Four days passed.
Four quiet, inefficient days.
Elias was rarely at the estate. When he appeared, it was in the narrow hours between exhaustion and obligation—long enough to change clothes, exchange a few words, and disappear again before dawn.
Whatever threads he was pulling at the castle had tightened rather than loosened.
I filled the gaps myself.
Side quests.
Minor matters, really. Settling a dispute between two merchants arguing over import permits.
Quietly correcting tax records that had been deliberately misfiled. Speaking with a widow whose petition had been ignored for months and ensuring it reached the right hands.
None of it dramatic.
All of it necessary.
[Your accumulated villainess points now total one thousand two hundred.]
I paused, fingers still as I adjusted the clasp of my necklace.
That much already?
[Yes. You are disturbingly efficient when left unattended.]
I exhaled softly. I was unattended for four days. I merely occupied myself.
