She was just so tired of it all.
At this point, losing another regression point didn’t even matter. What difference would it make?
There was nothing she could do. No way to fight back. No power to resist.
She felt helpless.
So, she did the only thing she could think of.
With trembling hands, she took the pouch and drank it.
The effects hit almost instantly. Her vision blurred at the edges, the center spinning, her head growing lighter by the second.
I really am dying...
And with that final thought, she collapsed into darkness.
"Ah!" Evelyn jolted awake, disoriented.
Her head throbbed with confusion, and worse, she couldn’t access her magic. Not even a flicker. Then again, that was expected. Magic suppression was standard in dungeon cells like this.
But sothing felt off beneath her hand.
A body.
"V-Verena?!" she gasped, eyes widening as she recognized the unconscious girl beside her.
"Poor you..." ca Norvan’s voice, laced with mock pity. A low laugh followed. "Did you know? Verena drank the poison I gave her—because she thought you had died."
"H-How did you..."
"Ah... I just happen to possess a little sothing that makes resistant to the effects of this dungeon. Lucky , right?"
"Stop this, Norvan!"
"Oh, now you care?" he scoffed. "If you hadn’t avoided —if you’d just chosen —none of this would’ve happened."
Norvan was the kind of man who believed affection was sothing owed. And because he was handso, spoke with a smooth voice, and carried the weight of tragic charm, the readers always let him get away with it.
"I..." Evelyn’s voice trembled. Her eyes glistened. It had been days—days of aching, longing, trying to prove she could stand on her own.
She had thought independence ant leaving Verena behind. She had been so, so wrong.
Norvan’s smile faltered.
He hated it.
He hated how those tears weren’t for him.
He was sure she wouldn’t do it. To him, Evelyn had always been a trembling rabbit—too soft, too cowardly. Never soone who could truly defy him.
Her fingers curled around the dagger’s hilt.
For a mont, she simply stared at her reflection in the blade—pink eyes, trembling lips, a girl who had been pushed too far.
Then, slowly, she lifted it to her chest.
Norvan’s smirk faltered.
"I’d rather die beside her... than live under you," she whispered.
She looked up at him, eyes glassy, lips parted. Fragile.
And then, in a blink, she pivoted.
The dagger plunged forward, not into her chest—
—but straight into his.
His eyes went wide, a gasp tearing from his throat as the blade sank between his ribs. Blood spattered her hands, hot and imdiate.
"Wha... you—!"
Norvan staggered back, hand clutching the wound, disbelief etched across his face.
Evelyn didn’t flinch.
Not anymore.
This wasn’t the Evelyn he knew.
Sure, he had his own twisted version of character developnt, but Evelyn had hers too.
In the best and worst way imaginable.
"Did you really think you could fool ?" she sighed, her voice steady now. "That wasn’t poison. It was a temporal suppressant, ant to knock her out, not kill her. You didn’t want her dead. You wanted desperate."
Norvan staggered back, his face pale as he processed her words. "No... this... this isn’t what—"
Before he could finish, Evelyn moved like a blur. Her dagger slashed upward with surgical precision.
The blade sank deep into his neck. He barely had ti to gasp before the edge severed his head clean from his shoulders.
It happened so quickly that Norvan didn’t even get to react, his eyes wide, filled with shock.
His decapitated head hit the stone floor with a sickening thud, rolling away like a discarded trophy.
Evelyn stood over his lifeless body, breathing heavily, her expression devoid of emotion.
"Goodbye, Norvan," she muttered, her voice carrying no trace of rcy. "You were never worth the effort."
He was clever, but there was one fatal flaw he couldn’t escape.
He looked down on people.
"EVELYN!"
Clarina’s voice broke through the silence, her breath coming in quick, panicked gasps. She was following Evelyn because she knew the girl would be hasty. Then once she saw the bloodied ss before her, her face twisted in horror.
Evelyn... had done this?
Clarina stood frozen, unable to process the scene, but then she t Evelyn’s calm, almost casual gaze.
"... please, help clean up," Evelyn said softly, as if asking for a simple favor.
The woman was overwheld with questions—how, why, what had happened—but sothing about Evelyn’s tone made her hesitate.
She chose not to speak, not to ask. There was no ti for that now.
With a deep breath, she nodded, stepping forward to follow Evelyn’s quiet request.
***
"...?"
Again.
Verena slowly stirred awake, her mind foggy from the constant blackouts.
But this ti, sothing was different. It was familiar. She was in her own room, the soft embrace of her bed cradling her weary body.
The chirps of birds outside, a sound she hadn’t heard in what felt like an eternity, a contrast to the suffocating silence of the prison cell she’d been trapped in for days.
Her wounds were carefully bandaged, the pain dulling under the tender care.
Then, she felt it—soone gently took her hand, their lips brushing against it in a soft, affectionate kiss.
Evelyn?
What... happened?
[System Notification: Event Completed]
[The Damsel has saved her Knight and slain the Dragon.]
Wait... KILLED?!
[System Notification: Affection Update!]
[Target: Evelyn Ashbourne]
[ 10 Affection Points Earned!]
[Affection Points: 80]
When Evelyn saw Verena stir awake, her eyes brightened with relief. "Verena! You’re awake!"
"Y-Yeah... Where are the others?" Verena asked, still groggy.
"Resting..." Evelyn’s voice faltered for a mont, then softened. "How are you feeling?"
"Good..." Verena murmured.
Evelyn gently took Verena’s hand and cupped it against her cheek.
The touch was tender—nothing forceful, nothing too intimate—just a soft, caring gesture.
It was the kind of affection one might show to soone fragile, soone they’d feared losing.
"I’ve missed you..." Evelyn whispered. She tightened her grip on Verena’s hand, holding it with a sense of desperation. "May I... make you feel good...?"
It was the first ti Evelyn had ever asked for consent, her usual boldness replaced by a rare vulnerability.
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