“N-No… I didn’t!”
Xiye grit her teeth as she answered.
Huang Xiaoyi had no way of knowing if she had actually seen anything, so as long as she stuck to her guns and denied it, Huang Xiaoyi couldn’t do anything to her.
“Hmm?”
The blonde girl let out a dissatisfied hum. The hand holding the tip of the little Sakura Dragon’s tail raised one index finger. It looked like a guillotine blade about to execute a prisoner, or the Sword of Damocles hanging overhead, as if to say, ‘You’d better tell the truth, or I’ll crush you.’
The pink-haired girl was so terrified that she shrank her neck back like a startled bird. Despite that, she still raised her pink eyes to stare into the Evil God’s eyes and said, “N-No — I just didn’t!”
‘Even if I had to cut my stomach open to prove it, I only ate two bowls of noodles!’
Huang Xiaoyi’s triangular pupils glowed with a faint green light. She tilted her head slightly, seemingly trying to discern whether Xiye was telling the truth.
The library fell into an eerie silence. Xiye’s initial confidence began to waver, and the longer Huang Xiaoyi remained silent, the more pressure she felt.
She bit her lip uneasily, her soft fingertips rubbing the edge of her skirt. Her nails turned slightly white from the force. Eventually, her gaze reflexively drifted to the side, hoping to catch a breath of relief. She didn’t expect the blonde girl to keenly catch her loss of nerve. Like pulling a trigger, Huang Xiaoyi’s index finger pressed down hard against the gelatinous tip of that tail.
“Ngh!!!”
A bolt of electricity, powerful enough to shatter her consciousness, instantly surged from the tip of her tail through her entire body. A burning heat brewing in her lower abdomen almost spilled out from between her legs. She had no choice but to clutch her sleeves and squeeze her legs together tightly to suppress the urge that desperately wanted to burst forth.
“You…”
The little Sakura Dragon glared at the Evil God with resentment and grievance. The Evil God gazed back at her with great interest.
Supple pinkish-white hair hung messily over her shoulders, with a few strands sticking to her forehead and others caught unconsciously in her cherry-red lips. Her tiny face, small enough to be covered by a single palm, was marked with faint, light-red tear streaks. Her cheeks were slightly puffed out, making her look like an angry little bird or a ruffled kitten. Staring with a gaze she thought was fierce but was actually endearing, she only made one want to bully her even more…
Huang Xiaoyi’s gaze swept across the girl’s neck. Her beautiful, lace-decorated school uniform had become loose from her struggling, revealing her rounded, pale-pink shoulders and delicate collarbones. One could even faintly glimpse the soft, alluring curves of her early development.
Huang Xiaoyi shook her head. Her long-standing habit of drawing manga caused her to involuntarily translate her thoughts into panels in her mind. Her art style was of the ornate and meticulous school; any single frame she drew could serve as a cover-quality masterpiece.
But whenever she looked at Shirley, her brushstrokes, style, and composition would become suggestive and unseemly.
She knew she was a person of shallow emotions, so the problem couldn’t possibly be hers. Therefore, the issue had to lie with this dragon.
“…You’re lying,” she said coldly, looking down at Xiye with eyes devoid of emotion.
In reality, Huang Xiaoyi wasn’t certain if Shirley had just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time before getting caught.
But she didn’t care.
She simply wanted to see more of Shirley’s current state — that mix of being too afraid to speak up despite her anger, looking both indignant and pitiful. It was, in a sense, a pretext for war.
Huang Xiaoyi didn’t consider herself to have sadistic tendencies like her sister, Kesusu. Everything was this little Sakura Dragon’s fault — it was Shirley’s problem.
The moment she appeared, she would destroy Huang Xiaoyi’s inspiration and turn her perfect art style into something scandalous.
For someone who sabotaged art like this, a merciless punishment was only natural.
“I-I’m not…” the pink-haired girl whispered, curling her body inward. She sniffled aggrievedly, the tip of her nose turning red.
‘I’ve already acted like this, she should believe me now, right?’ Xiye thought.
‘She’s already like this, so she probably really didn’t see anything, huh… But so what?’ Huang Xiaoyi thought.
Huang Xiaoyi fell silent for a moment before releasing her grip. The large tail hit the floor with a soft *thud*.
Xiye hurriedly curled her tail up, hugging the tip to her chest like a precious treasure. She stared at Huang Xiaoyi with a wary expression and shrank back.
But the space behind the bookshelf was limited. Even if she wanted to hide, where could she go?
Seeing her look as if she were facing a great enemy, a faint curve appeared on Huang Xiaoyi’s usually icy face. “If you didn’t do anything, why are you so afraid of me?”
At those words, the girl reacted like a startled cat. Her pink cowlick stood straight up like an antenna.
“—After what you did, who wouldn’t be afraid!”
‘Damn it, how is this girl so sharp!’ Xiye thought.
‘Damn it, those images are appearing again. She really is a dangerous one!’ Huang Xiaoyi thought.
She took another deep breath to banish those suggestive images that should never have appeared. Taking a step forward, she cast a shadow that completely enveloped the tiny Shirley.
At the same time, semi-transparent tentacles made of data manifested around her once more.
“W-What are you doing?!”
Xiye crossed her arms in front of her. Unfortunately, she couldn’t fire a Specium Ray. If she were in her original body, she could have used powerful magic, but as far as she knew, this body was capable of nothing.
‘You’re a total loser, Shirley.’
“What am I doing?” Huang Xiaoyi said slowly, each word emphasized. The tentacles moved like fish in the sea, wriggling along the bookshelves, floor, and ceiling until they surrounded Xiye.
“…Since you saw it, it’s only right that you pay the price, isn’t it? Adults must take responsibility for their actions.”
Several tentacles had already crawled onto the arches of her feet, wrapping around ankles so slender they could be encircled by a single hand. A few more gripped her waist from beneath her clothes, the tips poking through the gaps in the fabric to undo the bottom button, revealing the girl’s fair skin.
“Eeek…!”
Unlike the slimy sensation of Kesusu’s tentacles, Huang Xiaoyi’s felt more like silicone. They reminded Xiye of certain “wonderful tools” she had seen online.
Thinking she might be poked by these things next, Xiye shouted anxiously, “B-But I’m not an adult yet!”
“…”
The moment those words left her mouth, both of them fell silent.
Xiye hadn’t expected herself to blurt that out in the heat of the moment, and Huang Xiaoyi hadn’t expected the little dragon to be so clever as to find such a specific loophole.
But the words were out, and there was no taking them back. Xiye hesitated for a moment before cautiously adding, “…Even though I’m dozens of years old, by Sakura Dragon standards, I haven’t reached sexual maturity yet. S-So, I’m still an underage dragon.”
As she spoke, she somehow found a burst of confidence. She pointed at Huang Xiaoyi’s nose and declared, “So, laying a hand on me is illegal! It’s against dragon ethics!”