Time rewinds to the morning of this very day.
Cough…
Cough, cough, cough.
Ah!
Hiss—
Inside the Hero Party’s base, a “silver-haired youth” lay sprawled on the sofa, clutching their chest, unable to stop coughing in fitful bursts.
Every so often, there were even faint, muffled whimpers escaping.
She tried desperately to hold back those sounds—after all, if Alice heard, that woman would definitely grow suspicious. But—
She couldn’t help it; there was simply nothing she could do.
Cough, cough, cough.
The wounds she’d suffered last night were just… far too serious.
Not only had that terrifying man shot her through with an arrow, causing severe tearing injuries, and though she’d used magic potion to achieve some quick recovery, full healing in such a short time was impossible.
She absolutely needed to rest and recover, and meanwhile, she had to endure the side effects of the medicine—which meant pain.
Grrr…
All of this, every single bit, was the fault of that white-haired woman!
Huff.
Jiaxia took a deep, angry breath, and then, rather absurdly, shoved all the blame onto Keti.
Why did she think that way? Simple: it was all because of that kid.
Last night, it was Keti who set that man to ambush her; just as she was about to successfully tempt that big… rooster, Keti jumped out and stopped her.
Worst of all, in the end, when she tried to absorb Keti’s power, she was the one who got her own power absorbed instead.
And, mind you, that wasn’t magic—it was power! Jiaxia felt like even her magical aptitude had dropped. Hmm… No, that shouldn’t be possible, right? Isn’t that sort of thing supposed to be innate?
In short, she’d lost her power, her wounds weren’t healed, and this time, the succubus lady was completely broken.
She even began to regret her reckless decision to join this team of monsters in the first place.
That Alice was a total shut-in, always holed up in the base, restless but stubbornly keeping up appearances, while the two priests and the elf went out carousing every day.
They said they’d joined the party, but this party had completely stopped functioning!
Jiaxia, unable to find a single opportunity to make a move, became desperate to deal with Keti, and in the process took that terrible beating.
Luckily, it seemed Keti hadn’t figured out her true identity, or she wouldn’t even dare come back to this base.
On top of that, all the daily chores of those three had been dumped on her. She’d done so much housework these past days for nothing!
Huff… Anyway, if not for this rotten party, how could she possibly have suffered so much? Worst of all, she’d endured all this and hadn’t gotten a single reward for it—ugh—
Just as the succubus lady’s mental defenses were about to collapse, suddenly… Alice’s bedroom door opened, and a twin-tailed blonde loli, still rubbing sleep from her eyes, yawned, then curiously peered into the living room.
No one was there, as expected… Just like before. It was always like this now—only Jiaxia remained here.
“Where’s Layla and Sylvia?”
“Uh… M-Morning, Alice! Layla and Sylvia, ha ha… them? It looks like, um, they’ve gone out again!”
Caught off guard by Alice’s sudden question, Jiaxia gritted her teeth and suppressed the pain, then quickly turned her head, forcing a professional smile.
Alice sighed, nodded, then… suddenly, unexpectedly said:
“Um, Jiaxia, can you come to my room later? There’s something I’d like your help with.”
“Oh… Well, that might be a little, uh… Wait, later? What did you say?!”
The succubus lady blinked in shock, then looked at Alice with excitement.
The twin-tailed blonde yawned again, then put on a somewhat bitter expression and said, “Later, come to my room, all right?”
“O-Of course! It would be my honor!”
Wow, wow…
Jiaxia was practically trembling with excitement—she’d waited all these days, with nothing happening, and now this careful, cautious Alice was inviting her of her own accord.
Heh, heh, what could be the reason? She’d probably finally given up on Keti for good. All those days of washing clothes weren’t for nothing, ha ha ha!
The succubus lady’s lips curled up in satisfaction—no problem, in a bit, while you’re lost in sweet dreams, I’ll kill you while you’re still so happy!
With that in mind, after a moment, Jiaxia suddenly remembered something. Right, there was one more thing she needed to deal with…
She put on an innocent, naive expression, tilted her head, and said:
“Could you wait for me a moment, Alice? I need to get ready…”
“Mm, hurry up.”
There was a trace of impatience in the twin-tailed blonde’s tone as she turned back to her room. A few minutes later, Jiaxia returned.
***
As soon as she entered, the succubus lady eagerly closed the door, hurried over to Alice, and rubbed her hands together in excitement:
“Alice, what do you need my help with? Don’t worry, I’m a professional~”
“Um… well…”
The twin-tailed blonde hesitated for a moment, then sighed and awkwardly scratched her head:
“It’s like this, actually… I have insomnia, and I want someone to help me fall asleep…”
“Ah… cough… So, it’s just helping you sleep.”
Jiaxia was a bit disappointed. Was her male form really that unattractive? She’d even used charm magic.
Well, whatever—if Alice fell asleep, it’d be easy to make a move!
“No problem, leave it to me!”
“Ah… actually, it’s not that simple. I’ll just say it—um, Jiaxia, could you pretend to be Keti and help me sleep? I mean, copy her voice, her tone, her catchphrases, all of it, just like her… I kind of miss her…”
Is this woman crazy?!
Jiaxia’s lips twitched fiercely. Just moments ago she’d been happy this girl had come to her on her own, but now, the succubus lady was completely broken again.
So after all that, this twin-tailed blonde loli only wanted her as a stand-in for Keti!
She’d suspected that might be the case, but… but—
She was actually supposed to be Keti’s substitute?!
How could the succubus lady possibly accept this?!
In a fit of rage, Jiaxia suddenly pounced on Alice, eyes wide and scarlet.
“Stop thinking about her, Alice, you’re supposed to be mine now! You should be thinking about me! You need to forget about her.”
“Actually, you really like me, right? You want me to bully you—this is your true desire deep down…”
“Smack—!”
Suddenly, a crisp slap landed hard on Jiaxia’s face, knocking the succubus lady off the bed. After a long moment, she clutched her face in shock and looked up—
Only to meet Alice’s icy gaze.
“What do you think you’re doing?!”