Because of his prior encounter with Shiroyasha, Yūto had always assumed that Demon Lords in Little Garden stood at absurdly high tiers of power.
But the golden-haired girl before him—
He could clearly tell she didn't measure up to what he considered the level of a "Demon Lord."
In Little Garden, Demon Lords were known as "natural disasters." They could forcibly initiate Gift Games without needing the consent of other communities. They possessed matching authority and overwhelming strength—existences feared by all.
Yet Leticia, standing before him now…
While undoubtedly leagues above small fry like Jāld, she was nowhere near Shiroyasha's level. The gap was enormous.
Yūto hadn't been exaggerating earlier—fighting this so-called "former Demon Lord," he honestly felt she wasn't even as troublesome as Izayoi.
"Someone with your level of strength," Leticia asked after being sent flying by one of Yūto's punches, her wings finally stabilizing her descent after a long arc through the air, "why would you choose a community like No Name—a group that's practically on the verge of disbanding?"
Her wine-red eyes fixed on him, her expression serious.
Asuka and Yō were one thing. They had come to Little Garden because they'd been invited by Black Rabbit.
But Leticia had investigated. Yūto hadn't arrived because of Black Rabbit's invitation.
He possessed impressive strength—and a sharp mind to match. By all logic, even mid-to-upper-tier communities would have welcomed him.
So why choose a group with no name, no banner, and the constant risk of being targeted by a Demon Lord?
Truthfully, Leticia's purpose hadn't only been to test the combat abilities of No Name's new members.
She wanted to know whether they were sincere—whether they truly intended to help No Name.
The current No Name was already shattered and fragile.
It couldn't endure another betrayal.
"The former Demon Lord is curious why I joined No Name?" Yūto narrowed his eyes slightly. "Then at least show strength worthy of the question. With what you've displayed so far, you're not qualified to demand that answer."
As he spoke, suspicion crept into his gaze.
If she truly were the former Demon Lord who had destroyed No Name, then why did she care so much about its current state?
"If I remain in this state," Leticia said calmly, "let alone test your strength… I may not even leave this place safely. In that case…"
As she spoke, she reached up and untied the black ribbon that had been fastened in her golden hair.
The moment the ribbon came free, a white radiance enveloped her body.
And under Yūto's wide-eyed stare—
Her form began to change.
The petite frame—barely over 120 centimeters tall—began to stretch upward. Her proportions shifted, lengthened, refined.
Within seconds, the neighborhood loli transformed into a cold, aloof onee-san.
"…Is that a Gift too?" Yūto blinked, genuinely intrigued. "The power to resize yourself at will? Don't tell me your true form is some kind of dried-fish imouto?"
Having traveled across multiple worlds, Yūto considered himself well-informed. Yet this was new.
An ability that allowed instant transformation between loli and mature beauty—
Wasn't that overpowered?
Switch at will. Satisfy both the loli fans and the onee-san enthusiasts. Infinite variety. And since she was a vampire—an immortal race—she wouldn't "expire," either.
What a terrifyingly versatile skill set.
"You're strange," Leticia replied coolly. "And your words are incomprehensible. But if you think only my body matured… you are gravely mistaken."
As her words fell, a crimson aura burst from her frame.
With a single stomp, the ground beneath her shattered—and she shot forward at near-sonic speed.
The black-and-red Western knight's lance in her hand felt far more condensed now. The danger radiating from it had multiplied.
She didn't need to explain.
Yūto could already sense it.
The moment she removed that ribbon, her aura had surged dramatically.
If he compared it to the ranking system of his original world—
Loli-form Leticia had been roughly S-minus tier.
Now, in this mature form, she had reached S-plus.
In Little Garden terms, that was likely the peak of the five-digit level—comparable to Izayoi.
Even so, in Yūto's estimation…
She still fell far short of what he imagined a true "Demon Lord" to be.
BOOOOOOM—!
A colossal explosion erupted within the forest.
A towering mushroom cloud rose above the treetops, drawing the attention of Asuka and the others, who had just slain Jāld and secured victory in the Gift Game.
In the night forest, two figures moved like assassins in high-speed pursuit, colliding again and again between the trees.
To an ordinary human observer, their speed would have been impossible to track with the naked eye.
Each time they clashed, shockwaves rippled outward, splitting the earth beneath them and uprooting trees wholesale.
In a battle fought at such velocity, Yūto should have held the advantage. His blade—"Divine Blessing"—was a spiritual weapon in Little Garden, and his swordsmanship was exceptional.
Yet to his surprise—
After transforming from loli to onee-san, Leticia's strength hadn't merely increased.
Her speed and combat instincts had risen across the board.
And when she realized she couldn't match him in close-range blade combat, she began exploiting her aerial superiority to regain ground.
In his normal state, Yūto's power was also roughly S-plus tier—on par with mature-form Leticia.
Under sustained high-intensity combat, he suffered occasional injuries.
But his regenerative ability quickly restored them.
Originally, he had believed that even in a battle of equals, he would inevitably win a war of attrition thanks to regeneration.
That assumption faltered the moment he saw a slash on Leticia's pale thigh knit together in seconds—flesh closing, scabbing, and shedding in a seamless cycle of healing.
He blinked.
Of course.
As a pure-blood vampire—one of the long-lived races—while their regeneration wasn't as absurd as a werewolf's…
They still possessed formidable healing abilities of their own.
..
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