“Get off me right now!!!”
A ringing buzz echoed in Laxana’s mind, and the swirling crimson before her eyes quickly faded away.
That face, bearing a seven or eight-point resemblance to Astreia’s, became incredibly clear under the flickering candlelight.
Deep blue short hair, messily clinging to a sweat-dampened forehead.
Those peach blossom eyes held none of the emerald green devotion she once adored—only anger, shame, and a suppressed guilt.
This wasn’t a dream.
This was reality!
“Y-you! You!!!”
With a sharp, short scream, Laxana sprang back as if stung by a scorpion, using both hands and feet to roll off of Wendy.
But just at the moment their bodies fully separated, an extremely strange sensation surged through their limbs like electric currents, causing both to shiver simultaneously.
“Hiss…”
Wendy gasped, the sudden emptiness making him glare instinctively at Laxana, his voice trembling uncontrollably.
“Y-you slow down!”
That unexpected complaint, full of inexplicable reproach, froze the still-shaken Laxana in place.
She felt it too.
At the instant of separation, that indescribable emptiness and sting.
Yet when their gazes met again, that subtle, unspoken pain miraculously eased considerably.
What… what exactly had just happened?
The room fell into dead silence, broken only by their uneven, heavy breaths.
One face flushed with shame and resentment, the other filled with fear.
The situation was unbearably awkward.
Wendy’s mind was in utter chaos; he wanted to die right there.
What the hell was this?!
This was even worse than being camped and killed all day at a respawn point by an enemy guild back in the game!
After a moment, it was Laxana who first recovered some clarity from her stunned state.
She looked at the prince’s handsome face, at the humiliating state of her clothes, at his slightly swollen lips and reddened eyes—and an absurd, uncontrollable thought surged in her mind.
In her violet eyes swirled confusion, shock, and a greed she hadn’t even realized was there.
“So…”
The ‘Rival in Love’’s voice was dry as she spoke, “we just… did it?”
“Did what!”
Wendy almost spat a mouthful of blood, no longer caring about anything else as he sat up on the bed and spilled the whole story like pouring beans from a bamboo container.
“You were schemed against by the Berwick Countess and the Housekeeper! They drugged your wine with a Life-Binding Potion called ‘Thorn Kiss’!”
“That’s not an ordinary drug! It’s a magic potion that forcibly establishes a Life Link! Once the man and woman have the most intimate contact, the contract activates! Right now, we’re connected!”
“If one of us dies, the other will follow in excruciating agony as their soul is torn apart! There’s no cure for this! Understand?!”
“Their goal was to use this despicable method to turn you, the Klein Lady, into their pawn!”
“Just now! That potion was about to fully take effect in less than ten breaths! You’d have bled from every orifice and exploded! I had no choice but to… to have contact with you to activate this damned contract and save your life!”
Wendy finished shouting in one breath, his chest heaving violently from rapid breathing.
His eyes were filled not just with anger, but with helpless entanglement and pain.
How was he supposed to explain all this to Astreia?
At the thought of the princess’s eternally clear, trusting emerald eyes, Wendy’s heart nearly drowned in overwhelming guilt.
He could be false to the whole world, manipulate everyone with ease.
But he never wanted to deceive that foolish girl who would stand against the entire world to protect him—Princess Astreia.
“…That’s how it is.”
Wendy shakily stood from the bed, not daring to look at Laxana again, turning his back as he fumbled to remove the cursed clothes and change back into his own.
“Today’s incident— it must rot inside your stomach. Not a single word to Astreia, got it?”
“When we leave this damn place, we’ll pretend nothing happened. Then… we’ll see if there’s any ancient magic or forbidden knowledge that can break this cursed contract.”
“As for you,” Wendy unconsciously took on a scolding tone like an elder, “Chief Grand Mage of the Academy, future star of the Central Continent! How could you get drunk so easily? Didn’t you have even a shred of caution? If I hadn’t accidentally barged in, you’d be ruined for life!”
He rambled on, trying to cover up his inner panic.
But no response came from Laxana.
No apology, no explanation, not even a sound.
Behind him, an eerie silence.
Just as Wendy was about to turn around in confusion, a sharp command suddenly rang out!
“Chains of Light!”
The next moment, several golden chains made from pure light elements appeared out of nowhere with no warning!
They hissed like living serpents, wrapping around Wendy’s limbs and waist, then violently yanking him backward!
“Ah!”
Wendy barely managed a short cry before losing his balance entirely, being dragged forcefully and thrown hard back onto the soft bed.
The Chains of Light tightened suddenly, restraining the prince in a humiliating spread-eagle position at the center of the bed.
The silky clothes, already slippery, were now even more disheveled, exposing his slender, pale body all the more thoroughly.
“You?!”
Wendy was completely dumbfounded by the sudden attack, instinctively struggling but finding the chains unbreakable, humming with powerful magic, utterly immovable.
“Laxana! What are you doing?! Are you crazy?!”
The ‘Rival in Love’ at the bedside lowered her face, her golden hair cascading like a waterfall, hiding her expression.
She rose step by step from the bed’s edge.
Then, step by step, walked toward the prince, restrained and helpless in the bed’s center.
“Wendy Black…”
Her voice was low, soft, like a dreamlike murmur, yet laced with a chilling coldness.
“After I touched you, are you so eager to distance yourself?”
She bent down, resting her hands on either side of Wendy’s body, strands of hair brushing his cheek, tickling.
Those violet eyes, so close, held complex emotions Wendy couldn’t decipher—dazzlement, anger, and a hint of… hurt?
“Or…”
Laxana’s red lips almost pressed against Wendy’s ear, her warm breath making him shiver.
“Is my skill… really that poor?”
“So poor that you don’t even have the slightest bit of reluctance?!”
Wendy just pass the ball if you aint gonna shoot