Chapter 240: Reality check

Eren stood beside the narrow cot, looking at unconscious Alice.

She wore a simple white gown. Thick bandages were wound tightly from her left collarbone down across her sternum.

Her golden hair was combed. Her chest rose and fell in a slow, impossibly faint cadence.

He reached out, his knuckles lingering an inch above her pale cheek before hesitating, his fingers curling into a tight fist. ’If I had just been half a second faster. And stronger. She wouldn’t be lying here like this.’

"How long have we been out?" Eren asked.

Carolynn stood beside him.

"Two full days," she answered softly.

"Your recovery was straightforward. But the little Saintess..."

Carolynn frowned slightly, her orange eyes drifting down to the girl’s bandage.

"Her celestial channels rejected my demonic healing arts on pure metaphysical instinct. I had to manually set her shattered vertebrae, stitch her pericardium with surgical silk, and let her own microscopic trace of lingering divinity sustain her heart. I managed to avoid fatality. Once her divine mana naturally replenishes, she will be fine."

Eren let out a long, shuddering breath. He turned his head, meeting Carolynn’s stunning, regal gaze.

"Thank you, Carolynn," he said quietly with pure, unvarnished gratitude.

Carolynn smiled as she leaned over and lightly smoothed a stray lock of golden hair behind Alice’s ear. "Don’t look so tragic, darling. I am the Vice-Principal of the Royal Academy. Protecting troubled students who run off to illegal border cities is technically my duty."

Eren’s eyes narrowed slightly.

"Speaking of which... how did you actually track me here so fast?" Eren asked, raising his left hand to tap the ring on his finger. "Did this resonance band ping you when my core blew up in Burst? Even then, how did you Ruger within minutes?"

Carolynn turned back to him with a smug smirk.

"The ring?" she mused, letting out a soft, melodic chuckle. "Oh, no, Eren. I didn’t need a beacon. I have been standing in Rujgard since day one."

Eren’s jaw dropped.

His mouth hung open, entirely frozen, his blue eyes widening. For a guy who prided himself on staying three chess moves ahead of every tragic plotline, the sheer, staggering absurdity of the statement knocked the wind completely out of his sails.

"You... what?!" Eren croaked, his voice cracking with pure disbelief.

Carolynn threw her head back and laughed. "Oh, heavens, look at that face! I should have brought your camera thing!"

"The very second the unstable spatial distortion detonated back in the capital, I felt the dimensional tear," she explained, her tone turning calm, smooth, and possessive. "I immediately checked you. You were gone. Tracing the magical fallout to the lawless outskirts of Rujgard took me less than three hours."

She leaned down, tapping the tip of his nose with a manicured finger.

"I watched you clash with this masked little blonde. I watched you boldly take Vane’s lunatic challenge. I even watched you gleefully turn Branagh’s auction house into an artisanal bonfire."

Eren stared at her, his shock rapidly morphing into intense, bewildered exasperation.

"Wait a goddamn minute," Eren spluttered, throwing his hands up in mock surrender. "You were there the entire time?! Why didn’t you drag my ass home?!"

"And what would that have achieved, Eren?" she asked, her voice dropping. "Did you truly want me to eradicate your enemies with a single flick of my fingers, and carry you back to the capital like an infant wrapped in velvet?"

Eren opened his mouth to fire back a sarcastic retort, but the words withered on his tongue.

"Did you want me to fight your battles while you sat on the sidelines, watching me solve every hardship?" Carolynn continued softly. "Is that what you want? For me, for Norelia, and all the girls, while you remain safely in the dark?"

Eren fell completely silent.

He looked down at his own hands. If he relied on them to fight his wars... if he hid behind the very girl he had to protect... then every single vow he had sworn to rewrite their doomed fates was nothing more than hollow, cowardly hypocrisy.

Carolynn’s gaze softened, her thumbs gently brushing against his cheekbones, lifting his face so his blue eyes had to look straight into hers.

"I let you bleed because I needed you to grow," Carolynn whispered, her breath ghosting across his lips, laced with an affection so profound and heavy it stole the air from his lungs. "You are reckless, unhinged, and infuriatingly stubborn. But you stood before me while I was crying about my sin and you made a solemn promise, Eren Volsver."

"You promised that you would be the one to save me from this world. And I intend to hold you to every single word, darling."

Eren let out a long, weary sigh, the kind that acknowledged a truth he didn’t want to admit.

"...You’re right," he muttered, dragging a hand through his black hair. "Goddammit. You’re always right. It’s the most infuriating quality about you."

Carolynn’s smile was radiant, satisfied, and utterly unrepentant. "It’s one of my many charms."

He turned back to Alice and something in his chest hardened. Resolve, tempered by guilt and determination. He couldn’t change the past. Couldn’t undo the loop, couldn’t unsee her fall. But he could finish what he’d started.

"You came when I was almost dead," Eren said quietly.

"I came the moment your body gave out," Carolynn confirmed, her voice softening.

Carolynn stepped closer, her presence warm against his back.

"Now it’s your turn, pretty boy. Get the Baron. End this Rujgard Chapter."

"I know." Eren rolled his shoulders, the residual ache thrumming beneath his skin. His mana was empty, a hollow drum in his chest. He’d have to be clever, strong.

"How long until the girls reach Rujgard?" he asked, glancing at her. "If they get here before I’ve cleaned up this mess, they’ll burn the whole territory down and salt the ashes."

Carolynn tilted her head, considering. "If they’re desperate? Four days, traveling hard. But knowing them..." She grimaced. "They could be here by tomorrow morning."

He ran both hands through his hair, pacing the small room, the gears in his mind grinding into motion. The four Lords. Two were dead—Branagh, Silas. That left Vane, the Lord of Death, and Whisper, the Lord of Information.

Whisper would be the key. He knew everything. If Eren could find him and flip him, he’d have the entire syndicate’s secrets laid bare.

"Alright," he said finally, stopping his pacing. "I’ll turn this cursed place into a history."

Carolynn stepped toward the door, pausing with her hand on the frame. She glanced back over her shoulder, her eyes glinting.

"One more thing, darling. When this is over, you owe me an explanation about your conversation with the Saintess." Her smile turned knowing.

"That’s a long conversation," he said. "Better over dinner. I owe you a date anyway."

Carolynn blinked, genuinely caught off guard. A faint blush—rare, precious, devastating on a woman of her caliber—bloomed across her cheeks.

"A date," she repeated.

"Yeah." Eren sauntered over, reached up, and gave her plush ass a light, playful smack as she turned to leave.

Carolynn yelped.