"What is the purpose of your visit? Tell me honestly, or... I'll beat the answers out of you!" Framea declared without hesitation as blue lightning suddenly crackled violently around her body.
Luminous narrowed her eyes slightly as she observed the rabbit girl standing before her, feeling an overwhelming surge of power radiating from her. 'Strange... how did a low-level monster like her become this strong in such a short amount of time?' Luminous wondered silently, seeing how the level of growth Framea was displaying right now was completely unnatural... no, even calling it unnatural felt like an understatement. Even so, despite the confusion and growing suspicion creeping into her mind, the mocking smile on her lips never faded.
"Well, it looks like that little bit of power has gone straight to your head, little girl," Luminous sneered mockingly. Her voice dripped with arrogance, and despite the lightning raging wildly around Framea, there wasn't even the slightest hint of fear on her face. "Go on then, give it a try. Let's see what you're actually capable of," she added casually as she provoked the rabbit girl, beckoning her forward with one hand.
"Don't blame me for what happens next, and remember, you asked for this!" Framea shouted, and the next moment, the ground beneath her feet exploded apart with a deafening boom as cracks spread across the earth, and in less than an instant, the rabbit girl crossed the distance separating them. Blue lightning surged wildly around her arm as she suddenly appeared directly in front of the Vampire Queen with her fist already flying toward Luminous's face at terrifying speed.
Luminous's crimson eyes widened in genuine shock. Surprise briefly flashed across her face as she realized Framea had crossed dozens of meters in an instant. 'Fast!' she thought inwardly. However, despite that brief moment of surprise, her countless years of combat experience immediately took over. Her body reacted on pure instinct as she tilted her head at the very last moment, narrowly avoiding the incoming strike. Framea's fist swept past her cheek by mere centimeters, and the violent pressure from the attack alone exploded outward like a storm, uprooting the trees behind the goth queen.
"That stung," Luminous muttered with a slight frown as she casually rubbed her cheek. Even without making direct contact, the lightning crackling around Framea's fist had still left behind a lingering sting against her skin. However, just as she was about to make another snarky remark, she realized Framea had absolutely no intention of stopping.
The instant her first attack missed, Framea twisted her body mid-motion and smoothly launched another strike toward Luminous's side. Before that attack had even fully completed, she immediately chained it into a kick, then an elbow, then another punch aimed directly at the Vampire Queen's face. Every movement flowed seamlessly into the next without even the slightest pause, creating a relentless barrage that gave her opponent no room to breathe. Blue lightning danced wildly around her body with every strike, illuminating the dark surroundings in flashing bursts of blue light. Combined with her natural beauty, the violent energy surrounding her, and the way her rabbit ears swayed behind her with each movement, the sight was strangely mesmerizing despite the sheer brutality behind it.
Luminous narrowed her eyes slightly as she continued weaving through the relentless barrage. Her long silver hair fluttered elegantly as she twisted, stepped, and shifted her body with the smallest possible movements, avoiding each strike by the narrowest of margins. Despite Framea's terrifying speed and overwhelming strength, she still couldn't land even a single clean hit on Luminous, who, despite being forced onto the defensive, continued carrying herself with the effortless grace and composure expected of the Queen of Vampires.
As their elegant yet violent dance continued, Luminous slowly regained her composure. Her initial shock had come from Framea's absurd increase in strength, but now that she had adjusted to the rabbit girl's speed and rhythm, her thoughts gradually settled. While avoiding the relentless barrage of attacks, she began carefully analyzing her opponent instead of simply reacting. 'I see... overwhelming power and speed, but still inexperienced,' she thought as the corner of her lips slowly curled upward into a faint smirk. In her eyes, Framea was nothing more than someone who had suddenly obtained power far beyond her ability to properly control. Raw strength alone meant very little before someone who possessed thousands of years of combat experience. No matter how explosive Framea's attacks were, Luminous could already see countless flaws hidden within her movements.
"Is that all?" Luminous mocked as she looked down toward Framea, who had landed several meters away in a crouched position resembling some kind of superhero landing. "You gain a little bit of power and suddenly think you're..." Her taunting abruptly stopped midway through the sentence when Framea suddenly vanished into thin air, accompanied by a sharp cracking sound that echoed across the battlefield.
Luminous paused and glanced around for a moment before mocking the rabbit girl once again. "So much for all that big talk. Looks like you finally realized you can't defeat me, so you ran..." Her words abruptly died in her throat, and her expression froze for the first time since the battle had begun as she sensed a presence appear directly behind her.
Framea had already reappeared at her back, blue lightning crackling violently around her foot as she unleashed a devastating kick straight into Luminous's side. Before Luminous could even react, a sharp prickling sensation instantly spread through her abdomen, immediately followed by an explosion of pain that shot throughout her entire body. The sheer force behind the kick detonated like a cannon blast upon impact, and the next moment, Luminous was sent flying across the battlefield like a cannonball.
The world around her instantly became a blur. Trees vanished from her sight one after another as she crashed violently through them, splintering massive trunks apart as though they were nothing more than paper. Yet before Luminous could even regain control of her body or properly stabilize herself mid-flight, another sharp cracking sound echoed nearby.
Framea had already appeared behind her once again, and another kick slammed into her body.
And again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
Luminous gritted her teeth in frustration and rage as flashes of blue repeatedly exploded around her. Every time that sharp cracking sound echoed across the battlefield, another devastating attack followed almost instantly after the last. A kick slammed into her ribs hard enough to twist her body sideways. Another crashed into her shoulder. A fist buried itself deep into her stomach, forcing the air from her lungs. An elbow smashed into her spine before she could even react. The attacks came relentlessly from every possible direction, each one flowing seamlessly into the next with terrifying precision. There was no time to recover. No time to counterattack. Hell, there was barely enough time to even process what was happening before the next blow struck her.
The barrage continued without even the slightest hint of mercy. Ten strikes. Twenty. Thirty. More than fifty devastating attacks rained down upon the Queen of Vampires as flashes of blue lightning illuminated the battlefield like an endless storm tearing through the night. The once elegant and arrogant Luminous could do nothing except endure as her body was violently hurled through the air over and over beneath Framea's relentless assault.
Finally, one last kick slammed directly into Luminous's chest with overwhelming force and launched her hurtling through countless trees. The impact exploded like a bomb, causing the entire forest to tremble violently as destruction spread across everything in its path. Tree after tree shattered apart while the ground split open beneath the sheer force of her flight. Yet before Luminous could stabilize herself, before she could even properly gather her thoughts, that same sharp cracking sound echoed across the battlefield one final time.
Luminous looked up and saw that Framea had already appeared directly above her spinning body, with the bright moon serving as the perfect backdrop behind the rabbit girl. Blue lightning continued crackling wildly around the rabbit girl as she raised her leg high overhead while staring down at Luminous, who returned the gaze with cold, unwavering eyes despite the situation she was in.
Then Framea brought her leg crashing down, and in the next instant, the impact sent Luminous hurtling toward the earth below like a falling meteor. A thunderous explosion erupted the moment she struck the ground as the earth collapsed beneath the sheer force, forming an enormous crater while dust, stone, and debris blasted high into the sky. For several long seconds, the entire battlefield shook violently before the destruction finally began to settle and an eerie silence slowly spread across the devastated landscape.
Framea descended near the edge of the crater while the blue lightning surrounding her body gradually faded away into small crackling sparks before disappearing completely. Dust and wind swept through the ruined battlefield as she folded her arms and stared down at the goth queen lying amidst the dust and rubble below. "...Now," she said coldly, narrowing her eyes toward the center of the crater, "are you going to answer my question?"
Meanwhile, the Queen of Vampires slowly rose to her feet from the center of the crater as dust and fragments of shattered stone slid from her torn and disheveled attire. Her once elegant appearance had clearly taken a heavy beating, yet strangely enough, the expression on her face remained unnervingly calm. Then, wearing a blank and almost vacant look, Luminous casually brushed the dust from her clothes before looking up at the full moon hanging in the night sky. "What a beautiful sight," she said softly, almost absentmindedly, before lowering her gaze back toward Framea. The vacant expression on her face slowly twisted into something far colder as she said, "...Shame you're going to make me do something horrible on such a beautiful night."
"Did all that beating finally make you go loony or something?" Framea asked while tilting her head slightly, staring at Luminous with a raised brow and an expression full of confusion. "Seriously, what the hell are you even talking abou..." Before she could finish her question, Luminous suddenly snapped her fingers, and in the next instant, Framea's body went weak, her legs gave out beneath her, and she collapsed to the ground as all the strength suddenly drained from her body.
Before she could even process what was happening, an excruciating agony suddenly erupted deep within her body, far worse than anything she had ever experienced before. It felt as though something inside her veins had ignited and was tearing her apart from the inside out. A blood-curdling scream tore from her lips as her body convulsed violently against the ground, every nerve in her body screaming in protest while the unbearable pain spread through her limbs, her chest, and every part of her being.
Several agonizing minutes later, Framea somehow managed to regain a faint semblance of awareness. Her breathing had become ragged, and her body trembled uncontrollably as she slowly forced herself to look up, only for her eyes to widen in shock once again as she witnessed Luminous walking out of the crater toward her with slow, elegant steps as the bruises covering her body and the tears in her outfit rapidly healed before her very own eyes.
"Little rabbit, you must be wondering what's happening to you right now. Shame I'm not the kind of fool who explains her abilities," Luminous said, clasping her hands behind her back with a sweet smile that looked utterly menacing in the eyes of the withering and trembling rabbit girl lying on the ground. The full moon overhead, which had amplified Framea's presence earlier, only made things worse. Now that same moonlight illuminated Luminous's smiling face and her heteromorphic red and blue eyes, making her appear even more terrifying to the poor rabbit girl.
"It's the effect of her Unique Skill, Lust."
Suddenly, a voice interrupted them, and relief immediately flooded Framea's entire being. Meanwhile, Luminous snapped her head toward the source of the voice and saw a blue-haired man walking toward them with unhurried steps and a smile on his face.
"Her Unique Skill has two subskills called [Energy Drain], which forcibly drains vitality through direct contact to replenish her own energy reserves, and [Embrace Drain], which allows her to send pain signals directly into a target's soul through touch, bypassing Pain Nullification and causing immense agony," Rimuru calmly explained, completely ignoring the increasingly stunned expression spreading across Luminous's face. "And my dear sister," he continued as he glanced down at Framea, "you gave her not one or two chances, but over fifty opportunities to use those abilities on you, which led directly to your current condition."
"Who the hell are you, and how do you know so much about my skill!?" Luminous demanded cautiously as she immediately assumed a defensive stance while summoning her God-grade blade Night Rose into her hand. And honestly, how could she not be wary? The details this man had just revealed were things that absolutely should not have been known to anyone else. Very few people who had ever faced her survived long enough to understand the true nature of her abilities, let alone the exact mechanics behind them. Yet the man standing before her had casually explained everything with perfect accuracy while acting as though it were common knowledge.
Rimuru merely glanced at her for a brief moment before completely ignoring her once again and walking straight toward Framea instead. He then crouched down beside her and gently placed a hand on her back. In the next instant, warmth and relief flooded through her body as the unbearable pain from earlier vanished completely. But then his next words, "I am so disappointed in you..." caused a pain in her heart that even Luminous's attacks could never compare to. However, before she even had a chance to respond, Rimuru teleported her away and used Thought Communication to tell Shizu to take care of her.
Then Rimuru slowly rose to his feet and finally turned his attention toward Luminous, who still watched him cautiously, with a trace of hostility in her eyes. "Luminous Valentine... what exactly should I call you? The Queen of Vampires? The true holder of a seat on the Demon Lord Council? Or..." He paused before a wild smile slowly spread across his face. "...should I call you God Luminous of the Holy Empire of Lubelius?"
The moment Rimuru said that, the atmosphere around Luminous instantly shifted from cautious hostility to genuine murderous intent. Her body exploded forward at blinding speed as Night Rose shot straight toward his neck, undisguised killing intent burning fiercely within her heteromorphic eyes. After all, it was one thing for him to somehow know about her Unique Skill, which was already alarming enough on its own. But knowing one of her deepest secrets, her identity as the god worshipped by the Holy Empire of Lubelius, was an entirely different matter altogether. That secret could never be allowed to spread. The instant she realized just how dangerous this man truly was, Luminous made her decision without the slightest hesitation. He needed to die here and now and vanish from this world, along with every piece of knowledge he possessed.
However, just as Night Rose was about to pierce his neck, Rimuru suddenly moved. With blinding speed, he casually raised one hand and caught the very tip of the blade between two fingers.
"Impossible!" Luminous exclaimed, her eyes widening in genuine shock. For a brief moment, her thoughts completely froze as disbelief spread across her face. Night Rose was no ordinary weapon. It was a God-grade blade, one of her most treasured possessions, yet this man had stopped it with nothing but his bare fingers as though he were casually catching a harmless toy sword.
Meanwhile, Rimuru maintained that same easygoing smile on his face, looking completely relaxed despite the murderous attack that had been aimed at his throat only moments earlier. "Darling, you have no idea what's possible," he said casually before lightly pinching the blade between his fingers. In the next instant, Luminous watched in horror as countless cracks rapidly spread across the length of Night Rose. The God-grade blade trembled violently before suddenly crumbling apart into countless shattered fragments that scattered across the ground like broken glass glimmering beneath the moonlight. Within seconds, nothing remained except the hilt still tightly clenched in her hand. "Nice try, but toys like these stopped working on me a very long time ago," he added with a casual shrug.
'Toys!? That was a God-grade blade, you asshole!' Luminous screamed inwardly as rage boiled violently inside her chest, mixed with genuine shock and disbelief. That weapon had accompanied her for centuries, and this bastard had just shattered it between his fingers like it was made of cheap glass. However, despite the fury threatening to erupt inside her, her outward expression remained eerily blank. Years of ruling and hiding her true emotions prevented her from openly panicking. Internally, though, her mind was racing desperately as she searched for any possible way to escape both this insane situation and the monster currently standing in front of her with that infuriating smile still plastered across his face.
"Hey, wait a minute, why are you trying to leave? I didn't scare you that badly, did I?" Rimuru asked while tilting his head slightly. "But can you really blame me? You were the one who attacked me first, and all I did was defend myself, you know," he added with a bright smile that immediately caused one of Luminous's eyes to twitch in irritation.
"By the way, I just realized I haven't introduced myself yet," Rimuru continued before theatrically spreading his arms wide. "My name is Rimuru Tempest, and I happen to be the leader of the nation you're seeing behind me."
"Rimuru...?" Luminous muttered under her breath. The name immediately triggered a memory inside her mind, causing her expression to stiffen slightly. Then she suddenly remembered the same name her old friend had mentioned before. 'This is her so-called teacher?' she thought in disbelief. But the more she thought about it, the less sense the situation made. 'Wait... shouldn't he be pretty weak right now? And how the hell does he know about me? No, this doesn't make any sense. Why...'
"Luminous, you can continue your mental spiral later. For now, tell me, would you like to come to my home?" Rimuru asked while casually extending one hand toward her.
Luminous stared silently at the offered hand for several long seconds before slowly shaking her head. "No, thank you," she replied flatly as large bat-like wings suddenly spread from her back. "I think I've had enough adventure to last me several decades." After witnessing the overwhelming power Rimuru possessed, along with the terrifying amount of knowledge he had about her, there was no way she was going to blindly accept his invitation and walk straight into his territory without any guarantee of escape. Besides, at this point, every instinct she had was screaming at her to get as far away from this monster as physically possible. So, before Rimuru could say another word, she shot straight into the sky at incredible speed.
Even as she flew away toward Lubelius, Luminous could not help giving Rimuru one final glance from afar. Unfortunately, the blue-haired man was still standing there with that same amused smile on his face, casually waving at her like some friendly neighbor seeing off a guest.
"Hmm, she must've been feeling shy," Rimuru joked to himself as he watched her disappear into the distance. Then, with a simple thought, he casually rewound time across the devastated battlefield, restoring the destroyed forest to its previous untouched state. Once everything had returned to normal, Rimuru calmly gathered the shattered fragments of Night Rose and stored them away inside his Imaginary Space. "This should make a nice gift someday," he muttered with a grin before finally leaving the forest to go check on his sister.
******
As Rimuru walked through the hallway of his house, he quietly listened to the sounds of laughter, music, and celebration still echoing from outside. Even this late into the night, the festival showed absolutely no signs of slowing down. People were still drinking, dancing, partying, and enjoying themselves to the fullest. Honestly, he had expected as much. Tempest's official recognition as a sovereign nation was far too important of an occasion for everyone to celebrate for just a few hours and then call it a night. At this rate, the festivities would almost certainly continue until morning, which also meant tomorrow was probably going to become an incredibly lazy day for most of the city.
Thinking about it, Rimuru couldn't help but chuckle as he imagined half the population sleeping until noon while the other half stumbled around suffering from massive hangovers. But as amusing as that mental image was, he knew most of Tempest's population still consisted of monsters with far sturdier physiques than humans. Those people would probably be up and back to their assigned duties long before noon even arrived.
Bringing his attention back to the present, Rimuru finally stopped in front of a certain room. Just as he reached for the door, it suddenly swung open before he could touch it, and Shizu immediately stepped out while glaring directly at him.
"Rimuru, what did you do?" Shizu asked sharply. "Why is that poor girl in there crying her eyes out and sobbing about how you hate her now!?"
"Well, I knew she'd be upset, but isn't this reaction a little too exaggerated?" Rimuru wondered to himself, but he was quickly pulled out of his thoughts when he heard Shizu clear her throat. She was still standing in front of him, arms folded across her chest as she waited for an answer. Letting out a small sigh, Rimuru proceeded to explain the entire situation from the beginning. He told her about Luminous arriving in Tempest, Framea confronting her, the fight between the two, and Framea eventually falling victim to Luminous's abilities. "In the end, I told Framea how disappointed I was in her before sending her here," he concluded.
"I see..." Shizu said quietly before falling silent for a few moments as she processed everything Rimuru had just told her. Then she looked back at him with a slight frown. "And you just let this Luminous go like that? I don't think that really suits you, especially after she hurt Framea."
"Come on now, don't make it sound like I'm some kind of petty guy," Rimuru scoffed in protest. However, the moment he noticed Shizu giving him that particular look, he immediately averted his eyes. "Okay, fine, I can be a little petty sometimes," he admitted with a snort. Then, seeing Shizu casually gesture with her head for him to continue, Rimuru explained himself further. "But this time I had two main reasons for letting her get away relatively unscathed."
"First, as a show of gratitude for educating my sister," Rimuru said with a mischievous smile slowly spreading across his face again. "Today, Luminous used the secret technique of a worldly sage named Kaido to teach that foolish girl a very important lesson. And as for the second reason..." The playful expression on his face gradually softened into something far more genuine and nostalgic. "She once took care of my student and a friend of mine in the past. So I didn't really feel like giving her too much trouble today. Aside from, well..." He casually scratched his cheek. "...destroying her prized blade with my bare hands and giving her the lifelong anxiety of knowing someone outside her trusted circle knows the truth behind Lubelius's god."
"Honestly, that doesn't sound anything like 'not giving her too much trouble,'" Shizu replied with a deeply exasperated sigh. Sometimes, she genuinely wondered how her husband's mind even worked. "Still, I didn't know you had a student before... wait, is this connected to that time travel stuff you mentioned?" she asked curiously, only to receive a quiet nod in response.
"Sounds complicated," she said with a shrug, immediately deciding she wanted absolutely nothing to do with that mess. "Anyway," she continued as she stepped aside and gestured toward the room behind her, "go comfort that girl already, or who knows how long she'll keep sulking like this," she added, and judging by the muffled crying still coming from inside the room, Rimuru honestly didn't doubt it either.
Rimuru nodded before entering the room, and just like Shizu had said, Framea was lying face down on the bed while quietly sobbing into her pillow. Letting out a small sigh, Rimuru walked over and sat down beside her before gently placing a hand on top of her head. The sudden touch startled the poor rabbit girl enough to make her immediately lift her head in panic, revealing an absolutely miserable face, complete with puffy red eyes and tear stains running down her cheeks.
Meanwhile, the moment Framea realized Rimuru was sitting beside her, she froze in shock for a brief second before hurriedly snapping back to her senses. She quickly sat upright and began wiping at her eyes with both hands. "Brother..." she said quietly before lowering her head again almost immediately. The moment she saw him, memories of her humiliating defeat against Luminous and Rimuru's disappointed words after saving her came flooding back all at once, causing her ears to droop even further.
"How are you feeling? Is the pain from earlier gone now?" Rimuru asked calmly, receiving a small nod in return. "Good." He remained silent for a brief moment before continuing. "Now tell me, what's going on with you? Why are you acting like a widow who just lost her husband in a war?"
"Because..." Framea started quietly before pausing midway through the sentence. She tried lifting her head several times, but each attempt failed as guilt and embarrassment weighed her down. "...because you said you were disappointed in me."
"And why do you think I was disappointed in you?" Rimuru pressed while folding his arms across his chest and watching her carefully.
"Because I lost to Demon Lord Luminous..." Framea replied in a voice so small it was barely above a whisper.
"No, you're wrong. Truth be told, your loss didn't surprise me at all," Rimuru said calmly, causing Framea's head to immediately snap upward as she stared at him with wide eyes. "What's with that look? My dear little sister, Luminous Valentine has been alive for over twenty thousand years. Do you understand how absurdly long that is? She was already walking this world before the very first ancestor of your clan even came into existence. So, in a sense, that teen-looking goth girl is actually an old hag," he said, earning a small chuckle from Framea. "So of course you were going to lose. You're a carefree and ordinary rabbit girl who only started learning how to fight six months ago. Going up against a monstrous existence like her was always going to end this way, even with an Ultimate Skill and superior raw power. Not to mention her Unique Skill is a nightmare for physical fighters, so you already had another disadvantage stacked against you."
"So losing to her wasn't really that big of a deal..." Framea muttered absentmindedly while staring down at her lap. Her fingers nervously tightened against the fabric of her clothes before she slowly looked back up at Rimuru again. "...Then why did you say that?"
"Because I'm disappointed in the way you handled the situation." Rimuru's expression immediately turned serious as he fixed her with a sharp glare that made her instinctively shrink into herself. "What exactly made you think confronting her by yourself was a good idea?" he asked sternly. "And on top of that, you actively antagonized her and started a fight without even using your strongest form. Tell me, have you gotten that overconfident, or do you secretly have some kind of death wish?"
"I... I... I..." Framea desperately tried to say something, but no proper words would come out. Under Rimuru's furious glare, her mind had practically stopped functioning altogether. Ever since coming to Tempest and living with him, this was the very first time she had ever seen her brother genuinely angry at her like this, and honestly, that terrified her far more than anything else she had experienced so far, whether it was Testarossa on one of her bad days or the excruciating pain she had received from Luminous Valentine earlier that day.
"Framea, you're not me. With my powers, I can fool around during battles and play with my opponents if I want to, but you're still nowhere near that level," Rimuru continued while scolding her. "And just because I gave you an Ultimate Skill doesn't mean you've suddenly become an [Tittle Card] existence overnight. Not even close. There are still plenty of monsters lurking in the shadows of this world that could wipe you out with a snap of their fingers."
Hearing those words, Framea's heart stirred uneasily as her fingers tightened around the edge of the bed until her knuckles turned white. Until today, she had genuinely believed that, with the power granted to her by Rimuru, combined with the absolutely hellish training Testarossa had put her through, she had already become one of the world's true powerhouses. After all, she possessed an Ultimate Skill, had survived training under a Primordial Demon, and wielded enough raw strength to devastate entire battlefields. But now... she was no longer so sure.
Meanwhile, Rimuru's anger gradually faded away. Letting out a quiet sigh, he gently reached forward and placed a hand against Framea's cheek, causing her ears to twitch slightly. "I'm sorry for that outburst, but Framea, please try to understand something. Ever since I brought you here and asked you to become my sister, I've genuinely come to love you as family. And if something ever happened to you..." Rimuru paused for a brief moment, and for a split second, his eyes turned frighteningly cold. "...I would never be able to forgive myself. Or this world." The chilling aura surrounding him disappeared almost immediately as he lightly shook his head. "Besides, even if I could bring you back, who in their right mind would ever want to see their little sister end up like that?"
After he said that, silence lingered in the room for a long moment before Framea slowly lifted her head as tears gradually gathered at the corners of her eyes. However, unlike before, these tears were no longer born solely from guilt and sadness. There was warmth mixed within them now. "I'm sorry. I won't make a mistake like that ever again," she said as she silently made a vow in her heart that she would never make her brother worry about her again.
"Good." Rimuru smiled softly before reaching over and ruffling her hair. "Now come here and give me a hug. Seeing you this depressed was breaking my heart," he said, and without wasting even a second, Framea immediately lunged at him and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face into his chest. "By the way," Rimuru added while gently patting her back, "you actually managed to catch Luminous completely off guard and gave her a pretty good beating, so good job."
"Heheh~ thank you!" Framea said as she looked up at him while still hugging him, a cute smile spreading across her face.
They stayed like that for several quiet minutes before Rimuru suddenly spoke again. "By the way, I already told Testa what happened today," he said with an unusually wide smile on his face, and immediately felt Framea stiffen in his arms. "It's really unfortunate that even though I understand why you lost, our dear Testa doesn't. In fact, she seemed very 'thrilled' to hear that you lost to someone without an Ultimate Skill and spent quite a while explaining just how excited she was to personally 'congratulate' you on your defeat."
Framea slowly pulled herself away from Rimuru's chest before looking up at him with trembling eyes filled with pure horror. "Brother..." she called weakly. "You're joking, right? Just a little sibling banter... right?" she asked hopefully. Unfortunately for her, the smile on Rimuru's face instantly crushed every last bit of hope she had left. "Why!? Why would you do that!?" Framea cried out dramatically as tears once again began gathering in her eyes while she curled up on the bed and clutched her head in despair.
"Because why not?" Rimuru laughed shamelessly while Framea glared daggers at him from the bed. "Oh, and by the way," he casually added while standing up, "I think I heard Testa mention something about a whip... so you might want to be a little careful."
"You! You!" Framea gritted her teeth furiously before immediately grabbing the nearest pillow and hurling it straight at his head with all the strength she could muster. Unfortunately for her, Rimuru effortlessly dodged it and slipped out of the room just in time to hear her furiously screaming, "Damn it, Brother! I hate you!" behind him.
In response, Rimuru glanced back toward the room and shouted, "Love you too, sis!" before walking away down the hallway while laughing loudly to himself, leaving behind one extremely furious little sister whose angry cursing could still be heard echoing throughout the house.
To be continued...
******
Illustration:
"Little rabbit, you must be wondering what's happening to you right now. Shame I'm not the kind of fool who explains her abilities," Luminous said, clasping her hands behind her back with a sweet smile that looked utterly menacing in the eyes of the withering and trembling rabbit girl lying on the ground. The full moon overhead, which had amplified Framea's presence earlier, only made things worse. Now that same moonlight illuminated Luminous's smiling face and her heteromorphic red and blue eyes, making her appear even more terrifying to the poor rabbit girl.