Who is Sephir?
Although she usually appeared to be lacking, she was undoubtedly strong enough to occupy the position of a Commander.
Naturally, her presence was different.
Unless she intentionally concealed her aura or used camouflage, there was no way Athena wouldn’t notice.
“Hera!”
Feeling the demon’s mana in the mansion, Athena rushed in through the door with an urgent expression.
What caught her eye was the pink-haired succubus Sephir and Hera, peacefully asleep on the bed with a faint smile.
Athena could only be shocked at the sight.
How long had it been since Hera had that relaxed expression?
As she approached carefully to avoid waking Hera, she realized Sephir was casting a spell on her.
“…What are you doing right now?”
“Yikes?”
Sephir’s body jolted at Athena’s low, threatening voice.
However, as if undeterred, she instantly opened her eyes wide and looked back at Athena.
“Uh… You can’t see? I’m putting Hera to sleep!”
“Putting her to sleep?”
“Y-yes! It’s a spell that lets her have happy dreams, so please don’t look at me so menacingly!”
Athena glanced at Hera’s figure at Sephir’s words. It seemed, indeed, that it wasn’t a threatening spell.
Well, if she had tried to do something suspicious to Hera, Mari, who was nearby, would have stopped her.
Moreover, as a familiar, she wouldn’t do anything foolish that could harm her master.
“When did you arrive?”
“I haven’t been here long. It just took longer to handle things than I expected.”
With nothing more to say, Athena quietly stared at Sephir for a moment before saying,
“…Okay. Please take good care of Hera.”
With a deep sigh, she turned back towards the door.
“W-wait!”
Athena turned her gaze to Sephir, who was calling out to her.
“What?”
“Can we talk for a bit?”
Sephir’s face looked much more serious than usual as she said that.
“So what do you want to talk about?”
I crossed my arms, looking at the pink-haired succubus.
She looked at me with a surprisingly serious expression.
“What have you done to Hera?”
Since I had already expected this question, I wasn’t caught off guard.
“What do you mean?”
“While I was controlling Hera’s dreams, I saw her inner self.”
“…Then you know everything.”
“…….”
Sephir’s expression twisted into a fierce grimace.
“Do you… love Hera?”
At her absurd question, rage boiled up inside me.
Love Hera?
What kind of question was that?
“Is that why you called me here to say something obvious?”
Yet, at my words, Sephir looked even more confused.
“Do you love someone and then turn them into a slave without their consent… ruin them? Does that even make sense?”
Crack-
Fuming but unable to come up with any rebuttal, I grabbed her by the collar out of frustration.
“Don’t overstep your bounds. You just need to take good care of Hera.”
I didn’t want to deal with this lowly succubus when I already felt like I was about to die these days.
The mana around me began to surge, threateningly, and Sephir’s eyes started to tremble violently.
But contrary to expectations that she would back down, she shook her head and met my gaze defiantly.
“Hera is dying because of you.”
“You… want to die then.”
Instead of her collar, I grabbed her throat tightly.
Sephir began gasping for breath with a pained expression.
“Cough… Cough… Anyway, if Hera dies, I, as her familiar, will die too…!”
“No. That will never happen.”
“Cough… you… as long as you’re here… cough… she’ll die..!”
“…What?”
“Cough… croak…”
Sephir’s body began to convulse, and her eyes rolled back.
“Tsk.”
I clicked my tongue, released my grip, and she collapsed to the floor, gasping for air.
“Hah!! I feel like I just saw my master…”
“Stop talking nonsense and continue with what you were about to say.”
“Heh… Heh… Hoo..”
After catching her breath for a while, Sephir cleared her throat a few times and finally spoke.
“As I said, I saw Hera’s inner state.”
As I urged her with my eyes to continue, she naturally went on.
“In a human’s inner self, you can see their various emotions. You can know what they are thinking, how they feel, and what they desire.”
“…..So?”
“The reason why Hera is dying right now is simple.”
Sephir said with a somewhat despondent expression.
“She herself does not wish to live. Perhaps due to her sense of responsibility towards Mari, she isn’t trying to commit suicide, but she also has no will to live.”
“…….”
“If her master feels this way, her body and mana will naturally follow that sentiment. At this rate, she might really die soon.”
Her words pierced my heart like thorns.
Because of what I had done, she had lost her will to live.
Just that fact alone was enough to drive me to madness.
“Who doesn’t know that? How can we treat Hera?!”
Finally losing my patience, I walked toward Sephir and yelled at her.
She seemed taken aback that I would shout, and stepped back from me in surprise.
But losing my sanity, I rushed forward, knelt down, and demanded an answer.
“What do you mean she’ll die if I’m around?”
Her body trembled like a quaking aspen, but her voice was still clear.
“Every moment she is here, she is suffering.”
Sephir pointed a finger at herself.
“And that’s all your fault. Because you are near.”
“Athena, it’s time to let Hera go.”
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