The Seductive Pretty Boy of the Matriarchal World-Chapter 62: Against the Current

Chapter 62: Against the Current

Elias Kane froze, every muscle locking in place. Giselle Frost herself seemed momentarily stunned, as if the words had left her own mouth without permission and she was still trying to process them.

Then something shifted in front of her. She snapped back to the present and saw Elias on the verge of total collapse—eyes wide with the kind of raw despair that came when the last thread of hope had been cut.

Elias thought, But you’re the one who told me to jump.

In the next breath he spun toward the window. He had already stepped back earlier, putting himself dangerously close; now it took only two strides for him to reach it. His head and shoulders leaned out into open air.

Giselle’s pupils contracted. Her body launched forward like an arrow, one hand seizing the back of his shirt and yanking him inside. Elias tumbled straight into her arms.

At that height, with his slender frame, the fall would have been fatal or crippling.

Giselle’s chest tightened with a mix of fury and alarm, but the young man now cradled against her had stopped crying. His face wore only stunned bewilderment, as though the suicidal dash had been pure instinct—the automatic response of someone watching every escape route vanish.

So weak, yet somehow unafraid of death.

No. This was weakness at its absolute limit: too terrified to face reality, so he chose to end it instead, letting death swallow every problem whole.

A faint tremor passed through Giselle’s eyes. For one heartbeat an old, buried image flickered—someone else leaping downward and disappearing forever—but she pushed it aside. Her voice came out softer than before, the earlier brutality nowhere to be found. "I didn’t mean it literally. Running away solves nothing, not even death. Come with me. I won’t let anything happen to you."

Elias blinked slowly, returning to himself. He didn’t reach for her.

Giselle exhaled, then extended one hand and took his again, fingers closing with quiet command. "I’m getting you out of here."

Her grip was firm. Elias offered no resistance, letting her lead him from the room without a word.

He watched the silver-haired figure ahead of him—straight-backed, unbreakable, as if she could shield him from any storm the world threw their way.

If she hadn’t said those words just now...

Protected behind her, Elias narrowed his eyes. He had clearly struck a nerve. What buried memory had his little performance dragged into the light?

"System," he asked inside his head, "do we have any background file on Giselle Frost?"

[System Theta: We do. But my clearance level is too low to access it.]

Elias: ...

Only now did the realization settle in. Maybe the system itself was another deliberate trap the Division had installed to raise the difficulty of his missions. Perhaps Echo’s early retirement had been engineered too.

Division, you absolute—

He vented silently for a moment, then let out a quiet sigh. "Never mind. It doesn’t matter."

Even if he learned her past, it would only make it easier to poke at that sore spot later. Nothing more.

They stepped out of the hotel. Elias immediately shrank into the trembling, frightened posture he had perfected—shoulders hunched, head down, every line of his body screaming vulnerability. Giselle, by contrast, kept her chin high, expression cool and detached, completely unmoved by the sea of staring eyes.

She said nothing. Wherever she walked, the crowd parted silently, instinctively giving her a clear path. The innate arrogance she carried like a second skin already commanded respect, even though she hadn’t graduated yet.

Giselle led him to the waiting luxury sedan. Her gaze flicked once between the back seat and the passenger door, then she opened the front passenger side without another second of hesitation. "Get in."

Several guys in the crowd couldn’t hide the flash of envy in their eyes. A few girls looked the same way—not at Elias, but at the effortless authority Giselle wore, the kind that came from being born into a name like Frost.

Elias knew better. Giselle Frost was simply Giselle Frost. No outside factor had shaped her; she would have become this woman no matter the circumstances. That certainty was exactly what made her so magnetic—why so many people chased after her, and why the original version of him in this world had fallen so hard.

Of course, the current Elias felt none of that.

He climbed into the opulent car with exaggerated care, as though afraid he might dirty the leather. In truth he had ridden in vehicles far more expensive than this on countless assignments; luxury cars existed to be used, not preserved.

The idle thought sparked something mischievous. Next time I should try it with Serena Blackwood in a car like this.

[System Theta: ...]

The system pretended it had heard nothing and asked instead, "Host, does this count as advancing favorability with Giselle Frost by another point?"

Elias gave a faint smile. "Still a long way off. Check her favorability yourself."

[System Theta: She just did all of that for you and it doesn’t count?]

Elias shook his head. "She only thinks she should. That’s all."

Pity from the strong toward the weak, a woman’s sense of duty, rebellion against her mother—whatever the reason, it wasn’t the kind of feeling a woman had for a man she wanted.

A cool breeze slipped through the open door and vanished again.

Giselle slid into the driver’s seat and buckled her seatbelt with precise movements. For someone who seemed to reject rules and authority, she followed traffic laws without fail.

She turned toward Elias, about to speak, then noticed he had already fastened his own belt and was watching her with those wide, still-damp eyes—like a child hoping for praise.

Giselle glanced at him once, then looked forward and started the engine without a word.

At the same moment, across town, Liora Voss received the fresh photo Lila Morgan had just sent.

She had suspected something, but seeing the image confirmed exactly what Elias had meant by "letting her watch an idol drama."

The silver-haired young woman gripped the golden-haired boy’s hand, cutting straight through the dense crowd with calm, unshakable resolve—leading him against the current of onlookers.

It was the kind of scene countless guys fantasized about in their dreams.

"Truly an idol drama..." Liora murmured, her voice low and velvet-soft.

Right now Elias was almost certainly sitting in the passenger seat, tears on his face while inside he savored the sight of the untouchable campus ice queen defying everyone for him.

Since he was clearly enjoying himself so much, she saw no reason to ruin the fun by reminding him that his so-called leverage was only...

Liora smiled, the realization settling in with perfect clarity. Elias wasn’t the abyss. He was simply another person dancing along its edge, just like her.

She might fall. He might fall first.

She wasn’t sure whether she would tumble into the depths, but she was certain of one thing: before she ever did, Elias Kane would plunge ahead of her and shatter on the rocks below.

She looked forward to that day.

Still smiling, Liora forwarded the photo with a single accompanying line.

Liora Voss: Sis, your little plaything is starring in his own idol drama. Aren’t you going to visit the set?