"Thank the stars I’m on house arrest..."
Though no one said it aloud, the treatnt was clear: they regarded her like a nuisance, a cockroach skittering where it didn’t belong.
...Which, in so ways, she supposed she was.
Every step forward had been t with a fresh catastrophe. Her grand plans for seduction and survival now lay in shambles beneath the weight of misunderstandings and ddling male leads.
She felt... utterly powerless.
And in truth, she was.
Her Natal Affinity didn’t grant her strength, speed, or any physical prowess worth boasting. And with Saphora absent, she had no access to Zodiacal mimicry either. No borrowed brilliance, no divine backup.
It was night now. Verena lay sprawled on the unfamiliar bed, fingers idly grazing the fabric as her gaze fixated on the ceiling. The dim moonlight filtered through the curtains in soft silver beams, but offered no comfort.
If her power were fully unlocked, maybe she could’ve erased that mont. Or the countless others that haunted her.
But as things stood... she didn’t even know where her power began—or where it ended.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: COVENANT CREATION DEADLINE APPROACHING]
[Despite your many recent distractions (emotional chaos, flirtation cris, and questionable decision-making), you are still required to establish your Novae Covenant within 7 days.]
[Objective: Recruit a minimum of 3 mbers and submit your Covenant Manifesto before the Trial Comncent.]
[Warning: Due to excessive troublemaking, dramatic outbursts, and being perceived as a public nace by 67% of the student body...]
[Debuff Applied: Social Reputation -15%]
[Trust levels lowered.]
[Recruitnt difficulty increased.]
[Smirks and side-eyes from classmates 25%.]
[Ti Remaining: 6 Days, 23 Hours, 57 Minutes]
[Good luck... You’ll need it.]
Goodluck, my ass!
"I ALMOST FORGOT ABOUT THE TRIALS!"
Verena shot upright in shock, clutching her hair in both hands as if trying to manually reboot her brain.
The Trials. The Novae Covenant. The cursed week of recruitnt. How could she forget?
Honestly, she had serious doubts anyone would even consider joining her pathetic excuse of a covenant.
For the next few days, she’d been loitering like a suspicious vendor outside the school gates, awkwardly watching people and trying to ntally recruit them with her eyes.
The results? A grand total of one scowl, two scoffs, and a suspiciously accurate paper airplane to the forehead.
Her supposed teammates from the local governnt unit were already claid. Snatched up like discounted snacks on a festival day. And here she was, the lone sad leftover.
She sighed heavily, trudging through the bustling hallways of the academy as students buzzed around in their usual lunchti chaos. Her stomach growled, but her pride was already too bruised to feed it.
"Hey, isn’t that Verena?"
"Oh yeah, the walking curse magnet?"
"The girl who flopped?"
"Didn’t she, like, cry in a bush that one ti?"
"I heard she’s recruiting, but it’s giving cult vibes."
Verena gave a tired smile to no one in particular, and muttered, "Thank you, background extras, for your unsolicited comntary. May your shoelaces always be uneven."
She kept walking. Head high. Dignity in shambles. Hair slightly frazzled.
But she was not giving up.
Yet.
"Maybe I do wanna give up—OOF!"
Verena stumbled backward after crashing straight into a broad chest, nearly toppling over like a poorly balanced tower of regrets. Before gravity could claim her dignity for good, a firm hand caught her wrist.
"Verena, you really ought to watch where you’re going."
"S-Sorry..." she laughed awkwardly, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear as she looked up—only to be greeted by a familiar face. "Oh. It’s you, Raphael." Her tone was impressively neutral, bordering on bored.
"Why does your face physically pain ?"
"WAIT!"
This man had truly wronged her. There was no way he’d dare reject her, right? After all, he’d thrown her into shock simply by starting to plan his own character developnt.
"Raphael, my dear brother!" she hopped onto her toes, slapping his back with exaggerated enthusiasm, causing him to flinch. "Soooo... have you joined any Novae Covenant yet?"
"Yes, I have."
Fuck!
She’d completely forgotten that this man in the novel had managed to create his own army of delirious, bloodthirsty freaks for his Novae Covenant, while his wife had sohow gathered a bunch of nerdy, harmless souls for hers. Talk about opposites.
"Are you trying to steal one of our mbers?" A voice chid in, cutting through the air. It was Isolde.
She was one of the mber of the bloodthirsty, sadistic Novae Covenant, and there was sothing unsettlingly ntally ill about their entire group.
They called themselves The Crimson Vow, a faction built on chaos, driven by the ideal of total domination through strength.
Their mbers, a mix of twisted warriors and rciless tacticians, all shared the belief that only through power could true freedom be achieved.
They had ford under the leadership of Raphael’s, who had gathered them by promising ultimate power and unrestrained victory.
Isolde flashed a grin, her eyes gleaming with the kind of madness that only The Crimson Vow was known for. "Don’t worry, we don’t share well."
"Well, don’t worry, you’re not worth the investnt," Verena said with a smirk, crossing her arms.
[SYSTEM NOTICE: Friendship Event – "The Warlord’s Conversion"]
[Objective: Convert Raphael into a mber of Your Conversion Therapy Program By Convincing Isolde!]
[Description: Due to his shifting ideals and developing attitude towards you, Raphael is no longer fully aligned with the belief in power over strength. Your past actions have shaped this event.]
[Ti Remaining: 4 Days]
[You can now befriend the Male Lead! Good luck!]
Another trouble? Make it double...
"And you think you’re worth an investnt?" Isolde stepped forward, her presence as imposing as ever. They were now head to toes against each other.
She was the vice commander of Raphael’s Novae Covenant in the novels, a woman as dangerous as she was formidable.
It was irritating that Verena had to appease her.
"BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Verena erupted into loud, unabashed laughter, making everyone flinch in confusion and shock. "I’m just kidding, Lady Isolde! A woman of your valor surely deserves all the power and praise the world can offer!"
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