” HualÃ… “
Penina, having changed back into her clothes, was about to remind Hualà of the time one last time, but instead, she stumbled upon this bizarre scene.
The next moment, before her expression could even change, the view before Penina’s eyes flipped and spun.
Dozens of red ribbons fell from above, binding her and hanging her upside down in the air.
Her eyes widened, and her scream was muffled by the ribbon wrapped around her mouth.
Sidella pressed her index finger to her red lips, signaling her to stay silent.
Shh~
Under Penina’s helpless gaze, Sidella stepped lightly into the water.
Her black and purple formal dress was soaked by the hot water, but she didn’t care.
With a wave of her hand, she dismissed Lilith, who had already noticed and stopped scrubbing backs.
Knowing this was no longer her place, Lilith left the scene as quickly as possible before Hualà could notice.
Next was Her Majesty the Queen’s time for entertainment and relaxation.
Taking the wet towel, Sidella at first gently washed HualÃ’s back, playing the role of the bath attendant ‘Lilith’.
The damp towel wiped every inch of her back, cleaning away the grime that had accumulated over the past few days.
Later, she abandoned the towel entirely, using her delicate hands to make direct contact with HualÃ’s back.
Hualà was probably dazed from soaking.
Even so, she didn’t sense anything amiss.
She closed her eyes, enjoying the service, fantasizing about a happy life of freedom after successfully escaping from Sidella.
She felt the hand behind her trace down along the curve of her spine, then shift direction at the waist, moving towards her abdomen.
Hualà couldn’t help but inwardly admire Lilith’s thoroughness—after all, the navel is indeed a place where dirt easily hides.
Sidella channeled magic through her fingertips, and the moment she touched the skin, she activated the Magic Mark embedded in the lower abdomen.
A dark red glow flashed and vanished.
HualÃ’s body jolted, eyes snapping open as if a fire had ignited inside her.
Her body grew hotter, and her mind spun out of control.
“Haa… Lilith… I-I’m a bit hot… I don’t want to soak anymore…”
Sidella’s cool fingertips slid across HualÃ’s burning abdomen, as if flipping a switch, intensifying her sense of unease.
Sidella’s lips curled into a mischievous smile.
“Don’t turn around, HualÃ, I’m Lilith~”
As the words fell, the direction shifted instantly, targeting the Hero HualÃ’s most fatal weakness, determined to trigger the Defeat CG once again.
“Haa… ugh… Sidella… why is…”
Hualà no longer had the strength to form a complete sentence.
She only knew Sidella’s movements were strong, churning the Hot Spring water.
The splashes sounded loud as they hit the surface.
She couldn’t even hear what Sidella whispered into her ear anymore, but could vaguely sense a tone of complaint.
Her body grew softer and softer, her waist unable to stay upright, until she collapsed into Sidella’s arms, held by her other hand.
“Ugh…”
She didn’t even know what she’d done to anger the other, but to save her own life, Hualà had no choice but to surrender to the evil force once more.
“I was wrong… I’m sorry… please stop… ugh… I really know I was wrong…”
But the one most shocked in the room was Penina, hanging in the air by Sidella’s ribbons and forced to watch the entire scene.
Inserting herself as the powerless companion watching from the sidelines, she inexplicably felt a sense of being ‘byd’.
Sidella Eve Cecilia, the Demon Queen, actually did such things to the Human Race Hero HualÃ!
What on earth was the relationship between these two?
What had happened during this month after the Hero’s defeat—what exactly had gone on in byd?
If her mouth hadn’t been sealed tight by the ribbon, Penina was sure she would have screamed at Sidella, “Bastard! Stop it! What are you doing to HualÃ!”
Was Sidella leaving her here just so she’d misunderstand, and spread news of the Hero HualÃ’s betrayal to the Human Race?
At her ears, Sidella’s bewitching words seemed to echo:
“HualÃ… until the moment she fainted, she still believed this Saintess would come to save her~”
***
On HualÃ’s side, her consciousness was growing hazy, strength draining from her body.
“I was wrong… I really know I was wrong…”
She looked up at the sky.
A river of stars stretched above her.
The stars scattered in disarray formed a magnificent Star River, distant and mysterious, as if all the truths of the universe were hidden within.
What, then, was the meaning of existence?
Thinking back to the Ancient Era, when the ancestors of the Human Race first stepped onto the earth, accidentally kindling the first Campfire, and for the first time consciously gazed up at the eternal Starlit Sky overhead.
What did they ponder then?
Hualà had no way of knowing.
All she knew was that her body and everything about her had burned out, leaving only pure white Ashes behind.
Hualà had committed an even greater sin than peeing in the swimming pool—during Soaking in the Hot Spring…
She ascended.
Hero HualÃ, while relaxing in the Hot Spring, accidentally encountered the Demon Queen who was as strong as a monster, and fought with all her might but was once again defeated in disgrace.
Defeat CG collected: ‘Don’t turn around, HualÃ’.
In the last moment before she passed out from exhaustion, Sidella’s voice, filled with laughter, echoed in her ear.
“To hold out this long, HualÃ, you were amazing tonight~”
She was always provoking her!
Next time… next time she had to win.
Such a resolve formed in HualÃ’s muddled little head.