Chapter 33: The Negative Influence on Teenagers Is Immeasurable!

“Come on, little Chelsea, pour me another full glass.”

Swirling his red wine glass, Jia Ji lounged comfortably on the rooftop recliner, giving orders to his newly hired maid without a second thought.

“Ah! Yes—right away!”

The orange-haired, headphone-wearing beauty, clutching an aged bottle of red wine, hurried over from beside Esdes, who was also lazily reclining.

Though he called her “little,” Chelsea was actually just a touch older than both him and Esdes.

The assassin who was killed by Esdes’s Hunters in the original story had somehow encountered the Ice Queen before even making her debut—she couldn’t help but marvel at how incredibly bad her luck was… in the opposite direction.

So then, why was this woman, once a killer for the Revolutionary Army, here now?

She was that assassin trainee—similar to Jia Ji’s situation, still in training.

She had once been an ordinary clerk at the local governor’s office, but by chance discovered the Imperial Artifact “Shapeshift Ziru ·Gaia Foundation” in a treasure vault, and was summoned by its power to become its user.

After mastering its operation, Chelsea used its ability to kill the governor, then vowed to correct the twisted world with her own hands, later joining the Orberg Assassin Society to learn assassination techniques under Barbara Orberg.

But her bare-handed combat strength is virtually negligible—even after physical training, she remains a complete physical wreck.

This time, all the other assassins were out on missions, leaving only Chelsea to guard the base. Normally, with her shapeshifting ability, she could easily escape even if outmatched—but she never expected this intruder to see through her catlike cuteness and recognize her true self with just one glance.

After that, Esdes demonstrated her power by smashing a wall with a single punch; Chelsea, unarmed and defenseless, naturally raised her hands in surrender.

She wasn’t afraid of death… well, she was a little afraid—but she feared dying pointlessly, uselessly, even more.

She didn’t want to be killed without even knowing these two intruders’ names, identities, origins, purposes, or whether they were friend or foe!

“Relax, we’re not good people,” Jia Ji said bluntly—if you could call that reassurance.

“Ahahaha…”

The girl forced a smile, internally screaming curses—maybe even sticking pins in a voodoo doll—but outwardly, she dared not do a single thing.

Orberg, as an assassin society, certainly had no shortage of poisons—but Chelsea had no confidence she could slip poison into their drinks without them noticing, and even if she succeeded, she wasn’t sure she could knock over these two human-level threats.

But if she failed, her fate would be ten times—or even nine times—worse than what she faced now.

“Teacher Barbara always said: Assassins must be patient! First, gather some intel!”

Instantly, her face transformed into a bright, cheerful, adorable smile as the girl energetically poured more red wine for the menacing boy (questionable).

“Good job. From now on, you’re Esdes’s personal head maid.”

“Why my head maid? Does that mean she’ll be working under me in the future?”

Esdes’s resentment, having found no worthy opponent, gradually subsided. After all, Melard was just on a mission—they could just wait here and lie in wait.

“Ha, quite the opposite,” Jia Ji said, propping his hands behind his head as a pillow and shifting into a more comfortable position. “In the future, you’ll be enemies.”

“Her?”

Esdes didn’t believe it. Someone like Chelsea? At eight, she could have taken out ten of her in one go—how could she possibly stand against her?

“Not just her. There’s a whole bunch from Night Raid… Chitu, Leona, Rabic, Mayin, Ta…”

Just as Jia Ji was halfway through listing names, both of them sensed something—sudden change.

Roar—!!

A deafening roar echoed from the horizon; a tiny black dot rapidly expanded before their eyes.

“It’s the Marsh King—its heart’s chewy, delicious,” Esdes rose faster than Jia Ji could blink, watching the approaching monstrous threat with a bloodthirsty grin.

“Oh? I thought they were all extinct—there are still survivors left?”

Your next line is—This is perfect!

“This is perfect!”

Sometimes Jia Ji couldn’t help but admire his own foresight.

Hrrrrrrr…

The creature before them was massive—larger than a house, its mouth bristling with fangs each the size of a grown man, lion’s mane, tiger’s jaws, four legs planted firmly on the ground, tail dragging behind, and enormous bat-like wings capable of lifting its terrifying frame into the sky, leaving emptiness in its wake.

Just by its aura, it was clearly a top-tier threat!

Roughly above Level One, but not quite Special Grade.

“Wait!”

Jia Ji warned, not out of fear of the beast, but because it felt strangely unusual.

The Marsh King’s breath surged and ebbed, stirring violent winds—but it could not advance a single step further, halting itself dozens of feet ahead of the three.

“...It seems it’s merely someone’s mount.”

Above the Marsh King sat a woman, dressed in a loose ninja outfit with wide openings exposing her thighs and chest.

Her skin was snow-white and lustrous, with a beauty mark beneath one eye, her hair styled in a classic black Ji -style, her features naturally alluring, her figure supple and slender like a serpent, her deep black eyes locking first onto Esdes with clear confusion.

This woman was, of course, Melard Orberg, leader of Orberg—but her outrageously revealing attire had an immeasurable negative influence on teenagers!

“Oh my, who do we have here?”

The woman, radiating the danger of a poppy flower, leapt from the Marsh King’s back, completely ignoring Jia Ji, and strode straight to Esdes’s side, extending one finger with tender affection toward the girl’s cheek.

“I never thought after all this time you’d come looking for me… Looks like fate truly brought us together—”

Slap!

A sharp crack cut through her sweet words, cleanly striking her right cheek.

“You… dared to hit me…?”

Clutching her swollen face, Melard gasped in disbelief.

Chelsea quickly feigned not knowing her, finding her twisted leader’s humiliation hilarious—but to avoid future retaliation, she had to suppress her laughter.

Jia Ji, however, watching like a soap opera viewer, had no such restraint—he clapped enthusiastically and burst out laughing.

“Hah!”

She tried to hold back—but how could anyone hold back at something this funny?!

(End of Chapter)