The girls gre at each other for a moment - having gotten up for their little punishment - before activating their magic at the same time and moving forward for a kiss, and Sincir begins to count as he spots their tongues connecting...

  Surprisingly, Ena is the first to cheat by grabbing Eleanor’s ass and squeezing it hard enough to have the other girl standing on the tip of her toes... Then Eleanor smiles through their kiss, locks her leg behind Ena’s, and pushes the both of them down...

  “...You both fail,” Sincir murmurs in astonishment as he stares at the two of them, now on the ground, holding each other’s hair, and gring at the other, seemingly having completely forgotten about the nature of their task mid-way through it.

  A minute or so ter, having separated and gotten the two of them to sit in front of him once more, Sincir shakes his head.

  “Forget the magic training or the push-ups... How can I trust the two of you to watch each other’s back when you’re like this?”

  Looking away from the other, the both of them tighten their jaws.

  Sincir sighs. “...Trust building exercises it is, then.”

  “Sin, we’re fine,” Ena tries, “Let’s just get on with the training...”

  “Well, we know I wouldn’t leave her for dead...” Eleanor murmurs under her breath, still not looking at either of them as she does so.

  Ena cringes, then gres at the nephilim. “I know what I said hurt you, and that you’re still not over it, but if you really think I’d put you in danger on purpose-”

  Eleanor snorts. “On purpose? No. Your inability? Your misguided kindness? Your stupidity? Your impulsiveness? They might just kill me one day, but hey, let’s hope it doesn’t happen too fast, so I can pay for at least some of my crimes before I go...”

  Ena pales, and Sincir groans, grabbing the bridge of his nose as he does so.

  “Eleanor...”

  She grimaces. “...I admit, that might’ve been a little out of line,” she murmurs under her breath after a moment of silence in between the three of them.

  Ena sighs. “No... It’s how upset by what I said you are,” she murmurs, before turning toward him, leaf-green eyes now determined-looking, “...Trust building exercises, you said?”

  Staring down at the two of them, Sincir crosses his arms. “Eleanor, look at me.”

  It takes a moment, but she begrudgingly does so, striking blue eyes gleaming coldly. “...What is it?”

  “...Do you wish for Ena to trust you? Do you want her as a friend...? Or do you still think of her as a stone in your path, undeserving of anything other than your mockery?”

  Eleanor presses her lips together. “Isn’t it obvious...?”

  “No!” both him and Ena speak at once, causing her to grimace, throwing her hands up.

  “...Okay, wait!” Sincir says, interrupting what is sure to grow into another petty argument before it can start, “Just... Tell us your perspective.”

  Eleanor smiles, then ughs coldly. “You ask me if I care for her as I friend... When I pced my naked boyfriend on top of her bed? When I got on my knees, naked, to ask her for forgiveness? When I risked being burned alive with her, rather than allowing her own inadequacy to cause her harm...?” she murmurs, sweetly, her voice growing colder with each sentence, “Must I grovel some more, Ena? Should I kiss your feet while you fuck Sincir...? Or is that not enough, still? Must I tie myself to a torture chair for you...? Is that it?”

  Ena swallows, opens her mouth, and then closes it again, seemingly at a loss for words.

  Seeing her ck of a response, Eleanor snorts. “I thought as much... The truth is, you’d have been fine with me as your friend, even had I never apologized, so long you had Sincir’s cock only to yourself, you little possessive shit.”

  Ena lowers her gaze, frowning as her eyes grow teary and her cheeks hotter. “I... I can’t help how I feel about him.”

  Sincir nods. “Alright, this is good... Ena, expin; What is that feeling?”

  The two of them throw him weird looks.

  “...Just do it, please, or we’ll never get anywhere.”

  As they both stare at her, Ena squirms slightly. “I... Jealousy, I guess? I thought... At some point I realized that if I didn’t make him mine quickly enough, I’d become just a student to Sin... And that I’d spend the rest of my life watching him and whoever he ended up with from afar... I didn’t think there would be multiple of them until recently, but that didn’t change much, because I just can’t bear the thought of not being with him... And you are about the st person I’d like to see beating me to it, Eleanor.”

  “You feel inferior to the other girls, and you fear I might forget about you in pro of being with them,” Sincir surmises.

  Eleanor snorts. “She must’ve missed how you still went for her when you already had someone like me... Sex isn’t just about the appearance of your partner, pipsqueak.”

  Ena grimaces. “That nickname does not help my confidence! And could you pretend at least for a damn second to not have so much pride over that stupid piece of fat you carry behind you?!”

  Sincir sighs. “Okay, stop... Ena, let’s run a hypothetical.”

  It takes a moment, but she does stop gring at Eleanor in order to look at him.

  “...What hypothetical?”

  “Let’s say I cared a lot less for your feelings, and that I had total control over you; Hypothetically speaking, of course. And let’s say I gave Eleanor the power to order you around, completely... What do you think would happen?”

  Ena blinks, and then the blood disappears from her face. “Would I at least have the choice to kill myself instead...?”

  Eleanor grimaces, but he quickly raises a hand in her direction before she can speak.

  “Not the Eleanor from five years ago, Ena...The Eleanor who put me on your bed, when she knew she’d gain nothing from doing it. Try to imagine it, please.”

  Ena turns away, furrowing her brows as she does so.

  “I guess... So long as I didn’t go out of my way to piss her off, even if I was her sve, she would treat me fairly well... She’d let me be your girlfriend, and she’d let me do whatever I wanted, most of the time... Just, she’d take me to her room at night, and humiliate me... Make me her bitch...”

  “And after that...?” Sincir pushes.

  “...She’d hold me tight all night long, apologizing for being a bitch.”

  “Eleanor?” he asks, turning toward her as he does so.

  “Sounds about right,” the nephilim confirms, her expression carefully neutral.

  “Ena, how does that fantasy make you feel? The idea of it?”

  Still looking away from the two of them, Ena bites her lower lip. “Like I might be happier as her sve, than I am currently...? Just, I’d have no pride, and eventually, I wouldn’t be able to stare at you in the eyes... She’d become my world, and it’d a cruel, if rather comfortable, world to live in.”

  Eleanor smiles sweetly. “I’d have you watching me and Sincir fucking every night, and I’d make you p his cum from my pussy after he creams me in front of your eyes... Is that what you think, you fucking retard?”

  Ena shudders, throwing her a sidelong long. “Is it that much of stretch? You don’t make it exactly a secret you enjoy bullying others, you know.”

  Eleanor rolls her eyes. “What would be the fun in bullying some broken toy? I won’t deny I enjoy fighting, and that I always punch back as hard as I get it... But have you ever seen me bullying someone for no reason, Ena? Even during our time at the orphanage? Or me going out of my way to make someone feel inferior, just because I felt like it?”

  Ene lowers her gaze, grimacing, and Eleanor smiles.

  “Do you want to know what it’d really be like if you were my sve, pipsqueak...?”

  “...I think I’ll skip it,” Ena murmurs, before staring at him and frowning, “Was there a point to this hypothetical of yours, Sin?”

  “Of course... I wanted to show you that you didn’t believe her as cruel as you pretend to... And I wanted to show her the same.”

  Ena presses her lips together, not answering.

  “...Her version of me as her owner still sounded pretty cruel from where I’m sitting,” Eleanor points out drily.

  He sighs. “That’s because you don’t make yourself any favors, Eleanor... In any case, now it’s your turn. Say I made you a sve for Ena; What do you think would happen?”

  Eleanor smiles. “She’d be nice, allowing me to go about as I pleased... As I long as I never tried to approach you, that is. Otherwise, she’d have me sleeping in my room by myself, as she spent the night with you, and then smile at me in the morning, like nothing was wrong... Forever.”

  “You could always find somebody else,” Ena murmurs, not even bothering to try to deny it as she gres toward the other girl, “Sincir is not the only guy out there.”

  Eleanor rolls her eyes. “You’d send me away, then?”

  “That’s not what I mean!”

  The nephilim chuckles coldly. “If you’re so bothered by the way Sincir does things, then why not go after one of these other guys yourself...? Why do I have to be the one to do it?”

  Ena presses her lips together.

  “...Because to me, it sounds as if you wouldn’t care about how miserable I was, for as long as you got to be happy... Friend.”

  As Ena’s expression pales slightly, Sincir clears his throat. “I’m sorry, Ena, but she is right... Comparing the both of your fantasies, it seems clear to me she cares about making you happy - at least in her own way - while you care about knowing she is still alive and unhurt, but little else. Did you ever actually wish for her to become your friend?”

  Ena’s eyes widen. “I...! Of course I...!”

  “Don’t force yourself; I got it already,” Eleanor says, suddenly rising as she heads toward the house and quickly disappears within...

  Not long after, they hear a door smming upstairs, presumably her room’s.

  ...Sincir is gd she didn’t leave the house altogether, at least.

  “...I thought this was supposed to have us grow closer?” Ena groans, her face in between her hands as she gres up at him through in between her fingers.

  Sighing, he throws her an exasperated look. “I can’t help you grow closer if you don’t want to, Ena.”

  She averts her face away, tightening her jaw.

  “Okay, fine... What do you want from her?” he asks at st, trying for a more neutral approach, “I think it was pretty well established she wants to grow closer to you... If not as friend, then at least as a rival she respects. Be honest with me... Would you’ve really done nothing with her if she was your sve? Other than keeping her away from me?”

  Still not looking at him, Ena blushes. “Are the two of you stupid...?” she murmurs, “I’m not that nice... And I’ve already admitted I have it for her. I might be too jealous too allow her to have you... But I’d c-care for her myself, of course, if she was in need of it.”

  Sincir blinks. “So... You’d keep us both to yourself, only, if you could,” he murmurs incredulously.

  Ena’s blush deepens. “When you put it like that...”

  “Would you have us watching you fuck the other...?” he asks curiously.

  “No!” Ena yells, her gaze snapping angrily toward him as she does so, “That’s what fucking bedroom doors are for, Sin! So you can fuck behind them without anyone watching! I don’t want her miserable! And I don’t want her as my fucking sve either! But if she was, of course I’d at least try to make her happy-!”

  “As long as it didn’t involve using my cock to do it,” he interrupts, causing Ena to grimace at him.

  “Yeah, that’s right; If I had a choice, no other girl would ever touch you,” she admits, her voice bitter, “And I don’t care if they’d all become miserable as I consequence of it... I deserve some happiness too, damn it!”

  Sincir crosses his arms. “And what if that’d make me miserable? Would you still-”

  “I know it’d make you miserable, jackass!” Ena screams, “Where do you think my insecurity comes from?! If I thought I was enough to make you happy, then I’d have given you an ultimatum already!”

  Sincir grimaces.

  “...It’s the same for you, isn’t it? If you thought you could have me as one of your side girls and still have me being happy, you’d have taken me earlier,” Ena murmurs, seeming to have realized as much just now, “And now, we’re somehow both miserable, even though we have each other.”

  “I wouldn’t go that far...” he murmurs while averting his gaze, “And I’ll make it work for you, somehow.”

  She snorts. “Like you made it work for me and El?”

  Pressing his lips together, Sincir forces himself to remain patient as he narrows his eyes at her. “I was still under the illusion you wanted to be friends with her, which is why I thought you two just needed a couple of honest talks and trust building to stop hating each other so much... I’m sorry for not realizing you’d literately be happier as her sve than as her friend, Ena.”

  “How could I become friends with someone I feel inferior to in every way?” Ena asks, her voice and expression once more bitter, “I like her, and I admire her... But being her friend is simply impossible for me.”

  Sincir sighs, groaning as he does so. “Look... If the three of us we are to keep living together, and not have the house come down around us, then we’ll need to have the both of you coming to some sort of understanding... If not as friends, than as mistress and bitch, or... As girlfriends.”

  Ena blinks.

  “Choose,” he orders, “And I’ll help you get there.”

  Ena opens her mouth, then closes it again. “You mean... Now?”

  “When else, Ena? Should we wait until one of your petty fights has had a serious consequence, like one of you leaving for good? Or, Creator forbid, one of you getting hurt because you were distracted at the wrong moment?”

  Ena swallows. “I see your point... But being her girlfriend would be no different than being her bitch, and we already established I can’t stand being her friend... Do you really want to make me a sve to her, Sin?”

  He grimaces. Is there really no way to make so they won’t be fighting each other all the time...?

  “...No, Ena, I don’t want you to became her sve, because I know it’d make you miserable. How about we try working on some of that insecurity first, and see where that goes? Would you be up for that?”

  Ena grimaces. “You mean my totally grounded-in-reality insecurity?”

  Sincir shakes his head. “That’s not how insecurity works... Confidence comes from within, and I’ve met quasits who have more confidence in their sexual appeal than you-”

  “And whose fault is that, exactly, if not from my two wonderful family members?!”

  “Your insecurity is not our fault,” Sincir corrects, sustaining her gaze seriously as he does so, “Or our responsibility, for that matter... Unless you think you have some sort of Gods’ given right to be my girlfriend? To have Eleanor constantly hurting herself so that you feel better about things?”

  She blinks, her eyes growing teary as she begins to shake slightly. “Y-you think I don’t know that? You think I wanted her to put you on my bed...?! To get on her knees to apologize...?! Why do you think I tried to wish you guys happiness once you got together, and then, after I realized it was killing me, I tried to leave?! I knew from the beginning my feelings were selfish! I... I just, for once in my fucked up life, wanted to have something she couldn’t!”

  Ena sobs, now openly crying as she averts her face from him and hugs herself, doubling over slightly.

  “I know I’m a piece of thrash, okay?! I mean, I pissed on top of you just so I could mark you as mine! Who does that?!”

  He snorts. “Ena...”

  “Shut up!”

  “Ena, stop being a baby for a second and listen... If you were me, what would you do?”

  Still looking away from him, she sniffs. “F-fuck you.”

  “Ena...”

  She gres at him. “Isn’t it obvious?! I’d kick my sorry ass on the street, wish myself luck, and spend my days getting boobjobs from the stupidly hot nephilim who doesn’t care if I have sex with other girls or not!”

  Smiling at her exasperatedly, Sincir shakes his head. “I don’t know if I’d go as far as to say she doesn’t care, but sure... However, if you understand that much, then why do you think I’m still here, listening to your whining, when there are about a dozen other girls, hotter than you, who I could be fucking right now?”

  She shrugs, making a show of rolling her eyes. “Pity...? Mental illness?”

  It takes a good portion of his self-control, but Sincir does, barely, manage not to push her down right there and then.

  He sighs. “Okay, I see that the good guy approach has failed... Very well, then, have it your way.”

  Having met his demon side a couple of times by now, her eyes immediately widen slightly. “No, Sin, wait-”

  “I’m going to go up...” he interrupts, staring at her as coldly as manages before continuing, “And apologize to Eleanor for what we did to her... Then I’ll fuck her, because that’s what happens when we are alone in a room together. As for you; You can stay here and cry... Or outside her room’s door, listening to our moans... Or you can come with me inside so that we may work on some of your insecurity issues.”

  Without waiting for her answer, he turns and walks away, heading back inside...

  He is climbing the stairs by the time she catches up with him, averting her eyes once he stops and throws her a look.

  “...Since I don’t think you’ve suddenly decided to masturbate to me and Eleanor fucking on the other side of a door, I take it you’ve change your mind about giving my pn a try?”

  Ena grimaces, her cheeks growing hotter still. “I swear, you’re such a fucking cunt sometimes...” she murmurs under her breath, before meeting his gaze once more, “Yeah, sure, I’ll do whatever you want me to, like the good little fuck-toy that I am.”

  Sincir smiles. “I’d love having you as nothing but my fuck-toy, Ena... Unfortunately, I care about those fragile feelings of yours way too much for that. You do understand I’m doing this to help the two of you, yes?”

  “...I suppose,” Ena admits begrudgingly.

  “Then stop fighting against me already! C’mon, I doubt Eleanor is growing any more forgiving a person the more we make her wait.”

  This time, Ena follows him obediently toward Eleanor’s room, though she still looks less than happy over the perspective of working on her insecurity issues... She must have an idea of what he has in mind, though she is probably wrong.

  Once they arrive in front of Eleanor’s door, Sincir knocks against it once, then opens it...

  He finds Eleanor on the ground, doing push-ups, on her underwear and a set of of her beloved bandages... Eh, he was actually hoping to catch her doing something embarrassing this time.

  If her glistening skin is anything to by, she has been going at it for a while, and has probably long reached the hundreds...

  “Close the door,” she grunts at the two of them, “And make yourselves at home, why won’t you?”

  Sincir walks in, signaling for Ena to do the same, which she does hesitantly, while inspecting her rival’s room curiously.

  Crossing his arms, Sincir ignores Ena as he stops over Eleanor, gring down at her. “Who said you could leave in the middle of training, love?”

  ‘I know you’re angry, but cooperate for now, please,’ he sends her through a mind spell, ‘I’ll apologize however you want ter.’

  Eleanor narrows her eyes at him through a sidelong look, stopping her push-ups to do so. “It was either that, or throwing it down with the pathetic excuse of a woman behind you... If she could even be called as such.”

  “I thought you were going to apologize to her...?” Ena asks from behind him.

  “I saw her punishing herself again, and I changed my mind,” Sincir says, which is only half of a lie, “What did I say was going to happen if you two kept bickering, love?”

  Eleanor tightens her jaw; However, once she tries to rise, he steps over her back, roughly pushing her down.

  Ena’s eyes widen. “Sin!”

  Sincir chuckles. “Don’t worry, this is just how we py when you’re not around... Got something to say, love?”

  Eleanor gres at him, but she doesn’t try to rise again. “No... Suit yourself,” she murmurs through clenched teeth.

  Pulling his foot from her back, he steps over her head, pressing her cheek against the ground while cocking his head at her. “Still nothing to say?”

  “...No,” she growls.

  He nods. “Okay then, since you’re being such a good girl today, we’ll just do whatever we want... Is that fine?”

  “Uhm... Can I leave now?” Ena murmurs.

  Shifting his gaze from Eleanor, Sincir narrows his eyes at her. “And whose fault do you think it is that we’re fighting again?”

  Ena grimaces. “Let’s... Let’s just get this over with. What do I have to do?”

  Sincir smiles, turning toward Eleanor once more as he does so. “You see, love, we decided to work on some of her insecurity issues, since they seem to make it impossible for her to accept you as a friend... Say, Ena, what do you think of this side of hers? What do you feel when you see her obediently beneath my foot?”

  Almost as if compelled against her will to do so, Ena stares toward Eleanor’s face, pressed against the ground by his foot, and nephilim’s expression of rage and shame... As well as bitter acceptance.

  “You... You’re just going to take that?!” Ene asks, her voice incredulous, “Because he told you to?!”

  Eleanor shifts her eyes to gre at her. “Because he told me to...? No. So you can work through some of your stupid insecurities about me...? Fine, let’s do it. I’ll survive, and I’ll still be myself tomorrow, because I’m me.”

  Sincir smiles, waving at her lying form as though to showcase an impressive specimen. “You see, Ena? This what unwavering confidence in oneself looks like. You might think she’d be different if her appearance was worse, and you might bme the bullying she put you through for a lot of your own insecurities, but at the end of the day, she can’t make you into an insecure person... She can try to destroy your confidence, your pride, but it’ll only work if you allow it to.”

  Her eyes slightly widened, Ena steps back and shakes her head. “You two are insane...”

  Sincir snorts. “Maybe... But it is an undeniable fact that some of the things Eleanor went through recently, and in the past, would’ve destroyed a lesser person. Still, she never stopped walking with her head held high, and the reason I push her so hard is because I know she’ll bounce back up, stronger than before...” he says, facing Ena’s leaf-green eyes directly as he does so, “Say, Ena, instead of spending your time hating her for who she is, have you ever thought about learning from her, even if just a little?”

  Ena swallows, her eyes darting from Eleanor to him and back... Then, she swallows again, hesitating.

  “What... What do I have to do?” she murmurs at st.