“Why did you betray me?”

In the dim basement, a girl was tied to a chair.

Her eyes were tightly covered with a strip of cloth, and her mouth was stuffed shut as well.

In front of her, a blonde girl was crouching there. One hand rested on her knee, propping up her chin as she quietly watched her.

The blonde girl’s aqua-blue eyes were vacant now, as if all expectation had drained from them.

Her face was breathtakingly beautiful, yet completely expressionless at this moment.

That delicate beauty, the kind that should’ve made people pity her and lose themselves in her, now felt so cold it was frightening.

“Answer me.”

A trace of anger slowly entered the girl’s voice.

Yet the bound girl only shook her head, and her emerald-green hair swayed with the motion.

“Oh, right. I forgot you can’t talk.”

The girl revealed a lovely smile. Then she gently pulled the unknown cloth out of the other girl’s mouth.

“Shilufei, Teresa forced me. I... I didn’t want to betray you, but she...”

As the girl spoke, tears streamed down her face. She tearfully accused her master of all kinds of cruelty to the blonde girl named Shilufei.

Shilufei only listened. She silently waited for the girl to finish everything.

“That’s it, Loko?”

Hearing Shilufei finally call her by name, the girl named Loko nodded again and again.

Then she felt the world spin, and her consciousness faded with it.

In the basement, the blonde girl held the other girl’s body in her arms and laughed in a daze.

“Don’t worry. I’ll avenge you, Loko.”

She murmured softly, yet the words sent chills down the spine.

...

Loko jolted awake in bed, her forehead already covered in cold sweat.

She had just gone through a nightmare she would never forget, and the scenes still lingered in her mind.

The girl rubbed her eyes and rolled out of bed.

Sitting before the vanity mirror, she tied up her long hair. She looked at the cute face in the mirror, forced out a smile, then walked out the door.

“Miss Loko, Miss Teresa wishes to see you.”

A sturdy man stood outside. He looked like he’d been waiting for her for a while.

Her body stiffened. Her pupils shrank, and she took half a step back.

“W-Why does Milady want to see me?”

“I don’t know.”

The man shook his head.

“Miss Loko, you need to come.”

This time, he left her no room to negotiate.

Following him downstairs to the door of a room, Loko walked in with unease in her heart. The door was swiftly shut behind her.

Loko lowered her head and looked at her toes.

Aside from her round-toed leather shoes, a pair of white socks, and the brown floorboards, there was nothing else in her sight.

“You’re here?”

A pleasant voice came from ahead. But the moment Loko heard it, her whole body trembled as if she’d been shocked.

“Y-Yes... Milady, I’m here. Y-You called for me... is there something you need?”

“Why are you keeping your head down? Come here.”

Hearing Teresa’s words, Loko hurried forward in small, quick steps, slowly moving toward her.

“Look up.”

The girl opposite her gave the order coldly.

“Y-Yes...”

Loko slightly raised her head and saw her master’s face.

Silver-white hair cascaded down like a waterfall. Crimson eyes stared at Loko with naked aggression.

Those delicate features should have made Loko feel close to her. But after all their years together, the moment she looked at that beauty, what she felt was fear from the bottom of her heart.

Teresa carefully examined Loko from head to toe and said nothing. Only when Loko was starting to get scared did Teresa slowly speak.

“Do you know why I called you here?”

“I don’t...”

Loko answered honestly.

“Kneel.”

“Huh?”

“I don’t want to say it a second time.”

Hearing Teresa’s words, Loko instinctively dropped to her knees on the floor. Then Teresa leaned forward.

From Loko’s angle, the fabric at the girl’s collar fell with gravity, and that lovely figure was on the verge of being fully exposed before her eyes.

Teresa didn’t care in the slightest. She reached out and pinched Loko’s chin just as she was about to lower her head.

Then her fingers pressed lightly, forcing Loko to tilt her head up and meet her gaze.

“You betrayed me. You told Shilufei about yourself, didn’t you?”

Teresa’s voice was low and eerie, threading into Loko’s mind strand by strand.

Loko felt as if she’d been struck hard. Her pupils slowly contracted, and the expression on her face gradually turned into terror.

“N-No... that’s not it, that’s not it! She found out on her own. I didn’t betray you, Milady!”

She desperately tried to shake her head, but with her chin being held, she could only make the tiniest movement.

Even her pleading voice slowly took on a sobbing edge.

She knew very well what kind of end awaited anyone who betrayed someone as ruthless as Teresa.

“Is that so... You didn’t betray me? Then that means you still haven’t told her I was the one behind your actions, right?”

The girl nodded frantically.

“Good. Then I’ll believe you this once.”

As Teresa spoke, she released Loko’s chin and sat upright again.

“Since she still doesn’t know you were sent by me, then tell me—what would make sure she never finds out?”

Loko had just survived a disaster by the skin of her teeth. Hearing Teresa’s words, she froze, and the words of gratitude died in her throat.

In an instant, a steel collar snapped around Loko’s neck, and the leash attached to it was held in Teresa’s hand.

The girl looked down at Loko from above, a proud smile on her face.

“Loko-chan, from now on, you’re evolving from my servant into my pet. Other than inside this house, you’re not allowed to go anywhere. Otherwise...”

Teresa licked her soft lips and let out a sweet little laugh.

“I’ll break your legs without a second thought.”

...

Loko jolted awake in her bed once again.

This time, not just her forehead, but even her back was covered in sweat.

She instinctively reached up and touched her neck. Only after confirming there was nothing around it did she let out a breath of relief.

Then she collapsed weakly back onto the bed.

Staring at the ceiling, the girl blankly lost herself in thought.

A dream inside a dream?

Thinking about the two consecutive dreams she could remember so clearly, Loko let out a powerless sigh.

“No matter how I look at it, my future is just screaming death...”

“How did it end up like this...”

Loko had transmigrated. She had transmigrated into a novel she’d read in her previous life.

Back then, she’d only been an ordinary harmless boy on Blue Star. Changing sex after transmigrating would’ve been one thing, but of all things, she had landed in the body of a villain-side cannon fodder.

The novel’s heroine was named Shilufei, and the Loko she had become actually had quite a lot of screen time in the early part of the story.

As Shilufei’s classmate and roommate, she had helped Shilufei solve quite a few problems.

But at the end of Volume One, her identity as a spy was exposed.

She was a spy planted beside Shilufei by the villainous young lady Teresa. Her mission was to slowly earn Shilufei’s trust, then stab her in the back at the critical moment.

She succeeded. Shilufei trusted her, and she really did betray her.

But Shilufei was the protagonist.

After being backstabbed, she didn’t die. Someone saved her, and in the end she returned here to take revenge on the villainess Teresa and Loko.

The more prominent Loko’s role had been in Volume One, the more miserable her death was when she was finally killed.

After transmigrating here, Loko had originally wanted to survive by refusing to cooperate with Teresa.

But unfortunately... Teresa held her lifeline in her hands.

The two had been childhood playmates. Even back then, Teresa had already been scheming. She tricked Loko into signing a contract with her, and if Teresa tore up that contract, Loko’s body would explode and she would die.

Caught between people she couldn’t afford to offend, Loko’s mood only got worse day by day.

Because she realized this was a dead end. It felt like her fate had been decided from the very beginning.

“If I become a spy, I die. If I don’t become a spy, I still die.”

But... a miserable life was still better than a good death.

Thinking that, Loko sat up and walked to the door.

She opened it a crack and looked into the hallway.

This time, no one was there. Only then did Loko confirm that she probably wasn’t dreaming.

She had already made up her mind. She still had to be the spy. If she refused, she’d die immediately.

She’d play the spy for now, then slowly look for a way to nullify the contract. During that time, she just had to avoid arousing Shilufei’s suspicion.

Anyway, as long as things hadn’t reached that plot point at the end of the original Volume One, her relationship with Shilufei wouldn’t become completely beyond repair.

Thinking that, Loko leaned against the door, clenched both fists, and gave herself a pep talk.

“You can do it, Loko! You have to escape the clutches of that evil slave-driving master!”