Chapter 47: Operation Third Wheel is a Go

I snapped back into consciousness in the middle of the academy hallway.

The same garish magical lights pulsed overhead. The same awful music thumped through the polished stone floors. Across the grand hall, the punch bowl remained suspiciously un-poisoned. My system screen hovered in my vision, a smug testament to my failure.

It hadn’t reset. The progress was saved. But I was back. Back at the stupid party. Back before the explosion of pure, weaponized jealousy.

Okay. New plan.

My last attempt to let things play out naturally had ended in a full-blown timeline collapse. Lilith’s innocent affection for Eksu had curdled the second she saw him on a “date” with Elizabeth. Her emotional meltdown had literally broken our reality for a moment. The idiot author clearly had no control over this narrative anymore. It was up to me.

I scanned the room. There they were. The holy trinity of my headache. Eksu looked bored. Elizabeth looked possessive. And Lilith… Lilith was watching them from afar.

Her expression was a placid mask of curiosity. But I knew better. I saw the storm gathering behind her eyes. That storm had a name, and its name was ‘Timeline Go Boom.’

My mission was clear: neutralize the Lilith-bomb before she took us all out again.

I strode towards Lilith with the confidence of a man walking into a minefield.

She stood near a pillar, pretending to admire the enchanted tapestries. But her gaze kept sliding back toward Eksu and Elizabeth. A faint, almost invisible pink mist was starting to rise from the teacup she held. I recognized that mist. It was the precursor to a very bad day.

“Having a good time, Lilith?”

She turned, her smile bright and just a little too wide. It didn’t reach her eyes.

“Oh, Siegfried! I am. It is a most festive occasion.”

Her gaze drifted past my shoulder.

“I was just admiring how close Eksu-san and Elizabeth-san are.”

I glanced over. Elizabeth was now brushing a piece of lint off Eksu’s shoulder. He looked like he wanted to die. A familiar feeling.

The pink mist from Lilith’s cup thickened slightly.

“Right? They’re a real power couple. Total vibe.”

I leaned against the pillar, trying to project an aura of ‘super chill friend.’

“It’s actually cool. Leaves more time for the rest of us friends to hang out, you know?”

My words felt like ash in my mouth. This was a terrible, terrible idea.

“Friends?”

Her head tilted, a gesture that was 90% innocent curiosity and 10% calculating threat. The mist swirled faster.

“But… isn’t it better when two people are… exclusive? So no one else can interfere?”

My internal alarms blared. Abort mission! Abort!

I needed a new tactic. A distraction. My eyes landed on the buffet table, a glorious spread of tiny, probably-not-poisonous food.

“Have you tried the mini quiches? They are legit to die for.”

I winked, hoping it looked charming and not like a facial tic born of pure terror.

“Maybe literally, depending on who the academy hired to cook tonight.”

She wasn’t looking at the quiches; she was looking at Elizabeth feeding Eksu a cookie.

The air crackled with a familiar, terrifying energy.

Lilith’s hands were clenched into fists at her sides. Her knuckles were white. The pink mist from her teacup was no longer mist. It was a churning, sparkling vortex of pure, uncut jealousy magic. The room temperature dropped twenty degrees. Several students nearby shivered and pulled their cloaks tighter.

“He looks so happy with her.”

Her voice was a whisper, but it cut through the party noise like shattering glass.

I took a slow, deliberate step back. My System screen was flashing a frantic crimson.

I held up my hands in a placating gesture.

“Hey, now, let’s be chill about this. It’s just a cookie.”

My voice sounded pathetic even to my own ears.

“A meaningless, insignificant, probably very dry cookie.”

She ignored me completely. Her head was still fixed on the happy couple. Or, the one-sidedly happy couple. Eksu still looked like he was a prisoner of war. But Lilith didn’t see that. She only saw her rival succeeding.

Her eyes began to glow.

It wasn’t the soft, emotional white light from before. This was different. This was a hard, sharp, fuchsia pink.

“If I cannot have his undivided attention…”

Her voice was dangerously calm now. The vortex in her teacup pulsed in time with her words.

“…then the attention should be reset.”

Oh, you have got to be kidding me.

My life flashed before my eyes. For the fifth time this week. It was getting boring. I braced for impact, cursing the author, the system, and my own stupid, beautiful, perpetually-in-danger face.

A new screen popped into existence before me.

And then, for the second time tonight, the world dissolved into agonizing light.