In just a few minutes, a line of bold text appeared on the Magic Orb, right on cue.
Xuefei nearly jumped for joy.
“Received. I think I understand the situation. I’ll meet you in the basement room at the bottom of the Evil Dragon Palace in two hours. Now that I belong to a powerful god, I’ll definitely get you out safely. We can talk about the rest once we’re together.”
As expected of Miss Great Sage—her efficiency was unmatched.
Even in this rebooted world, she could grasp what Xuefei had told her with ease.
But what did “belong to a god” mean?
Xuefei had heard that some gods feared Leia’s existence, so teaming up with an elite warrior like Miss Great Sage made perfect sense.
She could already picture it: joining the Demon Race Resistance Army and the human forces, leading them to victory once more, then, under this new god’s guidance, sending herself back to her original world and setting right the tangled threads of time and space.
Yes—if it was her, she could pull it off!
Xuefei softly closed the door and slipped away with the flawless steps she’d honed over countless days, heading back to her room as if nothing had happened.
~~~
…Something felt a little off.
Kill the Evil Dragon.
But the Evil Dragon now was Leia herself. Slaying her would mean ending the heroine’s life all over again.
“I must not betray Lady Leia.”
That phrase—or command, really—was carved into her very bones. Defying it didn’t just plunge her into Evil Corruption in an instant; it also sent waves of guilt crawling up her spine.
Betraying the wife she’d shared a bed with was beyond even her, a dragon.
What was more, fixing this broken world meant overcoming every evil force—and she herself had become the Evil Dragon. Returning to her original world felt like a fool’s dream.
“The Great Sage will think of something…”
Xuefei stared at the rising sun, knowing these two hours would drag on forever.
~~~
They flew by in no time.
Heart pounding with anxiety, Xuefei stepped into the pitch-black basement. She wondered why Miss Great Sage had picked this spot, but it wasn’t impossible for the Great Sage to have hidden a teleportation array somewhere in the Evil Dragon Palace.
No need to worry, Xuefei told herself.
The palace basement was enormous. What they called a basement was really just an abandoned underground complex. Go deeper, and you’d hit the dungeons the palace had built specifically to hold powerful foes—places where captured humans endured brutal torture.
Get lucky, and you might die quick and clean. Get unlucky, and you’d end up like her: race rewritten, mind overwritten…
“Miss Great Sage, are you here?” Xuefei’s soft voice echoed through the empty space. Without the subtle dragon traits marking her body, she might have been taken for some lost, helpless girl—fresh meat for the wolves and tigers prowling these halls.
Strange…
Come to think of it, what did Miss Great Sage even look like?
Xuefei remembered the hat she always wore, but the face beneath it? A total blank.
“Can’t remember what I look like?”
The sudden voice from behind had Xuefei whipping around.
Strange—no one there…
Panic gripped her. Maybe Miss Great Sage had said it, but things being what they were, a ghost seemed more likely!
Since turning into a girl, Xuefei had grown timid, her tear ducts all too ready. Now, tears glistened at the corners of her eyes.
“People you don’t care about slip your mind fast, haven’t they, silly Xuefei?”
The Evil Dragon’s night vision let her pierce any shadow.
Including the woman standing right in front of her.
Sharp horns, scarlet eyes degraded just like her own, and a smile that shattered the seal on Xuefei’s buried memories.
It was the same unflappable smile as Miss Great Sage’s—the one that said she had everything under control. Xuefei recalled how it had only vanished in their final farewell.
But the real shock wasn’t that smile.
Xuefei froze solid.
“La… Laer?”
“Hi~”
Laer gave a little wave, her composed smile shifting into the maids’ fond, indulgent one. The headpiece on her maid outfit gleamed even in the gloom.
“I do love this smile best. So, Xuefei—which version of me do you like?”
“You… you…”
Xuefei was speechless.
Her mind short-circuited the instant it processed “Laer equals Great Sage,” shock and terror clamping down on her throat.
Sweat poured from her as she struggled for a sound.
Laer patted her head.
“Bingo~”
“Cute little Xuefei—even the fear in your eyes is utterly adorable. I can almost understand how little sister Leia fell for you. Hmm… though now it should be big sister Leia. After all, it was the Evil Dragon Lord who reincarnated me, letting me see the ignorance and absurdity of humanity.”
The Great Sage… had become… that Head Maid?
No—it was after her personality fused with that of the Evil Dragon Guard that she turned into the Head Maid…
I was too careless.
Leia had actually pulled off something like this.
There was no explaining anything to Laer now. Whether it was her experience from the First Playthrough or her supposed redemption, it was all pipe dreams. The Demon Race’s loyalty to the Evil Dragon far surpassed that of any human vassal.
“Laer, could you… not tell Lady Leia about this?” Xuefei said, her voice trembling.
“No can do~”
Laer’s tone brimmed with the same indulgent affection.
“Xuefei belongs to Lady Leia, so of course she can’t leave the great Evil Dragon Leia. When will you truly understand that, Xuefei? Hmm…”
“Looks like you need a lot more pampering, don’t you think, Lady Leia~?”
Laer’s sudden words nearly made Xuefei faint on the spot.
And when she saw the woman emerging from the shadows, her fragile heart sank into utter despair.
It was the Evil Dragon…
That silhouette was all too familiar.
A lavish gown draped her figure—three parts youthful innocence, seven parts mature allure. She stepped forward with elegant, featherlight grace, her slender legs sheathed in black silk stockings.
Laer bowed silently. Xuefei’s legs buckled, and she collapsed to the floor.
So these two had been playing me this whole time?
“Thank you, Laer. You may withdraw now. I’ll grant you a fitting reward later.”
“My thanks, Evil Dragon Lord.”
As Laer departed, the basement’s massive iron door slammed shut with a resounding bang. Xuefei gazed up at the approaching Leia with pleading, aggrieved eyes, utterly lost for words.
“Let me explain, Lady Leia—please, just hear me out…”
“What’s there to explain?”
Leia’s enchanting smile held not a trace of reproach—only a deep, weighty indulgence.
“I… I was wrong.”
“Did you know? This basement is right next to the prison holding the most dangerous felons. But with me here, interrogation is pointless. So… we made a few modifications.”
“Mmm…”
Leia tilted Xuefei’s chin up with one hand while the other began an exploratory prelude, drawing a flush to Xuefei’s cheeks. It seemed this body was already growing accustomed to her affections.
“You’ll like those toys, won’t you?”
…
At noon, a series of rising and falling cries echoed from the depths of the Evil Dragon Palace. No one but Leia knew what sort of “punishment” Xuefei had endured.
