"...But it all changed when a certain soone showed up..."
"A great investor…" Her lips twisted into a sly, almost flirtatious smirk, and her voice softened into sothing resembling adoration. "I was able to push my work forward without worrying about the cost."
She tilted her head slightly, her eyes glinting with a mix of amusent and lust. "So it hurts to lie to him, really. I'll have to make it up to him. But his generosity... allowed to accelerate everything."
"!"
Adrian froze.
Her words struck him like a physical blow, his body suddenly cold, his thoughts scrambling to catch up with the realization that crashed into him like a tidal wave.
'Him.'
She was talking about him.
The "great investor" who had unknowingly fueled her attack—her war against Veda, the city, and everyone he knew. It was him. Adrian's heart pounded in his chest, panic clawing at his mind.
His thoughts scrambled, desperate to keep up with the horrifying truth that unraveled before him.
'I-It was ...'
'This was all because of ...'
He had funded her madness, he had given her the resources she needed to carry out her plans—he had made this possible.
His hands trembled, cold sweat trickling down his spine as everything fell into place.
The reason she had attacked so soon, why the timing had changed—it was all because of him.
Liora's eyes flickered toward Adrian's direction for the briefest mont, as if sensing sothing was there, but her attention quickly returned to Veda, savoring every word she spoke. "Ah, but I will make it up to him," she mused softly, her voice dripping with a strange mix of affection, lust, and cruelty. "He deserves sothing special, after all…"
Adrian couldn't breathe.
'I-I...'
He recalled his actions from the mont he t her in the Black Market. How he t her officially, proposed a business deal, and gave her a massive amount of money as an investnt.
He just wanted to make the 'New Life1' better since she founded it without any ulterior motives, even supporting the city after the monster waves in the novel though since this business was small, a lot of people were sacrificed in the end.
That's why he did it.
He wanted to prevent that.
Then, after the Ruins Awakening and monster waves were taken care of, he would talk with her, buying the whole New Life for himself, so, it wouldn't be destroyed after her attack.
Because...
All the workers in the New Life didn't know anything about her real purpose and her cruel experints, not to ntion they were all jobless, helpless people who she had taken in and given a chance to survive.
Adrian had thought he was doing sothing noble, sothing good—helping them keep their lives. He believed that by supporting New Life, and maybe her, he could prevent a future catastrophe and that he was safeguarding innocent lives. He thought she might have been concise because of her actions in the novel and in this world...
But...
Now...
Now, he realized the horrifying truth.
His vision blurred as the weight of his decision, his ignorance, crushed him.
This was all his fault.
The devastation, the destruction... it had all been made possible because of him. Every coin he had given her had been a step closer to this mont, to the attack that had blindsided the city.
'How could I have been so blind?' Adrian thought, his mind spinning.
The weight of his mistake, his involvent in this disaster, pressed down on him like a thousand stones. Every fiber of his being wanted to scream, to stop her, to undo everything that had led to this mont—but he couldn't. He was frozen, paralyzed by the sheer horror of his realization.
And Liora, with that satisfied smirk on her lips, continued her deadly dance, unaware that her words had shattered the very person who had unknowingly enabled her.
Adrian had believed he was acting out of foresight, that he was controlling the narrative by supporting her business before it spiraled into sothing darker. But in reality, he had been her pawn all along. His attempt to prevent disaster had accelerated it.
"Huf... Huff..."
His breath ca in shallow gasps, panic constricting his chest. 'I trusted her. I believed I was doing sothing good. I believed I was stopping the future disaster, and now…'
The room around him felt too small, too confining, as if the walls themselves were closing in. He wanted to run, to escape the crushing guilt, but there was no escape from the truth.
'...I'm the one who caused it.'
Liora, still toying with her prey, smiled to herself as she reminisced over her "great investor's" generosity. Every word she spoke was a knife twisting deeper into Adrian's heart. Her affection for her unknown benefactor dripped with sickening sweetness, masking the venom underneath.
"Everything was going so well," she purred, running a hand through her hair, lost in her own twisted thoughts. "He believed in , in my vision, without even knowing the full extent. And look where we are now…"
Her gaze flickered montarily to the side, her instincts sharper than they appeared.
For just a fraction of a second, Adrian feared she had seen him, sensed his presence lurking nearby. But her attention quickly snapped back to Veda, leaving Adrian trembling in the shadows, unseen but tornted by her words.
His heart thudded painfully in his chest, as if trying to break free from the prison of guilt that held him captive. Every drop of Aether Gold he had invested in her had been soaked in the blood of the innocent.
He had thought himself a good person, but now he has beco the villain.
'I need to do sothing. Anything…'
But what could he do?
Confront her?
Reveal himself?
How could he possibly face her after what she had just said?
Worse, how could he ever face himself knowing that his actions had paved the way for this devastation?
He swallowed hard, trying to steady his shaking hands. There had to be a way to fix this, to atone.
His body trembled, his vision narrowing as he fought against the overwhelming tide of guilt.
Liora, still savoring her twisted victory, smiled as she continued, her words laced with cruelty masked in affection. "One day, I'll thank him properly. Perhaps when everything is over, and the world is remade in my image, he'll understand why I had to deceive him. Why it was all necessary."
Continue reading at empire
Adrian felt the final blow land.
Her words sliced through him, and Adrian's heart shattered.
He had been a fool.
Her greatest fool.
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