Chapter 56: The Blood Cross Mark and the Ring

That night, Kiz, who had been lying quietly in bed, suddenly rolled over and pinned Elia beneath her, which made Elia freeze for a moment.

“Kiz?”

Kiz looked at her quietly and whispered, “Elia, you said I’m yours, right…”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“Then… you should also be mine, right… So, to prevent ‘my person’ from leaving me to find other girls, I’m going to…” Kiz suddenly reached out, grabbed Elia’s right wrist, and pressed her fingernail against it.

“Kiz? What are you doing?” Elia’s eyes widened as she asked.

Kiz didn’t answer her. She just lowered her head and used her fingernail to lightly trace a line on the inside of Elia’s wrist…

Even though the pressure was light, her nails were just too sharp. Even this gentle touch left a bloody mark on that delicate skin.

Furthermore, Elia no longer activated that so-called Holy Protection around Kiz, which made it very easy for Kiz to hurt her.

“Hiss—”

Elia gasped in pain, but she didn’t struggle.

Because she was looking into Kiz’s eyes… and within those crimson eyes existed madness, obsession, possessiveness, and… love.

Next, after drawing one line, Kiz drew another, letting the two bloody marks cross to form a crimson cross.

Then, looking at that cross, the corner of her mouth lifted into a smile as she whispered, “There… This is my mark~ Belonging only to me…”

“Elia, you can’t heal it. Let it stay, understand?”

Originally, she should have expressed denial or shock at Kiz’s behavior… but now, she just nodded gently and said, “Okay.”

This response also made Kiz freeze for a moment.

“Aren’t you afraid?”

“Huh? You’re my little princess, why would I be afraid of you?” Elia tilted her head and said this.

“But…” Kiz originally wanted to say more, but thinking of this little saintess’s usual conduct, she could only nod and lie back down.

“Alright, alright, let’s go back to sleep. I’m about to die of sleepiness.” Elia finally patted the little princess’s cheek one more time and then directly closed her eyes.

However, the moment she closed her eyes, a storm erupted in her mind.

Sigh— So, when exactly did my adorable little princess become so ‘un-adorable’…

And, in the future… I shouldn’t lose the initiative, right… After all, my combat power and height are stronger than the little princess’s in every way…

Hmm… As long as the initiative stays with me, then these changes in the little princess aren’t that important… right?

—

From the day the crimson cross was drawn, the relationship between the two subtly changed. Kiz was no longer just the one passively accepting the bullying… she started taking the initiative.

In the morning, she would first kiss Elia and then say with a smile, “Good morning.”

Then, when Elia was reading, she would come over and bite her ear.

There were many other behaviors too… almost all things Elia had done to Kiz… Kiz could even be said to be returning the favor.

Of course, to maintain the initiative, Elia would still counterattack. In other words, daily life turned into a “who makes the other blush first” competition.

And that very afternoon, the two were each doing their own things in the study.

Suddenly, Kiz put down her pen, came in front of Elia, and said, “Look up.”

Elia obediently raised her head.

Then Kiz bent down and gently bit her lips.

“Hiss—” Elia gasped in pain. “What are you doing now?”

“Nothing, I just felt like biting.” However, Kiz’s expression was very calm.

In response, Elia smiled and said, “Well then, do you know what I’ll do after you bite me back? Hmm?”

“What will you do?”

Elia pulled her into her arms and immediately started tickling her.

“Ahahaha… Stop! That tickles! Ahahahaha… Don’t!”

Under Elia’s relentless tickling assault, Kiz laughed until she was almost in tears, struggling and begging for mercy.

“Will you bite again?”

“Haha… No more… No more… Hahaha…”

“Really?”

“Really… Ahahaha… Hurry up and stop!”

Finally, Elia stopped what was, for Kiz, a demonic ritual.

“You… you bully… sob…” Kiz said, crying.

“You bit me first.” Elia innocently spread her hands.

The next second, Kiz, who was still wiping her tears, suddenly opened her mouth and bit Elia’s shoulder, and this time she bit down very hard.

“Hiss— Ouch, ouch, ouch…”

This made Elia keep sucking in and letting out breaths from the pain. When she finally caught her breath a bit, she glared at Kiz and said, “You…”

Kiz just licked the corner of her mouth, smiling like a cat that got the cream.

“We’re even.”

‘Even your sister! Big sister, you bit me first! Then I punished you by tickling, that’s perfectly fine and correct, right! And then you bite me again! And you bite so hard!’ Elia screamed internally.

But she still said with a smile, “Fine, we’re even.” Although this smile was clearly forced… she just couldn’t be bothered to argue with the little princess anymore.

—

Elia, who had just woken up, said nothing and directly patted the little head of Kiz beside her, then smiled at the awakened girl and said, “Good morning~”

Kiz, who wanted to sleep in but was woken up, should have been furious, but she just rubbed her eyes and said, “Good morning…”

The two smiled at each other, then Kiz rolled over and pinned Elia down.

“Today, I’ll bully you.”

After saying that, she directly lowered her head and bit Elia’s ear.

This made Elia gasp softly in pain.

Kiz bit for a while before letting go and asked, “How was it?”

“Not bad, but not enough.” However, Elia said this to her.

“You… you… are you provoking me?” Kiz’s eyes widened.

“Yes, so what? Not convinced?”

“Fine, just you wait.”

Kiz rolled off the bed, took a small box from a drawer, walked back, and handed it to Elia, saying, “Open it and see.”

Elia opened the box. Inside was a pair of silver rings, each set with quite pretty rubies.

“This is…”

“I had them custom-made. One for each of us.” Kiz quickly put one of the rings on the ring finger of Elia’s left hand. It fit perfectly.

Then, she extended her own left hand.

“Put it on for me.”

Elia’s face instantly turned red… Seeing this, Kiz beamed with joy and said, “Ahahaha! You’re blushing! I win this time!”

The currently blushing little saintess: ??? You’re really good at ruining the mood!

But she still obediently picked up the other ring and gently placed it on Kiz’s finger, then said with a smile, “There.”

Kiz looked at the rings on their hands, the corners of her mouth lifted high.

“From now on, you’re completely mine! Hehehe…”

“But you’re also mine. We’re equals between us.”

At that moment, the sunlight outside the window was just right. Today was another brand new day.

—

In a certain white room, Elia stroked the glass jar in front of her and murmured, “What is this? Such a big glass jar…”

“And, what kind of place is this?”

Then she looked around and found the place was completely pure white, with nothing at all except for this huge glass jar.

“Wasn’t I sleeping while holding Kiz? How did I get here? Was I kidnapped? By the ‘Wolf’? Or the Holy Grail Order?”

Elia muttered to herself as she circled the white room.

Suddenly, countless white spikes shot toward Elia’s forehead.

“Whoa!” Elia hurriedly prepared to unleash Holy Light Magic.

Wait! Why can’t I use magic?

She found that no matter what she tried, she couldn’t use even a bit of magic.

And the white spikes were already right in front of her.

Even more inexplicably, she felt fear toward these white spikes attacking her… and it was an instinctual fear from her very body.

“Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!” Elia frantically tried to dodge, but the spikes relentlessly pursued her… until there was nowhere left to dodge…

“No!”

Elia abruptly sat up, looked around the situation again, only to find this was actually Kiz’s sleeping palace, with Kiz still lying beside her.

“Was it a dream? But… that dream felt so real…”

Then she gasped for breath heavily, simultaneously trying to calm her chaotic mind… her pajamas were even soaked through with cold sweat.

After calming down, she originally wanted to hold Kiz and go back to sleep.

But, for the rest of that night, she couldn’t fall asleep again.