Illustrious suddenly raised her head and said excitedly, "You're really letting me lick them? My god! There's even such a good thing!"
Taihou was dumbfounded, thinking to herself, "Huh! How is this different from what I imagined?"
Grabbing Taihou's beautiful black-silk-clad foot, Illustrious didn't hesitate for a second and immediately gave it a lick. "Tastes good, thanks for the treat!"
Feeling Illustrious's saliva on her foot, Taihou put on a look of disgust. "You... you bastard! I was just saying it! I didn't actually mean for you to lick them!"
"An opening! Take this!" Seeing Taihou's attention was on her foot, Illustrious immediately snatched the hot dog bun back from her hand.
"Curse it! I was careless," Taihou thought, clenching her fists in secret resentment.
"Ah-nom!" Quickly opening the packaging, Illustrious took a bite and said, "Speaking of which, why are you here? Could it be you're looking for food just like me? If so, I can only say sorry, because this hot dog bun in my hand was the only food left in the fridge."
After wiping the back of her foot with a tissue, Taihou put on her red high heels and said, "I've already eaten dinner, so I'm not here for food."
Swallowing the rest of the hot dog bun in one gulp, Illustrious clapped her hands. "Then what are you doing here? It can't be that you're here to talk about love with me, right?"
Taihou smiled and hugged Illustrious's arm. "You guessed right. I saw that the starry sky is very beautiful tonight, so I wanted to watch the stars with you."
Feeling the softness against her arm, Illustrious's heart fluttered. "Alright then! But it's already 9:30; we can only watch for an hour!"
"I understand. Sleeping too late is bad for the skin. Don't worry, we'll come back to sleep as soon as the time is up," Taihou said, nodding.
"As long as you know. Staying up late is the great enemy of women," Illustrious said with a smile.
The two of them left the Admirals Villa and walked toward a cliff. Illustrious looked expectant, but Taihou was laughing wickedly in her heart.
In truth, Taihou's offer to watch the stars was a lie; her real goal was to take the opportunity to kill Illustrious on the way.
During these past few months, because of the ring of domination, Taihou found herself liking Illustrious more and more.
Now, every time she saw Illustrious's face, Taihou's heart would race, her face would flush, and she would find herself panting for breath.
Taihou, who considered herself experienced in matters of love, knew she had fallen for Illustrious. But this was unacceptable; she still had the North Atlantic Vice-Governor Ye. She couldn't do anything to betray Ye.
To prevent herself from falling further in love with Illustrious, Taihou had to kill her as soon as possible, no matter what.
Only then could she escape the control of the ring of domination.
However, regarding the plan to kill Illustrious, Taihou knew she couldn't do it personally.
There were three reasons. First, Illustrious had forced the ring of domination onto her, which made it impossible for her to do anything that would directly harm Illustrious.
Second, Illustrious's master was at the Naval Base. If that person found out she was the one who did it, she likely wouldn't leave this island alive.
Third, Illustrious was currently nothing more than a Gold-Plated Ship Girl. If she had to personally kill someone like that, wouldn't it make her look like she had no status?
Because of these three reasons, Taihou decided to set three traps along the way.
Each of these three traps was lethal to a Gold-Plated Ship Girl. As long as Illustrious fell for one, she would die with regrets.
The question then arose: if each trap was enough to send Illustrious to the afterlife, why did Taihou set three?
Because Taihou felt that Illustrious possessed many ship devices, and her perception and luck were quite amazing. For such a Ship Girl, relying on a single trap to kill her might be difficult. Therefore, to ensure the plan was foolproof, Taihou set three traps.
Taihou was quite proud of her idea of using three traps. This way, she wouldn't be considered to have actively harmed Illustrious. If Illustrious died in a trap on her own, then Shinano wouldn't be able to settle the score with her.
As for being asked who set the traps, Taihou could completely deny it. She had been very thorough when setting them; absolutely no one would know it was her.
Clenching her fists, Taihou thought gleefully, "Illustrious! I've prepared a great gift for you on the road ahead. I hope you can accept it, hee hee hee..."
Walking along the path, Illustrious suddenly stopped and asked in confusion, "Taihou! Is there something on my face?"
"Eh! No! Your face is very beautiful, without a single blemish," Taihou said, puzzled. "Why do you ask so suddenly?"
After touching her face a few times and confirming there was nothing on it, Illustrious said crossly, "Then why are you always smiling when you look at my face?"
Taihou couldn't help but be startled. "Oops! It must be because I'm about to see Illustrious's tragic death, so I accidentally let a smile slip out."
Taihou coughed a few times and then turned serious. "Don't mind me. I just thought of a joke, so I couldn't help but laugh."
Illustrious breathed a sigh of relief. "So that's it! You have no idea—when you were looking at my face and smiling just now, I thought I had some hot dog bun crumbs stuck on my face!"
As a Royal Navy Ship Girl, Illustrious paid close attention to her conduct and would never do anything that lacked etiquette or elegance.
Therefore, only after hearing Taihou say she hadn't done anything inelegant did she truly feel at ease.
Taihou smiled and said, "You're just overthinking it. Alright, stop thinking about random things and let's hurry up!"
"Yeah! You're right!" Illustrious nodded and continued following Taihou toward the cliff.
Seeing that Illustrious hadn't become suspicious, Taihou breathed a sigh of relief. However, at that moment, Illustrious suddenly spoke again. "By the way, what joke did you think of? Tell it to me!"
Being asked, Taihou was startled. What she had been thinking about wasn't a joke at all; she had only smiled because she thought she could kill Illustrious.
Once a lie is told, countless more must be told to cover it up so others don't find out. Taihou was now in a difficult position. To prevent Illustrious from suspecting her of having bad intentions, Taihou's mind raced to come up with a joke to deal with her.
After thinking for a moment, Taihou had a flash of inspiration and said, "The joke is that three little pigs captured an elf."
"And then?"
"That's it!"
"That's it? Just that? Please! What's so funny about that?" Illustrious asked, puzzled.
"It's very funny! These three little pigs wanted to push down the elf, but in the end, they were the ones pushed down by the elf. Not only did the pigs find themselves unable to get out of bed, but while they were sleeping from exhaustion, the elf roasted them into braised suckling pigs. Hahaha... isn't it funny?" Taihou laughed, covering her mouth.
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