"I am ready to be yours."

The words slipped from her lips, quiet but firm.

I blinked once and then one more time.

Oh. How bold.

My smile deepened.

I mean, doesn't this girl know how to be shy?

Who even says something like that with a straight face?

Sure, I get it. I'm devastatingly handsome. Women have been known to faint, stutter or commit light crimes in my presence… but this?

This was on another level.

Okay, okay, enough playing around but still, I hadn't expected her to accept so easily.

It was a good thing for me, of course, but it almost felt like I was the one getting scammed here.

I mean, if I thought about it a bit more carefully, she was getting the privilege of becoming my assistant entirely for free. So, in a way, she was the one doing the conning.

But I, being the humble, selfless and unbelievably big-hearted man that I was, just nodded.

"Good."

The word left my lips just as a system window appeared before me.

[Eligibility Is Met]

[Do you wish to accept Seraphina Von Altharia — Blessed of Goddess ISHTARA as your Assistant?]

Of course, it only appeared after she accepted my offer because apparently, I wasn't allowed to just force people into servitude. Free will and all that divine bureaucracy nonsense.

Now that my plan was finally coming together, a tiny part of me wondered,

Can I get someone better than her?

But honestly, for now, she was the best option I had. She was easy to manipulate, easy to control and even easier to use.

And really, what more could a man ask for?

So, there was no point in overthinking especially since I would get another slot once I ranked up.

I gave a mental affirmation to my skill [Trickster's Assistant] and something within me shifted.

A faint warmth spread from my chest as a crimson thread began to spread out, drifting toward Seraphina.

I had seen something like it once before, back when I had been under the Seraphic Degree but even then it had never felt quite like this.

The thread wasn't just reaching out, it was moving with intent and when it finally reached her, it didn't stop instead it merged with her body.

The connection settled deep and I could feel it, that invisible connection tying us together.

[CONGRATULATIONS!!! The Bond Has Been Established]

[Seraphina Von Altharia Is Registered as an Assistant]

[As a Tribute, a Skill Is Being Received…]

I stared at the message.

What the actual fuck?

This wasn't something Trickster's Assistant skill was supposed to do. At least… not according to the descriptions I had seen.

For a second, I just stared at the glowing text floating in front of me, my brain trying to process what the hell had just happened.

A Tribute? From her to me? Since when did assistants come with bonus loot?

I mean, Bearlo, that bastard, still snoring his way through life even while getting a new colleague, had never come with anything like this.

Sure, my skill had been called Jester's Assistant back then but shouldn't I have gotten the pending tribute when it evolved?

I mean, I wouldn't say no to a little compensation and it's only fair, especially considering his skill, Busogan, that stupidly overpowered skill that lets Bearlo copy any technique with just a single glance.

Now that was the kind of absurd cheat I could get behind.

But of course, this universe had zero chill. It never misses a chance to make me miserable.

Still, I wasn't about to start complaining after all, something late is still better than nothing.

—

Meanwhile, somewhere deeper within the forest, Sylvie stood amidst a burning settlement.

The flames crackled around her, painting the night in shades of orange. This was the same place she had arrived at after parting ways with the crimson bear, the creature that had saved her life.

This was where so many human students had gathered, clinging to the fragile hope of surviving the forest together.

And now… it was all gone, burned by her own hands.

Sylvie stood among the ruins and before her, a blue-haired boy kneeled in the ashes, his eyes cold but burning with fury.

Silas Oceanheart.

The same boy who had welcomed her with a smile not so long ago, when she had first stumbled into this place. Now, his clothes were in tatters, covered with blood.

Yet even through the pain, his gaze never wavered.

Those sharp blue eyes were fixed on her.

"Was it really necessary?" he asked.

Even now, with the settlement reduced to ash, he still wanted to play the good man and that… repulsed her more than anything.

Because Silas Oceanheart, the boy who smiled so kindly, who spoke of unity and hope, had been feeding his own people to a monster, offering lives in exchange for safety.

Unlike what she had first believed, the settlement hadn't belonged to orcs at all.

No… it had been something far worse.

The whole settlement was a monster, one clever enough to hide in plain sight, disguising itself as a community of orcs. It was weak, yes… but it possessed a rare and dangerous ability: the power to cloak itself and vanish from the senses of stronger predators.

And Silas had discovered its secret through his Nexus.

Using his special Nexus, the one that allowed him to understand and even communicate with monsters, he had done something unthinkable.

He made a deal with it.

Something that should've been impossible… and yet, somehow, wasn't because of his Nexus and the monster's own unnatural intelligence.

The deal was simple and horrifying. In exchange for protection, Silas would feed the monster six prey each day.

At first, the offerings came from the demon students they found near the outskirts but soon, that wasn't enough. The prey began to come from among the students themselves, especially the commoners.

No one in the camp knew about the deal except Silas and his chosen few but Sylvie had started to suspect something when the students began to vanish.

The camp barely had forty or so survivors and yet, one by one, they were disappearing.

Silas blamed the monsters, of course. He always had an excuse ready but she knew better.

When she uncovered the truth… it reminded her all over again of the cruelty of nobles and how easily they traded lives they deemed lesser.

It disgusted her and that was when she decided.

They needed to die.

She made a plan and today, the day the exam was finally coming to an end, she succeeded.

She hadn't done it to save anyone.

She hadn't done it out of justice, guilt or some desperate need to be good.

She could have run, saving only her own life but the more she looked at them… the more they reminded her of them.

The ones who had taken her parents away. The ones who smiled as they did it and that made her feel disgusted.

Defeating them had been almost too easy after sowing discord through the camp, it had only been a matter of time.

One by one, she cut the people who knew about it down and sent the innocent students away until only Silas remained.

Just then, Sillas's voice echoed again.

"Since when did you doubt?" he asked, already aware of his fate.

Sylvie's expression didn't waver. Her cold eyes were colder than the steel in her hand.

"I never trusted you from the beginning."

And with those words, she swung her sword down, severing his head in one clean stroke. A crimson arc erupted from Sillas's headless body as his head rolled some distance away before coming to a rest.

Unbeknownst to Sylvie, something deep within her stirred as a seed began to bloom quietly.

—

Meanwhile, somewhere else in the forest, a boy and a girl, their features almost mirror images, were locked in battle.

Noah and Arza had been fighting for over half an hour and yet neither was anywhere close to defeat.

Their strength was perfectly matched.

Noah frowned, frustration crossing in his eyes. He couldn't see any path from her.

It wasn't that she didn't have one.

It was that every time he tried to trace it, the path simply… vanished.

He understood one thing.

She was strong, stronger than him and that was the whole reason he had started the fight.

Still, he had more wounds than what he had managed to give her and yet, instead of fear… something else stirred inside him.

Excitement.

A wild and reckless thrill that burned through the pain.

Can she kill me?

The thought flashed through his mind and instead of dread, he almost smiled.

I hope she does.

Just then as if responding to his thoughts, Arza's scythe flashed out from his blind spot.

He had only just swung his sword and it was almost impossible to defend. Dodging was nearly impossible as well.

It was already too late.

The realization hit him almost immediately.

Is this the end?

But as if fate itself refused to let him die, the bracelet on his wrist flared with blinding light.

Just as the scythe's edge came within inches of his chest, his body began to fade.

The exam had ended and the academy's recall artifact had activated, pulling every surviving student back.

—

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