The soggy streets were like a long, black river, reflecting the long-awaited, pearly luster of the morning sky.
The weather had cleared up for once, as fluffy, half-white clouds shielded the still-timid sunlight.
Merchants, anxious about their livelihoods, could not wait to set up their stalls, while housewives out for supplies crowded the streets until they were almost impassable.
The city, which had nearly been crushed by consecutive days of torrential rain, finally regained about sixty percent of its vitality this morning.
Liya thought the Hero would head straight for the City Lord’s manor, but instead, he stopped several times to buy all sorts of strange things to ask her about, simply because she had glanced at them a few extra times.
“Lili, do you want to eat this?” “Lili, do you want this?” “Lili…”
Liya really wanted to say: ‘Please, stop asking.
I don’t want this.
I want the technical data for the Imperial Standard Storm Weapon!’
Materials science was a discipline that relied heavily on luck.
If one was lucky, they might stumble upon a jackpot; if not, the entire academic community might wander down the wrong path for 100 years.
Due to the existence of magic, the alloys of this world had to consider magic adaptability in addition to toughness, rigidity, and weight.
This made Liya crave the “wisdom of the ancients” even more.
But a Pupu wanting such things was far too shocking.
In the end, Liya could only play along with John’s kindness, accepting all the street drinks with a smile and gulping them down until her belly was round.
Tsk, in terms of providing emotional value to the Hero… was she, a Pupu girl, not showing the grace of a succubus?
— Then her stomach started to hurt.
‘Damn it! What kind of magic and dubious ingredients are in these drinks?! To think they could actually contaminate a Water Magic Beast!’
Liya curled up painfully in John’s arms, fine droplets of “Pupu water” soaking her smooth forehead.
Her cheeks, which had been radiant moments ago, were now pale, and she bit her lip tightly.
John was startled by the sight.
“Lili! Are you okay?”
He became anxious.
“Should I take you to a doctor?”
Liya wanted to retort: ‘What doctor? A veterinarian? What vet knows how to treat a Pupu?’
It was just some dirty water; she could endure it for a while until it filtered out.
But suddenly, she had a sudden stroke of inspiration — wasn’t this the perfect opportunity to ask the Hero for mana?
Thus, she acted even more pitiful, looking as fragile as a wilting flower petal, her voice so weak it was almost a whisper.
“Friend… Lili feels so bad… Lili is going to die… Save Lili…”
“I’ll take you to the doctor right now!”
John did not stop to think and immediately turned his horse around.
“W-Wait!”
Liya hurriedly stopped him.
The plan was good, but when the words reached her lips, she could not help but blush.
She stuttered, feeling a bit embarrassed to say it.
“Friend… Lili’s body is so weak. It feels like I don’t have enough mana. Help Lili with some Mana Replenishment…”
“Mana Replenishment?”
John was confused.
“How?”
“Just… press your palm against Lili’s body as much as possible, then pour your mana in…”
“Oh.”
Without a second word, John picked up Liya.
He let the tiny, pink girl lie face down in his left palm, and his right hand directly lifted Liya’s skirt.
The pink, clean, human-like skin beneath the girl’s skirt dazzled his eyes.
The dangerous curves outlined by her waist and hips made his mind wander.
John stared blankly for a few seconds before turning his head away in embarrassment.
Like a thief, his right hand quickly covered Liya’s soft bottom and legs, and he rapidly funneled a wisp of mana into her.
“Ah — !”
Liya let out a tragic, beautiful cry of pain.
Her body trembled as if from the agony.
She clutched her stomach and curled up on her side, her small feet clad in silk stockings kicking wildly in his palm.
Seeing her like this, John panicked and asked, “Lili? What’s wrong? Are you okay? Don’t scare me…”
It took a long time before Liya slowly raised her head.
Her pretty face was flushed crimson, and she replied feebly, “It’s nothing. Lili just… just wasn’t used to it. The mana was a bit too much all at once…”
The slight stinging sensation that accompanied the Hero’s mana entering her body remained.
It was one thing if there was a medium to buffer it, but with direct contact, that sensation was like stuffing several bags of two million Scoville Reaper spicy strips into her stomach at once.
Especially… the stupid Hero was pressing the wrong place.
He was inputting it almost entirely from her lower back.
“Friend! Let’s… let’s try a different way!”
Her craving for high-quality mana was still stirring.
Rather, after experiencing that surge of mana just now, her Pupu body craved it even more.
She used a tone that was unconsciously seductive.
“Use your fingertips to wipe Lili’s body. Imagine the mana is the water for the bath. Don’t use too much each time, just a tiny, tiny wisp… Lili will regain her vitality and the illness will vanish…”
John’s eyes widened slowly, and his face suddenly turned red.
“This… is this really okay?”
“Oh, come on! Isn’t this what raising a pet is like? Brushing a cat, massaging a dog’s bones, and wiping a Pupu’s body… what is there to be embarrassed about?”
Liya naturally did not want to give up such a stable source of Hero mana, so she lobbied him with all her might.
Although the Hero’s power was sufficient for now, one had to prepare for the future.
The Hero didn’t cry that often, and there would come a day when her reserves ran out.
What would she do then?
Would she have to work hard to lick it up mouthful by mouthful again?
Therefore, developing a new way to use the Hero was a matter of extreme urgency! As for that bit of shame, it was no big deal.
She would just treat it like being given a deep-tissue massage by a blind master… cough.
Liya quickly found an excuse to overcome her psychological barrier.
“But Lili is very smart, and we are friends. I can’t help but think of Lili as a real girl,” John explained sheepishly.
In her haste, Liya’s head heated up, and she accidentally said something strange.
“T-Then Lili will be stupider from now on. I won’t be friends with John. From now on, I’ll call John… mmm, Master?”
John was so shocked by these words that his eyes bugged out.
He stared at Liya for a long time, his lips trembling, unable to speak.
“Lili, could you be…”
He looked at her with disbelief and suspicion.
Liya suddenly became nervous.
Was that sentence just now too suspicious? Oh no! Was the Hero starting to suspect that she wasn’t an original Pupu?
“Could you have been reading those strange succubus magazines at Master Anna’s place again?”
John said with a look of pained disappointment.
— Fine! She had overestimated him! Fortunately, the succubus excuse was there to cover for her.
Liya was not surprised at all that she was always seen as being obsessed with succubus culture because, strictly speaking, she was the one who had pioneered succubus culture.
Like father, like son.
“Is that not allowed?”
To make John believe that false assumption even more firmly, she deliberately imitated a succubus.
She spun around in a dance in John’s palm, threw him a charming wink, and then performed a graceful half-squat, her skirt blooming like a flower in his hand.
She said with innocent charm, “But… the succubus storybooks say… ‘pet’ is a closer relationship than ‘friend’… Lili wants to be closer to John…”
“We are already close enough…”
“No, we’re not. Other townspeople take their pink Pupus home at night… and do super intimate things. But John has never done them with Lili.”
Liya used a deliberately pure and innocent tone, staring at John with watery, ignorant eyes like a young animal.
She looked as gentle and harmless as the morning light, yet she seemed to pierce through John’s heart.
John naturally knew what the “intimate things” Liya mentioned were.
The subtle, pink atmosphere in her words made his face burn.
“John…”
Liya straightened her chest, letting a hint of her figure show, and spoke pitifully.
“Is it because Lili is too ugly? Not like a Pupu at all? Is that why John dislikes Lili and doesn’t want to be closer to her?”
John didn’t even dare to look directly at her.
He shook his head frantically.
“No! Absolutely not! Anyway, don’t let the succubi lead you astray! Being a pet isn’t a good thing!”
“Why?”
“Because your master might bully you or deliberately make you suffer.”
“Then… will John bully Lili?”
John froze and instinctively shook his head.
“Then… will John be like the people in the books? Will he be good to Lili, make Lili comfortable and happy every day, and cherish her?”
John instinctively nodded again.
“Then being John’s pet is clearly wonderful!”
Liya became aggrieved again, looking as if she were about to cry.
“I knew it! John just dislikes Lili! He doesn’t want to be closer to Lili!”
“No, wait a second. Let me think this through.”
John was completely fooled.
For a moment, he almost agreed with Liya’s logic, even feeling a hint of guilt for not being closer to her.
Deep down, Liya was a bit smug.
‘Hehe, little virgin! Too easy!’
“Don’t think about it! Stop thinking about it! Does John hate Lili?”
She pressed her advantage.
“Of course not…”
John frowned in deep thought.
“Since you don’t hate Lili! It means we can be closer! Since we can be closer! Then John should use his fingers to help Lili replenish mana and massage her body!”
Liya stood with her small hands proudly behind her back, her cherry-red lips reciting her argument with conviction.
John hesitated for a long, long time.
Catching a glimpse of Liya’s still pure and innocent face, he finally relented.
He sighed and gave a bitter laugh.
“How did we end up back here? Fine, I’ll massage you, okay?”
“Yay!”
Liya cheered.
And so, on the way to the Bly City Lord’s manor, Liya enjoyed the most high-end and comfortable “service” of her two lives.
The legendary Hero, the king of stats, a top-tier war god of the Empire whose control of power was as precise as an AI.
Rubbing the legs and back of her, the little Demon Lord.
What did it mean to be high-class?
This was high-class! Succubus services were weak in comparison!
Did they have a Hero?
Would a Hero be their technician?
This King has it!
John’s already gentle movements, combined with the mana dancing on his fingertips, constantly seeped under her skirt and clothes.
Through their touching skin, it flowed into her body, bringing her an unprecedented sense of fulfillment and happiness.
“Mmm…”
She even closed her eyes and let out a happy mumble.
But soon, Liya heard John’s self-reproaching whisper in a daze:
“It’s a sin… this is all my sin.”
John’s face was slightly pale.
He had gradually figured out the “cause and effect” of everything, and thus felt even more guilty toward Lili.
In his view, Liya’s intelligence had been awakened by his mana.
Mana was mental power.
Releasing mana was also imposing one’s will upon the world; this was common knowledge for all mages.
Plus… Lili’s body was almost the distillation of all the female traits and preferences in his memory.
Her gradual transformation into this form was clearly rooted in the buried, subconscious expectations deep within his soul.
‘If the day ever comes when Lili grows as large as a human… and because of my mana, she becomes more and more dependent on me, requiring me to take responsibility for her… what should I do?’
John smiled bitterly and squeezed Lili’s perky little bottom.
In his heart, he worried, yet he also thought with a strange sensation.
‘Actually… would the Empire allow a Hero to marry a Pupu?’
‘Thinking about it, it shouldn’t be possible, right?’
‘And such a marriage would certainly not receive the Divine Blessing of the Goddess of Light.’
Marriage in the Empire was highly bound to the Goddess because the Goddess of Light represented concepts like love, mercy, and kindness.
In the public’s perception, only a marriage blessed by divine grace in the Church of Light was an official marriage.
Furthermore, divine grace would grant the couple important “Divine Blessings.”
For example… a mutual sense of danger, a certain degree of telepathy, and an easier time reacting to each other during intimacy.
It could even protect pregnant women and ensure a smooth childbirth.
‘If that day really comes.’
As John pondered, his confusion gradually faded, and his resolve strengthened.
He then made a serious decision in his heart.
‘If that day really comes — after I have dealt with all the corrupt officials in the Empire and ensured that the common people live well, I will give up my position as Hero. I will fast and pray to the Goddess of Light for ten years to give Lili a wedding that is second to none!’
This was both to make up for his “pollution” of Lili’s Pupu life and… his subtle selfishness.
After all, if Lili became a human… she would eventually marry someone.
For some reason, the moment John thought about Lili following someone else in the future, acting spoiled and intimate with some stranger just as she did with him… he felt a very uncomfortable sense of irritation and loss.
Before this, he had never thought about developing feelings beyond friendship with Lili.
But that thin layer of paper had been lightheartedly pierced by her.
He had to face the reality of their deepening connection and face his own heart.
He still did not want Lili to leave him.
Even if… even he wasn’t sure if this counted as “that kind” of emotion.
The sky over Bly City was clear and bright.
Thoughts flowed as their skin touched.
A warm period of time was wasted on horseback.
The horse came to a halt before the city gates, and John rubbed Liya’s head to wake her.
She gave a reluctant, whiny sound, not having had enough of the enjoyment, and crawled unwillingly back into the Hero’s collar.
The city guards blocked the way.
John showed his Holy Sword and left the horse to a soldier to feed.
He then walked into the estate, where bellflowers swayed in the breeze.
“So pretty~”
Liya poked her small head out and sighed as she looked at the beautiful scenery.
Thinking back on her dilapidated Demon Lord Castle and the lavish, corrupt life she led before becoming the Demon Lord… tsk, damn it.
Once upon a time, she wouldn’t even have looked at this level of luxury!
If she hadn’t been scared by the Empire’s history of the War of Demon Subjugation and insisted on integrating that shitty Demon Realm, only to be dragged back into poverty by them… sigh.
“If Lili likes it, I’ll build a big house for you in the future too,” John said with a light laugh, rubbing Liya’s head.
Liya tilted her head and looked at the Hero speechlessly.
Recalling the Hero’s performance these past few days, Liya thought this guy would definitely be even poorer than her in the future!
She teased him sourly, her mockery quite subtle.
“Forget it. Building a yard like this must be very expensive. Does Friend have money?”
“Money is for buying food for everyone.”
John scratched his head sheepishly.
“But it’s okay. I’ve helped people build houses before. We don’t need to hire anyone. It’ll just take a little extra effort from me.”
“You’re even going to fire the bricks one by one yourself?”
Liya was shocked.
“…Yeah,” John replied.
A smile bloomed on Liya’s face, but she was mocking him in her heart.
‘Oho! An innate civil engineering body! And he’s a workhorse to boot — but he seems to be a Hero with heaven-defying stats, so that’s not surprising, that’s not surprising.’
If anyone else said this, Liya would only think they were bragging.
But when John said it, Liya could only remember that Divine Smite that delivered 1,700 strikes per second.
She completely failed to realize that in the Hero’s simple hometown, building a house was something that immediately followed getting a wife.
A short while later.
John took Liya to meet the City Lord of Bly City, Reiner Langlyogre… and his twenty-six concubines.
26….? Can his body even handle it?