Chapter 56: 100,000 Heart-Wrecker Points
Ace flinched as if she had struck him.
His face hardened, the vulnerability of the confession curdling into a defensive lashing out.
"Is that how you have begun to think of me? Really? That I would fake my emotions over guilt? You remember all that I did in the past, what about you?!" he spat, the words jagged and cruel.
For a moment, Evelina was confused. What did he mean by that?
However, Ace did not give her a chance to think further as he said.
"You think you’ve won... And it might be true even,’’ He stepped closer, his shadow looming over her, "You’ve done things on you own rules, but what about your heart? You’re so afraid of being hurt again that you’ve turned yourself heartless completely!"
The words cut through her soft armer like a burning sword. Evelina felt the System pinging frantically, but she pushed the notifications aside.
She felt a surge of cold, white-hot anger. How dare he? How dare the man who had left her in the dark for a decade judge her for learning how to see in it?
"What has my heart got to do with this? I used my brain to save the north!" she retorted, her voice finally losing the calmness she was faking, "I have tried listening to my heart before but it only led me to wrong places and terrible people. So what if I changed now? Who are you to question that?!"
She was breathing hard now, her eyes flashing with a dangerous light. She wanted to hurt him. She wanted to push him so far away that he could never see the crack in her mask, the tiny part of her that actually had liked the roses.
"If you want a heart, go find Isabella or anybody else you deem fit in this entire kingdom," she snapped, the name of the woman slipping out like a curse, "I’m sure they will give you all the swooning and tears you want. But with me, do not ever use that tone again."
Ace looked at her as if she were a total stranger, someone he could never understand.
A wall visibly built around him, separating him from Evelina. His eyes turned as distant and cold as the stars in the Northern peak.
He simply straightened his velvet tunic, his movements stiff and formal.
"I see," he said, "I apologize, Duchess. I clearly misread the situation and the person I thought I was beginning to understand. I’ll ensure Marcus moves the rest of this... garbage out of your sight by morning."
He turned on his heel. His boots clicked sharply against the marble as he reached the heavy glass doors and pulled them open.
Click.
The doors shut with a soft sound that reverberated through the silent conservatory.
Through the glass, Evelina watched his tall, dark silhouette march away through the gardens, never once looking back.
For the first time, Evelina didn’t feel like she had won the battle.
Evelina stood alone in the center of the room. The scent of five thousand roses was now so sweet that it was almost sickening.
The flickering candles were dying, their wax dripping onto the fine lace tablecloth like silver tears.
She looked at the barely touched dessert, a delicate pear tart she had secretly liked. She looked at the expensive wine, the vintage she had praised only to deflect his heart.
An ache bloomed in her chest, slowly spreading beneath her ribs.
[System Notification: Warning!]
[Emotional Sync detected. Host’s psychological defenses are compromised.]
[Probability of ’Heartbreak’ status: 40% and rising in the current situation]
[Suggestion: Initiate ’rationalization’ protocol to maintain focus]
Evelina ignored the blue screen flickering in her field of vision.
She reached out, her hand trembling slightly as she picked up the silver goblet. She downed the entire glass of vintage wine in one go, the cold liquid burning a path down her throat.
She set the glass down with a trembling hand and let out a shaky sigh.
"The grapes aren’t as good," she whispered to the empty room, "I probably overestimated the wine."
...
The skies of Aurelia finally started turning into a pale blue color as the brutality of the drought started receding.
Although Evelina turned down the Empress’s offer, that still did not keep her reputation from spreading across the population as the people continued to hail her as the ’Water Goddess’.
[System Notification!]
[Objective Completed: Drought handled]
[Final Stability Rating: 94% (Legendary)]
[Rewards:]
5,000 Gold (Completion Bonus)
10,000 Heart-Wrecker Points (Inclusive of all targets)
Current Gold: 12,450
Current Points: 100,000 Heart-Wrecker Points
The rest was still within her expectations but when Evelina saw the Heart-Wrecker Points, it was as if a thunder had bolted across her body.
"How did I get so many Heart-Wrecker Points?!"
System remained silent before beeping once.
[Target Ace’s emotions led to a huge bombardment of Heart-Wrecker Points]
Evelina paused, a complicated emotion fitting across her eyes, "Then, why didn’t you inform me?"
[Host was absent-minded when the notifications were sent]
Evelina remained still in her spot, her eyes taking in the huge amount of points that she had accumulated yet she felt no excitement.
...
The morning sun filtered through the tall windows of the Alvarez study, casting shadows across the mahogany desk.
Outside, the air was fully clear, the first true sign that the drought’s suffocating grip had finally broken. The sky was a pale and cheerful with birds yet inside the manor, the atmosphere remained frozen in an eternal silence.
Evelina sat motionless, her gaze fixed on the translucent blue screen hovering in her field of vision.
The numbers glared back at her, mocking in their golden glow.
[Current Points: 100,000 Heart-Wrecker Points]
The figure was astronomical. She had spent weeks meticulously engineering water pumps and navigating imperial politics just to scrape together a few thousand points, yet a single conversation with Ace had yielded a fortune.
"Target Ace’s emotions led to a huge bombardment of Heart-Wrecker Points," the System had stated with its usual mechanical apathy.
Evelina’s fingers curled into the fabric of her emerald silk skirt. She should have been ecstatic. With 100,000 points, she could purchase high-tier skills, luxury blueprints, or perhaps even a permanent enhancements.
Instead, she felt a hollowness sitting in the pit of her stomach.
Ace hadn’t spoken to her since the last conversation they had... during the dinner.
He hadn’t even looked in her direction during the morning briefing. The God of War had returned to his natural state: a block of unyielding Northern ice.
"Enough..." Evelina ran her fingers through the waves of her, "It’s useless dwelling on things like these!" She needed a distraction at this point.
