Free Web NovelChapter 27: Olivia Bloodthorne (1)
The soul inside Misha’s body let out a long sigh. She met Gerbaut’s unwavering stare and lifted a finger, gently pressing it against the tip of his spear. "It looks like I have to give you my name after all."
"I don’t need your name anymore." The answer landed without warmth.
She blinked, then lightly laughed. "Ouch." She pressed a hand over her chest and gave him a wounded look touched with amusement. "That actually hurt a little."
Even so, she did not step back. His hostility no longer carried the same weight it had before. She could feel it now, he still watched her like a threat, yet he no longer looked at her like an enemy. That difference mattered.
The corners of her lips curled upward, a playful glint danced inside her amber eyes. "I’m pretty sure this won’t be the last time we meet anyway. My master will need me during times like this since you know... she’s a goodie-two-shoes, don’t you think so?"
Misha nearly choked. "H-Hey! That’s not true!"
It happened in a span of a blink. So slight that most people would have missed it. His face might as well have been carved from stone, and his posture remained steady, yet his eyes moved just enough to reveal her words had landed somewhere.
The presence inside her body noticed that shift in his gaze. "Oh? You agree?"
"I didn’t say that."
"You didn’t deny it either~" She let out a soft chuckle.
Misha gritted her teeth. That irritating soul had said it so lightly, so shamelessly, yet the words struck exactly where they hurt most. She had planned to terminate the contract the moment the possession was over. She had repeated that intention to herself more than once. [Senior Intern] was troublesome. Now she understood why the system’s recommendation was ’not suitable’.
But now that needing her was mentioned, the situation has changed. Misha hated admitting it even in her own head. The abilities of [Senior Intern] were useful. No, it was more than useful. She needed them.
That realization only made her mood worse. Keeping the contract meant accepting a soul she did not fully trust. Ending it meant giving up an advantage that could keep her alive. Inside the Tower, survival crushed pride with brutal efficiency. Facts remained facts. Whatever [Senior Intern]’s motives might be, her support had helped. Misha could not deny that anymore.
"Olivia."
"Huh?" Gerbaut blinked a few times.
"That’s my name." She smirked confidently. "Olivia Bloodthorne."
A moment ago, she had laughed and toyed with his indifference as if none of it mattered. Now she offered her name plainly as though she had decided that killing him no longer served any purpose.
A soft hum escaped Olivia as her lips curved upward. "Now you can’t pretend you don’t know me~"
Then the next instant, she lunged forward.
Gerbaut was caught off-guard when she slipped inside his range. He moved to intercept but it was already too late. A sharp kick struck his wrist and the spear flew from his grasp.
"Gerbaut!"
The two collided once more. Olivia grabbed his arm, and Gerbaut reacted instantly, twisting his body and driving his shoulder forward to break her grip.
The momentum carried both of them sideways. Then–
Crash!
They hit the ground together.
Misha stared in disbelief. "... Seriously?"
Olivia ended up on top.
Of course she did.
One knee pressed against Gerbaut’s side, one hand trapped his wrist, and Misha’s hidden dagger spun into her other hand. She rested the tip beneath his jaw.
The entire scene looked ridiculous... at least for Misha.
Not a single muscle moved on Gerbaut’s face. Olivia, on the other hand, looked moments away from clapping her hands in excitement.
"Well~" She tilted her head, amusement dancing in her amber eyes. "This is unexpected."
"Get off." He offered no reaction.
"No. Why would I?"
"Get off."
"No~" A small giggle slipped from her lips. "This is comfortable."
She pressed down with a slow, maddening grind, teasing herself against him once. "And just so you know, most men start losing it when they end up underneath me."
Gerbaut’s stare grew heavier, a deep crease formed between his brows. It was a remarkable achievement.
He still held himself like a drawn blade, cold and steady, yet Olivia clung to him as if she had every right in the world to stay exactly where she was. frёewebηovel.cѳm
He looked at her with the kind of flat patience that suggested he was already deciding whether removing her by force counted as acceptable. Olivia met that stare with bright, shameless amusement, as though his hostility only entertained her more.
A dull ache crept into Misha’s head. Can we just skip this part?
Olivia traced the scars across his face with her eyes. "Hm, you have an interesting face. I like those scars~"
Gerbaut’s brow lifted slightly, just enough to question her words.
Her lips relaxed slightly, though the playful light never left it. "They tell stories, right?"
He did not answer, but the smallest crack appeared in his stoic expression since her words had caught him off guard. Most people probably saw the scars and looked away. Others might have treated them as something ugly or frightening but Oliiva looked at them as if they were part of a story she wanted to read.
That made the air between them feel strangely still.
The corner of his mouth betrayed him for a second. It was barely visible but Olivia seemed to catch it.
She froze, her eyes widened for a moment. "Oh." Then her grin stretched even further. "Ohhh~"
Whatever softness had appeared earlier disappeared at once. His face immediately returned to its default setting.
"What?"
"You smiled."
Misha couldn’t help but blink several times, trying to process what she just heard. He did?
She stared at Gerbaut’s face as if the answer might still be there, hidden in the hard lines of his mouth. But by then the moment had already vanished. His expression had returned to its usual blank severity, cold enough to make the claim sound absurd.
"I didn’t." He retorted in that same flat tone.
"You absolutely did." Olivia traced the blade against his cheek with lazy confidence, as if she had already won the argument. Then her lips curved into that same teasing smile. "You’re flirting with me, aren’t you?"
The idea felt insane. Gerbaut flirting looked about as natural as a sword trying to sing.
Misha buried her face in her hands. This had somehow become worse than the battle they had earlier.
"I am not."
"Baby, you absolutely are~"
Misha wanted to disappear. A goblin chief felt easier to deal with than whatever this was. At least monsters made sense. Olivia, on the other hand, treated danger like a toy and Gerbaut like a wall she had decided to climb for fun.
And Gerbaut... for some reasons Misha could not begin to understand, kept responding instead of simply dismissing her.
Why had she ended up in the middle of this? Why did the conversation around these two feel like it veered straight off a cliff? And why, despite all reason, did a tiny part of her want to see what Gerbaut would say next?
No. Bad thought. Very bad thoughts. She refused to get invested in this train wreck.
Olivia was smiling down at Gerbaut like a predator discovering a favorite toy... or perhaps a favorite opponent. She wasn’t entirely sure which.
"Can’t I have my body back now please?" Misha asked, her voice strained.
She had spent the entire possession watching from the sidelines and that alone had been stressful enough. Watching Olivia flirt with Gerbaut while using her body somehow made it worse. It only pushed that stress into outright suffering.
One of them acted like a wall carved from ice while the other acted like she had made it her personal mission to lick that wall just to see what would happen.
"That’s my teacher you know..."
The protest came out weaker than Misha intended. Embarrassment still burned across her face, and she felt a headache building behind her eyes. Her soul barely recovered from the trauma of the actual fight, and now she had to survive this disaster too. At this point, emotional damage felt more lethal than killing a person.
Ding!
「 〔SYSTEM NOTICE〕
Soul Recall Initiated.
Destination: Capricorn Chamber
Possession Time Remaining: 00:01:00 」
Olivia blinked a few times as she noticed the remaining time. Then her shoulders slumped and she let out a dramatic sigh. "Aww..."
"Looks like my master wants her body back~" Olivia pouted. She pulled the dagger away from him and rotated it around her fingers with effortless ease.
Misha immediately nodded. "Yes, like, right now."
"And here I was having fun too... What a shame." She eyed the timer on the window before she looked down at Gerbaut once again.
The man had already pushed himself into a sitting position. One hand rested against the ground while his other remained ready to move at a moment’s notice. He had not relaxed for even a second. After everything that had happened, he still held himself like a man prepared for the next threat. Olivia liked that.
Gerbaut fixed her with a wary look. "You have a strange definition of fun."
"I’ve been alone for a very long time after all."
The words came lightly, but they did not feel light. For the first time, Olivia’s smile thinned at the edges.
Then she checked the timer again.
「 Time Remaining: 00:00:42 」
