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This was the dark underground, in a narrow space that was covered with stone bricks. The place only had a metal cage that had an orange-haired girl imprisoned inside.

Her hands were tightly bound to the wall. Her neck and body were covered in bandages. She was severely injured all over – the bandage around her neck was even constantly dripping with blood.

She was unable to say anything, as a cloth gagged her mouth.

‘-Why haven’t I died yet? Why am I in such a dark and damp dungeon?’

She really didn’t understand. All she could do was look all around her with her large orange eyes.

She felt a lot of pain from the injury on her neck.

The sound of gears turning came from the wall in the front as a certain door was opened.

“Gu!?”

She heard the pitter-patter of footsteps coming from above and slowly approaching her. This was the sound of lolita-style shoes walking down stone brick stairs.

The girl was incredibly nervous as she showed a panicked expression. She couldn’t understand the current situation at all.

Her head was in an extreme amount of pain. Her neck was also really painful, and blood kept dripping from her injury.

Gradually, the footsteps approached –

The owner of the footsteps slowly stepped in front of this girl.

“Haha…”

The footsteps belonged to a little girl who wore gothic lolita clothing. Her long blond hair was tied up in braids behind her head, and she was wearing a special hair accessory. She possessed red eyes, the trait of a vampire, and her sharp fangs could also be seen within her cute little mouth.

-Heather Alliyah.

Nim managed to remember this girl’s name.

Nim was really scared. So, she hadn’t been killed by Heather after all.

“I’m so sorry. Doctors are rare among us vampires, so the treatment of your neck injury was rather simple…”

Despite this, Nim managed to survive and hadn’t bled to death. Even though the injury on her neck was really large, she still managed to survive. It had to be said that she had a really strong lifeforce.

Heather directly used a key to open the metal cage’s door before tearing out the cloth in Nim’s mouth. Nim kept panting for breath after her gag was torn off.

“You… just what do you want?”
“Not much, I just want you to do one thing for me…”
“Shut up… I… won’t do anything for you!”

Nim turned her head and showed an expression of disdain. -The princess was the only person whom she would be loyal to.

“As Macy said, you are indeed quite loyal to Mira. However, let me tell you something good about your ‘princess’.”
“-!!?”
“Haha, relax. Don’t glare at me with such eyes. I haven’t found her yet, but I will find her sooner or later…”

Nim’s expression became highly on guard when the topic became Mirabelle Brillana.

“Someone like you will never possibly obtain the princess!”
“No, it’s our fate to be together. Mira and I are destined to be together…”
“Hmph-”

Nim angrily twisted her head away. Her expression was filled with disdain and condescension. -What was this so-called destined fate? Who had agreed to such a fate? It was only Heather who thought it was like that. How shameless could she be?

“You don’t believe me?”

Heather angrily grabbed Nim’s chin. It was quite obvious from Heather’s expression that she was furious.

Nim had seen Heather with such an expression before. -Back when she was fighting against Heather, the same expression had been on Heather’s face.

That was because Nim had doubted Heather’s ‘love’ back then. Heather had an identical expression as she did back then.

“Can you understand the feelings in my heart? Mira is the person that I love most in the world, which is why I’m going to capture her no matter where she goes, and always hug her forever…”

Heather’s face had an expression of insanity. As she said this, she even covered her own cheeks while being lost in her fantasy.

‘-There’s absolutely something wrong with her head.’ Nim could only think this about Heather’s actions.

“Right, right, let me tell you something good about your ‘princess’~”

As if Heather had recalled something, she suddenly came up close to Nim and told her this to her face.

“Mira and I have had the destiny of being together since long, long ago. From the past to present, and even the future, nothing will ever change about this.”
“Such a thing… even the princess herself wouldn’t admit to this! Besides, just what basis do you have for saying such a thing!?”
“There’s no need for me to explain that to you, as it’s a secret between only Mira and I…”

Heather clutched her rabbit doll and kept rubbing the soft doll against her face.

“In the past, Mira truly treated me really well. She always stayed by my side when I was sick. I was truly fortunate at that time. I really want to return to back then, ahhh. This time, I absolutely won’t ever let her leave my side again. I absolutely must obtain her, no matter if it’s her body or heart and soul…”

She kept rubbing her face against the rabbit doll while talking to herself about some things which Nim couldn’t understand at all.

It was obvious that Heather was treating this rabbit doll as her beloved older brother.

Even though Mira didn’t know that Heather was actually Nikaidou Rion, this was an undeniable fact. Mirabelle Brillana was her older brother that she loved the most in her previous life. Heather was actually the girl known as Nikaidou Rion –

It was simply that Heather hadn’t recalled her past life’s memories as Nikaidou Rion until now.

Heather felt truly fortunate that she no longer felt alone in this world. At least, Mirabelle could accompany her, as her older brother, and even her lover.

“You’ll never be able to obtain her. She’s already escaped from here. You killed the princess’ mother, so she’ll absolutely never forgive you. A demon like you won’t even be able to think about obtaining the princess’ body or heart!”

Nim interrupted Heather’s fantasy and uttered what was actually the most realistic. It was an undeniable fact that Heather had killed Mirabelle’s mother. That was why Heather would never have Mirabelle’s heart, even if she was able to take Mirabelle’s body.

Even so, Nim wasn’t willing to let this demon obtain Mirabelle’s body. However-

“Haha, whether I can obtain her or not isn’t something that you can decide, you know? That’s something for Mira to decide-”

What Nim just thought of was the same as what Heather was thinking. Obtaining Mirabelle’s heart was something for the ‘princess’ to decide, rather than either of them.

“I absolutely will capture her, no need for you to worry. Rest assured, she’ll definitely return to my side!”

Nim was about to say “what a joke, just what makes you think you can find her again?” Just as she was about to say this out loud to give Heather an impact, Heather’s next words caused Nim to choke down what she was about to say.

“I can do it. As long as we vampires conquer the entire world, so that the entire world is vampire territory, won’t that do the trick? At that time, she won’t be able to escape from my grasp even if she wants to…”
“!!!!”

Nim was incredibly astonished. Conquer the entire world!? Was Heather really capable of doing that by herself?

-No, perhaps she was the only one capable of doing such a thing. Nim only knew this because she had personally fought against Heather and witnessed the latter’s overwhelming power before.

Heather was far too strong, strong to the point of being ridiculous. If it wasn’t for the divine tree and unexpectedly good luck, Nim likely would have died at that time already when she fought directly against Heather.

“If I cover the entire world with the flag of the vampires, then Mira won’t be able to run even if she wants to, right?”
“You’re too insane, wanting to conquer the entire world or whatever for the sake of the princess…”

Nim couldn’t understand just why Heather was telling this to her. -Did Heather think that she would assist her in the goal of conquering the world?

Obviously, that was impossible.

No matter how physically strong Nim was, she was nothing more than an elf on the verge of death right now.

“All I want is for you to -”

Heather bent down and whispered something into Nim’s long ears.

“No… impossible! I would never help you to do such a thing!”
“Is that so? How regrettable, as this also isn’t something that you can decide…”

Heather locked the metal cage’s door again. Her expression was filled with yandere-ness and delight as she stood outside the cage and looked at Nim, who had fallen unconscious.

‘-You must work good and hard for me, as a chess piece who will help bring Mira and me together forever.’

Heather thought that to herself as she slowly left this dark and damp dungeon. There was a secret passageway in her own bedroom that led to this dungeon. Nobody would possibly be able to discover this dungeon unless they entered her room and discovered the secret passage, or dug through the entire floor of the castle.

Originally, Heather had made this dungeon to imprison Mirabelle. If Mirabelle was disobedient, Heather would use this dungeon at any time to lock Mirabelle up. Since this dungeon was connected to her own bedroom, locking Mirabelle up here would be a lot safer than using a small dark room.

Someone knocked on the door while Heather was thinking about this.

“Milady, it’s about time…”
“Okay, I understand, I’ll be there soon…”

Heather walked out of her room while still tightly clutching onto that rabbit doll. This doll was a ‘substitute’ for her older brother. If the real Mirabelle was here, then she wouldn’t need this doll as a substitute at all.

However, her heart was immediately filled with warmth when she thought about how her brother had personally made this rabbit doll to give to her as a gift.

‘Brother, I’ll be good and patient, so that I can be together with you forever. I’ll be good and patient-’

Heather became immersed in her own fantasy about the future.