Lieselotte stood before Kasuga Hijiri, who was frozen in time, eyeing her with both admiration and excitement.
"My, my… What an adorable girl. Just imagining sinking my teeth into that pale neck to suck out her mana really gets my blood pumping."
In this paused world, she had plenty of time to stare. After only a few moments, though, she couldn't wait any longer. Licking her lips and revealing her fangs, she leaned in toward Kasuga Hijiri's neck.
However—
Out of the corner of her eye, Lieselotte noticed something strange. Kasuga Hijiri's eyes… seemed to move.
"Huh?"
She stopped in her tracks and looked closely. Kasuga Hijiri suddenly blinked.
"!!!"
She was sure of it. Kasuga Hijiri's eyes had blinked. But how was that possible? She had clearly stopped time.
"Sigh…"
Kasuga Hijiri let out a small breath, dropping the act. Lieselotte, now certain Kasuga Hijiri could move, was stunned.
"H-how can you move…?"
She stared, eyes wide with shock. Kasuga Hijiri blinked calmly and apologized.
"Sorry, my future husband asked me to play along and mess with you."
"Huh?"
"Hahaha, Hijiri, nice performance."
Several figures materialized behind Kasuga Hijiri under Lieselotte's bewildered gaze. At the forefront was Rei Ao, followed by Erica, Fubuki, Michiru, and Kanna. All four people Rei Ao had invited had arrived. In fact, they'd been here for a while, hidden behind a barrier he set up to watch the show. Rei Ao had even asked Kasuga Hijiri to pretend she was frozen just to see Lieselotte's reaction.
"Who are you?!"
Realizing things weren't going her way, Lieselotte tried to back off as she questioned them. But Rei Ao simply snapped his fingers—
"!!!"
She found her body suddenly refusing to move from that spot. At the same time, Lilith Asami and the others regained their mobility. Although they had been frozen, they'd still been able to hear every word.
Mira Yamana narrowed her eyes at Rei Ao, feeling highly wary.
"Kasuga Hijiri called you her future husband… so, you're the Demon King?"
Demon King—the moment that phrase left her lips, everyone's faces grew serious. Rei Ao saw no need to hide anything. Sliding an arm around Kasuga Hijiri's slim waist, he smiled.
"Nice to meet you. The name's Rei Ao. You can call me by that… or just 'Demon King.'"
"So you're the Demon King?" Akio Fudō asked, puzzled. "Then how come I don't sense any mana from you?"
"Mana, you say? How much do you want?"
"Huh?"
With a faintly mischievous grin, Rei Ao opened his Demon King powers.
"For example… try this."
Boom!!!
"Urgh!"
In that instant, Akio and her companions all looked alarmed. Some collapsed to the ground; others doubled over, gagging. Michiru jumped in surprise.
"Wh-what's wrong with them?"
She couldn't sense anything unusual.
"It's a form of energy. Very powerful. Thick and dense."
Kanna's small face went from cute to serious. She was talking about this world's mana.
"…"
Erica and Fubuki exchanged looks, puzzled—they didn't feel a thing. Was this little girl just making stuff up?
Rei Ao ignored the group that had gone pale. He walked right over to Lieselotte, who was stiff and visibly panicked.
"Wh-what are you gonna do?!"
She could still speak, but her body wouldn't respond. She'd felt that monstrous amount of mana—this guy really was a Demon King!
"Heh…"
Rei Ao let out a small laugh, running the back of a finger lightly along Lieselotte's soft cheek.
"You're quite the beauty."
"You—!"
Lieselotte's fury flared at his brazen move, and she practically ground her teeth. Rei Ao smiled casually.
"Don't look at me like that. I'm only trying to grant your wish—namely, giving you the mana you want."
"Ha? Are you mocking me?"
No matter what he said, Lieselotte wasn't buying it. She'd basically tried to assault the Demon King candidate a few minutes earlier, so obviously they were enemies. Who'd ever give their enemy what they wanted? It was laughable.
"I'm a man of my word."
Ignoring her suspicious glare, he let his eyes drift to her red lips.
"If I remember right, aside from drinking mana like a vampire through someone's neck, you can also kiss to siphon it, right?"
"?"
That comment left Lieselotte momentarily stunned—he wasn't wrong. Suddenly, she realized exactly where his gaze had landed.
Understanding what he intended to do, she looked both startled and furious.
"Don't you da—mmph!"
But before she could get the words out, he pressed his lips to hers.
"Mmph! Mmm!!!"
At first, Lieselotte's eyes burned with rage, and she struggled helplessly. But within seconds, her eyes went wide. A massive, pure, and powerful flow of mana surged into her body. She sank into that overwhelming sensation. The restraints on her body vanished. Rather than running away, she threw herself into Rei Ao's arms, responding eagerly. It was a drastic change from her earlier resistance.
"…Thirsty… I need… more…"
"Huh???"
Everyone else was left baffled by what they were seeing—especially Michiru.
"What the heck is going on?"
She couldn't figure out why Rei Ao was suddenly making out with a complete stranger. Kanna, unruffled, explained:
"Michiru, Rei Ao-nii's energy is flowing into that human's body through where they're touching."
"Right. If Rei Ao-kun was correct, that woman can absorb mana from someone either by biting their neck or through a kiss," Kasuga Hijiri said, confirming Kanna's explanation. "Everything she did before was meant to steal the mana Rei Ao-kun intended to give to me."
With Rei Ao on the scene, the crisis was already under control. Kasuga Hijiri let out a breath of relief and moved to help Lilith Asami to her feet.
"You okay, Lilith? Don't worry—Rei Ao-kun wouldn't hurt you."
"…"
Lilith Asami gave a somewhat awkward smile. Hijiri, you've already made up your mind to trust this man more than anyone else—don't you realize it?
She felt just a bit jealous that her friend trusted someone she barely knew so completely. Still, she understood.
He was undoubtedly the Demon King, and Hijiri had mentioned before that she was the Demon King's beloved—his "queen," not just a candidate.
The way he was acting now was, in its own way, perfectly straightforward—albeit extreme.
At least none of them had suffered serious harm aside from that crushing wave of mana earlier. What Lilith found more distracting, though, was the intense lip-lock happening in front of them.
Even something as simple as a kiss left Lilith, the holder of the "Lust Archive" (though she hated anything lewd), blushing bright red, her heart pounding so hard she felt dizzy.
~~~
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