Inside Arianna's room.
In the golden sunlight, Erica's silky, delicate blonde hair refracted a dazzling, noble sheen.
Right then, Erica tipped her head back and, without thinking, downed the "symbiotic essence" Arianna had deliberately left on the nightstand.
"Gulp… gulp…"
She swallowed twice in a row, her pale throat bobbing as she did.
Only then did Erica realize what she'd just drunk. Her wide, light-colored eyes flew open—
And then something even stranger happened.
Even though she knew she'd just swallowed Sai Akuto's symbiotic essence, she didn't spit it out. She didn't even lower the cup.
The blonde girl's throat kept moving, and in short order she drained the cup completely.
…
Erica was caught in a contradiction.
On one hand, the instant she realized what she'd drunk, her first impulse was to retch it back up.
On the other hand, the moment it hit her system, Akuto's succubus bloodline took effect. Her feelings toward him surged—enough that her mind immediately fell into a tug-of-war.
What finally ended that tug-of-war was the powerful life force contained in the symbiotic essence.
Erica's body instinctively craved that kind of strength. In the end, driven by pure instinct, she swallowed everything down.
Unfortunately, both impulses were burning through the same "fuel" inside her.
The moment she finished, her resistance surged back to the surface.
"Ugh…"
The disgust made her try to vomit.
But the moment it rose in her throat, her body's hunger for life force snapped her mouth shut again, forcing her to swallow.
So, under Arianna's gaze, Erica gagged again and again—yet not a single drop came back up.
Only after a full half-minute, when most of what she'd swallowed had already been converted into strength and vitality, did Erica finally start to acclimate.
…
Seeing Erica's reaction, Arianna sighed and shook her head, thinking Erica was wasting something precious.
If it were anyone else—someone other than Erica—snatching a "gift" she'd received from Akuto would have made Arianna furious.
"Erica-sama, how was it?" Arianna asked, offering a handkerchief.
Erica hadn't actually thrown up, but her mouth had filled with saliva from the repeated gagging. Arianna knew Erica cared deeply about her composure, so she hurried to help.
A few seconds later, Erica finished wiping her lips and handed the cloth back.
As she did, her eyes flicked—almost involuntarily—to Arianna's lower abdomen.
It was subtly swollen, stretching the fabric just enough to be noticeable, giving a faintly plush impression that stood out all the more because Arianna's frame was normally slender.
With the answer already obvious, Erica's face flushed again.
A serious thought struck her all at once.
Arianna's "capacity," plus Saint Raphael's, plus those two cups…
Was Akuto… completely monstrous?
"Arianna… w-why would you leave something like that on the nightstand?" Erica finally managed.
"Why?"
"Because that's my breakfast," Arianna replied, spreading her hands as if it should have been obvious.
Then, as if to prove her point, Arianna lifted the second cup and drank it down right in front of Erica.
Erica watched Arianna's small throat move as she swallowed, her delicate face twitching despite herself.
When she finished, Arianna lightly licked her lips and set the empty cup back on the nightstand.
"Oh, and Erica-sama," she added, her tone suddenly sweetly dangerous, "this only happens once. No next time."
"If it happens again, even if you're my mistress, I won't forgive you so easily."
"I know," Erica said with a helpless shake of her head. "I won't steal it from you again."
She truly hadn't expected it.
In her mind, Arianna was the flawless maid—maxed-out maid skills, capable at nearly everything except cooking and driving.
And yet overnight, she'd somehow turned into… a shameless little flirt.
It had only been one night.
"Still," Erica said, forcing herself back onto the real issue, "what exactly happened last night? Why were you and Akuto…"
The rest was too embarrassing to say out loud. In true Italian fashion, Erica started gesturing wildly, trying to "draw" the question in the air.
Fortunately, Arianna knew Erica well. Between Erica's surprisingly competent pantomime and the fact that the question itself wasn't hard to guess, Arianna understood almost immediately.
"Ahhh, that," Arianna said, nodding. "Well…"
She felt she owed Erica a proper report.
For one thing, even if she'd already become Akuto's woman, she was still Erica's maid. Reporting what happened was part of her duty.
And for another, in Arianna's eyes, Erica would become Akuto's sooner or later. The sooner Erica prepared herself mentally, the sooner she could stand beside Arianna and help him.
Because… Arianna's physical endurance was simply too poor.
She couldn't handle Akuto alone.
…
Ten minutes later, Erica had heard everything she should have heard.
"In short," Arianna concluded with an adorably earnest nod, "Akuto-sama said he needed my help to unlock more of his power. And I helped him unlock it. That's all."
"So it's like that…" Erica murmured, half understanding, half not. "He needs a girl's help to unlock his own power…"
She nodded slowly.
But a sharper thought followed immediately.
Wait. If Arianna's explanation is right, then not just any girl can do it.
Arianna can. Saint Raphael can. And I can…
So does it have to be girls who appear in the memories Akuto showed me?
Because we represent part of this world's "destiny," that's why we can help him unlock his power?
As she thought that through, Erica found herself turning over a different problem.
Arianna had said Akuto believed he couldn't make Erica truly fall for him in the short term—so he chose a more practical route first.
That was practicality, yes.
But it was also a kind of understanding, even respect.
And Erica couldn't deny it: it soothed something inside her.
She was glad to know Akuto hadn't "put her last" because he liked her less.
He had done it because he needed power to contend with gods—and because with her pride, she was simply harder to win.
The only issue was—
It also proved something else.
She had never been Akuto's only one.
I already knew that. I already accepted it.
But still… Akuto-kun really is a scumbag.
Even as she mentally complained, Erica's mood visibly lifted.
Because another knot in her heart finally loosened.
Akuto hadn't chosen Arianna and Saint Raphael first because they were "better" than her.
He'd chosen them first because they were less resistant to intimacy, and far easier to move.
Erica's pride made her the highest-difficulty target. That was all.
…
"By the way," Erica said, composing herself, "what do you think about… those two?"
She intended to keep her promise and understand Akuto properly—from every angle.
As she'd said earlier, it was exciting that Akuto already knew her so well, but if they were going to become lovers, then both sides needed to truly understand each other.
…
"Akuto-sama, huh…" Arianna said, thinking seriously.
"Most of the time he's gentle," she said slowly, "but sometimes he's very… forceful."
"But overall, I like being with him," she added with a small smile.
Yes, spending the night with him meant her body and mind would be put through an extreme ordeal.
But she didn't hate that ordeal.
Compared to the overwhelming sensations she could experience, a little exhaustion was nothing.
And more than that—Akuto's symbiotic essence really was rich with life force. It reduced her fatigue to the bare minimum.
Otherwise, after how intense last night had been, she'd still be unable to get out of bed.
"I… see," Erica said, nodding without fully understanding.
Honestly, all she'd really heard was that Akuto was terrifyingly strong in that regard.
That… strong, huh…
And because she'd only just swallowed the symbiotic essence herself, Erica's awareness of Akuto had deepened in a way she didn't want to think about too closely.
"Anyway," Erica said quickly, "Arianna, tell me everything you know about Akuto-sama."
"And… you don't need to go into detail about intimate things."
She was laying down a boundary in advance—so that whenever Arianna or Saint Raphael started talking about Akuto, they wouldn't immediately drift into that territory.
…
Elsewhere.
While Erica and Arianna talked, Saint Raphael and Sai Akuto's "breakfast feeding" finally reached its end.
By the time Erica stepped back out of Arianna's room, she believed she understood Akuto on a deeper level.
And Akuto—just from the way Erica was looking at him now—could tell she'd changed.
He was pleased.
If Erica truly only ever looked at him the way a subordinate looked at a superior, he'd find that unbearably dull.
A "boss-and-subordinate" dynamic could serve as a catalyst in his pursuit—
But he had no intention of keeping it as the main course.
(End of Chapter)
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