislike her enough to say no that firmly…’

Images from the snow cave flashed through his mind, heating his cheeks. The confusion in his head was overwhelming, as he wrestled with the realization that he had begun to see Jess, whom he had only ever viewed as a ‘sister,’ as a ‘woman’ he was attracted to.

While the mini-Lians in his head were dancing around in panic, Jess’s eyes sparkled with joy, her cheeks flushed.

“Hehe.”

“Huh?”

Jess, showing a smile full of affection that she reserved only for Lian, leaned in and gave him a light kiss on the cheek. Lian’s mind went blank once again.

“Ah…”

“Ugh…”

The male beastmen, who had always viewed Jess as the epitome of charisma, ground their teeth in frustration as they watched her smile sweetly like a tamed puppy, showering Lian with affection. They gritted their teeth so hard it seemed their fangs might break.

‘I will win! I must win and take that spot!’

‘Ugh… I’m so jealous… But if I win, that spot will be mine!’

‘I want it.’

A mutual agreement was reached, and a life-or-death duel—no, a sparring match—was decided. Thanks to the burning passion in the air, it took less than ten minutes for the sparring ground to be prepared.

***

On a white, hardened snowfield, indistinguishable from the ground, several beastmen lay sprawled out. Before them stood Lian, holding a sword with a calm expression.

The hyena beastman, who had been the first to challenge him and had been knocked down in less than ten seconds, trembled as he barely managed to open his eyes and looked up at Lian.

“H-How… How could you… be this strong… Kugh…!”

He couldn’t finish his sentence before he collapsed, unconscious. Lian scratched his cheek awkwardly as he looked at the fallen beastmen.

‘Well, that escalated quickly.’

In the world of gags, there was a fatal rule: the more seriously you tried, the less your abilities would improve. On the flip side, if you consistently put in moderate effort, you could grow to a world-class level. (Of course, the rules varied depending on the situation, so there were always exceptions.)

Lian had been practicing his swordsmanship with the magic sword whenever he had the chance, aiming to use it more efficiently. What seemed like minimal effort to others had, thanks to the gag filter, produced extraordinary results, allowing him to handle most opponents with ease—even without the magic sword.

However, it wasn’t enough to completely wipe out the beastmen.

The reason Lian was able to defeat them was because of the power that had allowed him to gaze into the Demon King’s mind and gain a deep understanding of her. This power had synchronized Lian and the magic sword up until the moment they had been separated.

While he hadn’t become as strong as he was when wielding the magic sword, he had reached a level where he could easily deal with those who were at the tail end of the ‘strong’ in the dark fantasy world.

Moreover, although it was incomplete, the gag filter was still functioning, and an unknown power that allowed him to see through others had also activated.

The gag filter caused his opponents to trip over their own feet or left afterimages when he moved quickly, while the unknown power let him predict the direction and nature of their attacks.

It was a fight he couldn’t lose.

“Wow… So it’s really true that you can’t judge humans by their appearance.”

“As expected of the captain’s chosen mate.”

“Huh?! He’s the captain’s mate? I was thinking of making a move on him…”

When the gag filter was fully active, it made his enemies look like they were self-destructing. But when it only partially activated, as it was now, the fight looked quite legitimate. As a result, the beastmen who were watching saw Lian as a highly skilled swordsman.

To the beastmen, where strength was everything, it was only natural that Lian’s standing rose. Even the female beastmen, who had been watching from the sidelines, began to look at Lian with a strange, admiring gaze. Despite hearing that he was the captain’s mate, their interest didn’t wane.

The impact of Lian having wiped out the strongest males in the pack was too powerful.

“Grrr…!”

But there was one person whose tail bristled in response to those gazes… Jess, the leader of the pack.

End of Chapter