With her head and the crooks of her knees resting on the armrests of the sofa, Kiana's slender body was bent into an S-shape.
But on her delicate face was a dazed and vacant look of someone who could not comprehend the current situation.
They had clearly agreed to love and cherish each other, so why had her Mei fallen for Blondie's treacherous scheme so easily and accepted the Honeysuckle Crest?
"Bronya, tell me, why?"
The Slavic girl, who was busy torturing bots, answered without turning her head: "Because Sister Mei cares about you."
*Because you've been sold by her, and you're still helping her count the money.*
Bronya, who had seen through the entire truth, had long since noticed Raiden Mei's insatiable hunger, merely lacking an excuse to satisfy her greedy little mouth that could never get enough.
Kiana and the Herrscher of the Void's situation happened to give Raiden Mei that excuse.
She was greedy, so she accepted the Honeysuckle Crest; but she made it sound so righteous, making Kiana think she was charging ahead for her sake.
And this white-haired fluffball, with only a one-track mind, actually seemed to have believed it, and was moved by Raiden Mei's sacrifice.
But the truth couldn't be told to Kiana, otherwise, she would only get further and further away from her goal of saving her sister.
*Raiden Mei cares about Kiana...* Bronya thought to herself that she hadn't lied to Kiana, she had just omitted some facts that were not suitable for children.
"Mei... cares about me?"
Kiana, limp and weak on the sofa, murmured this sentence, her eyes growing brighter and brighter.
That's right, it's precisely because Mei cares about her that she accepted the engraving of the Honeysuckle Crest first, enduring the humiliation inflicted upon her by that man.
The snow-haired girl, believing she had found the truth, felt the fiery flames of her fighting spirit ignite once more!
The Honeysuckle Crest, Blondie, whatever—just think of it as Mei going out to learn a new skill!
As long as her Mei was still the same Mei who cooked for her, she wouldn't despise her even if she came back from outside with a litter of little goblins.
The snow-haired girl was very self-aware of her cat-like intelligence. The only way her brain was better than a cat's was that it had a few more wrinkles.
The failures from the past few times had already made her recognize reality to some extent. It would be incredibly difficult to win Raiden Mei back with her strength alone.
Moreover, that damn Blondie was still plotting against her, so she had to be extra careful.
Kiana glanced towards the kitchen, where her personal cook and the Blondie who wanted to carve the Honeysuckle Crest on her were preparing today's lunch.
She quietly sidled up to Bronya: "Bronya, help me, okay?"
Bronya: "Just ask whatever you want to ask."
If Kiana didn't mind her being a hindrance, she certainly didn't mind offering her help.
"Why does this guy always want to sleep with me and Mei?"
The brilliant Kiana went straight to the heart of the matter with her soul-searching question.
Bronya: "Probably because men are all eel-like."
Eels are good with holes.
Blondie's designs on them were practically an open book. If it weren't absolutely necessary to find a way to rescue her sister from the Sea of Quanta, Bronya would have already fled back to Siberia for refuge.
But compared to her own duck butt, her sister whose fate was unknown was obviously more important.
For the sake of the adorable little Seele, Bronya had no choice but to painfully walk a tightrope at St. Freya High School.
In front of her was Seele, below was a goblin nest, and behind was Blondie the goblin.
"Eel-like?"
Kiana wasn't concerned with this question. "Is there any way for me and Mei to escape this misery?"
Whether he was fickle or eel-like, as long as they left this guy, it wouldn't be a problem.
Kiana's thinking was always so simple and unadorned, yet it went straight to the core of the issue.
However, her ideals were grand, but reality was brutally harsh.
Bronya, who had already awakened to the idea of sacrificing her best friend to help achieve her own goals, decided to correct Kiana's unrealistic thoughts.
"Kiana, do you think the current Sister Mei would still leave him? Do you think you still have a chance to take Sister Mei away from him now?"
Bronya's gaze fell, looking at Kiana's flat abdomen.
"Although you haven't accepted the Honeysuckle Crest yet, Sister Mei has already accepted it for you."
Mentioning 'Raiden Mei accepted the Honeysuckle Crest for Kiana' further deepened the guilt in this white-haired fluffball's heart.
"Sister Mei is about to suffer hardships, but you are still thinking of running away."
Those silver-grey eyes stared straight at Kiana, making her skin crawl.
"Kiana, you really are a selfish person."
"..."
Kiana opened her mouth, but she didn't even know how to refute that sentence.
Because she also knew very well that no matter how hard she tried or planned, it was already impossible to take Raiden Mei away from Blondie's side.
At least not during these two years of studying at St. Freya High School.
And if they left, they had nowhere else to go.
"Then what should I do?"
"If you want to help Sister Mei, the best way is to share her burden with her, not to mentally exhaust yourself here."
Bronya's true intentions were revealed, but Kiana didn't realize the problem.
The previous twisted logic had successfully guided Kiana's single-track mind in a strange direction.
Leaving was impossible, and there was nowhere to go if they did; if they didn't leave, she couldn't always stay by Raiden Mei's side, and Mei was that guy's girlfriend.
Even if she wanted to stop them from being intimate, others would only think she was being nosy.
Undoubtedly, Mei, who had sacrificed for her, would suffer at the hands of that Blondie, with no escape.
Even if she pointed a gun at that guy's head, Raiden Mei would only blame her for meddling.
What to do?
"Do I really have to do this?"
Looking towards the kitchen, the snow-haired girl, who had always been reckless, fell into a rare moment of hesitation.
People's joys and sorrows are not interconnected. Raiden Mei only found the boisterous Kiana noisy.
"I feel like my stomach is a little warm."
She didn't know if it was her imagination, but Raiden Mei felt a persistent warmth in her lower abdomen since last night, as if a heat pack was stuck to her skin.
The girl had an apron tied around her waist and held a spatula in her nimble right hand, but her left hand couldn't help but cover her lower abdomen, and a shy blush appeared on her delicate face.
"It's all your fault!"
Not knowing what she had thought of, her slender foot in its slipper kicked the calf of the young man beside her.
After the initial passion subsided, Raiden Mei finally realized what a shameful thing she had done last night.
The Honeysuckle Crest! A full heart shape!
All of this was simply so embarrassing that it was hard to extricate herself from. It made her feel like she was the female protagonist of the Inner World who had gotten the right script.
"Mei, things are already like this, it's no use regretting it now."
Placing the chopped ingredients into Raiden Mei's pot, the skilled young man hugged Raiden Mei from behind, filling the kitchen with the sweet atmosphere of a slice-of-life romance.
He held Raiden Mei's left hand, his right hand stroking the girl's soft lower abdomen.
[Affection: 100]
[Sensitivity: 100%]
[Storage: 0%]
This was the place where he had carved the Honeysuckle Crest, completely turning Raiden Mei into his shape.
The Honeysuckle Crest would not normally appear; it would only react when she was in a state of extreme excitement.
Furthermore, he, the master of this Honeysuckle Crest, could remotely control its parameters, thereby affecting Raiden Mei's body.
Just by turning up the sensitivity, even a gentle breeze could make Raiden Mei get wet on the spot.
And this was his confidence in controlling the Herrscher of the Void.
No matter what, the Herrscher of the Void needed a body to come out and cause trouble; as long as the Herrscher of the Void came out to make a mess, he would just turn up the parameters of the Honeysuckle Crest.
In this way, that inherently evil little brat would be firmly in his grasp. Even if she wanted to resist, she could only submit obediently under the power of the Honeysuckle Crest collar.
However, the current Kiana couldn't accept this. Even though Raiden Mei had set an example for her, the pure white-haired fluffball still couldn't accept it.
This wouldn't do.
"Mei, what do you think is the way to get Kiana to accept it?"
The girl who was cooking paused, then rolled her eyes charmingly at the man behind her: "What? It hasn't even been seven months, and you're already tired of my old looks?"
She's jealous, I have to coax her!
"How could that be?"
The tip of his nose sniffed the girl's body fragrance, and the faint moist scent made Raiden Mei's face blush slightly. "You saw what happened last night. If I hadn't acted in time, I'm afraid Kiana would have witnessed something she'd regret for the rest of her life."
"The Herrscher of the Void is different from her. She wants to carry everything on her own shoulders, but right now she doesn't have the ability to bear all the responsibility."
"Once the Herrscher of the Void loses control in her body, by the time she wakes up again, her hands will already be stained with the blood and lives of all of us."
"So you plan to carve the Honeysuckle Crest on her?"
Raiden Mei wiggled her body and rolled her eyes, finding a comfortable position.
Last night, she was love-struck and didn't think too deeply.
Looking at it now, it was clear that this guy, dominated by his lower body, was unsatisfied and planning to find a new lover.
Although she had already tacitly agreed to this, actively seeking it and passively being sought were two completely different motives.
For the sake of her status in the family, Raiden Mei had to throw a little tantrum no matter what.
"Isn't this for everyone's safety?"
The distance between the two was seamless, with no gaps.
Raiden Mei's face was flushed, and she wanted to struggle but was powerless.
She said coquettishly: "You guy, you always like to debase us!"
The Honeysuckle Crest sounds nice, but if you give it a Far East-style name, it's basically that thing.
She just never expected that the man she fancied would possess such a lewd ability, and that he had even developed a rather serious use for it.
Using it to restrain the Herrscher of the Void was indeed the best solution that wouldn't harm Kiana's body.
But!
"Don't you dare touch Kiana, at least not now!"
*So, kissing, hugging, and lifting are fine, but negative-distance contact is a no-go, right?*
"As you command, my dear wife!"
The young Brian's face was serious, as if he were taking a military oath.
Raiden Mei shot him a look and, swaying her increasingly perky hips, broke free from his evil clutches.
A man's sweet words should just be taken with a grain of salt. With Kiana's worrisomely low intelligence, she would probably still be counting the money after being sold.
Raiden Mei: "..."
Alright, she had already sold Kiana once last night.
She was clearly the greedy bad kid, yet she used Kiana as an excuse, making Kiana feel guilty towards her.
At this thought, Raiden Mei suddenly felt that she had wronged Kiana, who had always treated her as a best friend, and decided to cook a special meal for Kiana today.
"You can go out first, I'll make two more dishes for Kiana."
"Okay."
The young Brian didn't think much of it, but Kiana, who was eavesdropping in the living room, couldn't help but let her thoughts stray.
Mei had never cooked her a special meal in all the time she had been at St. Freya High School; yet after the Herrscher of the Void prepared to wreak havoc, Mei was cooking a special meal for her for the first time.
Could it be... this was her last meal?
The snow-haired girl's mind raced with wild thoughts, and she was absent-minded all day.
Raiden Mei and Bronya left space for her and Brian to interact, allowing the two to once again reach a consensus on last night's issue.
Although Raiden Mei, as the official girlfriend, had some minor objections to Kiana being carved with the Honeysuckle Crest, the sensible girl also knew that the Herrscher of the Void was a ticking time bomb in Kiana's body. If this bomb wasn't defused, Kiana would eventually be hurt by it.
Making her assume a kneeling/prostrating pose emoticon was better than her regretting it while looking at her own blood-stained hands in a field of rubble.
The snow-haired girl hugged her legs, curled up on the sofa like a large doll.
Kiana watched as the man she had always tried to avoid sat down beside her. A look of disgust appeared on her exquisite face, but she didn't immediately move away.
"Pervert!"
She cursed in a low voice.
She was still an ignorant maiden, yet she was about to jump straight into the script of an Inner World female protagonist.
Kiana, who had never considered such a development, was questioning her life, deeply regretting why she hadn't eliminated this scourge back in Nagazora City.
But things having come to this, she also knew that only by using that lewd method to put a leash on the Herrscher of the Void could she prevent everyone from getting hurt because of her.
He took out some cookies, fruit, and then poured two glasses of Kiana's favorite happy otaku water.
The young Brian sat relaxedly beside Kiana and extended an invitation to the girl next to him: "Let's talk. How long has it been?"
"You say it as if you got me pregnant."
She retorted.
That phrasing was just like a gynecologist asking a patient, starting right off with how many months it's been, giving one a strong sense of déjà vu.
She had only known this guy for two or three months.
"Alright then, let me rephrase."
The black-haired youth smiled, very relaxed. "Since leaving Nagazora City, how many times has the Herrscher of the Void tried to snatch your body from you?"
"..."
The white-haired fluffball on the sofa was silent for a moment. "Two or three times, I guess."
She hadn't intended to worry her friends, planning to live happily while fighting with this Blondie for Raiden Mei.
She had thought it could be like that, after all, she had managed to fend off the Herrscher of the Void the previous few times.
But it turned out that all of the Herrscher's previous moves were just feints, and only this time was she serious.
In front of that Herrscher who possessed the feather, her prideful strong will was no match at all. It was only thanks to this guy's firm grasp on her jade foot that the Herrscher chose to retreat.
Kiana couldn't imagine what kind of tragedy would have occurred at St. Freya High School last night without this guy.
She recognized her own limits, and also the naivety of wanting to bear everything alone.
"Two or three times... Kiana, you've been very naughty."
If she had failed just once, she could have seen someone at St. Freya High School die at her hands.
Theresa, that Divine Key launcher, wasn't omnipotent. After seeing such a well-behaved Kiana recently, that shorty had already somewhat forgotten the threat of the Herrscher of the Void.
If Kiana had failed even once, Otto's chances would have been greatly advanced, allowing Kiana to grow on a path full of thorns.
As for who the victim would be?
Otto didn't care, but they did.
"If you had been honest with us about these things earlier, perhaps none of this would have happened."
It was also his fault for being careless.
He was involved every time the Herrscher of the Void was made to get wet, yet the Herrscher never once threw a tantrum in the real world, which made him a little complacent as well.
Fortunately, he realized the problem this time and stopped the Herrscher's rampage in time.
Otherwise, the consequences would have been unimaginable.
"..."
Kiana remained silent, burying her head between her knees.
"I don't need a pervert like you to meddle in my business..."
She mumbled, her emotions somewhat complicated.
Initially, she had a bit of a fantasy, hoping that the Herrscher of the Void was like the Herrscher of Thunder—though she was harsh to her, she was actually a very responsible big sister.
But ideals are grand, and reality is harsh.
The Herrscher of the Void had no intention of playing house with her, and slapped her so hard she couldn't find her bearings; she only wanted to control her body to complete her destruction and annihilation, to vent the resentment she was born with.
She had no way to resolve this resentment, so she had to walk a path she did not want to walk.
"Pervert! Despicable!"
To actually want to use the Honeysuckle Crest to control her.
But...
"Come on, be gentle!"
"Otherwise, I'll strangle you with my legs!"
...