Aurora’s words had barely settled in the air when Asher’s already cold gaze sharpened further, and his eyes narrowed as suspicion surged back with full force.
Whatever momentary calm her earlier explanation had brought, it shattered instantly.
"What problem?" he asked. His voice was low and edged with danger.
Aurora exhaled quietly, as if this was nothing more than an inconvenient delay rather than a matter of life and death. "I need to boil the herbs," she said plainly, already crouching down to sort through the plants she had gathered. "It strengthens their effect and helps extract the active compounds properly."
She paused briefly before adding, "But there are no utensils here. No containers, no tools. So for now, I’ll have to crush them and extract the liquid manually. It will still work, just slower."
Her fingers moved efficiently as she spoke, already separating leaves from stems, her tone calm and matter-of-fact. "If we want to speed up your recovery, we’ll need to find something that can be used as a container later."
To Aurora, it was a practical problem. A solvable one.
But to Asher, it sounded like nonsense.
Boil?
Utensils?
Container?
The unfamiliar words rolled through his mind like meaningless noise, each one feeding the suspicion already growing inside him. None of it made sense. None of it sounded real.
It sounded like... a trick.
His eyes darkened further. Of course! He should have known - this woman... this manipulative, deceitful female... had no intention of curing him. She was just stalling, playing with him, and buying time.
Perhaps she was waiting for something. Or someone.
The thought alone was enough to snap whatever restraint he had left.
Before Aurora could even react, he moved. And he was too fast even for the system to catch his intention on time.
One second she was crouched near the herbs, and the next, her back slammed against the cave wall. A large hand wrapped tightly around her neck, digging fingers into her flesh with terrifying precision.
Aurora’s breath hitched sharply.
Her hands instinctively shot up, gripping his wrist, trying to pry him off, but it was useless. His strength was overwhelming, absolute, crushing her resistance like it didn’t exist.
[Warning! Warning! Host is in danger!] Navi’s voice rang frantically in her mind.
Aurora didn’t need the system to tell her that. She could already feel it - her airway was tightening, her lungs were struggling, and her vision was flickering. He wasn’t threatening her, wasn’t testing her. He was... killing her.
Her body reacted instinctively, struggling, pushing, trying to break free. But this body was slow, weak, useless against someone like him. So she did the only thing she could.
It was something simple, something direct, and effective.
She lifted her hand... and slapped him. Hard.
The sound cracked through the cave, sharp and sudden, echoing against the stone walls. And for a split second, everything stopped.
Asher’s head snapped to the side from the impact. The force of it was enough to leave a clear mark on his cheek. Her thick and solid fingers got imprinted against his skin almost instantly.
The shock alone was enough to do the job. His grip loosened, and Aurora didn’t waste a single second.
She shoved herself away, stumbling back, and put as much distance between them as her body allowed. Her hand went straight to her throat as she dragged in a sharp breath, then another, her lungs burning as they fought to recover.
Air.
Finally... air.
Her chest rose and fell rapidly, her vision steadying as she forced herself to focus. Because she knew this wasn’t over, not even close.
Across from her, Asher stood frozen for half a second with his hand still partially raised and his expression unreadable. Then, his eyes darkened - not with confusion, not with shock, but with something far worse.
Rage.
Aurora saw it, recognized it, and calculated instantly. She didn’t have time to recover. Didn’t have time to calm down. Didn’t even have time to be afraid. So instead, she attacked.
Verbally.
"What are you, stupid?" she snapped, her voice still rough from the strain on her throat but steady enough to carry her words clearly. "I’m trying to cure you here and you are trying to kill me!"
The bluntness and the audacity of her words hit harder than the slap.
Asher let out a low, dangerous chuckle as his gaze locked onto her like a predator zeroing in on its prey. "Trying to cure me?" he repeated, his tone mocking and dark. "Or trying to make a fool out of me?"
Aurora scoffed.
"Make a fool out of you?" she shot back immediately. "You are doing a pretty good job of that yourself."
That did it.
The air in the cave grew heavier. But Aurora didn’t stop, didn’t slow or back down.
"You gave me two weeks," she continued sharply, stepping forward despite every instinct telling her not to. "Two weeks to cure you."
Her eyes locked onto his, cold and unyielding.
"And now, on the very first day, before I even get the chance to start, you are trying to kill me?" Her lips curled slightly - not in fear, but in something closer to irritation.
"Tell me," she added, her voice cutting, "who’s the one being played here?"
The silence that followed was heavy, thick, and tense.
Aurora stood her ground, her breathing still uneven but her posture steady, refusing to show weakness.
Across from her, Asher didn’t move, neither did he speak. But something in his expression shifted. It didn’t soften exactly, but his rage paused as if her words had struck something.
Because no matter how much he distrusted her, no matter how convinced he was that she was lying, she wasn’t wrong. He had given her time, and he had nearly killed her before she even began.
His jaw tightened as his gaze flickered briefly to the herbs scattered on the ground and then returned back to her.
His gaze still looked cold, still dangerous, but it was no longer immediate.
Aurora noticed it and took it as the only opening she was going to get. "Now," she said in a calm tone that was no less firm, "are you going to let me do my job..."
She bent down slightly, picking up one of the herbs she had dropped earlier, crushing it between her fingers as she spoke.
"...or are you going to break your words?"