The SSS-Rank Date

Chapter 3 The First Seal and Hidden Poison

The system kept counting while I held a Boss with a 100% fatality rate.

I lowered my arms and backed away. Valerius let me. His attention stayed on my face.

“The seal.” I pointed toward the catacombs. “I still have to get it.”

Without him, I would not make it down the first flight of stairs.

“Will you walk me to the door? I won’t touch you again. I promise. I just can’t go back there alone.”

Valerius looked at the iron-banded door. After a long pause, he nodded once.

My knees nearly gave out with relief. I started toward the catacombs before he could change his mind. His footsteps followed at an even pace, never hurrying and never falling behind. I kept checking the shadows, then checking him, unsure which direction held the greater danger.

The door remained open. Just inside, the creature had flattened itself against the floor in a twisted imitation of a bow. Its claws shook hard enough to scratch pale lines in the stone, and its milky eyes would not rise above Valerius’s boots. The thing that had chased me upstairs now tried to make itself smaller.

The Crimson Moon Seal lay between its claws, a small metal disc lit from within by a dull red pulse.

The creature was terrified of him.

My dating-sim brain offered a much less useful thought: *It knows better than to mess with my man.*

I walked in, snatched up the seal, and stepped back before my courage expired. The metal was cold and heavier than its size suggested. “Thank you for your cooperation.” Addressing the creature as a difficult client felt better than admitting my legs had started shaking again.

At the edge of my vision, Valerius’s mouth shifted. When I looked at him, his face was blank again.

The other players stared when I returned to the grand hall with the seal. Their relief lasted only until they noticed Valerius behind me. Then suspicion replaced it, and they gave us both room.

Serena recovered first. She hurried over with a porcelain cup. The steam smelled sweet.

“You made it. You must be in shock.” She pressed the warm cup into my hands. “Drink. It’s an herbal blend for the nerves.”

My fingers were still cold from the seal, and the cup warmed them. “Thank you, Serena.”

I drank it in one go. A bitter floral taste clung to the sweetness and caught at the back of my throat. I noticed it, then dismissed it as one more unpleasant feature of the castle. Serena had offered the first kindness I had received from another player, and I wanted to believe in it.

The rest of the night passed with every player watching every doorway. By morning, I had a new plan. The monsters feared Valerius, so I would stay near Valerius. The ten million dollars could wait until I was sure I would live long enough to spend it. Romance had become a survival strategy.

I found him reading in the frost-covered rose garden, a closed path between hedges hiding him from the castle windows. Frost edged the dead roses and silvered the book in his lap. I approached with a carton of strawberry milk stolen from the kitchen, the closest thing I had to a dating-sim gift item.

He studied the pink carton, then looked at my face again. At last his long fingers closed around it. He turned the carton once, punctured the foil with the little paper straw, and took one measured sip.

*Success.*

I grinned and turned to leave, already assigning myself imaginary affection points. Two servants slid out from behind the hedges. Skin stretched tightly over their faces, held in smiles by black stitches. Their uniforms were spotless, their eyes empty. They came toward me without a sound.

Valerius lowered the carton.

“Back.”

Both servants stopped. One stumbled over the other in its rush to retreat, and they vanished into the hedges.

“Wow.” I watched the branches settle. “The staff here is so disciplined.”

I was still pleased with that observation when a gong sounded across the garden.

*GONG. GONG. GONG.*

A gaunt figure in a butler’s uniform stood on the main steps, bronze gong in one hand and mallet in the other. Pale skin covered every feature of his face.

“The second trial will now commence in the Grand Library,” he announced.