“Mmm, nothing beats waking up naturally after a good sleep.”
Glancing outside, the sky suggested it was around eight in the morning.
Luo You rolled out of bed, but the moment her toes touched the floor, her entire body froze.
She clamped her thighs together, shifting slightly, and an odd sensation coursed through her.
Her face flushed crimson, all the way to her ears.
Darting to the door, she checked the water glass balanced on the handle—unbroken.
The windows were secure too.
No one had sneaked in last night.
The problem, then, was undeniably her own.
“W-What… Since becoming a girl, have my desires gotten stronger too?”
Luo You racked her brain, vaguely recalling a rather vivid dream from the night before.
And now, this embarrassing morning predicament.
“Damn it!”
She couldn’t fathom how something so absurd could happen to her.
Was she really some shameless vixen?
Calmly grabbing a towel, she headed into the bathroom.
“Transform!”
Without hesitation, she shifted forms, then plucked a gem called the “Memory Stone” from her chest.
She began sifting through the magical girls she’d once defeated, selecting materials for her spell.
Collecting CGs of magical girls had become a hobby during her hunting days.
Capturing the moment when pure, dignified magical girls fell into depravity, their expressions crumbling, was deeply satisfying.
“Who to pick… Oh, you’ll do!”
The image settled on the current Fifth Seat, “Broken-Winged Butterfly.”
Though a magical girl, her eyes always seemed to glint with a dangerous edge, her emotions hidden behind a constant, enigmatic smile.
People called her two-faced, or perhaps “black-hearted.”
Such people were hard to deal with.
If you didn’t know her well, you might offend her without realizing and find yourself quietly pushed away.
But for Luo You, none of that mattered.
***
“Sister?!”
Skylark gaped at Broken-Winged Butterfly beside her.
The usually smiling, composed woman now had eyes filled with a venomous darkness, like swirling dark matter.
“That woman…!”
Broken-Winged Butterfly’s mind drifted to her defeat at Ellera’s hands, her eyes seeming to drip with blood-red tears.
In her memory, after Ellera’s ferocious onslaught, she’d been left trembling with fear, kneeling sincerely on the floor, offering a beautifully seductive bow from the bed.
Naturally, the defeated weren’t allowed to wear clothes.
A delicate, jade-like foot lifted her chin, and that woman had said, “They say you hide your emotions, that you have two faces? How laughable. I’m certain the expression you’re showing now is the truest you’ve ever worn!”
Broken-Winged Butterfly couldn’t recall her own expression then, but as Ellera had claimed, it was likely the raw fear buried deep within her heart spilling out.
“Ellera… I’ll make you kneel before me, your body scrawled with filthy words, humiliated a thousand times over, licking my toes!” she muttered venomously.
[This isn’t the magical girl I know! I didn’t see anything today!]
Skylark covered her face, wishing someone could erase her memory.
***
Adding Broken-Winged Butterfly’s CG to her spell materials, Luo You moved on to the next.
“Oh? I remember these two…”
Among the many CGs were two girls who looked nearly identical, blindfolded and tightly bound, writhing helplessly on the ground, pleading for mercy.
“It’s them. Their teamwork was impressive, gave me a bit of a challenge… But the sweetest coconuts are the ones you work hardest to crack.”
These were the twin sisters Ji Yue had mentioned, both former Tenth Seat members: “Apricot Rain” and “Pear Cloud.”
Their speech patterns, movements, outfits, and even sensitive spots were identical, leaving a deep impression on Luo You.
***
The current Third Seat of the Tenth, Apricot Rain, couldn’t contain her surging magic.
It spilled out, forming a folded white wing on her left side, its feathers fluttering and whipping up a fierce whirlwind indoors.
“That woman… She’s the reason my sister left the Tenth Seat! Now she just stays home, clutching that woman’s photo, muttering nonsense, ignoring me… It’s all her fault! I’ll make her pay for my sister’s pain, make her feel it too…”
Beyond that, Apricot Rain harbored another obsession with Ellera.
“Whoops, my bad! I was supposed to go for your sister next, but you two look so alike I got mixed up! Sorry about that~ You okay up there?”
Even now, that devilish woman’s words echoed in her ears, a lingering nightmare.
Mixed up?
How casually she said it!
Because of that mix-up, Apricot Rain had endured two sleepless nights of torment, nearly driven to madness.
Next time, she’d carve her mark into that woman’s body, make her remember her forever.
[I can’t see, I can’t see, I can’t see—] Skylark kept her face covered, refusing to face reality.
***
The twin sisters Apricot Rain and Pear Cloud were added to the spell list.
Luo You moved on to the next.
She’d toyed with plenty of magical girls.
Picking just two or three at a time?
That’d make her a laughingstock.
One more! Just one at a time!
“Next… Oh? I remember her, from the Boundary Sea… Now called Jin Wang, right?”
The Jin Wang in the CG was starkly different from now.
Dressed like a woman from ancient times posing as a man, her long hair was tied back.
When she removed her bindings, she revealed an unexpectedly full figure.
“Back then, she didn’t care much about her appearance, dressed like a tomboy. Now she’s all refined, like a proper lady.”
“How… How could there be so many I didn’t know about…?”
Ji Yue’s pupils trembled.
She’d never imagined so many of the Tenth Seat had tangled with Ellera. It was terrifying!
Wait—could Senior Jin Wang also…?!
The Tenth Seat members around her were visibly shaken, and Ji Yue’s heart pounded as she glanced at Jin Wang.
If even this senior had been tainted by Ellera… her long-standing image of Jin Wang would crumble entirely.
But reality wasn’t so cruel.
Amid the chaos of the other Tenth Seat members, Jin Wang sat calmly, one hand propping her face, her fingers toying with her flowing golden hair, utterly unperturbed.
If a camera caught her now and sent the shot to a magazine, she’d dominate the cover for weeks, with advertisers flocking to her.
The public saw Jin Wang as “heroic” and “aggressive,” a classic tomboy.
Yet in reality, she exuded such femininity, a captivating contrast.
“We do need to track that woman down,” Jin Wang said coolly.
“Plenty of girls deserve answers from her.”
But in her mind, memories surfaced unbidden—
On a soft bed, golden and silver hair tangled together, slick with sweat, inseparable.
Ellera lifted a strand of her golden hair, weaving it with her own silver locks, the colors cascading like a waterfall across the sheets.
“You’ve got such a great foundation. Why do you always dress like a boy? I love your hair—so vibrant, such a gorgeous gold. It matches me perfectly. Why tie it up? What a waste.”
“I-I just wanted to prove I’m not…”
“Some pointless principle, huh? I don’t care what you think. In front of me, you’re a woman.”
Those words hit like a thunderbolt, snapping Jin Wang out of her reverie.
A woman… huh?
In the bathtub, Luo You’s slender legs stretched taut, her toes curling elegantly before sinking limply into the water.
A few seconds later:
“Still not enough…”
Luo You climbed out, frustrated.
A simple soak in the hot springs, and she was this desperate?
She’d used up her spell materials already.
Time to find more.
“Next… uh.”
She flipped to a CG that made her pause, silent for a long moment.
“Xing Yue…”
Even now, Luo You couldn’t figure out what that woman was thinking.
She couldn’t forget their duel.
“Ellera, why don’t we skip the boring foreplay and go straight to the final act? You’ve defeated countless magical girls and taken pride in it. Want to see if your polished skills can take me down head-on?”
Luo You still found it surreal.
Xing Yue, the First Seat, had challenged her to an imperial duel—on a bed, no less.
Unthinkable words from the top magical girl.
The proposal was so novel that Luo You agreed without much thought.
As a wicked sorceress who hunted magical girls, how could she refuse a challenge from one?
By all accounts, she should’ve had the upper hand. Her track record was unmatched—magical girls left in shambles, their dignity in tatters.
No matter how legendary Xing Yue was, she was still human, right?
But the reality…
Her vaunted achievements, her refined techniques, her hard-earned confidence—all shattered by Xing Yue’s cold, almost lifeless response.
“Even if she’s frigid, there’s no way she could be completely unaffected by me! Was her body modified or something??”
Luo You muttered to the bathroom ceiling.
An imperial duel wasn’t one-sided.
It was a back-and-forth.
When her attacks failed, Luo You switched to defense, looking for any weakness she’d missed.
If I can’t break you, can you break me?
And then she was thoroughly broken.
In a moment of distraction, Xing Yue leaned close, her breath warm against Luo You’s neck.
“Aurora Sorceress Ellera… not quite living up to the rumors, are you? They call you a slayer of hundreds, but your body’s so weak~”
Desperate to salvage some pride, Luo You threw caution to the wind and used the Soul-Sealing Coral for a last-ditch counterattack, finally bringing Xing Yue to her knees, dazed and defeated.
But the Aurora Sorceress fled in shame.
The moment she resorted to the Coral, she’d lost—utterly and humiliatingly.
That day, Luo You awakened to the woman within her.