“Talk?”

Expressionless once again, An slapped away that meddlesome little white foot.

“I have nothing to say to you.”

“How could there be nothing to say? We’re acquaintances who once bared ourselves to each other so honestly. At a time like this, shouldn’t we deepen our bond a little?” Liya said with complete sincerity, as if she were making a perfectly friendly suggestion.

“Bond? Hah. If you’re afraid I’ll sweep you up like a bug later, then yes, now would be a fine time to get on your knees and beg.”

An gave a cold laugh.

“Oh my, oh my...”

Liya’s smile grew sweeter and sweeter.

“Miss An really is the sort who won’t shed tears until she sees the coffin.”

“What are you trying to do?” An immediately grew wary.

“Nothing. Didn’t I already say? I just want to get to know you more deeply.”

That smile fermented by degrees, slowly turning rotten, until in the privacy of the carriage, with no one else around to interrupt, it finally became an utterly wicked grin.

To outsiders, she was the noble and holy Saintess. But now, inside the carriage, Liya wiggled her nimble fingers and crept closer to An, who was slumped against the seat, like a little demon closing in on its prey.

“W-Wait...”

Feeling the utter weakness that came from having her strength drained dry by mental exhaustion, An’s poised face finally showed a crack.

“Don’t come any closer!”

“Don’t be nervous. We’re only playing around.”

“You want to fight me hand-to-hand?”

Grinding her teeth, An forcibly squeezed out a bit of strength and pushed herself upright.

“You’re no match for me in close combat. Don’t forget how pathetically you lost before.”

“...”

Liya’s pretty face changed slightly.

With that reminder from An, a few scenes from before did indeed rise in her mind.

It was true. In terms of raw physical strength alone, not even ten of her would be a match for An as she was now. Back then, a certain shameless little slut who should originally have been able to resist An on the level of sheer bodily strength had surrendered far too early, leaving Liya at a disadvantage in confrontation after confrontation. She had been toyed with so pitifully it was almost tragic...

But there was no way Liya would be frightened off by a few words like that.

If anything, An’s words only stirred up Liya’s little desire for revenge even more.

Under normal circumstances, she really was no match. But Liya was highly skilled in medicine. One glance was enough for her to tell that An was in terrible shape right now, no different from someone who had just gone through a fierce battle... and lost.

Forget hand-to-hand combat. She probably did not even have much strength left to lift her arm.

“It’s different now, hmph.”

Liya gave a disdainful, wicked little laugh.

“If you’ve got the ability, then go ahead and let me see that physical strength of yours again. You’re exhausted to this point and you’re still talking tough?”

“You... get out!”

“I refuse. Today I’m absolutely going to teach you a lesson. You keep calling people bugs every single day. I think you’re the shameless little bug!”

The moment she finished speaking, Liya gave poor little maid no chance to resist. Like a starving tiger pouncing on its prey, she pinned An down, and her already well-trained fingers began darting all over An’s body, teasing and provoking with quick, practiced movements.

Not only were her moves vicious this time, but she had also secretly memorized a few particularly special target points from watching Muen attack before. So after only a couple of moves, she had already thrown An into a truly miserable state.

“So this is a weak spot too, isn’t it? You always like to wear that cold, icy face, but the second someone touches you here, you cry out louder than anyone else, you lewd little maid!”

“Sh-Shut up!”

“And here too! Here too! Here!”

Liya grew more and more excited. The flush on her little face deepened more and more vividly, and at last she finally tasted the thrill of teaching these gaudy little tramps a lesson.

No wonder that cold-faced empress and this cold-faced maid both loved playing this game!

“Take this, take this, you little bitch!”

“Y-You’re no different...” An’s beautiful eyes cracked open slightly as she gritted her teeth. “I remember you reacted even more than I did when I touched that spot before!”

“Hmph. Still talking tough? Then what about here?”

“You’re the same...”

“Then over here...”

“You’re the same...”

“And here too...”

“You’re the same...”

“Mm... nonsense! That’s nonsense! How could it be possible that everything you have, I have too?”

After another round of fighting, Liya suddenly turned red all the way to her ears as well. Embarrassed and furious, she snapped, “Don’t make me sound like some kind of shameless pervert!”

“I-Isn’t that exactly what you are?”

Breathing softly, An forced the words out through clenched teeth.

“You wanton Saintess!”

“Wahhh! How dare you slander the pure Saintess of the holy Church? Just you wait and see how I discipline you properly!”

Liya flew into a furious rage and immediately intensified her attack.

And so, spring filled the carriage, and soft cries rang out one after another...

...

...

“So it’s already started? That was fast.”

Muen arrived at the rear of the army formation. The sky was gradually dimming by now, and tents large and small had already been put up. Well-trained clergy moved through them in an orderly flow. As Muen passed by and looked in, he found that all the wounded had already been settled in place.

The nuns were soothing every person who had personally witnessed the Kingdom’s earlier maddened army and lulling them to sleep. The magic for suggestion was already prepared, and incense for stabilizing the mind had been lit at every bonfire. When those people woke up again, they would no longer remember ever having faced that Kingdom army that had almost turned into monsters.

They would only remember that they had suffered an attack from a terrifying “monster-beast stampede.”

This was a huge operation of mass suggestion, affecting several thousand people.

But because all it did was rewrite “the Kingdom army turned into monsters” into “a monster-beast stampede,” while making a few alterations to the image of the Kingdom army in their memories, without involving any changes or patchwork to logic or common sense, the suggestion itself was not actually that difficult. Nor would it cause any negative effects for the people involved.

At most, they might have a few extra nightmares.

“As expected of the Church...”

Muen sighed in admiration, though he also felt a little envious.

If only he were good at this kind of psychological suggestion too. He was not asking for much, just enough skill to match the level of his Light spell.

That way, he could suggest to his adorable little wings that they were sisters born of different fathers and mothers, and then there would be no more conflict between them. That damned bloodbath of a love battlefield could disappear from this world too...

But that was only wishful thinking.

Impossible.

Even if he really did know how to do suggestion, and his powers of suggestion were unbelievably strong, did that mean he could actually hypnotize, all at once, a maid carrying part of the Demon King’s memories, a divine offspring bearing a fragment of an Evil God, the Empress of the Empire, and the one chosen by ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) the destiny of the world?

Of course not.

Those bad women would only pretend to be hypnotized, then wait for him to lower his guard and stab him dead!

“Sigh. Why does it feel like the more I say it, the more I sound like some little lamb that got eaten clean by a pack of big bad wolves? No, that won’t do. I can’t boost their morale while crushing my own. I’m the man who ends up on top!”

Muen slapped his own cheeks and forced himself out of that unrealistic fantasy.

He walked to the center of the army formation and saw two very young nuns standing guard in front of the carriage. He paused for a moment, then asked:

“Um... excuse me, but what exactly are you two doing here?”

“Ah... it’s Sir Muen Campbell, Honorary Knight!”

By now Muen had gained a bit of a reputation in the Church as well. The young nun who had been nodding off and bobbing her little head immediately straightened her back and answered loudly:

“We’re standing guard!”

“Standing... guard?”

Muen glanced at the carriage door, which was covered only by a thick curtain and had clearly been fitted with a little soundproofing and shockproofing. The corner of his mouth twitched.

“Do you really need to guard this place specifically? This is the very center of the camp. It should be perfectly safe.”

“That’s not the issue!”

The other little nun puffed up and declared loudly, “Her Holiness the Saintess is inside doing something very important. We absolutely have to guard this place for her and not let anyone disturb her!”

“Her Holiness... something important...”

The moment Muen heard those words, half his heart went cold on the spot...

Bad.

As expected, he was still too late.

One big bad wolf had already climbed into the other big bad wolf’s carriage. It did not take much imagination to see that the bloody love battlefield had already begun.

“Standing guard like this, do you even know what important thing your Saintess is doing in there right now?” Muen asked helplessly.

“Huh? How could we possibly know that?”

The two little nuns simultaneously puffed out their chests and lifted their chins.

“But if it’s something that made Her Holiness the Saintess act with such caution and such seriousness, then it must be something incredibly important!”

“...”

Heh. It was indeed something incredibly important.

After all, if anyone lost control for even a second, there was every chance blood would flow like a river!

“Um... could you let me in?” Muen asked, flashing the devastatingly handsome smile that had ruined countless lives.

“No!” The two little nuns shook their heads like rattles, utterly unmoved by Muen’s male beauty trap. “Her Holiness said no one is allowed to disturb her.”

“...”

All right then. Fair enough.

Muen twitched his mouth helplessly.

If they were not this kind of hot-blooded, stubborn little fools driven by blind worship, Liya would never have entrusted something as important as standing guard and keeping watch to these two girls.

It seemed that after being the Saintess for so long, Liya really had grown more experienced. At the very least, she had learned a few things about how to use people.

“Understood.”

Muen turned around and walked away, as if that question had merely been a casual thought.

Yet the moment he reached a patch of shadow, his body gave a slight shiver. Light twisted around him, and his entire figure disappeared from sight.

What he knew was not merely that he could not go in openly. He also knew perfectly well that there was another reason Liya had deliberately assigned two weak little nuns to stand guard here...

For example, making it easier for a certain yellow-haired somebody—the only person in the whole camp who could refuse to take the normal route—to slip through a gap.

Muen let out a wicked little chuckle, concealed his presence, and passed silently by the two little nuns.

One of them seemed to sense something and tilted her head...

But all she saw was the curtain of the carriage fluttering in the wind...

...

...

“What exactly are you two... playing at?”

The moment Muen entered the carriage, he was greeted by an incredibly fragrant and provocative scene.

Usually, because she was kind-hearted... or rather because the concentration of bad women around her had not been high enough, Liya was often lower down on the food chain and got bullied. But this time, unexpectedly, she was actually straddling An, who was normally the stronger one.

An’s dress had been nearly stripped away, and the most shameful parts of her body were fully exposed before Liya, suffering relentless attack beneath Liya’s shameless wandering hands.

Those shameless hands had obviously stolen a bit of a certain yellow-haired man’s essence. Every strike went straight for An’s weak points, so much so that even An was having trouble holding out. She was clearly being driven back step by step.

“Ah, Muen!”

The moment she saw him enter, Liya immediately abandoned the attack, twisted her slim waist, and pounced straight into Muen’s arms.

“Look, look! I already made this shameless maid show her true colors!”

While greedily breathing in Muen’s scent, Liya proudly showed off her spoils of war—her little hand, wet and carrying a certain strange smell.

“...You made all this fuss for that?”

Muen nearly failed to hold it together.

He had expected a bloody love battlefield inside the carriage, but instead it was... the seafood market at dawn? 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

“Hmph. Ariel failed to pull her weight before and made me suffer a loss, so this finally counts as payback.”

“And you’re still saying that?”

Muen grabbed Liya by her soft, smooth cheek and twisted it hard, exasperated.

“That’s all the ambition you’ve got?”

Look at An. She had practically made sweeping up bugs the creed of her entire life. For all he knew, she might pull something huge the moment Liya let down her guard.

And yet this dignified Saintess, of all people, was still only thinking about making up for the loss she had suffered before?

“Wh-Who said that!”

Liya puffed up angrily.

“It’s not over yet!”

“Hm?”

Muen froze for a moment, but before he could react, Liya suddenly tightened her arms around him.

Then her warm, fragrant lips pressed over his with force.

“Mm...”

That intoxicating, electric feeling spread through his entire body, and for a moment Muen could not help sinking into it.

Meanwhile, Liya kissed him more and more deeply, while secretly glancing sideways out of the corner of her eye, looking smugly at An, who was so weak all over that she could not react at all.

The wet, intimate sound of lips and tongues colliding echoed through the carriage. An’s composed, lovely face was now in utter disarray, and yet all she could do was glare at that scene with tearful eyes, humiliated as she watched this outrage committed right in front of her.