Chapter 10: Hehe, I must survive!

The answer was obvious.

She couldn’t help but laugh.

Any sense of relief was completely nonexistent. The supposedly proper trial, under Chloe’s completely unprincess-like evasive maneuvers, could only be described as roasting a maggot with raging flames.

After confirming this point, Yalith calmly put away her motherly gaze. After all, this was her first embrace. She had personally reshaped this body. Seeing such poor performance, she was even less willing to treat Chloe as a daughter in the sense of an heir. It was better to view her purely as a plaything.

With the pure mindset of the mastermind enjoying the show, Yalith felt much more comfortable watching Chloe roll around.

Seeing that the ten-attack limit was approaching and Chloe still showed no signs of resistance—seemingly trying to exploit the rules by draining Rita’s stamina to scrape by—Yalith reluctantly squeezed out a bit of motherly love and called out to the two in the arena:

“If you keep only dodging, there’s no need to continue this trial. Even if she beats you crippled or kills you, you’re still my daughter. But if you remain this pathetic, from now on you’ll be Rita’s slave.”

The Demon King’s motherly love was simply giving her daughter the chance to prove herself. As for whether others saw it as love, Yalith didn’t care.

Although the demons present had all heard about yesterday’s conversation between the Demon King and the great lords, they still considered it nothing more than palace gossip. No one believed that if Chloe lost, she would truly be sent off to become some breeding tool.

But now, with the Demon King personally saying such words in the arena, there was absolutely no room for reversal.

【This should finally make you show the resistance I’m expecting, right?】

After slightly observing the audience’s reactions and feeling she had achieved the desired effect, Yalith crossed her legs, folded her arms, and waited for Chloe’s decision.

In the arena, the agile dodging girl and the girl swinging the blazing longsword both stopped moving at the same time.

“Slave…”

Rita blinked in confusion, seemingly unable to understand the meaning behind Yalith’s words.

“Mhm, slave.”

Chloe nodded. Under Rita’s increasingly puzzled gaze, the Demon King’s young daughter—the princess who should have been the future Demon King—suddenly jumped up happily like a kitten that had caught a fish. She waved at Yalith on the spectator stand, then cupped her hands around her mouth like a megaphone and shouted:

“You’d better keep your word!”

After that, she collapsed onto the ground, waiting for Rita’s tenth attack to land on her.

The arena fell so quiet that even a needle dropping could be heard. No one had expected that the princess who had been frantically fleeing and looking pathetically cute just seconds ago would make such a move.

In the eyes of these demons—who were generally battle maniacs with a strong admiration for the powerful and their own unique sense of pride—this was completely incomprehensible.

Was this proper?

Well, of course it was proper.

At least Chloe didn’t think there was anything wrong with what she was doing.

Elda’s answer yesterday had enlightened her. They were all demons. Wasn’t it perfectly normal for demons to be bad guys?

Yeah, how had she not figured out such simple logic in these five years?

She was the demon princess, yet her performance over the past five years could only be described as that of a useless good girl. Maybe that was exactly why Yalith felt she was too human-like and not like her own blood, so she was pushing her to the brink.

Regardless of whether that was true, Chloe didn’t dare treat Yalith’s words about making her give birth to eight children and then sending her to die as a joke.

She hadn’t lived enough yet!

“Who said being a slave is a bad thing?”

Seeing that Rita was still hesitating to attack her, Chloe flashed a brilliant smile and whispered in an extremely low voice:

“No matter where I wriggle as a maggot, I’m still a maggot. I know my own limits. There’s absolutely no way I can defeat Big Sister Rita. Surrendering would get me beaten to death by Mom, but since you gave a promise with your golden words, I have no reason to let it go. Sister, no need to hold back—just do it quickly. Your little sister can take it.”

Rita had the most straightforward personality but was also the steadiest and kindest. Among the demons Chloe knew, she was a rare good person. Parasiting off her for a while by sucking some blood, then planning other things later, would be no problem at all.

As for having children—if Rita wanted her body, then she could have it. They were good sisters anyway; it didn’t matter.

While lying on the ground, Chloe had already thought about what to name her and Rita’s future child and how much congratulatory money to ask from her biological mom. Compared to becoming a breeding machine, what Chloe feared most was Yalith’s statement that after giving birth to eight, she could go die.

Life was long, and she still had so much time she hadn’t enjoyed yet. She would never die so lightly.

As a result, Rita’s face gradually turned as red as her hair. She actually didn’t dare look at her anymore and stammered:

“I… I’m not into girls.”

“?”

What was this girl talking about?

She was so cute—there was a chance to eat her and she wasn’t willing?

No!

Chloe felt incredulous at the absurd thought that crossed her mind, then openly grew annoyed.

“Then just give me to someone else later!”

Her voice was neither too loud nor too soft. At least the several demon leaders including Yalith had no trouble hearing it clearly.

“But I’m a pure-hearted…”

Rita’s voice grew even softer. This mosquito-like reply made Chloe greatly revise her opinion of this supposedly familiar good sister. But acting so bashful at a time like this—she really felt ashamed to be associated with her. They were demons! Bring out the ferocity you used to hit me earlier! Shouldn’t the strong thoroughly humiliate the weak? Slave doesn’t mean wife!

Before Yalith could speak again, Chloe climbed up from the ground, grabbed Rita’s hand, pulled her sword closer to herself, and said sternly:

“Hurry up and attack!”

“I don’t want to!”

Rita hurriedly tried to pull her sword back, only to find that no matter how hard she pulled, the sword wouldn’t budge. Her eyes widened.

“How is your strength…”

Her voice failed to come out. The desperate Chloe’s rose-red eyes flashed with a misty glow. The moment their eyes met, Rita felt her consciousness blur.

“If you don’t attack, I’ll slit my own throat!”

Chloe didn’t want to waste this good opportunity. She yanked Rita’s hand, forcing the sword toward her own neck. The angle she chose was quite subtle. To onlookers, it would only look like the princess had feigned surrender, the Flame Demon princess refused to fall for it and attacked directly, and the princess had seized the timing—only their strength difference was too great, so they had begun a contest of strength.

The ferocious expression on the princess’s face and Rita’s stunned look were the best proof.

“Go, Your Highness!”

Someone shouted, and the entire arena instantly grew restless. The demons all cheered for Chloe, who dared to counterattack against Rita.

The only ones remaining silent were the Demon King and the others who had heard their conversation.

“Despicable…”

“Shameless.”

“My daughter.”

After a few admiring sighs, came Yalith’s low murmur, its emotion impossible to discern.

The trial ended.

The outcome was declared a draw between Chloe and Rita.

The Flame Demon princess ran out of the arena crying.

Regarding this, the demons had many different opinions.

Whether it was because she had fought evenly against the always-useless Princess Chloe and her pride was damaged, or because she had lost the chance to take the princess as her slave and felt heartbroken—no one knew.

Only after a detailed talk with her daughter did Rivet, who understood the situation, realize why she had run away crying.

When the situation had reached a stalemate, Chloe had kissed Rita on the cheek and said that this trial was actually a marriage recruitment, specially designed to trap this pure-hearted little Flame Demon. She told her to obediently take her home and marry her.

Rita had run away because she was afraid of being together with this despicable, warrior-dignity-lacking maggot.