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Last embryo Volume 6 Chapter 3 Part 6

「A heartfelt praise? Of what?」

「Your amazing skill with handling that spear of yours of course! You must be very familiar with it and confident in your skills with it. I also have a weapon that is very close to my heart, and it is because of that trust and connection that I was able to hone my martial arts to the level that allowed be to best you and Byakko.」

「「. . . .  Mu mu?」」

Shen Gongbao and Byakko murmured as they gazed at one another in confusion. Uesugi had to take a step back after what she just heard, and Asuka was downright clueless as to why would Ayato suddenly start to get all friendly with someone who was trying to kill her mere moments ago. In the meantime, Byakko turned his face towards Shen Gongbao and whispered to her:

『Well, I do not sense any lies in her voice just now.』

「Seriously?! She complimented me for real just now?!」

『Apparently so, and I cannot say that I blame her for it, because let us be honest, your skills with that spear are nothing to sneeze at, and since she is genuinely amazed by what she saw, then do you not think that it would be rude not to accept such an honest praise, even though it did come from someone who utterly crushed you in battle just now?』

「Ohhhhh . . . .  you know what, Byakko? You might actually be onto something here!」

Shen Gongbao said to Byakko while fidgeting and acting just a little bit flustered at having received praise and recognition for her fighting prowess. Not expecting to see such a genuinely cute reaction at all, Ayato had to blink for a few times herself to make absolutely sure that her eyes were not playing any tricks on her. She expected Shen Gongbao to be a lot of things, but a sucker for praise was definitely not one of them. And what made things worse here was that her words of praise were actually a bluff she meant to use to try and get on her good side, but for her bluff to be this super effective. . . . . . .

(Could. . . . . . . . Could it be that she is. . . . . .w-well, I guess she might be just a bit more simpleminded than I originally thought, huh?)

Shen Gongbao, one of the Immortal Sages from 「Investiture of the Gods」. . . . . . . looking at her physicality alone, it needed to be stated that she was a real Chinese beauty, but her personality was anything but. The punishment that she brought down on herself in her legend was caused because of her extreme jealousy of Jiang Ziya, her fellow disciple under their master, and him being chosen as the one who would be responsible for helping with the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty instead of her, even though he was not as amazing as her when it came to their Sagely training. It was that jealously and anger over not being chosen for such an important task that pushed her to turn into scheming and plotting against her master and fellow pupil, and since some of her schemes were admittedly pretty elaborate , then you would have expected her to be quite an intellectual, and a very cunning tactician at that, and she definitely was all of those things, so Ayato was just wondering how was it possible for someone like that to be so easy to manipulate with simple compliments at the same time. Her thoughts must have been written all over her face, because when Byakko looked at her he simply rolled his eyes which were shining and let out a snarling sound, which was probably supposed be his version of a laughter.

『. . . . . . . . . . there is one thing that I just cannot comprehend. I know that Shen Gongbao’s spear-handling technique is quite impressive, but was it really enough to guarantee her such parises from you, who turned out to be superior warrior in this encounter? Tell, me, miss knight, what made you arrive at such a conclusion?』

「What made me arrive at such a conclusion? Uhm, well. . . . .  If I had to pick one reason, then I guess it would have to be because I am perfectly aware how difficult it is to master the usage of a spear in the way she was using hers? I mean, spearmanship is one of the most difficult martial arts to master from among all possible weapons, because the proper mastery of the spear requires its user to utilize their entire body: legs, torso and arms to maintain the widest possible range of motions, and oftentimes it might force them to switch the hands with which they are holding onto the spear on the fly, which adds a whole another layer of difficulty to something that was already difficult enough on its own, and do not even get me started on a whole bunch of other intricacies that are added into the mix when you are using the cross spear. . . . . . . . but since the one that Miss Shen Gongbao uses is not a cross spear but an ordinary one, then let us not go into further detail about them and stick to what is really important. And that would most definitely be the way you fought and how you used your spear. I do not know if I am going to be right about this, but the way in which you swung your spear around made me feel as if you were not trained to fight with a spear, but rather with a sword instead. So if it turns out that you were really training for using a sword and yet you managed to fight so effectively with a spear instead despite having no prior specialized training for it, then that would be even more amazing, because that would be a true testament to how talented as a warrior you really are.」

Ayato spoke her honest mind without beating around the bush or trying to sugarcoat anything. What she said just now was her honest evaluation of her opponent’s skills, and there was no lies in her words at all.

Of course, she also thought the way she handled her spear while riding on top of Byakko’s back was clumsy and awkward, not to mention that the constant need for him to dodge Ayato’s attacks and how she was swaying from one of his sides to the other made it pretty much impossible for her to be switching the hand with which she was holding her spear, locking her in a situation where she had to be holding in in her right hand constantly and Ayato mercilessly exploited that fact for her own advantage, but other than that, everything else about her way of fighting was of absolutely top quality. That is why the contents of her praise for Shen Gongbao were not a lie, even though the praise itself was only a means to get her to start talking of her own will without forcing anything out of her through forceful means.

For a few moments Shen Gongbao remained silent without saying as much as a single word with her face being completely still and expressionless. . . .  but then she smiled with a smile that felt almost blindingly bright and genuinely warm.

「O. . . . . . . Oh man, what the hell? Is that what you really think about me? Heh, it took you long enough, but as long as you say that you finally managed to realize the full extent of my excellence, then I guess there is nothing for me to continue getting mad about! Right? Right. . . . .?! Yeah, of course. And to tell you the truth, I also think that you were not half bad with those techniques of yours!」

「Y-Yes, thank you, ha, haha. . . . . If someone as esteemed as you is offering me a compliment, then who am I to refuse it? Oh, but if you do not mind me asking, then could you tell me why are you using this spear in the first place? Because I do not think that any of the myths and legends that talk about you actually mention you ever fighting with a weapon such as this one.」

At that moment, Ayato’s phone began to vibrate while playing a cheerful ringtone.