"If you really want my protection that badly, are you willing to give your body to me right now? I mean, to actually do the very thing your sister accused me of a year ago? Hahaha!"
My laughter echoed hollowly against the wooden rafters, devoid of any genuine mirth, serving only to mock the absolute irony of her desperate situation.
I leaned in closer until she could feel the cold breath of my words against her skin, my voice dropping to a harsh, icy whisper that cut through the sound of the rain outside.
"If not, then get the absolute hell out of my house. I have things to do."
Lilia's eyes widened in sheer, unadulterated shock at my exceptionally harsh words.
Her entire body shook as if struck by lightning, and she took a frantic step back, her tattered sapphire gown rustling loudly against the dusty floorboards as she physically recoiled from the pure venom laced in my tone.
For a long, agonizing moment, she stood there utterly speechless, her lips parting slightly but producing no sound.
The last traces of life drained completely from her face as she processed the ruthless, degrading nature of my ultimatum.
"I... I didn't think it would come to this," she stammered out, her voice barely a broken, fragile whisper that threatened to dissolve into the shadows of the foyer.
"I understand your burning anger, Landra, and I know I have absolutely no right to ask for your forgiveness..."
She continued, "But to lower myself to such a degrading act? That's simply not who I am, and I know deep down, it's not who you are either."
She took a long, shaky breath to steady her rapidly beating heart, her trembling slowly subsiding as a desperate, hardened new resolve took hold of her broken spirit.
"I asked for your help because I genuinely believed in your lingering sense of justice, just like your father's."
"But I never thought you would willingly stoop to Hendrix's low level of depravity. My sister and I may have terribly wronged you in the unchangeable past, but I never once believed you capable of such... such cruelty."
Lilia straightened her back, lifting her chin high as she channeled the last remnants of her imperial upbringing.
Her tear-stained eyes met mine with a surprising, quiet calm that challenged the darkness in my own.
"I will not trade my dignity for your physical assistance. If that is the truly pathetic price you demand from a broken princess like me, then I would much rather face Hendrix's forces completely alone and fight until the bitter end," she said with resolute determination.
"Wow, you really are something, aren't you?" I spat back, letting out a sharp, deeply mocking laugh that cut her down instantly.
"After everything you and your family have done to ruin my life, you still act as if your malicious wrongdoings were just some innocent, harmless playground game."
My expression darkened to a pitch-black scowl, the deep-seated rage embedded within the muscle memory of this body boiling up violently to the surface.
I stepped closer, aggressively cornering her against the locked wooden door until she had nowhere left to run.
"Do you have any idea what happened after you falsely accused me?"
"While I was being dragged away into that dungeon and chained up in that place, my father was killed by the enemy on the direct orders of that unreasonable father of yours!"
"My mother and younger sister were also violently abducted shortly after my father died! Your family completely and utterly destroyed mine!!"
The anger building up inside this body finally burst out as if it were my own. Even I was a little shocked at what I was saying.
Lilia gasped sharply, her hand flying up to cover her mouth as the weight of my words landed like physical blows.
"While I was rotting away in a dark, forgotten prison cell, my mother and sister were abused and sold as slaves!"
I didn't know why I got so incredibly pissed, but I roared at the top of my lungs, the sheer weight of Landra's tragic, suppressed past spilling out of me in a tidal wave of fury.
It felt as if I were a completely different person, consumed by the original host's agonizing grief and anger. "To me, you are exactly the same as that monster Hendrix. If anyone needs to burn in hell, it's you!"
In the original game's linear storyline, the old, foolish Landra would have safely escorted her back to the royal guard, receiving nothing but a hollow reward, only to be manipulated into becoming a tragic villain later on.
'Because I already know the entire script of this wretched world, why the hell should I follow it? It would be a thousand times better to just live freely on my own terms.'
I could easily abandon this collapsing kingdom to its fate and cross the heavily guarded border into a neighboring country.
I could find Landra's missing mother and sister before they met a tragic end due to the spreading flames of war.
I knew for an absolute fact that at this specific point in the timeline, those two were actually still alive, even if as slaves.
As for this fallen princess who had completely lost her throne—if she didn't submit to my rules, I could just throw her out into the wild once we got safely past the city gates.
Or better yet, letting the pursuing royal guards catch her wouldn't be a bad option either. I truly didn't care about her fate, or the ultimate fate of this decaying Empire.