The man who suddenly appeared was wearing a bright red shirt, a strangely styled octagonal hat on his head, and a badge representing his sequence pinned to his chest.
Mithril Sequence 321. A yellow armband was fastened to his thick arm, with the words “Discipline” clearly written on it in crimson paint.
“I am Bond, the Discipline Officer. You should know why I’ve come to find you, right, Erika Angelina? For a low-sequence vase like you, I, Bond, have come personally. You should feel honored, hehe.” “Let go of Cielciel quickly…! If you keep pulling so hard, her tail will be torn off…!” Cielciel’s slender tail was roughly and tightly grasped by a palm, and the petite girl struggled desperately in mid-air.
Her own tail had never been pulled like that. In fact, she wasn’t even sure if it could be considered part of her body, so she naturally didn’t quite understand her secretary’s feelings.
But even having your hair pulled is painful enough. Pulling on such a fragile body part must be quite agonizing. It wasn’t hard to tell from the look of pain and near-sweating on Cielciel’s face.
“This beautiful tail is a gift bestowed by Mistress Noelle! If it gets pulled out, I’ll be no different from those useless elves…!”
“This little thing is so noisy, always yapping about a tail or something?”
But even as the man said this, he paid no attention to Cielciel’s resistance. His gaze remained fixed solely on Erika.
“Hey, Erika Angelina, didn’t you hear me? I’m asking you why you were absent and what you’re doing here?” There were about two subordinates lurking near the man in the red shirt, surrounding the girl from her left and right sides, seemingly blocking her escape routes. Noticing this as well, Cielciel shouted loudly, “Comrade, run…! Leave this to me, Cielciel! You must live to realize the great dream…!”
“Don’t even think about running, Erika. If you run, this demon companion of yours will become our intern.”
Intern? Hearing this strangely familiar term, the confusion in Erika’s mind couldn’t help but spill out.
“Huh? Intern?”
“That’s right, a respectable term for a slave. If you dare to run, this little thing will become an intern at our Mithril Agency!”
“Wah! I don’t want to be an intern…!” Cielciel began struggling desperately, like a cat whose tail had been grabbed by a husky.
Erika’s brilliant crimson eyes also contracted sharply, as if suddenly hit by a strong light. Cielciel had already nearly been sentenced to burning at the stake for being of the Demon Race. If she fell into slavery now, who knows what kind of harassment and humiliation she would face.
The octagonal-hat-wearing Bond didn’t stop there and continued with a sinister threat, “Our interns are notorious for their harsh conditions. The hourly wage is only twenty Star Coins!”
“T-twenty Star Coins…?” Hearing that terrifying amount, Cielciel’s petite body trembled slightly with fear.
The octagonal-hat-wearing man continued his low, threatening tone like a sadistic senior, “That’s right! Exactly meeting the Ark faculty’s minimum wage standard! But the scary things don’t stop there. Our interns only get one tea break per day!”
“A-and there’s still a tea break…?”
“Correct! Scary, isn’t it? What’s even scarier is that annual leave is only once a month! It’s all just barely meeting the minimum standards, and they’re assigned the most difficult tasks. That’s the life of an intern!” “Annual leave only once a month…!” Cielciel seemed genuinely terrified by such dreadful and harsh conditions, momentarily speechless.
Erika frowned slightly. How could this villain be so evil?
“Hmm…”
The thought of Cielciel having to face such a terrifying, difficult, and utterly unwanted internship life if she ran away made her feet feel rooted to the spot.
If it were just for survival, the girl would have turned and fled without hesitation.
But perhaps because of what had happened before, a bond had formed between her and Cielciel. Even though she said Cielciel was just a bought secretary, how could she possibly abandon this idiot?
Despite trembling with fear, Cielciel mustered her courage and shouted loudly, trying to reassure her, “Run…! I, Cielciel, really want to become an intern..! So please don’t worry about me, just run quickly…!”
Erika lowered her head. Half of her face was not illuminated by the weak light, hidden in shadow, her expression unclear.
“Run…!” Watching the deeply loyal Cielciel, the man in the octagonal hat chuckled.
“What touching camaraderie. But it’s too late now. Today, I’ll play the teacher and properly teach you about etiquette and rules!”
As his words fell, the two men surrounding her drew long, slender, flat rods from their waists, shaped similar to pointers.
Feeling no real threat from them, Erika chose to respond with an awkward silence.
The man raised an eyebrow and chuckled lightly, “This pointer is authorized by the school! It won’t actually injure students, but it delivers immense pain and leaves clear, difficult-to-remove whip marks!”
“Most importantly, to prevent students from blocking their palms with clothing, it can also destroy clothes!” Bond gestured for his two subordinates to tighten the encirclement, his eyes glancing at the absolute territory under Erika’s skirt, the part not covered by her knee-high socks.
“Imagine if it hit those pale thighs, or accidentally struck the chest or the skirt… hehe, I’m sure it wouldn’t be that careless, right?”
Hey! After all that talk, you’re still just being a pervert?!
What to do, should I run?
“Comrade…! Run…!”
“Go ahead and try to run, Erika. Oh, right, before we start, gag her mouth.”
“Boss, you’re into that kind of thing too?”
“Get lost! I’m afraid your IQ isn’t even as high as that guy Eph’s. This demoness has quite the sharp tongue.”
I wonder if these guys would see tomorrow’s sun if the stockings Evelyn lent me got damaged…
Wait, aren’t these perfect practice targets?
[Amber: High-level physical destruction spell. Power scales with the caster’s rank. Power is proportional to mana consumption.]
This might be the trump card that lets her make a brilliant escape! In Erika’s eyes, the three of them had automatically turned into the faces of straw dummies. However, the word ‘high-level’ always made her feel uneasy deep down.
Whatever, serves them right if it hurts! I need to test the specific ability anyway. Now’s not the time to be picky.
…Let me show you the consequences of offending your Big Sis Ai!
The girl raised her face once more. That breathtakingly beautiful face seemed to reflect specks of starlight under the streetlamp.