That night, in Muen’s room.

The Holy Light had already been fully withdrawn, and the pure glow of the magic lamps had once again taken over the massive bed, big enough for seven or eight beautiful girls to sleep in together. But the sultry atmosphere from before had still not faded. If anything, the hurried, pained cries some little cheating cat was letting out under the Holy Sword’s punishment only made it all the more stirring.

"Liya, why are you here? The Church shouldn’t be giving you this much freedom to move around, should they?"

Muen wrapped both arms around Liya’s slim waist, soothing her, afraid that in a mix of shame and anger she might end up using the "Holy Sword" until Ariel was completely broken.

Though, considering Ariel had already hit her limit and then immediately been attacked by Liya’s Holy Sword, saying she was not broken was only true by technicality.

"Hmph. I missed you, so I squeezed out some time to come see you no matter what. And you? You’re in here having fun, and you didn’t even spare my childhood friend!"

Liya sat in Muen’s lap, rubbing herself greedily against his chest. The feeling of being reunited after so long intoxicated her completely, but when she got to that part, she still could not help digging hard into his side with an angry little pinch.

"I seriously don’t know how you did it. Did you drug Ariel or something? It’s only been a few months, and she’s turned into this sweet little wife type. Even I was blushing and getting worked up just watching. It’s like she became a completely different person."

Liya pouted.

"I almost didn’t recognize her."

Wasn’t that the whole reason she had spent so long tossing and turning tonight?

Black hair. Flat chest. Contact with Muen in the Abyss. Actually, the information Lin had gathered had already pointed the identity of that little cheating cat out clearly enough.

But the Ariel Liya knew and the Ariel from tonight were just too different. Until she had seen it with her own eyes, there was no way Liya could ever have believed it.

"Let me explain."

Even at the spot where the pain would have been sharpest, a delicate little pinch like Liya’s did not really hurt Muen that much, but he still put on a suitably pained expression to match the mood.

"I didn’t drug her. It’s a long story. You’d have to start back in the Abyss. We—"

"All right, all right."

Liya suddenly lifted a finger and pressed it to Muen’s lips.

"I know. You’re not the kind of person who’d do something like that. And even though what I just saw definitely changed my impression of Ariel, I still don’t think she’s the sort of person who’d get swept away by some love potion that easily."

"Liya..."

"The only way that stinking rock could have changed this much is if you went through something very, very dangerous again, and gave up very, very much to make it happen."

Liya lightly nudged him with her head.

"You’re always like this. Sometimes you just don’t think about yourself at all."

"I’m not as great as you make me sound. A lot of the time, I’m just being driven forward by fate." 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Muen gave a bitter smile.

Not thinking about himself?

When he had first come to this world, what had his goal been?

To survive.

Something so simple. So selfish.

But human beings are creatures who are very hard to satisfy. Once the first goal is reached, they start looking farther without even realizing it.

Without noticing, he had already gone far, far beyond what he had once aimed for. Looking back now, the things he possessed and the things he carried no longer allowed him the luxury of simply surviving.

He had to keep moving forward.

"But every time, you beat fate anyway, don’t you?"

Liya blinked at him playfully.

"In stories, heroes and chosen ones only get to defeat their fate once. But you’ve done it so many times. You’re more amazing than any hero. That’s why I like you."

"I like you too, my Saintess. My little sweetheart."

Muen answered her gently.

The blunt love words made shyness rise in Liya’s eyes, but she still held his gaze with deep affection.

Liya was perhaps the one who complemented Ariel most... or rather, the one whose nature was most opposite to hers. One looked incomparably strong on the outside while hiding the softest, most fragile heart. The other seemed cute and delicate, yet inside was astonishingly strong.

So no matter how shy she was, during a brief reunion like this, Liya would still gather up her courage and pour out all the love and heat in her heart.

"Muen..."

Liya’s breathing gradually grew heavier, and a mist began to gather in her eyes.

"Wait, what about Ariel..."

Faced with a little Saintess this sultry and this eager, there was no way Muen could keep holding back. He had not fully let go earlier to begin with, and now Liya was deliberately teasing him in his arms, making him feel, if only for a moment, a taste of the flame-wracked torment An had put him through the night before.

Still, Muen at least remembered that some poor little thing branded by Liya as a cheating cat was over there at the side, currently enduring the terrifying punishment of the "Holy Sword" vibrating six hundred times a minute.

The poor little thing had her tongue out, and her eyes were nearly rolling back.

"Hmph. Let her calm down by herself for a while."

The moment Ariel came up, it was obvious Liya still had not fully cooled off.

That icy imperial princess and that wicked Acting Swordbearer of the Silent Bureau were one thing. She had never gotten along with either of them anyway. But Liya had never imagined that even her best friend, her own childhood friend, would be fighting her for him too!

Too much. Too much! She was the one who had come first...

That settled it. For the next twenty-four hours, she absolutely refused to forgive Ariel, that little cheating cat.

"Let’s play our own game. This time, we’ll leave her hanging off to the side."

Liya hummed softly. One of her soft little hands had already grown impatient and started roaming all over him. Whether intentionally or by accident, she kept brushing against that burning heat, and every touch sent the temperature of her own blood rising too.

Mm. It looked like Ariel had not been completely useless, at least. Before the battle even began, she had already done a very good job polishing the weapon for her.

"How are we playing?" Muen asked with a perfectly serious face, feigning confusion. "Cards? I’m very good at cards, you know. Be careful, or you’ll lose everything."

"Bad boy~ What’s so fun about cards? Obviously we should play with whatever’s the most fun."

Liya lifted her delicate brows and, with a gesture she had no idea where she had learned, threw Muen a deeply seductive look.

"You don’t even have to lose. I’ll still end up bare for you."

"Hiss... you little slut."

Muen gave her soft, fragrant body a hard squeeze.

"Hmph. I am not slutty. I’m a Saintess. A pure Saintess, in fact. You’re the bad man defiling the Saintess."

As she said that, Liya suddenly leaned forward on her own and kissed Muen hard on the lips.

Their soft lips met. Liya did not even wait for Muen to guide her. Her little eager tongue, already poised to strike, immediately began exploring on its own.

Heat spread between them. Sweet saliva mingled.

That long-missed electric feeling thrilled Liya to the core. She could still taste Ariel lingering faintly on his lips, and so she worked even harder, determined to wipe away every trace that little cheating cat had left behind...

...

"Mmph!"

A battle was about to erupt on this side, while on the other side, another battle had already been going on for quite some time.

Ariel had finally managed to drag her soul back together, and the moment she saw this scene, grief and outrage surged through her even harder. For a brief moment, she actually broke past the limits of her endurance and started struggling violently.

But Liya’s Holy Light restraints were obviously many levels stronger than before. There was no way Ariel could break free in a short time, much less push past her own limits again. And that "Holy Sword," which had finally made her realize it was not a Holy Sword at all, was still wreaking havoc inside her body, steadily piling up that same intoxicating, unfamiliar pleasure.

Every tremor plucked at her senses. The strength she had only just gathered was swallowed away as if by a black hole, never reaching her limbs at all.

And so Ariel could do nothing but watch as Liya kissed Muen and shamelessly offered up her little tongue on her own, letting him taste her to his heart’s content.

That holy aura still clung to her. The flower crown on her head remained radiant and dazzling. And yet that very sense of holiness, so completely at odds with what she was doing now, only made the scene even more heart-pounding, even more maddeningly suggestive.

Ariel almost got stirred up by that overwhelming contrast all over again and nearly sank once more beneath the Holy Sword’s divine might.

"Damn it..."

Who exactly was the shameless little slut here?!

Ariel ground her teeth to herself.

She admitted that over the past two days, the things she could accept had grown more and more outrageous. She had even begun to enjoy being toyed with by Muen in ways that were far more embarrassing, things she never would have imagined before...

But all of that was forced.

That was right. It was only because, for now, she was still weaker than Muen in that respect, which was why this bad man kept seizing control of the rhythm, dragging her into his traps again and again.

That was not what she actually wanted. Absolutely not!

But Liya was clearly different. She was so unbelievably proactive, lifting her chin and thrusting out her chest, placing everything she had in Muen’s hands. Her face was still red and shy, yes, but there was not the slightest trace of retreat in her. If anything, she welcomed every moment of their entanglement with eager delight.

Ariel fell into a daze. This was not even the first time she had seen it, and yet just like before, in this moment it felt exactly the same as it had then. Just like Liya earlier, she still found it hard to believe that someone this bold and unrestrained was really Liya.

The Liya she had known would get so shy she could barely stand it if Ariel merely tickled her!

And now?

This was not just a shameless little slut anymore. This was a full-blown little **! If the Church’s believers ever found out that their Saintess was like this in private, their worldview would collapse on the spot. Jumping off a building would be the mild reaction. Smashing their heads to death in front of the Church, burning °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° themselves alive in front of her... there probably would not be just a few.

Under normal circumstances, let alone Ariel, if something like this got out, even the Salvation Society, who specialized in blackening the Church, would probably refuse to believe it. After all, how could the Saintess personally granted the name Pure by the Pope himself possibly be this lustful?

Fake. It had to be fake.

Who hated the Church so much that their slander had become even more extreme than the Salvation Society’s?

...But the truth was always like this. Only after the halo faded could you finally see what was really there.

Still, Liya was not actually deceiving her followers. At least anywhere other than the yellow-haired bastard’s bed, she really was, from the bottom of her heart, pure and kind, and utterly worthy of the title of Saintess.

"Mmph... damn you, Liya... damn you, yellow-haired bastard..."

The more Ariel thought about it, the more aggrieved and furious she became.

If you were truly so pure and kind, then why not go be a proper Saintess? Why did you have to come sneaking bites like this? At a time like this, no less.

Especially as she watched Liya and Muen sink deeper and deeper into their perfect rhythm, under the stimulation of some strange emotion and the torment of that "Holy Sword," the raging flames inside Ariel only climbed higher and higher. She was nearly grinding her silver teeth to pieces.

"Hngh... I won’t... I won’t lose... hngh... just you wait... hngh... bastard!"

That was right.

She, Ariel Bugaard, would absolutely never admit defeat in adversity!