At the post-incident trial, the “Crimson Devil,” Miss Luciferin de Finshi, accused of kidnapping a city-state leader, offered this defense:
“I only invited her to tour a cultural relic, and threw in a free spine-aligning massage.”
“You’re lying!” Prosecutor Ling Yi slammed the desk and sprang up. “At about 1 a.m. yesterday, you and your accomplice Jiang conspired, brought anti-magic armor, snuck into the Mysidia Mage Tower, and with your inside contact Selene opening doors from within, carried out the kidnapping—”
Judge Liu RuoYuan looked at Yekase. “Defendant Yekase, do you dispute the charges?”
“...No.”
“I do!” Dorothy shot up from the witness stand, palms thudding the table. “She left out that I colluded with Empress Selene!”
“Witness, to the defendant’s bench. Now.”
Dorothy grinned and stepped over into the bench made of toppled tables. Two people were already crammed inside; her arrival packed them shoulder to shoulder, three heads, one narrow breath.
“I object too!” Jiang took advantage of the chaos and smacked Yekase’s small rump. “I developed the anti-magic armor. I was on the infiltrating team. I’m not an accessory—I’m a co-conspirator!”
From the prosecutor’s table, Ling Yi watched their close (question mark close?) little gestures, regret turning her guts green. If she’d known, she would’ve skipped her evening molecular physics lecture and gone kidnapping with them.
“Defense attorney Lu Yao, please read the brief.”
Lu Yao sat with one leg hooked over the other, scrolling her phone. She casually raised a blank sheet of paper.
“Alright, counsel’s put on a show. We’ll proceed straight to sentencing.”
—Thud!
Liu RuoYuan lifted a meat tenderizer like a gavel and hammered the board.
“Defendants Yekase, Jiang, and Duo!”
“I’m Brolova,” Dorothy muttered under her breath.
“You infiltrated Mysidia and kidnapped the city lord, then forced physical modification on her. The evidence is solid. The offense is exceptionally grave, the social impact exceptionally vile, and it gravely harms Mysidia’s long-term peace. Therefore, this court finds—guilty!”
Thud! Thud!
No one knew where the bold, floating word GUILTY came from, hanging in midair.
Dorothy and Jiang Bailu applauded.
Yekase had no idea what kind of farce this was. She and Lu Yao both lifted their chins and shrugged in sync.
Prosecutor Ling Yi approached the bench carrying three small whiteboards strung with cords. Like medaling champions, she looped cords over the necks of Dorothy and Jiang Bailu.
Dorothy’s board read: I colluded with the Demon Empress. I am guilty.
Jiang Bailu’s read: I kidnapped the Mage-King. I am guilty.
They straightened the boards, bowed their heads, and accepted guilt and sentence.
That left only Yekase.
Ling Yi stood before her with the last blank board. She glared, cheeks puffed, then wrote right in front of Yekase:
I serve as someone else’s maid. I am guilty.
“Hold up. Why is my charge the weird one?”
“The Doc can only be my maid!”
“Huh?!”
Five foot six, Ling Yi slanted a lofty gaze down at Dorothy, eyes inked with hostility.
Then she did what she thought was right—
She lifted Yekase’s chin and kissed her, no questions asked.
“Mmm—mm?!” Yekase thrashed hard. But her treacherous body went soft on the spot.
“W-w-w-w—” Dorothy nearly tumbled off the table’s crossbar. She clapped both hands over her eyes, peeking through her fingers, wanting to see but not daring.
“What about me?! Your Honor! The prosecutor’s leading the riot—what’s the charge for that?!” Jiang Bailu reached to pry them apart, but without blood she was just human. She couldn’t call Coffee Moon out to beat her own teammate. She couldn’t even bend one of Ling Yi’s fingers.
On the lawn of the Ambition Divine Ship, the solemn makeshift court boiled into a stew of chaos.
Liu RuoYuan had long known this slacker Yekase couldn’t handle relationships. One day, something like a soft-focus love-war would erupt. She figured a lesson wouldn’t hurt, so she folded her arms on the bench and watched.
“Judge, why are you just watching—Judge!”
At Jiang Bailu’s plea, Liu RuoYuan met Lu Yao’s eyes.
“Miss Lu, let’s head inside. Don’t disturb them.”
“I agree.”
They folded their stools and walked off.
Since Yekase clearly turned her down, Jiang Bailu—though she’d say “Ivar can understand”—felt that until Ivaris gave explicit permission, continuing to toy with Yekase violated one of her very few principles. So for the past twenty-three years’ peak of self-control, she kept her desires under lock.
And then she watched Ling Yi kiss Yekase in public.
How shameless. How—
Unacceptable.
Jiang Bailu felt cheated, badly. Worse than going all in on Argentina in the first match and losing.
At this point, there was nothing for it but to join in.
She knew Yekase’s twenty-seven years of past. In Ling Yi’s eyes, that only made Yekase’s allure sharper—because it meant lowering and abandoning her own station, a self-destructive tilt only a genius would choose; a kind of obedience stronger than a “natural woman’s” usual passivity.
That unspoken obedience was exactly what Ling Yi loved.
She knew, clearer than anyone, that Yekase had always treated her as a younger sister, even a daughter, never harbored that kind of thought.
“Little sister”?
She felt someone had once called her that, but it had blurred into a mist of half-words. Memory and logic patched the hole, slotting Yekase’s name into that place deep down.
Then… a little sister kissing her big sister is normal, isn’t it?
Not a fight over love. Just a kiss of sisterly affection. That’s fine, right?
Ling Yi envied Liu RuoYuan, who was born already at the starting line—no reason needed to stand at Yekase’s side, receiving her undiluted care and love. If Ling Yi was a sister too, asking for a kiss would be simple, rightful. Yekase wouldn’t refuse anyway.
Jiang Bailu didn’t think it through. She’d held back to save face for Ivaris. Now that Ling Yi had sprinted ahead, there was no need to play the prude.
You’re watching, aren’t you? You know, don’t you, last Magical Girl?
Yekase’s heart is always yours. So lend us that body for a while, okay?
Just then—
She remembered. Someone else was still here…
Dorothy had curled on the floor into a shivering ball. When Jiang Bailu’s gaze slid over, Dorothy squeaked “Eek,” and snapped shut the fingers she was peeking through.
