"Urgh... Fuck, she isn't getting the meaning behind it at all!" Aoto slapped his own forehead and shook his head lightly. "I wonder if there's any way I can talk to her about the situation. Will telepathy work?" he thought to himself but couldn't bear to take the risk of being discovered.
"I'm done!" Scarlett said, pouring the last of the hot tea into the delicate cup and placing it carefully on the matching tea plate.
She turned around and walked out of the room without a backward glance, going back to deal with Lunatic.
Meanwhile, Aoto only watched her go without saying anything. "Should I take anyone's help? But whose?" he wondered, a knot of anxiety tightening in his stomach.
He wasn't afraid that Chiyoko might betray them. He was confident enough in his own strength to defeat him, not to mention Scarlett, who was a lot stronger than him. But what really bothered him was the hero contract thing.
What if those goddesses mind-controlled him later on and made him betray Scarlett? It was the worst-case scenario he could think of.
Meanwhile, Scarlett walked upstairs back to her room. Lunatic was sitting there, waiting patiently, a small, expectant smile on her face.
"Hmph!... Here's your tea!" Scarlett sneered, placing the cup down on the table with a little more force than necessary, making a small clinking sound.
"If I don't like it, then you'll have to make another with your own breast milk," Lunatic teased, her eyes twinkling with mischief as she picked up the hot cup of tea.
"In hell," Scarlett scoffed, turning her head away with a huff.
Lunatic sipped the tea, savoring the flavor as it filled her mouth. Her eyes slightly widened in genuine surprise. "It's actually pretty good," she thought to herself, clearly shocked. She didn't expect it to be this good, not from Scarlett.
She looked back and forth between the tea and Scarlett's annoyed face. "I really wanna tease her even more, but Reiza and Irish are waiting!" she sighed to herself, feeling a little torn.
Lunatic placed the cup back on the plate and nodded. "It's good. You passed!" she praised, a rare, genuine smile on her lips.
"Like I care!" Scarlett scoffed once again, but a small, warm feeling spread through her chest. She was secretly happy to hear the praise, even if she'd never admit it.
"Um... Actually, Reiza was looking for you," Lunatic said, changing the subject.
"Why?" Scarlett asked back.
"I don't know. She should be in the spare guest room. Ask her yourself," Lunatic answered casually, waving her hand dismissively.
"Okay, I'll be going then," Scarlett said, turning around to leave, feeling a little relieved the weird test was over.
At that moment, Lunatic called out, "Wait!" she said. At the same time, she gulped the whole remaining tea in her mouth, her cheeks puffing out slightly.
"What—", Scarlett started to turn around, but at the same time, Lunatic stood up and closed the distance between them in a flash.
She kissed Scarlett directly on the lips, forcing her mouth open. The warm, tea-filled liquid passed between them, mixing their saliva and making Scarlett drink a part of it.
Lunatic finally pulled back with an amusing, triumphant grin. "Now it's more tasty," she chuckled, her voice low and teasing.
"You!" Scarlett clenched her fist, her face turning bright red with a mix of shock and anger. She was ready to smack her for real this time.
But before she could, Lunatic immediately took off running. "I'm sorry!" she shouted, not sounding sorry at all as she ran off outside the room and down the hall.
Scarlett chased after her for a few meters, her footsteps echoing in the hallway. But after a short chase, she gave up with a frustrated sigh, her anger cooling into resignation. She stopped and turned around, heading down the hallways in the opposite direction to meet Reiza instead.
Meanwhile, inside the spare guest room, Reiza was pacing back and forth, her footsteps silent on the soft carpet. She was being both impatient and worried, her heart beating a little too fast.
Although she had asked Lunatic to send Scarlett to her, she had no idea what to do once Scarlett actually arrived. Her tsundere personality would not let her show her emotions so openly. But at the same time, if she lost her self-control and let her lust take over, things would get too wild, too fast.
Before she could even think of a plan, she heard footsteps coming from the hallway. She immediately got a shiver down her spine and quickly sat down on the sofa, her head low towards the ground, trying to look casual.
A few seconds later, Scarlett entered the room. "Reiza?, You were looking for me?" she asked, her voice soft.
Reiza didn't say anything, her head still low, her hands fidgeting in her lap.
Seeing no reply from her, Scarlett started feeling a little uncomfortable. "Umm.. Reiza?, Did something happen?" she asked, her tone a little lower, filled with concern.
At that moment, Reiza just slowly raised her hand. "Just come here," she said in a solemn voice, trying to sound confident.
"O-okay!" Scarlett walked towards her lightly, a confused look on her face.
Meanwhile outside, Lunatic came back to see what was going on inside between Reiza and Scarlett. But as she approached the door, she saw Irish coming there from the other side of the hallway.
They both froze for a moment, their eyes meeting. A silent, shared understanding passed between them without a single word.
They walked towards the door lightly and peeked inside together, their heads almost touching.
"Did you come here to see what Reiza is doing?" Lunatic whispered, a playful smirk on her lips.
"No, I was getting impatient by how long it is taking," Irish whispered back, her voice tight with annoyance.
Lunatic didn't say anything back. She just peeked back inside, her eyes focused on the scene.
Inside the room, Reiza shifted back a little on the sofa, making a gap between her legs. "Sit here for a sec," she said lightly, her voice barely a whisper.
"Okay," Scarlett felt confusion but she did as she was told, turning around and sitting quietly on the floor between Reiza's legs.
Reiza's tall height was enough to make a huge shadow over Scarlett's smaller frame. She wrapped her hands around Scarlett's waist and squeezed her thighs together, rubbing them gently against Scarlett's sides.
But this was all she was capable of. She looked away in embarrassment, her cheeks already flushing a deep red. "Shit.. shit... shit what should I do now? I-i mean it's not like I'm shy, I'm just out of ideas right now," she thought, her mind a panicked mess.
Meanwhile, seeing their pathetic, awkward romance, Lunatic couldn't help but slap her own forehead.
"I forgot she's all shy without her lust. She's just wasting time at this point," she sighed to herself, feeling frustrated.
But then, she sensed some burning dark aura around her. She looked beside her and saw it coming from Irish. Irish was grinding her teeth and chewing on her thumbnail, her eyes narrowed.
"Are you being jealous?" Lunatic asked, a knowing grin spreading across her face.
"N-no, Not at all, Hahaha..., I'm just frustrated by how long it is taking," Irish chuckled dryly, but there was definitely a hidden temper behind her words.
"Okay, just control your mana and keep maintaining stealth," Lunatic didn't tease further and whispered urgently. Although Scarlett was wearing her blindfold, she would still sense them if they showed any weakness in their concealment.
Irish looked back inside and saw Reiza slowly rubbing her fingers at Scarlett's palm.
"Actually, I wanted to taste something sweet," Reiza said, lifting Scarlett's palm lightly towards her face and then putting Scarlett's index finger inside her mouth, sucking on it gently.
"Not the fingers!" Irish almost shouted, her dark aura leaking out even more, making the air around them feel heavy.
Lunatic immediately panicked. "Maintain stealth—"
But before she could finish her sentence, it was already too late.
Scarlett's senses immediately clicked. Her head snapped towards the door. The next thing Reiza knew, Scarlett had disappeared from between her legs.
"What are you two doing here?" she asked, standing right behind both Lunatic and Irish in the blink of an eye. Her voice was cold and calm, which somehow made it even scarier.
Lunatic almost jumped back in shock, her heart leaping into her throat.
Irish was about to give an explanation, but then Reiza came running out of the room, her face panicked.
"Wife, it's not like what you think! It's not like we were trying to tease you together, Not at all!" Reiza said in the heat of the moment, her words tumbling out in a rush.
Irish immediately slapped her own forehead. "Even I'm not this dumb," she sighed to herself, feeling a second-hand embarrassment.
"Tease together? Care to explain me what is going on?" Scarlett's lips twitched as she looked down at Lunatic, who was now the center of suspicion.
Reiza was shy, and Irish being a yandere was quite straightforward. Scarlett clearly knew that only Lunatic would think of these kinds of antics.
Lunatic didn't dare to look up. She started playing with her fingers nervously, feeling Scarlett's silhouette getting bigger and more intimidating in her mind. She could hear a cracking sound coming from Scarlett's knuckles as she clenched her fists.
****
Inside the same guest room, Scarlett sat on the sofa with her legs crossed, looking down at the three of them. They were all sitting on their knees on the floor, their heads bowed in shame. Even though Reiza was still big enough to almost match Scarlett's height while sitting on the sofa, she looked just as meek as the others.
With no other choice left, Lunatic had to explain everything to Scarlett.
"So, you all already knew?" Scarlett sighed, her shoulders slumping a little.
"I forgot about the heart pact. I should have been more careful around Lunatic," she thought to herself, but there was no point in regretting it now. The secret was out.
She looked at them again, her expression softening. "I only talked about it with Aoto and also had some conversations with Avion as well," she said. After that, Scarlett explained the whole situation from her perspective. She told them about how that vampire, Feyre, had done something to her and flipped her personality a little, making her feel emotions more strongly.
"It was her? I met her as well, no wonder I never saw her again after that," Lunatic said in sudden realization, the pieces clicking together in her mind.
"Is there any way to treat it?" Reiza asked, her voice full of genuine concern as she looked up at Scarlett, her worry for her wife pushing past her shyness.
"Avion said the fastest way is to find and kill her," Scarlett answered, her voice flat. "Or else, let my body adapt to it so that it no longer works on me."
"But adapting can take days or weeks," she added with a heavy sigh.
"There's no need to worry, I'll find the solution for you, just leave it to me!" Irish said cheerfully, puffing out her chest, despite not having a single idea in her head about how to actually help.
SMACK!...
Scarlett lightly smacked Irish on the forehead with a small, fond smile. "You better focus on the upcoming competition instead," she said, her tone gentle but firm.
She then pointed at Reiza and Lunatic. "Not only her, but you two as well. It's not a big problem, and we still have no idea why she did it. So, focus on the competition instead of your dirty thoughts,"