New Skill

The night hummed with tension. I leaned back on a bench in Iron Dominion's private garden, the sharp scent of freshly watered plants mingling with the metallic tang of mana hanging in the air. The garden wasn't here for peace—it was a calculated move by Victoria to reinforce her image: strong, ambitious, but capable of nurturing power. And yet, as the soft glow of enchanted lanterns illuminated the paths, it felt more like a battleground than a retreat.

A system ping blinked faintly in the corner of my vision: Quest Progress: "Entangle Amelia" - 70% complete. New Skill Unlocked: Veiled Manipulation. Cooldown: 48 hours.

Veiled Manipulation. A fitting name for what I'd been doing since I arrived in this world, but I didn't need the system to remind me that I was playing a dangerous game. Victoria and Amelia were two halves of the same coin: brilliant, relentless, and utterly unyielding. And both of them had me under a microscope.