The Male Lead isn't Following the Script!-Chapter 318: Never, Never, Never
"No..." he muttered under his breath, blocking her strike with a burst of fire. He wasn’t going to watch that happen again.
Lightning and flame clashed violently, the sound like thunder exploding right above their heads. Adeline grit her teeth, her energy blade pressing against his fire-forged sword, neither one giving in.
"You’re holding back!" she accused, her voice sharp. "You think I can’t do this, but I’ll prove it to you!"
Aaron’s jaw tightened. He had seen what happened to reckless fighters. He wasn’t about to lose his sister to her own stubbornness.
Aaron’s teeth clenched as sparks cracked against his blade. He could feel his patience fraying, every strike of Adeline’s lightning too raw, too reckless, too similar to the ghost of that boy he once watched run into death. He had no choice. If she wanted to prove herself, he would strip away the comfort of rules and see if she could stand against the world as it really was.
His stance shifted suddenly. The rhythm of his attacks changed. He lunged forward and kicked at her ankle, a move considered foul in a duel. Adeline’s eyes widened in shock as she stumbled, only just catching herself before his blade struck her side.
"What—?" she gasped, dodging backwards, glaring at him. But Aaron didn’t stop. He pressed forward with relentless and brutal conviction.
His blade came at her from angles knights were trained never to use, his elbow suddenly slammed toward her shoulder, his knee nearly driving into her stomach. These went against the rules of a duel. He would’ve been flagged by the instructors!
Adeline parried desperately, sparks flying. "What are you doing?!" she shouted, anger breaking through her shock. "You’re a knight, for goodness’ sake!"
Aaron’s eyes burned, his fire raging with him. "Do you think monsters or the people who want to kill you will play fair?!" His voice echoed across the yard. He drove her back, forcing her to retreat, forcing her to defend herself. "Fight me, Adeline! Prove me wrong!"
Her grip trembled on her blade, but she steadied herself. He wasn’t going to let her hide behind the rules. He was testing her resolve—and she hated that he was right. She clenched her jaw, lightning flickering hotter, faster.
"Fine," she spat. Her pink braided hair swayed with her movement.
She changed her approach, meeting him blow for blow, no longer fighting like a knight trained to spar, but like someone who intended to win no matter what it took. She kicked off the ground, used her elbow to shove him back, swung her sword in vicious arcs. Sparks and fire clashed, the training yard filling with smoke and light.
But then—
Her lightning cracked too wildly. It surged past his blade and struck his right arm. The smell of burning flesh hit her nose immediately. Aaron cried out, his sword slipping from his grasp as the force of the strike sent him staggering.
"Aaron!" Both Adeline and Layla called out.
Her blade dissolved into nothing. She rushed forward, her hands trembling as she caught him by the arm, her heart racing with terror. His sleeve was scorched, the flesh beneath blistered red and raw all the way down to his elbow.
Tears filled her eyes as she pressed her glowing hands against the wound, holy power flowing into him. "I—I’m sorry," she whispered, her voice shaking.
He hissed as the pain dulled, his jaw tight. But when he looked at her, his eyes weren’t angry. They were heavy with something far worse—fear.
"No," he said firmly, voice rough. "Don’t apologise." He grasped her wrist with his uninjured hand, making sure she looked at him. "But I want you to remember that feeling."
Her eyes turned red as she looked down at the wound slowly mending beneath her touch.
"I will feel a thousand times worse if you get hurt on my watch," Aaron continued, his voice lowering, breaking at the edges. "Please, Adeline... Do not come with me."
Adeline froze, her hands still glowing faintly as they hovered over Aaron’s arm. His words struck her harder than any of his blows during the duel. He had never spoken like that before, never so overprotective.
Aaron, her infuriating, overbearing, stubborn older brother, was not one to beg. Yet here he was, his voice shaking, his eyes heavy with fear. Fear not of monsters, not of war—but of her getting hurt.
Layla shifted slightly beside her, her brows drawn together as she observed them. She had seen Adeline heal plenty of wounds before, but never with such trembling hands.
She wanted to say something, to tell Aaron he was being unfair, to tell Adeline she was strong enough—but she didn’t. This wasn’t her moment to interfere. It was between the two siblings, and Layla knew better than to insert herself.
Adeline drew in a shaky breath, and when she finally spoke, her voice wavered at first, but quickly grew firmer with each word.
"No," she said, shaking her head. "I don’t agree, Aaron. I might cry easily, I might trip over my own feet like a clutz, I may not have the same battlefield experience as you—but that doesn’t mean I will stand on the sidelines doing nothing."
She looked into his eyes with determination. "I am not a damsel in distress."
Aaron’s jaw tightened, his lips parting as if to argue, but she didn’t give him the chance. Her voice rose, filled with all the words she had buried for years, words that now poured out of her with the force of lightning itself. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺
"And you speak of fear," she continued, her hands clenching his now healed arm. "You—of all people—you, the one who left your family behind to fight on the borders, you think we did not feel the same fear? You think we didn’t stay up every night, terrified something would happen to you? That we wouldn’t one day hear news that you’d fallen, that you’d never come home?"
"But I understood," Adeline pressed on, her voice shaking but steadying with determination. "I understood that it was your calling, your duty. And regardless of my fear, I respected that. I never once told you not to go. I never once asked you to stay behind for my sake."
