Free Web NovelChapter 76: Target’s Despair Level: UNMEASURABLE
"You heartless woman!" he muttered to the ceiling, his voice turning into a childish pout, "You actually care about everything and anything, just not me." ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com
Evelina stared at him. The contrast of the terrifying War God acting like a sulking toddler was so ridiculous that she was having a hard time not letting her composure slip.
Ace suddenly sat up straight, pointing a finger at her.
His eyes widened as if he had just realized something huge. "You have a lot of gold now, right? That prince also gave you plenty of gold. You are rich."
Now, that caught her attention, "What about it? I am always capable of making money," she said, walking around the desk to see if she needed to call the servants.
"Then buy me a pair of chickens," Ace demanded loudly, slamming his fist on the arm of the chair.
Evelina froze, "What?"
"Chickens!" Ace repeated, his face growing incredibly serious. His brows pulled together in a fierce frown, "Two of them. Fluffy ones. In the name of North. Buy them for me!"
Evelina stood in the middle of the dark room, wondering if she misheard him.
For the first time, she had no idea what to say. The war god was drunk and asking her to buy him a pair of chickens in the name of North. Could it get more absurd? This was the most absurd night of Evelina’s life since her rebirth.
"Go to bed," She enunciated each word.
"No!" Ace stomped his heavy boot against the floor with a loud thud.
He crossed his arms and glared her, "I am the Commander! I can stay here. If you don’t buy the chickens, I’m going to sit here and never let you secure the deal with that crafty prince."
To prove his point, the massive warrior slid out of the chair and plonked himself right onto the rug, sitting cross-legged. He looked utterly ridiculous.
If not for his handsome face that wasn’t compromised even after all his bizarre actions, one would have difficulty even looking in his eyes.
A strange sensation bubbled up in Evelina’s throat. She covered her mouth with her hand, her shoulders shaking slightly.
She was thoroughly entertained. The situation was entirely out of her control, but she couldn’t even find it in herself to be angry.
Had the System been around, Evelina would have been even willing her points to get some spell or something to capture this moment and shove it in Ace’s face if he made things difficult for her in future.
She walked closer until she stood right in front of him, "You are sitting on the floor. Get up."
Ace looked up through his messy hair, his pout softening as he looked at her emerald dress.
He reached out a large hand, gently catching a piece of her skirt and tugging it weakly.
"Don’t divorce me," he whispered.
Evelina stood still in the quiet room, her hand hovering hesitantly above his dark hair.
...
Later, the heavy silence of the study returned, broken only by Ace’s soft breathing as his grip on her emerald skirt slowly loosened.
He had passed out right there on the rug, his forehead still resting against the side of her knee, looking completely exhausted from his own emotional storm.
Evelina stood frozen for a moment, before she slowly dropped her hand back to her side.
She stepped out of his hold, walked to the door, and summoned some servants.
The servant’s eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw the Duke sprawling cross-legged on the rug, but he quickly called two trusted, tight-lipped guards to carefully carry the man back to the main room from the study. freewebnσvel.cѳm
Ace didn’t even wake up, merely muttering something that sounded suspiciously like ’fluffy chicken pair’ as they lifted him.
As soon as the guards left and the heavy oak door slammed shut behind them, the dark room regained its peace.
Evelina turned back toward her desk, but before she could take a step, a sharp sting shot behind her temples.
She gasped, grabbing her head as her vision suddenly burst into a blinding mess of digital static.
The System was forcing itself awake. But it wasn’t a clean restart.
The interface was severely broken, torn open by red lines that flickered like dying embers. And on the textbox, large and distorted scarlet characters stamped themselves directly across her sight, flashing rapidly.
[CRITICAL ALERT! ERROR!]
[Target ’Ace’ Emotional Baseline: DESTROYED.]
[Calculations broken. Target Despair Level: UNMEASURABLE.]
[Warning: Core Engine Overheating. System functionality forced into inactivity.]
The red warning pulsed violently three times, casting a bloody glow over the dark furniture of her study, before it shattered completely and total darkness returned to the corner of her mind.
Evelina lowered her hands, her green eyes narrowing in the dim candlelight.
"How troublesome..." Evelina murmured to herself, her expressions unreadable.
After a second of silence, Evelina walked back to her desk, neatly stacked her contracts, and began to map out her next move.
The Capital was a pit of wolves, and she couldn’t afford to slack right now.
Over the next three days, the fallout of the Capital Gala began to settle over the high court like a fog.
Evelina’s midnight emerald linen gown had completely revolutionized the fashion elite. Silk was dead; the Northern flax trade was the new gold.
But while Evelina’s wealth multiplied, others were drowning.
"He did what?" Evelina asked calmly, pouring herself a cup of black tea in the morning room.
Across the small table sat a young carriage driver wearing a plain brown coat, one of the many low-profile workers who made up The Silk Web, her newly established private information network.
Without the system’s database to instantly feed her secrets, Evelina had spent the last forty-eight hours mobilizing every merchant, stable boy, and driver under her employ to act as her eyes and ears in the Capital.
"Baron Snow is cornered, Your Grace," the young driver reported quietly, "He spent his last thousand gold pieces bribing the local pamphleteers. By noon, the entire Capital will be flooded with stories claiming your northern mills use slave labor and that your merchant background involves fraudulent contracts.
He’s desperate... So, he... he is telling his associates that he will ruin your reputation completely unless you pay him fifty thousand gold pieces."
...
A/N: Darlings, I have officially added the character profile visual references for the book! Since Webnovel doesn’t let you zoom in on the images, I am going to drop all the high-quality pictures directly into the paragraph comments here so you can see every single detail.
Inside, you will find the visual references for: Our Fashion Bee, The Great Duchess, and Invincible Business Lady Evelina looking immaculate as always + her regretting husband (I know a lot of us here are strictly anti-Ace right now, haha! But hey, a free visual reference of a handsome, sulking brute never hurts anyone, right?)
Tap on the paragraph comments above, let me know which look is your favorite, and don’t forget to keep saving June Golden Tickets for the upcoming mass release race(I will announce it soon)!
