"You know how that works?..."
"I’m not an idiot! I have desires too, you know!"
Corvina raised a single, delicate eyebrow. Right. In this prudish high-society setting, openly discussing basic human physiology was practically scandalous.
Homosexuality wasn’t the issue, it was the fact that exposing an ankle in public was treated like a moral tragedy.
"Oh?" Corvina murmured, her voice dripping with mock surprise. "A proper lady should never admit to such unruly thoughts."
Callista rolled her eyes. "Please. Your impulses are far worse than mine. At least I possess basic self-control."
"Then enlighten me," Corvina purred, scooting dangerously close and dropping her voice to a husk. "My dear fiancée... how exactly do I make you lose control?"
As if the public foot rubs and forced public kneeling weren’t enough?!
Apparently, psychological dominance in the courtyard wasn’t satisfying, she had to claim bedroom dominance too. Of course she did.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: APPROVAL RATING DROP] ╔════════════════════════════════════════════╗
Master: Corvina Rosenberg
Approval Rating: -5% (Current: -15% / 80%)
Reason: Insolent talk & refusal to play along. ╚════════════════════════════════════════════╝
Are you actually kidding me?!
After all my aggressive brown-nosed compliance?! This woman is impossible to please!
"No, I should be asking you that," Callista blurted out, her filter completely disintegrating under pure frustration. "You’re never satisfied with anything!"
"Perhaps you ought to start by actually satisfying me."
"Wha—" Callista bolted to her feet, her face burning like a miniature sun.
Without another word, she turned on her heel and stormed off.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: APPROVAL RATING DROP] ╔════════════════════════════════════════════╗
Master: Corvina Rosenberg
Approval Rating: -5% (Current: -20% / 80%)
Reason: Deserting your Master in public. ╚════════════════════════════════════════════╝
Even a former corporate doormat had limits.
If every word out of that villainess’s mouth was going to be pure, unadulterated harassment, Callista needed a severe location change to cleanse her soul.
Corvina didn’t even bother giving chase, her dark, amused giggles echoing lazily behind her.
She marched down the grand colonnades of West Trinity Academy, taking in the absurd luxury around her.
There were towering marble pillars arched into vaulted ceilings painted with ancient lines. Including spires of stained glass cast kaleidoscopic shades of violet and gold across polished obsidian floors.
Callista veered right, desperate for sanctuary and stopped.
Standing at the end of the corridor was a massive set of double doors forged from dark, antique mahogany, intricately inlaid with glowing silver runes.
"The library?..."
Truth be told, Callista wasn’t much of a bookworm.
Her attention span wasn’t necessarily bad, it was... just aggressively selective.
But without a laptop to binge-watch series or blast Taylor Swift tracks on loop, her options were painfully limited.
"This will have to do..." she sighed, stepping inside.
The moment she crossed the threshold, every eye in the room locked onto her.
The suffocating silence heavy with instant judgment.
After all, the notorious "scandalous mistress" of the court had just graced the library with her presence.
Still, enduring a roomful of judgmental glares was infinitely better than subjecting herself to whatever fresh psychological torture Corvina had planned for the afternoon.
That woman was probably somewhere laughing her ass off right about now anyway.