Chapter 56: The Suspension Bridge Effect (Literal)

【Lilith PoV】

I found it.

The answer had been hiding in plain sight, buried in a dusty romance psychology thesis I discovered in the academy library. The suspension bridge effect—a phenomenon where fear-induced adrenaline gets misinterpreted by the brain as romantic attraction. Subjects crossing a dangerous bridge reported increased heart rates, dilated pupils, and heightened emotional responses that mimicked the physiological symptoms of love.

The hypothesis was sound, the methodology clear, and the application obvious.

I glanced at Eksu walking ahead of me, completely oblivious to the scientific breakthrough about to revolutionize our relationship. We were crossing the Ravine of Eternal Screaming—named for the way the wind howled through the chasm below, though I suspected we’d be adding to that reputation soon. The bridge swayed with each step, old rope creaking under our combined weight.

Perfect conditions for my experiment.

“This bridge looks sketchy as hell.”

Siegfried clutched the rope railings like his life depended on it, which honestly it probably did. His knuckles were white, his breathing shallow and rapid.

“The structural integrity appears compromised.”

I kept my voice clinical, detached, like I was observing weather patterns instead of plotting controlled chaos. Eksu shot me a look that suggested he knew something was up, but he couldn’t quite figure out what.

“Can we just get across and not talk about how we’re gonna die?”

Eksu moved carefully, testing each wooden plank before putting his full weight on it. Smart, but ultimately futile given what I was about to do.

I reached into my coat and pulled out my notebook, flipping to the page where I’d meticulously outlined my experimental procedure. Step one—establish baseline heart rate. Step two—introduce fear variable. Step three—measure physiological response. Step four—confirm romantic attraction through pulse analysis.

The science was flawless.

I began gathering mana in my palm, keeping the motion small and subtle. The fireball formed slowly, compressed and controlled, just large enough to sever the primary support ropes without causing excessive collateral damage. I aimed carefully at the connection point where the bridge anchored to the cliff face.

“Lilith, why are you glowing?”

Siegfried’s voice cracked with panic, but it was too late for intervention.

“Oops.”

I released the fireball.

The explosion was louder than I’d calculated, a bright orange burst that lit up the entire chasm. The support ropes snapped instantly, the sound like giant whips cracking against stone. The bridge lurched violently to one side, wooden planks splintering and tumbling into the void below.

We were falling.

【Siegfried PoV】

We were falling and I was screaming and this was how I died again.

The wind roared in my ears, drowning out everything except the primal terror clawing through my chest. My stomach dropped into my feet, my vision spun wildly as the sky and ground traded places over and over. I could see the bottom of the chasm rushing up to meet us, jagged rocks and what looked suspiciously like old bones scattered across the floor.

This wasn’t supposed to happen today.

I’d survived Elizabeth’s cooking, Lilith’s calculated social manipulations, and Eksu’s complete obliviousness to basic romantic signals. I’d made it through eight years of carefully orchestrated protagonist transfer schemes. I was at twenty percent completion, practically halfway there if you thought about it optimistically.

And now I was going to die because Lilith blew up a bridge for no reason.

“Subject is exhibiting expected fear response.”

Lilith’s voice cut through the screaming wind, calm and measured like she was narrating a documentary. I twisted midair and saw her actually taking notes, her notebook open and a pencil moving rapidly across the page as we plummeted to our deaths.

This girl was insane.

Legitimately, certifiably, no-cap insane.

“Lilith, what the hell!”

Eksu’s voice was raw with panic, his eyes wide and his arms flailing uselessly. For once his absolute defense wasn’t going to help because you couldn’t defend against gravity and poor life choices.

The ground rushed closer, those spikes and rocks getting way too detailed way too fast.

We were dead, we were so dead, this was it—

Eksu hit first.

His 【Absolute Defense】 activated on impact, a shimmering barrier blooming outward from his body like a reverse explosion. The sound was deafening, a massive BOOM that echoed through the entire chasm. Instead of splattering across the rocks like a normal person would, the defense absorbed the kinetic energy and redirected it.

Upward.

We bounced.

Literally bounced like Eksu had turned into the world’s most terrifying trampoline. I felt my organs rearrange themselves as the sudden change in direction sent us rocketing back up into the air. My brain couldn’t process what was happening, couldn’t reconcile the fact that I should be dead but instead was experiencing the worst carnival ride in existence.

We went up about twenty feet before gravity remembered how to do its job.

Then we fell again.

And bounced again.

Each impact made the defense flare brighter, each rebound sent us spinning in different directions. I lost track of how many times we hit, how many times my stomach tried to escape through my mouth. The world became a blur of rock and sky and Eksu’s panicked face and Lilith’s disturbingly calm note-taking.

Finally, mercifully, the bouncing stopped.

We landed in a heap at the bottom of the chasm, limbs tangled together in a way that would’ve been comedic if I wasn’t actively dying inside. My head spun, my vision doubled, and my stomach finally gave up on staying inside my body.

I vomited.

Hard.

All over the rocks, all over myself, just absolutely destroyed by motion sickness and terror and the fundamental wrongness of bouncing off another human being like a rubber ball.

“Sample successfully obtained.”

Lilith extracted herself from our pile of bodies with the grace of someone who hadn’t just fallen off a bridge. Her hair was barely mussed, her notebook still clutched in one hand. She knelt beside Eksu, who was lying flat on his back staring at the sky like he was questioning every life choice that had led to this moment.

His chest heaved with rapid breaths, his face pale and covered in cold sweat.

“Your pulse is elevated.”

Lilith grabbed his wrist, her fingers pressing against the inside of his arm with clinical precision. She pulled out a pocket watch with her other hand, counting silently while Eksu just stared at her in horrified confusion.

“One hundred forty beats per minute, respiratory rate approximately thirty breaths per minute, pupils dilated to approximately seven millimeters.”

She scribbled more notes, her expression thoughtful and weirdly satisfied.

“These are the exact physiological markers of romantic love.”

“What?”

Eksu’s voice came out strangled, like his brain was still trying to catch up with reality.

“The suspension bridge effect—fear-induced arousal misattributed as romantic attraction. Your elevated heart rate and heightened emotional state in my presence can only mean one thing.”

Lilith looked directly into his eyes, her face serious and completely sincere.

“You love me.”

The silence that followed was so thick you could cut it with a knife.

I wanted to scream, wanted to point out the massive logical fallacy in her reasoning, wanted to explain that correlation didn’t equal causation and that maybe, just maybe, his elevated heart rate had something to do with the fact that we’d just fallen off a bridge and bounced like deranged ping pong balls.

But I couldn’t.

Because I was still vomiting.

“That’s not—I don’t—you blew up the bridge!”

Eksu scrambled backward, pulling his wrist free from her grip. His defense flickered weakly around him, like even it was exhausted from the trauma.

“A necessary variable introduction to test my hypothesis.”

Lilith stood, brushing dust from her skirt with mechanical efficiency.

“The results are conclusive. We should proceed to the next phase of courtship.”

“The next phase?!”

Eksu looked at me desperately, silently begging for help or intervention or literally anything that would make this situation less insane.

I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, my whole body shaking from exertion and fear and the residual adrenaline still flooding my system.

“Lilith, you can’t just—science doesn’t work like that—”

“My methodology was sound.”

She flipped through her notebook, showing pages covered in dense calculations and experimental procedures.

“I controlled for external variables, established a baseline, introduced the fear stimulus, and measured the physiological response. The data supports my conclusion.”

“The data supports that we almost died!”

Eksu’s voice cracked, somewhere between anger and hysteria.

Lilith tilted her head, genuinely confused by his reaction.

“But we didn’t die. Your 【Absolute Defense】 functioned exactly as predicted. There was never any real danger.”

“You didn’t know that would work!”

“I calculated a ninety-seven percent probability of survival.”

“That’s not one hundred percent!”

Eksu ran his hands through his hair, pacing in tight circles like a caged animal.

I finally managed to get to my feet, legs wobbling like a newborn deer. My head still spun, my stomach still churned, but at least I wasn’t actively expelling my internal organs anymore.

This girl was legitimately the most terrifying person I’d ever met, and I’d died to Elizabeth like forty times.

“We need to get out of this chasm.”

I looked around, trying to find a path up that didn’t involve more falling or bouncing or scientific experiments gone wrong.

“Agreed.”

Eksu shot one more disturbed look at Lilith before heading toward what looked like a narrow trail carved into the cliff face.

Lilith followed behind him, still writing in her notebook, completely unbothered by the chaos she’d created.

“Note to self—subject exhibits strong denial response. This is common in early-stage romantic development. Further experiments required to overcome psychological barriers.”

I listened to her mutter and felt my soul leave my body.

This was my life now, apparently.

Falling off bridges, bouncing off Eksu like a trampoline, and watching Lilith turn basic human survival into peer-reviewed research on romance.

The transfer system better hit one hundred percent soon because I couldn’t take much more of this.