But soon, watching the King Edma Dragon’s Dragonflame growing increasingly violent around her, Irina rarely furrowed her brows slightly.
No, could it be that this girl is really going all out?
If she really lets loose—
Irina glanced subtly in Ye Wanqing’s direction.
Don’t give her that chance.
It’s time to close the net.
Irina gently pinched the brim of her hat, completely burying her face in shadow, then suddenly tossed her wide witch hat high into the air.
Her figure straightened abruptly, but the most striking change was her long hair, now as pure white as snow, and the pair of pale pink pupils feigning a gentle and fragile appearance.
Edma’s tensed body trembled suddenly, and the blazing firelight in her eyes flickered violently.
“Mo… Mo… Mo…”
Recalling Irina’s shameless deception earlier, Edma quickly realized this was a fabricated illusion created by Irina, but the emotional turmoil caused her mana to spiral out of control.
The previously fused and violently burning magic suddenly dispersed again into sparks.
“Little Edma, what’s this? Coming all the way here? You made me search for you so long.”
Irina spoke almost exactly in the tone and manner of Motes herself, causing Edma—who thought she had already seen through the disguise—to tremble deeply once more.
“Cut the act! Motes can’t possibly be here!”
Though shouting, Edma’s voice had already lost much of its strength.
Or rather, just looking at Motes’s face alone made her calves weaken uncontrollably and her hands cover her backside.
Even a weirdo is still human.
Having countless marks left on her body by Motes, Edma’s body no longer fully belonged to her.
These hidden, disciplined instincts were now further eroding her reason.
“Is that so? Looks like little Edma is being disobedient again.”
Irina’s smile grew bold and unrestrained.
The pale pink eyes she used to imitate Motes gradually revealed an excited gleam under her careful control.
She was well aware that although her steps weren’t executed perfectly, the results were already quite significant—it all boiled down to underestimating the shadow Motes had left on Edma.
The first paper she shot at Edma with the gun was white, red, and pink confetti, drifting everywhere like the residual magic that erupted during Edma’s first battle with Motes.
This was a visual hypnotic trigger, designed to subconsciously make her recall that battle.
The second was a gooey paste mimicking Motes’s scent.
It looked like a prank to toy with Edma, but was actually an olfactory hypnosis, gradually bringing Edma under subconscious control.
The third was Motes’s little doll, used to mimic Motes’s magic in a playful attack on Edma.
The damage was nearly zero, but Edma’s huge reaction showed just how deep the hypnosis had already taken hold.
Irina had originally prepared a fourth step: using Motes’ Ruler to whip Edma’s buttocks during the fight.
That would surely push Edma’s fury to the limit, creating the most effective hypnotic impact on both touch and hearing.
Of course, to fully trap Edma in an irreversible hypnosis, the best method was to find a way to feed her some of Motes’s hot milk.
But Irina couldn’t just visit S City to see Motes, let alone steal her milk.
Besides, delivering it to Edma posed another headache, so she gave up on that plan.
Anyway, Motes’s imprint on Edma was already deep enough.
All that was needed now was to continuously tease her subconscious with verbal manipulation.
It was that ability, long forgotten by Su Mu, to enhance the influence of her words, that had run through the entire battle, quietly playing its part.
This ability was relatively weak, but when properly utilized, it had a surprisingly powerful effect, because Irina had developed it to near perfection.
After all, it had once been the only ability she had.
Even now, as a powerful B-Rank Witch, she still habitually structured her battle strategy around this ability.
This made her appear long-winded and disliked by her opponents, but she didn’t care what those soon-to-be-controlled enemies thought of her.
From Irina’s perspective, Edma’s hypnosis was still somewhat incomplete.
But the fact that her eyes glazed over when seeing Motes’s image, and her hands tightly covered her backside, made Irina involuntarily recall her own unpleasant lesson that day.
If Edma was going through similar experiences every day… such results were hardly surprising, especially with Irina’s ability helping along.
At some point, the threads in Irina’s hands had quietly tangled around Edma’s arms and legs, weaving bit by bit into her fair skin.
Whenever Edma tried to wipe away Irina’s afterimages, Irina secretly wrapped those threads tighter around her.
They could manipulate and even control a person’s will.
Though only mildly effective against a second-tier B-Rank powerhouse like Edma, they were an indispensable part of the plan, now being used to suppress Edma’s resistance with all of Irina’s strength.
Seizing the moment Edma’s mana spiraled out of control and her mind drifted, Irina closed in, preparing to complete the missing final step.
A glowing red ruler suddenly appeared in her hand.
She approached Edma slowly.
The latter instinctively stepped back, then weakly collapsed onto the ground due to trembling legs, eyes moistening.
“D-Don’t come closer…”
Her brain had already short-circuited and forgotten to question Irina.
Her voice was timid, completely unlike before.
“Don’t be nervous, I’m very gentle.”
With a smile like a certain silver-haired demon, Irina squatted down in front of Edma and, despite the weak resistance, flipped her over to lie prone on the sandy ground.
“I’m only going to spank you once.”
Edma stiffened anxiously, arching her back and trying to bury her buttocks into the sand, desperate to avoid the ruler less than thirty centimeters away.
But this only made her panic more obvious.
Her magic ran wild from fear, and for some reason, the thought of counterattacking was blocked, leaving only escape or endurance.
Running was impossible.
Paired with the magical threads, Irina firmly held down Edma’s restless legs.
Even so, Edma nearly broke free several times, prompting Irina to silently complain about this girl’s terrifying brute strength.
‘When will I ever have such exaggerated strength myself?’
She lifted Edma’s dress high, revealing her tightly fitting underwear outlining a perfectly shaped, pert buttocks.
Then she raised the ruler high.
‘I don’t care what you say, take this spanking!’