Void System: Every Heroine Makes Me Stronger

Severin looked at Nyra standing beside the chair nearest the door.

Her leather bag was still on her shoulder. Her right hand rested on the strap, not gripping it now, just waiting.

"Go alone," he said.

Nyra’s ears twitched.

For a moment, she didn’t move. "That’s it?"

"That’s it."

Her eyes narrowed. "No one behind me?"

"No one from this house follows you." Severin glanced at Alicia. "Alicia stays with me."

The tip of Alicia’s silver tail gave a short flick behind her leg, then settled.

"Yes, Master."

Nyra noticed. Her mouth tightened briefly, but she didn’t comment on it.

"No return time? No promise I come back?" she asked.

"None."

The line between her brows eased a little. She still watched him, but some of the tension left her jaw.

If he blocked the door now, whatever answer she gave him would be worthless.

Nyra’s gaze dropped briefly to his hands, then to the clear space between her and the door.

"Huh." She adjusted the bag strap. "I expected more conditions."

"You asked to leave alone."

"I did." A short breath escaped her nose, almost amused.

She opened the records-room door herself.

Severin rose only after she stepped into the corridor. Alicia moved with him at once, staying on his right. Nyra didn’t wait for them. She walked ahead through the front hall and out toward the inner court, her smoke-black tail hanging low behind her.

A maid carrying folded linen stepped aside. Someone shut a cupboard farther down the corridor. From the court came the scrape of a wheel over stone.

Nyra crossed the cobbles without looking back.

Marienne was near the south side of the court when Severin called her name. She took in Nyra’s bag, the direction she was walking, then looked at him.

"West leaf?" she asked.

"Open it."

Marienne produced the matching key and went to the gate. The lock turned, and she hauled the west leaf inward far enough for Nyra to pass.

Street noise entered with the colder air.

Nyra stopped just inside the opening. Her eyes moved to Alicia, still beside Severin, then back to him.

"You’re not changing your mind?"

"No."

She stepped through.

At the boundary, the Perimeter Ward touched Severin’s awareness and was gone.

Nyra kept walking south.

Alicia remained at Severin’s side. He gave no order for anyone else to follow.

Marienne put a hand on the gate leaf. "Close it?"

"Yes."

The gate swung shut.

The key turned in Marienne’s hand, and the west leaf locked again.

Severin looked at the closed gate, then turned back toward the house.

By the time the streets began to thin, Nyra had stopped expecting footsteps from the manor.

That was almost more irritating than hearing them would have been.

She kept to the southbound flow through Greycross, letting carts, workers, and late shoppers break the street into moving pieces around her. No one from the manor appeared beside her with an order from Severin tucked behind a smile.

She adjusted the strap and kept going.

Nyra passed a wagon turning across the street and slowed rather than squeezing behind it. Laborers moved around her. A woman with a basket muttered at the driver. Somewhere behind the wagon, a man continued south.

Nyra gave him no more attention than that.

The wagon cleared.

Farther down the street, she crossed to the other side and let her pace rise again.

Greystone walls gave way gradually to lower buildings. The number of carts dropped. Voices spread farther apart. By the time the road opened beyond the tighter streets, the daylight had thinned into a dirty gray along the horizon.

The same man was still behind her.

Not close.

That, by itself, meant nothing.

Nyra kept walking.

Her boots found an easy rhythm on the road. The distance hadn’t put enough strain in her legs to change her pace.

A cart came north carrying empty crates. Nyra let it pass between them.

The man lost ground.

A little later, he had it back.

Her ears angled behind her without her head turning.

Boots. Cart wheels farther away. Wind dragging through dry grass beside the road.

She let her pace drop, enough that anyone simply walking south would either drift away or overtake her.

The steps behind her changed too.

Nyra’s mouth flattened.

’All right.’

She didn’t touch the knife at her waist.

Near the edge of town, she took a side street that bent back toward the south road instead of shortening it. A dark shop window gave her a brief, warped reflection of the street behind her.

The man entered the turn after she did.

It still wasn’t proof, but coincidence was getting harder to believe.

Nyra left Greycross behind.

The road south opened wider, bordered by fields and low walls instead of houses. Night settled slowly over the land. Traffic became occasional enough that each sound lasted longer.

The man remained.

Nyra let the distance between them stretch, then shortened her stride. He adjusted again.

This time, when she used the bend of a stone wall to look back without stopping, she saw his face clearly.

Her steps didn’t falter.

She didn’t know his name, but she remembered where she’d seen him. In the lower buyer hall, he had worked the right side near her tether and cuffs while buyers talked over prices.

Nyra faced forward again.

Her stomach tightened.

The handler list in her bag was the simplest reason for him to be here. She still didn’t know whether anyone had sent him, or what he wanted.

She kept walking.

By then the night had deepened and Greycross lay well behind her. Her ears caught him whenever the wind eased, never rushing and never falling far enough back to disappear. He never came close enough to crowd her.

Nyra passed a low stone field wall. A narrow cart track branched west beside it, cutting away from the main road between darker strips of field.

She took the turn without hesitation.

The south road began to slip out of view behind the wall.

Nyra continued far enough that anyone headed south would’ve stayed on the main road.

Behind her, the rhythm changed.

Boots left the main road.

Gravel shifted on the west track.

Nyra walked to the bend before she glanced back over her left shoulder.

The right-hand market handler had taken the turn after her.

Nyra left the knife sheathed and continued down the west track.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!