"Oh? I didn't expect you to guess correctly," Scaramouche said with a playful tone. Despite the obvious nature of the trick, he widened his eyes in surprise because it was Lumine, asking, "Then, as I predicted, you stopped caring about your energy usage, only wanting to reunite with your sister faster and disrupt my plan together."
Hearing his words, Lumine bit her lip and voiced her confusion, "This coast is so vast, how did you know my location…?"
Scaramouche smiled upon hearing Lumine's question, gesturing for her to look at him. This action naturally confused Lumine. She looked down and discovered a barely visible dark purple energy on her body that hadn't been there before.
"What is this?!"
Seeing Lumine's astonished gaze, Scaramouche extended a hand, patted her cheek, and chuckled, "The Evil Eye on that person earlier was specially modified by me. It allows the energy it emits to linger on a person. Your every move as you crossed the sea was within my predictions~"
Lumine gritted her teeth, displaying an unwilling expression, but inwardly, she felt a sense of relief. *No wonder I felt like someone was peeping at me while crossing the sea… Thankfully, the energy doesn't carry sound… But even if it did, it wouldn't have picked up the conversation between me and Paimon…*
With this thought, Lumine continued to question Scaramouche, following his lead, making him gradually lower his guard, mistaking her for truly falling into his trap. "You bastard… to use ordinary people as your pawns…"
"Hehehe… you can't say it like that. Although I did use that guy, in return, I gave him the power to take revenge on the enemy who killed his loved ones~"
Lumine, enraged, bit down on Scaramouche's palm, but he easily dodged it. Seeing her attack fail, she could only glare at him furiously and say, "So you gave that power that makes people age rapidly to an ordinary person!?"
"Hehehe… there's no free lunch in this world. If you want to quickly gain immense power, you naturally have to pay a price, such as… life~"
"You!" Lumine wanted to retort, but after struggling for a long time, she didn't know how to respond.
Seeing the defiant girl beneath him, Scaramouche's playful demeanor gradually faded. The dark purple energy began to appear on Lumine's restrained hands, gradually attaching itself to her body.
"Hehe… we've chatted enough. Since I've revealed so many secrets to you, you should show some reciprocation and become mine obediently~"
"You… dream on… Ahh………" Lumine tried to break free from Scaramouche's control, but her current strength was no match for his. She could only watch helplessly as the energy gradually invaded her body…
"Stop… stop it……(≧﹏≦)"
Seeing Lumine's pained expression, Scaramouche revealed a satisfied smile. *Hehehe… I'm really looking forward to the scene where the Honorary Knight has to fight her little sister later…*
As time passed, Lumine's consciousness began to blur. Just as Scaramouche's plan was about to succeed, he suddenly felt a discomfort, and the residual dark purple energy in his hand dissipated.
"Hm?" Scaramouche frowned and looked down at Lumine, who had already fainted, with confusion. *Ran out of energy? Although most of it was used on those monsters, there should have been enough remaining… But after pouring in so much energy, I couldn't seize her mind…*
With this thought, Scaramouche let out a self-deprecating laugh and murmured, "Heh… I never expected your will to be so strong… But it doesn't matter. I have an endless supply of this energy. Let's see how long your will can last…"
Saying this, Scaramouche stood up, placed Lumine on his back, and then sprinted away with her towards the distance.
Unseen by Scaramouche, Lumine, who should have been unconscious, had a slight upturn of her lips, revealing a smile of a plan successfully executed.
Some time after Scaramouche had left, the Traveler and Paimon arrived at the place where Lumine had just fought, without stopping.
Looking at the devastated coastline, Paimon exclaimed, "Whoa… this is way too much…"
Paimon flew to the Traveler's side, looking at the large craters on the ground that resembled the surface of the moon. She asked the Traveler in surprise, "So scary, was this caused by Scaramouche and Lumine's fight?"
"Yes… it should be. I didn't expect Scaramouche to have such terrifying moves…" Paimon subconsciously attributed the destruction of the coastline to Scaramouche.
Thinking that their host might have to face such a terrifying move, Paimon couldn't help but worry and tried to initiate a telepathic link with her host, but the result was, as expected, unsuccessful.
"Tsk…" Seeing that the time hadn't reset yet, Paimon frowned. *I can't just wait around like this. Since they were here, there must be traces of their departure…*
With this thought, Paimon immediately got to work, carefully examining the surrounding ground, trying to find the direction Scaramouche had left. The Traveler, with the same idea, began searching alongside Paimon.
Seeing their diligent search for clues, and considering that Lumine might be in danger, Paimon didn't dare to slack off and actively helped with the search.
After a thorough search by the three, they quickly found the spot where Lumine had been pressed to the ground earlier.
"Hmm… judging from these messy footprints, the host was defeated here…" Seeing Paimon's confident assertion, the Traveler asked curiously, "Why are you so sure Lumine was defeated? Couldn't Scaramouche have lost too? After all, he told you he already possesses three elements."
"Hehehe…" Paimon proudly lifted her little head. "That's because… I guessed it~"
Paimon: "…………"
"Forget I said anything…"
"Ahem~ Alright, no more joking. Actually, it's because of the footprints~" Paimon coughed lightly and beckoned the Traveler and Paimon to gather around her. "Look, because it's the coast, the soil here is very damp. You can clearly see the shoe prints left here. And within the entire crater, there are only two types of shoe prints. You can clearly see the difference in their sizes, so even judging solely by this, it couldn't have been the host's (^～^)."
"Uh… but this doesn't prove that Lumine lost either…" Paimon said weakly.