The Seductive Pretty Boy of the Matriarchal World-Chapter 56: The Threat

Chapter 56: The Threat

[Liora Voss favorability has increased. Current: 30%.]

Elias Kane’s hand paused mid-drag on the cigarette, the ember glowing softly in the hazy night air. Then, as if nothing at all had happened, he brought the filter back to his full, soft lips and continued exhaling slow, deliberate plumes of smoke that curled lazily around his face.

He could wait. The unseen photographer stalking him could wait. But System Theta clearly could not.

"What happened?" the system blurted out in its flat, urgent monotone.

What the hell was going on?

The host was literally just smoking. How had Liora Voss’s favorability spiked out of nowhere?

Elias felt a spark of genuine amusement at the system’s flustered reaction. His slender fingers flicked ash into the breeze with casual precision. "There’s a little puppy on the loose."

The system hesitated. "Paparazzi? But host, you’re not a celebrity."

"Not that kind of paparazzi," Elias murmured, his voice low and velvet-smooth. His charming, slightly reddened eyes curved into a sly crescent beneath the drifting smoke, the smile turning even more dangerously seductive. "A little dog calling in backup—makes it a puppy, doesn’t it? Originally I had no clue anyone was snapping photos of me. Even if I had, I’d have needed time to dig and figure out who sent them. But it looks like someone’s self-control isn’t what it used to be."

"Quitting smoking, quitting harder stuff—those slip-ups are bad enough," Elias continued, each word light and unhurried, almost teasing. "But quitting me... that’s not how you do it."

He finished the cigarette, crushed the butt against the windowsill, and picked up the bag containing Giselle’s discarded coat. Giselle had been gone for a while now. Without a second thought he left the hotel behind.

Stay here, she had ordered?

She really had the nerve to say that. If this had been a presidential suite with proper Manhattan-level luxury, he might have actually stayed put. Even a standard five-star setup would have been tolerable. But this place? Heh.

Elias treated her words like they were nothing and slipped back to campus in record time. The moment he stepped into the dorm room he found Tim Reed and the other two already back, going through their nightly routines in the cramped bathroom.

They noticed him immediately, but unlike every other night they didn’t swarm over asking where he’d disappeared to. Instead they simply glanced up at the sound of the door, then stared—long, silent, unblinking stares that said far more than words ever could.

The awkwardness thickened until someone finally coughed. Only then did the three resume their routines, but the tension lingered like a heavy fog in the small space.

Elias Kane’s public persona was famously aloof. If Tim and the others didn’t start the conversation, he never would.

Fine by him. Their reaction tracked almost exactly with what he had predicted—only one tiny step short of where he wanted it.

The four finished washing up, lights clicked off, and each climbed into their beds.

In the pitch-dark room, someone finally cracked. "Elias... do you have a girlfriend?"

Elias let the silence stretch just long enough before answering in a soft, hesitant voice. "No..."

Three simple words. Yet they rippled through the darkness like a stone dropped into still water. Even Tim Reed—the one who felt the most guilt and had always leaned hardest toward Elias—felt a quiet storm surge inside his chest.

Hidden in the black, Elias’s eyes glinted with the faintest trace of satisfaction.

That was more than enough.

The next morning the awkward atmosphere had not dissolved with sleep. The four of them moved in heavy silence.

Elias kept his head down, finished his morning routine at lightning speed, and left the dorm without another word.

The second the door closed behind him, every trace of timid uncertainty vanished from his posture. A thoughtful, calculating look settled into his gaze instead.

He skipped breakfast entirely and headed straight for the Westbridge University library.

This was, after all, the most elite campus in the country. Even at the first hint of dawn the vast reading halls were already more than half full, students hunched under warm desk lamps with open laptops and scattered notes.

Truthfully, Elias’s assigned persona in this world was that of a diligent, top-tier scholar. Yet since arriving he had spent almost no time actually studying. Most of his hours had been claimed by beds, contracts, and the suffocating attention of the women circling him.

He felt a flicker of genuine shame at the irony.

So he claimed a quiet seat, sat down, and began to study with utmost seriousness...

...by pulling out his phone and grinding through sign-ins and fan-vote tasks.

He couldn’t afford to miss them, and this was the perfect window to knock them out.

Scrolling on a phone might have looked out of place in the studious hush of the library, but plenty of students used theirs for quick research or digital notes. It wasn’t as convenient as a laptop, but the portability won out.

Once Elias locked in and focused, time melted away. Even the repetitive super-topic check-ins for Seraphina Hale blurred past without him noticing the minutes ticking by.

Before long the tasks were complete.

He slipped the phone back into his pocket, stretched lazily, then let his gaze drift casually around the room as he rose to his feet.

At that exact instant, a girl who had been staring intently at her own phone suddenly froze, body going rigid.

Lila Morgan’s instincts flared. Elias had just glanced in her direction a moment ago—and now he was walking straight toward her table.

Her shoulders tightened. The urge to bolt was almost overwhelming, but years of careful practice screamed that any sudden exit would scream guilt. So she forced herself to keep scrolling, even lifting her head as if the small noise he made had distracted her. She gave him the briefest, most indifferent glance.

One look was all she allowed herself before dropping her eyes again. From the corner of her vision she watched him pass by without slowing, without any sign that he had noticed her secret photography.

Lila Morgan let out a slow, silent breath of relief.

Ten or twelve seconds later she prepared to stand and resume tailing him. She tilted her head slightly to the right—

—and felt a single finger gently poke her right cheek.

She whipped around. No one was there.

Then a light tap landed on her left shoulder. She turned the other way on instinct.

Elias Kane’s face appeared inches from hers. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Her eyes flew wide, pupils shrinking to pinpricks. Her mouth opened to cry out, but a soft, warm hand clamped firmly over it. A gentle voice breathed right beside her ear. "Shh... don’t make a sound."

He lifted his other hand and pointed calmly to the large sign on the nearby pillar.

Lila Morgan followed his finger to the bold lettering: SILENCE.

Elias kept his voice deliberately low and soothing. "Understood?"

She stared at him, still reeling, heart hammering. Every move he had just made felt like something out of a ghost story—silent, sudden, impossible to predict.

Seeing her stunned expression, Elias couldn’t suppress a soft chuckle. His brows and eyes curved into a perfect crescent of amusement. "Don’t look so terrified. I’m not some wandering spirit."

"Sit down. Let’s talk."

She lowered herself stiffly into the chair, the earlier fright now blooming into something colder—real fear. It felt as if he had seen straight through every thought in her head.

Elias settled into the seat across from her. "Who sent you?"

Lila Morgan stayed silent, lips pressed into a thin line, clearly resolved from the very first second not to utter a single word.

Elias’s smile faded slowly, deliberately. "Not going to tell me? That’s fine."

She studied his face and caught the unmistakable undercurrent of threat woven into those three quiet words.

Yet instead of tensing further, she relaxed. A male college student? What possible leverage could he actually have?

The thought had barely formed when Elias leaned in closer. His face filled her vision, growing larger, more vivid. For some reason he had removed his glasses entirely.

Unsealing something? she thought with a flicker of dark humor.

Then a faint, intoxicating fragrance reached her—subtle, warm, impossible to place—accompanied by the slight parting of his full, rose-tinted lips.

She heard him murmur, " ’I kissed you.’ All I have to do is mass-send those three words to everyone I suspect. Then I’ll know exactly who sent you. Because whoever it is, the moment they hear I hooked up with another woman, they won’t sit still. They’ll call me instantly."

"As for you..." Elias shifted forward just enough to bring his mouth beside her ear, voice dropping to a silken whisper. "I imagine I’ll be seeing your face on the evening news tonight—something like ’Body discovered floating in the river...’ or similar. If you don’t believe me, go ahead and guess why she sent you to tail me in the first place."

Lila Morgan stared at the young man smiling so charmingly in front of her. In the space of a single heartbeat he had become devastatingly, impossibly beautiful. She felt an invisible hand close around her throat, squeezing tighter and tighter.

Right now she was almost suffocating.