"NPC?" Alice asked, her brow furrowed in confusion.
"Oh, you don't know," Zarek said with a faint smirk.
He murmured something under his breath, then looked her in the eye. "Do you know what I'm going to do to you?" he asked, grinning.
Alice's composure snapped back into place, venom lacing her voice. "You know my mother. She won't spare you if there's even a scratch on me."
There wasn't a trace of fear in her eyes, only defiance, sharp as steel.
Zarek's amusement only deepened. He didn't reply. He simply stared at her in silence, the corners of his lips twitching as if savoring the tension.
Even though the room was silent, Alice couldn't shake off the creeping sense of dread. In mere moments, cold sweat had drenched her back, and her unease only deepened, her voice rising, trembling between defiance and desperation:
"You're only making things worse for yourself by tying me up like this. If you release me now, I might even convince my mother to go easy on you—"
