Pledge her loyalty...?

Often, Mr. Jonas was not certain whether his methods would achieve the results he wanted.

Under those circumstances, his opponents often suffered excessive torment or treatment.

Miss Amau Sueko was a textbook example.

Even as Jonas's warning reinforced the suggestion planted in her mind, it also left her walking on thin ice with every move.

The more cautious she became, the more easily she misjudged the situation. The more she walked on thin ice, the more easily she fell through it.

The time the Destiny Organization needed to prepare and regroup was enough for Jonas to build up considerable strength before the next attack.

Miss Amau Sueko had learned from the failure of her last operation, but in their next confrontation, she would face a Jonas with several more trump cards up his sleeve. The difficulty would still increase severalfold, perhaps even tenfold or more.

Unfortunately, Miss Amau Sueko knew nothing of this.

To tell someone of their hopeless end while they still had hope would be far too cruel.

Leaving aside the lasting effects of Mr. Jonas's actions on the Destiny Organization.

Jonas was currently facing a very troublesome situation.

He had previously promised Miss Esnie that he would take her to see her younger sister, and now the time had finally come to keep that promise.

That meant Jonas would once again encounter the sort of person he found most troublesome.

Earlis District Hospital.

In the corridor, Esnie stood beside Jonas. Through the glass window, they could see a black-haired girl named Celine lying in bed, quietly leafing through a book.

Sunlight spilled over her bedding as the girl tucked her hair behind her ear. The scene looked so peaceful.

Looking at the girl in the ward, Esnie unconsciously placed her right hand over her chest.

"Aren't you going in to see her?"

Jonas's words interrupted Esnie's thoughts. She hesitated for a moment before saying:

"Sorry for the trouble, Mr. Jonas."

Hearing this, Jonas approached the ward door. A scanner scanned his iris, and the door opened automatically once his identity was verified.

The sudden interruption startled Miss Celine, who had been reading, and she hurriedly hid the book in her hands.

Celine looked at the two people standing in the doorway. Her expression grew somewhat awkward, especially when she saw her older sister, Esnie.

Esnie noticed nothing unusual, but Jonas immediately picked up on the girl's odd behavior.

Without giving anything away, he glanced at the book she had pinned beneath her. The exposed portion happened to show the title on its cover.

Twin sisters...

Reading smut in a hospital ward. You've really outdone yourself.

Jonas grumbled inwardly. The girl seemed to notice, too, and shifted her body to hide the book completely beneath her.

"Sis... what brings you here?"

Celine spoke with some embarrassment.

Esnie's reaction was the very definition of obliviousness. Anyone with eyes could have seen something was wrong with the girl's behavior, yet Esnie still acted as though she had noticed nothing.

She gave Jonas an apologetic glance, and he tactfully withdrew from the ward without a word, leaving the sisters to their rare reunion.

Esnie quietly sat down beside the hospital bed, watching the sunlight fall across the bedding and the shadow of a spider plant on the wall.

The ward had been cleaned thoroughly, and a peeled apple sat beside the bed. An unfamiliar feeling stirred in her heart.

She had never expected Jonas to arrange everything in such detail.

She turned to look at Celine, who grew a little nervous under her own sister's gaze. The next moment, she heard Esnie ask:

"Has your condition improved lately?"

Hearing that, the girl sighed in relief and said:

"It's much better than before. What about you, sis? How have you been?"

"Same as before, though I've been a lot busier."

Esnie sighed, then continued:

"My pay has gone up quite a bit, too. I just feel a little uneasy..."

As she listened to her sister ramble, the girl studied her: short black hair, a shirt that perfectly accentuated her slender figure, and a collar around her neck that added a touch of sex appeal to her dashing air...

Wait, a collar??!

Celine's eyes widened involuntarily. She opened her mouth, seemingly recalling what Jonas had told her last time.

I'm your sister's master.

W-wait! She was already wearing a collar out in public?!

Miss Celine's mind began to reel.

I thought it was just a little playful flirting between them, but they'd already taken things this far?!

Celine swallowed hard. Finally unable to contain her curiosity, she asked somewhat hesitantly:

"Sis, what's that?"

Seemingly noticing her younger sister's gaze, Esnie appeared to realize something. Her face flushed slightly, and she tilted her head as she explained:

"Uh, it's an accessory."

Who are you trying to fool?! Who wears a kink collar as an accessory?!

"Then what's your relationship with that Mr. Jonas?"

"Just an ordinary superior-subordinate relationship," Esnie said after a moment's hesitation.

She hesitated!

As though she had discovered something, Celine grew a little excited and said:

"Then have you and he..."

The girl leaned close to Esnie's ear and whispered her question.

At first, Esnie looked somewhat confused, but the longer she listened, the redder her face became.

Only when she had turned red to the tips of her ears did she scold her sister in embarrassed anger:

"Celine Nora, what goes through your head all day?!"

Hearing this, Celine also realized that what she had just said was a little too much, and she shrank back sheepishly.

Meanwhile, Celine's words had left Esnie caught in a tangle of embarrassment, anger, and uncertainty.

As though something had occurred to her, all her earlier doubts suddenly fell into place.

She had originally felt that the agreement between Jonas and herself was far too vague. She could not understand why Jonas would pay a price to do such a thing.

Now, after her younger sister's remarks, her thoughts involuntarily turned in a direction she had never even dared to consider.

That left the girl feeling torn.

If Jonas really had those kinds of intentions toward her, could she escape...?

An unfamiliar feeling stirred in Esnie's heart. The collar around her neck felt as though a current were running through it, sending a tingling sensation through her body.

Pledge her loyalty... huh...?