Your Girlfriend Calls Me Daddy

Chapter 180: 181 | My Arch-Rival’s Master Plan Didn’t Account For Me Being Interesting

Her breath came fast and shallow. Her cheeks were flushed from exertion. A strand of violet hair had escaped her ponytail and fell across her forehead.

"This isn’t training," she said quietly.

"Then what is it?"

"I don’t know."

"That’s a first."

"Shut up."

She kissed me.

Not the aggressive demanding kisses from yesterday. This was softer. Almost hesitant. Like she was testing something she didn’t fully understand.

The drain stirred automatically. I felt her Essentia at the edge of my awareness, warm and familiar now. Vanilla and frost with fire underneath. The taste I’d come to associate specifically with Noel.

I kept the drain closed. Barely. It took more effort than it should have.

She pulled back after a long moment. Her eyes searched my face for something.

"That wasn’t in the training plan."

"Probably not."

"I don’t understand what’s happening to me." She was still lying beneath me on the mat, her hands still on my chest, her legs still tangled with mine. "I had everything figured out. My career path. My rankings. My vendetta against you. Then you had to go and be actually interesting."

"Sorry?"

"No you’re not."

"No. I’m really not."

She laughed. Short and surprised, like she hadn’t expected the sound. Her face changed when she laughed. Softer. Younger. Less like the untouchable Stark heiress and more like a girl who’d spent too long building walls around herself.

"We should get back to training."

"Probably."

"Get off me."

"You’re still holding my shirt."

She looked down at her hands. Her fingers had twisted into the fabric of my training shirt without her noticing. She released it quickly, like the material had burned her.

"This is your fault."

"What is?"

"All of it. Everything. You came to this academy and you ruined my entire plan."

"I thought your plan was to destroy me."

"It was. Then you had to go and be good at things. And say things that make sense. And look at me like I’m actually a person instead of just the Stark name." She pushed against my chest. "Move."

I moved.

We both stood and put distance between us. Noel adjusted her ponytail with quick jerky movements. I stretched my neck and tried to look like my heart wasn’t pounding.

"Let’s try again," she said. "With abilities this time. I need to see what you can do without the flashy stuff."

"Define flashy."

"No portals. No gravity. No drain." She assumed her fighting stance again. "Fire and rubber only. The abilities you’re publicly registered with."

"That limits my options significantly."

"That’s the point. In the exhibition match, you’ll need to fight smart. You can’t just throw everything at them and hope for the best."

"I don’t hope for things. I make them happen."

"Then make this happen without your trump cards."

Fair point. I’d been relying too heavily on the abilities I’d absorbed from Mera and Cheon. The portal combinations. The gravity manipulation. The system analysis that let me read opponents like open books.

But Fire Fist and Rubber Body were mine. The gacha had given them to me, and I’d barely scratched the surface of what they could do together.

I activated Fire Fist.

Flames erupted around my hands and forearms, burning bright in the gym’s filtered light. The heat was intense but controlled, concentrated into a coating that added mass and impact to every punch.

Noel nodded approvingly. "Good. Now show me Rubber Body."

I stretched my right arm experimentally. It extended about eighteen inches beyond normal reach before the elastic tension built up enough to snap back.

"Limited range."

"But expandable with training." Noel circled me, studying my stance with those analytical eyes. "The fire adds impact. The rubber adds reach and damage absorption. Combined properly, you could hit from unexpected angles with devastating force."

"I know." freewebnovёl.ƈom

"Then why don’t you use them more?"

"Because the other abilities are more versatile."

"Versatility isn’t everything." She stopped in front of me. "Sometimes depth beats breadth. A master of two abilities will beat a dabbler in six every time."

"You think I’m a dabbler?"

"I think you’re unfocused." She crossed her arms. "You’ve been collecting abilities like trading cards. Drain from intimacy. Portals from Mera. System Interface from Cheon. Who knows what else. But have you actually mastered any of them?"

The question hit harder than I expected.

She was right. I’d been so focused on expanding my arsenal that I hadn’t put in the work to actually understand what I already had. Fire Fist could do more than throw flaming punches. Rubber Body had applications I hadn’t even considered.

"Fine. Teach me."

"What?"

"You’re the tactical genius. Teach me how to use what I have more effectively."

Noel blinked. Clearly she’d expected more resistance.

"You’re actually asking for help?"

"I’m not stupid. I know when someone has information I need." I let the flames die down but kept Rubber Body active, stretching my fingers experimentally. "You’ve been studying me for weeks. Probably longer. You know my weaknesses better than I do."

"Years," she said quietly.

"What?"

"I’ve been studying you for years. Ever since that party when we were kids." Her voice went flat. The way it always did when she talked about that night. "The Short Stack incident."

"I remember."

"Do you?" She looked at me. Really looked, with an intensity that made something in my chest tighten. "Because the Rome from that night wouldn’t ask anyone for help. He was too arrogant. Too certain of his own superiority. He looked at a little girl with a crush and dismissed her because she wasn’t worth his time."

"I was a different person then."

"Clearly." She held my gaze for a long moment. "When did you change? What happened to you?"

I thought about the original Rome. The one who’d actually attended that party. The one who’d carelessly wounded a child’s pride without even noticing.

That Rome was dead. Had been dead since the moment I’d opened my eyes in this world with someone else’s memories and a system telling me I had to seduce seven women to survive.

"Something broke," I said. "And when it healed, it healed different."