"What does that even mean…"
"…using myself to please her?!?!"
Su Yuzu stared at Kujou Iruka in front of her, who looked every inch the Empress herself.
Come to think of it, calling her that didn't seem wrong at all.
Inside Su Yuzu's head, a tiny Su Yuzu already had one foot planted on the table, cursing up a storm.
"If you've got the guts, don't hide behind being Seventh Sequence and fight back halfway through!"
"Otherwise…"
"I'd please you so hard you couldn't even cry. You'd weep yourself bone dry!"
But Su Yuzu knew that would never happen.
If Iruka couldn't throw her weight around, what was the point of being the Seventh Sequence Empress of the Abyss?
Su Yuzu, who had once bullied Lyudmila in exactly this way, never imagined that a day like this would come. Fortunes turn, and now she was the one being squeezed dry.
"I…"
"I can't use the Blessing on Sister Iruka."
All Su Yuzu could do was try to explain.
"Hm?" It was a lovely, faintly lilting, sultry voice.
Su Yuzu watched Kujou Iruka lean in even closer. She could feel the breath brushing the hair by her ear, and she was in deep, deep trouble.
Th-this… how was she supposed to explain this?
Because she wasn't lucky enough to trigger an option to Recruit Kujou Iruka directly?
Because she'd never hoarded any Recruitment vouchers, and so was left sitting on a mountain of gold with no way to spend it?
But the daily missions hardly ever refreshed Recruitment vouchers anyway.
The Favorability Gifts she got for raising the girls' Favorability were always weird stuff, items that had been "borrowed" from who knew where.
Since Su Yuzu couldn't use the power of cash-shop spending, she had to rely mostly on Public Recruitment to pull Operators.
That meant the Recruit option triggered the first time she met a girl.
Or else… an Operator got shoved onto her during the main storyline, like Kujou Katora.
If she tried to explain that kind of nonsense, Kujou Iruka would probably execute her on the spot.
But if she didn't explain?
She had a feeling she'd be finished even faster.
As Kujou Iruka pressed down on her bit by bit, Su Yuzu couldn't even back away.
Still, there was one thing to be thankful for…
Ruins and broken walls lay all around them.
There wasn't a single wall left for Kujou Iruka to pin her against.
"Because…"
"Because…"
Su Yuzu stammered. Looking into Kujou Iruka's teasing dark golden vertical pupils, she finally understood.
Whether Iruka knew the reason or not didn't matter to her at all.
What mattered was that she could bully her.
But still—
Su Yuzu hadn't realized it yet.
Compared to the Blessing, which Kujou Iruka seemed to have forgotten long, long ago, the feast right in front of her was closer and tastier.
It was even within arm's reach.
"Because I haven't been able to sign a contract with Sister Iruka yet."
"I can only Interact with those I have a contract with… and give them the Blessing."
And that was in fact the truth.
A Recruit relationship was a kind of contract.
It let Su Yuzu keep a rough remote watch on the girls' condition and safety: whether they were slacking off in class or at work, or generating power back in the dorm.
Su Yuzu's voice grew slower and quieter, because she had suddenly noticed that Kujou Iruka's expression had turned dangerous and aggressive.
Su Yuzu even thought she might be pushed down at any moment.
Her knees were bending on their own, and her body was slowly sinking.
Was it because of Kujou Katora?
Had Kujou Iruka realized that she'd led away her little sister and signed a contract with her that might never be erased in a lifetime?
It was possible.
If someone tried to carry Soga Yura off so forcefully, Su Yuzu might well break his legs.
But things rarely went the way Su Yuzu expected.
Kujou Iruka looked at her. "So you're saying… you've already signed a contract with Lian?"
The fingertip pressed against the corner of Su Yuzu's lips seemed ready to slip right into her mouth.
Kujou Iruka's expression made Su Yuzu sense real danger.
Cold sweat trickled down her back, and only then did she grasp the crux of the problem.
She had just let slip, right in front of Kujou Iruka, that she'd gone swinging a hoe to poach from under her nose, digging away her subordinate.
What a sin!!!
Su Yuzu was close to tears.
She could only steel herself and try to explain. "Well, this… this is…"
"Whether a contract can be signed, when it's signed, how a contract relationship gets triggered…"
"I can't decide any of that myself."
"Oh~" Kujou Iruka's voice rose. She looked at Su Yuzu. The girl being bullied had an indescribable sort of cuteness.
She could feel it—
the surges and shifts in Su Yuzu's emotions.
For an Aberrant, it was simply the most delicious thing in the world.
Wonderful—
absolutely wonderful.
But she couldn't let her guard down.
Having already fought two tug-of-war battles with Su Yuzu, Kujou Iruka knew how cunning the girl was, and how well she could seize an opening.
Give her the slightest chance to catch her breath, and she'd recover right away.
She'd turn bold and brazen again.
And then all that sweet scent would vanish with it.
So Kujou Iruka kept up her unhurried, slowly advancing pressure.
"Is that your reason for stealing my adjutant?"
"I… I didn't steal her…" Su Yuzu still tried to wriggle out of it. "Lian still follows Sister Iruka's orders."
"I don't have the right to command Lian, either."
It was just that~ Lian would probably end up with her body in Iruka's camp and her heart with Yuzu.
The next time Kujou Iruka attacked the Tokyo metropolitan area, Lian, for Yuzu's sake, might even stab Iruka in the back in the name of justice.
History seemed to be returning to its proper course.
Kujou Iruka just looked at Su Yuzu, her invading steps and fingertips showing no sign of stopping.
"In other words…"
"Yuzu doesn't have the ability to form a contract on her own."
"Y-yes…" Su Yuzu nodded, trembling.
"Then—"
"That means you can't sign a contract with me."
"Y-yes…" Su Yuzu started to nod, then caught a whiff of something ominous.
"Which means you can't… give me the Blessing, either?"
"No, that's not it!!!" Su Yuzu tried to resist, but it was already too late.
She looked into Kujou Iruka's smiling, dangerous vertical pupils, and her heart skipped a beat.
"As I thought—" Kujou Iruka's smile was downright wicked.
"Then I'll just have to use you… to please me."
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