Fio, who’d been a shut-in in her previous life, was pretty open-minded about people having different kinks. That was their private business, after all. As long as they weren’t hurting anyone, they could like whatever they wanted.

But when Leon proudly announced his own kink, Fio still felt a surge of panic. Wasn’t she now in his sights?

After dropping that shockingly bold statement, Leon didn’t say another word to Fio. He told her to follow him down the mountain, his expression still cold.

How could this guy have such thick skin?

Thinking back, four years ago, Leon had been surrounded by a bunch of cute girls, flaunting his popular-guy privileges right in front of Fio. He’d even worn that smug expression that said, “Ugh, there are too many girls. What a pain.”

Fio had been jealous and furious. Why did he get to live like the protagonist of a novel, while she’d spent decades stuck on a mountain with an old butler, getting scolded day in and day out?

And now, just because he’d suddenly decided he wanted to fool around with a dragon, he’d gone up the mountain, kicked her into the air, and forced her to become his slave?

On top of that, he’d bought off her butler, brainwashed him, and used underhanded schemes to turn everyone against her.

Scum. Leon was a hundred-percent popular-guy scumbag.

Fio regretted never learning fire magic. If she had, she’d have burned this womanizing harem protagonist to a crisp.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

Leon glanced back at Fio’s furious eyes and narrowed his own as he asked, his gaze full of menace.

“Eep!”

Fio quickly turned her head away. Sweat beaded on her forehead again as she worried that Leon might take his anger out on her.

She couldn’t fight, and she was most afraid of people like Leon, who’d throw themselves into a fight without caring if they got hurt. Standing in front of him, all Fio could do was obey and follow behind.

“By the way, where are we going?”

“Let’s go back to my place first. We’ll figure things out there.” Leon seemed to remember something. “Oh, right, Fio. From now on, don’t turn into a dragon, and don’t tell outsiders you’re the Dragon King. Just say you’re my maid.”

“What?”

Fio couldn’t stay calm anymore.

She hadn’t expected Leon to already be thinking about how to torment her.

First, he’d take away her dignified dragon form, turning her into a complete shut-in loser.

Then he’d strip her of her position as Dragon King, making her utterly worthless and trampling her dignity underfoot.

And finally, he’d make her a maid: work herself to the bone all day, then get summoned at night to serve this cold-faced sadist with a thing for nonhumans.

What an utterly shameless, sadistic three-hit combo!

“This is all for your own good. Be a good girl and do as I say, Fio,” Leon said.

There it was—the classic line! Fio screamed inside. She’d read plenty of spicy books in her previous life. In those steamy scenes, the first step was always to get the heroine to lower her guard, making her think the other person had good intentions, then slowly break down her defenses.

No wonder he could wrap all those women around his finger. This guy knew what he was doing. Too bad for you, Leon—you ran into me. I’m not some airheaded girl. You picked the wrong target.

“……”

Convinced she’d seen right through Leon, Fio grew smug inside and didn’t answer right away.

If she agreed now, she’d be walking straight into a dead end. But if she refused, she’d be giving him something to use against her.

So Fio decided the best option was to stay quiet. Silence didn’t mean she agreed.

“I figured you’d have a hard time agreeing to my first request. Let me put it another way, Fio: you can turn into a dragon if I give you permission. You don’t have to force yourself to work as a maid. Just stay at my place, and I’ll give you a regular allowance.”

She’d expected Leon to keep pushing, so the concession caught Fio off guard. And the tempting offer of staying home without having to work loosened the silver-haired girl’s resolve. “Mm… okay.”

“Good.” Leon nodded, satisfied.

The smile tugging at Leon’s lips—his look of someone whose scheme had worked—nearly made Fio cry out.

—A calculating scumbag. No wonder he could toy with women so easily!

First, he’d deliberately made an outrageously unreasonable demand, one Fio was bound to reject. Then Leon had acted as if he cared about her, set a trap, and offered her a deal that lowered her guard and got her to agree.

When it came down to it, Fio had walked right into Leon’s trap and done what he wanted.

Leon was a top-tier popular guy. Playing mind games with a bottom-tier shut-in like her was probably child’s play—he could outmaneuver her and run her into the ground in no time. Their life levels were just too far apart.

I don’t wanna play anymore. I wanna go back and eat potato chips…

“Fio, why are you crying?”

“I’m fine. I got a snowflake in my eye.”

Fio couldn’t hold it in anymore. Her emotions welled up, and tears nearly spilled from her eyes.

“Heh. You look kind of interesting when you cry,” Leon said with a half-smile.

“—!”

Leon’s creepy remark scared Fio so badly that her teeth started chattering.

So Leon wasn’t just a scumbag who was into nonhumans and had a thing for women—he was a sadist, too. No wonder he’d made her his slave. Weren’t slaves the perfect toys for sadists?

Fio knew that when a sadist saw someone looking all bullied and pitiful, their urge to torment them would skyrocket. They’d harass them even more, indulging their darkest desires.

“I’m not crying. I’m not crying. You’re seeing things.”

“Why are you suddenly so cheerful?”

“Don’t worry about it, Leon. Men who sweat the small stuff aren’t popular. Let’s hurry to your place before it gets dark. We won’t have anywhere to sleep if we’re still out here then.”

Fio forced a shaky smile in front of this terrifying man, who was frightening beyond words.