Seeing the standoff, Elliot knew he had to step in. Otherwise, with Kumoko's personality, her refusal to even speak to Sophia would only make the misunderstanding fester and grow.

"You should already know," he began, his voice calm and steady, "that casting magic on yourself allows you to train both your magic skills and your resistances at the same time. It's an efficient, two-for-one training method."

"A normal person could never train this way, through self-harm, because in this world, recovering health isn't easy. But we're different. With me here, no matter how much you get hurt, you can recover quickly. You've already experienced my healing ability," he added, a hint of a smile in his voice, "so I won't brag."

"As a vampire, light and fire magic are incredibly dangerous for you. Your natural resistance to them is in the negative. But magical resistance can be improved. Just think, in the future, if you had Level 10 Light and Fire Magic Resistance, as the Vampire True Ancestor, you would have no weaknesses."

As Elliot explained, Sophia began to understand the purpose of this harsh training. The answer was obvious. Both Kumoko and Lord Elliot were thinking about her future, trying to make her stronger. Yet, her initial, gut reaction was to reject it.

"I'm sorry," Sophia's telepathic voice was small. "You're right... it's my own fault." The current Sophia, now able to communicate, had to admit it.

It wasn't that she didn't want to train; it was because of her own twisted, internal conflict. She was being an ungrateful brat.

Utterly pathetic. If Kumoko and Elliot hadn't protected her, she probably would have been found by the elves and killed within days.

"The truth is... I'm just jealous of her."

She hated Wakaba Hiiro. It was for such a petty, childish reason, but it was the truth. It was that simple. She had always been jealous of Wakaba Hiiro. No, she still was.

In her past life, she had been intensely jealous of Wakaba, who was more beautiful than anyone else.

And even after being reincarnated, Sophia couldn't let go of that feeling. Even after Kumoko had saved her life, she still disliked her. All for such an ugly, shameful reason.

Because she didn't want to face that ugly truth, she resisted Kumoko's training, even knowing she had a blood feud to avenge.

But the more she resisted, the more it exposed her own pettiness. She didn't hold a grudge against Wakaba Hiiro for any specific wrong; she just disliked her out of pure, one-sided jealousy.

And then, just as she had been reborn, given a fresh start and a chance to remake herself, she had to run into the very person she detested from her past life.

And it happened at her absolute lowest point, after losing everything. The death of her parents, the negative emotions she'd carried over from her past life, and the anger at her own weakness t all just came pouring out. It was just a tantrum, a way to vent.

Compared to Sophia, who had lost everything, Shiraori (Kumoko) not only retained the beauty of her past life but also possessed overwhelming strength. Sophia couldn't accept that gap.

"Why is she still so strong and beautiful, while I'm still so ugly, even after being reborn!" Sophia, in broken, emotional bursts, told Elliot about her envy of Wakaba Hiiro.

As a child, her ability to express herself was still developing. But despite this, Elliot listened patiently until the very end.

For this man who had saved her from the Elf King, Sophia felt a genuine fondness. Perhaps because of that, she hoped to hear words of comfort from him.

"Jealous of her?" Elliot began. "You should know, when Shiraori was first reincarnated, she was very envious of my stats. As an Earth Dragon, my initial stats surpassed any other creature's. Her base stats... were even weaker than yours are right now."

"Is... is that true?" The thought of Wakaba Hiiro being envious of someone else was almost unbelievable to Sophia.

She could feel such things? Sophia had always imagined Wakaba Hiiro as a perfect being, someone above such messy emotions, almost like a goddess!

"Yes, she was very envious," Elliot nodded. He knew it from the first time he met Kumoko. The way she had looked at him, the light in her eyes was definitely envy.

"Back then, she was just a little spider with low stats. She had no [Vampire True Ancestor] title, no 75,000 skill points. She started with only one hundred skill points, and the only skill she could learn was [Appraisal]. In the Elroe Labyrinth, almost every single monster could kill her..."

Hearing this, Sophia tried to imagine it. The powerful, seemingly invincible Wakaba Hiiro... had once been that weak?

"But now," Elliot stood up, looking down at Sophia, "her stats have surpassed mine."

"Yet even so, Shiraori doesn't act high and mighty just because her stats are higher. Because she knows that cooperating with me makes her even stronger than fighting alone."

"An individual's strength ultimately has its limits. Even gods need to seek cooperation. The people standing at the top of the world are indeed dazzling, but you have to understand that behind their glory are countless others who lifted them to that height."

"Sophia, in the end, you're still only thinking of yourself. You put yourself first and don't consider others. It's the same now. Even though you call yourself ugly and put on a show of admitting your faults, you're just pretending to be self-loathing without truly reflecting on yourself. You're just using it to justify your own behavior." Elliot's criticism was blunt and merciless.

People from Japan had a culture of bowing and apologizing. But that didn't always mean they were truly sorry.

Sometimes it was just, "I was wrong, and I'll do it again next time." Don't be fooled by their sincere-looking apologies; sometimes they were just refining their mistakes, improving their methods to continue down the wrong path even more effectively. Sophia was the same.

If she truly wanted to atone, she shouldn't have been complaining to him. She should have gone and sincerely apologized to Kumoko.

Elliot's criticism was so harsh that Sophia was too stunned to even argue. She was a little scared. If this person came to hate her, she would be completely lost. If Elliot and Kumoko abandoned her now, she and Mera wouldn't survive a single day.

Thinking of this, Sophia had a sudden, sharp realization. She really didn't have the right to be picky. And she genuinely started to hate herself a little bit, for possessing such immense jealousy.

She was envious of others' strength, yet she rejected any effort to change her own weakness.

She was like a crab in a barrel; seeing its kin climbing above, its first instinct wasn't to figure out how to surpass them, but to pull them back down.

"When Shiraori was first born in the Elroe Labyrinth, she was very weak," Elliot's voice softened slightly. "But she never told others about her misfortunes, because comparing misfortunes is meaningless. All that misfortune ultimately became the fuel for her strength."

"You should know, there are countless unfortunate people in this world. No one is the eternal protagonist, and no one is born a powerhouse. Everyone is forged through hardship. We won't abandon you, but... you don't want to be on bad terms with Shiraori forever, do you?"

"Mm." Hearing Elliot's words, Sophia finally nodded. She felt deeply ashamed.

For the first time, she realized just how ignorant she had been. Just think: Shiraori was in a hell like the Elroe Labyrinth, fighting for her life against monsters day and night, while she was living comfortably in a castle, cared for by maids.

With that, what right did she have to think she could surpass Shiraori and become stronger? If she didn't train properly from now on, the gap between her and Shiraori would only grow wider and wider.

"I... I understand," Sophia nodded. For some reason, even after being thoroughly scolded, she felt a sense of release, a kind of catharsis.

She probably didn't realize it, but after being reprimanded, she had awakened a certain... strange attribute within herself.

….

From that day forward, Sophia's attitude towards Kumoko changed. Although she was still jealous of Kumoko's strength, she became much more obedient overall.

And the demonic training these past few days... it actually awakened a strange quality in her. Being scolded... felt good. Being hit by Kumoko's magic... felt even better!

Even Kumoko found it strange. This person... is she sick or something? How can getting beaten make her so happy? It's over. This child is probably ruined for life.

But regardless, the child's shift from resistance to compliance saved Kumoko a lot of time and effort; she no longer had to waste extra energy convincing her to train.

And so, Sophia's various attributes and stats grew steadily, not letting down Kumoko's dedicated efforts.

Especially her various resistances, which improved so much that even as a child, Sophia now had significant resistance to various types of magic.

She even had Level 3 to 5 resistance to fire and light magic, which vampires feared most. Don't underestimate this small amount of resistance.

Because a vampire's natural resistance to these two types of magic was in the negative, any attack with these elements would normally deal double damage to her.

Now, with some resistance, the damage was naturally reduced considerably.

Elliot pinched the bridge of his nose. It seemed that his harsh scolding of the little vampire had completely awakened her, and even unlocked her later yandere-like attributes.

Originally, this trait should have been solidified only after Sophia grew up, but who knew it would awaken so quickly. Of course, Elliot had no intention of "fixing" her back. This was probably fine too.

During this time, they traveled through the forest by day, and at night, those with human forms could rest in town inns.

But Kumoko couldn't. She was in a half-human, half-spider form. If she went into a village, it would definitely cause a commotion.

Kanna could wear a hood to cover her dragon horns, and Emilia was the same. But Kumoko's lower spider body was simply too large.

Even the wide hoop skirts favored by medieval European noblewomen couldn't possibly conceal eight spider legs.

And her Space Magic could only teleport her to places she had been before. Even with her Space Magic at max level, there was still a difference between her and Güliedistodiez's precise interdimensional travel.

This meant Kumoko could only camp out in the wild. So pitiful. But thankfully, Elliot was willing to accompany her. Otherwise, during the long nights, all alone, Kumoko would have died of loneliness!

The journey to the Demon Lord's territory required crossing the entire Sariella Kingdom. The journey was long, and with the limitations of their space magic, they could only proceed on foot. Their pace wasn't fast.

And so, more than a month passed. During this time, the strength of Vampy, Emilia, and even the weakest, Mera, had all improved significantly. So, Elliot finally decided it was time to teach them some theoretical knowledge.

"Now, among us, some have already obtained skills from the Seven Deadly Sins and Seven Heavenly Virtues series. In the future, you will face Rulers with these abilities, and you will also need to use these abilities properly. I need to give you all a lesson."

Hearing Elliot speak...

….

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