Darkness's eyes lit up, releasing a long-suppressed light.
She knelt without hesitation, her knees hitting the floor with a dull thud.
"Come on... don't treat me gently just because I'm a delicate flower."
Her voice was full of trembling. Her face was red from the base of her neck to her earlobes. Her hands were placed properly on her knees. She lowered her head, as if waiting for some kind of sacred ceremony.
Makoto bent down, fastened the collar around Darkness's neck, and the brass buckle clicked shut.
The leash hung down from his hand.
Darkness looked up, tears of happiness in her eyes.
Kazuma covered his face with both hands and turned his head away.
'No way, is this something I can listen to without paying?'
Shiho's mouth twitched several times. She averted her gaze from Darkness, kneeling on the ground, and couldn't help but look again at Megumin and Aqua.
'What kind of psychos were the adventurers in this world?'
Darkness, with the collar around her neck and the leash attached, sat down on a chair at the end of the long table.
On the surface, she sat very properly. No matter how you looked at her, she was a standard, beautiful, upright female knight.
It was just the collar around her neck and the leash hanging from the collar down under the table that made the scene a bit more eerie.
Hana led Shiho's group over and sat down on the other side of the long table.
Makoto wrapped the leash around the chair's armrest twice and clapped his hands. "Alright, let's continue with the topic from before."
His gaze swept over everyone present. "To be honest, that blond guy just now gave me a bit of inspiration. Instead of being adventurers and building a reputation quest by quest, it's better to just kill a big shot directly."
Yu, Beam, and the others exchanged glances and nodded.
Having followed Makoto for so long, although they also tried to avoid massacring the innocent like he did, they didn't have any moral baggage either.
"Let's find a tyrant to kill, Senpai." Yu suggested.
"What about the king of this country?" Ace interjected.
In the One Piece World, they had encountered many tyrants. Ace himself had killed a few. He had considerable experience in this area.
Darkness, who had been drooling and unconsciously rubbing her thighs together, heard this and nearly choked to death on her own saliva.
Darkness instantly snapped out of her blissful afterglow. She was completely stunned.
'No way, the first task after joining the team is to kill the king?'
She turned her head to look at Makoto, then at Yu, then at Ace, 'The expressions on these people's faces... none of them were joking.'
"N-no way!"
Darkness shot up from her chair. "The king of Belzerg is a good man! You can't do this!"
As a high-ranking noble loyal to the royal family, of course she wouldn't allow her teammates to do something like this.
Although, in her heart, she felt that these teammates probably didn't have the ability to do it anyway.
Makoto glanced at her, didn't say anything, just tugged on the leash.
Darkness unconsciously touched the collar around her neck. Her face reddened again.
Feeling the tightness around her neck, Darkness bit her lip, let out a 'hnngh', and obediently sat back down in her chair.
"The king of Belzerg is a good man..."
Her voice was much softer, but she didn't stop. "Don't be reckless. The royal capital is heavily guarded. Doing something like this would be like a moth flying into the flame."
Yu let out a cold laugh. "That's just because you don't know Senpai's true strength yet."
Makoto raised his hand to stop him.
Yu shut his mouth, but the mocking smile still lingered on his lips.
Makoto looked at Darkness with a smile.
"You say he's a good man, but he hasn't treated your family very well, has he?"
Darkness's face instantly changed.
"Family?"
Hana tilted her head, her gaze moving from the collar around Darkness's neck to the leash in Makoto's hand. For some reason, she felt a little envious.
Makoto's gaze fell on Darkness's beautiful face. The curve at the corner of his mouth deepened.
"Dustiness Ford Lalatina."
Darkness's face reddened again.
She had always disliked people using her real name, because the name itself made her feel ashamed.
Since she was little, she had felt the name was too feminine, too delicate. Whenever someone mentioned the name Lalatina, she would blush uncontrollably.
"Your family loves this country, but this country doesn't seem to love you very much."
Darkness's face turned from red to white.
Makoto remembered the plot from the original work.
Darkness had been forced into marriage more than once. The reason was simple... her family was in decline.
The Dustiness Family was one of the oldest military families in the Belzerg Kingdom, having protected the kingdom's borders for generations and resisted the Demon King's army incursions.
To resist the Demon King's army, the family needed money.
Recruiting soldiers required money. Forging weapons required money. Repairing the border walls required money.
Where did the money come from?
Borrowing from other nobles, of course.
Interest compounded. Debts piled up.
By Darkness's generation, the Dustiness Family was so poor they only had an old family estate and a pile of debts left.
Throughout this entire process, the Belzerg royal family had not provided any help.
Darkness had a pretty good relationship with the country's princess, but even so, she still encountered this situation.
Makoto couldn't figure it out... either the king was not a good person, or the author needed to give the protagonist an opportunity to be a Hero and save the damsel, so Darkness deliberately didn't report it.
"H-how do you know my identity?"
Darkness asked, her face red, her voice carrying a hint of trembling.
Makoto pointed at Darkness with a completely serious face and said, "Isn't it obvious? With your overly well-developed, voluptuous body and the stench of capitalist stink all over you, I can tell at a glance that you're the daughter of a big capitalist who should be hung from a lamppost."
The negative example was Megumin.
The Crimson Demon Clan's genes should originally produce big breasts, but because her family was too poor and she suffered from malnutrition since childhood,
While Yunyun and her other classmates developed better and better, Megumin was forever frozen as an airport.
"Mmm~ Mmm~ Th-that's so mean, so... so good..."
Hearing Makoto's words, Darkness hugged her body, looking thoroughly pleased.
Shiho and the others looked like they were questioning their life choices. They thought, 'This woman is beyond saving.'
Makoto withdrew his gaze and turned to the others. "If no one objects, then let's decide to start with the king of Belzerg."
"No... no!"
Darkness bounced up from her chair. She grabbed Makoto's neck and pressed his face into her chest.
Yu's eyes widened. His right arm finished transforming in an instant.
Skin rolled back. Muscles reorganized. A pitch-black machine gun grew from his elbow, its muzzle pressed against the back of Darkness's head.
Beam's movement was half a beat slower, but not by much. Samehada was pulled from his back. The barbs on the blade stood up one by one and rested against Darkness's neck. The blade was against her skin. With one light pull, he could cut her whole head off.
"What the hell are you doing?"
The two shouted in unison.