Chapter 27: Three years to start…

“Xiali, what should we do now?”

After returning home, Enis sat on the bed hugging a pillow, her eyes filled with confusion.

“I feel like you’ve been repeating this sentence all day these past two days,” Xiali said as she lay beside her, staring at the crystal chandelier swaying on the ceiling, her chaotic thoughts gradually calming down.

“That’s because I really can’t think of any solution!” Enis muttered. “It would’ve been better if we hadn’t met little Luya. At least then I could do bad things with a clear conscience.”

“No, this time we’ve filled the information blind spots and figured out everyone’s interests and demands. That’s a very important step toward solving the problem.”

“Xiali, do you already have a plan?”

“Not at all~”

“Eh!”

“If we don’t want to break off the alliance marriage, we just need to address the emotional issues between Filia and Luya. That part should be easier to handle,” Xiali waved her hand.

They still didn’t know each other, so rejecting the arranged marriage and the subsequent overly intimate behavior was completely normal.

But as the saying goes, time breeds affection.

The more you do it, the more feelings develop.

“Maybe after spending some time together, they’ll come to terms with it,” Xiali teased.

“Xiali, stop joking about that!” Enis slammed the pillow onto Xiali’s face.

“Cough… Breaking off the marriage isn’t that complicated. We just need to meet each person’s interests, and they’ll naturally have no reason to continue the engagement.”

“How do we do that?”

“If I knew, I wouldn’t be lying here.”

Restoring Luya’s magic power and carrying the Night Goddess’s blessing, and getting Filia to receive her blessing…

Setting aside the parasites in the family’s upper echelons, even just these two points were beyond her ability.

These matters involved the Night Goddess herself!

Even as a Demon Lord, she wasn’t sure she could solve them.

“Do we have to meet everyone’s demands?”

“…Not necessarily.”

Enis’s words reminded Xiali of something.

The fundamental purpose of an alliance marriage is for mutual benefit.

If the interests of one side are damaged, it’s possible to pry open a crack in the seemingly unbreakable alliance.

“We have to figure something out with Luya,” Xiali sat up.

From her earlier conversation with Luya, she noticed something.

Luya’s mother, one of the main orchestrators of the marriage alliance, still hoped for her daughter to regain her health.

Or rather, she cared for her.

This was completely different from the Kafus family, who regarded Filia purely as a tool for profit.

If Luya’s problem could be resolved, her mother might not have chosen to marry her off.

But how?

Even a great noble like Stanein couldn’t find a solution and ultimately relied on the alliance marriage to resolve the problem.

That meant conventional methods definitely wouldn’t work on Luya.

If nobles can’t solve it, what could she do?

Maybe she could subtly ask Lucifel about it.

Thinking this, Xiali was about to go back to her room for a nap, casually switching to her Demon Lord side.

But she saw Enis’s gaze fixed tightly on her.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing! It’s just a terrible idea!” Enis blushed and lowered her head, avoiding Xiali’s eyes.

“At a time like this and you’re still being so cryptic…”

Xiali hugged Enis’s head and forced her to look at her. “Just say whatever’s on your mind.”

“Well… that… about getting little Luya to restore her magic power…” Enis stammered.

“Do you have a plan?”

“Xiali, do you remember when we were trapped inside that dark cave treant yesterday…”

“Yeah, of course I do.”

“After my magic was depleted, I mistakenly did that… that kind of thing to you, and it restored all my magic…”

“Are you saying you want me to do that kind of thing to Luya… hmm?”

No! That’s definitely wrong! Nine times out of ten, it’s wrong!

Doing that to Luya?

She’s even younger than Enis!

In the old world, such behavior would land you in prison for at least three years, or even face the death penalty!

“What kind of awful idea is that?” Xiali tapped Enis on the head.

“Ugh, it’s not my fault. You made me say it. I just wanted to say it’s a terrible idea…” Enis muttered. “Did we kind of fuse magic yesterday?”

“Huh? What are you talking about? Of course not! That was just magic replenishment! Nothing to make a fuss about!”

Xiali rejected the idea without hesitation. “Even if it was embarrassing, it was a desperate misunderstanding made in a critical moment. Besides, it’s normal for people who are close to do intimate things!”

Although their strange play yesterday… ugh, action, would be something only mothers and daughters or lovers with special fetishes would do.

Anyway, it wasn’t a normal friend relationship.

But what she says goes!

“If it doesn’t count, then doing that to little Luya is okay, right?” Enis’s eyes shone with hope.

“How could you even think that! Of course not!”

“Ugh! I’m not saying to go that far, but maybe just holding hands or kissing her cheek could help solve her problem?”

“Do you think holding hands will make a child pregnant? Besides, magic replenishment only restores magic power; it doesn’t raise magic capacity, nor can it change her physical condition.”

Xiali could see Enis was getting more and more anxious.

After all, there were less than six hours before the Stanein family’s alliance marriage banquet started.

But this idea was just too unreliable!

…At least she needed to make sure it was feasible.

Xiali held Enis’s shoulders, calming her down a little.

She leaned forward.

Her lips pressed against Enis’s forehead.

“W-wait! Xi-Xiali, what are you doing?”

“You wanted me to try this method on Luya first, so I need to experiment on you beforehand.”

Xiali’s hand slid down to Enis’s waist, her burning cheek pressed against hers as she gently breathed near Enis’s ear and licked her earlobe.

This move was something she learned from Lucifel.

“Ugh… Xiali… please don’t…”

“How is it? Do you feel any change in magic?”

“I-I don’t know… I can’t control myself… ah…”

“Bang!”

A loud noise interrupted Xiali’s further actions.

“What are you d-d-doing!” Filia’s voice sounded like a mad beast, followed immediately by a magical incantation.

Xiali hadn’t let go of Enis yet when she saw a spear of light hanging just beside her head.

“Hey, wait, listen to me first! This is just an experiment, it’s for…” Xiali tried to explain as fast as she could but then stopped halfway.

Using Filia’s little sister for magic replenishment experiments, intending to apply the same trick to her fiancée?

Ha ha, what a scumbag statement.

Xiali felt that if she said that out loud, Filia’s spear of light would turn her into a hedgehog.