Juliana did nothing. Didn’t breathe. Didn’t blink.
Her pulse thundered in her ears, but outwardly, she was still. Too still. Like a string pulled taut, ready to snap.
She just knelt there, frozen.
Her fingers twitched at her sides, but the rest of her body wouldn’t move.
Wouldn’t react.
Wouldn’t do anything except exist in this moment — in this horrifyingly impossible moment.
Samael’s words echoed in her ears. “Because I was the one who set you up.”
It didn’t even make sense!
Set her up?
Her mind tripped over itself trying to process everything.
It was like trying to grasp onto smoke, the meaning slipping away before she could hold onto it.
Set her up?!
Finally, she took a shuddering breath.
A tremor crawled up her spine like a thousand needles pressing against her skin.
He set her up?!
He?!
She forced her lips to move, but all that came out was a shallow gasp.
No, it was impossible!
Samael — this Samael — was just a brat born into too much privilege. A clueless fool. A self-absorbed idiot.
She had grown up with him and watched him waste away his life in drunken revelry and meaningless fights. He was nothing but a spoiled disgrace.
She had seen him turn into the waste of a man he now was.
And now, crouching before her, he meant to tell her that she had been outplayed by him?
That she had failed to see through him?
She forced herself to look up and locked gazes with him.
His eyes were so clear that she saw her own reflection in their golden depths — the reflection of a broken young woman kneeling in the wreckage, bloodied and wounded and defeated.
Pathetic.
She looked pathetic.
The disbelief crawled up her throat. “…How?”
That was all she wanted to know.
How did he do it?
Samael sighed like he was genuinely disappointed. “I thought you’d have figured it out by now. Weren’t you supposed to be smart? Well, I guess it’s not entirely your fault. If you weren’t so laser-focused, so blinded by your own rage and desperation, you might have noticed.”
Juliana flinched. Noticed what? What was he talking about?!
As if reading her thoughts, Samael continued, “You would’ve noticed that every step of your plan unfolded too conveniently. Didn’t it feel a little too easy? I just stopped paying attention to you. I never asked where you went or what you were doing. Did you think it was a coincidence that I gave you so much space the moment we arrived at the Academy?”
He laughed a bitter laugh. “Did it never occur to you to wonder why I didn’t suppress the commoner and noble factions at the very start of the academic year? Why I let their petty little disputes fester until an all-out faction war was about to break out? Did you think I was lazy? Or was I just too stupid in your eyes to act?”
His voice dropped into something colder. “Did you really believe it was a coincidence that I issued a ten-on-one challenge right when you were on the verge of achieving your goal? Did you think it was luck? Oh, you stupid girl. Tell me, who was it that first pointed your attention to Rexerd?”
Juliana’s eyes widened.
Samael laughed softly. “Yes. It was me. I mentioned Rexerd during the Evaluation Exam. I let you join the Alchemy Society. I knew what you were doing. I saw everything. And I turned a blind eye. No, in fact, I helped you. I helped you obtain the Syrphid Slug. I helped you manipulate the two factions. I wanted you to reach this point! I wanted you to stand at the very edge of victory—”
Juliana’s ears rang.
She barely heard the last of his words. The only thing that registered was Syrphid Slug.
One of the key ingredients needed for the blood poison.
But… how did he know?
That knowledge wasn’t public. It wasn’t the kind of information one simply stumbled upon.
Then another realization slammed into her.
Rexerd.
He said he pointed her attention to Rexerd.
And when she thought back on it – he was right. It was him. He had mentioned Rexerd during the Evaluation Exam.
But why?
Why would he do that?
Was he counting on her to use Rexerd to free herself from the BloodWorm the moment she learned about the alchemy genius?
Had Samael… anticipated it?
Was she—
Was she really… so damn predictable?!
“Haa—” A sharp gasp tore from her lips. Her hands clenched into fists, trembling against the floor. Her gaze dropped to the shattered shards of glass beneath her.
The anger hit her so fast, so violently, she almost didn’t recognize it.
A scorching, seething rage.
It was not cold. Not calculated. Not the quiet, patient kind of anger she had mastered over the years.
It was raw. It was uncontrollable and wild.
Almost all her life, Juliana had worn masks.
A mask of obedience. A mask of indifference. A mask of warmth. A mask of kindness.
Different masks for different people.
She became whoever she needed to be.
To some, she was a friendly face — the one they could gossip with or cry on.
To others, she was a girl they could dream about but never have.
To a few, she was an idol to be admired from afar.
To others, she was a tortured soul — an abused servant, forever at the mercy of her master.
And to an unfortunate handful, she was a bitter enemy — a villain to hate, but one they could never destroy.
She had worn so many faces, played so many roles, and she had done it flawlessly. Seamlessly. Without a single crack in her well-crafted personas.
But now—
Now, the masks were off.
Her fingers curled around the jagged shards of broken glass on the floor. She barely felt the sting, hardly noticed the warmth of her own blood trailing down her palm.
Humiliating.
It was humiliating.
Not because she had been outplayed.
But because she hadn’t even seen it coming.
She didn’t even know she was playing the game against someone until it was too late.
Juliana prided herself on her ability to see through people. No matter who they were, she could strip them bare of their truths and vulnerabilities.
She could notice the tiniest flicker of hesitation on someone’s face, even the most subtle misplaced smile, the tension between words.
She could see it all.
She could read people like books, unravel anyone’s secrets with nothing more than a glance, and expose the lies they bury deep within.
Give her ten minutes with someone, and she would know them better than they knew themselves.
And yet—
With all her insight, all her experience—
She had been blind.
She had been outplayed by the boy she grew up with!
Juliana sucked in a sharp breath, her chest was tight and her lungs burned as fury threatened to devour her.
Slowly, she lifted her head and looked at Samael once again.
The bastard was smiling.
Not a smirk. Not a grin.
A quiet, knowing smile — as if the game had already ended, as if he had always known he would win.
Apparently, he had also taken off his mask.
This was the real him.
Her nails bit deeper into her palm as she rasped out a single word, “…Why?”
Samael tilted his head with a lazy smile curling and echoed, “Why?”
Juliana clenched her teeth. “Why let me get this far? Why even play this game if you knew everything all along?”
Because that was what this was, wasn’t it?
A game.
A game he had been playing long before she even realized she was a piece on the board.
The amusement in Samael’s eyes dimmed, just for a moment, before softening. His voice, when he spoke, was almost affectionate. “Because, Juli, it wouldn’t have been fun if you didn’t struggle.”
…Ah.
Right.
The thrill of the game.
She knew that feeling well. It was one of the few things that still made her feel alive.
The thrill of manipulating people around her, of watching them stumble into the traps she set, of every piece falling into place exactly as she had planned.
…The thrill of having absolute control over a person.
And now—
Now she was the one caught in the web.
“But mostly,” Samael’s voice cut through her haze. He rose to his feet, and only now did she notice the golden greatsword in his hands. “I wanted to catch Rexerd.”
Juliana’s brow pulled together. Rexerd? What did he have to do with anything?
Samael took a step back and pointed to the unconscious man sprawled on the ground a few feet away, blood still leaking from his right eye.
“I knew you’d either poison him or strike once his guard dropped. Either way, it had given me the opening I needed. You see, this guy has to die. If I let him live, he’ll become a threat I can’t afford.”
His gaze dropped back to her.
“So sit tight, okay? Let me kill him first. After that, we’ll have a civilized discussion about your future.”
He flashed her an empty smile, then turned and walked toward Rexerd.
Juliana’s mind was blank and jaw slack. For a second, her eye twitched like she was hesitating about something.
…Then, the rage simmering inside her finally boiled over.
Her patience reached its breaking point.
Scrunching her lip, she summoned an Item Card. Almost immediately, a rapier appeared in her hand, materialized from swirling light particles.
So what if her plan failed?
She’d just kill Samael!
She’d kill him right here and now!
There were no security cameras in this Dimensional Chamber, and no witnesses either.
Sure, there would be an investigation after his sudden disappearance. She might even be a prime suspect.
And the Theosbane clan also wouldn’t stay quiet.
Because even though he was banished, Samael was still a Theosbane. The son of the Golden Duke of Luxara.
A high-noble.
And there were consequences to killing a high-noble.
But in her blind rage, none of that mattered.
She would deal with everything later.
Right now, this was her chance.
His back was turned to her.
She just needed to land one clean strike.
One clean strike through his heart, and she could be free forever—
Cling—!!
But her rapier stopped cold right before she could backstab him.
“…Huh?!” Juliana’s hand trembled.
The tip of her blade had been inches from Samael’s back, yet now, it was held in place — caught against the gleaming edge of golden steel.
Her gaze snapped down.
Samael had twisted his arm at the last possible second and blocked her strike with a thinner sword than the greatsword he’d held earlier.
A twin sword?
‘How did he react so fast?’ Before she could think more on that, his voice fell in her ears.
“Hey, Juli.”
She looked up and saw him glancing back at her over his shoulder, his golden eyes burning bright.
“I told you to sit tight, didn’t I?”
Then, in a blur of motion, he knocked her rapier aside and swiveled.
Using the momentum of his spin, he slammed his foot into her abdomen with so much force that her body was flung backward.
The impact stole her breath and she hit the ground hard, rolling once before skidding to a stop.