Currently, Victoria Evatrice was lying down stunned inside her room.

She regained her consciousness not too long ago.

“...”

Of course, even though she had just regained consciousness, she could remember everything clearly.

In a daze, she touched her lips.

J-Just now…

W-What did I do, with these lips…?

“...”

The scene of the event from before was playing behind her eyes that she directed toward the ceilings.

To be exact, the unbelievable scene where she begged Dowd Campbell to not abandon her while looking as if she was out of her mind.

Then, she… To that man’s hand…

“...”

Ah…

T-That was…

“...!”

Her eyes widened.

She could feel her face heat up—an unusual thing for her since she rarely expressed her emotions.

“...What kind of trick did that man pull on me—!”

She muttered as such, but…

Her cool-headed judgment denied her words almost instantly.

After all, she didn’t get her Grand Assassin Title by playing around. She was confident that she was familiar with all kinds of Mental Intrusion Spell.

And from her experience in that regard…

She could tell that the man didn’t pull any tricks on her.

Well, he actually did something, but it wasn’t something that could control her actions and ‘forcefully’ bring her into submission.

At best, it was just something that could make her more ‘honest’.

“...Eek.”

Before she realized it, she let out such a sound.

T-That means…

I-If…

A-A similar situation were to happen again…

A-Am I going to do that again…?

“...Eeeek…”

Even when she tried to look back on it…

She didn’t feel disgusted, unpleasant or even a little bit of shame.

On the contrary, she felt satisfaction and pleasure from deep down—

“Eek, eeek…!”

Her blush grew even deeper as she began to clench her teeth and punch her pillow.

Though she knew that the pillow had just been innocently serving its owner and didn’t deserve to be treated this way, her rage didn’t show any sign of subsiding.

At that moment, she could remember someone similar to a…sage…once said that the most frustrating thing in the world was when something bad happened and one couldn’t blame it on other people.

Because oneself was the only one to blame.

Who knows if that could be applied to Victoria, but the fact that she did such a shameful thing while putting aside her ferocious desire to kill her sister ‘willingly’ still wouldn’t change.

“...I swear, I'll teach him a lesson…”

She didn’t know how she’d do it or what’d she do to him…

But what she knew was that, if she didn’t at least say something like that, she’d definitely go insane.

“Dowd Campbell…! I swear, I’m gonna teach you a lesson…!”

That furious shout—which was filled with a very strong feeling of grudge and no-less strong feeling of shame—of the young Beastkin girl echoed through the room.

●

[You know, I’ve been thinking…]

“Yeah?”

The next morning.

When I was wiping my fingers, which were slightly swollen after those punks licked it so much, a certain someone’s voice suddenly echoed in my ears.

[Those things happened, sure, but in the end, you still didn’t kill her, right?]

“...”

[That means, the match is still going on…]

Ah…

Is it though…?

[I mean, your thing about how you’re going to kill her with pleasure or something is just pure bull—]

“No, wait, let me explain! You see, my plan was to massage her to the best of my abilities and make her say something like ‘At this rate, I might die…’ and make that count!”

[...]

“No need to worry if it makes sense or not! As long as I push it, it’ll work out! …Maybe…”

Well, if Victoria didn’t like that, I’d just blame her for not specifying the ‘dying’ part.

Anyway!

“She won’t pounce at Seras recklessly from now on, so that should be enough for now!”

Since she had been humiliated once, she’d try to examine the situation from a distance for the time being instead of just charging towards Seras like she previously did.

After all, that girl was even more cautious than I was. If she wanted to do something, she’d prioritize safety over everything else.

…That’s why it would be okay if I were to make a more dramatic preparation later.

When I saw those two meet each other, I noticed something rather quickly.

The gap between those two was further than I thought.

Even though both of them were influenced by the Devil’s Fragments, it was still outrageous that the younger one would ‘actually’ pounce on her older sister like that.

I thought their relationship was a simple love-and-hate relationship at best, but it was clear that it was worse than that.

[So, what are you going to do?]

“I need to arrange for a reconciliation between those two.”

That was my new goal; To make those two reconcile by Elfante’s School Festival.

It would be hard for me to pay attention to them after the school festival since by that point, we’d be entering the Main Quest, The Empire’s Great Turmoil.

Considering that the System Message said that both of them would be key figures in the Main Quest, I couldn’t just let their relationship stay like that.

[...But, won’t you have to get along well with both of them first before you could try to get them to reconcile?]

[I mean, if I were that girl, there’s no way I’d even think of liking you after what you did.]

Hearing him said so, I furrowed my brows.

Like he said, that was definitely something I had to solve first regardless if it would make my headache worsen or not.

Or so I thought…

Before this window popped up.

< System Message >

[ ‘Skill : Fatal Charm’ activated! ]

[ Target’s favorability level has been upgraded to ‘Interest Level 1’! ]

[ Rewards available! ]

[ Target-related events will occur soon! ]

“...”

It had been a while since I’ve seen this window, so I unknowingly blinked my eyes.

Well, actually, rather than it had been a while since it appeared…

It was more like I just stopped caring about such a window since the time it appeared before my eyes were too many to count.

Anyway, the surprising part about the window was the last sentence.

‘Related event’. In other words…

“...There’s still another woman I have to seduce?”

[...You sounded like an actual playboy when you said that.]

I let Caliban’s words go in one ear and out the other as I looked at the window before my eyes.

“...How many of them are left again…?”

[So, the blue one, the red one, Her Imperial Majesty the Empress and the Lady.]

“...”

All of them were terrifying women.

Especially the last one since I couldn’t even guess what she would do to me.

But…

“It should be fine. Everything’s gonna work out somehow…”

I mean, I’ve gone through shit like this countless times by now.

Me surviving so far was the testament of my ability and the basis of my confidence that I’d be able to get through all the hurdles I’d face in the future.

[You know, I’ve been thinking about something these days.]

“What?”

[I think I began to understand why the Headmistress encouraged you to create a harem.]

“...What exactly did you understand?”

Was he just trying to diss me over the fact that all those evil-natured women were head over heels for me…?

Or was there something else—?

[World peace… You can achieve it with your lower body…]

“...”

[I’m not joking here, give my sentence some thoughts—]

“Shut the fuck up.”

I snapped at him as I finished getting ready to leave.

My body felt a little tense.

Even if I managed to put off Seras’ and Victoria’s ‘match’ until the School Festival, it wasn’t so for the rest of them. I wouldn’t know when they’d come to challenge me, so I had to keep my guard up at all times.

I left the room with that thought in mind and as soon as I took a step outside…

Someone I was very uncomfortable with approached me.

“Oh my, Senior!”

“...”

“You… Um, I… Uh, follow me!”

That wasn’t how you’d talk to a senior, Your Imperial Majesty the Empress…

I almost said those words out loud, but I suppressed the urge and let myself get dragged away by the wrist by her. Her face was full of smiles for some reason.

“Wait, Your Imp—!”

“Cecil.”

“...Pardon me?”

“Call me Cecil. I’m just a commoner who somehow managed to save some money to get enrolled at Elfante, after all.”

“...”

What the hell was she on about?

I wanted to ask her that, but I shut my mouth due to how serious she looked when she said that.

Even though her smile hadn’t left her lips, it felt like she’d split my head right here and then if I were to mess with this ‘concept’.

“...Alright, Cecil.”

“I came here to tell you the content of our match!”

Upon hearing that, my expression also turned slightly serious.

…Huh, come to think of it…

I haven’t heard her ‘real purpose’ to join our club.

Like, she even made up such a lame concept so suddenly while infiltrating the Academy like this. She definitely has a hidden agenda or something.

“No need to worry, I won’t try to risk my life and pounce on you just to win against you. Rather than that… I just want to enjoy this moment~”

“So, um… Where are we going?”

“To a place where the referee who could give a biased judgment towards me is waiting~”

“...”

I thought you said you want to enjoy the moment…?

You’re still thinking about winning, though?!

“Well, if I were to lose the match and have to hopelessly obey you, I wouldn’t be able to do half of the things I wanted to do.”

“...”

“So, can’t you just let yourself be defeated by me?”

“...Please let me hear what the match it first, Your Imp—”

When I saw her glaring at me, I immediately changed my words.

“...Cecil.”

Hearing that, Her Imperial Majesty smiled.

Anyway, the place she was taking me to was the Advisor’s office. Originally, Percy, the one who was in charge of advising our club, should’ve been there.

Is she the so-called referee?

As I thought so while letting out a sigh inwardly, Her Imperial Majesty the Empress entered the office without hesitation.

At that moment…

Both Her Imperial Majesty the Empress and I froze at the same time.

“Welcome, student Dowd, ‘student’ Cecil.”

A certain someone greeted us from inside, emphasizing on the second ‘student’ as if trying to say, ‘Stop doing something so ridiculous’.

After seeing this person, Her Imperial Majesty the Empress’ expression—which had been full of smiles—stiffened up.

“...Chancellor Sullivan. What brings you here?”

“Oh my. Chancellor? I’m not sure I can follow you.”

Sullivan, who had added a bright brooch and a headband on her silken blond hair, said as such while smiling widely.

It was such a hopelessly cheerful style, to the point that it looked ridiculous, considering her age and all.

But, she just fluttered her hair—as if trying to show off—while grinning.

“My name is Sulli. I’m a new teacher here.”

“...”

“As of today, I’ll be the one in charge of advising the Exorcism Club. I look forward to your cooperation.”

At that moment, Her Imperial Majesty—no, Cecil’s face, turned into a frown, as if she had just seen something that disgusted her.

It was as if she had seen a cockroach crawling out of her lunch or something.

“...Have some semblance of honor and dignity, Sullivan. You’re being ridiculous.”

“...Says you. How could the Empire’s stateswoman run all the way here to hide from her duties, hm?”

“This isn’t about me, it’s about you. Seriously, Sulli? What a disgusting name. I just want to entertain myself for a bit, why can’t you just cooperate—?!”

“If this entertainment of yours didn’t include that man, I wouldn’t have cared—!”

As the two women kept on exchanging harsh words in front of me while sending each other vicious gazes, something suddenly came to my mind.

So, uh…

Is this what people call a mirroring treatment?

[I don’t know. Maybe?]

Maybe…