Cain froze.
For a brief moment, all the noise around him dulled, as if the world had been wrapped in thick cloth. The blood guards' mana pressed down like a warning, the spears hummed with restrained power, and yet none of it mattered compared to the single thought echoing in his head.
Is she really going to do it?
He stared at Cornelia's back, at the straight line of her shoulders and the calm way she stood before the guards, unyielding, proud, exactly as she had always been. The memory struck him without mercy. Her standing like this in his first life, refusing to bow even before gods, refusing to retreat even when it meant bleeding for it.
…Damn it.
He felt a strange warmth rise in his chest, unwanted and dangerous.
She's still like this, he thought helplessly. Headstrong. Stubborn. Never backing down. No wonder the past me went insane over her and now, it's still affecting me.
Unaware of the chaos she was causing,
Cornelia's lips curved upward.
