Chapter 3

Whether it was the effect of cutting my robe that day to sever all ties, I couldn't say. But in the days that followed, none of the three showed their faces before me again.

That day I went to find the Grandmaster, meaning to settle the matter of the marriage into the Demon Realm. He looked at me and let out a sigh.

"Word has come from the Demon Realm. The one you're to wed in this alliance is the Demon Lord, Abyssius."

"Abyssius is ruthless. He cut down hundreds of demon lords, one after another, to seize the position he holds now."

"In the war between our world and the demons, he alone left dozens of our high immortals gravely wounded. So while we call it a marriage alliance, it's nothing more than the price our cultivation world pays for peace."

"The days ahead of you..."

The Grandmaster didn't finish, but I understood well enough.

The truth was, if not for those three junior brothers, I would have offered myself for this alliance long ago.

To buy ten thousand years of peace between the immortal and demon worlds — for me, that would be a fitting way to die.

"Grandmaster, this disciple's heart—"

But before I could finish, Wyatt and the others burst in.

The moment they saw me, all three wore the furious look of men who had guessed right.

"Cloralie Yardley, you say with your mouth that you don't compete, but behind our backs you've been persuading the Grandmaster to send our junior sister into the Demon Realm for the alliance! If word of the demons delivering betrothal gifts hadn't already spread everywhere, how much longer did you mean to keep it from us?"

"That Demon Realm is a pit of ghosts, a living hell. You're sending our junior sister to her death. You're vicious."

Marlin pointed at me, his face twisted with rage.

I swept my eyes over them. Clearly the other two thought the same, and instead of anger I found myself laughing.

"Wyatt, back then I spent half my cultivation to heal you. Do you know why I never entered another sect tournament after that?"

Wyatt's face went pale, a little panicked.

"You... you said it was to give us junior brothers a chance."

Watching Wyatt lose his nerve the longer he spoke, I curled my lips, my eyes cold to the bottom.

"That's right. I crippled the greater part of my own cultivation, all to give you your chance. How very vicious of me."

I didn't wait to see the look on Wyatt's face. I turned to Marlin.

"Marlin, do you know what that Heart-Guard Elixir I gave you was made from?"

"Snow lotus from the Demon Realm. To get the blood lotus, I was hunted by demon-race killers for three days and three nights. I nearly didn't come back."

"If I really had died out there, would you still stand here calling me vicious?"

Marlin's face went pale too, and he shot back without thinking.

"But you said you'd come by it easily. You told me not to give it a second thought!"

Yes. I only said that so it wouldn't weigh on you. I never imagined you would turn on me so completely.

I sneered inwardly and turned my eyes to Ferran.

"The Rapture Sect never takes in those of unknown origin. To get you into the sect, I knelt and begged the elders for three days and three nights. Is that vicious too?"

Ferran's face flushed a deep red. He opened his mouth, but not a single word came out.

A wave of exhaustion rose in me. The truth was, all three of them had long known everything I'd done for them.

They'd simply seen how I cherished them, and grown spoiled on it.

Then an abrupt voice broke the silence.

"Senior sister, after all of that, aren't you really just trying to collect on your kindness — forcing our three senior brothers to marry you?"

"But the three of them are living people, not puppets for you to move however you please!"

"As long as I'm here, though, I won't let you threaten them. If sending me into the Demon Realm for the alliance means you'll never again use your kindness to force them, then I do it gladly!"

"No! You can't!"

The instant Sabrina finished her righteous little speech, Wyatt and the other two burst out in fierce protest.

They pressed forward one after another to stop her, turning eyes full of reproach on me.

I lifted my lips into a smile that never reached my eyes.

"Very well. Then I hope you mean what you say, junior sister."