“Where… am I?”
Confusion and shock flashed across Gabriella’s face.
Everything that had just happened (the battle, the fall) replayed before her eyes.
The dark halo above her head gradually faded.
The 【Shadow】 that had crawled over her left hand retreated obediently back into the black ring, vanishing without a trace.
Even the darkness that had swallowed the room disappeared to who-knows-where, leaving behind only the luxurious, warm dining hall from before.
“Your Majesty Isabella?”
Gabriella wrapped her arms around Isabella’s limp body, gently stroking her hair and checking for wounds.
In that hazy moment, something seemed to click in her chest.
Her heart gave a heavy thud.
“Your Majesty… Isabella…”
Now she understood.
Isabella had awakened the power of the Evil God.
If not for Liya and Tina, Gabriella would have been completely transformed into the Evil God’s apostle right here and now.
The Evil God wouldn’t even have needed to erase her memories; she could have simply implanted the concept of “absolute obedience into Gabriella’s mind, stripping away any reason to resist.
She had almost “played herself to death.”
Yet no relief of surviving a disaster filled Gabriella’s heart.
“Liya… what happened?”
Her voice trembled slightly as she soothed the unconscious Isabella.
Without shifting her gaze, she continued gently stroking Isabella’s head.
“The Evil God temporarily revived her former power. She needs rest now.”
“The Evil God…”
Gabriella murmured to herself.
Scenes from moments ago flashed through her mind.
“Yes. If the Evil God were to fully awaken, the world would be in grave danger.”
“Then who exactly are you?”
“This one is merely a humble demon who happens to serve Lord Evil God,” Liya replied with a small bow.
Gabriella fell silent for a long while.
She carefully lifted Isabella into her arms.
Before leaving the dining hall, she turned back to Liya.
“Carry Tina back to her room. Continue the maids’ duties as usual. Follow the menu I specified earlier.”
“Yes, Lady Gabriella.” Liya curtsied deeply.
With that, Gabriella carried Isabella toward the bedroom.
After gently laying her on the bed, Gabriella dragged a chair to the bedside and simply sat there, watching the sleeping Demon King.
Sunlight filtered through the gauzy curtains, illuminating Gabriella’s brows.
A single crystalline tear slid down her cheek and fell onto the back of her hand.
Making Isabella faint had never been part of her plan.
Isabella had once said, “I don’t want to act anymore.”
Gabriella had heard her…
yet she had ignored it.
Later, before the throne, Isabella had voiced her fears: that once Gabriella regained her memories, she would rebel.
Gabriella had brushed it off with vague excuses.
After the battle, in the bathroom, Isabella had asked again… how many memories had returned?
All this time, Isabella had been terrified that a fully restored Gabriella would betray her, yet still desperately hoped that the Gabriella with all her memories would fall in love with her.
And what had Gabriella done these past few days?
Toyed with Isabella’s feelings again and again, putting on a show for Tina to see.
That wasn’t respect for the Demon King.
It was nothing more than playing with her heart.
Isabella must have fallen into despair, the same despair she felt when she was losing that final battle.
“She’s just a game character…”
The moment the words left her mouth, Gabriella wanted to strangle herself.
She even began to think that if Liya hadn’t intervened today, being turned into the Evil God’s apostle would have been no less than she deserved.
The horrifying thought flickered across her mind and vanished.
“But… why?”
Why did the idea of hating Isabella feel so impossible?
She could have just left with Tina right now.
Returned to the Church, started a war, defeated the Demon King.
But she hadn’t.
And from the very beginning, the thought had never even felt viable.
In fact, the very idea disgusted her.
“Could I… actually like her?”
Gabriella shook her head.
No. Impossible… right?
Any faint affection she felt, was it just lingering memories forced into her brain by mind control?
In a daze, her thoughts drifted back eight long years.
She could no longer remember the actual battle against the Demon King.
But the punishment that followed was etched into her soul.
At first, Isabella had kept her chained in the dungeon, personally interrogating her.
In that pitch-black space, only her mouth had been free to move.
Isabella tormented her body with every kind of magic.
She hated the human who had nearly destroyed her kingdom, who had nearly killed her.
Back then, Gabriella’s greatest strength had been her willpower.
Her body was tough too; no matter how excruciating the pain, she endured.
At that point, the Demon King still couldn’t strip away her power.
But within days, Isabella found a way to make Gabriella surrender it willingly.
Make Gabriella submit.
She was bound to a cross wrapped in countless black chains.
Wrists, ankles, waist, thighs, everything was locked in place.
Her eyes were blindfolded; only her mouth remained for breathing.
“Apologise to me.”
Isabella had pinched her chin, insisting on conducting the interrogation herself, allowing no other demon into the tower.
“As… if… heh…”
The cross wasn’t meant for physical punishment.
In fact, when they dragged her there, Gabriella had expected far worse torture.
That tower was the “execution ground” for erasing her memories.
It was a strange sensation of detachment, as though body and mind were being cleansed, then plunged into chaos.
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t pain as most would understand it.
With each “baptism,” Isabella asked questions designed to force submission.
“Who are you?”
“I… AAAAH… I’m…”
She couldn’t remember.
She could only scream what felt like defiance, even as she wondered why she was resisting.
“You do not belong to humanity. You belong to demonkind.”
Before she could deny it, dark power surged through the chains, scrambling her thoughts.
“I… belong… to demonkind…? I…”
It was like programming a machine: cold, mechanical Q&A, inputting rigid commands.
That period lasted an eternity, a week, a month, perhaps half a year.
Every single day, the Demon King came to her, controlled her, sealed away another piece of her memory, forcing her deeper into submission.
During that entire time, Gabriella saw no one but the Demon King.
The Demon King genuinely distrusted every subordinate; she entrusted Gabriella’s “handling” to no one else.
Whenever Gabriella resisted, the baptism resumed.
Memories scattered.
In the end, unable to endure any longer, she accepted the Demon King’s words.
“Who is the sovereign you serve?”
“You… Lady… Isa… bella…”
“Listen well. From now on you can never defy me again. You will become my attendant, my maid. From this day forward, you will swear loyalty to me alone. Understood?”
“Yes… Lady… Isa… bella…”
“You have no past. You are merely a toy that exists to serve me. Understood?”
Her chin was released. The chains fell away.
She was dressed in a maid uniform and obeyed the “commands” the Demon King had implanted, becoming a maid whose eyes held only Her Majesty the Demon King.
…
Every time Gabriella recalled that past, her body trembled uncontrollably.
And yet…
She still couldn’t bring herself to hate her.
Have I already fallen?