"Heh. Looks like not everyone gets moved by your pretty speeches."
Watching the figure gradually fade from view, Trudy curled her lips in a mocking smile and continued her unrestrained, poisonous barbs. But for the Black Doctor, she simply stood there—staring blankly at Chiya, who had shaken off her hand and left in silence.
She kept staring.
And staring.
Steady. Quiet.
The madness and agitation from moments ago deflated like a punctured balloon, draining out of her body in an instant. In its place, a slow-forming sorrow gathered in her eyes—cold and crystalline, like frost.
Only when even Chiya's footsteps had fully vanished did she turn back to look at Trudy on the bed, confusion creasing her face.
"How strange… why?"
She murmured to herself, and instead of relaxing, her hands moved with methodical calm. She pulled out gloves, then began selecting scalpel blades as if this were nothing more than routine.
"Why can't he do it?" she whispered, voice turning thin and sharp. "Has my love been absent for too long? Or is it that some other woman's control has exceeded my influence?"
Trudy let out a breathy laugh.
"Hehe. Ever considered the possibility that the child named Chiya… simply awakened a sense of self—"
"Impossible!!!"
Despite having learned a little about the woman who'd bought her off the black market, Trudy was still stunned by the sheer whiplash of her behavior. To swing from one emotional extreme to another in the blink of an eye—Trudy could only think of one person capable of that.
Herself.
Born from a cultivation pod, trained under the dream of "defending New Eridu," training with her sisters day after day… Even when she failed the combat tests every time, she had still been happy back then.
She could complain, "I'm just not good at fighting," and then curl up against her sisters' chests—or drape herself over their backs—and fall asleep, heavy and warm.
Until the moment she was pinned beneath her sisters' corpses.
Until the moment that "happy family," that goal that had driven her to keep grinding even without passing the tests, that New Eridu she had sworn loyalty to—raised a butcher's knife against its own creations.
The ivory tower collapsed. Silver bodies were crushed. The same bright red spilled across the earth. Time turned the river into rouge; Ether tortured loyal hearts, leaving only a pitiful, tragic creature of revenge behind.
And now this Black Doctor—someone merely expelled from the military—was displaying such violent emotional turbulence just because that boy had disobeyed her wishes.
Was she simply insane?
Or…
Had she never once considered that her place could be replaced?
If Trudy pushed the thought further—what kind of position did that lamb called Chiya hold in this woman's heart?
What sort of feeling had she poured into him… for a woman whose hands were ruthless and whose heart was even more so—for a serpent that ate people without even spitting out bones—to reveal a change like this?
Trudy's mocking smile remained, fixed in place, as she watched the Black Doctor mutter to herself, fitting different blades onto a scalpel handle one after another… then stepping closer, inch by inch.
The edge kissed the fragile skin of Trudy's throat.
With a single light stroke, she could end her life.
But Trudy didn't blink.
She only smiled—watching, watching—until the woman lifted the blade away from her neck… lowered it… lowered it to her abdomen.
And then—
A slice.
Pain erupted along her nerves, and Trudy's body tried to thrash on instinct. But her limbs were useless; she couldn't even mount a real resistance.
She wanted to sleep, but the pain wouldn't let her.
She clenched until her teeth threatened to crack, yet she still couldn't stop the flood—an overwhelming surge that swept through every corner of her body.
A normal person would have sunk into painless oblivion under anesthesia.
But—
"Silver Army… anesthetics don't work on you," the Black Doctor said, almost casually—then corrected herself with a small laugh. "Ah, no. On you. So I won't waste precious drugs."
"Even if I want to destroy you and keep only your brain… what a pity." Her eyes narrowed. "Chiya doesn't want me to do that."
"So I'll keep you."
"Hehe. This already hurts too much to bear?" she murmured, pleased. "Too bad. I won't let you die."
"I'll whip you with pain. Strangle you with torment."
"I'll make you obey my will—that is what I should be doing now."
The thing that had been talking tough moments ago was now twisting in agony. Bound tight, its struggle turned ugly—an obscene writhing like a caterpillar curling under fire.
A flicker of pleasure passed through the Black Doctor.
But it was quickly swallowed by something else—anxiety.
Because something she treasured had defied her.
"Impossible. Chiya is a good, obedient child…" she muttered, voice shaking at the edges. "It shouldn't have come to this."
"Why… why did he leave?"
"Besides me… what other woman could support him in the dark?"
Or rather—
"Who… took my place…?"
Her gaze hardened into something venomous.
"Don't let me find out who you are, you thief…"
"Achoo!!!"
"Boss Jane! You've sneezed like five times! Are you catching a cold?! Want me to find you a blanket?!"
"Idiot! Are you a sparrow or something? Chirp-chirp-chirp—can't you see Boss Jane's in a mood?!"
Somewhere inside an unknown Hollow, Jane was resting with her underlings. Out of nowhere, she sneezed several times in a row, making the thuglings fuss in alarm.
A burly enforcer, seeing Jane's brows drawn tight, smacked the talkative subordinate on the forehead with a heavy thunk.
But Jane didn't even notice their bickering.
She only frowned, eyes seeming to jump over collapsed ruins, shattered bridges, the hollowed wasteland itself…
Chiya…
Were you thinking about me just now?
"Mm." Jane lifted her chin slightly, as if accepting it as fact. "I'll just assume you were."
"It's hard in the dark," she thought, a little warmth slipping into her chest, "but when I think of you… it's like chewing an energy bar—my exhaustion starts to disappear."
She knew her guess was probably wrong.
But the mere possibility made her raise her arms and fold them in front of her face, trying to hide the smile that was about to leak out anyway.
And then—
"Boss Jane! The Public Security Bureau's dogs are coming again!"
"Tch! Those bastards—watch me punch them into the sky!"
"No," Jane said, cutting through the bloodlust. "Don't tangle with them."
She waved a hand at the scout on lookout and the burly enforcer who was already cracking his knuckles.
"We're Mountain Lions."
"Like our name says—hide, wait, then strike with a fatal blow."
"Before that… picking a fight with a giant like the Bureau isn't worth it."
She turned, voice calm as stone.
"Let's go."
"Our time hasn't come yet."
"And neither has theirs…"
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 80)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 80)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 74)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter20)
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