Chapter 21: S-rank[1]
Lena couldn’t help it.
She felt a pang of regret.
But not for saving the boy. Never for that.
No—her regret was far simpler, and far crueler.
She regretted being weak.
Her breaths came in short, ragged gasps, each one scraping her throat like sandpaper. Her limbs shook. Her fists, once unstoppable hammers, were trembling from exhaustion. The dull ache in her chest had sharpened, blooming into a cold, creeping pain. The poison was settling in now—slow and deliberate, eating away at her from the inside.
She knew what that meant.
Still, she smiled.
A faint thing. Barely a twitch at the corner of her mouth.
"At least... I did my job," she whispered to no one, voice dry and brittle.
She saved him. That should’ve been enough.