“You know anything about Rose?” Lu Yuan gently stroked Lin Wan’s head.
Judging by how she had just acted toward Rose, Lin Wan must know her.
“She… she used to be a Magical Girl,” Lin Wan began. “That’s all I know… I don’t know how she ended up like this.”
“So you…” Lu Yuan wanted to ask how Lin Wan had been captured, but she worried that asking such a question now might reopen old wounds. After a moment’s thought, she shook her head and swallowed the words.
“Anyway, the most important thing now is to figure out how to escape.” Lu Yuan stood up and placed her hand against the glass.
From the reflection of her palm and the distance to her actual hand, the glass was at least ten centimeters thick, with some special craftsmanship. It would be very difficult for an ordinary person to break.
Lu Yuan clenched her fist.
But she wasn’t ordinary—she was a Magical Girl!
With deliberate force, she slammed her fist forward!!
“Bang!”
The glass didn’t budge an inch; not even a crack appeared. Instead, Lu Yuan clutched her hand and spun around in pain.
“Ahhhh, that hurts so much.”
***
“Oh my, little mouse isn’t behaving so well, huh?”
At that moment, footsteps echoed outside the cage. Lin Wan’s face instantly went pale, and she instinctively shrank into the corner.
Lu Yuan looked at Rose as she slowly approached, then effortlessly passed through the glass and stood before her.
The very glass cage Lu Yuan had just tried so hard to shatter was no obstacle for Rose; it was as if it didn’t exist.
“This cage was custom-made by me, you know. If you escaped so easily, I’d lose face,” Rose said.
Her eyes fixed on Lin Wan huddled in the corner, as if she wanted to swallow her whole.
Lu Yuan instinctively stepped in front of Lin Wan. “If you want to settle something, take it out on me. Don’t touch her.”
“Eh?” Lin Wan sat on her knees, staring at this black-haired, twin-tailed girl standing before her.
They were meeting for the first time, so why was she going to such lengths?
Rose raised an eyebrow and suddenly laughed. “How touching, a sacrifice scene between beautiful girls.”
She stepped closer to Lu Yuan, the height difference forcing Lu Yuan to look up at her.
Rose gently lifted Lu Yuan’s chin with her hand. “Do you really think you can suffer all the torment in her place?”
Her hand brushed over Lu Yuan’s cheek.
“I…”
“Slap!”
Before Lu Yuan could answer, Rose slapped her hard.
“Don’t overestimate yourself.”
***
Lu Yuan’s face was turned to the side by the blow. A fiery pain spread across her cheek, and for a moment, all she could hear was a ringing in her ears. Her mind grew hazy.
As if confirming her thoughts, Rose sneered and snapped her fingers.
Behind her, a vacant-eyed Magical Girl pushed a delicate dining cart forward, on which sat two very tempting strawberry cakes.
“But today, I’m here to give you a gift.”
She picked up one of the cakes and placed it in front of Lin Wan curled up in the corner.
“Here, eat this, and then we can start today’s game.”
“I…” Lin Wan trembled, her gaze fixed on the cake, lost in thought.
The other Magical Girls had all been through this. When Lin Wan was first captured, a few still retained their sanity.
Rose liked to “train” them one by one in the order she captured them. Whenever she selected a Magical Girl, she would give her a strawberry cake.
Like a final meal, every Magical Girl who ate the strawberry cake was taken away by Rose alone. When they returned to the cage, they were like puppets, having lost their Transformation Crystals—their very “heart.”
***
“Come… eat it.” Rose gently brought the strawberry cake to Lin Wan’s lips. “I promise I’ll be gentle with you.”
“Mm…” Lin Wan wanted to refuse, but now, if she didn’t eat, Lu Yuan would be in danger…
Lu Yuan was a kind person, and Lin Wan couldn’t bear to see that gentle gaze turn vacant.
Then… I might as well eat it.
Lin Wan reached out to take the cake.
***
“I’ll eat—”
“Eat your damn self.”
Lu Yuan snatched the cake and slammed it hard onto Rose’s face.
“Eh?” Lin Wan’s hand grasped only air, and for a moment, she couldn’t quite process what had happened.
“Who told you to slap me? Even my father never hit me!”
Lu Yuan pointed at Rose’s face and cursed.
She wasn’t a reckless fool; Lu Yuan only did this to divert Rose’s attention from Lin Wan to herself.
She wasn’t a Magical Girl fangirl, but she definitely didn’t want to see a little girl tortured before her eyes.
Cream slowly slid down Rose’s cheek, strawberry jam clung to her lashes and nose like a circus clown.
The entire cage fell into a deathly silence. Even the controlled Magical Girls slightly raised their heads, their vacant eyes fixed in this direction.
Rose’s mouth twitched.
“I’ve changed my mind.”
She suddenly laughed, fingers lightly wiping the cream from her face, then leisurely licked her fingertips.
Lin Wan’s face turned deathly pale. She gripped the hem of Lu Yuan’s skirt tightly. “No… don’t.”
Rose stood gracefully, her skirt spreading out like a blooming black rose.
“Bang!”
She kicked the cream-covered dining cart aside. It crashed against the glass cage and instantly turned into a heap of scrap metal.
Lu Yuan twitched at the corner of her eye. This woman looked so calm, but her fury was clearly boiling inside…
“Since you’re so eager to die…” Rose snapped her fingers softly. “Let’s start with you.”
Before Lu Yuan could react, an invisible force yanked her out of the cage. Her back slammed heavily into the cold metal wall.
The air was knocked clean out of her lungs.
“Ugh…”
That hit hard enough to almost make Lu Yuan vomit.
“Lu Yuan!” Lin Wan wailed inside the cage, but there was nothing she could do.
***
“I’m becoming more and more interested in you, Lu Yuan.”
Rose approached the pain-stricken Lu Yuan on the floor. Two doll-like Magical Girls stepped forward from behind her, one pressing down on one of Lu Yuan’s hands.
“Get off! Get off me!” Lu Yuan kicked wildly like a tantruming child.
Rose raised her foot—black stockings and high heels—and drove a brutal kick into Lu Yuan’s lower abdomen.
“Ugh—!”
Pain radiated from her belly, and Lu Yuan instinctively squeezed her legs shut.
So painful… damn it…
“Finally quiet… you brat.” Rose looked disdainfully at Lu Yuan’s face, her heel still grinding against her stomach. “You were so cocky just now, why so quiet now?”
“You…” Lu Yuan gritted her teeth, trying to say something.
“Slap!” Rose raised her foot for another kick.
“Ugh—!”
“You’ve got a bit of a dirty mouth, huh?” Rose crouched slowly and then pressed her entire body down on Lu Yuan. She held a strawberry cake, and her knee was pressed between Lu Yuan’s legs.
“Open… your mouth.”
“I’ll—”
Before Lu Yuan could finish cursing, Rose shoved the entire strawberry cake into her mouth.
Some cream spilled onto Lu Yuan’s chest and skirt hem, but most of it blocked her nose and mouth.
“Mmph!” Rose’s rough move left Lu Yuan unable to breathe. Her legs kicked helplessly, slowly weakening.
Just as she was about to suffocate, Rose cleared the cream from her nose.
“Huff… huff…” Lu Yuan gasped for air.
“Speak!” Rose demanded.
But Lu Yuan couldn’t form words.
Watching Lu Yuan lie there dazed and gasping, Rose felt a unique superiority that only a victor could have. She believed she had conquered this unruly black-haired wildcat.
But that wasn’t nearly enough to make Lu Yuan willingly surrender her Transformation Crystal.
No matter.
“We still have so many games to play…”
Rose whispered.
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