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After settling Mio Naruse down, Bokue Keikain stepped out of the bedroom into the living room. Under the warm, gentle glow of the lights, a certain silver-haired succubus girl with bob-cut hair was sitting primly on the sofa, a playful smile on her lips. For some reason, there was even a portable camera placed on the coffee table in front of her.
Seeing Bokue emerge from the bedroom, Maria Naruse waved cheerfully.
"Ahh~ Still such a shame, though. I'd originally planned to capture Mio-sama's precious first time on film to keep as a memento. Unfortunately, Bokue-san locked the door so tightly that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get inside. In the end, I could only record a bit of audio through the door…"
"You really aren't afraid of Mio twisting your head off your shoulders, huh?"
Bokue had zero interest in letting her continue with her nonsense. He sat down across from her on the opposite sofa, cutting her off bluntly.
Maria froze briefly.
"Eh? T-twisting my head off…? Wait! You're joking, right? Mio-sama wouldn't actually do something so violent just because I tried to preserve her precious first ti—wah?!"
Before she could even finish her sentence, Bokue shot off the couch like lightning, grabbing Maria by her collar. With effortless ease, he lifted the petite succubus off the sofa, swiftly pinning her down beside him.
The sudden motion left Maria too stunned to react, and before she could gather her bearings, she found herself lying helplessly beneath him on the sofa, staring up into the bright ceiling lights and Bokue's impassive face hovering above her.
"U-umm…"
Maria gave a nervous chuckle, squirming restlessly under him.
"S-so what's the situation now? Did Mio-sama not satisfy Bokue-san enough? Is it my turn to take over? Ah, though Maria isn't completely unwilling, could you please avoid choking play? I might find that a bit too much…"
"Did you seriously think I wouldn't notice those little tricks you pulled?"
The first thing Bokue said froze the playful expression on Maria's face completely.
Bokue continued, his tone steady and cold.
"Actually, I sensed you using your magic earlier, back at the apartment—but I wasn't entirely sure what exactly you did. It wasn't until I was washing Mio in the bath earlier that I realized you'd placed a mental suggestion on her, right?"
"It's true that as a succubus, you possess abilities to manipulate others' minds—like you did earlier when controlling the receptionist at the front desk. However, such direct manipulation would have been easily detected by Mio. Instead, you went for a subtle mental suggestion: a much weaker yet harder-to-detect method. You amplified Mio's mild aversion towards relying on others, prompting her to say outright that she didn't want to go to the demon world."
"Now, I've already dispelled the suggestion you placed in her mind. And after talking things over with Mio, I know she's really just an ordinary girl craving a peaceful, safe life. For her, while depending on others in the demon world might feel a bit uncomfortable, it's still far better than constantly being hunted down here. I'm very curious—what exactly were you thinking, as her supposed sister, when you placed that mental suggestion?"
Each of Bokue's words stabbed sharply into the succubus girl's heart, leaving her expression increasingly stiff and embarrassed.
"I…"
"You don't need to tell me. I have my own way to find out."
Once again interrupting Maria's attempt to speak, Bokue shifted his hand from her slender neck up to her forehead.
"Although I don't particularly enjoy using this method—it's rather rude to read someone else's mind—but—"
[Spirit Power Rotation]—[Thought Reading]!
No pain. No discomfort. To Maria, it felt as if absolutely nothing had happened.
But within Bokue's mind, a surge of detailed information poured forth instantly.
"Hmm? Zolgear… Sheila… Wilbert's power… Ah, I see."
The entire process lasted less than half a second. When Bokue removed his hand from the succubus girl's forehead, his expression had returned to its usual calm, far gentler than before.
In the end, Maria's plan was exceedingly simple, her objective utterly pure: to rescue her mother, Sheila, who was being held hostage by Zolgear.
Zolgear, an influential leader of the current Demon Lord faction in the northern demon territories, had long coveted the power that Mio inherited from her father, the former demon lord Wilbert. After failing repeatedly to obtain that power directly from Mio, Zolgear resorted to capturing Sheila—Maria's mother and Mio's stepmother—as a hostage. Using her mother's safety as leverage, he forced Maria to betray her half-sister and bring Mio to him.
On the surface, Maria pretended to be fleeing with Mio. To Zolgear, she explained this deception as "a necessary strategy to win Mio's trust." Secretly, however, Maria desperately sought an alternative solution—one that could save her mother without harming Mio.
Thus, Maria had engineered the master-servant contract between Mio and Bokue.
Throughout this process, Maria's only small manipulation had been regarding the teleportation mechanism built into the contract.
Initially, Maria claimed the contract's teleportation would send Mio directly to Bokue, like a summoning spell, whenever Mio faced danger. But in reality, Maria had subtly adjusted the contract so that if Mio were captured or harmed, Bokue would instead teleport instantly to Mio's side.
In other words, if Zolgear ever successfully captured Mio, Bokue would automatically appear at her side like an unstoppable force of nature, annihilating every enemy nearby in an instant.
To Maria, this was the only way to simultaneously protect her beloved mother Sheila and her dear sister Mio. True, there were a few hidden intentions, but ultimately, her motives had been to achieve a resolution without harming either party.
To ensure this scenario played out, Maria had to guarantee Mio remained in the human world. If Mio had successfully reached the demon world under Gremory protection, Zolgear would never dare to lay a finger on her.
"So… Bokue-san, now you understand everything?" Maria cautiously asked, her voice timid and hesitant.
"Pretty much."
Bokue quickly sorted through the mass of thoughts he'd received, answering calmly with a drawn-out tone.
Now Maria appeared vastly different from the usual cheeky, mischievous imp she played. With all her playful, vulgar banter stripped away, what remained was a genuinely vulnerable, anxious young girl. Her pitiful expression almost made him want to gently cup her face and teasingly rub her cheeks until she looked even more adorably miserable.
The very definition of gap moe.
"Don't look so worried. I'm not blaming you."
Seeing Maria still afraid to speak up, Bokue comforted her gently.
"If anything, given the circumstances, this was probably the best plan you could have come up with."
Not blaming her?
Maria stared in stunned surprise.
From his tone… was he actually praising her?
At this point, Bokue gently ruffled Maria's soft, silvery hair before standing up from the sofa.
"Anyway, the two of you should stay here and rest for tonight. Tomorrow morning, we'll head to the northern territories together and get your mother back."
"Eh?"
"Didn't I already say it earlier?" Bokue smiled confidently. "The entire northern territory—even if they all banded together—wouldn't even last against me with one hand tied behind my back."
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