"I like you."
Link's eyes widened the instant those words were uttered.
The girl's eyes reflected his dismayed cheeks in the moonlight, and her stunning features, tinged with subtle affection, caused him to hold his breath.
The love and adoration contained in the bright pupils of the young girl was enough to mesmerize any male.
Link closed his eyes. He took several deep breaths before finally regaining his usual composure.
Link opened his eyes and spoke softly as he looked levelly into those regal eyes.
"Oh."
The response, so brief as to feel perfunctory, caused Villette's velvety embroidered brow to furrow, and made her repeat the confession that would make any young man or woman blush.
"I said, I like you."
"Well, I like you too."
Link replied indifferently, his heart that had become flustered by the sudden confession just now was now completely calmed down. It was as if he was answering a standard answer without any emotion.
"No, you're lying. You don't like me."
Villette moved closer to Link's face, the distance between them shortening to the point where they could even touch the tips of each other's noses. She stared into Link's eyes, which were slightly averted from hers and said in a tone that sounded like she was stating a fact.
"No, no, no, you don't understand. I like you a lot, really. Who would hate having a succubus girlfriend?"
Link's attitude slowly changed, and he was like an actor on stage trying his best to show off his smile, vocally reciting words that spoke of good fortune and happiness.
"I'm loving my life right now, being able to enjoy immense pleasure every day, being able to enjoy the bodies of the very best girls at will."
The more he talked, the more excited he became, so much so that his lower body began to perk up once more, allowing Villette to feel the hot sensations coming from under her belly.
"And I don't even need to care about working part-time or making money anymore. It feels so great to be adopted by my master. Compared to now, my previous life in the human world was a piece of shit, I love you mas-"
Slap--
"Lies."
Villette withdrew the hand that had slapped Link, and the gaze that gazed at him was like that of a disinterested spectator who had seen through the clown's comical façade and became bored.
"You don't like me."
Villette stared at Link, who seemed terrified by her. The shivering, as in fear of his master's displeasure, only made her cringe.
"You don't like succubi either. You hate the Academy even more. You don't like it here at all."
Her tone grew colder and colder with each word.
"This is not a Loyalty Test."
And Link's terrified, downtrodden expression disappeared completely at Villette's last words.
His attitude changed all of a sudden, panic and fear turned into indifference and hostility. His upper body sat up from the bed as if to push Villette's body backward, even if Villette's torso came even closer to his chest as a result.
Link, who was a little over half a head taller since he was sitting upright now, looked down into Villette's eyes and questioned coldly.
"Why did you say you liked me?"
Villette looked straight into his interrogative eyes and answered without a hint of avoidance.
"Because I love you."
Link snickered, hanging on to a fake smile as if he was being provocative, and asked rhetorically.
"What does a succubus know about love?"
"We are the embodiment of desire, of course we know what love is."
Villette didn't seem to pick up on Link's mockery and replied in a serious manner.
Link felt a twinge of displeasure at Villette's reaction. He thought about mocking Villette some more, but under her penetrating eyes that didn't have a single trace of concealment or deception, he finally just sighed.
"Why?"
"Because I love you."
Villette continued to reply in her usual blunt tone.
"Why do you love me, a dispensable slave?"
Some succubus did love their slaves, but it wasn't the kind of love familiar to humans. Rather, it was like owning a favorite used pen. If said pen was accidentally damaged, then it was just a matter of lamenting for a bit and replacing it with another one.
Straight up love confessions, which was not uncommon, was just a flirtatious little tactic during sexual activity.
Link couldn't help but frown. The other party's melodramatic words at the beginning made him think that it was a small encouragement due to his performance today. But Villette's later words made Link feel puzzled and unsettled.
The Loyalty Test, as the name suggested, was an act to test a slave's loyalty to their master. It tended to happen in the early stages of enrollment, when slaves hadn't developed too much mental dependence on their masters.
Many succubus would pretend to have feelings of pity or love for them, offering to help each other share their negative emotions, or even offering to help their slaves escape the academy.
Once a slave aws mesmerized by the succubus' attitude and put his or her unwillingness to submit on display, the succubus would either infiltrate his or her spirit more actively in the process, or inform the Academy directly.
For example, deliberately taking a long detour during the escape from the academy and engaging in more ambiguous behavior in the meantime, pretending to look out for the slaves while leaving no stone unturned to show your seductive power as a succubus on the way, offering to solve the slaves' physiological problems many times in order to facilitate the escape, and making the slaves give up the idea of escaping and become a slave of the succubus voluntarily at the final stage of the escape.
While the academy rewarded succubi who succeeded in tempering their slaves, the slaves who kept the idea of escaping were brainwashed and tempered in the rectification room. Then, they were either obediently returned to their succubus masters or become a lifeless husk to supply the academy with energy.
As for the idea that Villette had deliberately lied and fished to bait him, Link just thought about it for a moment before throwing it away.
He had been "sharing a bed" with the other party for a few months, and he knew that her character and attitude would not allow her to do such a thing.
At least, he subconsciously hoped so.
After a few seconds of slight thought, Villette opened those cherry colored lips and spoke.
"You never completely surrendered your body while I was squeezing your sperm, so... you are interesting."
Villette struggled to organize her words. Her warm soft cheeks were clouded with an air of compassionate sadness from distress and contemplation.
"I... love the process of knocking the persistence out of you, it makes me happy that you haven't given up until now..."
She felt a sudden violent shudder run through her body, but Villette, absorbed in her own thoughts, didn't care and was still talking.
She didn't see that Link's face was becoming grimmer bit by bit as she made her voice heard.
"So I was wondering if I confessed my love to you, would I be able to defeat your persistence once and for all? Well... other succubi have said that it would be easier to make a slave fall with love, but I've always thought of crushing you with pleasure before, so this time I want to try a different path-"
