"Your Majesty, what did you bet with her?"
Little Yellow Chick clumsily crawled out from the front of her dress, perched on her shoulder, and asked in a whisper.
Seeing the little one staring at her with those round eyes, Hera deliberately shushed her and said meaningfully, "It's a secret."
Li Jia often couldn't tell which version was the real Hera. Why did she always love teasing her? Even now that she had become a little yellow chick, Hera still "bullied" small animals.
She was supposed to be a stern god who rarely smiled.
Still, since Hera covered her food, clothing, housing, and transportation, she could provide a little emotional value in return. Besides, Li Jia had discovered that Hera was easily amused. Whenever she found something unfunny, Hera found it hilarious.
And Hera insisted on keeping up appearances, refusing to show it in front of them.
Li Jia couldn't be bothered to expose her, either. She wasn't going to stoop to arguing with a childish god.
To make the act convincing, Hera conveyed the plan to Winslow and Doreen through a divine oracle. Both understood at once.
Doreen casually conjured a hemp rope, moving too fast for anyone to react. The rough rope bound Luoleila's wrists, squeezing until her bones ached and leaving a fiery sting where it scraped her skin raw.
Her ankles were bound the same way, with several loops around her calves, trussing her up tightly until she couldn't move. For authenticity, Winslow stuffed a wad of wet cloth into Luoleila's mouth, preventing her from making a sound.
Seeing the three of them gang up to tie up the princess, Little Yellow Chick let out a piercing screech. In her agitation, Li Jia chirped incessantly.
Damn it, Hera had muted her again.
No! She couldn't just watch them tie up the princess. With that thought, Li Jia prepared to jump to the floor.
Hera saw what she intended and glanced at Doreen. Doreen understood instantly and, before anyone could react, grabbed a bracelet, trussed her up like a rice dumpling too, and tossed her into Hera's sleeve.
Just then, dark clouds churned outside the castle. The giant dragon folded her black wings, which blotted out the sky and sun. Her distinctly jointed wing membranes quivered in the air currents, raising gales that tore at the withered vines on the battlements with loud cracks.
Fortunately, he had carefully avoided damaging the flowers she grew, or she would have nagged him for ages again.
The evil dragon took human form and slowly descended into the center of the flower bed. The golden sunset fell on her red hair, as though setting a flowing flame alight. Her brow bones were slightly prominent, her eyes deep-set, and her gray-blue eyes resembled glass marbles immersed in seawater, carrying an aloofness that kept strangers at bay.
The moment Mofeiliya came home, he sensed something strange. Usually, whenever Luoleila heard her folding her wings, she would come running with a smile to welcome her home.
Why hadn't she today? And she sensed a presence in the castle that didn't belong to her.
Mofeiliya walked warily into the castle. Opening the door, he saw Luoleila bound hand and foot, with three people standing beside her.
The pressure emanating from the blond woman leading them in the middle made the membranous wings hidden beneath her flesh stir restlessly. This was the aura of a god.
"Mofeiliya, do you admit your wrongdoing?"
Doreen drew the twin blades from her back and pointed them straight at Luoleila's head, her voice cold as ice.
That move nearly scared a slacker like Li Jia half to death.
Seriously? Over something this trivial, they were going to kill someone?
God, she'd been raised in a society governed by law. Killing wasn't allowed!
Little Yellow Chick struggled, but Li Jia was bound so tightly that she could only roll vigorously, trying to tumble out of Hera's sleeve.
As she struggled, she kept track of what they were saying outside.
Mofeiliya's expression darkened. "Why should I admit wrongdoing? They're the ones in the wrong. What did we do wrong?"
"You deceived the bond barrel, slipped through the marriage screening, and disrupted order. Do you admit your wrongdoing?" Hera's voice was perfectly level, without the slightest inflection, as though she were merely stating a fact.
"Then is making Luoleila marry someone she doesn't even know, someone she doesn't even like, supposed to be right, Your Majesty, Goddess of Marriage?" Mofeiliya retorted indignantly.
Only the one in the Temple of the Goddess of Marriage could see the bond barrel's results.
Mofeiliya knew why she had come.
"But deception is deception. Pokape II submitted a bond petition to us. He believes you deceived his daughter. He requests that your bond contract be dissolved and your marriage history erased, restoring to Bokape a pure and unblemished princess."
Doreen remained strictly businesslike.
"Mofeiliya, as long as you admit that you deceived Princess Luoleila, Her Majesty Hera will help you dissolve your bond petition and erase your marriage history. From then on, the two of you will have nothing to do with each other."
Winslow analyzed the situation with detached, supposedly impartial rationality. "The Goddess of Marriage won't hold you accountable, and Princess Luoleila will return to the palace to marry again. Isn't that the best of both worlds?"
"Have nothing to do with each other? You make it sound so easy."
Mofeiliya was deeply displeased and furious. "So she can marry someone she doesn't like, someone she doesn't know?"
Li Jia was indignant on Mofeiliya's behalf, too. They had barged into someone else's home for no reason. After a whole day of hard work, he came home only for the marriage registration office to tell him he had to divorce his wife. Wasn't that insane?
Of all times, the demon who had remained silent until now spoke up. "Or kill her. Death settles all debts. As long as one of the two dies, I can go back and report that the job is done."
Li Jia's hair instantly stood on end.
Boss, barging into someone's home was bad enough, but now you wanted to kill his wife yourself because he wouldn't get divorced? How did that make any sense?
"If I must choose one, then kill me. My dearest wish is for Luoleila to be free and happy, to do whatever she wants."
"The key to the castle is the black glove I gave you when we first met. Our home will always belong to you."
"Why did I form a bond with you? Because that day, your courage welled up before your tears did."
After saying this, Mofeiliya looked at Luoleila with a smile. Luoleila's tears fell like beads from a broken string, flowing without end.
He swiftly snapped a bone spike from his own wing, intending to kill himself.
At that very instant, just as Mofeiliya was about to drive it hard into his heart, Little Yellow Chick struggled and tumbled out of Hera's sleeve, chirping as she rolled to distract everyone.
Then, with a duang, she rolled right into Mofeiliya's feet.
Struck by the sudden impact, Mofeiliya lost his grip. The bone spike fell straight down toward Li Jia.
Li Jia shut her eyes. She was screwed. The mission had only just begun, and she had to restart again? Couldn't she save her conquest progress and load a save? She didn't want to start all over again.
The pain she imagined never came. Li Jia opened her eyes to find a longsword of interwoven black and red shielding her.
Shackles like molten lava and raging flames encircled the blade, blazing like the gaze of divine law. Divine authority could not be shaken.
The instant the bone spike approached it, it was carbonized.
Little Yellow Chick thought, Anything roasted over that would definitely burn.