I did everything I could at the moment.
I sat on the edge of my narrow bed and stared at the empty wall of my dorm room while my mind raced through every single interaction we had today.
My eyes automatically moved to the corner of my vision where the system beeped.
[Time Remaining: 1 Hour]
The text was in red, which made my stomach twist.
I sighed heavily, hoping my calculated pullback and apologies actually worked the way the skills promised they would.
The silence of the room was driving me insane.
Just then, a blue notification popped up right over the red timer.
[Message from Melissa: Are you in your room?]
Why does she keep messaging me right now?
I honestly do not know, and I do not have the patience to deal with her games when my life is on the line.
I ignored her message completely. The walls of the dorm felt like they were closing in on me, so I stood up and started walking outside into the cool night air, heading straight toward the eastern academy garden where I met her this morning.
The dark thoughts about just breaking into her room and forcing myself on Sianna still lingered in the back of my mind.
It would be so easy with my stats because Sianna was a trainee, and to just take what I needed to clear the objective and guarantee my survival.
But I am afraid I will completely lose my humanity and my sense of self if I actually do that, despite succeeding in the scenario.
Surviving as a person you hate the most is not really surviving at all.
'What a fucking miserable second life this turned out to be,' I thought to myself while dragging my feet across the stone pathways, kicking at the pebbles.
It was obviously very dark outside.
The beautiful, rare flowers and perfectly trimmed hedges from this morning were completely hidden in the shadows.
But as I walked deeper into the garden, a small pool of yellow illumination caught my attention.
Under a single mana light attached to a small table, Sianna sat entirely alone.
She was holding a crumpled piece of paper or a letter in her hands. I stopped walking and stood a few meters away, hidden in the darkness, shocked at the insane coincidence of finding her here at this exact hour.
I focused my eyes and realised she was reading a military letter from the northern border command team that her husband led.
Even from a distance, my vision let me read the harsh military script, which explicitly mentioned that Captain Darius had been missing in action for the past eleven days.
Her beautiful eyes were in with deep red, and she did not wear her glasses tonight, making her look young and vulnerable.
'Is she actually crying right now?' I thought, feeling a strange ache in my chest as I watched a tear fall onto the wrinkled paper.
Then my eyes darted back to the glowing interface.
[Time Remaining: 45 Minutes]
[Alert: Critical Time Limit Reached]
Fuck this waiting game.
I took a deep breath and started walking directly towards her across the path.
Hearing my approaching footsteps, Sianna quickly raised her head and frantically wiped the tears from her pale cheeks.
She put her professional mask back on, probably expecting a night guard or a wandering faculty member.
But when she looked up and realised it was actually me standing there in the dim light, she let out a long sigh and just looked down at the letter again.
She saw me intruding on her private grief, and yet she did not tell me to leave.
I took that silent reaction as permission and slowly stepped into the circle of yellow light. I sat down on the cold stone bench right beside her.
I did not speak a single word. I did not activate any of my system skills or try to manipulate her emotions with clever conversation.
Two of us just sat there, offering my silent presence while the red timer relentlessly counted down in the absolute corner of my vision.
The warmth radiating from her body was a stark contrast to the cold stone bench beneath us.
Minutes felt like hours.
I watched the numbers drop from thirty down to twenty, and then from twenty down to ten.
The silence between us was so thick it was hard to breathe, filled with her unspoken sorrow and my hidden desperation.
Every single second that ticked away felt like a physical weight pressing down on my chest.
I wanted to reach out and touch her soft hair, but I forced my hands to stay completely still on my lap.
At seven minutes remaining on the death timer, the stifling quiet finally broke.
Sianna slowly turned her head to look at me, her eyes shining with unshed tears under the pale light.
"Shane."
That was all she said.
Just my name, spoken in a fragile whisper that barely carried over the night breeze.
That single word from her carried everything she had been holding back for the past eleven days of waiting and worrying.
I do not know whether it was an expression of approval, a silent plea for permission to break her own rules, or if I was just taking complete advantage of a woman at her lowest point.
Honestly, the guilt washed over me, but the intense desire and the need to survive burned much hotter.
I turned my body toward her and looked into her tear-stained eyes, and everything in the world just stopped.
There was only the heat radiating between our bodies. Her breathing hitched, her chest rising and falling quickly under her casual sweater.
She did not push me away or recite academy rules. Instead, her soft hands reached out, her fingers trembling slightly as they wrapped gently around the back of my neck.
Sianna leaned forward, closing the final inch of space between us, and pulled me into a desperate kiss.