Chapter 75:
King's Landing, Red Keep, late at night.
After the young servant who had drunk the "miracle water" staggered away and disappeared at the end of the corridor, Lilith Mort did not immediately return to her room. She stood quietly in the shadows where moonlight could not reach, extending the pair of hands that Victor had mockingly called "delicate." Her fingertips slowly traced across the cold stone wall, as if she were feeling the pulse of the entire castle.
[Black Mother Goddess System Notification:] ["Chaos Seed" successfully parasitized. Estimated incubation period: 72 hours.] [Infection threshold: Extremely high. Transmission routes: Water sources, bodily fluids, psychological fear.] [Current host task: Obtain absolute trust from the competitor (Victor) and trigger "Deep Gene Resonance".]
"Absolute trust?" Lilith murmured softly. Her voice was ethereal and chilling. She recalled Victor's arrogant demeanor in the office, and those violet eyes that seemed capable of seeing through everything — yet completely failed to pierce her disguise.
In her previous life, men who fancied themselves "chess players" often died still believing they controlled the entire board. She savored the pleasure of slowly dragging such proud prey into the mire.
...
Three days later, Pompeii Industrial Zone, Internal Combustion Engine Assembly Workshop.
Inside the vast factory, the smells of steam and diesel intertwined. Victor stood before a massive "Winter-2" diesel engine, holding a custom alloy wrench and adjusting the cylinder pressure. He wore only a sweat-soaked linen shirt on his upper body. The taut lines of his muscles looked full of explosive power under the dim, yellowish lights.
Although the crisis in the North had temporarily subsided, he knew full well that the current Steel Knights were far from enough to completely suppress those mutated Others. He needed stronger engines and fiercer firepower.
"My lord, something feels off in the city lately." Sandor Clegane, the Hound, roared into the workshop on a motorcycle, removed his soot-covered helmet, and looked visibly agitated. His flame-scarred face was etched with unease.
"Speak clearly." Victor didn't even look up. The wrench clinked sharply against the nut.
"It's hard to describe," the Hound spat. "Several strong men at the docks suddenly collapsed — bodies turning purple, vomiting and shitting everywhere. But as soon as that Dean Lilith showed up and gave them some 'holy water,' they were jumping around like nothing happened. Now the laborers are all saying she's the reincarnation of the Sea Goddess."
Victor's hand suddenly froze.
"Jumping around?" He frowned, turning around with a gaze sharp as a blade. "Has the Medical Academy filed any report?"
"No reports. It's all spreading among the smallfolk. Those commoners now want to build a statue for that woman in the white dress. And…" The Hound hesitated. "Lady Margaery seems very interested in this too. She took a large amount of supplies to the Medical Academy this morning to show support."
Victor dropped the wrench. That inexplicable unease surged in his chest once more. He pulled up his system panel and tried to scan for "virus" or "abnormal magical fluctuations." But the heavy industrial noise of King's Landing acted like a thick fog, severely interfering with the detection. The panel showed only calm green waves indicating normality.
"We're going to the Medical Academy." Victor grabbed a towel to wipe the oil from his hands, his eyes turning deep and unreadable. "I want to see what game she's playing."
...
Royal Medical Academy of King's Landing, Isolation Ward.
The atmosphere here was not heavy. Instead, it carried an almost fanatical adoration. The corridors were packed with commoners who had come either seeking treatment or simply to catch a glimpse of the "Saintess."
When Victor pushed open the door, he saw Lilith half-kneeling in front of the bed of a dying old woman. Her face was deathly pale, her forehead covered in fine beads of sweat. The hem of her once-pristine white robe was stained with filth, making her look as if she had exhausted every last ounce of strength to save lives.
Margaery Tyrell stood beside her, eyes slightly red, gently wiping Lilith's sweat with a handkerchief.
"Victor, come look. Lilith is truly an angel." Margaery's voice carried both admiration and a trace of barely noticeable jealousy. "She hasn't slept for three days treating these poor souls infected with the strange disease. She even… used her own blood as a medicine primer."
Victor's pupils contracted. He strode forward.
Sure enough, he saw a circle of bandages wrapped around Lilith's wrist, with shocking crimson blood seeping through. It was bright red, warm human blood.
"My lord…" When Lilith saw Victor, she struggled to stand and greet him, but her legs gave way. Like a withering petal, she collapsed straight toward the ground.
Victor instinctively stepped forward. The agile reflexes he had trained to evade attacks from the Others kicked in at this moment. He caught her firmly and pulled her soft, cold body tightly into his arms.
This time, he did not feel the usual aloofness of a "saintess." Instead, he sensed an extremely weak, clinging dependence. Lilith was like a drowning kitten, her hands desperately clutching the front of his shirt, her breathing rapid and disordered.
"Don't move." Victor's voice was low and domineering.
He lifted her horizontally in one smooth motion. The light weight of her body made his heart tremble. He turned to Margaery, his tone leaving no room for argument: "Leave this kind of thing to the junior doctors. She is the dean, not a sacrifice. Margaery, seal this place off. No one is allowed in or out."
"But… only Lady Lilith's prescription works," a young apprentice trembled as he spoke. "My lord, you don't know how fast this disease spreads. Even Valyrian steel scalpels can't cut through those purple swellings. Only the lady…"
"Shut up." Victor shot him a cold glance, like a lion shooing away a fly.
He carried Lilith toward the dean's office at the back.
The moment the door closed, the light inside the room suddenly dimmed. Victor placed Lilith on the chaise lounge covered with soft wool felt.
Lilith opened her sapphire-blue eyes. Her gaze was hazy, carrying an almost transparent innocence. She reached out with her bandaged hand and gently covered Victor's large hand that rested on her shoulder.
"My lord… am I very useless?" Her eyes reddened, and tears slid down like broken pearls. "I can't save everyone. When I saw that child die in my arms, I truly hated myself for not having magic."
This extreme fragility and self-blame pierced through Victor's hardened defenses like a sharp needle once again.
"You've already done more than enough." Victor sat beside her. A trace of tenderness he himself didn't notice flashed in his violet eyes. He reached out and gently stroked her icy cheek.
Lilith obediently nuzzled against his palm, the motion intimate and natural.
"My lord… tonight… could you stay with me?" Her voice was as soft as a mosquito's buzz, laced with pleading. "When I close my eyes, all I see are the faces of the dead. I'm scared… I'm scared that once I fall asleep, I'll never wake up again."
Victor's breathing grew slightly heavier.
As a man who had survived the apocalypse and countless battlefields, he had faced countless formidable enemies, yet he had no resistance against this kind of "saintly brokenness."
He felt this woman was the only pure land left for him in this filthy world. That protective instinct instantly transformed into a fierce possessiveness.
"Alright, I'll stay." Victor reversed his grip and held her soft hand, his eyes gradually darkening.
[System Internal Feedback:] [Host dopamine levels rising. Affection building.] [Target's vital signs: Extremely weak (judged as exhausted).]
Although Victor spoke of rest, his body did not move away. He leaned down, gazing at Lilith's pale yet breathtakingly beautiful face — a fragility that invited sin.
"You want companionship?" Victor's large hand slowly slid downward, moving from her cheek to her slender neck, feeling the weak but rapid pulse there. "Do you know what you're asking of a man, Lilith?"
Lilith froze. This was not in her script. She had only planned to use weakness to gain sympathy, then strike while he slept. But the aggression in Victor's eyes now caused her a flicker of genuine panic.
"M-my lord?" She instinctively tried to shrink back.
"Don't hide." Victor gripped the back of her head with one hand, forcing her face upward. His kiss descended domineeringly — no longer a light, testing touch, but one with the momentum to devour her whole.
Lilith's eyes widened, her sapphire pupils contracting violently.
"Damn it… why isn't this man following the script?" she cried out inwardly.
Victor's movements were rough yet carried a strange skill — the kind of control only a warrior who had survived countless battles possessed. He easily suppressed Lilith's instinctive resistance and pinned her firmly to the chaise lounge.
"Since you're too afraid to sleep, let's do something else." Victor whispered against her ear, his hot breath spraying over her sensitive earlobe. "Use my body heat to drive away your nightmares."
This was not a suggestion. It was a command.
Lilith wanted to push him away. She wanted to blast him back with black magic, but the system's warnings flashed frantically in her mind: [Warning! Strictly prohibited from exposing abilities unless absolutely necessary! Current confrontation risk: Extremely high!]
She could only endure.
But soon, that forced endurance turned into a strange, twisted acceptance. The scorching, fiery life force radiating from Victor's body poured into her cold form like molten lava through every point of contact. It was a raw masculinity she had never experienced as a black magic user.
Lilith's eyes shifted from shock to haziness, and finally into a deeper, darker greed.
She had intended to be the hunter, but now she discovered that being torn apart by this lion… felt damnably intoxicating.
"Victor, your blood pulses so powerfully."
While enduring Victor's thrusts, Lilith's hands clung tightly to his broad back, her nails digging deep into his muscles. She greedily inhaled the strong masculine scent from his body. At an angle Victor could not see, the corners of her lips curved into a cruel, satisfied arc.
"Once I drain the essence of a strong man like you, my children… will surely grow into the most beautiful nightmares in this world."
At that moment, in the sewers beneath the Red Keep outside the window, several rats that had eaten excrement containing the "plague seeds" scurried forward with red eyes, climbing through the dark pipes toward the most central noble residential district of King's Landing.
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