Her toes kissed the floor, and she pivoted on that point like a compass needle snapping north, body turning ninety degrees. Her waist bent like a drawn bow, packed with force. In the next heartbeat, she would sprint for the sealed balcony door.

She stomped off her toes with everything she had and shot toward the door. She slipped past the dangers her instincts could name. What she couldn’t sense, she braced to eat.

Why isn’t she stopping me from running?

Even as she ran, Rafi glanced back at the big green sphere that still didn’t move. In her eyes, Ling wasn’t stupid. So why not stop her? Wasn’t she trying to kill her?

Questions or not, Rafi didn’t care anymore. The door was now an arm’s length away. She just had to reach, push, and bolt. As for the little orb escaping with her—what was that next to her own life?

Her hand grabbed the handle and twisted hard. Nothing. No damn use. The handle was jammed. She’d been played since the start.

Why not just smash through? Please. She knew her own home. This door was shipped straight from the Underworld of that mysterious Eastern land—built to tank her strikes. Especially in this state, there was no way she could break it.

But more important—

Why does my balcony even have a lock?!

Rafi roared, voice shaking the air. She’d bet this was the most commanding shout of her life.

Despair swallowed her. She slumped against the door and curled up tight, fear painted across her face. Da-chan, the mouse that had been perched on her shoulder since the beginning, seemed to sense death creeping close. The whole rodent melted like slime into a puddle.

Don’t come any closer!

She thrust out a hand to shield herself. Useless, she knew. It still bought her a scrap of safety.

The mana orb had already returned to Ling’s palm. She toyed with it like a trinket, nothing like the physics-defying weapon it had been moments ago.

“Then… what punishment do you think you deserve?”

Her voice was cold as ice cubes sliding down skin. The frost in her eyes made a chill crawl up Rafi’s spine.

Rafi raised her right hand, timid, and answered. “How about… sentence me to life without a wife?”

Ling stopped playing with the orb. “Overruled.”

A bead of cold sweat slid down Rafi’s forehead.

“Then how about three minutes of tickling?”

Ling kneaded the orb like Play-Doh. “Overruled.”

She’s torturing my mind.

Rafi understood why Ling was dragging this out. Knowing didn’t help. She couldn’t claw free of this crisis.

“Then… ten spanks. That’s a serious punishment!”

Ling didn’t answer. She was staring at the longbow forming in her hand, patterns coiling along its surface.

Lian’s memories had this technique in them. Lian had filed it under trash magic. Maybe that’s why it ended up one of the few spells Ling learned—two reasons: it was simple, and it was fun.

To be honest, Ling doubted Lian’s taste. Such a delightful spell, and she called it trash? What a joke.

She shook her head and chased the stray thought away. She looked over the first bow she’d ever made, and a smile bloomed.

In Rafi’s eyes, that smile was as terrifying as her own Demon King.

“Um… spanks… not allowed?”

Ling snapped back and answered on reflex. “Overruled~”

Rafi blinked, then started counting on her fingers, rummaging for light punishments in her memory. “Then… just sentence my body to you, okay? Just don’t kill me…”

“Over—” Ling nearly said it. Then her brain finally caught up. She lit up and stared at Rafi. “Really?”

Hooked—there was a chance.

Hope flooded Rafi. She might live. She wouldn’t die here. “Mm! Of course it’s real!”

“Then… let’s hurry—”

Ling’s words cut off. Not because someone burst in to catch them. Because she remembered Alicia, still asleep inside her Script, waiting for rescue. And—she’d decided she could only love Alicia. Otherwise, she’d end with nothing again.

Decision made, Ling exhaled long. Under Rafi’s confused stare, she said, “Overruled!”

Rafi jumped up. Being handed hope only to be slammed into despair hurt like a knife. No wonder others’ defenses shattered when she used that trick on them. She didn’t hesitate. “Why?!”

Ling lifted the longbow and aimed at Rafi’s forehead. Green light gathered and shaped an arrow, its tip humming with vicious mana.

“Ridding the people of a scourge is only right and proper.”

She drew. The bowstring sang, a promise that the next second would end a life.

“In my personal capacity, I deliver judgment. The verdict is—”

Her fingers let go. The arrow leapt.

“Death sentence—!!”