CHAPTER 396: VICTORY PHOTOS?

Click. Click. Click.

"Oh yeah, girl, work them poses!" Millis yelled as she held a rabbit-shaped phone horizontally. She was currently taking pictures of Lillian, who posed around and on the deceased Alpha.

After seeing another camera flash, Lillian smiled wryly as she continued to hold up a peace sign, "Do you really need to take that many photos? I think just one for Marionette will do..."

"Huh? Of course I do!" Millis waved the phone in her hand at the girl in a scolding manner, "Ya girlfriend expects plenty of photos of ya lookin’ good!"

The Heroine then went back into position and directed the phone’s camera at the girl before signalling with her hand.

"Now get back to position or else I’ll text her that ya didn’t wanna send her a lot of pictures of ya self!"

"W-what...?" Lillian, baffled by what she had just heard, sighed and began posing again.

She hoped Marionette would be satisfied with them later when she sent them over.

After a bit, she noticed a rope slowly falling from the sky to the side. Looking over, she found Viesta and Zeke climbing down.

Lillian smiled and, while sitting on the shoulder of the Alpha, placed her right leg over her left before leaning the side of her face into her palm.

"Oh? You guys finally here?"

Viesta nodded in acknowledgement before helping Zeke down and wrapping an arm under her armpits.

The two then moved over towards the two ladies before stopping in front of the monster. Both the cowgirl and eye-patched man looked in awe at the deceased abomination.

Their eyes began to light up with stars.

"To think I’d see a monster of the Husk level dead before my eyes... And one of the Dire rank!" Viesta stated in an incredulous and amazed tone.

The corners of Zeke’s lips curled up slightly as tiredness washed over him, "Same here... This was an incredibly difficult battle to win to say the least, don’t you three think?"

As Millis and Viesta nodded in unison, Lillian smirked and waved her hand arrogantly with a proud expression as she said, "It wasn’t that difficult after I got serious~... I think we would’ve won in the end, though."

Lillian, who had said this with her nose pointed upwards and her eyes closed, slowly opened them and found the three beneath her giving her an odd look of both concern and doubt.

Viesta said, "Does your head hurt anywhere, Lillian? I think Zeke still has some health potions he could use on you."

Zeke, who was about to say something, stiffened as he was reminded of something crucial. He had health potions on him! How did he forget that?

Just as he was about to summon the crate of health potions, he felt something splash on his body. Then, he found himself connected to the Alpha by a translucent line that turned slightly red.

Lillian, who was the cause of this, chuckled slightly before stating, "Save them. Potions aren’t that cheap, after all."

The white-haired girl then responded to Viesta, "And why would you say that?" Lillian sat up straight and placed her hands on her waist, "I’m perfectly fine!"

Millis gave her a knowing look before sighing. She shook her head and muttered, "Ya girlfriend ain’t here, bro... Ya don’t gotta act tough and cool."

"I-I was being serious!" Lillian stuttered before pouting and folding her arms, "I can assure you that we could’ve won faster if I had gotten serious!"

"Yap, yap, yap! Now continue on posing!"

"M-man... More?"

Millis kept on taking pictures of Lillian, even joined by Viesta, who helped the Rabbit’s posture and pose. Zeke stood off to the side, being healed of his injuries. But that didn’t mean he didn’t enjoy the sight of Lillian being forced into the job of a model.

Finally, Lillian was freed from the role of being the sole model and was quickly joined by both Millis and Viesta.

They were going to take a group photo.

Zeke, who overheard this, volunteered to hold the phone. But as the three ladies watched, he distanced himself from them; they immediately stopped him and asked what he was doing.

Zeke stopped mid-crouch, confused about what he meant, before watching as they patted a spot on the abomination’s corpse for him to take a seat on.

His eyes shone with a reflective light as he heard.

"We aren’t the only ones that took it down, ya know!"

"She’s right, you played an important role!"

As Millis and Viesta stated, Lillian held out a hand with a gentle smile. Her eyes then sparkled a little as she said:

"We couldn’t have won this battle as well as we did without your abilities, Zeke. So, join us in this group photo."

Zeke, who hadn’t expected this offer, immediately got up from his crouch before walking over. And after taking an awkward position near the three...

Click.

They took a selfie with all three of them grinning.

***

Somewhere inside a dark, minimalistic but luxurious room, a woman with raven-black long hair stood at the centre of her room—buttoning up her uniform.

It was Marionette with her face as still and unchanging as always...

After attaching a rose pin on the right side of her chest, her ears twitched as several consecutive dings echoed inside her room.

Ding. Ding. Ding...

She looked towards her bedside table and at her phone’s screen, which had now lit up and revealed notifications all belonging to one person she had been expecting to hear from for a bit.

It was from Lillian.

Walking over and picking up her phone, she looked at her notifications and looked through the countless photos Lillian had taken. At first, she had thought it was to show her hunt, but she quickly realised that Lillian was taking a variety of poses around the monster.

This had immediately caught her eye.

Entranced, she took her time scrolling through each and every photo—saving each one to her phone before moving on to the next.

When Marionette finally made it to the last photo, she froze. It was a picture of 3 other people around her Lillian...

Her thumb paused in the air as she processed the sight of Lillian smiling with others around her.

Ignoring Millis’s face, she glanced away from Lillian and towards the woman beside the Rabbit and then the man.

After recalling Lillian mentioning nothing about a middle-aged man, her eyes lingered on the woman’s face. She then quickly deduced that this person must be Viesta.

Her lips shook for a moment, the corners of them slightly curling down into a small frown. But then, after a moment, her lips curled up into a small smile.

"So that’s what she looks like... Just another corpse..."

She pocketed her phone and faced the mirror. After straightening her hair, she heard three consecutive knocks on her door followed by the voice of a mature woman.

"Lady Roselle, the Gardener has finished preparing the necessities for the surgery that will happen in the upcoming days."

"Very well, I shall meet with him soon."

Facing the door, Marionette unconsciously held a hand over the pocket that held her phone. She sighed and muttered, "Oh, how envious I am... I wish I were there in her place instead of this dreary one..."