"Tianlin! You've captured the witch!"

"Watch out!"

Several Temple Knights closed in. My whole body tensed as my small hand gripped the edge of Senior Sister Tianlin’s armor.

Senior Sister Tianlin waved them off, stopping the knights from manhandling me. "Stand down!"

"But, Your Highness Tianlin—she’s the most dangerous, most vicious Dark Princess in the entire Undercity!"

"She’s just a little girl!" To my surprise, Senior Sister Tianlin clamped her hands firmly on my shoulders, shielding me with her own body—as if protecting a younger sister.

So this was the scent clinging to Senior Sister Tianlin…

Strange. Since I’d become a girl, my body shouldn’t react to another girl like this. Yet why did my heart race so wildly near her?

Just then, chaos erupted outside!

"Tianlin! It’s bad! A—a massive wave of skeleton soldiers has suddenly surrounded us!" A blood-splattered warrior stumbled into the treasure chamber.

"What?!" Tianlin Feiyan’s slender frame jolted.

"Guild Leader! It’s a trap!" Loyning in her scant green armor retreated inside. "Skeletons—endless skeletons! They’ve encircled us completely!"

Every pair of eyes turned to me, burning with accusation.

Even Senior Sister Tianlin pushed me forward, her gaze grave. "Was it you?"

I stared, dazed, at her captivating eyes and delicate lips, breathing in the faint floral sweetness of her breath. Innocently, I shook my head.

"Tianlin, don’t be fooled by her act!"

"She’s faking it!"

"But she didn’t kill a single one of you," Tianlin defended me sharply. "While you—all of you—were so quick to strike a child."

"You saw her cast fourth-tier magic with your own eyes, Your Highness!" The bald knight snarled, his glare promising he’d tear me apart.

Suddenly, commotion flared at the entrance. Several Temple Knights staggered in, bodies wreathed in dark purple smoke, collapsing to the floor.

Dark-purple magic arrows bristled from their armor.

One knight coughed black blood. "It’s… a trap! Young Mistress, run—"

*Young Mistress?* So these were her family’s loyal retainers. She released me and rushed to him, kneeling. Golden light flared from her palms as she channeled emergency healing.

"Guild Leader, these arrows—" Loyning pointed at the shafts embedded in the knight.

"Saint-Devouring Arrows." Tianlin sucked in a sharp breath.

"Impossible! Our intel never reported skeleton archers wielding Saint-Devouring Arrows on the second level! These arrows corrode our holy-resistant armor—they’re the bane of Temple Knights! We came utterly unprepared! Tianlin, can’t you see this little bitch tricked us?!" The bald knight’s voice cracked with fury.

Outwardly, I kept my expression wide-eyed and innocent. Inwardly, I smirked. *Fools. Did you think the Undercity’s monsters still mindlessly guard their own floors, waiting for adventurers to pick them off layer by layer? Don’t you know who commands them now?* I’d secretly moved every elite skeleton archer from the seventh floor—armed with Saint-Devouring Arrows—to the second. *Just wait. The real show hasn’t even begun.*

Tianlin stood, her face grim. She strode toward me, seized my shoulders, and her fingers brushed the tiny armor beneath my cloak. Her eyes flickered with conflicted emotions. Spotting a small alcove in the corner, she grabbed my hand. "Come with me."

"Tianlin—" The others watched, bewildered.

She pulled me into the alcove, took a deep breath, hesitated—then shut the rickety wooden door behind us.

Dim light seeped through cracks in the crumbling walls. The cramped space felt even tighter with just the two of us, thick with Senior Sister’s unique fragrance.

That scent made thinking impossible.

She studied me from mere inches away, her gaze calm yet icy as it swept over my body wrapped in her cloak. *Is she planning to kill me here in this shadowy room?*

"Take it off."

Two cold, simple words.

Huh???

"W-what?" I feigned confusion.

Impatience flashed in her eyes. She grasped my cloak—not roughly, but with gentle, unyielding pressure, peeling it down inch by inch.

My small hands instinctively pressed against her arms. But my body had gone weak and trembling with tension, powerless to stop her…

The cloak slid to the floor. My shameful, skimpy armor was exposed again—this time alone with her, in a space so narrow our bodies nearly brushed with every breath. The mingled scents of two women—so different, yet so close—filled the air.

Yet Senior Sister remained perfectly composed, a stark contrast to my flustered panic.

Her gaze felt scorching as it traced my form. I shrank back, hands fluttering uselessly over where to cover myself.

"Take it off." Her eyes flicked to the tiny black armor barely covering me.

Huh??? *This too?* I nearly choked. *There’s nothing underneath, Senior Sister! You can’t just calmly order me to strip naked in front of you!*

Then—she swept her hair back, reached behind her neck, and began unfastening her own armor.

Huh??? *Why is she undressing too?*

But she moved with the ease of routine—as if we were just two girls squeezing into a changing room before a swim, utterly at ease, no awkwardness between us. She ignored my panic completely, focused only on removing her own armor…