It seemed Lianye realized he had frightened Jean and Eren. He flashed a pleasant, genial smile, looking gentle (cold) and charming (terrifying). "Don't worry—I'm not targeting just the two of you."
So he meant he was targeting everyone present? This time, not only Eren and Jean, but everyone shuddered. In their hearts, they cursed Eren and Jean seventy or eighty times for dragging them into this. If you wanted to make trouble, fine, but why did you have to provoke this great demon king?
Lianye curled his lip and offered no further explanation. With two sharp blades in his hands, even if he said something nice, he would only scare them into crying even harder.
If Lianye had directly flown into a rage and taught Jean and Eren a lesson, they might not have been so scared. At most, they would have gotten beaten up. But that inscrutable smile on Lianye's face left them unable to guess what this great demon king was plotting, or how he intended to deal with them. That was far more frightening.
End of Chapter.
Correction (Discipline)
The bonfire had gradually burned down, and time had drifted into the depths of night. Nearly every member of the Expeditionary Team had taken a sleeping bag from their horse and gone to sleep around the fire.
Aside from the somewhat irritating snoring, the forest, filled with the soft rustling calls of insects, was not a bad place to calm one's mind.
But once that veil of tranquility was stripped away, the forest, governed by the law of the jungle, would reveal its most brutal side to everyone.
...That said, it was only a highly unlikely possibility. Wall of Rose was not Titan-occupied territory, so no matter how dark or cruel the forest might be, Titans would not appear there. As for ordinary wild beasts, before the weapons and ODM Gear of the well-trained Training Corps soldiers, they were simply weak creatures not worth mentioning.
The main theme of this Attack on Titan world was unexpectedly simple. There were only the conflicts among the people Inside Wall Area, and the conflict between humanity and the Titans, those killing weapons of unknown origin. All other creatures were insignificant.
That should have been the case, but Lianye clearly knew that a cunning Void monster had entered this world just like he had. Possessing limitless potential for evolution, it would be powerful prey even more difficult to handle than a special Titan. Therefore, Lianye would not lower his guard simply because Titans could not possibly appear within Wall of Rose.
"Plop... plop... plop... plop..."
A pebble skimmed across the water several times, performing a wonderfully exquisite quartet. In the silent dense forest, every sound was crystal clear.
Lianye closed his eyes and felt that throb, beating powerfully like the heart of prey. Then, as if it had been strangled... the throbbing stopped.
The next second, he opened his eyes. Even without turning around, Lianye's powerful senses easily detected the faint footsteps behind him.
The pace was slow, the strides short, and the footsteps extremely light. It was likely a petite girl.
"Is something wrong, Krista?"
Lianye turned around and looked helplessly at Krista, who was still awake in the middle of the night—though, in that regard, Lianye himself had not slept either.
"Eek...!" Krista halted, letting out a flustered sound. She apparently had not expected to be discovered so quickly, but she quickly composed herself and asked softly, "Are you keeping watch? Forests really are dangerous places, aren't they?"
"..." Lianye frowned, just about to refute her. He was not keeping watch for the Expeditionary Team members; he was merely waiting for a certain monster's presence to manifest from the Void again. In other words, he had his own business to attend to, which was why he had not gone to sleep—of course, he would never reveal any information about the Void monster, the Void Predator, Kha'Zix, to Krista.
Before Lianye could refute her, however, Krista reached her own conclusion. "Lianye, you really are a good person. What you're doing now is for everyone's sake, too."
"Idiot. Do you think everyone wants to be a lousy do-gooder like you?" Lianye said bluntly, his tone full of mockery toward Krista.
Ever since he had first met Krista a year ago, Lianye had intended to properly correct (discipline) her kindhearted personality—written as "goddess" and "saint," but read as "lousy do-gooder" and "dies early."
Thinking about it carefully, if Krista had not been someone important, with her Saintly Cancer personality, she probably would not have survived three episodes (three years) in this perilous world.
"Even I'll get angry if you say that." Krista puffed up her cheeks as she retorted. Though the night was exceptionally dark, the flushed cheeks hidden within it must have been quite lovely.
—After all, she was a girl known as a "goddess." Without stunning looks to support that title, even if she were gentle and kind, it probably would not amount to much.
Incidentally, those good looks were naturally also Lianye's main motivation for wanting to correct (discipline) Krista's saintly personality.
Over the past year, however, Krista had endured Lianye's sharp tongue and mockery more than once or twice. Given the girl's personality, she could not truly become angry over it.
"Like when you stopped Jean and Eren from arguing earlier—you were doing a good deed then too, weren't you?" Krista said instead with a light smile. An invisible good-person card was the deadliest weapon of all.
Before you continue