Dark golden vertical pupils opened in the darkness.
Kujou Iruka gazed down at the girl in her arms.
She was pressed so close to Su Yuzu that their body lines seemed ready to fit together. So close that she didn't even need to shift to kiss the girl's earlobe.
It was nothing like the sleep of ordinary humans.
An Aberrant's sleep was more like a state of shutdown, a half-hibernation. That was why they could fall asleep the moment they closed their eyes.
That was also why Little Kiyomi had simply shut down back when Su Yuzu had bullied her to the limit.
But in other words—
Since it was only half-hibernation, how deep that hibernation went could also be controlled.
At least…
Kujou Iruka could do it.
Which meant she had done it on purpose from the very start.
All of it just to make the delicacy last longer. But—
It seemed she had to stop now.
At the edge of her domain, a horde of uninvited guests had arrived.
Kujou Iruka let go of the girl in her arms, who had gone almost completely limp.
Jet-black wings drew out of the domain, a darkness deeper than darkness itself, and then unfurled.
In that darkness, another pair of Dark golden vertical pupils slowly opened.
Lian knelt on one knee before Kujou Iruka.
Kujou Iruka looked down at the silent-type Aberrant girl in front of her.
She already knew that this silent-type Aberrant girl had signed a contract with Su Yuzu. But for now, at least, Lian still obeyed her orders.
Truthfully, Kujou Iruka didn't much care whether someone had poached Lian. After all, before she fell into the Abyss, she had already been alone. She had long since grown used to being alone.
But that didn't mean she would let anyone who swung a pickaxe at her off lightly.
The Kujou Iruka of the past would have swallowed the culprit alive. That might have been the lightest punishment she handed out.
But Su Yuzu was different.
Su Yuzu was completely different.
She was a young and delectable junior. Before she fell into the Abyss for good, there was no harm in granting her an adjutant.
"Give Lian to Su Yuzu as a gift—"
The thought had already risen in Kujou Iruka's mind. She had even started wondering how to dress Lian up for the occasion.
How about a ribbon outfit?
A silent-type girl seemed especially well suited to one.
"Lady Kujou—" Lian didn't spare so much as a glance for Su Yuzu, curled up at Kujou Iruka's feet. She simply gazed respectfully at the Empress of the Abyss before her.
She knew that at a moment like this, no matter how worried she was about Miss Yuzu, she mustn't and couldn't look at her again.
"Strange—"
Lian's expression froze for a moment.
"Why am I worried about Su Yuzu?"
"Some naughty guests have arrived~" Kujou Iruka looked down at Lian, still kneeling there.
"Yes." Lian made to rise, every inch the girl about to go "deal with them." It seemed she'd done plenty of this in the past.
But this time, she couldn't stand.
Absolute darkness coiled around her ankles and pressed down on her shoulders, pinning her firmly in place.
The gap between the Seventh Sequence and the Fifth Sequence was nothing less than the gap between heaven and earth.
"…" Without a word, the silent-type girl simply tilted her head back to look at Kujou Iruka.
Those Dark golden vertical pupils of the Aberrant girl seemed to ask: Why won't you let me act, Lady Kujou?
"There are quite a few guests this time~" Kujou Iruka's gaze seemed fixed on something far away, and a smile spread slowly from the corner of her lips.
"Lian…"
"I'm afraid you couldn't handle them all."
Sixth Sequence.
Many, many Sixth Sequences.
So they had finally made up their minds to go to war with her?
The smile on Kujou Iruka's face slid gradually into Frenzy.
She had thought those cowards would hide in the shell Saint Michael left behind for the rest of their lives.
Oh~
She'd forgotten.
That shell had already been used up by Su Yuzu.
But still… weren't they looking down on her a little too much?
Did they think she was still the Kujou Iruka of twenty years ago?
Please~ Aberrants may grow slowly, but they do grow. And that goes double for a battle-obsessed lunatic like Kujou Iruka.
"Me…"
"I haven't been the Kujou Iruka of twenty years ago for a long time."
"I've already stepped into the Seventh Sequence."
"The Seventh Sequence—"
"This time, even if Saint Michael clawed his way out of the grave again, he couldn't stop me."
"I said so."
"I'll go and entertain them myself."
A contemptuous smile curved the corner of Kujou Iruka's mouth.
She reached out as if to pet a pet, wanting to pat Lian's head. But with the difference in their height and posture, her hand didn't quite reach.
Lian was too stoic to behave like Kujou Katora did around Su Yuzu. Katora would see Su Yuzu stretch out a hand and come trotting over eagerly, bending her waist and arching her body just to rest her chin in Su Yuzu's palm. And she would always pick the prettiest pose to do it in.
For Lian, out of reach was simply out of reach. Her circuitry wouldn't let her prop herself up so that Kujou Iruka could pat her head.
At the same time, when she recalled how Su Yuzu had stroked her head before, Lian found, unaccountably, that she was somewhat reluctant to be petted by Kujou Iruka.
Not that Kujou Iruka cared about any of this.
She drew her hand back and gave Lian, who seemed to be clutching her little blanket, a casual glance.
"Just stay here and take good care of Miss Yuzu."
"Yes—"
"Meet whatever demands she has, as far as you can."
"Yes—"
"But if you let her run away…" Kujou Iruka warned Lian. No—
She was really warning Su Yuzu.
In her brief observation of Su Yuzu, Kujou Iruka had realized that, although Su Yuzu seemed cunning and treacherous, selfish and self-serving, she valued the girls around her immensely. More than she valued herself, even.
To be precise, Su Yuzu didn't value herself at all. She seemed indifferent to everything about her own existence. She treated life even more like a game than Kujou Iruka did.
Kujou Iruka trusted her own observation completely.
So even if it was only for Lian, who had signed a contract with her just a day ago, Su Yuzu would never run.
She had to admit it: she had her by the weak spot.
Black wings curled in, then spread wide again.
The rather too revealing Aberrant attire on Kujou Iruka's body had changed into a black backless evening gown.
From the front it looked elegant and noble, but the deep V at the back plunged all the way below her waist.
Her black wings spread out from behind her waist.
Beneath the fishtail skirt, Kujou Iruka's long, slender legs began to move at a leisurely pace.
Her figure flickered.
The next second, Kujou Iruka appeared at the foot of the Mountain.
Like an empress enthroned above the Abyss, Kujou Iruka looked down on the new arrivals.
"Well, well…"
"Long time no see—"
"my foolish, weak Little Sister."
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