For a moment, time seemed to slow down.
Beads of cold sweat began to form on Echidna's skin, and her pale complexion, as if deprived of oxygen, took on a faint blush. Her small, fragrant tongue slipped out involuntarily, and her deep black eyes instinctively rolled upwards.
At this moment, the usually composed and intellectual Witch of Greed looked as though she had been utterly shattered.
Though she was a spiritual entity, her body appeared no different from a normal human's. She could bleed, sweat, feel pain, even itch, and she could eat and drink—she simply lacked the usual vulnerabilities of mortality.
Just then, Ryou leaned down close to Echidna's ear.
From Anastasia's perspective, it looked as if he were kissing Echidna, and a flicker of displeasure crossed her eyes. The temperature around her dropped sharply.
Ryou didn't notice her reaction. Leaning in close, he whispered in Echidna's ear, his voice soft but as chilling as a lover's false promise:
"You're not as important as you think. Try to threaten me? Go ahead—see if I won't kill you."
Echidna's entire body went cold.
As someone skilled in reading and manipulating emotions, the Witch of Greed instantly recognized the deadly seriousness in Ryou's tone. He truly meant it.
There is a great terror in the face of death—no one is exempt from it, not even the Witch of Greed. She felt her breath shorten, and a crack formed in her usually unshakable confidence as fear crept in like a virus.
Ryou finally relaxed his grip and removed his hand from her throat.
"Gah! Cough, cough!"
Echidna had never felt air so fresh and wonderful. She gasped deeply, as though trying to inhale enough to last a lifetime. Her chest heaved, creating soft, enticing ripples.
As the terror of death faded, all the strength in her body vanished, and she collapsed against the cushions of the dragon carriage like a puddle of clay.
Then, suddenly, her cheeks flushed a bright red, like a ripe apple.
All her muscles had relaxed—including her sphincter...
Before long, a faint wet stain appeared on the fabric of her black mourning dress.
Just as Ryou was about to stand, he noticed a strange, citrusy fragrance in the air.
"What's that smell…" he muttered, though he didn't finish the thought before noticing Echidna's face, now flushed with embarrassment.
A strange expression appeared on Ryou's face.
At that moment, Anastasia, who had been silent all along, finally spoke.
"Shameless."
Echidna jumped as if someone had stepped on her tail.
"How am I shameless?! It's just a natural physiological reaction…"
She then launched into an impassioned lecture, explaining biological responses with examples and references, as if defending herself in a court of science.
Ryou watched in amazement from the side. So she was knowledgeable—but there seemed to be more than one kind of knowledge in her repertoire.
Anastasia's response was simple: she closed her eyes, her expression clearly saying, "I don't want to hear any more of this nonsense."
After a while, seeing no reaction from Anastasia, Echidna finally gave up and stopped her tirade.
She then glanced at Ryou, her cheeks still tinged with a faint blush. With a shy expression, she softly said to him:
"I can help you, but on one condition…"
Ryou raised an eyebrow, giving her a half-smile while his hand made a squeezing motion, as if to say, Just an Echidna, and you dare negotiate conditions?
What happened next surprised even him.
Faced with his gesture, Echidna first flinched, then seemed to come to a realization. Her eyes brightened with a peculiar desire, and she puffed out her chest as if taking a stand.
Ryou, intrigued, asked, "What condition?"
To his surprise, Echidna covered her cheeks with both hands and, swaying slightly, shyly said:
"You have to treat me like you did just now…"
"Like what?"
Ryou asked, not catching on immediately.
"Oh, come on~ Just like that~"
Echidna's blush deepened as she covered her face.
A strange chill ran through Ryou.
Afraid he had misheard, he quickly asked for confirmation.
"You mean… that?"
Echidna nodded eagerly.
"Yes~ Just like that! When you were choking me earlier, it hurt, but just as I was about to slip away, I felt like a door to a new world was slowly opening for me!"
Her face lit up with an almost fanatical fervor.
"It turns out that death is beautiful—an eternal mystery, my ultimate pursuit!"
The more she spoke, the more fervent she became, her gaze that of a fanatical devotee.
Ryou's expression grew increasingly odd.
Echidna, oblivious to his discomfort, continued with her impassioned speech.
"But true death would mean losing my senses. That feeling of being on the edge, though—it was incredible! So please, let me experience that thrill again!"
Reaching the peak of her excitement, Echidna suddenly grabbed Ryou's wrist, pulling his hand to her neck.
Looking at her flushed face, glistening with fragrant sweat, breathing heavily, she resembled nothing short of an extreme masochist.
Ryou had only one thought.
I must have choked her too long. Her brain's been deprived of oxygen, and now she's completely lost her mind.
In this strange atmosphere, the four sat in the dragon carriage, approaching Roswaal's mansion. However, as the dragon carriage neared the small village close to the mansion in Mathers territory, the surroundings grew eerie. Suddenly, the sounds of birds and animals vanished, leaving an oppressive silence.
None of the passengers were weak, so they quickly sensed something was wrong.
"Ara~ it seems you have visitors~"
Echidna chuckled softly, covering her mouth, her dark eyes gleaming with anticipation, as though ready to enjoy the show. What a wicked woman…
Ryou was speechless. Perhaps she knew he couldn't do anything to her, or maybe she was purposely provoking him to enjoy the thrill of danger. Since their agreement, Echidna had become increasingly brazen toward him. Ryou shook his head, deciding not to engage with her odd behavior.
"Master, there are enemies," Rem said, releasing the dragon carriage reins and pulling her weapon from beneath her skirt.
"Don't be tense, Rem. It's just a bunch of nobodies."
Ryou smirked, then turned to Anastasia.
"Anastasia, take them out."
Anastasia gave a barely noticeable nod. Without any visible incantations or gestures, a massive array of black ice spikes shot up around the dragon carriage. The sound of flesh tearing filled the air, and soon, blood flowed everywhere. Nearly every ice spike impaled a figure in a black robe with a pointed hat covering their face.
Seeing them, Ryou suddenly understood.
"The Witch Cult!"
At that moment, Rem's voice, laced with fury, came from the driver's seat. Among the four of them, the one who held the deepest grudge against the Witch Cult was undoubtedly Rem. The cult had not only destroyed her village but had also killed her parents and severed the horn of her beloved sister, Ram.
The horn is the source of an oni's power. Losing it renders an oni nearly helpless. Ram, once a rare talent of a century, now relied on others to replenish her magic, reduced to a shadow of her former self. Rem's hatred for the Witch Cult was beyond reconciliation.
The moment she recognized them, her eyes reddened, and her magic flared, ready to explode.
Slap!
"Ah!"
A light smack landed on her butt, and Rem let out a startled yelp, snapping her out of her rage. She looked up at Ryou with a mix of anger and embarrassment.
Ryu merely patted her head gently.
"Don't worry. You and your sister belong to me now, so I'll settle this grudge for you."
Rem's face showed shock, her mouth agape. At that moment, an unspoken emotion welled up within her, transforming into a soft, captivating smile.
"Yes, Master," she replied.
Her smile was breathtaking. Ryou couldn't help but marvel at the sight; indeed, his greatest treasure in this other world wasn't anything else but these beautiful girls!
Suddenly, a jarring voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Ah! Sloth! Such slothfulness!"
A peculiar man with a green bowl cut and wearing a black robe identical to the slain cultists burst out from the trees. Instead of attacking Ryou, he ran to a dying cultist split in half by the ice spike and started yelling at him.
"My long-awaited Witch is about to return, yet here you lie, resting? Such sloth! How disgracefully slothful!" he cried as he kicked the cultist, who died immediately.
The man clutched his head, screaming, "Such sloth! You are all too slothful! Only my diligence can herald the Witch's glory…"
Before he finished, a beam of light shot toward his forehead, but he tilted his head to dodge it by a full 90 degrees. His bulging, fish-like eyes then locked onto Ryou.
"You disturb the Witch's return? You're so slothful." As he spoke, Ryou sensed an invisible force sweeping toward the dragon carriage.
Using magic in his eyes, he saw shadowy black hands stretching from the man's back. These were the infamous "Unseen Hands."
This strange man was one of the high-ranking officials in the Witch Cult, the Sin Archbishop of Sloth, and his authority was "Unseen Hands." This power was peculiar; only a few powerful or uniquely gifted people could see these hands, while others merely felt the airflow they caused. The hands had immense destructive power, able to tear a person apart easily.
And in the next second, they indeed exploded.
Before Ryou could even react, an irritated Anastasia made a few complex hand gestures. Immediately, shadows from everything within a hundred meters—trees, bodies, even clouds—detached from their sources, forming a wave that surged toward the man with the bowl-cut.
The Unseen Hands he summoned were obliterated by the wave of shadows, which engulfed the stunned man.
"Ah! This is… the Witch's power! But why… why does it lack her blessing? Sloth! This is too slothful!" he screamed frantically, biting his fingers until they bled. In the next instant, the wave of shadows swallowed him whole.