Chapter 376: Sylvia, So You Think I'm Pretty...?
"..."
Azmodeus's eyes followed along the girl's slender finger, and he saw what appeared to be a face. A face in the tree…
"...Uhmm… I'm sorry about laying up against you," he apologized as he observed the quiet pout on the tree woman's face.
Only her upper body and head could be seen, but that was enough for Azmodeus to know that she was most assuredly grumbling over how rudely he just leaned up against her.
'Sometimes, I forget that I'm in the Immortal World,' he thought in exasperation. 'I should get used to seeing all kinds of unusual, typically unexplainable things…'
"Hey…"
"Hey..?"
"Hello, are you still there?"
"???"
The sweet, delicate voice of the silver-haired beauty took Azmodeus out of his thoughts.
Upon returning his gaze back to the mysterious, silver-haired woman, he saw that same flawless face dangerously close to his own. Moreover, her voluptuous figure was doing its damndest to abide by the laws of physics as it jiggled and bounced all over the place.
Out of consideration for the unknown girl, Azmodeus looked away from her hilltops and focused only on her stunning sapphire eyes.
"Hmm…?" The girl seemed to understand his intentions, and this caused her smile to widen a little further. "So, you are new?" She asked sweetly.
"Yes, I am new," Azmodeus answered truthfully. "I just started yesterday, and unfortunately, I was unaware of what… or who this tree was. And again, I am sorry."
He softly patted the tree's roots in an attempt to soothe her. Luckily, Delilah took this quite well, as she quivered a little in happiness.
Originally, she didn't like this human one bit, but with the pats, well, let's just say that it was more than enough to change or tune. She even went so far as to take her protruding, woody nude body and travel down to the tree's base. She then stuck her head out right beside the crimson-haired man, seemingly urging him for more pats.
The silver-haired woman softly giggled at this sight. "Delilah seems to like you quite a lot," she said. To which Azmodeus patted Delilah's extended head and said, "You think so?"
"Yes, I do," the silver-haired woman confirmed as she rose from her bow and walked around Azmodeus's sitting figure before falling down right beside him.
"And I think I might like you a little bit as well."
Azmodeus stared into those sapphire blue eyes of hers, noticing a serenity that he hadn't known in a very long time. Alas…
"Is that so?" He asked with a neutral expression.
The silver-haired woman tilted her head in confusion at this dull response of his. "You seem unfazed after having a pretty girl tell you she likes you. Why is that…?" She asked, genuinely confused.
"To think of yourself as pretty, isn't that quite conceited…—"
"I'm not?"
"No, you are. But that's besides the point—"
"So you think I'm pretty?"
"..."
Silence.
"You are an odd one," Azmodeus said after a moment of silence.
"I think you are odd as well," the silver-haired girl said with a giggle.
Her serene, blue eyes never left the dark red eyes of the man beside her, as she appeared to be enjoying herself more than a little bit. For those close to her, this would be an occurrence beyond rare.
"...So, your name," Azmodeus said. "Do you have one?"
"Ho~? Already wishing to get personal~?" The silver-haired woman teased. "Isn't that mighty bold of you, good sir~?"
"..."
Not able to take that piercing stare of his any longer, the silver-haired woman succumbed under the pressure and shifted her face away in a feigned bashful way. "My name is Sylvia, and don't you forget it," she said jokingly.
As he looked at Sylvia's side view, Azmodeus could've sworn that he saw a crimson blush form on her face, if not for but a moment, before fading away.
'This girl,' Azmodeus thought. 'She's an unusual one.'
"Azmodeus. That's my name," he said as he tipped his hat over his face and went back to sleep.
The tree Spirit, Delilah, was mildly disappointed, but this development was fine as well. Saving more pats for later, she extended out a little further until her entire half-nude, woody body appeared outside the tree. She then snuggled up on Azmodeus's lap and fell asleep herself.
The only one still awake was Sylvia, and she sported a couple of puffed-out cheeks that made her look like an adorable gerbil. She crossed her arms under her breast and harrumphed. "Fine, just ignore me then, big jerk," she grumbled.
Despite her words, she inched ever closer to the sleeping, crimson-haired man and eventually laid her head right next to his, just enough that only a couple air particles separated their heads.
"Hey, Azmodeus," Sylvia said with her eyes still closed.
Although he tried his best to ignore the beautiful woman, Azmodeus couldn't properly focus with that intensity oozing from her aura.
"What…?" He reluctantly asked.
"I think we should be friends," Sylvia said with a concealed grin. "Don't you think we should be friends?"
"No, not really," Azmodeus replied instantaneously.
"Wha!?" Sylvia shot her eyes open at once and twisted over into his lap before straddling his shoulders. "Why do you say that, you big meanie!?"
With his eyes still shut tight, Azmodeus turned his head a little to the right and furrowed his brows. "I don't need friends," he said straightforwardly. "Getting close to others has never gotten me anywhere. Only greater power brings me forward."
Silence.
Sylvia stopped shaking Azmodeus and simply stared at his almost melancholic expression.
"I see…" She murmured as she got off his lap and started to walk away. "However."
Suddenly turning her body toward the meditating man, she crossed her fingers over one another behind her back. "I still think we should be friends," she said with a mesmerizing smile.
After a moment that felt like an eternity, Sylvia hoped away from the large tree with an inexplicably giddy look on her face.
Even while deep in meditation, Azmodeus's facial features were twitching like crazy.
'Women are…' he thought. "So complicated…" he finished aloud.
After shaking his head to distract himself from the matter with the silver-haired beauty, Azmodeus returned to his cultivation.
Ultimately, it came time for the usual morning routine, so he was forced to leave his mediation session and head to a wide courtyard square, which was where the Drill Instructor was already stationed and waiting. His hardened expression emulated the extent to which he would go to whip his students into shape, and Azmodeus was all here for it…
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