Reborn: Apocalypse Ready. War Goddess by My Side novel Chapter 49

Chapter 49 Arrogant Woman

Bianca felt a small knot of anxiety form in her chest. What does Lillhana want?

Steven kept his expression completely neutral.

Finished

Lilliana let a faint smile cross her face, and a few of the male students nearby visibly lost their composure just from the sight of it.

The delicate fragrance she carried drifted through the air like something crafted specifically to dismantle a person’s better judgment.

“Steven,” she said lightly, “thank you for that hypothetical you gave me.”

Steven made a dismissive sound. “I won’t take the credit. It was always going to be yours.”

Something in Lilliana’s usual icy bearing had softened. The rigid wall she kept around herself had quietly come down.

She looked at him with a genuinely warm expression. “You were right, though. I really can’t do the thing you described.

“My perspective changed.”

“Understood,” Steven said, his tone even and unaffected. “Stick to what you believe. We’re not the same kind of people.”

Lilliana smiled at him. “Don’t give up on yourself yet. What if you awaken S–rank too?”

“If that’s all you came over here to say,” Steven said “you can head back.”

Lilliana didn’t take offense. “I just needed to say a few things out loud and be clear about them.

“I still think my standards were right. You brought her around specifically to get a reaction out of me, and I’ll admit it worked. I wasn’t comfortable with it.

“But I’m past that now.

“I’ll be watching to see how your Awakening goes.”

Steven looked at Lilliana’s bright, expressive eyes for a moment, and felt absolutely nothing shift inside

him.

Her meaning was clear enough.

If his Awakening came in below S–rank, there was nothing left to discuss between them.

The gap between their ranks would simply be too wide, and they’d move through the world as strangers from that point on.

She came over to say all of this because Steven genuinely got under her skin over the past few days.

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Chapter 49–Arrogant Woman

Finished

Now that she stood on the other side of an S–rank Awakening, she finally had the ground to say it from.

“Fair enough,” Steven said “I’ll probably land at B–rank. You don’t need to keep thinking about it.”

Lilliana didn’t respond to that. She looked at him for one long, quiet moment, then turned and walked away, as though every thread connecting them had just been snipped clean.

The students nearby had no idea what to make of any of it

Was that some kind of goodbye?

Only Bianca quietly tightened her fist at her side, her gaze growing steadier and more certain with every second.

Lilliana, I will treasure the man you’re walking away from with everything I have.

S–rank. So what?

Steven watched Lilliana leave with the cool indifference of someone watching a scene he’d already lived through, because he had.

After her Awakening in his previous life, she changed too, every movement she made after that carrying a new layer of pride and confidence.

She always looked so pleased with herself.

Steven felt nothing about it.

Then a soft hand closed around his.

Steven turned to look at Bianca.

Bianca looked up at him with a smile that was both tender and absolutely unwavering. “I’m on your side, Steven. Always.”

Something flickered behind Steven’s eyes, quiet and a little stunned.

Maybe the greatest thing about coming back to this life was standing right in front of him.

He hoped she’d hold onto that certainty.

He planned to do everything he could to deserve it.

The Divine Awakening kept moving forward as more students approached the pillars one after another.

Maybe.

Whatever comes.

What kind of Divine Sigil will he awaken? Is it really going to be B–rank?

It shifted direction and pulled toward his chest, toward the beast mark.

Steven’s thoughts went completely still.

Could it be? Is the beast sigil actually a Divine Sigit?

J

The current seemed to encounter something it hadn’t expected either. It lingered at the beast sigil’s location for a brief moment, then divided itself, pulling part of its energy back to Steven’s arm.

In that same instant, the Awakening Guidance Pillar in front of Steven began to tremble, faint and unmistakable.

Pale blue light shot from the pillar.

B–rank.

The supervising teachers nearby didn’t react with any particular surprise.

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Chapter 49–Arrogant Woman

Then one of them paused. “Hm?”

Something was off.

Hidden inside the pale blue light of the B–rank, each of them caught the faintest thread of gold.

The detail was small, but enough people noticed to send a murmur through the observers

“What’s going on with his Awakening? The color isn’t right.”

The light faded before anyone could study it further.

Steven looked down at the pale blue glow flickering across his arm.

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11:25 am