"Hmm~ After seeing the Dawn for so long, it's actually kind of a unique feeling to have it turned into such a dim, crimson environment now."
Allowing the Flame Reaver to leave, Lumina took a bath. She sat cross-legged on the sofa, gazing at the scenery outside the window, which was completely different from the usual. She couldn't help but sigh.
Next to her, Herta, who had also just taken a bath and was using a towel to dry her hair, heard this and couldn't help but roll her eyes. "To think that Okhema's apocalypse is actually a sight worth admiring in your eyes. You really are heartless."
"Isn't the apocalypse still a sight to behold? It's just a sight that everyone avoids at all costs, one they would rather not encounter for their entire lives." Lumina withdrew her gaze and turned to smile at Herta.
Taking in her appearance at this moment, Lumina's eyes flitted with a few traces of astonishment and longing, but very quickly, these emotions were covered by a mischievous smile.
"However..." Lumina's exquisitely beautiful face softened, and the gaze she fixed on Herta was full of deep affection. She spoke in a gentle and light voice: "Of all the sights, none are worth a fraction of you."
"The scenery is certainly beautiful, but compared to you, it is like a firefly before the bright moon, lacking even the right to be outshone..."
"You..." When those words left Lumina's lips, Herta froze instantly, followed by a scorching wave of warmth blooming in her heart.
Under the influence of this warmth, Herta's body grew unbearably hot. A crimson tide spread upward from her neck, and in the blink of an eye, her fair face turned as red as a ripe apple, looking utterly adorable.
Her skin, moist and flushed, seemed to shimmer as it met the air, glistening with the faint steam still clinging to her after her bath.
"You... You... You... You're good at talking. Don't say it again next time."
After struggling to compose herself and adjust her tone for a long while, she still couldn't say anything meaningful. In the end, she could only turn her head away, making a completely un-Madam Herta-like gesture of avoidance.
She knew Lumina was just spouting sweet nothings and that her actual thoughts weren't as profound as her words, but... but Herta's heart couldn't help but flutter at Lumina's romantic words...
The "thump-thump-thump" of her heartbeat echoed clearly in her own ears, and along with it, the sense of shyness in her heart grew even more pronounced.
Such a straightforward "confession" was, for the illustrious Madam Herta, a bit... a bit too much to handle!
Madam Herta was peerless, brilliant, and a beauty that could make fish sink and birds fall... All of that was true. But at the same time, Madam Herta was also... well, a complete novice when it came to romance!
Struck by such a straightforward "confession," caught so completely off guard, even Madam Herta's mind went completely blank!
After all... it was just too sudden. Madam Herta hadn't made any preparations, hadn't built up any defenses at all.
Under Lumina's new-era, zero-frame-startup "confession," Herta's old-era defenses were instantly crushed by a dimensional strike, collapsing in an instant.
The assault struck directly into her heart and rushed into her mind, giving Herta a... completely unprecedented experience.
There were bad parts, and there were... good parts.
But at the very least, most of it was a rather unpleasant experience.
Foul, foul, that's a total foul! How could you, the esteemed Miss Lumina, say such sickeningly sweet words?
After her mind remained blank for a while, Herta gradually returned to normal.
Biting her red lips with her white teeth, she silently, helplessly, and unreasonably protested against Lumina's foul words in her heart.
Little Lumina had evolved. She already knew how to say romantic words that were impossible to resist.
The days ahead... are going to be rough...
Thinking about her future days with Lumina, where she would occasionally spout sickeningly sweet romantic words, Herta felt her future was completely dark.
Though, with Madam Herta's formidable composure, as long as she prepared in advance and built up defenses line by line, she would definitely be able to resist even if Lumina said such nauseatingly sweet words.
But, this was ultimately just Herta's imagination. Whether she could actually resist or not depended on reality.
Even if she could resist, it probably wouldn't be all that easy.
Thinking about it this way... Lumina really is committing a grave sin!
Thinking this, Herta's expression instantly turned complicated as she looked at Lumina, cursing her viciously once again.
Lumina: "Hmm?"
Sensing Herta's overflowing emotions and seeing the expression she directed at her, a giant question mark immediately popped up over Lumina's head, showing her utter confusion.
Wait, what did I do wrong?
I just complimented you a bit and teased you a bit, didn't I?
How did you suddenly turn into this?
Could it be...
Lumina raised an eyebrow slightly, as if she had discovered some weakness of Little Herta's.
"Could it be that Little Herta can't handle these sickeningly sweet words?"
Clever as she was, Lumina quickly pinpointed exactly what was making Herta so uncomfortable.
Upon realizing this, Lumina could only say...
Heh heh heh, Madam Little Herta, so your day has finally come!
Since I've found your weakness, you're finished for the rest of your life!
Lumina immediately burst into a villainous cackle in her mind. If she hadn't kept it to her inner thoughts and didn't let this wild, villain-like smile show on her face, anyone who saw her would have thought she was a madwoman who had escaped from some psychiatric hospital, right?
Hmm... But thinking it over carefully, seeing Lumina's pure and perfect, incomparably beautiful face, which showed no flaws even when observed closely from all 360 degrees, no one would ever associate her with a so-called psychiatric madwoman, would they?
To put it in plain words: "How could someone this good-looking possibly be a bad person? How could someone this good-looking possibly be a madwoman?"
"I think you're the bad person trying to slander this beautiful big sister. I think you're the madwoman trying to randomly involve a passerby to attract attention, so that you, the madwoman, can successfully escape?"
"Ahem."
Without dwelling too long in her imaginary world, Lumina returned to reality, the smile on her face becoming even more pronounced.
What had started as a casual remark, just to see how Herta would react, had brought Lumina an unexpected delight.
Lumina had initially thought Herta would most likely just roll her eyes, completely unfazed. A less likely outcome would be for her to feel speechless, her gaze darting away as she finally turned her head, unable to look at Lumina.
In the former case, Lumina would still be satisfied just by feasting her eyes on Herta. After all, the esteemed Madam Herta was truly beautiful, and even a roll of her eyes would surely be the kind of captivating, irresistible gesture that one couldn't help but be immersed in.
Such an eye-roll, for Lumina, could be considered a first-class reward... ahem, a truly pleasing sight.
Just feasting her eyes on it would be perfectly fine.
If the latter happened, Lumina would have won even bigger. Being able to see Madam Herta blush and avert her gaze, acting like a shy young lady, would not only fully heal her eyes but also instantly fill her heart with unprecedented satisfaction.
Lumina's heart was leaning towards the former, even the latter felt like a bit of a luxury.
After all, based on what Lumina knew of Herta, even if she had truly felt shy, Madam Herta's composure as an Emanator of Erudition and a Genius Society member would have allowed her to easily suppress those feelings, leaving no trace of any weakness.
But the actual outcome was completely unexpected. That guy Herta had her heart's defenses pierced so easily, instantly turning into a shy young girl lost in the confusion of adolescent love.
This contrast made Lumina unable to resist sticking out her tender little tongue to lick her lips, giving rise to an emotion called "covetousness."
She desperately wanted to press her advantage right then and there, to obtain a whole series of things from Herta because of her shyness.
But after some thought, she ultimately decided to temporarily put this idea on hold.
Lumina understood the difference between temporary pleasure and lasting pleasure.
If she acted impatiently now and took extreme advantage of Herta's weakness, she would certainly feel great right now, but what about the future?
After suffering such a huge loss, Herta would definitely strengthen her defenses, rendering all the schemes Lumina had tailored for this specific weakness completely useless.
And afterwards, having already eaten such a big meal, how could she possibly succumb to some minor skirmishes?
Once her standards were raised, she would look down on these minor skirmishes and instead risk taking on tasks with a very high danger level but extremely rich rewards.
If she succeeded then, that would be fine, but what if she failed?
Would she be the one to be manipulated by Herta in return?
That wouldn't happen. Lumina would choose to flip the chessboard the moment she was about to be manipulated by Herta.
Although no problems would arise in the end, the feeling of failure would make Lumina not feel so good, thereby affecting her status in the "game" with Herta. This was something Lumina absolutely would not allow.
Besides, Lumina had already eaten very, very full during this period of time.
Although the delicacies in Herta's hands still made Lumina very "covetous," it hadn't reached the state where she absolutely had to eat them, so there was no need to devour them all.
Understanding this weakness, Lumina had to take it slow and steady. Instead of doing something extremely excessive to Herta by relying on this weakness, she would do something not-so-excessive to Herta by relying on this weakness.
This way, with the help of these not-so-excessive things, Lumina would only need to slightly change the subject after tasting a little sweetness, and launch an attack on Herta from another angle. Herta would then strengthen her defenses, but not by too much.
At the very least, she wouldn't strengthen her defenses too much against Lumina's attacks on this particular weakness.
This way, Lumina could use this weakness every day to get a little "dessert" from Herta.
Although the dessert couldn't completely satisfy the hunger in her stomach, it could still curb her cravings.
In fact, when her stomach wasn't that hungry, the dessert that could curb her cravings seemed even more delicious than a meal that could fill her stomach.
Driven by this thought, Lumina suppressed the restless emotions in her heart, using her powerful willpower to forcibly hold them all down.
If others discovered this behavior, they would definitely give her a big thumbs-up and loudly praise Lumina as a "ruthless person."
After all, if the person she had to restrain her emotions for was an ordinary person, that would be acceptable. After all, it was just an ordinary person, so she could just bear it.
But the target was the distinguished Madam Herta. To be able to bear this, if she wasn't a ruthless person, what else could she be? A hero?
Lumina would simply scoff at this.
Restraint?
Lumina wouldn't restrain herself. She was just pursuing a more perfect outcome.
And then...
Lumina was a little curious, curious why Herta had such a "weakness."
After all, it was just a small sweet nothing, yet it actually made the distinguished Madam Herta act so like a young lady, which was truly a bit curious.
Herta, why would she become shy over this?
Is the destructive power of sweet nothings really that great?
Or rather, it's not that the sweet nothings themselves are powerful, but that the person saying them is the one who has such a devastating effect on Herta?
Hmm... undoubtedly it must be the latter.
When she thought of this, Lumina did not pursue the thought any further, for she had already attained the Truth and found the answer she was looking for.
Obviously, it was because the person saying the sweet nothings was Lumina, which is why they had such a great destructive power.
If anyone else had said it in this situation, what they would be greeted with would probably be Madam Herta's cold indifference.
Worse, she might even curse you out, or even slap you hard across the face.
Hmm... though that seems to be a reward.
The image of Herta's cold face as she cursed Lumina out, only to see Lumina not feeling ashamed at all but instead enjoying it, before finally slapping her across the face, involuntarily surfaced in Lumina's mind...
Hmm, although Lumina didn't have those kinds of "letter" thoughts, she had to admit that when a person is beautiful, whatever they do is right.
Clearly, this action of Herta's was extremely violent and also extremely impolite.
If it were an ordinary person, a fight would have broken out long ago.
But when it's Herta, with that perfect face paired with her superb temperament, there's no problem at all.
On the contrary, it's more like: "Curse me more, curse me more, please curse me more, take a sip of water if your throat gets dry, don't stop, please don't stop!"
"Hit me, hit me hard, how are just your palms enough, use your little feet too, I beg you! I beg you to use those little feet to step hard on my face and humiliate me mercilessly!"
Beauty is justice, and if you encounter a problem that beauty cannot solve, then you can only say your beauty is still far from enough.
"Hah..."
While Lumina was sighing in her heart, Herta kept taking deep breaths, adjusting her emotions.
Actually, with Herta's composure, it was absolutely impossible for her to be instantly defeated by a single sweet nothing from Lumina.
The defenses she had built up in her heart, even if they couldn't withstand this one sweet nothing, would definitely not have collapsed so miserably.
What reason led to such a result?
Of course, it was because...
Just now, in the bathroom, while Herta was bathing, she had silently withdrawn all the defenses in her heart...