I'd finished explaining things to Kuro and the Demon King.
What they did from here was up to them.
Well, when you've got something this delicious dangling right in front of someone who can't even see the face-down cards, it's pretty obvious they're gonna bite.
Kuro might put up a little resistance, but the Demon King would definitely go for it.
After all, there was no other way.
And if they didn't bite, that was fine too.
All I had to do was flip the cards over.
The Demon King would end up on my side eventually — I was certain of it.
And then, happily, they'd hand over the Dominator of Gluttony's authority to me.
Once that happened, there'd be just a little bit left to do.
I turned my back on Kuro and the Demon King and teleported away.
The two of them needed a little more time to think.
Once they'd thought it through, they could come crying to me.
In the otherworld I teleported to, the vampire girl was standing there with her arms akimbo and a sour look on her face.
She'd apparently noticed what was going on at some point.
"Oh? Who's that?"
"Who's that" probably referred to Kuro.
She looked like she was treating the situation as though her match against the oni guy had been interrupted.
Actually, yeah, that about summed it up.
"Kuro. One of my own kind."
"One of Master's... own kind?"
The vampire girl nodded in understanding at the phrase "one of my own kind."
But the sharp, hostile glint in her eyes hadn't faded one bit.
"Let me see them."
What she'd do once she saw them, I didn't even need to ask.
This girl would absolutely go for the throat.
Not even metaphorically — she'd literally try to bite them.
She knew she couldn't win the moment she learned they were one of my own kind, but this battle junkie couldn't help herself.
Well, I had no obligation to introduce them.
"No."
"Why not?"
More to the point, why should I have to arrange that in the first place?
I knew for a fact she'd cause nothing but trouble.
Did she think every wish of hers would be granted?
That was going a little too far, wasn't it?
Time she got a reality check about where she stood.
"That man ruined everything right when things were getting good. He needs to take responsibility."
"I don't care."
"Well, I do! Now hurry up and let me meet him!"
"Silence."
I raised my voice slightly and opened my eyes.
The vampire girl immediately flinched and shrank back.
Good, good.
She understood the gap in our power.
And yet she kept provoking me like this — her vampiric battle instincts running wild.
Well, that was part of what I needed to lecture her about.
"You used Jealousy on me, didn't you?"
"What do you mean?"
She tried to play dumb, but her eyes were darting all over the place.
No lying, now.
"I said noooo!"
I grabbed her cheek and pulled it hard.
You used it, didn't you?
No lying, okay?
I saw everything, you know?
I yanked her cheek up, down, left, and right.
She grabbed at my arm, struggling to pull my hand away, but unfortunately for her, I had the superior strength and her resistance was futile.
Hmph — even before my divinization, my arm strength (also known as my attack power) far exceeded the vampire girl's. There was no way I'd lose now after my upgrade.
Did she really think those scrawny arms could beat mine?
Oh, wait — actually, mine might be thinner?
Yeah, let's drop the scrawny arms angle.
"I'm sorwy! I'm sorwy!"
She teared up and started apologizing, but I wasn't about to forgive her just yet.
Not that there was anything left for me to do.
I let go of her cheek.
At the same time, I opened a passage through space and invited a certain someone inside.
"Young Mistress."
Mella stepped into the otherworld, and the vampire girl turned toward him with a look that pleaded for help.
"Young Mistress, your charm won't work on me."
Mella slowly shook his head and slapped the vampire girl across the cheek.
"Eh? Eh?"
The vampire girl blinked, unable to process what was happening.
"Young Mistress, are you truly proud of the person you've become?"
"No, that's — what — huh?"
The vampire girl instinctively tried to object to Mella's words.
But her protest trailed off, replaced by confusion.
"Young Mistress, indulging every vampiric urge to your heart's content — that must have felt wonderful. No one could defy you. No one could resist you. After all, you made it that way yourself. Was it like a dream? Or did you think it was a dream — that what happened in there had no grounding in reality?"
The butterfly's dream.
I wondered whether the vampire girl, consumed by her vampiric desires, had lost the ability to distinguish between reality and illusion.
Or perhaps her vampiric consciousness had grown so strong that her human side had been almost entirely hollowed out.
"Young Mistress, I'll ask you once more. Are you living a life your parents can be proud of?"
The vampire girl didn't answer.
She couldn't answer.
Slapped awake from the dream by the attendant she trusted most — the one she believed would never betray her — her face went blank, then gradually turned pale.
"Young Mistress, I cannot serve you as my master. Because my masters are your parents."
Bringing up her parents shook the last remnant of the human consciousness still lingering inside her.
"Therefore, even if you are my mistress as a vampire, I cannot rewrite this heart of mine."
On the surface, those were words of rejection.
For the vampire girl, Mella's presence meant everything. He had been by her side since childhood, supporting her through it all.
Being rejected by someone like that — what would that do to a person?
The vampire girl shook her head silently.
Her eyes flashed with a brief, sinister gleam.
But what came back was another slap.
"This heart has already been pledged to your parents. I will not waver anymore. I will not be swayed."
The vampire girl hung her head, utterly crushed.
Her shoulders trembled in tiny, rapid shivers.
"Your parents entrusted me with one thing alone: 'Take care of our daughter.' That is all."
Mella slowly, gently pulled the vampire girl into his arms.
"They asked me to protect you. I will watch over you until the day I die. I will never abandon you. If you stray, I will point it out. I will raise this hand as many times as it takes to guide you back to the right path. But if it's at all possible... please don't make me."
In the end, the most effective punishment of all was a guardian's scolding.
The reason the vampire girl had ended up in such a terrible state was, I was sure, largely because Mella — her guardian — hadn't been there beside her.
The Demon King had said these two would become dependent on each other if kept together.
But I didn't think that was necessarily a bad thing.
Being able to rely on someone — wasn't that its own kind of happiness?
Something I could never do myself.
What happened between them from here on out was up to them.
Still, I intended to keep them together as much as possible going forward.
I'd talk to the Demon King about it later.
I quietly teleported the two of them from the otherworld to Mella's private quarters.
Now then — last but not least, time to go meet the other Reincarnator.