Seeing Lefiya being forced to retreat, Tiona and Riveria's eyes lit up.
"Case solved!" Tiona wore the expression of a detective making a deduction. "You can't even get close to Ais, the one you're closest to, so there's only one truth! It must be Lefiya's mental mysophobia that's at work!"
Ais also stopped, put away her rapier, and looked at Lefiya quietly.
"What are you talking about?" Lefiya just breathed a sigh of relief when she heard Tiona's words and complained speechlessly. "A sharp sword almost hit my face just now. Was I supposed to not hide?!"
"Any normal person would avoid that, okay?"
"Mm." Riveria nodded. "Indeed, it's impossible to confirm whether it's a stress response just by doing this. We have to try another method."
"No? You still want to test? What do you want to do?"
When Lefiya heard this, she shrank back in fear, like a little lamb straying into a pack of wolves, shivering, looking weak, pitiful, and helpless.
Seeing this, Riveria stepped forward with a gentle smile. She touched Lefiya's head and softly comforted her:
"Don't worry, we won't harm you; this is for your own good."
Tiona nodded in agreement. "That's right. If you figure out where your problem comes from earlier, you can explain it better."
However, their actions looked completely different to Lefiya at this time.
...
Riveria had a sinister smile on her face. "Don't be afraid, I'm not a devil. Don't worry, no one will die."
Tiona looked cold and ruthless. "This is your own problem, you can't blame us."
Next to her, Ais even started sharpening her sword, looking like she was ready to take action at any time.
...
Lefiya screamed in horror. "No! Don't! I won't play anymore! Isn't it okay if I try hard to change it? Don't come over here!"
"..." x4
Everyone couldn't help but be speechless at Lefiya.
But she didn't have a choice anymore. Under Riveria's instructions, Tiona stepped forward and captured Lefiya.
Lefiya struggled desperately but was easily suppressed by Tiona.
"What to do next?"
Tiona asked, turning back to Riveria while holding Lefiya.
"Let me think about it... well, let's tie her up first, but leave one hand free to move."
"OK, leave it to me."
When Tiona heard that this was going to be fun, she started to execute it happily.
After a while, Lefiya was tied to a pillar with chains kindly provided by Takumi. Her legs were bound, and her left hand was tied behind her back. She could not move her whole body except for her right hand and head.
"What are you going to do?"
Lefiya asked with a look of despair.
"Of course, it's about testing your instinctive reaction," Riveria said as she put a wooden practice sword into Lefiya's only movable right hand.
Lefiya was holding the wooden sword when she felt a pain on the top of her head. Riveria, who had suddenly come up to her, hit her with a wooden stick.
"Ouch! Why did you hit me again?!"
Riveria ignored her and thought to herself, "It seems that I can't arouse your stress response."
With that said, Riveria handed the wooden stick to Tiona and whispered something in Tiona's ear.
"Hehe, it's my turn."
After hearing this, Tiona took the stick with a wicked smile and made two gestures toward Lefiya's head.
"..."
Lefiya's eyes twitched, and she finally understood what the people on the other side wanted to do.
But just because she understood it, she couldn't help but feel like crying.
"Um, can we change the testing method? This is abuse."
"Stop talking so much useless stuff, come on!"
Tiona showed a ferocious smile. "If you don't want to be beaten, you have to defend yourself well. Otherwise, I'm worried that if I can't control my strength, then I will..."
As she spoke, Tiona hit a watermelon next to her that was also provided by Takumi.
Poof!
Under Tiona's huge power, the watermelon exploded in an instant. The red pulp and juice splashed all over the floor, and also splashed onto Lefiya's body.
But Lefiya didn't care about getting dirty; she looked at the wooden stick in Tiona's hand, dripping with red juice that looked like blood, with a horrified look on her face.
Thinking about it, if Tiona hit her on the head with all her strength, she might end up like the watermelon...
Gulp~!
Lefiya's face turned pale and she said, "What about that? Let's forget it. If you think about it carefully, this test is actually not reasonable at all, is it?"
"Without further ado! Die!"
Tiona didn't listen to Lefiya's sophistry at all. She suddenly raised the wooden stick and swung it hard at Lefiya.
"No!!!"
Lefiya screamed and closed her eyes in despair.
Bang~!
Crack~
A crisp, shattering sound rang out at the same time.
Then, Lefiya felt a pain in her head, and then she heard Tiona's panicked voice.
"Lefiya! I didn't hold back the strength!"
"Lefiya, are you okay?!"
Lefiya slowly opened her eyes and looked at Tiona with a confused look on her face. Tiona looked apologetic and worried.
"Ah? Am I not dead?"
"Of course you're not dead. This was actually just to scare you, and there was nothing dangerous about it." Riveria explained, "Actually, think about it carefully with your little head, and you will know that ordinary wooden sticks cannot hurt you at all."
Although Lefiya is a Mage, her physique is weaker than that of melee adventurers of the same level.
But no matter how high the level is, she can't be that weak.
Therefore, ordinary wooden things cannot break Lefiya's defense at all.
Even if it comes from a strong fighter like Tiona, it won't work either.
Because before the force is transmitted to Lefiya, or the moment it is transmitted, the wood will not be able to hold up.
This is why Riveria dared to do this with confidence.
Because although the process looks scary, it will not cause any harm to Lefiya. At most, it will only hurt.
Well, at most, a bump will be smashed out, nothing more.
"Eh? It seems so?"
When Lefiya heard this, she also reacted.
Then she changed back to a fooled expression. "You guys are really... scary! You could scare people to death! Do you know how desperate I was just now? Waahhh~!"
As soon as she mentioned her grievance, Lefiya couldn't hold it back and burst into tears.
Seeing this, Riveria and Tiona quickly comforted her. After working for a while, they managed to calm Lefiya down.
"Well, can you put me down first?" Lefiya, who had calmed down, looked down and found that she was still tied up, so she asked the two of them to let her go immediately.
Unexpectedly, Riveria, who had been so good-natured, suddenly changed her face when she heard this request.
She refused without hesitation. "That's not possible, the test is not over yet."
Lefiya was stunned when she heard this.
"What?! Not over yet?!"