Chapter 203: "Completely Mine"
The sudden change of position, and that gaze, left Seraphine completely lost, unsure how to react.
A faint blush rose to her cheeks as she tried to gather her thoughts enough to ask what he was trying to do. But her mind, usually sharp enough to calculate a battlefield in an instant, seemed to have forgotten how to form a single coherent sentence.
Evan didn’t give her the time.
He leaned his head a little closer to her, their faces now only a few centimeters apart, close enough that they could almost feel each other’s breath, close enough that the whole world beyond the edge of that tower seemed to fade into irrelevance.
Evan’s expression stayed calm, but that intensity in his eyes seemed to grow as he opened his mouth.
"My lovely tsundere. You really are adorable when you act like this," he said, his voice calm but carrying a note of playfulness that made the young woman’s heart tremble beneath him.
"I-I’m not a tsundere," she said, almost on instinct, only to realize a second later that this was hardly the most pressing matter at hand, but Evan didn’t let her continue.
"Your constant teasing is really testing my self-control you know. At this rate, I’m afraid I’m going to lose it," he said, his face drawing even closer, until the tips of their noses nearly touched.
Seraphine’s heartbeat quickened, her eyes glazing over as an intense emotion swept through her for one brief second, an emotion she had no name for, one that left her chest tight and her thoughts scattered like leaves in a windstorm.
’Bastard... So you’ve been pretending not to notice all this time?’ Seraphine thought, nearly ready to explode with fury, though the fury felt strangely distant now, drowned beneath something far warmer.
Over the years, she had tried more than once to close the distance between them and take their friendship to the next level, yet every time, Evan seemed completely oblivious to her advances.
Seeing Seraphine’s frustration, Evan almost wanted to smile, but he didn’t let himself.
He had noticed her advances all along, but he’d never reciprocated, always pretending not to notice.
At first, he had thought this strange dream was merely the memories of some person from the past, perhaps a glimpse into someone else’s reality. But the longer he remained in this place, the more he understood that this wasn’t that person’s past.
The body was his, the memories were his, and the familiarity of it all grew stronger with time, settling into him the way an old song settles into the bones long after the melody is forgotten.
He realized these were his own memories, perhaps forgotten after reincarnation, or perhaps something else entirely, he didn’t know. But it mattered less and less, because the longer he stayed, the clearer the purpose of this dream became.
So, as he had before, he let himself be carried along by the current of events.
He couldn’t resist the beautiful woman’s advances any longer, she who had been by his side long before he’d even joined the special division, who had stood with him through every mission, every wound, every quiet night when the world felt like it was unraveling at the seams.
He followed his instincts and decided that today, he would finally return her feelings.
"But I should warn you," he said, his voice calmer than before, his gaze growing even more intense, almost seeming to shine faintly.
"If we decide to take that next step, there will be no going back. You’ll be completely mine."
Those calm, almost gentle words fell upon Seraphine’s fragile heart like a waterfall, immediately sending all her thoughts into chaos.
She had imagined several times what it would be like if they ever decided to take their relationship to the next level.
But now that she was actually there, she had no idea what to do.
The intensity in his voice, the possessiveness in those words, went far beyond anything she’d expected, something that defied every assumption and struck her heart harder than she could have prepared for.
The faint blush on her ears and cheeks spread across her entire face.
Her whole body began to burn as her mind filled with countless thoughts.
How was she supposed to proceed?
She had no experience with this, none at all. She’d imagined things unfolding normally, dinner, a goodnight kiss, maybe something more further down the line, but now, right beneath him, her mind spiraling out of control, every romantic notion she’d ever had flew straight out the window.
And before she could process anything further, her mind activated the emergency protocol.
BOOM!
The special emergency protocol kicked in. The top of the tower was obliterated, Evan sent flying skyward, and Seraphine, already little more than a streak of light, was rocketing away toward her quarters at full speed, leaving nothing behind but scorched stone and a faint trail of golden light fading into the morning air.
Evan, thrown into the air by the blast, stopped himself mid-flight. He didn’t fall, didn’t keep rising, he simply came to a halt, suspended in midair, the wind from the explosion still rippling through his clothes.
It was something he’d started learning after reaching C-rank, and by now it had become as effortless and automatic as breathing.
He watched the beautiful woman flee, and a peaceful smile spread across his face.
’Tsundere indeed,’ he thought to himself, as though he’d half expected something like this to happen.
He had no intention of forcing her to rush things. It was clear that, despite how proactive she had been with her advances, she wasn’t ready to take such a huge leap just yet.
And Evan understood that.
He was perfectly fine with giving her more time to sort out her feelings.
And so the next year passed.
The awkwardness of that moment left Seraphine a little hesitant about how to face him, tiptoeing around conversations that used to come easily, catching herself staring a beat too long before looking away.
But over time, they worked through it, and the two of them grew closer, the old ease slowly returning, now layered with something new neither of them dared name aloud.
And this time, she was ready. Truly ready.
She finally found the courage to take that step, ready to dive into the relationship she had wanted for so long.
But fate was never kind enough to give them a second chance.
Just as she was finally ready, the world fell into chaos.
The Abyss had begun its descent upon this world.