"Make sure to remain respectful in the presence of His Highness."
That was the moment Lumine kicked the door open.
A dozen swords were instantly pressed against her neck.
"Sorry to bother you."
Lumine felt the cold steel at her throat and decisively raised her hands in surrender.
Although her magical power had been sealed, her perception remained sharp. These girls had drawn their swords and pressed them to her neck so quickly that she hadn't even noticed.
That alone was enough to show that all of them were extremely powerful.
"Yeehh~!"
Only then did Paimon react.
She was just about to strike a pose and say something commanding when she noticed a sword seemingly materialize out of nowhere, its tip now resting between her eyebrows.
She was so startled she nearly fell out of the sky.
"W-Whoa…"
Lumine began to sweat cold.
She had thought she would only have to deal with Prince Leon, but she hadn't expected not even to be able to get close to him.
She was certain that if she made even the slightest move, the women surrounding her would slit her throat without hesitation.
Not to mention, she was now just a beautiful, ordinary girl with her magic sealed. Even if her powers weren't sealed, she didn't think she could defeat even one of them.
Even the weakest among them, who had undergone [demonic possession], was still a first-class powerhouse.
Those qualified to serve as maids in Leon's castle were the twenty strongest members of Night Raid for that month.
Each one of those twenty could take on ten Alice Midgars.
While Lumine was strong, she was nowhere near strong enough to deal with them.
"You performed wonderfully. Thanks for relieving my boredom. I didn't expect you to reach the top so quickly. Want me to give you a reward to celebrate?"
Leon said, clapping his hands.
The corners of Lumine's eyes twitched. She wanted to tell him that he could start by having those women back off and, please, stop putting swords to her neck while thanking her.
He could aim them at Paimon instead.
"Your Highness Leon, are you going to kill me?"
"What? Didn't I say that if you managed to reach me, I'd have a nice chat with you? There's something you want to ask, isn't there?"
Leon was in a good mood now. He picked up a fruit and tossed it to Lumine. After all, having a sword at her throat didn't mean she couldn't eat, right?
"...Did you really plan the Mondstadt disaster?"
"Your Highness, this is her backpack."
As the two conversed, Nyu had already completed a full body search and confiscated all weapons. She had seized Lumine's sword, her backpack, her adventure gear, her wind glider, and all her personal belongings.
"Hey! What are you doing?! Don't mess with a girl's stuff!"
When Lumine saw Leon rummaging through her backpack, she was so anxious she nearly ignored the sword at her neck and lunged to defend it.
Leon, on the other hand, didn't care about her complaints.
"What girl? We're enemies now."
"You're the intruder who broke into my castle."
"Of course I have the right to do whatever I want with my enemy."
"And since I can't go through your backpack, maybe I'll just strip you instead."
"To prevent you from hiding any assassination tools, of course—"
"You can go through my backpack."
"Wow~ Why are you carrying so much mint, cabbage, and chicken in here? Oh wait, isn't this my plan?"
Leon had found the "Plan to Destroy the Lawrence Family" inside Lumine's backpack.
"Tell me, who gave this to you?"
"...Tch."
Lumine scoffed and turned her head away.
Leon shrugged.
"Fine, don't tell me. Thanks to someone I know, I've become very skilled in torture. Would you like to experience my techniques?"
"T-Torture?!"
"Well, torturing a beautiful girl does make me feel a little guilty, but… don't worry. No matter how broken you become, I'll restore you to your original state. Oh, but your spirit might not recover."
Leon said as he opened his storage space.
After dumping out a pile of tools he normally used to torture Ye Lan, Lumine's face immediately turned pale.
As for that "guilt" Leon mentioned… The difference between torturing a "beauty" and torturing a "pretty girl" was just a word — and he didn't think it would really bother him.
"I'll talk! I'll tell you everything! Though you might not believe me, I really just found that while exploring the snowy mountain near Mondstadt a few days ago!"
The blonde girl trembled like a frightened kitten. Her once defiant mouth softened instantly.
Torture isn't just about pain — it's about fear, breaking down a person's mental defenses.
Leon's words had already become a psychological assault.
After hearing her answer, Leon blinked and couldn't help but look stunned.
His expression grew a bit awkward.
He had thought someone leaked the plan to Lumine… but it turned out he had screwed up.
"What… why were you even at the snowy mountain? Come to think of it, I remember the temperature at the summit was nearly -30 degrees Celsius. Isn't that area forbidden for adventurers?"
Leon asked, making a mental note not to throw things away so carelessly in the future.
Lumine's eyes shifted a bit, but with dozens of swords still hovering near her neck, she quietly confessed:
"...I heard there was a treasure chest at the top of the mountain."
"There was?"
"I heard there was a treasure chest at the top of the mountain…"
"...."
Leon's eyes twitched. He didn't know what to say.
He had heard rumors of treasure chests buried all over the world, but more than 90% of them could barely be opened for a few hundred gold coins — and most were just junk.
Even the highest-tier treasure chest only contained about 10,000 to 20,000 gold coins and a few gems.
So someone climbed thousands of meters into a freezing mountain just to find that?
"There's nothing wrong with your brain… Ahem, is life as an adventurer really that hard? Well, I'm not going to kill you. When you leave, Leini, take her to earn some money."
Leon glanced at all the items in Lumine's possession.
He felt a bit sorry for the girl.
With so little cash, she wouldn't even be able to afford flooring for his castle's decor.
"I don't want that."
Lumine looked a little embarrassed.
But she couldn't deny how hard it was to be an adventurer. She traveled the world doing tasks every day just for a small reward.
And her companion needed five meals a day. She wasn't big, but she was incredibly gluttonous.
She had been collecting the small items in her backpack for a long time.
If Leon didn't give them back later...
Lumine might actually cry.
"Compared to my situation, Your Highness Leon is far more important. I didn't expect you to have orchestrated something as terrible as the Dragon Disaster. Why would you do something like that?"
"Seems like you've misunderstood me."
With a gesture from Leon, the girls withdrew the swords from Lumine's neck.
"It doesn't feel good to be treated like the bad guy by a beautiful girl. Let me explain the reason behind all of this."
---
(End of Chapter)
"Hmph. If you really want to be useful, then entertain me, try to throw those pathetic power stones at me. Let's see if even your insolence can amuse a king."