Chapter 98: Adorable Cat
While the ice-blue-haired villainess sat down right at their table for ten minutes silently, reading notes, the purple-haired cutie went straight into a full-blown existential crisis.
This was Aria—the legendary, terrifying cold beauty who had once relentlessly tormented Alice just because Reinhardt had dared to chase after the Saintess! And now, here Violet was, caught red-handed sharing a table with Aria’s new fiancé.
’I’m dead. I’m doomed,’ Violet whimpered in her mind, staring at the tablecloth like a convicted criminal awaiting execution.
Eren casually rested his cheek in his palm, glancing between his panicking desk mate and his icy fiancée. "See what you did, Aria? You’ve completely scared a helpless little purple kitten."
"How’s that my work?" Aria asked without lifting her head, her golden eyes scanning the complex mana-respiration diagrams and detailed equations, she raised a manicured eyebrow.
She then turned her gaze to the trembling girl. "What is your name, little one?"
Violet snapped out of her muttering, jumping so hard her chair squeaked against the floor. "V-Violet! Violet Lavenza, Your Ladyship!" she stammered out, her voice trembling violently. "I-I swear on my family’s honor that I have zero improper intentions toward Lord Eren! We are strictly... strictly engaged in a study regarding my curse!"
Seeing the fear radiating off the poor girl, a small, amused smile touched her plush lips. "Calm down, Miss Lavenza. I am not going to eat you."
She then darted an icy, knowing glance at Eren. "Though I cannot say the same for my fiancé. This is entirely his doing, isn’t it?"
Eren held up his hands in mock innocence. "How is this my fault? I am simply performing my duty as a gentleman by helping a girl in distress."
"Riiight," Aria replied dryly with effortless sarcasm. She turned back to the notes. "So, to put it simply... you require physical proximity to Miss Lavenza to absorb off her excess mana and stabilize her mana leakage?"
"Precisely," Eren confirmed smoothly. "It’s a win-win transaction. She gets relief from her overpressure, and I get mana to use my spells."
Violet looked down at her lap, her hands tightly gripping her skirt in a wave of intense guilt.
"I... I am so sorry, Lady Aria..." she whispered, her eyes brimming with reluctant tears. "If... if you object to this, I will immediately withdraw. You are his official fiancée, and... and after everything you went through with that bastard Reinhardt, I have no right to put you in such a painful position again..."
Hearing the genuine, selfless worry in the timid girl’s voice, Aria’s expression softened completely.
"Lift your head, Miss Lavenza," Aria commanded.
Violet hesitantly raised her gaze, bracing herself for a sharp slap.
Aria leaned forward and reached out with a manicured hand, gently cupping Violet’s soft, blushing cheek. Her thumb brushed slowly across the girl’s lower lip for a brief, deliberate second.
"Eek—!" Violet gasped, her entire body going rigid. Heat flooded her face so hard she felt dizzy.
Aria tilted the timid cutie’s head slightly, leaning in close enough that Violet could smell her faint, expensive perfume. Her golden eyes traced Violet’s teary purple ones with a thoughtful smile.
"My, my... aren’t you adorable?" Aria murmured, voice softer than expected. "You really do look just like the cat I used to raise... so soft and easily startled."
She held Violet’s face a moment longer than necessary before finally releasing her.
"Help her," Aria stated, resting one hand on her hip. Her golden eyes flicked to Eren with a sharp, knowing edge. "However, keep your little sessions strictly out of the public eye. Our engagement is still new... and I have no desire to hear rumors about my fiancé spending too much private time with such a soft, pretty little thing."
The way she said "pretty little thing" made Violet’s thighs press together involuntarily.
But the villainess everyone feared had just permitted it without a trace of jealousy. Everything she’d believed for years suddenly felt wrong.
Eren offered a mock salute. "As you command, my bossy fiancée."
Aria let out a quiet huff, turning her attention back to the timid purple cutie. "Miss Lavenza, please pass along my formal apologies to Miss Alice regarding my past behavior. I intend to apologize to her properly in person soon."
Violet, still trying to process the fact that the continent’s most feared beauty had just caressed her cheek, gave a rapid, obedient series of nods. "I-I will, Lady Aria! Right away!"
"Good," Aria murmured. She then turned her gaze back to Eren, her tone shifting into something a bit more serious. "Eren... I need you this evening. It is important."
Eren gave her a genuine, charming smile. "I will be there, ma’am."
Aria’s gaze lingered on Eren’s lips for a second longer than necessary after he smiled at her.
For a brief moment, her breath caught. That effortless charm of his still hit harder than she liked to admit. She wondered—not for the first time—whether this engagement was going to be far more dangerous to her own body than she had planned.
"Tonight," she repeated, voice a little lower as she walked away. "Don’t be late."
Violet sat there in stunned silence, staring at the space where the cold beauty had just been standing.
"W-Was that... actually Lady Aria...?" Violet muttered softly, her mind completely blown.
Eren casually picked up a pastry and took a bite. "Who else would it be?"
Violet shook her head frantically. "But... she was so gentle! She didn’t yell, she didn’t throw a curse, she didn’t even threaten me! I was completely convinced I was going to be executed on the spot!"
"People change when they get rid of toxic exes," Eren deadpanned smoothly. "Now then, setting the villainess’s redemption aside, we have actual work to do."
He pulled the notebook back into the center of the table.
"Starting today, we need to log and quantify the exact parameters of our interaction," Eren explained in a crisp, businesslike tone. "We’ll test proximity levels. Like, sitting side-by-side, holding hands, direct skin-to-skin contact. And measure precisely how much time each method grants you before your mana radius builds back up."
Violet picked up the notebook, her brain instantly running through the equations and mapping out every single logical progression of his proposed testing.
Her brain abruptly short-circuited realising something.
She slammed the notebook down onto the table, her face turned into a shade of red so intense she looked like a huge, ripe, about-to-explode tomato.
"E-Eren..." Violet squeaked out, her voice pitching up an entire octave as she buried her burning face in her hands. "By... by physical contact... does that mean at some point... we’re going to be doing... an absurd amount of skin-to-skin contact?!"
Eren looked up from his treat, giving her a slow, dangerous smirk. "Maybe? For research purposes of course, Miss Violet."
Violet’s breath hitched. The image of his large hands on her bare skin flashed through her mind unbidden. She squeezed her thighs tighter under the table.
"That’s... that’s completely improper!" she whispered, but her voice lacked conviction.
[Image of Aria and Violet]