Serena Bckwood paused at the threshold, fixing Elias Kane with one final, profoundly penetrating gaze that lingered on every inch of his form with that signature fox-like glint of quiet amusement, the impulse to act on his stubbornness flickering alive inside her once more—yet the simple fact that she had already risen from the bed made any return feel like admitting his draw held real power over her, which would only serve to elevate this counterfeit impostor far beyond what he deserved in her carefully ordered world.

  "That won't be necessary. I won't disturb you any longer. Get some proper rest," she murmured, her voice a velvet command wrapped in light ughter, though the instant the door clicked shut behind her it smmed with a violent bang that reverberated through the penthouse like a crack of thunder.

  Elias Kane's body gave an involuntary light jolt from the force, and only once he had confirmed her complete departure did he slowly roll from his prone position onto his side, lying there with unblinking eyes fixed on the vivid web of green-and-red marks blooming across his arm in a dazed, unfocused haze—the same relentless ciming that had forced his fwless performance throughout their all-night encounter despite the exhaustive acting required, its shame-weighted hooks now twisting even deeper in the sterile silence she left behind.

  [ *System Theta: Are you alright? This kind of vulnerable appearance isn't like you at all. Could Serena Bckwood have been too violent and actually hurt the host?* ]

  A long moment passed before he stirred at all, parting his lips to expel the stray lock of hair that had slipped into his mouth, his voice emerging weak and drained. "It's over…"

  [ *System Theta: What's wrong with the host now?* ]

  "This pain-to-pleasure conversion is exaggerated beyond any reasonable limit," he answered at st, mustering enough strength to brace both hands against the mattress and push himself upright into a sitting position, the motion slow and nguid, every shift of his limbs carrying that faint, unconscious allure even in exhaustion.

  "You know how much sheer willpower it took for me not to let a single sound escape the entire time?" Elias continued, even as he allowed himself to sink back down and roll fluidly toward the bedside table, reaching out of habit for the drawer only to grasp empty air upon remembering there were no cigarettes here, prompting a bored twitch of his lips before he pressed on without pause. "It was bad enough that I couldn't vocalize anything, but I also had to deliberately pretend to be in severe pain the whole time—do you understand how torturous that feels? It's like trying to walk with both your left hand and left foot moving in perfect sync, except ten thousand times worse… and after staying up the whole night without any sleep, I'm completely drained."

  [ *System Theta: …* ]

  The system had nearly short-circuited in full panic, only to discover the cause was this. A surge of things it wanted to vent rose within its processes—the familiar "compints" impulse it recognized all too well—but in the end it held back, relieved above all that the host remained unharmed.

  [ *System Theta: Then do you need to rest for a bit now?* ]

  Elias shook his head, the gesture deliberate and slow. "It's only one night without sleep."

  The most important factor, in this world where he was never the active participant, was that beyond the performance required of him, simply lying still had sufficed while Serena Bckwood handled the rest with dedicated, meticulous thoroughness. The only real drawback to even the finest pain conversion y in his total ignorance of her actual capabilities, because any sensation that registered as pain instantly transted into pleasure for him, making the precise source of that pleasure impossible to discern even for himself.

  Elias clicked his tongue softly. "She basically got away with cheating this round. This exam—she fails."

  [ *System Theta: Does this even count as an exam?* ]

  Elias ughed, cpping his hands a few times in zy approval. "There we go—keep the roasts coming. I was worried after Echo vanished I'd be stuck doing solo comedy routines in here."

  [ *System Theta: You and System 404 used to banter back and forth a lot during missions?* ]

  "Mhm." Elias nodded, eyes half-lidded. "When you're on assignment you can never show your true face—not just to the target, but to anyone around you. You never know what kind of surveilnce or special abilities they might possess. Even if I could recover from being seen through, it's an unnecessary hassle. Bottling everything up gets suffocating, so the only real outlet is talking to the voice inside your head."

  [ *System Theta: Was that part of why you decided to retire?* ]

  "Oh, not exactly," Elias replied with a casual shrug. "I've simply been in the game too long. Jumping from body to body and world to world stopped being interesting ages ago. Figured I might as well retire and enjoy some peace for once."

  [ *System Theta: …* ]

  The system fell silent, the veteran operative's reasoning striking it as both profoundly simple and quietly boastful in that effortless way only someone at the absolute top could manage.

  "What's Serena Bckwood's favorability level right now?" Elias asked, changing the subject.

  [Serena Bckwood favorability. Current: 10%.]

  [ *System Theta: You're incredible—one night and you've secured a full ten percent of her favorability.* ]

  Elias let out a short, cynical burst of ughter as he leaned back against the headboard, completely unbothered by his own nudity, his long smooth legs crossed elegantly at the ankles. "Far from it. I'd estimate the real progress on conquering Serena Bckwood is still less than one percent."

  [ *System Theta: Huh?* ]

  "The Bureau has its official charts, but according to my personal scale anything above sixty percent means they actually like you, above eighty percent is genuine love," Elias expined calmly, voice carrying that world-weary edge as he continued without pause, his green eyes distant with the cynicism of countless missions behind them. "Between twenty and sixty percent covers the various degrees of friendship—ordinary friends, good friends, whatever—and anything below twenty percent? You're barely more than strangers who've bumped into each other a few times, not even acquaintances worth remembering."

  His eyes lifted slightly, a faint, knowing smile pying at the corners of his mouth. "So now you understand? Even after she spent the whole night using me however she wanted, in her eyes I'm still completely worthless—dogshit, really. Not even comparable to one of Lucien Hart's little toes. Hell, a random stranger would probably feel more favorability after catching a bare-faced glimpse of me on the street than she does right now."

  Only then did the system fully grasp how distant true conquest remained.

  [ *System Theta: Then weren't you just…* ]

  Elias shook his head, gncing down at the prominent marks scattered across his chest and torso with detached appraisal. "As if I'd ever allow myself to be taken for free. When someone's been starving for nearly thirty years, even garbage tastes like heaven to them. And I… I am the rarest delicacy in existence."

  "Serena Bckwood has been hungry for almost three decades. One taste of me, and she'll never be able to get it out of her system."

  [ *System Theta: That metaphor sounds more like you're poison than food.* ]

  Elias's swollen lips curved into a small, broken smile. "Correct. I am poison."

  The kind carefully coated in sugar, radiating an intoxicatingly sweet and addictive fragrance.

  Eat it? Or… consume it anyway?

  After talking for a while and allowing himself a short rest, Elias finally stood. Yet the second his feet left the bed and touched the floor, his legs betrayed him completely—a profound, debilitating weakness surged through every muscle like liquid fire that turned his knees to water, sending him pitching forward in a helpless sprawl as an unwilling tremor of raw vulnerability shot through him, shame twisting hot and bitter in his gut at how thoroughly compromised and exposed he had become—the cool morning air of the penthouse stark against the fevered sensitivity of his bare skin, amplifying the crushing sense of isotion as he y sprawled there after the same merciless ciming and forced performance he had endured throughout the previous night under Serena Bckwood's relentless control, far worse than the lingering weakness that had followed his first forced submission under Yvonne Quinn's clinical gaze weeks earlier.

  "Ah…"

  The sound that slipped from his throat was soft, lilting, and dangerously seductive—enough to steal the soul of any woman who happened to hear it.

  Elias quickly pushed himself back up, cursing quietly under his breath.

  He might not feel the pain of the fall, but that didn't mean his body was unharmed. Serena Bckwood's marks were the least of it. The true culprit was the fundamental physiology of men in this matriarchal world: after their first complete loss of purity, their bodies would turn weak and helpless, strength sapped for at least a full week. In the throes of st night's overwhelming converted pleasure, he had simply forgotten that crucial detail.

  Right then, the bedroom door opened once more.

  Elias turned his head toward the sound, and the first thing that met his eyes was a striking pair of peach-blossom eyes.