Lilia knelt on the carpet.
Her mind was still a jumbled mess.
Everything that had just happened felt surreal.
The suffocation of being choked, the madness of biting the Monarch’s wrist, the catharsis of throwing someone into the pool…
And then, Lucia’s domineering words.
“My Pet, how dare you touch her?”
Thump… thump… thump…
Her heartbeat grew heavier with each beat, pounding against her chest until it felt tight.
A wave of heat surged up her neck, burning her cheeks and the roots of her ears.
‘Damn it! This perverted Demon King…’
‘She actually protected me!’
This realization stirred a warmth in her heart.
Yet, she hated this feeling.
It made her feel like she was being tamed.
Lucia’s icy voice cut through her chaotic thoughts.
“Go brush your teeth. Ten times.”
The heat instantly drained from Lilia’s face.
Brush… brush her teeth?
Ten times?!
She snapped her head up, utterly dumbfounded.
She had risked her life, biting and causing a scene.
She had nearly been crushed to death on the spot by a Fifth-Rank Monarch.
And this woman wasn’t concerned about whether she was hurt.
Nor about whether she felt wronged, but about her mouth having “bitten something dirty”?!
“Meow?”
A broken, single sound squeezed from her throat.
Lucia ignored her.
She simply grabbed Lilia’s wrist and turned to leave.
Lilia’s mind buzzed, her whole body weak.
She was dragged all the way from the Royal Bedchamber to a hidden door concealed behind a massive bookshelf.
Behind the door was a pitch-black corridor.
Finally, she was brought into a vast, empty room.
The room contained nothing.
The walls, floor, and ceiling were all made of a black metal that seemed to absorb light.
The entire space was so quiet she could hear her own heartbeat, oppressively maddening.
“Put me down! I want to sleep! I’m warning you, if I don’t sleep I’ll die right here! Meow!”
Lilia was still struggling futilely.
Lucia casually let go.
Splat!
Lilia fell onto the cold metal floor.
Her butt nearly cracked.
She bared her teeth, about to curse, when she saw Lucia extend a hand.
Toward the empty center of the room, she gave a gentle squeeze.
In the darkness, countless thin threads converged toward her palm.
A fist-sized, ghostly blue light sphere materialized out of thin air.
Lilia stared at it.
Her Spirit Force was involuntarily drawn toward it.
She had the illusion her very Soul was about to be sucked in.
‘This thing… is ten thousand times more terrifying than Freya’s black sphere!’
“You were far too reckless today.”
Lucia turned around, her crimson eyes settling on her.
“If Freya had used her Monarch’s Domain from the very beginning just now,”
“completely severing the connection between you and me, you wouldn’t even have had a chance to call for help.”
Lucia walked up to her, looking down.
“Do you think you would have had a chance to use that crude Spatial Displacement technique?”
Lilia’s face instantly paled.
She wanted to argue, but not a single word came out.
What Lucia said was the truth.
Her victory relied entirely on Freya’s arrogance and her own burst of madness.
If the other party had been serious from the start…
She would be a corpse right now.
A chilling wave of fear shot straight up from her tailbone to the crown of her head.
“I… I was wrong… Meow…”
Lilia lowered her head, her voice as faint as a mosquito’s hum.
“Knowing you’re wrong means you must correct it.”
Lucia spoke.
“Starting today, your training is increased.”
“What?!”
Lilia’s head snapped up.
Both of her Cat Ears stood straight up in shock.
Increased training?!
She was so exhausted she just wanted to die on the spot, and now more training? “No… I won’t do it! Meow!”
Lilia scrambled up from the floor, backing away without a second thought, her small face filled with resistance.
“I’m already strong! I defeated a Fifth-Rank Monarch today! I want to sleep! Meow!”
She puffed out her flat little chest, fighting for her most basic “Pet rights.”
Lucia paid no mind to her bristling appearance.
She extended a finger and lightly flicked it across the surface of the ghostly blue light sphere.
A wisp of ghostly blue light, thinner than a strand of hair, was plucked out.
It drifted slowly through the air.
“This is the essence of Magic Power.”
Lucia explained.
“Your application of the Laws of Space is too crude, relying entirely on brute force.”
Her gaze shifted to Lilia.
“Now, learn what control means.”
“Your task is to use your pitiful bit of Spirit Force to guide it, and make it circle this room one hundred times.”
“Not a single lap less.”
Lilia looked at that wisp of light, so thin it was almost invisible.
Then she looked at this vast, empty room that was at least several hundred square meters.
Her mind buzzed.
Use Spirit Force to touch this ghostly thing?
Guide it for one hundred laps?
This was harder than making her fight a Fifth-Rank Monarch again!
“I won’t do it! I’d rather die than do it! Meow!”
Lilia shook her head desperately and plopped back down on the floor.
She adopted a posture of ‘a dead pig isn’t afraid of boiling water.’
“I’m tired! I want to sleep! I’m a wounded person who just finished a fight! Why should I work overtime? This is child labor exploitation!”
Lucia looked at her, her voice very soft.
“Not only will you get no food.”
Lilia’s movements froze.
“But also, the batch of special small fish jerky Lilith just finished making for you, the ones with deep-sea fish oil added…”
Lilia’s ears pricked up.
Special… small fish jerky?
With… deep-sea fish oil?
Sister Lilith’s god-like culinary skills.
Plus the precious ingredients shipped from the Misty Sea…
Fried until golden and crispy, one bite filling your mouth with savory oil…
She felt her drool was about to flow.
“…will all be distributed to the stray magic wild cats outside the Evernight Palace.”
An image immediately appeared in Lilia’s mind:
A group of fat, big-headed stray cats, gathered around a plate of golden, fragrant small fish jerky, eating until their mouths were oily, wagging their tails at her.
And herself, starving, stuck here staring blankly at a stupid thread.
A wave of grief and indignation shot straight to the crown of her head!
Lilia shot up from the floor.
She pointed a trembling finger at Lucia’s infuriating face.
“You win! Meow!”