Chapter 16: Get up and sleep again!

For Melina herself, the after-effects were far more intense than she had anticipated.

As the next few days would be dedicated to preparing for the Knight Tournament’s youth division registration and team training, Melina naturally took up residence in the academy’s dormitory.

That night, she lay quietly on her bed.

Yet, at this moment, she found herself utterly unable to calm down.

Clad in a thin nightgown, Melina was drenched in sweat, her expression contorted in pain.

“Ugh…”

She tossed and turned on the bed, her wrist glowing with a dark crimson light, the Thorn Kiss surprisingly activated.

“Mistress, please allow me to bear this burden alone. There is no need for you to suffer this cost on my behalf,” Melo conveyed, her voice reaching Melina through the soul network from within the Golden Knight’s Sword.

However, Melina stubbornly refused.

The pain was unbearable, rendering her speechless, yet the profound connection between her and Melo allowed Melo to clearly understand her decision.

“But if this continues, I fear your spirit will not be able to withstand it,” Melo worried.

That light cannon from earlier in the day had clearly exceeded Melina’s usable Spirit Energy threshold.

Her resonance rate with Melo was maintained at 20%, a figure that represented not their combined limit, but Melina’s personal threshold for enduring pain.

Any higher, and Melina would simply collapse into unconsciousness from the unbearable agony.

Yet, a 20% resonance rate couldn’t even manifest a Spirit Armor, making it impossible to unleash a pure Spirit Energy attack like a light cannon.

That single blast was originally a move Melina had, in a moment of desperation, forcibly activated by channeling Spirit Energy.

Though it lasted only an instant, the cost still caught her off guard.

She could have dissolved the resonance state, allowing Melo to bear the burden alone.

But if she did that, would she still be worthy of being Melo’s Spirit Master?

****

“Hey, I applied to Dean Tang to move into your dorm. It’s a double room anyway, so you shouldn’t object… Uh, what’s wrong with you?”

“My apologies…”

The dorm room light flickered on as Sephylia pushed open the door, dragging a heavy suitcase behind her.

Behind her, Huiyao followed, balancing a suitcase of the same size on their forehead.

The two walked in, chattering to themselves, only to find Melina sprawled on the bed, convulsing and emitting suppressed gasps.

Sephylia immediately realized something was amiss, abandoning her suitcase to rush forward and check on her.

“Hey, what’s going on with you?”

Little Huiyao followed closely, their small nose wrinkling, then declared, “Warmth is locked in a box. It’s a very annoying feeling.”

As Sephylia came closer to examine her, her gaze immediately fell upon Melina clutching her own wrist.

“What exactly happened to you? Are you injured? Or did you exert yourself too much today?”

“Strictly speaking, that kind of light cannon does require a 60% resonance rate to use,” Little Huiyao nodded in agreement.

But then, Sephylia noticed something amiss.

For she saw that Melina’s fair, delicate wrist was covered in thorny black patterns.

“This… this is…”

The black patterns, originally as thin as a bracelet, had now sprouted into a dense thicket of thorns, extending densely from that ‘bracelet’ up her arm.

“The Thorn Kiss! What’s going on? Why do you have the Thorn Kiss?!”

Sephylia’s gaze fell upon the Golden Knight’s Sword lying nearby, and she instantly recalled Melo’s explanation from earlier that day.

In that moment, everything seemed to click into place for her!

“There’s no such thing as a renegade [Radiance]!”

“No sisters of Radiance!”

“Melo *is* Radiance!”

“The Radiance of that Radiant Knight!”

“Hey! You’re Melo now, right?! What exactly is going on? As far as I know, Melina shouldn’t have been subjected to the Spirit Sealing Punishment! So, did you bring this upon her? What’s your objective?!”

Sephylia didn’t dwell on the matter of Radiance or not; a wave of furious Spirit Energy subtly surged around her, and even the usually docile Little Huiyao behind her was now glaring at the Golden Knight’s Sword with an expression like a snarling kitten.

Melo’s ethereal form shimmered into existence above the Golden Knight’s Sword, her expression one of helplessness. “I, too, do not wish for Mistress to bear this pain for me. However… as a Companion Spirit Weapon, I signed a master-servant contract under the Lady’s decree. Therefore, I cannot defy Mistress’s will,” she explained.

Upon hearing this explanation, Sephylia was instantly stunned.

“What?! A master-servant contract?!”

“Doesn’t that mean giving away everything—including one’s freedom, dignity, and even soul—completely and unreservedly to the other party?”

“Would any Spirit Race truly be willing to sign such a contract?”

She hadn’t forgotten that when the contract was publicly signed, Melo had shown no reluctance whatsoever!

Even Little Huiyao, standing nearby, wore a look of bewilderment.

Though young for a Spirit Race and appearing in all respects like a child, their understanding and common sense were actually more mature than most adults.

They naturally understood what signing a master-servant contract entailed.

No Spirit Master and Spirit Race in a normal relationship would ever sign such an unequal contract.

“Se… Sephy… lia… don’t blame… Melo. This was my… own choice… Hah… Hah…”

Melina was now desperately clinging to consciousness, preventing herself from falling into a coma, for if she did, Melo would gain autonomy and be able to dissolve their resonance state.

Watching Melina’s stubborn demeanor, Sephylia couldn’t help but roll her eyes, a look of utter speechlessness on her face.

“Oh, fine then. You just keep hurting, I’ll go unpack my luggage.”

With that, Sephylia truly ignored Melina, turning to call out to Little Huiyao.

“Little Huiyao, come help big sister make the bed.”

“Okay!”

Little Huiyao glanced at Melina again, then trotted off to help with the suitcases.

Melina was speechless.

“No… you’re just leaving like that?”

“And what do you mean by moving in? What do you mean?!”

But she was currently enduring such agony, that even uttering that last sentence had been exceptionally difficult.

She didn’t even know how much more she could bear.

“Ahhhhhh!!!!”

Finally, she could no longer endure it.

Yet, she didn’t lose consciousness; instead, she tumbled from the bed onto the floor, wailing incessantly.

“Ah, yes, yes, yes, it hurts, doesn’t it? Good, you brought it on yourself,” Sephylia grumbled as she made the bed, even directing Little Huiyao to pull the bedsheet taut midway.

Little Huiyao looked at Melina with some concern. “Um, are we really not going to do anything?”

Sephylia glanced over. “How should I deal with it? She just told me not to blame Melo. Or maybe I should just knock her out with a hammer; then she wouldn’t have to suffer,” she mused.

“Agreed.”

To their surprise, the voice belonged to Melo.

“Shut up, Melo!” Melina snapped, snatching a moment from her agony to scold.

“Aha—” Sephylia yawned, then switched off the light.

On the floor beside the bed, Melina writhed in excruciating pain, rolling back and forth.

On the bed, Sephylia, cradling Little Huiyao, enjoyed a moment of tranquil peace and slowly drifted off to sleep.

It was unknown how much time had passed.

A dark silhouette stood by Sephylia’s bed.

Her back was to the moon, her blue eyes glowing with an eerie light, making her appear like a ghost.

“Get off my bed! This is my bed!”

“Wahhh!!!!”

Melina, who had just recovered from the throes of pain, upon seeing Sephylia peacefully asleep as if nothing was amiss, was instantly overcome with fury, and promptly shoved her onto the floor.

Melo, having reverted to her human form, swiftly caught the lightly tumbling Little Huiyao, the little girl still sleeping soundly.

“What are you doing?! Trying to die in the middle of the night?!”

“Who told you to sleep in my bed?!”

“Didn’t I just say I reported it? From today onward, I’m sleeping in this room, on this bed!”

“If you sleep in this bed, where do I sleep?!”

“I don’t care where you sleep! You can just hug Melo and sleep!”

Melina, having accumulated considerable resentment from enduring her pain, collided head-on with Sephylia, who, suffering from morning grumpiness, had been forcibly awakened.

The two immediately clashed like Mars striking Earth, pouncing onto the bed and tearing at each other.

It was a typical girl fight: hair-pulling, mouth-twisting, cheek-pinching…

Melo, cradling Little Huiyao and covering the little one’s ears, wore a helpless expression.

In short… no one got much sleep that night.