She was running out of creative and diverse methods.

In fact, she had just returned from another attempt. 

For the past few days, she had been roaming the capital at dawn, acquiring a deadly poison from a hunter and applying it to a needle, which she then stuck into Kaiel’s bed. 

If this failed, she had no other ideas. Moreover, the burning determination to kill him that had fueled her for the past week was fading, replaced by a creeping sense of avoidance and emptiness. 

‘I don’t even have the will anymore. I can’t do it! It’s impossible! What am I supposed to do?!’

Unless Kaiel suddenly became stupid and fell for her tricks, killing him was truly an impossible task. 

‘Didn’t you give me an impossible mission from the start, System? Say something. I think you overestimated me or underestimated Kaiel.’

It was then. 

BAM!

The door suddenly flew open, revealing Kaiel. 

“Delia.”

His hair was damp, as if he had just washed it. He must have been getting ready for bed.

‘As expected, he’s perfectly fine! How impressive!’

He stood there, perfectly healthy and showing no symptoms. It seemed like another failure. She didn’t know if he had avoided the needle despite lying on the bed or if he hadn’t even lain down at all. 

Kaiel closed the door behind him and casually sat down on her bed. Delia, who had been lying down, sat up and scooted back slightly. 

“You tidied up my bedding, Delia. I came to return something you seemed to have left behind.”

Tidy up his bedding, he says! Don’t put words in my mouth…!

He pulled out a needle from his pocket, and Delia instinctively bit her lip. As she reached out to grab it, Kaiel moved his hand holding the needle behind his back. 

“On second thought, it looks too sharp and dangerous. I’ll just keep it.”

With that, he snapped the needle in half with just three fingers and walked over to the open window, tossing it out. 

“It should be safe now.”

Delia simply stared at him, dumbfounded. 

Of course, her mind was racing. 

‘He’s toying with me. He’s definitely toying with me!’

No matter what she did, she felt like a helpless infant throwing a tantrum in front of Kaiel. 

“……..Is this fun for you?”

Delia asked in a low voice. Kaiel, who had been looking out the window, turned his head. 

“What is?”

“Why don’t you just punish me openly, get angry, or avoid me? Or throw me in jail. Why… why do you… play with me like this?” 

Her voice was filled with frustration. 

As she spoke, she chided herself internally. 

‘Why are you complaining! He’s the one who should be angry!’

But when had reason ever won over emotion?

Her mouth was completely ruled by her feelings. 

“If you’re not going to fall for it anyway, why even give me the chance? This is just cruel training. Am I that much of a joke to you? So insignificant that you don’t even need to take me seriously?”

Her words were directed at Kaiel, but the suffocating frustration and anger welling up inside her were aimed at herself.

Then, Kaiel said something unexpected. 

“No. You’re the one playing with me.”

Delia, who had been fuming, lifted her head at his words and retorted. 

“How am I playing with you? If I could do that, I wouldn’t be in this situation!”

“When you poisoned me, when you came at me with the dagger, when you threw the flowerpot, when you pulled the rope on the stairs, several times after that, and just now.”

A list of her actions spilled from Kaiel’s mouth. Delia’s gaze, which had been wandering aimlessly, snapped back to him at his last words. 

“You weren’t serious, Delia.”

“What?”

“If you were serious, I would be dead by now.”

“Don’t be ridiculous!”

Delia shot up from her seat.

“That’s a lie……!”

Despite her words, Delia knew that everything he said was true. His eyes told her so.

Kaiel leaned against the windowsill and spoke in a slightly stern tone. 

“Not once were you serious in any of your attempts. Just before you were about to stab me with the dagger, you clearly hesitated. You didn’t misjudge the aim; you simply didn’t want to do it. When you threw the flowerpot, you threw it too early, before I even reached the target spot. As if you didn’t know my pace.”

Delia’s pupils began to tremble. 

That couldn’t be true. 

She thought she had been serious about every attempt. 

‘I definitely tried my best.’

Delia shook her head. 

“N-no, that’s not……”

But Kaiel continued speaking. 

“On the stairs, the moment I touched the rope, it slackened. You didn’t start pulling until after I had a firm grip on it. And just now.”

He turned his head towards the window, as if looking at the discarded needle somewhere outside.

“There was nothing on the needle stuck in the bed. It was even stuck in upside down. The one I brought here was the one I found on the floor. That one had something on it.”

Oh no.

Delia’s mind went blank. 

I did that?

It was unbelievable. 

Then had everything she’d done been pointless?

Kaiel slowly straightened up from the windowsill. 

“You’ve been going easy on me, haven’t you, Delia?”

“No… no way… that’s……”

Kaiel’s eyes turned cold.

“No way?”

His low voice was somehow even more chilling than usual. He stepped away from the window and walked towards her.

“If that’s not it, then do it again. I won’t resist.”

Kaiel, now standing directly in front of her, lightly pressed on her shoulders, pushing her back down onto the bed. Then, he positioned himself between her legs, kneeling on one knee on the floor beside the bed.

“Wh-wh-what are you doing?!”

Delia yelped and struggled to push him away, but he caught her wrists. 

Unable to use her arms, Delia began to thrash wildly with her legs. 

Kaiel used his large frame to pin her legs down on the bed. 

Just as Delia, completely restrained, tried to wriggle away, Kaiel pulled her hands, which he had been holding, up towards his neck. 

“This position will give you much better leverage.”

Then, he gently pried her hands open and wrapped them around his neck. Delia shuddered involuntarily as her palms came into contact with a hot, solid surface. 

Thump, thump, thump.

She could feel his steady pulse through her fingertips.

“Squeeze.”

“No, no……”

“Squeeze, Delia. With all your heart.”

His blue-gray eyes felt like sharp shards of glass piercing her heart. 

His words, telling her to do it with all her heart, were also filled with an unspeakable sincerity. 

Delia was overwhelmed with an uncontrollable surge of emotion. His pulse, throbbing relentlessly beneath her hands, seemed to plead with her for its life. The mantra she had been repeating to herself, that he was just a character in a story, had lost its effect.

She didn’t have to think about it anymore to know. There would be no more attempts. 

‘At least not for a while.’ 

Finally, Delia buried her face in his broad shoulders, her vision blurring with tears. 

A soft sob echoed through the room. A moment later, he spoke.

“Delia.”

His low voice settled softly in her ear. 

“You can’t kill me.”

If only he knew how cruel those words were. 

Her muffled voice replied, 

“I hate you, Kaiel.”

How long had it been since he had last called her by her name? 

“Yes.”

A faint, satisfied smile touched Kaiel’s lips.

“I hate you.”

“Yes.”

“You’re horrible.”

“Yes.”

He added, 

“I’m not.”

After a long moment of silently gathering her emotions, Delia suddenly pulled away from him as if she had been burned. She trembled, her body wracked with sobs.

“Why are my ears tingling……!”

Looking down at her, Kaiel let out a small chuckle.

“That’s your punishment.”

* * *

[00:00]

[Failed to eliminate the villain ‘Kaiel Ceder’.]

[Penalty will be applied immediately as no retry was detected within 24 hours of failure.]

That was the last thing Delia saw before the penalty took effect. By the time she opened her eyes again, the agonizing penalty had long since subsided. 

Had Kaiel caught her when she collapsed from the pain that had washed over her as soon as the penalty notification appeared?

Delia, trying to recall her hazy memories, fell into deep thought for a moment before shaking her head to clear her mind.

It might have been worse than the last penalty, but this time she didn’t vow to kill Kaiel or get swept away by the pain.

‘Endure it. There’s no other way for now.’

Until she came up with a proper plan or a viable solution, she was going to stop throwing herself at him recklessly.

The story was constantly flowing, and she had no choice but to go with the flow.

The good thing was that although her condition had deteriorated for a few days due to the penalty, her plausibility score had increased considerably once she recovered. She didn’t know why, but at least it was now at a safe 34 points.

“Ugh.”

Delia stretched her comfortably relaxed body for the first time in a while and called for a maid to help her get dressed.

The maid looked upset every time she saw her.

“Miss, your complexion has been quite pale for the past few days. Is there really no way to find out the cause of your illness?”

Delia shook her head with a faint smile.

Even Dr. Lambert, the brilliant imperial physician, hadn’t been able to make a proper diagnosis of her illness. He only wondered if she knew about her condition and the cure but was choosing to ignore it. Even that was just his own speculation.