Chapter 497: Male Leader and Control

Rod turned and stroked the petite back of the half-deer girl.

The line of her spine was clear, her skin smooth as perfect silk, and she trembled ever so slightly at the slightest pressure.

She really was like a timid little fawn.

Though, in fact, she actually was one.

"It's too late, I-I should go, Little Little Bangde must be getting hungry."

Miss Xiao Ke glanced at the sun outside the window, a faint panic stirring in her chest.

She couldn't shake the feeling that someone was about to burst into the ranger cabin right then and see the scene on the bed.

"It's fine, stay a little longer. I want to hold you."

Rod pressed down on her spine, not letting her leave.

The chest, plumped up with winter fat, pressed against him—the feel of it was beyond words.

Come to think of it, it was rather interesting.

It was perfectly normal for beastfolk races to put on weight in winter; after all, winter meant less food, a survival instinct from their ancient bloodlines. Nothing wrong with that.

But Miss Xiao Ke's waist and arms had only thickened a little—just an extra layer of soft flesh—yet her chest had grown a full size thicker, becoming nearly as ample as Vivian's.

She'd defected straight over from the Little Thunder Monastery.

"Th-then just a little longer, I really can't stand you…"

The half-hearted half-deer girl immediately lay back into the man's chest, burying her face so he couldn't see the sweet smile on it.

Rod, meanwhile, turned his attention back to the scene in 【Despair Mycelium】:

Pamela Nightfall's suicide attempt had just been stopped by a majestic male dark elf who appeared to be a 【Hero Candidate】.

She turned her head, and immediately burst into panicked tears.

"General Aurelio… I'm sorry, I can't…"

"What on earth is going on, Pamela."

"It's the voice, the voice in my head, General Aurelio… I can't make myself move. Everyone is insulting me, bullying me—my parents, my partners—they only know how to attack me with words. Everything before was just a fake performance. The moment something's wrong with me, they'll abandon me right away."

She cried out loudly.

Her bloodshot eyes stared in despair at the imposing General Aurelio before her.

Aurelio's face was set firm, and he did not answer Pamela.

He turned his head to look at the half-deer man behind him.

"Luca."

"Reporting, General Aurelio. After investigation, the situation Pamela described does not exist. Her parents and partners have shown no exclusion or aggression—it's been verified by all parties."

"But what she said wasn't false. She passed the lie-detection."

"Correct. Because Pamela genuinely believes these things happened to her. After days of observation and psychic probing, we can confirm that Pamela's memories are severely distorted—

For instance, all her past successes have been reconstructed as flukes, important relationships twisted into fake performances, and even her diary is full of new self-refuting annotations—all to fabricate 'true memories' of her being oppressed."

The half-deer man named Luca said with great interest.

He stroked his half-white beard, showing keen interest.

"So, what is this?"

Aurelio's face was cold, but his eyes held pity and nostalgia as he looked at Pamela.

This was clearly a romantic dark elf general.

Even though he wasn't among Pamela's partners, he still harbored feelings and came to visit.

It wasn't hard to imagine.

Given how dark elf men were generally suppressed, just how much sweat and contempt he had endured.

And the once-beautiful, passionate girl before him might have long ago held the place of a white moonlight—or an unattainable object of longing.

"A form of spiritual corruption. It refracts every positive external emotion into a poisonous thorn of self-denial, trapping the mind in an endless despair. This corruption carries traces of psychic energy, but I can't tell if it was done deliberately by someone, or… a side effect of your 【Blood Birth Pool】."

The half-deer Luca said as much.

Aurelio was silent for a moment, then said: "It can't be because of the 【Blood Birth Pool】."

"Heh… then I'll consider human causes. Please provide me with all of Pamela's missions from before the change occurred."

"Someone will give them to you."

Saying so,

General Aurelio crouched down and gently stroked Pamela's hair.

Whether speaking to her or to himself, he said:

"Don't worry, I'll save you, even if it costs everything."

However—

Under the effect of 【Despair Mind】, with all positive words twisted, it was hard to imagine how Pamela would interpret those words.

She let out a terrified scream, roughly slapped Aurelio's hand away, and curled up in the corner once more.

Her pupils, sunken deep in their sockets, stared at the man before her in fear.

Aurelio was clearly deeply wounded by this.

He stood up with a pained expression, swept his long robe aside, and left with the half-deer man, walking out of frame.

The scene refocused on the curled-up Pamela Nightfall, sunk deep in despair and terror.

Rod watched, expressionless.

After all, she was enemy faction—he didn't feel much pity for the girl.

However—

It was somewhat unexpected that this person happened to be someone this male dark elf leader—and 【Hero Candidate】—cared about.

"Perhaps it could let her do more things. But the question is how to control it."

Rod studied the other additional skills of 【Despair Mycelium】 for a moment.

Very quickly.

He found the corresponding method from 【Summon Evil God】.

That skill was originally one where the subject passively sacrificed something, thereby summoning Rod over.

But after tweaking it a bit, and combined with the permissions of 【Far Voice Chain】, Rod discovered a method to privately hook a conversation line.

Then, he made a tentative summoning.

【Pamela Nightfall. Pamela Nightfall Pamela Nightfall】

Sure enough.

The Pamela in the picture suddenly froze.

Then she looked around in panic, as if searching for the direction the voice came from.

"Who! Who is it?! Who's talking in my head!?"

【Who I am is not important. What's important is that I can let you catch a breath from despair for now.】

"What?"

The girl, who had been panicking, asked again as if she hadn't heard clearly.

Of course.

Rod certainly wouldn't bother with her.

A master of the unknown — the hallmark is not listening to people and not speaking like a person.

【From now on, you will have 10 minutes of breathing time.】

Having said that.

Rod temporarily shut off the skill effect of 【Despair Heart】.

Of course, it wouldn't be completely shut off.

Roughly pulled down to about 30% of the skill effect.

But he also knew the other party had caught on.

Pamela froze in place, then clarity slowly emerged in her murky eyes.

Her first reaction was wild joy.

It was a sense of post-disaster survival, breaking free from an extremely painful mental state.

She immediately felt that even the air she breathed was smooth and fresh.

But then she immediately fell into deep fear.

Perhaps some unknown existence that could plunge her into maddening spirits at any moment had set its sights on her.

Pamela subconsciously wanted to resist.

But once she recalled the state of the past month or so, she found she couldn't muster any will to do so.

That despair, that agony, that spiritually twisted consciousness.

She didn't want to taste it again for even a moment.

So.

She began to wail and beg for mercy.

Kneeling on the ground, she started kowtowing toward every direction that might be the source of the voice.

Unfortunately.

Rod is the type who shows no mercy to enemies.

10 minutes later.

He left behind one line: 【At this time tomorrow, put on your most expensive clothes. I will come again.】

【Despair Heart】 was once again ruthlessly activated.

Pamela Nightfall also once again plunged into boundless spiritual agony.

Rod was deliberately creating a 'window of relief.'

When she was on the verge of collapse from self-doubt, he would step in and ease the effect again, letting her clearly understand that he had the ability — and only he could stop all of this.

At the same time, he would leave a very simple task that didn't involve others, with the reward being a longer 'window of relief.'

Tasks must go from easy to hard. When pain and salvation coexist, it's easy to achieve the effect of mental control.

A few days later, Rod would let Pamela gradually come into contact with the secrets of the Infernal Passage and the 【Blood Birth Pool】.

Sigh.

A bit evil.

Rod let out a sigh.

Life isn't easy.

I'm a respectable model youth, and yet I've actually started getting into such fancy, evil tricks.

"What's wrong?"

Miss Xiao Ke in his arms heard the sigh, raised her eyes, and asked with a worried face.

"Nothing. Just didn't expect that one day, I would become a bad guy too."

If it were before, or if they were outside, Miss Xiao Ke would surely have agreed and quipped back a few lines calling him a bad pervert.

But she had just gone through an intense bout of intimacy, and her heart was overflowing with tenderness and maternal love, surging straight to the core.

Seeing Rod like this now, she only felt her heart ache beyond words.

Mist welled up in her round, adorable eyes. She scooted closer a few times, and tenderly pulled Rod's head deep into her embrace.

"No, no, you're not bad at all. Rod is the bravest child I've ever seen. I've watched you with my own eyes — you train hard every day, you patrol the forest every single day without missing one no matter how busy you are, and every time there's danger you're the first to rush to the very front."

she said.

She was already crying, tears splashing down onto Rod's face.

"Ah—"

Rod was a bit thrown off by her sudden burst of sentimentality. He tried to wriggle out of her embrace, but this time she was holding on with unusual force.

"Don't move, let Mommy hold you a little longer."

"."

This slightly improper scene did not last long.

A shout and footsteps, coming from far to near, gradually reached the ranger cabin.

It was the voice of the little horse-girl Little Little Bangde.

Amid the pattering of footsteps, she was loudly calling out Miss Xiao Ke's name.

Judging by the chaotic footsteps, she had probably been playing around with that bunch of grey squirrels again.

"Little Little Bangde!?"

Miss Xiao Ke abruptly snapped out of her loving state.

Her face flushed crimson. She shoved Rod's head aside and, in a panic, rummaged through the messy floor for her clothes.

She didn't even wipe away the lingering droplets behind the deer-skin before roughly throwing her clothes on, then leapt out through the window on the other side of the room.

Before leaving, she insisted on glaring fiercely at Rod one more time.

(End of chapter)