After a long, numbing kiss, the girl’s gentle breath gradually drifted away from Anna’s lips.
Anna blinked.
The room was dark, no light in sight.
She slowly raised her hand, but when she opened her palm, she couldn’t see her fingers.
She gave a faint, bitter smile.
Her proud words about selling her performance, not her body, had just been trampled underfoot by the very client she accidentally collided with.
After she stopped resisting, the girl became ruthless and unrestrained, unstoppable.
Later, when the girl seemed to have lost all strength, she cheated by using Water Magic.
The cool, soft yet forceful touch of the water jet was something Anna swore she would never forget in her life.
She was no longer pure.
She was no longer clean.
Meanwhile, the instigator tidied her clothes in the dark nearby.
Despite having exhausted every ounce of strength, that girl only had a slightly dirty hem, as if completely consuming Anna was just a casual matter.
Whoosh.
The girl lit the wall lamp.
The old lamp’s wick must have been worn out, for the flame flickered and swayed over the lamp oil, casting two shadows dancing across the floor.
The girl, whose strange possessiveness had been unleashed, suddenly softened.
Her palm caressed Anna’s cheek, and a delicate, fleeting kiss landed on Anna’s forehead.
Anna’s heart was surprisingly calm.
Luckily, it was a designated client; otherwise, this could have ended terribly.
She even felt some relief, glad that the one who pushed her down was her own client.
“Where did you sneak off to this afternoon?”
“Huh? This afternoon?”
Anna’s rusty mind spun back to earlier that day.
She recalled refusing the Arena Manager’s offer of two silver coins to stay.
At that time, she was rushing to the tavern, no mood to care what the manager said.
Now, thinking about it… was this girl who just took her down the same wicked brat who randomly raised the stakes and caused her to earn nothing?
“Hey!!! Was it you that made me lose all that money? The 1:3 odds, do you know how much I could’ve earned?!”
Anna shook the girl’s shoulders.
Resentment scattered the afterglow of tenderness and the gap between their statuses.
Right now, she truly wanted to throw caution to the wind and pin the girl beneath her.
“That little money? No, I just wanted to see you.”
“Hey, is ruining my earnings your way of seeing me? You knew I was working here part-time. Why not just come find me directly like you just did?”
Suddenly, the girl lay back, her hands threading through her silver hair, brushing Anna’s thin shoulder blades, clasping at the nape of her neck like a lock.
Anna lost her balance and unexpectedly fell into her embrace… nearly suffocating in that valley of arms.
“What are you doing!”
Tears slipped out against her will.
Anna sniffled, but it didn’t stop them from flowing.
A wave of despair crashed over her.
A mountain’s weight pressed down on her shoulders, but she was too thin, unable to bear it.
She sobbed, the humiliation branded on her abdomen by the slave Magic Crest flooding back into her heart.
All because of that person, all her hard work in the arena was wasted in an instant.
Even at the tavern, the client who claimed her didn’t bother to leave a tip after consuming her utterly, dragging out the day she could escape this misery…
It was all because of her, all because of her.
Resentment seeped into Anna’s battered soul like poison, but in an instant, the girl’s kiss brushed against her lips.
That kiss pressed softly at the corner of her mouth, gentle and restrained, yet like an antidote, it instantly dispelled the hatred in Anna’s heart.
“Have you made up your mind? Will you become mine? In a way, you’ve already been marked by me.”
“Huh…?”
Anna was at a loss for words.
Indeed, she had just been taken by the wicked brat before her, but she felt the villainous heiress’s meaning was something else.
The burning sensation in her abdomen still scorched her spirit.
Surely she wouldn’t go to the Royal Family to sell her ownership, right?
That madwoman was absolutely capable of such a thing.
“Because I’ve paid off your debt, your creditor has become me, Ophelia Castellan—in other words, I am your master.”
“Hey, why do you have to do such unnecessary things…”
Anna felt as if her whole body was being roasted over a fire.
That was the punishment sent through the Magic Crest by the owner.
“Because you and I are the same kind of person. And, I need a good sword.”
Her ice-cold eyes suddenly flickered with a near-mad obsession, then just as quickly returned to their usual chill.
The fire in her eyes died out too fast, like a spark igniting in the dark night—momentary light and heat, then back to coldness.
“What a joke…”
The same kind of person?
What a joke.
How could a willful noble daughter like her ever understand me?
Anna struggled to suppress her emotions, but in the next moment, all the hardships, grievances, frustrations, and rage since she was summoned melted into tears, breaking through her defenses.
As for a good sword?
Her sword was broken; she was no longer a sharp blade.
She was nothing more than a rusty broken blade, drenched in rain called debt and survival… just a lowly slave.
“What exactly do you want…”
Anna’s hands groped instinctively, searching for her sword.
But this was a tavern, she had no sword, and she wasn’t wearing a stitch.
Even if she had a sword, what would it matter?
As soon as Ophelia spoke, she would fall in pain.
Compared to Ophelia, Anna was less dangerous than the armchair by the door.
At least if the armchair fell on her, it would really crack open her amazing little head.
“I’m going to slay the Demon King. I need help.”
“You think I’ll believe that?”
A noble daughter raised in gold mines and ivory towers, why would she bother with the Demon King?
Since the Kingdom’s founding, slaying the Demon King has been the mission of the Five Heroes summoned here.
Why would Ophelia interfere?
“Believe it or not, I don’t care. I have my reasons. And I suppose you want to return to that battlefield, don’t you?”
Anna was silent.
She had no argument.
The Five Heroes seemed to have long since lost their will to fight again.
The Hero of the Gun was punished the lightest; he shirked responsibility and used the princess to gain noble status.
The Hero of the Bow, whose body was said to be the sole heir of a Noble Family, was sheltered by his clan and now lived carefree somewhere unknown.
The Hero of the Staff, thanks to magic talent, had the Mage Tower’s protection and was making a name for herself as its rising star.
As for the Hero of the Shield… he hadn’t forgotten his skills before reincarnation; he opened a Bakery in the capital, business was booming, debts repaid, and was even planning to open a second branch.
In the end, only Anna still clung to that unrealistic mission.
Mission or obsession.
She couldn’t let go of that defeat.
They were so close; it wasn’t her fault, yet they lost.
Many died in vain, blood spilled pointlessly, countless places were left desolate.
It shouldn’t have been this way.
They were Heroes, summoned to take up the mission.
If they failed to complete it… then the Summoning of Heroes would be a joke.
That would betray the world that placed its hopes on them, and betray the other world that suddenly lost them.
That obsession was like a thorn piercing Anna’s heart.
She didn’t argue when blamed in the trial.
Even as a slave, she worked hard to repay her debt, just so one day she could pick up her sword and return to that battlefield… to end this boring mission.
“You’re right… I want to go back more than anyone else.”
“Then become mine. I’ll take you there. I’ll go with you.”
A strong embrace.
Anna staggered.
The arms wrapped around her trembled slightly.
“Help me, Anna. No one supports me… you’re all I can think of.”
What kind of trick was this madwoman playing again…
Anna froze in place.
She couldn’t believe that the iron-like madwoman before her suddenly showed such weakness.
Was she acting? No, it didn’t seem so.
The trembling shoulders, the strength gripping her back—if this was acting, it was too convincing.
So convincing even Anna, used to acting herself, saw no flaw.
Anna faintly recognized a madness in Ophelia’s obsession that was very much like her own.
“Will you pay me?”
“No.”
“Then there’s no deal. I have to pay off my debt, and I have no money.”
“Isn’t your creditor me?”
Anna felt that Ophelia might really be similar to her.
She too seemed like a helpless little creature struggling to survive, drowning in a pond built by unbearable pressure, desperately grasping for a lifeline.
She clutched her own shoulders tightly, revealing a rare softness in a brief instant.
“Then will you forgive my debt? If you do, I’ll agree.”
“Deal.”
If she refused this madwoman, she would never see the light of day.
Agreeing was just jumping into another fire pit… but at least this fire pit led to where she wanted to go.
Anna fell silent, clumsily reaching out to gently stroke Ophelia’s long hair.
Was this her way of showing resolve?
Anna thought so.
“What you need to do now is stay with me at the Academy.”
“Huh?”
Wasn’t it about slaying the Demon King? How did it become accompanying her to class?
“The Demon King?”
“Not yet.”
“In six months, the Academy will send elite students to the border between the demons and the Kingdom to participate in some simple battles. After that, we’ll break off from the main force. Before then, you have to stay by my side at the Academy.”
“Hey hey hey, the Northern Heiress is making me accompany her to school… you don’t have any friends, do you?”
Anna found it ridiculous.
“Of course not. But… you’re the only one who can ‘satisfy’ me, Anna.” She tapped a finger on Anna’s lips to stop her from objecting. “Delicious, Anna. Thank you for the treat.”
“Hey!”
Realizing what Ophelia was implying, Anna’s face instantly flushed.
She suddenly noticed her clothes had long been undone by her unexpected owner across from her.
Flustered, she hastily tidied her garments, but in a moment of absentmindedness, locked eyes at close range with those blue eyes.
Well… Ophelia was still a beauty.
She couldn’t say it was a total loss.
Anna could only comfort herself this way.
It was already a fait accompli.
What good was resisting?
Even if she fought to the end, she’d probably just be punished again.
Besides, accompanying the noble daughter to school was much easier than throwing matches during the day and serving at a tavern by night… right?
It was just spending the day playing, teasing, and learning with her, then lying down at night to play a game in the Pocket Space.
Not much different from before.
Anna was silent.
Ophelia stopped teasing her, only crossing her arms and turning her back to Anna, as if that was her way of respecting Anna’s boundary in hiding her secret.
Until the rustling sounds behind them gradually ceased, a faint glow appeared in Ophelia’s palm, resonating with the brand under Anna’s shirt.
“First order: show me your smile.”
Anna’s lips twitched uncontrollably, forcing out a smile that could be called genuine.
Ophelia curved her mouth in approval.
“Second order: come with me.”