Chapter 575: Our Childhood Friend, Octavius

Finally Eve spoke again, her voice lower and tighter, with a sign of true fear.

"But it's Heka. Someone who ranked tree-class in her first screening as if it was nothing. An assassination might be just suicide with a fancy name, a death wish wrapped in revenge. She'll kill and slaughter us without breaking a sweat."

"Indeed. She truly wasn't using magic to block your attacks, not a single spell or barrier," Janin explained further, his voice low and measured as he stood near the small wooden table in the inn room, his fingers resting lightly on the worn surface. "Her body just didn't seem to be able to take damage. She's nearly invulnerable, almost impervious to harm. And who knows what other secret she might have, or what hidden abilities or powers she keeps concealed. We might find out when we try to assassinate her, but it would be the last time we find anything again... the final discovery of our lives."

Octavius's head snapped up, his neck straining with the sudden motion.

His eyes—red-rimmed from earlier tears, still puffy and raw—now burned with a raw mixture of rage and lingering shame that had calcified into something harder.

The muscles in his jaw flexed hard enough that the tendons stood out along his neck, his teeth grinding together with barely contained fury.

"Fools! Complete and utter fools!" he yelled, the word cracking through the quiet room, his voice rising to a near-shout. "Of course I know all of that, every detail you have mentioned! I was the one who fought her, and experienced her power firsthand. We may as well walk up to her and ask her to cut us down."

Eve went back to sitting on the edge of the bed, dark cloak still wrapped around her slender frame.

Her expression stayed puzzled, brows drawn together as she studied the man she had known since childhood.

"Then what do you mean, Tavi? If you know she cannot be harmed by us, what is your plan?" she asked.

Octavius locked eyes with both of them in turn, his gaze intense and unwavering.

The bitterness in his face had hardened into something colder and more deliberate, a calculated hatred that had been simmering beneath the surface.

"Her girlfriend, Benjamin. The one who was with her... She seems to care about her a lot."

Janin's frown deepened, his brow furrowing with concern, and his sharp brown eyes narrowed as the implication settled.

"You don't mean that… you cannot be serious about this," he said slowly, his voice sounding like a warning. "The girl is innocent, and has done nothing to deserve such fate."

"That doesn't matter!" Octavius roared, the sound half manic, his voice cracking with emotion. "My status was also innocent before Heka showed up, before she destroyed everything I had built! I will take from Heka something important as well, something that will wound her as deeply as she wounded me. It'd be my last sin before I leave Thaad... I... I do think I need to reform my life from scratch, to become someone new."

Eve and Janin fell silent. Whatever arguments or warnings they might have offered, Octavius already knew them, already understood the risks and consequences.

The burden of his decision sat in the room like a fourth presence, heavy and unmoving, pressing down on all of them.

Their thoughts turned inward, each processing the revelation in their own way.

°°°

JANIN

There is no way any clear-eyed person can look at this plan and not recognize it as a catastrophic idea, a disaster waiting to happen.

One small mistake, and all three of us will be destroyed without ceremony.

Is Tavi's revenge truly worth that level of danger, worth the lives of everyone involved?

Is his wounded pride even worth the blood of an innocent?

And on a personal level, I have never been comfortable with the idea of killing anything cute or beautiful, of snuffing out something that brings joy to the world.

Yet the look in his eyes leaves no room for doubt, and no space for negotiation.

He is serious, and completely committed to this course of action.

If Eve and I refuse, he will almost certainly attempt it alone, and that attempt will explode in his face—perhaps literally.

I love my friend more than anything else in this world, more than my own life or safety.

He pulled both Eve and me out of our darkest hour when we were still children, when no one else would even look in our direction.

That debt is not something I can set aside or ignore.

Hehe... I still don't know how the two of us managed to raise him into such a stubborn ruffian, such a headstrong fool.

But beneath the rage and the shame I saw something else tonight, something that gave me hope: a real determination to change for the better, and to become a new person.

Octavius is a good person at the core, a kind soul buried beneath layers of hurt and bitterness.

He simply needs a sharp trigger and a complete change of pace.

Both of those things are now standing directly in front of him, forcing him to confront who he has become.

It is a genuine pity, a sad necessity. Benjamin's fate now rests entirely on the precision of Eve's aim and the steadiness of her nerves, on whether she can execute the plan cleanly.

I should go kiss Susan goodbye while there is still time, before everything changes.

From the way Eve has been watching Tavi all day, it looks like she is preparing to make her one-billionth attempt on the densest man alive. She wants to confess her feelings again.

Good luck, queen of the friend zone. You will need it.

°°°

EVE

Poor Tavi... My poor, broken treasure.

One single day has stacked misfortune on him until he can barely stand under the weight of it, until he is crushed by the burden of his shame.

It is truly sad and heartbreaking to watch him suffer. And yet I cannot pretend I dislike the direction events have taken.

I cannot lie that this is not an opportunity.

For the first time since we were children, Tavi is at his absolute lowest, stripped of all his defenses and bravado.

The walls he always keeps around himself have cracks in them now, fissures that reveal the vulnerable boy beneath.

For the first time there might actually be an opening, a chance for me to slip through—an opportunity for him to finally see me as a.. woman instead of simply the childhood friend who has always been there, the constant presence he takes for granted.

It is unfortunate that the new girl will have to die. An innocent life must be sacrificed for my happiness.

But this world has never been kind to soft, pretty things that cannot protect themselves, has never shown mercy to the weak.

At the end of the day, princesses do not last long here, and Benjamin is one such princess—she is soft and delicate.

I have been in love with Tavi for as long as I can remember.

He is the fixed point of my entire world, the axis around which everything revolves.

If the cost of finally having a real chance with him is the disappearance of one or two girls who stepped into a wrong place at a wrong time, then that is a price I am willing to pay without hesitation and regret.

I possess the abilities required for clean work, the skills honed over years of practice.

And I own a magical crossbow accurate enough for the task, a weapon that has never failed me before.

Between the three of us, I am the one best suited to carry out the assassination, and the one most capable of doing what needs to be done.