After resting at the Flame Abyss Temple for about a day, the two had fully recovered and were ready to leave.

But before they left, Elucia didn't take anything with her. Without a word, she made the final adjustments to the Flame Abyss, then gathered up all the trash the girls had brought with them.

“Slave maid, get over here.”

“Ugh…”

Lonis walked over reluctantly. Ever since she’d recovered, the little black-haired girl had been picking on her nonstop… making her massage her shoulders, making her roast meat. She’d been treating Lonis like a servant through and through!

Lonis had thought Elucia was about to bully her again, but the girl’s expression was unusually serious.

Elucia gripped Lonis’s wrist with her left hand and brought down a short sword in her right, as if she meant to cut off the silver-haired girl’s hand!

“Elucia… D-don’t bully me.”

“It’s too late to beg now.”

Shhk! A cut opened across Lonis’s palm… and bright red blood began to gush out.

The first cut had felt kind of good for a moment, but the pain soon caught up with Lonis.

(It hurts!)

The silver-haired girl gazed at the little black-haired girl with tears in her eyes. She wanted to cry out in pain, but her pride wouldn’t let her scream like some little girl.

In the end, all she could manage was…

“Elucia, what are you going to do to me?”

“All right, hurry up and take this blood over to the Flame Abyss. Drip it onto the torches at each of the four corners, one by one.”

“Huh?”

“It’s to keep the Flame Abyss’s power from being tainted… Do this, and I’ll give you a reward.”

“!”

Lonis froze. Suddenly, she remembered General Kelu and the Trickster Demon Lord behind him.

That was probably this world’s big bad, right?

They’d been coveting the Flame Abyss’s power all along. And as the Hero, Lonis was supposed to protect the Flame Abyss Temple from being invaded.

But even so…

It hurt so much!

Turning her body’s sensitivity all the way up had plenty of benefits, but the downsides were just as obvious… Blood trickled from her palm, and the pain was making Lonis feel like she might pass out.

And her healing was so incredible that the wound in her palm healed in less than three minutes.

Then it had to be cut open again…

“W-wah… Elucia, could you just prick one of my fingers instead?”

“Huh?”

“It really hurts when you cut my palm like this.”

“You idiot, don’t you know how your body works? A little prick on your finger would heal in seconds. To get enough blood out, you’d have to prick it dozens of times.”

“Dozens of times?!”

“Lonis, didn’t you say you were a Hero in your previous life? Looking at how pitiful you are, maybe you’re better suited to being a cute, timid girl after all.”

“Who says I’m scared? I was only pretending it hurt! Just watch—I’m not scared at all.”

‘All bark and no bite’ described Lonis perfectly right now: to drip enough blood, she had to cut her palm five times.

She’d lost less than a liter of blood, but probably not by much—around eight liang, at least.

And the pain wasn’t just in her head. Her body was reacting, too… Lonis was drenched in cold sweat, and her steps had grown unsteady.

At the same time, she felt as if she were drunk, her whole body steeped in a strange sensation. Time around her seemed to crawl, then race by.

Only Elucia’s voice could bring Lonis’s senses somewhat back to normal.

“You’re such a masochist. Just having your blood drawn gets you this worked up.”

“I-I’m not worked up!”

“Still, you got it done. Not bad for a masochistic maid… Come here. I’ll give you your reward.”

“A reward?”

Lonis blinked in confusion,

only to see Elucia take a candle out of her storage ring!

Could the “reward” Elucia had mentioned really be another way to bully her?

(N-no… I don’t want a reward where you bully me like I’m some kind of toy!)

Lonis took a frightened step back. Elucia stepped forward, looking amused. “You’re such a cute, timid masochist of a maid. Don’t you want your mistress to drip candle wax all over you, until you’re covered in sticky wax from head to toe?”

“Ugh… Uuuu…”

“But unfortunately, that’s not today’s reward. It’s…”

Elucia put down the candle and produced a silvery-white necklace from her palm.

Then she rose onto her tiptoes and fastened it around Lonis’s neck, like putting on a collar.

“Huh… What is this?!”

Lonis hadn’t even had time to react. Elucia gave her a teasing smile and spoke lazily:

“From today on, you’re my weapon rack. When I tell you to bring out a weapon, you bring it out.”

“Huh…”

Only then did Lonis notice the small red gem hanging from the end of the necklace. It was the gem bestowed upon her by the Flame Abyss Temple, and it had the power to summon the Red Lotus Warhammer.

Could it be…

that Elucia had taken the gem earlier just to make her a necklace?

And had the reward she mentioned been her way of giving it back?

Lonis’s heart had just begun to stir when Elucia gave a cold laugh and said:

“What are you standing around for? Hurry up and thank your mistress.”

“Huh?”

“No need to kneel. Just spin around for me.”

…

…

…

…

…

…

Once everything was ready, Lonis and Elucia left the Flame Abyss Temple together.

After leaving, they went to check the prison on the lowest level… Kelu was nowhere to be seen in the lava, and the rotten stench that had lingered in the air had faded considerably.

“Did he burn to ashes?”

“Not necessarily. Maybe he struggled his way back up, his skin burned beyond recognition, and is searching everywhere for a way to kill us.”

“Huh?”

“While you were fast asleep, he might’ve crept up behind you, reached out with those dry, pitch-black hands, and touched your…”

“Waaah!”

Elucia described it so vividly—and her hand had grabbed Lonis’s boobs at just the right moment—that the silver-haired girl jumped in fright.

“Heh heh. You really are a scaredy-cat~”

“A-anyone would jump if you touched them there.”

Though Elucia’s hand on her chest left Lonis feeling a little flustered,

Lonis wasn’t angry. She was a little worried that Elucia had always been this way… After all, whether back when she was a princess or later on, Elucia seemed to have lived alone.

Wouldn’t that make Elucia a little uneasy when she went to bed at night?

So if Lonis could stay by Elucia’s side… wouldn’t Elucia feel a little safer, too?

…

(Phew…)

Lonis took a deep breath and looked at the lava before her.

She knew that no matter what happened, she wouldn’t be escaping Elucia’s bullying and torment anytime soon.

Hero or maid,

partner or mistress?

And so, the two of them set out on their journey.