Chapter 59: You Think You’re Worthy to Be My Companion?

"You again."

Kael’s expression flattened into open irritation the moment he recognized the figure behind him.

Ashley Monroe. The last time she’d tried this particular play, it had blown up in her face spectacularly enough that most people would’ve taken the hint.

Instead, she’d apparently treated it as a learning experience gone away, studied the loss, and come back convinced she’d cracked the code this time.

She clearly hadn’t registered the disgust written all over his face.

She’d dressed for the occasion a gown cut low enough that it left nothing to the imagination, chosen with the kind of deliberate, calculated attention that suggested she’d spent real time in front of a mirror perfecting the effect.

Whatever stat boosts the outfit carried, its actual purpose was obvious to anyone paying attention.

Her expression settled into something practiced and pleading, eyes locked on him with an intensity that had clearly worked on plenty of people before tonight.

"I came here to pledge myself to you," she said, voice pitched soft and earnest. "The world’s only getting more dangerous now that the merge is real.

A woman alone out here doesn’t stand much of a chance."

"I know my combat skills are garbage no serious player’s going to want me on their roster."

She pressed on before he could get a word in. "But I’ve got millions of followers. That’s worth something, even if I’m not."

"You’re a Beastlord, aren’t you? So just take me in. Treat me like a companion."

"Say the word, and Bambi will do whatever you ask."

She reached for the hem of her robe and drew it upward, slow and deliberate, gaze never leaving his.

Kael felt nothing but revulsion watching the performance play out.

Does she actually believe this works on me?

He’d have almost admired the persistence, in a different life, on a different person.

There was something to be said for someone who refused to accept a closed door.

On Ashley, it just read as one more angle to work, one more audience to perform for never a real attempt at connection, only ever a calculation about what the moment could be worth once it was clipped, captioned, and pushed out to an audience that had no idea what they were actually watching.

Back in a life that no longer counted for anything, he’d given this woman more patience, more generosity, more genuine care than she’d ever bothered to earn.

What he’d gotten back was contempt, dressed up as affection until the moment it stopped being convenient for her.

Unrivaled hadn’t been kind to her either, the one time she’d tried this exact stunt before he’d taken her skill book and left her worse off than she’d started.

And still she’d come crawling back, no shame in it whatsoever, begging for a second chance at humiliating herself the same way.

I should’ve finished the job when I cashed out the Voidblade Assassin last time.

Do you even hear yourself right now? You think groveling in the street makes you worth anything to me?

He knew exactly what kind of person he was dealing with. Refuse outright, tell her to leave, and she’d simply keep circling back, relentless, until either his patience or her shame ran out and given the display currently unfolding in the middle of a public square, her shame clearly had no bottom left to hit.

Fine. Let’s make this cost her something for once.After a beat of calculated silence, he spoke, calm and absolute.

"Kneel."

"...Here?"

Something flickered across her face the first real hesitation she’d shown all night.

They were standing in the heart of Frostwatch, a public thoroughfare with players streaming past in every direction, plenty of them already slowing to watch the scene unfold.

She’d walked in prepared for almost anything he might demand of her, mentally steeled for whatever it took.

She hadn’t accounted for an audience.

Some things belonged behind closed doors.

Doing them in the open square of a capital city was an entirely different proposition and one her platform would have opinions about the second footage surfaced.

But the longer she turned it over, the more the angle sharpened into focus. Why did I come all this way in the first place? Attention.

Engagement. A headline big enough to dominate every trending list on the internet by morning.

She hadn’t announced the breakup publicly yet. If she knelt here, now, in front of a growing crowd voluntarily submitting to another man while her current relationship status still sat unresolved online the resulting explosion would dwarf anything a quiet statement could manage.

Her breath caught, pulse quickening at the calculation completing itself in real time.

She raised her voice deliberately, pitched to carry to every onlooker already gathering.

"Bambi’s done with Kael Mercer. From this moment on, I belong to Unrivaled please, accept me!"

The reaction was immediate.

"Wait is that BabyAsh? The streamer with the massive following?"

"Isn’t she still with Silversong? Why’s she kneeling in front of Unrivaled?"

"Obviously trying to trade up. Silversong’s stock’s been sliding for weeks she’s cutting her losses."

"Kneeling in the middle of the street and saying that out loud? That’s a bold move."

"You don’t know these streamer types.

Half of them live for exactly this kind of spectacle."

"Can’t deny she’s stunning, though. Camera’s going to love this."

"Rough night for Silversong. Rough month, honestly."

"Guess that’s how it goes one guy’s loss becomes the next guy’s headline."

Word rippled outward fast, drawing a proper crowd within seconds.

More than a few players activated their recording tools, unwilling to let a moment like this pass uncaptured already imagining the clip circulating by morning, tagged and reposted a thousand times over before anyone involved had even logged off for the night.

Kael watched the whole performance unfold with something between disbelief and grim fascination.

He’d thought he’d already seen the full depth of her shamelessness. Apparently there was always room to go lower.

A cold light settled behind his eyes.

"Now," he said, voice flat. "Close your eyes." ℯℯ𝑙.

"...What?"

Her composure cracked for the first time all night.

Memory surfaced fast and unwelcome the last time she’d tried something like this, everything had gone smoothly right up until the moment she’d turned her back, and Unrivaled had put her down without a flicker of hesitation.

But this time was different. This time she’d planned for it.

This is a protected zone, right in the heart of the capital. He can’t kill me here. Not inside the safe zone.

That thought steadied her enough to push past the unease. She closed her eyes.

Kael didn’t bother with words.

He raised one hand, and light bloomed across the square as Wraithlord answered the summons towering, spear raised, the crimson blade catching what little sun filtered down between the rooftops.

His expression didn’t shift at all as he leveled the point at her kneeling form.

The spear came down like a striking dragon, aimed dead center at the one place that mattered most no hesitation in the motion at all, as if the crowd, the cameras, and the safe-zone flag hovering peacefully over the whole square simply didn’t factor into the equation.