Chapter 199: you will meet me tonight

The black static electricity rippling around Princess Ilya’s pale fingers snapped violently, dissolving into the heavy, dust-laden air of the archive room. Her glowing amber eyes narrowed to sharp slits as she took a single, effortless step toward Min-Soo.

She didn’t run. She didn’t use physical speed. The space between them simply bent, her figure vanishing from the center of the aisle and reappearing instantly a mere six inches away from his chest.

The proximity was suffocating. The cold, dangerous pressure of her Level 50 Void Core hit Min-Soo’s chest like a physical weight, forcing his Level 1 Qi core to circulate at maximum velocity just to keep his lungs from collapsing. The phantom scent of dark orchids and frosted steel filled the narrow gap between their uniforms, creating a paralyzing tension.

"A mortal commoner who can read a royal tracking scroll," Ilya murmured, her face flawless, pale, and breathtakingly beautiful as she leaned in, her lips almost brushing his jawline. Her amber gaze dropped to the unlinked black card sticking out of his uniform coat pocket, then shifted down to the dull bronze band on his index finger. "Your baseline core is pathetic, Lee Min-Soo. But the mental data running through your brain... it carries the exact frequency of an imperial chairman. Who gave you the clearance to short the district logistics lanes?"

Inside his mind, the bronze ring grew burning hot. Lady Ling-Xian’s voice erupted behind his temples, sharp, frantic, and dripping with an ancient, competitive pride. "Min-Soo! She is probing your core logic using her sect’s Void Scan! Do not let her aura touch the bronze band! If her spatial energy locks with my soul residue, she will realize an ancient sovereign is hiding inside your house!"

Min-Soo didn’t step back. He didn’t pull his hands from his pockets, nor did he answer Ling-Xian through the link. Thanks to the S-Tier Corporate Intelligence he had copied from Chae-Yoon, his expression remained as steady as ice.

"The clearance was purchased, Princess Ilya," Min-Soo said, his voice dropping into a low, bone-chilling masculine register that cut straight through her crushing void aura. He tilted his head slightly, his eyes looking straight down into her glowing amber pupils with total, absolute disdain. "The Ilshin Group doesn’t answer to the Central Province hierarchy. If your Void-Step Sect wants to keep its exclusive bidding license for the Star-Core Lotus next month, I suggest you step out of my personal space before I file a hostile liquidation notice against your family’s local assets."

Ilya froze completely. The arrogant, lethal smile on her lips cracked, replaced by a deep, defensive shock. For centuries, the royal families of the hidden world had treated mortals like cattle and lower-level cultivators like dirt. Yet this high school student was looking down at her hourglass figure and her lethal void magic as if she were a minor bankrupt liability.

[Target Logic Verification: Princess Ilya.]

[Beauty Score: 99.]

[Favorability Flux: 30 (Intense Shock / Uncontrollable Curiosity).]

[System Notice: High-tier royal arrogance successfully disrupted. Extraction parameters unlocked.]

Before she could execute a spatial retreat to save her pride, Min-Soo’s right hand whipped out of his pocket. He didn’t grab a weapon. His bare, long fingers snapped out smoothly, wrapping firmly around her slender, leather-clad wrist and locking her palm flat against the cold metal shelf behind her.

Ilya gasped, a short, sharp intake of breath escaping her lips as her full, curved chest pressed flush against his uniform shirt. She tried to channel her black void static to shred his hand, but Min-Soo’s grip was unyielding, fueled by his newly hardened physical conditioning and the absolute authority of his presence.

The moment their skin made heavy contact through the thin leather weave, the phone inside his pocket began to shake with an explosive, deafening drone.

Shinhan Bank Alert: An anonymous wire transfer of $100,000 has been deposited.

Shinhan Bank Alert: An anonymous wire transfer of $100,000 has been deposited.

Shinhan Bank Alert: An anonymous wire transfer of $100,000 has been deposited.

The cash printed with an unyielding velocity, a hundred thousand dollars hitting his account for every single second the royal princess remained pinned beneath his frame, her breathing turning short, hot, and frantic. Her face turned a vibrant, helpless rose color, her amber eyes wide as she felt the dominant, heavy mass of his body locking her down.

[Current Hand-Lock Duration: 8 Seconds. Payout: +$800,000.]

[Total Liquid Balance Surging Past: $17,291,000.]

Inside his mind, Lady Ling-Xian’s flustered voice flared through the soul link, completely stunned by his shameless audacity. ’Min-Soo... you... you actually put hands on a royal princess just to extract more gold? Pervert~.’

Min-Soo ignored the comment, his face remaining inches from Ilya’s wet, parted lips. "The sixteen million dollars in my account will be twenty million by tomorrow morning, Princess. If you want the decrypted attribute file for the Star-Core Lotus, you’ll meet me at my Pyeongchang-dong estate tonight."

He slowly relaxed his fingers, letting her wrist go and stepping back into the shadows of the aisle.

Princess Ilya stayed pressed against the metal shelf for a long beat, her chest heaving rapidly under her black silk bodice, her face completely red as she stared at the boy who had just liquidated her royal composure. She didn’t call her bodyguards, nor did she strike back. The ancient hierarchy of the central province had just been completely short-squeezed, and her heart was vibrating with a chaotic, dangerous attraction she couldn’t erase.

The rain over Pyeongchang-dong fell in heavy, rhythmic sheets, washing away the last traces of frost from the stone driveway. Inside the subterranean glass pavilion of the mansion, the atmosphere was thick with an entirely different kind of tension.

Min-Soo had converted the lower lounge into a private negotiation suite, complete with recessed amber lighting, low leather couches, and a biometric jamming field that completely cut off external satellite relays.

He sat alone on the edge of the low couch, a crystal glass containing two fingers of dark scotch resting untouched on the obsidian table. He had discarded his uniform jacket, leaving his white shirt unbuttoned at the collar, the sleeves rolled tightly over his forearms.

Right at midnight, the ambient light inside the room flickered. The shadows near the glass wall stretched, rippling like dark water as Princess Ilya stepped directly out of the void.