A splatter of blood could be seen on the ground, and Jiayi felt the crushing grip on his neck lessen. He stared in astonishment as Hongyue quietly lifted another hand and pointed to another shadow.

"Tag."

Another explosion.

As she proceeded to trigger each of the blood hex on the shadows, Hongyue's heart was left with conflicting feelings. Under the smile she had smoothed on her face, her thoughts were complex. The more she smiled on the outside, the colder her heart grew on the inside. There was a sense of pity in her heart, almost to the point of anger. It was a raw turmoil in her soul, and for the first time, she could feel a strange heat behind her eyes.

While she called herself as Hongyue, the siren couldn't help think of the cruelness of reality. If it was not her, but that human in this situation, would this ending be the same? Both of them had an ill-fated destiny that latched on to them without the consideration of letting go. However, the only difference between them was Hongyue was given a chance to fight back.

She had the ability to do so. Thinking upon this, her eyes hardened.

In a cruel, twisted fate like this, even if the human Hongyue had everything, that girl would never be able to fend for herself.

Because if that girl had the will to live, she would be poisoned.

If that girl had the magic to defend herself, it would be annulled.

If that girl had anything to her name...it would probably be ripped away from her hands.

Step after step, she would be blocked. She probably wouldn't have lasted this long in a twisted place filled with webs.

Luckily—"Luckily, it was me, not her."

The words slipped out of Hongyue's mouth before she was able to stop her thoughts. She was startled for a moment. When...when did she ever start to think like this? Humans, they always, always betrayed her. Her eyes turned dull for a moment, but so did her own kind. She always thought it was her. Her, the unfortunate offspring of the undesired, was obliged to suffer in order to redeem herself.

But seeing this today, Hongyue felt something she never felt before.

It was a closeness beyond the levels of comparison.

Without anything continuing to hold him down, Jiayi managed to get to his feet. He looked at Hongyue with a complicated glance. During the fight, he abruptly lost the use of his magic. Taken by surprise, he was left to fend with his close combat skills. However, at that time, Jiayi had a sense of doubt running within his heart. After all, the people with the capability to annul magic were not many. His eyes turned dark as he focused on the dead body before him. The first one he had suspected was Hongyue. With this doubt, lodged in his mind, his fighting stance faltered, and he quickly got overtaken by the shadows.

He looked up, and his eyes studied the girl in front of him. Hongyue didn't even spare him a glance as she stooped down to examine the small dot on the back of their ears. Stripping away their sleeves, she found herself staring at a strange marking on the arms of the attacker. However, just before she was able to get a closer look, the markings faded into the skin, leaving her nothing to see.

Releasing a sigh, Hongyue stood up.

From the beginning, Hongyue found the whole situation quite treacherous. From the start of the morning, she was led into an empty road with a forged edict to be killed by a trained group of assailants. While it was solved with ease, there were two critical things to be noted. One was that they were all 'normals' and two, they had a tiny dot marking on the back of their left ears. She was poisoned, but of course, that did little to harm her. After seeing the poison did not affect her, the assailants went all out to dispose of her.

After arriving at the palace, she was served with food that had a coating of a strange concoction that was not poison. While it did nothing to harm her body, Hongyue didn't want to forget such a small detail. Then there was the strange jade earring that shattered against the stone floor and gained the Empress's ire. Along with aide that kept his eyes on her every move, there were also the red ones that studied her from afar by the side of the Empress.

Now in the garden, she was attacked by more assailants. The first set of five shadows merely hid in place, lurking. Because of their lax and mild attitude, Hongyue could assume that they were only sent to spy on her every move. However, this first set was quietly overwhelmed by the second set of shadows. These new shadows were once again 'normals' and had a dot on the back of their left ears. Furthermore, they had a secret marking on their arms that seemed to have aided them in a way.

Her eyes turned to one of the bodies, her lips twisted into a bittersweet smile.

Whether it be the red eyes or rampaging shadows, it was clear to her about one thing.

The blood clan was only one, where these magic cancelers came from was not a big secret.

There were many in the palace that simply wanted her dead.

in_awe

In here, we have a moment where Hongyue opens her heart up a bit. Who says it has to be the ML, lol. Someone mentioned that they were kind of lost so I tried to recap everything. Ufufufu~ the schemes have gotten so complex~