Chapter 319: Her Sadism Doesn’t Soften With Time

A few minutes later, Phoenix left with a tired look in his eyes. But since he was still my ’best friend’, I pressed a bottle of expensive wine from the D’Arclight treasury into his hands on his way out.

As someone who had also been obsessed with love, and still was, if I was being honest, I actually felt for him.

Which sounded strange coming from someone who could kill the most innocent man without a care in the world.

"Did you really have to say all that to him?"

"What, you don’t agree that your two students are better suited together?"

"I guess. But don’t you think you twisted the truth a little too much? Kevin and Vivianne aren’t even together."

I sat on the bed and crossed my legs.

"Don’t worry about it. They’ll affirm their love in time."

"You sound like you’re playing matchmaker." I chuckled.

Evelina only looked at me, a mischievous expression on her face that absolutely screamed yes. And not in an innocent way, either.

"Wait... don’t tell me..."

"I’m just creating little scenarios, maybe blocking a road to force a small detour here, ordering a spy to steal some notes so Kevin has to borrow from Vivianne there. Nothing too big. Just making sure they need each other a little more than they otherwise would."

"You’ve been manipulating them for years?"

"Years," she agreed, crossing her arms beneath her chest with the satisfied air of a cat who had spent a very long time cultivating a very particular garden.

"The stolen notes, the conveniently shared carriages, the ’coincidental’ room assignments during territorial visits. Oh, and the mission where they got trapped in that cave together during the blizzard? The weather was real. The cave-in was not."

I stared at her.

"Evelina."

"Yes, dear?"

"That’s sadistic."

She tilted her head, the picture of innocence. "I prefer to call it... proactive romance facilitation."

"Proactive? you collapsed a cave on them."

"A small cave. And I made sure the food cache I’d planted earlier was well-stocked. They had candles, blankets, and Vivianne’s favorite tea, which Kevin just happened to find in his pack."

I pressed my palm against my forehead.

"How long did you plan that?"

"Three months. Maybe four." She waved a hand dismissively. "It’s not like I have anything else to do while you’re off handling territory disputes. The territory runs itself now. The church minds its own business. Our child isn’t born yet."

"So you’ve been meddling in our students’ love lives."

"Meddling is such an ugly word."

"What would you call it?"

She drifted toward the window, her white hair catching the lamplight. Outside, the capital was beginning to glow, windows flickering to life across the darkening streets.

"I’d call it... entertainment." She glanced back at me, and there it was—a flash of something older, something that had been buried beneath years of peace and pregnancy and quiet mornings in Berian. The same sharp edge that had once made the entire academy walk carefully around her. "You didn’t think I’d stopped, did you? The sadism, I mean."

"I’d hoped," I admitted.

"Hoped."

She turned fully, leaning against the windowsill with her arms still crossed.

"Cael, I spent years orchestrating the downfall of noble houses because they looked at me wrong. Made a woman cry on her own wedding day because she’d spread rumors about my family’s finances. This is nothing."

"You’re enjoying this," I said.

"Immensely."

"Do you feel bad for Phoenix at all?"

She considered the question. Her fingers drummed once against the windowsill.

"No," she said finally. "He’ll be sad for a while. Then he’ll find someone else. Someone who doesn’t already belong to someone else."

"And you’re absolutely sure Vivianne belongs to Kevin?"

Evelina’s eyes glittered. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"I’m absolutely sure."

She pushed off from the windowsill and crossed the room toward me, each step deliberate, unhurried. The lamplight caught the curve of her smile, and for a moment, she looked exactly like the woman who had once manipulated me with her love without a single bit of remorse.

"You want to know the best part?" she said, stopping inches from where I sat.

"I’m almost afraid to ask."

She leaned down, her lips brushing my ear.

"The cave-in wasn’t even the most elaborate one."

"There’s more?"

"Kevin’s scholarship renewal last year? The one that almost didn’t go through because of a ’clerical error’?" She drew back just enough to meet my eyes. "There was no error. I just wanted to see how Vivianne would react."

"And?"

"She marched into the faculty and refused to leave until they fixed it." Evelina’s smile widened, something almost fond flickering behind the cruelty. "Didn’t threaten anyone. Didn’t use her family name. Just sat there, calm as anything, and told them she’d wait."

"How long did she wait?"

"Seven hours." Evelina laughed, soft and genuine. "Kevin found her asleep in the hallway. Then, hours later, he’d been pacing outside her dorm for three hours, trying to work up the courage to thank her."

"You watched that too?"

"I have eyes everywhere, Cael. You know that."

I did know that. I’d known it for years. But somehow, hearing her lay it all out like this, each small cruelty and careful manipulation laid bare, still managed to unsettle me.

Not because I hadn’t suspected.

Because I had.

And because, somewhere beneath the unease, I couldn’t quite bring myself to disapprove.

"Evelina."

"Yes, dear?"

"The next time you decide to play matchmaker with our students, at least tell me first."

She blinked, caught off guard for the first time since Phoenix had walked through the door.

"Really?"

"Someone should make sure you don’t accidentally collapse a real cave on them."

Her laugh this time was louder, warmer, the kind she only ever let out when we were alone. She sank onto the bed beside me, her weight settling against my shoulder, and pressed a kiss to my jaw.

"You’re becoming soft in your old age," she murmured.

"I’m not even twenty-three yet. Besides, age is such a small number, you’re immortal with your succubus and—"

"You’re immortal with your souls."

"Exactly."