After what seemed like forever, Liora calmly settled onto the edge of the bed, keeping a careful distance from where Adrian sat.

Flip.

He turned yet another page of his book and said nothing.

Liora let her gaze wander the room, searching for something she could use to make sense of the situation.

Was he reading her? Mocking her? Testing her patience on purpose?

By now she had fully expected him to say something, to press her, to demand answers.

That was what nobles did.

Then her eyes drifted to the knife still lying on the floor.

The thought came naturally, the way most thoughts came to her.

Kill him.

If he was dead, he could not report her to anyone, and she would slip out before the morning came.

But the moment her fingers twitched toward it, it happened.

Sherrr.

A sharp, searing pain erupted across the back of her neck.

She lurched sideways and hit the ground hard, jaw locking as the sensation tore through her.

A pink symbol blazed against her skin, crackling with thin lines of lightning as she writhed against the floor.

The pain was not the kind that dulled quickly.

It bit down and held.

"You tried to kill me again, did you not?"

The words were unhurried. Calm. As though he had been expecting it.

The current faded.

Liora scrambled back immediately, pressing her spine against the wall and staring at him with wide, unsteady eyes. Her breath came fast.

"What... what are you?"

"The son of the dead count. You already knew that." Adrian set his book down on the bed. "But let us set that aside for now."

He turned to face her fully, the candlelight catching the stillness in his expression.

"As my servant, you are not permitted to harm me unless I grant you permission. That is the nature of the contract you accepted."

"I..." Liora pressed a hand to her neck, still feeling the ghost of it. "I did not know you were a contractor. You do not carry the mark on your forehead."

"Let us say I am different in certain ways."

His eyes settled on her, and there was nothing hostile in them. That, somehow, was more unsettling than anger would have been.

"I understand what you have lived through," he said. "The way this county has been governed, the things it has cost people like you. It is no surprise that you would despise anyone bearing my family name. I am aware of what you carry."

Liora said nothing. There was no point denying it.

"Which is exactly why I intend to change it." He shifted slightly, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees.

"This county is broken. I know that. And I mean to fix it. That goal does not concern you yet."

He extended a hand toward her.

"The people who poisoned my father are still alive. Still comfortable. I will not allow that to remain true. I, Adrian Von Vane, will give you power. Real power. And in return, you will act in my place against those people."

Liora’s eyes stayed on his outstretched hand for a moment before she spoke.

"You want me to kill the ones who killed your father."

"Yes. Do you doubt your ability to do so?"

She let out a short, humorless laugh and looked away.

"I do not mean to offend, but just how strong do you believe you can make me? I am only a first-circle user. I have one skill and a background in street work. That is not exactly a foundation for revenge."

Adrian reached forward and tapped the floating panel only he could see.

[Liora.

Class: C-Rank Assassin, First Circle.

Potential Met: Contract]

[Would you like to upgrade this servant?

Note: This servant currently holds low loyalty and bond. As such, the upgrade may not reach full completion. As the bond deepens, she will approach her true potential.]

He looked at her for a long moment.

"If I made you into something the world has no name for yet, would you serve me without end?"

There was silence.

Liora studied his face, and she found that same quality she had noticed earlier, the one that irritated her because it should not have existed in someone his age.

He was not performing sincerity.

He was not offering her comfort.

The contract made deception feel different against her skin, like a change in air pressure. And there was none of that now.

"Yes," she said. "I will."

Adrian snapped his fingers once.

"You have made the right choice."

[Upgrade has begun.]

A thread of light unraveled from somewhere deep within him, slow at first, then spreading outward like ink through water.

It curled around her in a widening spiral, and the moment it touched her, Liora went still.

She felt it like a flood.

Not pain, but weight, a sudden and immense pressure pressing inward from all directions at once, as though something dormant inside her was being forced awake against its will.

Her cheeks burned.

Her fingers curled against the floor.

For one disorienting moment she felt less like herself and more like something that had not yet decided what shape it would take.

Adrian felt it too.

Something warm and dark moved through his chest, and he had to press it down deliberately, keeping his expression even as the light around Liora brightened to a point where it swallowed the shadows in the room entirely.

Then, as quickly as it had come, it was gone.

He exhaled slowly. Liora knelt before him, head slightly bowed, her breathing unsteady.

She had changed.

[Congratulations on your servant’s first upgrade.]

Her features had sharpened, her posture had straightened into something that carried its own quiet authority, and her hair fell longer now, darker at the ends, catching the light differently.

There was an aura around her that had not been there before, something composed and precise that could have passed her off as minor nobility in the right company.

But more than any of that was the new pull in his chest, the strange and specific sense that he knew her now in some wordless way.

Not everything, but the shape of her, what she guarded, what she flinched from, the texture of her silences.

She felt it too. He could tell.

"I feel... different," she said, her voice quieter than before. "Do I look different?"

Adrian let himself smile.

"Considerably."

He stood and walked toward her, unhurried, and even though the height difference worked against him, he reached out and tilted her chin upward just enough to hold her gaze.

"I am going to make you into something extraordinary. That is not an empty promise. You are my first ally in this, and there is no small thing about that. You should carry it accordingly."

Liora looked at him and said nothing for a moment.

"I have this urge," she said slowly, as though trying to understand it herself. "To pledge myself to you. I cannot tell if that is the contract or something else."

Adrian’s smile sharpened just a little.

"I would expect nothing less."

He released her chin, turned, and walked out of the room without another word.

The door settled shut behind him.

Liora remained where she was.

Her expression shifted the moment she heard his footsteps fade, the composure dropping away like a mask removed in private. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

She turned her palm upward and stared at it.

"He was not lying," she said under her breath. "I can feel it. I am strong. Far stronger than I should be."

She flexed her fingers once, measuring it.

And then the stranger thought arrived.

She no longer wanted to kill him.

It was not simply that she had decided against it.

The impulse itself was gone, replaced by something she had no clean word for, something closer to the feeling of stepping over a threshold and understanding, only once you were on the other side, that the door had locked behind you.

She pressed her back to the wall and stared at the ceiling.

"He is younger than me. So why do I feel like bowing my head to him?"

The question sat in the air without an answer.

"Should I run?"

She already knew she would not.