Chapter 98: All According to Victoria
"Well, will you look at that... Tristan Gale." Victoria laughed, her silver hair glinting like molten moonlight against the midnight sky, eyes gleaming crimson with predatory amusement.
"Overseer of the Fifth Division of the Hidden Hands, am I correct?" she continued, flicking her hair over her shoulder with theatrical flair, her voice honeyed with sarcasm.
In the original game, she was the very definition of a Mary Sue—beautiful, powerful, confident to a fault, and magnetic enough that even her enemies often ended up joining her side. A character everyone loved, feared, or wanted.
And within that vessel stood Suzuki—a lifelong introvert, a reader rather than a fighter. And yet, thanks to her encyclopedic memory of the novel, she had become the strongest force in this entire world.
The masked man—Tristan Gale—visibly flinched. His arcane barrier, which had protected him from the crimson blast just moments ago, now trembled. The glow around it dimmed ever so slightly.
"H-How do you know that?!" he snapped, his voice cracking with disbelief. His gloved hands gripped the deck of enchanted cards tight, knuckles paling.
Victoria smirked, raising a single finger to her lips.
"That’s a secret~," she sang mockingly, a cat playing with her food.
"You bastard, I’ll kill you!" Tristan roared, yanking a bishop card from his deck. The card’s edges pulsed with heat.
"Incineration!"
A fiery diagonal slash shot out, ricocheting off walls and tearing across the pavement like molten whips, each impact leaving glowing scorch marks in its wake.