Chapter 241 - Unwanted Charm

"I don’t object to her death; however, you must consider the reality of the situation, Kurt. Faye is of royal blood. She is the eldest princess of Eldoria, revered by the public. You can’t just walk in and gut her.

"Not to mention her personal entourage. She never walks anywhere without those royal guards glued to her back, so assassination is out of the question."

"Why would the guards be a problem? Don’t tell me..."

"Yep. Every single one of her personal royal guards is embedded deep within the Cult," Emelie confirmed.

"Ah... That explains their hostile attitude when she picked me up that day. I thought it was because of what I did to that David guy, but I guess it was because they knew who I was and what I’ve been doing to their ’brothers’."

He paused, tilting his head as he tapped into his memory of that day. "Wait... except for one of them. What was his name again? Uh... Kevin? No. Kyle... nooo... Ke... Ke... Oh!"

He snapped his finger when the name came to him. "Kenneth! That’s it. Kenneth. He’s the Vice-Captain of the Royal Guard. Is he a cultist too? Because unlike the others, he was actually pretty chill with me."

"Hmm, let me think..." Emelie crossed her arms and closed her eyes. "Vice-Captain Kenneth... No. He is a guard directly assigned by King Maxwell to oversee her security. He holds more loyalty for the king rather than her. He’s unaffiliated with the cult."

Kurt’s smirk broadened into a calculating grin. "That’s perfect. He can be our inside man."

"Inside man?"

"Yeah. If we can get him on our side – or at least use his duty to the king against her – we don’t need to carry out a risky assassination. We either gather irrefutable evidence of her treason for the king, or we force Faye into a corner where she’s forced to expose her true nature to everyone.

"To make that happen, I’ll play along with her fake little request. I’ll use the assignment to figure out her true intentions while slowly building up trust between us... Actually, nevermind. I hate playing these stupid political games. Can we just go back to the assassination plan and call it a day. I don’t mind the risks."

"Great plan!"

"Oh shit, really–?"

"If we play her game correctly, her own trap will become the gallows upon which she hangs. Haaahahaha!"

’Crap baskets.’

Kurt tapped his fingers against the tabletop as a lingering detail from her story resurfacing in his mind. "There’s one thing you said earlier that caught my attention. About the half-brother’s body..."

"What about it?"

"You said his mother’s body was recovered, but the boy’s body was never found. Did the cult or the Dorothy’s ever actually verify his death? Or do you and your infinite knowledge know who he really was?"

"Infinite knowledge? Oh, please..." Emelie shook her head slowly. "In my past life, I never cared to look into the specifics of his disappearance. It was irrelevant to my main mission of saving the world from doom.

"However... I do know that despite all her resources and two decades as a high-ranking cult operative, Faye never found him. Dead body or not, if she had found closure, perhaps she never would have twisted into the monster she is today."

A heavy silence settled over the booth as the implication hung between them.

"A nine-year-old boy vanished without a trace..." Kurt murmured softly. "Which leaves a lingering question. Did the brother actually die... or did someone save him twenty years ago?"

"A mystery for another time. Let’s wrap up here. Will you be attending the post-tournament banquet at the royal gardens later?"

"Yeah. I’ll be attending as Diana’s plus-one. Now that I know everything going on behind the curtain, it’s going to be very interesting seeing how Faye acts."

"Indeed," Emelie agreed as she left a silver coin on the table and slid out of the booth, pulling her hood back over her head. "See you later, then. I gotta go get fitted in my ’oh-so formal noble dress’. Bleurgh."

The bell above the diner entrance chimed – ding-ding – as Emelie stepped out into the bright morning sunshine, disappearing into the pedestrian flow.

Kurt looked down in his mug and began swirling the dark, lukewarm coffee left at the bottom. Before he could even finish the drink, a subtle rustle of fabric caught his attention.

Without waiting for an invitation, a slender figure smoothly slid into the booth directly opposite him, occupying the seat Emelie had vacated just seconds prior.

"Forget something, Emy?"

"Good morning, handsome~"

Kurt paused, raising his head.

Sitting across from him was the same rouge-haired woman he had rescued from the back-alley thugs a few days ago. She wore a stylish, low-cut dark dress that emphasized her generous curves. Her striking iridescent-pink eyes gleaming with an overly familiar affection.

"Hm? Wait. You’re that woman. From the alley."

The woman’s face lit up with a bright smile, as she leaned across the wooden table. "I am so glad you remember me! I was worried you might have forgotten a helpless girl like me."

She let out a soft, musical sigh, setting her elbows on the table. "I never got the chance to properly thank you for what you did that day. Those terrible men... I don’t even want to think about what would have happened if you hadn’t stepped in."

"Just bad luck on their part. I was nearby and happened to see."

"Hehehe~" she sat back down and extended her hand across the table. "I’m Olivia."

Kurt reached out, taking her palm for a standard, polite handshake. "Kurt."

The moment their palms touched, she brought her other hand over and wrapped them both around his. Her skin was soft and warm, and her thumb began to gently caress his knuckles in an intimate stroke.

"I was hoping I’d run into my brave knight again."

Kurt felt a spike of awkwardness at the unprompted physical touch. Without making a dramatic scene, he firmly pulled his hand out of her grip, resting his arm back on his side of the table.

Olivia didn’t seem discouraged in the slightest. She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and rested her chin in her palm as she gazed at him with longing.

"You know, Kurt... ever since that night, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you. It’s just so rare to find a man who is so heroically strong... so brave. Someone who can single-handedly overpower dangerous men without breaking a sweat...

"A girl like me... well, I’ve always felt so fragile in a big city like this. I’ve always wished I had a reliable man standing by my side. Someone to keep me safe... someone to keep me warm during those long, cold nights..."

Kurt sat there like a monument of stone. His expression remained unreadable as his single eye stared back at her with stoic neutrality.

"If you’re feeling unsafe in the city, you should probably invest in good home security. I also know a weapons shop that sells pretty decent protection. Take my brass knuckle switchblades for example. It’s two weapons in one."

Olivia froze wide eyed. A subtle crack appeared in her sultry persona before she forced another sweet smile.

"W-Well... those things are nice, of course... but I prefer a real, living protector. Someone who knows how to take charge... someone I could completely belong to..."

She leaned further over the table, her cleavage dipping lower as she held his gaze, practically throwing herself at him without uttering the explicit words.

Yet, Kurt didn’t budge an inch. He didn’t blush, he didn’t fidget, and his heart didn’t spike by a single beat. He just looked at her as if she were reading him the weather report.

’What’s wrong with this man?! Is his heart made of stone?!’

Realizing that conventional female charm was not working, Olivia’s eyes subtly deepened in color. Deep within her pupils, a faint crimson glow flared to life.

She channeled her innate Succubus magic – a potent, invisible wave of mental charm and irresistible aphrodisiac aura meant to hijack a man’s nervous system, melt his rational thoughts, and bend his mind into a helpless trance.

"Look at me, Kurt..." she whispered, her voice sounding sultry. "Tell me you don’t feel it too..."

She waited for his eyes to glaze over. She waited for his breathing to turn shallow, for his hands to reach out for her, for his stoic demeanor to shatter into desperate submission.

...Nothing happened.

Deep within Kurt’s biology, his passive Adaptation ability triggered without missing a beat. Recognizing the foreign, intrusive mental contamination attempting to alter his brain chemistry, his body neutralized the charm spell before he even knew it hit.

"Is something wrong with your eyes? You’re straining it." He casually asked as he drank the last of his coffee.

Olivia’s jaw almost unhinged in utter shock. Her mental charm hadn’t just failed – it hadn’t even registered.

’My charm... rejected?! AGAIN?! POINT BLANK?!’

She quickly let out a fluttery laugh, snapping her eyes back to normal as she waved her hand dismissively. "Ah! Hahaha! Oh, goodness! No, no! It’s nothing at all! Just a bit of dust in the air!"

Before she could attempt to process the impossibility standing before her, footsteps echoed from the aisle.

"Alright, one-eye," Sophie’s sharp voice broke the tension. "It looks to me like your plate is clean and your coffee mug is bone-dry. In that case, scram. You’re taking up a perfectly good booth for a potential paying customer."

Kurt slowly looked around the completely dead, empty diner. There wasn’t a single soul inside except for them and Cindy, who was idly sweeping a floor near the front.

He let out a low, amused chuckle and slid out of the booth. "Fair enough, Sophie. Wouldn’t want to ruin your booming morning rush."

He turned back to Olivia, giving her a polite, distant nod. "It was nice seeing and talking to you again, Olivia. But I’ve got somewhere to be."

Kurt reached into his pocket, tossing a couple of silver coins onto the table to cover his meal and a generous tip for Cindy.

Without another word, he walked toward the exit, the brass bell chiming pleasantly as he stepped out into the bright morning sun.

Olivia sat frozen in the booth, staring at Kurt’s back through the glass panel as he passed by and vanished down the street.

An intoxicating mixture of deep frustration and wild, obsessive hunger swirled within her chest.

Sophie leaned her hip against the edge of the table, picking up his empty plate and tossing it onto her tray. She cast a dry side-eye down at the rouge-haired girl.

"I can see you’re interested in him. But take my advice – give up."

"Pardon?"

"He’s taken. And trust me... you wouldn’t want to mess with that woman’s man. She’ll snap you in half before you even have the chance to blush."

With that, Sophie turned on her heel and marched back toward the sizzling kitchen, letting the wooden door swing shut behind her.

Left alone in the quiet diner booth, Olivia sat in silence for a long moment.

Slowly, her hand reached down under the table and gently caressed the pink, rose-printed plaster stuck over the skin of her knee. Something Kurt hadn’t noticed.

An ecstatic smile spread across her face and her now fully crimson eyes glowed in the window paneled sun.

"Already taken by another woman...? Well, I didn’t exactly do my research on you, Kurt. I was just so excited to meet you. How wonderful... It seems I officially have a rival~"