Chapter 29: The Wonderful Use of Band-Aids

Coutia, as a bona fide goddess, considered herself far from petty.

Just like before, when Krexia had called her a crude name like “you bastard,” she had simply smiled it off, demonstrating her magnanimity.

So why was it that today, merely because Krexia didn’t reply to a question and muttered “Witch’s Power is a filthy thing” in her mind, Coutia responded with a direct threat, a vacuum punishment, and even laid hands on her?

Perhaps it was boredom.

In the past, Coutia truly regarded herself as a lofty Main God, looking down on everything around her with disdain—such a grand spirit of contempt.

But after tens of thousands of years of confinement, it was clear that this great existence had started to degrade in certain ways.

As for what truly accelerated her deterioration… maybe it was the decades-long, two-lives experience hidden deep within Krexia’s memories.

Those radical, twisted pieces of knowledge and insights—deemed heretical by this world’s standards—were so overwhelmingly intense that even this erudite Main God found them difficult to stomach.

Therefore, she decided to extract some of the relatively simple, mild, or even trivial “gameplays” from that world, to experiment on Krexia and see if humans from that world were really as uninhibited as they appeared.

Judging from the experiment’s results, the answer was no.

Look at this poor little thing—just a vacuum test outdoors plus the harmless request of “call me mom” was enough to make her want to die of shame.

Even through the Soul Communication Network, Coutia could sense the shyness, annoyance, and resentment burning in Krexia’s eyes.

How to put it… this was at least a small source of amusement during these boring times.

But if such mild “gameplay” could provoke such a huge reaction, what about the deeper ones?

Perhaps the days ahead could unexpectedly turn out quite fun.

Coutia was already beginning to envision the future.

“I’ve done what you told me to. Can you give them back now?”

Krexia’s impression of Coutia kept shifting.

When they first met, she truly thought the other was a powerful foreign goddess, wielding Divine Arts that could easily resurrect the dead and casually bestowing Divine Power capable of destroying worlds.

After being resurrected, she thought this entity was a prank-loving trickster, bullying an outsider who didn’t understand a goddess’s language and tricking her into signing a contract riddled with traps.

After some time interacting, she then felt this was merely a decorative tag—something that cost her a fortune in daily expenses but did nothing in her daily work or missions.

Now, she had figured it out.

This damn thing was simply a capable but stubbornly wayward she-devil.

And to think she had once suspected and guarded herself against the purpose of this being possessing her.

Turns out it was just looking for a toy.

Unfortunately, she had little room to resist such a situation.

Who could stand someone constantly trying to strip their clothes off?

“Hmm… You did call, that’s true, but the voice was a bit too soft. I might not be able to give you your reward all at once.”

“???”

Krexia’s hairs stood on end.

“What do you mean? What do you mean you can’t give it all at once? You want to split the payment for just this little thing?”

“Hey, ‘split payment’ is a good term, let’s do it that way.”

“Let me ask you—can you pay it off all at once?”

“Nope, the deal is done, and I’m very contract-spirited.”

“You’ve got your (Witch’s curse)!”

Panic began to spread in Krexia’s mind.

What was this thing trying to do? Split payments for two small pieces of clothing?

Half now, half later?

Crazy?

Screw it, maybe I should just go buy a few sets myself—just two pieces of clothing, is it worth wasting time arguing with you?

Besides, I’m not short on money right now!

“I told you I’m very contract-spirited. Your private restocking isn’t allowed under the Contract, and anything you buy will be confiscated.”

“?”

“(Witch’s curse)!”

“(Witch’s curse)(Witch’s curse)!”

bulin~

A barely perceptible flash of light flickered by; the gust of wind beneath finally settled, restoring half the sense of security.

Above… as Coutia’s power spread, an inexplicable calmness also appeared.

Krexia, still fuming, out of curiosity pulled open her collar for a look.

What she saw was shocking—a large “井” character quickly appearing on her forehead one after another.

What did she see?

The true form of “split payment.”

Guess what?

Low-tier lingerie!

No, crap—two band-aids!

An indescribable anger instantly surged to her head.

“Coutia!”

She was certainly no stranger to such “clothing.” Long ago, or rather, a very long time ago, she often browsed various pretty pictures late at night.

She had even seen certain female protagonists wearing such peculiar attire.

But never in her wildest dreams did she expect something like this would one day appear on herself!

“What, you’re not happy?”

Coutia’s voice grew lazy, as if she’d had enough fun.

“Not happy? Fine, I’ll just add some extras for you, give you a better sense of security.”

And so, she literally added some “extras” for Krexia.

The (–)(–) became (X)(X).

“…”

“Don’t worry, these aren’t ordinary band-aids. They’re band-aids blessed with Divine Power, so you can move around freely without them falling off.”

Coutia even thoughtfully added that reminder.

Krexia’s cheeks twitched, her expression oddly calming down.

After a moment, she even let out a small laugh.

It turned out that when speechlessness reached a certain level, laughter was the only response.

Though her face still bore a fair amount of redness, whether from shame or anger was unclear.

But one undeniable fact was her expression had become terrifying.

Though seemingly calm and impassive, there was an inexplicable menace lurking beneath.

Like an unlucky soul who’d been pranked by the same person countless times.

***

Krexia felt both ashamed and angry at Coutia’s teasing and torment.

But again, what could she do?

Could she storm into the consciousness space and drag Coutia out for a beating?

She could.

But winning or losing was another matter.

Such an act would bring her no benefit.

Based on her current understanding of Coutia, if she did it, whether victorious or defeated, Coutia would only respond with even more extreme and disgusting tricks that wouldn’t actually harm her but would definitely make her miserable.

Could she really just bottle up all this anger forever?

Of course not.

Then where was this frustration supposed to go?

Krexia glanced back at the Adventurer Association—or rather, the Commission Board within it.

She caressed the smooth barrel of the gunblade on her back.

(1/2)