"Kiana, help me get rid of that evil bastard!"
Rin was on the verge of kneeling before Kiana!
If she didn't act soon, her sister would fall into the hands of that evil Inner World Protagonist, becoming another lost soul under his jeans, doomed forever.
Her only way to protect her sister now was to make reasonable use of the game's rules and get this guy completely eliminated.
However, the white-haired fluffball just glanced down at the Herrscher who was about to kneel before her and refused without hesitation: "So you want me to be turned into iron pot stew by my personal cook?"
Iron pot stew with a big bug, and maybe some very bloody gutting in the middle.
Even without these shudder-inducing treatments, she would at least not be able to eat Mei's cooking for a long time.
Rather than that, it would be better to just lie down willingly and let that lewd man pull up his pants and get lost sooner.
The rejected Miss Rin was in a panic: "But if you don't help me, my sister will..."
Kiana: "..."
So your sister has already willingly jumped into this pit, why do you still want me to help her?
Kiana didn't understand: "You don't approve of your brother-in-law?"
The sakura-haired girl instantly flared up: "Who likes that guy! Back in Nagazora City, he did all sorts of things to me, taking advantage of my situation and leaving me with a humiliating memory that I can never forget!"
The Herrscher cursed and swore, just short of grabbing her weapon and fighting the Inner World Protagonist to the death.
It was one thing for him to make a move on her when she wasn't in her right mind; after all, she was also a beneficiary of that incident.
But this guy even got horny for her, a swordswoman, making her life in Jizo Mitama restless.
This is outrageous!
Kiana finally understood what this girl was thinking.
In short, the initial impression was so terrible that Rin's negative opinion of Brian was maxed out.
All of Brian's actions were seen as plots against her, and now he was even targeting her sister.
She sympathized with the girl's plight.
But if she wanted her help...
"Sorry, I can't think of any good ideas either."
Scratching the back of her head, Kiana wore a bright smile, which made Rin's heart sink into darkness.
Filled with disappointment, Rin left Kiana, wandering through the mansion like a ghost.
A pink-haired, beautiful girl spotted her.
A broad chest met Rin's face, the soft touch making the girl feel as if she had returned to her mother's embrace.
"So soft."
"Ahem," Elysia blinked, her slender palm embracing the girl, stroking the small, lost head.
"Rin, are you so sad because you can't bear to leave everyone?"
The pink long hair coiled into shapes as Elysia twirled it with her fingers, giving her a playful air.
The sakura-pink-haired girl belatedly realized what was happening. After looking up at this overly familiar person, she continued to bury her head in Elysia's bosom, comforting her scarred and confused heart.
"Elysia, how do you think I can protect my sister?"
When she asked this question, Rin's eyes were filled with confusion and struggle.
She might know how to achieve this goal, but for various reasons, she could never bring herself to do it.
"You mean Sakura..."
Before meeting Rin, Elysia had just met up with her fickle boyfriend.
Compared to the assassin from her memories, the current Sakura was undoubtedly much gentler, as if a glacier that hadn't melted for ten thousand years was enveloped and melted by a warming atmosphere, a warm feeling spreading throughout her body.
Elysia thought this version of Sakura was quite good. After all, most of the beautiful girls in the Elysian Realm had partners, and it wasn't right to leave Sakura all alone.
So she said: "From the current situation, your worries, Rin, might all be unnecessary."
"What did you say!"
The Herrscher who had lifted her head bared her teeth, like an enraged young lioness.
She seemed ready to pounce at any moment and make this woman pay for her words.
However, Elysia simply pulled Rin to a hidden spot, and together they stealthily watched the man who was currently getting handsy with her sister.
"Rin, haven't you noticed the change in your sister?"
"..."
If you don't want to see, you won't see.
You can never wake a person who is pretending to be asleep.
Elysia persisted, she couldn't let her good sister escape from her bed: "Your sister is changing, from the cold and icy person she used to be into a gentle and lovely young lady."
But!
"I'll get a brother-in-law out of this!"
Rin's face darkened, considering whether to give Elysia a piece of her mind.
Wasn't this the very thing she was worrying about? And this woman had to bring up the one thing she didn't want to hear, as if she was here just to rub salt in her wounds.
Elysia... this woman was born to love everyone!
Apparently, Elysia didn't see any problem with this: "Isn't that great?"
"None of us have any objections, your parents have no objections, and your sister has no objections."
Elysia hugged Rin again, "Rin, you must learn to respect the choices and lives of others."
"My parents died a long time ago."
The girl pushed away the enthusiastic embrace, a look of disgust on her face.
"And! I was asking you if you had any solutions, not for you to be a mouthpiece for that bastard!"
"Is that so..."
The street loafer's nine-year-compulsory-education-dropout's world-shaking wisdom kicked in. Elysia decided that before this game ended, she would make this cute pair of sisters fall in love with her too.
She couldn't help it.
As the witness to Sakura's entrustment, she had to help her friend Sakura fulfill her wish, no matter what.
Besides, this was also little Rin's request. As long as she successfully developed feelings for her future brother-in-law, wouldn't all the problems be solved?
Organizing her thoughts for a moment, Elysia sighed with a grave expression: "Rin, I won't say any more than necessary. I think you know very well your sister's purpose in doing this."
"..."
The girl fell silent.
Just as Elysia said, Sakura's goal had always been clear, she was just deliberately ignoring it.
Perhaps it was out of fear of the Inner World Protagonist, or perhaps it was her attachment to her sister.
In short... she didn't want to leave her sister.
Her sister knew this clearly, but didn't want to force her will upon her, so she planned to bring the Inner World Protagonist into the family and slowly cultivate her feelings.
After all, in Sakura's heart, she was just a ghost trapped in a computer with no future. Making a small sacrifice for her sister was well worth it.
Elysia continued: "You must understand that your sister is doing all this for your own good. Until your future is secured, she won't stop the plan she has already set in motion."
"If you want your sister to stop what she's doing now..."
Elysia stared at the girl beside her: "You just need to fulfill your sister's wish."
The petite girl made one last stubborn retort: "But can't I just charge ahead with her in this place?"
The Inner World Protagonist's trip to the Elysian Realm had one major benefit for Rin: this dream world was now connected to the Elysian Realm, allowing her and her sister to reunite in their dreams.
For that reason, she could begrudgingly admit that he was a barely acceptable man.
But!
"Rin, you said it yourself that this is a dream. Do you really expect your sister to stay asleep with you forever?"
A single sentence left the girl speechless.
It was a dream, so of course it couldn't bring a sense of security.
Even if she was very satisfied with the current situation, her sister didn't think this situation was helpful for her current state.
Sweet preserves were not only a hope that saved a lonely Herrscher in a desperate situation, but they could also be an invitation from the god of death.
If Rin continued to indulge in this, she would most likely be harmed by other existences.
As a Herrscher, she was already in the game, and until she defeated the Honkai, there was no chance of escape.
This was the fundamental reason why Sakura, the older sister, was worried and had always wanted to entrust her to someone.
Her sister was alone in this era, without the ability to protect herself. She had to find a shelter for her that could shield her from the wind and rain.
Rin: "..."
She clenched her fists, her expression full of unwillingness.
All the fig leaves had been torn away, forcing her to face reality.
The reality was that she was weak. Except for in a data world like the Elysian Realm where she could wreak havoc, in other places she was a clay chicken and pottery dog that would shatter with a single touch.
Once she encountered a danger she truly couldn't resist, she, residing in Jizo Mitama, could do nothing but cry out 'I can't do anything.'
Weak, pathetic, and yet loves to team fight. A weak player like her was practically a godsend experience pack for the opponent.
"I understand."
She had made her decision.
Everything started because of her. If she hadn't wanted to go to the Elysian Realm to see her sister, her sister wouldn't have had her current thoughts. Since the origin and the core of the conflict was her, then making peace with this world was her best course of action.
Elysia watched as Rin stood up with a determined face, and asked, knowing the answer: "Rin, what are you going to do?"
"Interrupting a beautiful girl's date is not the behavior of a tanuki, you know."
Hearing this, the Herrscher girl sneered: "Elysia, now that you've achieved your goal, stop being so hypocritical in front of me."
The girl, with a resolute back, stepped forward without hesitation, attracting the attention of the other two.
The wind soughs, the Yi River is cold; once the hero leaves, he will never return.
It started with her, it will end with her; she was the beginning, she will be the end.
"Rin..."
Sakura, who was happily chatting with young Brian, wanted to withdraw her hand from the man's grasp, but she didn't know when he had already held it firmly.
Even though she had made her decision, in front of her sister, she still had some subconscious actions, not wanting Rin to see these things.
But...
"..."
There are only wrongly given names in this world, never wrongly given nicknames.
Brian lived up to his name as the Inner World Protagonist, having long since played with this outwardly cold assassin until she was soft all over.
He naturally wouldn't let the meat that had been delivered to his mouth go.
Even though she was prepared, Rin's anger still flared up watching this scene.
If she hadn't come at the right time, her sister might have ended up in this guy's bed tonight!
The Inner World Protagonist, truly innately evil.
But even she had to admit one thing: this guy was indeed a very powerful protector, enough to fulfill her sister's wish.
The disgusted girl sat down between the two, and without a word, pulled her jade foot out of her shoe and placed it on young Brian's lap.
Rin, who was already well aware of this guy's fetish system, looked at him as if he were a small fry, and said in front of her own bewildered sister: "Lick it. This is your reward from me!"
"..."
...
"Mama Aponia, can we leave now?"
The little painter finished her last painting here, and with a patter of her tender jade feet, she threw herself onto the nun.
Griseo's big, watery eyes were full of innocence and a longing for freedom. It seemed this little caged bird already wanted to return to the unrestrained Elysian Realm.
"Mm, just a little longer, and we'll be able to go back."
The maternal nun stroked the girl's head, but couldn't hide a trace of sorrow deep in her eyes.
In order to end this game, and to prevent Griseo from learning things a child shouldn't know, a tattoo just like his had already been inked onto her delicate little belly.
Sensitivity could not only be adjusted upwards, but also downwards.
Upwards was torture, downwards was immunity.
Later, Griseo would only need to experience a brief moment of darkness, and by the time she opened her eyes again, she would have left this place.
It's just...
"Mama Aponia, what does Evil Corruption feel like?"
The delicate little face was filled with the curiosity of seeking knowledge.
A child's curiosity is always so strong, she didn't even know how to answer.
Griseo was still a child. If she were to learn things she shouldn't, this little one would have to enter the adult world prematurely.
This experience should be left to her grown-up self in the real world.
Anyway, that adult Griseo was already a mother of seven, so she should have a lot of understanding and experience with this kind of thing.
"Griseo, you're still young. When you grow up, you'll understand these things."
The nun's smile was very gentle, but her answer did not satisfy the little painter.
Griseo puffed up her little cheeks, looking very cute: "Griseo is not a child anymore, Griseo is fifty thousand years old!"
The cute girl was just short of putting her hands on her hips proudly.
When the Elysian Realm was first established, the age gap between her and her mother, grandmother, and sisters was at least a dozen years.
But now, after fifty-five thousand years, the dozen-year gap had been diluted by the long span of time and had become insignificant.
It could even be said that Griseo was now on the same level as Aponia and the others, they were peers!
At fifty thousand years old, she considered herself an adult, and had the right to know about things that only adults could know.
Aponia's smile was a bit strained: "Griseo, be good."
The gentle touch carried a mother-like warmth, filling the girl with affection.
Griseo still wanted to get to the bottom of it, but under Aponia's comforting, she had to temporarily give up on her thoughts.
But the little painter, feeling the delicate pattern on her stomach, still hadn't given up her pursuit of the unknown.
'Evil Corruption... what exactly does it feel like?'
She was very curious.
Maybe she should go ask that white-haired big brother who told her stories.
The inner world lay ahead, but Griseo didn't know.
...
"Still... no change."
The world before her was still a scene from *Saya no Uta*, everything she saw was filled with the horror of alien flesh.
If it weren't for the strong will of a Valkyrie supporting Rita, she probably would have succumbed to this silent terror long ago.
Even though she knew this world wasn't real, and that she might be able to recover just by waking up.
But Rita had to prepare for the worst...
"If this doesn't work, I'll have to try asking Lord Fu Hua."
And as it happens, there was an instruction from the Schicksal Overseer that she needed to properly relay to this pioneer from the Previous Era.
...