It's working, it's working

"Y-you! You'll pay for this later, nya!?"

Misha-senshu roared with her face beet red and tears welling up in her eyes.

"Eek, how scary, how scary. Oh no, the restraints are about to come undone…!"

"The moment these restraints come off is when you're finished, nya!!"

"Let me pet you to improve your mood. And the base of your tail too. Pat pat pat…"

"H-hey, seriously, stop it, nya!? Ah, ah, ah, crap, stop!?"

Ahh, this is fun. It's not every day you get to spank a cat-eared beauty in front of such a massive crowd.

"Karina-senshu! That doesn't look like an attack that deals damage, but—"

"It's a status ailment attack, got a problem with that!?"

"Mm, mmm! Then I suppose it can't be helped…"

"You! Hey, ref! Stop her already, nya!? There's no way this counts as a status ailment attack… ahih!"

Misha-senshu trembled. It's working, it's working.

"Hohoho, your body's honestly showing the status ailment is taking effect. Oops, oh no, the restraints are about to come undone! 10, 9, 8…"

"Oh, oh!? Just a few more seconds, nya!? Ugh, h-hurry up and stop petting me, nya!"

"… seeeeeeeeeeven, siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiix…"

"Heeeey!? Don't slow down the count, nyaaa!!!"

Misha-senshu thrashed around in anger. Of course, the restraints didn't come undone.

Fufufu, this is what they call getting a rise out of someone. I'm having way too much fun with this.

"I'm straining to keep the restraints from coming undone, so of course the count's going to slow down. Right, ref?"

"Eh? Ah, is… is that so?"

"Hey! Don't fall for it, nya!? She's not even counting anymore, nya!! So the restraints releasing at zero was a lie all along, nya!?"

"Fiiiive, foooour, threeeeeee…"

"Oh, oh, just a bit more! Just hang on a little longer and I'll be free…"

"Twoooo, ooooone… Zero! (smack!) Zero! (SMACK!) ZEROOOO!! (SMAAAACK!!)"

"MYAAAAAHHH!?"

The count hit zero, so I gave her butt a good hard smack. Misha-senshu trembled and went limp.

"Wait, the restraints didn't come off, nya!? You tricked me, nya!?"

"I never said the restraints would release when the count hit zero, though? It was just a countdown until I smacked you, you know?"

"You bastaaaaaaard!!!! Pinyah!?"

SMACK!! I gave her butt another good whack. Tears rolled down from Misha-senshu's eyes.

"Phew, if I smack her about ten more times, the restraints might finally come undone. Hey, Misha-senshu, could you count how many times I've hit you?"

"… Uuu, ugh, this is awful, nya! I'm being toyed with, nyaaa…!!"

"Come on, I'm being merciful enough not to pull down your spats. Or would you prefer I expose Misha's cute butt to the entire Coliseum?"

"Stop iiiiiiiiiiit!?"

Fufufu, I think that's about enough.

"Oh, Referee. I surrender."

"Huh?"

I declared that.

"Yeah, I've reached my limit. I can't restrain Misha-senshu any longer…"

I said, stroking Misha-senshu's butt. I felt like a villain swirling a wine glass while petting a cat.

"Wi-winner! Misha-senshu…??"

The referee announced, though clearly confused.

Boos flew from the audience.

"What the hell!? Take this seriously!!"

"Don't mess around! She was clearly getting completely dominated!?"

"She surrendered!? Why!? Misha-senshu couldn't do anything at all!"

Well, yeah. Not taking it seriously and then surrendering on top of that was pretty selfish of me. Misha-senshu was glaring at me too.

"You… s-stop… joking around…!"

"I'll put the promised one gold coin inside your spats!"

"Nyahih! That's cold…"

I shoved the gold coin into Misha's spats through the tail hole.

It's from the Healer fund, but I'll get reimbursed by the Goddess later, so it's fine. Then I leaned in and whispered into the still-restrained Misha's ear.

"Oh, I'll just take your socks as a memento of our match. That's okay, right, Misha-chan?"

"Hngh… I-if I won, the agreement should be differ—"

"Huh? Huuuh? You think you won with this? Pfft, that's hilarious."

"…～～～!! F-fine, take them, nya…!"

Since she still couldn't move, I slipped off her socks myself while Misha watched with tears in her eyes.

Phew, I got a bit too into it and had too much fun. Sorry about that.

"… Being overwhelmingly beaten, yet having victory handed to her! This is quite the humiliation for a gladiator!! As expected of Karina-chan, nice humiliation!! Genius!! My beloved child!"

And the divine statue glowed happily.