In Our Industry, It’s Called a Reward

After changing the first layer of her magic’s insurance target from “everyone” to “Iris,” and switching the deployment location of the holy light effect from the victim to Iris’s position, Elia returned to her bedchamber with confidence.

Now, only Iris could trigger her purification and encouragement magic; for that bastard Hero to hit the jackpot again was a pipe dream.

As mentioned before, this was a staged arena battle; Madame Mary was just the opening act, the weakest of the three ‘lustful’ women. The other two were not so easy to deal with.

For example, the upcoming Miss Catherine.

Unlike Madame Mary, she hailed from a Marquis family, noble in status, and her methods differed from typical femme fatales; she wasn’t merely promiscuous and accepting of all comers.

What she most enjoyed was utterly subjugating seemingly hard-boned men, then taking them as servants, subjecting them daily to punishments like whipping, trampling, and riding, completely stripping them of their dignity as men, or even as human beings.

The most terrifying thing was that these fallen men would refer to these punishments and torments as “rewards,” seeming to revel in them.

That bastard Hero was about to face such a wicked woman… If he succumbed, then there was nothing more to say.

If he didn’t succumb, then he could only clash with the Marquis family. Regardless of the outcome, it would be a certainty that the Marquis would file a complaint against him.

Want to perfectly resolve this matter?

Don’t even think about it.

At least that bastard Hero couldn’t do it.

Because this was fundamentally not a problem that could be solved by one or two people having a sudden realization. 

Moreover, before dealing with Miss Catherine, the first hurdle was her elder brother, the Marquis family’s first heir and de facto power holder, Histerkon.

The reason Catherine could act so capriciously without anyone coming to discipline her was entirely due to Histerkon’s excessive indulgence, to the point where he would even scout out potential male servants for her and prepare all the means of abuse.

It must be noted that merely defeating Histerkon was meaningless; he had to be made to realize his mistakes and change his mindset of aiding and abetting evil… Therefore, in the end, it still had to rely on Elia’s magic to convert him.

And the chain magic Elia left on Histerkon meant that if Catherine didn’t activate it, the magic on Histerkon wouldn’t take effect, so the bastard Hero’s failure was already set in stone—

‘Sir Luke is going to compete with Viscount Histerkon?’

At lunchtime the next day, Elia learned of this astonishing news from the maids’ report.

In the Messiah Kingdom’s aristocratic system, the eldest son of a Duke or Marquis could only be referred to as a Baron before inheriting the title.

Exceptions existed, requiring meritorious service to gain another title conferment.

Histerkon was one such exception; by following Charlie to suppress a rebellion, he received an additional Viscount title.

Although it was nothing compared to the Marquisate he would eventually inherit, among the young nobles, he was undoubtedly one of the best, highly influential in the country, and admired by the King.

Now that Hero actually ran off to compete with him?

Was he not afraid of offending the Royal Family as well if things went wrong?

‘Bastard Hero, starting to make foolish moves?’

In Elia’s view, the Hero probably learned some information about Catherine from somewhere, and, thinking himself clever, decided to deal with Histerkon first, then adopted such a self-destructive approach.

However, when her ‘lover’ was in trouble, she had to express her stance… Ugh, what a bother.

With that thought, Elia deliberately feigned extreme anxiety, leaving her bedchamber without even finishing lunch, and rushed straight to the two men’s duel location.

Although she left early and seemed to move quickly, unfortunately, by the time she arrived, everything was already over.

‘Good, looks like I arrived just in time.’

With her usual, practiced worried expression on her face, Elia eagerly ran forward, ready to deliver the lines she had prepared beforehand.

But before she could act, Histerkon in the arena suddenly knelt down.

‘It was my fault all these years; it was my indulgence of that child that made her who she is today…’

Elia was utterly dumbfounded.

Her magic was clearly still present and hadn’t been activated, so how did Histerkon end up repenting on his own?

Was he enlightened by that bastard Hero?

After so many years without correction, he suddenly regretted it after a verbal lashing from some guy who appeared out of nowhere?

Bastard Hero, is your surname Uzumaki?

‘Sir Hero is truly amazing; even that Histerkon was won over.’

Another round of praise erupted, but this time, Elia was completely left out of it.

In her vast and magnificent plan, Histerkon was supposed to be grateful to her, shedding tears and vowing to follow her for life.

‘Bastard Hero, how dare you steal what belongs to me!’

Elia was furious, but it wasn’t over. Upon seeing her arrival, Luke actually walked over, gave a smug bow, and said:

‘I did not fail in my mission.’

Huh?

When did she give him orders?

Elia was bewildered. Upon seeing a certain golden-haired elf maid in the distance, she suddenly understood something.

Could it be that Iris went to warn him about Catherine, and then he realized he had to start by dealing with Histerkon?

Aaaah, Iris, what have you done? How could you betray your master like this!

After grumbling inwardly for a while, the usually optimistic Elia quickly recovered her spirits.

Because she still had a chance to win; even if Luke resolved Histerkon’s problem, Catherine might not necessarily improve.

Even if he got lucky again and made Catherine have an epiphany, many problems would still be waiting for him.

Firstly, to ensure their safety, Histerkon and Catherine had sold their well-trained male companions to many nobles, forming an interest group. Even if Histerkon wanted to stop, others would not allow it.

Secondly, many of these male companions had suffered broken homes and scattered families because of this.

Even if they were released, the matter would be difficult to calm down. In the worst case, the Royal Family would intervene and dispose of all the male companions to silence them.

But don’t think it ends there; having caused such a huge mess, that bastard Hero would surely be seen as a thorn in the Royal Family’s side, and driving him out of the kingdom would then become effortless.

The only problem was that Iris was now practically openly helping that bastard Hero; her previous new insurance plan had to be changed again.

‘Sir Luke, you’ve worked hard.’

Therefore, after a few simple words of encouragement to Luke, Elia became invisible and took a detour to find Catherine, changing the first insurance to require her consent to activate the negation magic after it was triggered.

At the same time, she added a new fourth insurance that would remotely notify her if the first insurance was triggered, in case Iris was in danger without her knowing.

After all that, Elia leisurely returned to her bedchamber, preparing to wait for her opponent’s self-destruction.

As expected, Luke impulsively took action that very night… but the result left Elia dumbfounded.

Her magic was indeed triggered.

But the target was not Catherine, but Madame Carol, who was supposed to be the next opponent.

‘You bastard, why aren’t you playing by the rules!’