Chapter 280: The Most Expensive Cup Nearby

The message from Liora Voss had asked Elias to meet her outside.

As for the exact place, she naturally left that to him.

Elias knew the person paying would be Liora. If she tried not to pay, too bad. He certainly was not paying. So he deliberately chose the most expensive coffee shop near Blackwood Group’s office.

It was not that he wanted to bleed Liora dry.

Not really.

He was genuinely curious what coffee this expensive tasted like.

A thought was not as good as action. Since the chance had presented itself, he might as well try it.

[System Theta: ...]

The host’s mind was not on Liora at all.

How miserable for her.

But System Theta would not pity anyone. The host was right. If not for him, if any other employee from the Trash Trope Intervention Division had been sent into this world, they would probably have been toyed with until death by these awful women. It was only because Elias was so good at this that they ended up looking pitiful, even a little cute.

Elias walked into the coffee shop at an easy pace.

The place was not loud. Nothing in this price range needed to be loud. The machines hummed behind the counter, milk steamed in controlled bursts, and conversations stayed low under warm lights and glass walls that made the city outside look deliberately distant. The customers inside were mostly women in expensive work clothes, the kind who could pay nine dollars for a plain coffee and call it a normal afternoon.

Elias lifted a hand and removed his glasses as naturally as if he had always belonged in rooms where people tried not to stare.

Then he smiled at the woman grinding coffee behind the bar and gave a small wave.

"Hi."

The barista looked up at the sound.

She froze.

The young man standing in front of her had red lips, white teeth, and a smile bright enough to make her forget the line she had been about to say. His face had the kind of beauty that drew attention no matter where he stood. In an ordinary café, he would have looked unreal. In this expensive little glass box full of women pretending not to watch, he looked like trouble that had learned manners.

Anyone hired to work here had decent training. Especially when it came to serving customers, the staff knew how to smile, how to speak, how to avoid awkwardness, and how to treat wealthy patrons with the same smooth respect regardless of what they ordered.

But facing Elias, the barista still stumbled.

"H-hi."

Elias did not seem to care about her embarrassment.

His mouth curved faintly. "I’ll have your most classic coffee, please."

After ordering, he looked around the shop.

In the corner, he spotted Liora.

Only then did he walk over slowly.

From beginning to end, his attitude carried a lazy indifference, as if he was used to places like this. Nothing in the room impressed him. Not the price, not the staff, not the women staring over the rims of their cups. He moved through it like someone born on the side of the counter that never checked the bill.

By the time Elias sat down, several women in the shop finally looked away.

One of them exhaled softly.

"That presence... whose pretty heir is he?"

System Theta was no longer the same system it had been at the beginning.

At that moment, it reacted.

Right.

Pretty heir.

The host had chosen this place not only because he wanted to taste the coffee. He was also continuing to build his current persona. A pampered rich boy raised in luxury would never feel out of place in a café like this. He would have seen countless good things before. One cup of coffee, no matter how expensive, meant nothing to him. Even if it were a cup of melted gold, he would not blink.

System Theta was shocked.

Had the host thought even this step through?

And more importantly, why was he deepening this image in front of Liora?

Could it be...

The elegant, calm smile on Elias’s face vanished in an instant.

He crossed his right leg over his left, settling into an extremely casual posture. The word perfunctory might as well have been written across his face.

"Talk," he said. "You asked me out. What do you want?"

Elias lifted his eyes to Liora. There was cool distance in them.

Looking at him like this, the strange feeling in Liora’s chest reached its peak.

She could confirm it now.

The young man in front of her was truly wrong.

After one trip to the Maldives, he had returned almost completely different from before.

At the very least, the old Elias had always looked at her with teasing and mockery. He never hid the fact that he was playing with her. His eyes had been full of hooks, each one thrown out with the confidence that she would notice and still choose to bite.

This Elias was different.

Cold.

Impatient.

And hidden beneath that impatience was a faint hostility.

Hostility.

Liora was certain she had not mistaken it.

That was hostility.

"I’ve been kicked out of the Blackwood residence," Liora said.

As she spoke, she watched Elias closely, catching even the smallest shift in his expression.

Elias immediately frowned.

"Serena said she didn’t know where you went," he said. "But you were kicked out by her..."

He seemed to realize something.

His eyes narrowed suddenly. He leaned forward, gaze turning icy.

"What happened last night? Did you fight Serena? Is that why she had so many injuries?"

The more Elias spoke, the louder his voice became.

His anger and dissatisfaction toward Liora rose fast, as if hurting Serena were some monstrous crime.

Watching him, Liora felt her heart begin to pound.

Her breathing grew uneven. A storm seemed to rise in her mind all at once.

Wrong.

The Elias in front of her was definitely wrong.

The real Elias was a hunter who took pleasure in playing with women, a man who treated everyone around him as prey. He was not this young man calling Serena "big sister" every other sentence as if she were the only person in the world.

His face was still Elias.

But inside, he seemed like a different person.

A flash of possibility cut through Liora’s mind.

Brainwashing.

Her expression grew uglier.

Then Elias suddenly laughed.

The sound was clear and pretty, bright as small bells.

"Look how scared you are," he said, grinning. "Your face went white. Hehe."

At those words, Liora relaxed at once.

She let out a long breath through her mouth.

Thank God.

Only after easing down did she realize that cold sweat had soaked her back at some point. Nearly half her shirt clung faintly to her skin. Now that the fear was passing, a slight chill rose over her.

"Your coffee."

The barista walked over with the cup.

Elias turned his head and looked at her. He did not hold back his smile at all. His eyes curved like crescents.

"Thank you."

The barista’s heart sped up.

She knew perfectly well that a man like this was not someone she could handle. She did not dare take even one extra look. She collected her tray and left quickly.

Elias lifted the coffee with elegant fingers.

He blew gently across the heat rising from the surface. Anyone watching would have thought he was about to take a sip. But when his lips touched the rim, he only pressed them there lightly.

Then he passed the cup to Liora.

"Try it for me."

Liora lowered her gaze to the coffee now held beneath her eyes.

On the rim was the faint mark Elias had deliberately left with his lips.

A clear little trace.

A provocation.

A temptation.

Not hidden at all.

Liora smiled.

She turned the cup until the mark faced her. Then, ignoring the heat, she placed her mouth exactly where Elias’s lips had touched and took a sip.

"Hiss..."

The coffee burned enough to make her draw in a breath.

She still said, "Not bad."

"Good girl."

Elias’s praise came immediately.

Not only that, he stood slightly and reached out with his right hand, touching Liora’s cheek. His fingers slid gently across the small bandage on her face, where last night’s fight had left its mark.

His voice softened.

"Does it hurt?"

Liora looked at him steadily.

She did not answer right away.

After a moment, she lifted her hand and wrapped her palm around Elias’s slightly cool fingers, pressing his hand more closely to her face. She held him there as if drawing from the scrap of tenderness he had chosen to give.

"Not now."

"You’re good with words."

Elias smiled.

Even so, he firmly withdrew his hand from her palm.

Liora’s expression shifted faintly, but her foxlike eyes remained calm.

Elias leaned back into his seat.

"After leaving the Blackwood residence, is anything inconvenient?"