Chapter3

Liam froze in place, as if he hadn't expected me to actually say that. I turned and walked out. Behind me, he ground his teeth, "Fine! I'd like to see how tough you can be without me!"

I returned home, and the second I pushed the door open, the acrid stench of burning hit me.

"Turn up the heat. Melt the cover completely, but whatever you do, don't scratch that star sapphire," my stepmother’s voice echoed from the alchemy room.

My head buzzed loudly. I almost tumbled as I scrambled down the stone steps.

The white flames in the alchemy room burned with a blinding glare. My mother's only remaining relic the [Epic-tier Grimoire] lay right in the center of the inferno.

"What are you doing?!" I lunged forward like a madwoman.

Two knights pinned my shoulders from the left and right.

My father stood before the hearth, not even sparing me a glance. "Viscount Bloodbeard has a fondness for gemstones. As long as we use this star sapphire as a deposit and send it over with your slave contract, the mining rights to that coal vein will belong entirely to House Griffin."

I used my mana to break free from the restraints and thrust my bare hands into the raging fire.

Skin and flesh scorched instantly. I clawed frantically through the ashes, only managing to grasp a cracked, blistering cover—the last shred of parchment dissolved into flying ash before my eyes.

My father's boot slammed hard into my ribs, sending me flying backward across the floor. The star sapphire rolled out from the ash, and he carefully pinched it into his palm.

"Box the gem and deliver it to the Viscount." He wiped the stone with a piece of silk, casting a cold glance at me slumped on the ground. "Anna has already taken your slot to the High Tower. Sit still and behave. When the Viscount's carriage arrives, even if I have to tie you up, you will be thrown into that carriage."

I raised my pair of festering, blackened hands, a metallic sweetness surging up my throat. For a bit of mundane profit, he had squeezed dry the very last memento of his late wife.

I propped myself up from the ground and limped back to my room.

The Viscount's carriage would arrive in a few days at most. I couldn't just sit there and wait for death. The only way out was to pretend to accept my fate first, wait until the dead of night, and sneak out to scrape together enough travel money for the High Tower Academy's entrance exam. As long as I could get into the High Tower before the carriage arrived and secure the magic tower's protection, no one could effectively force me to carry through with this marriage.

...

Every late night after that, I scaled the wall to slip out of the estate and huddled in the backyard of an illicit underground apothecary, using my blood-scabbed hands to refine magic potions. The boss paid me only a single gold coin a day. I gritted my teeth and controlled my mana to continue the extraction the moment the potion sap touched my wounds, they burned with agonizing pain, but I didn't dare to stop. I had to rush back to my room before dawn without letting anyone discover my absence.

"Elena."

My movements stopped. Liam. He wore a pristine white robe embroidered with silver thread, looking so clean he was entirely out of place in this slum.

His gaze landed on my festering hands. His pupils contracted sharply, and his jawline tightened. "You're hiding in a place like this doing hard labor, just to spite me?"

He reached out to grab my wrist. I turned sideways to avoid him, not even lifting my head. "Get out. Wouldn't want to dirty the Chief Adept's shoes."

He took a deep breath, pulled a coin pouch and a land deed from his spatial ring, and slammed them onto the table.

"A hundred thousand purple gold coins, and a title deed for the southern border." His tone slid right back into that familiar, condescending cadence. "Open your eyes and look at yourself right now. Take the money and leave. Stop fighting a war with yourself. Yes, I took your slot to save Anna, but I paved another path for you."

I stared at the purple gold coins on the table, finding it completely ridiculous. He didn't know I was already a sacrifice traded for a coal mine; he genuinely thought I just couldn't handle the blow of losing my slot and was down here torturing myself. He shoved me into a dead end, and now he brought a bag full of pocket change to put on a show of self-gratification.

I reached out and grabbed the coin pouch.

A hint of smug triumph flashed in Liam's eyes. "That's right, Elena. Better face reality sooner"

I swung my arm in a full arc and smashed the heavy bag viciously into his face.

He let out a muffled groan and stumbled backward as the purple gold coins clattered into the mud.

"Let me wake you up sooner!" I vaulted over the table. "You stepped on my spine to flatter your useless little damsel, robbed me of my only way out, and now you expect to throw a few bones to decide which kennel I should live in like a dog?"

"You're simply beyond saving!" he spat, covering the bleeding corner of his mouth. "I am giving you a lifeline! With all these rotting sores on your hands, if you keep clinging to your pride, you will eventually decompose in this stinking ditch!"

"That is my business." I pointed toward the alley exit. "Take your filthy money and get out!"

He looked at me, the warmth in his eyes draining away layer by layer until it turned into absolute ice.

"Fine. Don't regret this." He mockingly pulled at the corners of his mouth. "Since you insist on degrading yourself, then stay in this filthy mud and enjoy your pride."

The very next day, Liam received a memory orb. As he watched the contents projected from it, his face drained to a livid, sickly pale.