The Hero Who Became a Monster Girl Will Never Fall to Evil

“Have you still not reached your superiors?!”

“Sorry, miss, please wait just a bit longer. City Defense Headquarters says we need to contact the Magic Academy for this. But don’t worry—the knight squads in this area have already begun moving toward us.”

“A bunch of useless rice buckets!”

At the knight outpost, Irena paced back and forth in agitation. The knights were sweating bullets, frantically calling their superiors through communication stones, only to have responsibility bounced back and forth endlessly.

After quite a while, the nearby knight squads finally arrived.

But with a single glance, Irena could tell their levels were all low—probably only around a few dozen each, barely one or two times stronger than a normal civilian.

As expected of a lower-class city—inefficient, underpowered, crawling with weaklings. Even the soldiers responsible for keeping the city safe had such pathetic strength.

Seeing this crooked, sloppy group of guards, Irena couldn’t help but feel grateful she had run into that white-haired, big-chested woman.

Annoying as hell, yes—but at least the strength was there, and she handled things cleanly. If she quit drinking, she might even land a City Guard Commander position in the Royal Capital.

If that big-chested woman weren’t so hard to control, Irena almost felt like buying her into her own service.

After all, her family had money. Lots of money.

Once the guards had gathered enough squads, Irena finally stopped waiting and hurriedly led them toward the teahouse.

Weaklings were weaklings, fine. The big-chested woman would do the fighting anyway. These chick-level soldiers could just guard the exits, control the crowds, and handle the basic cleanup.

...

Basement.

After confirming the hostage’s location, Vieya knocked the ranting non-human man unconscious with a tap of her fingers and clicked her tongue.

She cast one last look at the kidnappers lying unconscious all over the floor, then turned away and followed the pipe.

Thump~

A soft sound echoed.

Descending one more flight of stairs, ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) Vieya looked toward a pitch-black section of wall—this was the hidden chamber connected to the pipe.

She ran her hand over the surface and found a protruding square block.

“Another secret door? Mm... looks like they spent quite a lot of effort and money building this base.”

Crack.

With a light press, the dark wall slowly parted open, sliding toward both sides.

A dim glow leaked out from behind the wall, making Vieya narrow her eyes.

It was a simple red-brick chamber. Three walls were solid, with no windows; the remaining side was sealed by iron bars only two centimeters thick, with a small locked iron door in the lower right corner.

Thump~

Inside, a blue-haired little girl was gripping something in her right hand, knocking the iron bar over and over—creating sharp, rhythmic tapping.

Vieya walked up to the iron door and looked at the blue-haired girl.

“You’re Little-Fish?”

“Little-Fish?”

The blue-haired girl looked up, murmured softly, then shook her head.

“My name is Allison Feiyu. ‘Little-Fish’ is my friend’s nickname for me... Big sister, did you see Irena?”

“Yes. She knelt and kowtowed, begging me to come save you,” Vieya said with a smile.

“...Eh?” Allison froze.

“Don’t overthink it. I’ll let you out now. All the kidnappers were knocked out. They won’t be waking up for at least an hour or two.”

Vieya grabbed the lock on the door and squeezed hard. But even after her palm began throbbing with pain, the lock didn’t break the way she expected.

Instead, it compressed into an even denser lump of solid iron.

“Big sister, you crushed the lock into solid metal. Even if we find the key, it won’t open anymore,” Allison reminded gently.

“...”

Vieya was silent for a moment.

“It’s fine. I have other methods. Little-Fish, squat in that corner, turn your back to me, close your eyes, and cover your ears.”

“Okay...”

Allison slowly stood up, went to the corner, turned her back, and covered her ears.

Screeeech!

A harsh metallic noise rang through the silent basement.

The solid iron bars—thick as a finger—were bent by the slime-girl’s brute-force miracle one after another. Second bar. Third bar. She kept going until the gap was wide enough for Allison to slip through.

“Hah...”

Vieya exhaled and rested her hands on her hips, satisfied. She looked at the obediently crouching blue-haired child.

“Problem solved. Come on, I’ll take you up.”

“Thank you, big sister,” Allison said, squeezing through the bent bars.

Fortunately, she was small and slender. Even though the spacing wasn’t large, all she needed was to turn slightly and she could slide through with ease.

Moments later, standing outside the chamber, Allison looked curiously up at Vieya.

“Big sister, did you know Irena from before?”

“Why do you ask?” Vieya bent down, tucked Allison under her arm, and started up the stairs.

“Irena has a rotten personality. She’d never kneel and kowtow. So big sister told a kind lie to calm me down,” Allison said softly. “Also, the fact you chose that lie means you’ve experienced her rotten personality firsthand.”

“...Yeah, you’re not wrong. I met her a long time ago, but she was very young. She probably doesn’t remember me,” Vieya said.

“Really? Then big sister, what’s your name?”

“Vieya.”

“Hm... hm!”

Suddenly, Allison’s voice trembled with excitement.

“Big sister—you’re that one—the one who wielded the Holy Sword?! I’ve heard about you! My dad is the Chief Musician of the Inquisition, he told me!”

“So your father is also a Tribunal civil servant,” Vieya said lightly. “Honestly, I have a lot of friends in the Tribunal.”

“Yes yes! My dad admires you so much! He always wanted your autograph... that autograph...” Allison’s tone turned adorably shy. “Can you give me one?”

“Of course. Do you have paper and a pen?”

Vieya couldn’t help but be amused. This was the first time since becoming a slime-girl that someone asked for her autograph—and the requester was such a cute little girl. She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t happy.

“I have a pen! Paper... you can sign on my shirt!”

“Sure.”

When they left the basement, the street outside still only had scattered onlookers—curious but keeping their distance. It was the middle of the night, so there weren’t many people.

While things were quiet, Vieya signed her name on the white short-sleeved shirt Allison held out, then chatted with her for a bit.

Half a quarter-hour later, the chaotic footsteps of the approaching guards echoed down the street. Vieya stood, ready to leave.

“Big sister... can we meet again?” Allison asked.

“Mhm. Once you become an Archmagus, we can,” Vieya said cheerfully, waving as she walked off.

Allison: “...”

This big sister really knew how to draw a pie in the sky.

Moments later—

Irena burst in with a whole crowd behind her.

Then—

They saw a wrecked teahouse, kidnappers piled like a small mountain, and... Allison sitting calmly in the only intact chair, waiting.

“Uwaaah! Little-Fish sister! Are you okay?!” Irena dashed toward her.

“Mhm, I’m fine.”

Allison shook her head lightly, then glanced up at the filthy, grimy Irena in front of her—and her eyelid twitched.

“What did you do to yourself?”

“It was that big-chested freak... no, wait—where is that big-chested freak?” Irena looked around, muttering, “Didn’t she say I had to agree to a condition... why did she leave without a word...”

“Sigh, Irena. You can’t be so rude to someone who saved our lives,” Allison said gently.

Irena’s gaze drifted off into space as she changed the subject. “Strange... why hasn’t Sister Yuelong come looking for us yet?”

...

Talin City.

The moon hung deep in the night sky, but one room in the California Inn still glowed with light.

It was already late into the night, yet Jasmine still hadn’t fallen asleep. She lay on her bed, staring vacantly at the ceiling.

Right now, there was only one question in her mind—

Where did her mom, who hadn’t come home at night, go?