How I Tame My Valkyrie Harem

Chapter 199: Shady Lab Final Part

Byron began examining me from head to toe, which made me instinctively move away from him.

"Hey, how can I check your physical capabilities if I can’t get a closer look?" he asked me.

"There’s absolutely no need for a man to examine another man’s physique that closely!"

"Margott," he said, turning to the girl who was still with us, "looks like we have a shy boy here."

"Anyone would feel awkward around you. After all, you’re a perv-perfect example of what a doctor should be~"

"Hey, you were going to call me a pervert, weren’t you?!" He was startled by her words.

Margott simply turned her face away, ignoring what the man in the lab coat was saying. He stared at her grimly, but gave up in the end.

"Anyway, I’ll need to collect a little of your blood," Byron said to me as if it were the most normal thing in the world. "Come this wa—"

"Woof, woof!" The creature kept barking, its mouth almost foaming. For some reason, I couldn’t take my eyes off it.

"Ah, her... an incredible creature, don’t you think?" I could hear the pride in Byron’s voice.

"Her?"

"That’s right. If you look right there," he pointed to where the genitals should be, which probably didn’t make the monster happy because she started banging her head against the bars.

"As I was saying, she’s a hybrid I created by fusing two creatures, a certain wolf and a... well, what does it matter?" He stopped himself and continued as if he hadn’t said anything strange. "She’s quite brutish, actually. I thought she was in heat and that putting males in her cage would calm her down, if you know what I mean, but it was a failure. She only got more irritated. She killed the wolves I threw in for her. A truly ungrateful thing, isn’t she?!"

He shouted at the monster as if it had enough intelligence to understand him, and for a moment, it seemed like she really did understand the provocation. The monster lunged with all her strength against the bars of the cage, but it wasn’t enough to reach the so-called scientist.

"Don’t worry, no matter how ferocious she is, the bars keep her from reaching people... as long as they’re behind that red line, of course." He pointed to the floor, where a red line cut across it.

"I’ve had problems with a subordinate before... you don’t even want to know," he said to me with a crooked smile. "Well, I won’t waste any more of your time with my experiment. Let’s go to the other room so you can be examined, PREFERABLY WITHOUT THAT IRRITATING BARKING!!"

"Woof, woof!" the creature barked in response. The hatred between creator and creature was mutual, without a doubt.

He pulled me by the arm, but I hesitated for a moment. My eyes fixed on the creature, I could swear it seemed familiar to me somehow.

Margott looked at me, puffing out her cheeks. "What are you waiting for? It’s just a monster. Hurry up."

"Hey," Byron said, sounding a little offended by what Margott had said. "It’s not just a creature, it’s my creation—"

"Enough already!" she said, irritated. "To the examination room!"

Even though that small woman was pushing me towards the room, something in me kept my eyes on the monster for a little while. For some reason I couldn’t explain, I stared at its still-intact red eye and thought to myself.

’It really is an incredible creature.’

...

"Are you sure you don’t want to spend one more night here?" Leila asked me in a cheerful voice.

The young woman was accompanied by her parents, who wore hospitable smiles. Little did her poor parents know about the bold move their daughter had tried on me last night.

"We would be happy if you wanted to spend one more night with us. You saved our daughter from those horrible Goblins, so just one night is far too little to repay you," Leila’s father said with sincerity in his eyes.

"Well, we could..."

"Sorry, but staying here any longer would be abusing your hospitality. We appreciate your generosity, but we have to continue our journey," Sarah stepped in, answering in a tone as soft as Leila’s. But that was a facade.

After she found out about Freya and Brandish, Erina and Justine told her about Leila trying to take me to bed. She got so angry that she decided we should leave and start the trip immediately.

But on the outside, she was being incredibly polite to those who had offered her hospitality. With the exception of their daughter.

"Ara, please don’t think that way. It is our obligation to repay the favor of someone who saved us in a moment of difficulty," Leila said to Sarah, keeping her tone gentle, but I could swear a vein popped up on her forehead.

"I ask that you not think badly of your own hospitality. We feel that your offer came from the heart, but unfortunately, we will have to depart due to an unexpected matter in Backwater City." Alicia placed herself in front of Leila and beside Sarah, and I could feel intense auras coming from the three young women in that hidden battle amid gentle words.

Despite Leila’s desire to keep us there, we finally said our farewells, giving our thanks as we waved to them. We left Greenville and headed towards our new destination.

I wasn’t worried about Leo. He would have to hold on until I got there to beat him up. No, my concern was something else.

"Hey, Sarah."

"Hmph!" The red-haired girl was giving me the cold shoulder.

"I’ve already apologized. I was certainly responsible for almost every time I had sex last night, but two of the girls weren’t even with my physical body, and I didn’t even try anything with Leila."

The girl with a ponytail beside me continued ignoring me. My Swordmaster was certainly stubborn and was being very inflexible at that moment.

"Couldn’t we just follow the road?" Camula asked me. "At least we’d have a clear path towards the next city."

"I don’t think that’s a good idea. First, by now, they may already be looking for Erina and Justine as deserters, and the army is still looking for Diane, not to mention Alicia. The few soldiers in Greenville are one thing, but from here on, it’s another. We’ll have to be careful even when entering Backwater."

For that reason, we chose to go through the forest, which stretched all the way to the region near our objective. It was a good idea for us to stay away from any watchmen, but it would also be easy to get lost there if you didn’t know the way.

"Aaah!" Sarah cried out when she tripped over a tree root.

Fortunately, she was close enough to me, so I grabbed her by the waist before she could fall to the ground.

"Are you all right?" I asked her in a calm tone, as if I hadn’t done anything special.

And Sarah flushed the instant our eyes met.

There was a certain delay in her expression, and in her remembering that she was angry with me. She turned her face away a little and said grumpily, "Yes... thank you for helping me."

"Watch where you’re walking," I said to her with a smile.

"I already get it, you idiot."

"But you fell anyway, so you deserve to hear it again, idiot," I replied playfully.

I let go of her, happy that at least she was talking to me again. That was when Justine came over to speak with me.

"Rick, can I ask you something?" she asked, holding the map of the region that had been given to us by the generous couple who had taken care of us. "Where exactly are we?"

I chose to go through the forest instead of following the road. If we stayed too close, we could draw too much attention with our group, so I chose the more stealthy path, certain I could reach Backwater with my knowledge.

Despite being a book, in SCRL, there were still landmarks in the middle of the forest that could help us orient ourselves along the way. I just needed a change in perspective.

"I think we’ve walked enough. Now I need a view from above," I said, dropping my baggage and looking at the trunk of one of the trees near us.

"Rick, don’t you want me to do that instead of you? I have more experience..." Diane said to me, understanding what I was about to do.

I ignored my Valkyrie and went ahead anyway, running towards the trunk. When I was already close, I placed my feet on the wood without slowing down and began running towards the top of the tree. In the blink of an eye, I was already at the top, where I grabbed onto the nearest branch to take in the view.

It was truly beautiful to see the dense forest from above, with the treetops stretching out like a lawn in the distance, the blue sky with few clouds above my head, and the gentle, refreshing wind on my face. But that wasn’t what I was there for. I was there to find our temporary shelter, which stood out amid the scenery.