Chapter 53: Sarcasm

With a sudden vibration, the space around them warped, and the glowing forest faded, instantly replaced by the sprawling, manicured lawn in front of the colossal treehouse.

Waiting for them on the grass were Stheno, Euryale, and Ebonara.

Stheno had her arms crossed beneath her chest, an amused smirk playing on her lips as she took in Medusa's flushed skin and Hyun-woo's slightly disheveled state. "Well, got a little sidetracked in the woods, did we?"

"Shut up, Stheno," Medusa snapped, her tone harsh. Her emerald tail lashed against the grass in a clear display of frustration.

Stheno blinked, her smirk vanishing and instantly replaced by deep annoyance. She uncrossed her arms, glaring back. "Excuse me? Why are you talking to me like that? I just made a joke."

Medusa didn't even dignify that with a response. She completely ignored her sister and instead turned her intense gaze directly to Euryale, who was standing quietly to the side. "Euryale. What's going on?"

Euryale sighed, shaking her head slightly, thinking her sister was being weird. She didn't say anything about it, though, and simply answered the question. "Don't know, sister. All I was told is that Mother called an emergency meeting, and she wants all of us present immediately."

While both Euryale and Medusa talked, Hyun-woo stepped forward.

He reached out and gently patted Stheno on the head, ruffling her hair. Her annoyance hitched for a second, caught off guard by the gesture. "Don't take it personally, Stheno," Hyun-woo said with a dry, knowing smirk. "Medusa is just in a foul mood because she got completely blue-balled by the summons."

Stheno’s eyes widened, a sudden snort of laughter threatening to break through her annoyance.

"I can smell it," Ebonara interrupted, her voice a low, dangerous purr.

She walked forward, her nose twitching as she closed the distance to Hyun-woo. She practically buried her face in his chest, inhaling deeply before pulling back with a dark scowl. "I smell her all over you. It's practically suffocating."

Ebonara's eyes narrowed, a flash of genuine anger crossing her features as she glared at him. "You went off into the woods with her, smelling like that, and you didn't even bother asking me first? What, am I just an afterthought now?"

"Hey, relax," Hyun-woo said, holding his hands up defensively but keeping his tone calm and steady. "Nothing happened. Or, well, nothing major happened. You know I wouldn't have gone all the way with Medusa without getting permission first. From both you and Stheno." He met Ebonara's gaze directly, making sure she knew he meant it.

That seemed to pacify Ebonara slightly, though she still crossed her arms with a possessive huff.

Stheno, for her part, looked mollified by the inclusion, the tension in her shoulders dropping a fraction now that boundaries had been acknowledged.

"Anyway," Hyun-woo continued, looking around the lawn to change the subject. "Where's Vespara? I thought Mother wanted everyone."

"She's at home, sleeping," Ebonara muttered, still shooting Medusa a sidelong glare. "The dragon wanted to sleep. She said something about being too exhausted.”

Sleeping, Hyun-woo thought to himself, the word echoing in his mind.

It suddenly dawned on him as he stood there on the lawn. He hadn't slept for two straight days.

Since this whole crazy ordeal began, he had been moving non-stop, dealing with monsters, magic, and his ridiculous hidden Job.

Yet, as he flexed his hands and took a deep breath of the crisp air, he realized he didn't feel an ounce of fatigue. His mind was sharp, no heavy eyelids, no brain fog—nothing.

Whatever this 'Sex Beast' Talent was doing to his body, it was changing him in ways he couldn't even begin to fully understand yet.

But right now, with an emergency meeting with 'Mother' looming over them, he was just grateful he had the energy to keep going.

"Alright," Hyun-woo said, squaring his shoulders and looking at the women around him, as Medusa and Euryale were also looking at him. "Let's go then. We shouldn't keep Mother waiting."

And with that, the space around them warped once again. Euryale had triggered the teleportation, and in a blink, the sprawling lawn vanished, replaced by the sheer, awe-inspiring scale of the central meeting chamber.

The same meeting room where he had met Adrazelle for the first time. Looking at it now, it still had that overpowering feeling.

For the second time since he arrived in Eden’s Vault, Hyun-woo found himself face-to-face with all the Outer Guardians of Eden's Vault. Well, not all of them. He had met some of them, but not all.

He recognized them, of course. They had all been present during Adrazelle's previous audience with him, or when Medusa and Stheno were on top of him, but still, they had never actually stepped forward to introduce themselves.

Now, though, all of their attention was entirely focused on him.

Hyun-woo couldn't help but stare back. It was impossible not to.

Every single one of the Guardians possessed a breathtakingly beautiful, flawless body, and—as if it were some sort of prerequisite for the job—every single one of them was blessed with impossibly large, bountiful breasts that threatened to spill out of whatever minimal clothing they wore.

To his far left stood a woman made entirely of snow. She had no actual skin or flesh; her body was composed completely of packed snow and glistening, translucent ice.

She was entirely naked, yet the way the frost swirled and the ice formed over her curves acted as a natural modesty screen, covering her most private areas while proudly displaying the heavy, icy cleavage of her massive bust.

Next to her was a woman who seemed to be the exact opposite. A Phoenix. She was adorned with brilliant, shifting feathers that flickered in every imaginable color of flame—crimson, gold, vibrant blue, and searing white. The feathers wrapped around her gorgeous, voluptuous figure, doing very little to hide her heavy chest.

Beside the Phoenix stood a Kitsune, a stunning fox-woman with nine plush, vibrant orange tails swaying lazily behind her, perfectly framing her wide hips and the generous curves of her upper half.

Then there was the Dragon lady. She possessed deep, crimson-red scales that looked remarkably similar to Vespara's, exuding a fierce, primal dominance. Her scales formed a natural armor that barely contained the massive, straining swell of her breasts.

Taking up a significant portion of the chamber was a literal Giantess. She was a towering titan of a woman, looking down at the rest of the room with an imposing gaze.

Her proportions were staggering, completely matching her height, with a chest so phenomenally huge it could easily crush a normal man.

Standing quietly in the shadows was a woman who looked almost entirely human, save for her unsettling complexion. She looked completely bloodless, her skin a deathly, porcelain white.

It gave her an eerie, gothic beauty, heavily contrasted by the sheer, vibrant life of the ample cleavage spilling from her dark dress.

Perhaps the most intimidating of the group was the Arachne. Her lower half was the terrifying, bulbous body of a giant spider, but her upper half was all soft, voluptuous human woman.

She had eight mesmerizing, black spider eyes looking curiously at him without blinking, and a generous, heavy bosom that commanded immediate attention.

Lastly was a Mermaid. Her iridescent, aquatic lower half transitioned smoothly into a stunningly beautiful upper body, her massive assets barely concealed by her long, flowing hair and a pair of decorative shells.

All of them—every single pair of eyes in the room, which was quite a few considering the spider woman—were locked dead onto Hyun-woo.

The silence stretched for a moment before the Kitsune finally broke it. She leaned forward, her nine tails twitching, her eyes widening in disbelief as she took in his scent and appearance.

"Wait..." the Kitsune murmured, her voice echoing through the grand hall. "Is he... a man?"

Hyun-woo didn't even miss a beat. He stood there, surrounded by a room full of ridiculously well-endowed, impossibly gorgeous monster women, looked down at his own completely flat chest, and looked back up with a deadpan expression.

"No," Hyun-woo replied flatly. "I am a woman with very small boobies."

The entire line of Outer Guardians froze. Shock washed over their beautiful faces. The Kitsune just looked at him as if he had grown a second head, the Phoenix's flames sputtered, and the spider woman's eight unblinking eyes widened in stunned confusion.

Behind Hyun-woo, the girls snickered.

Stheno let out an ugly snort, clapping a hand over her mouth as her shoulders began to violently shake.

Medusa flashed an amused grin, while both Euryale and Ebonara openly snickered, leaning against each other as they tried to suppress their laughter at the sheer audacity of his deadpan sarcasm.

At the far end of the table, sitting in the head chair, was Adrazelle.

She didn't say a single word. She just slowly brought a hand up to pinch the bridge of her nose, her head moving left and right in sheer, exhausted exasperation.