A few moments ago.
Avendial finished tying the last knot on the bandage and calmly stated, "It was my fault that you lost all your Synergy."
"I don't understand," Rivia said, still focused on the feeling in her hand. She was slightly taken aback by his words and turned her head to the side, her amethyst pupils reflecting Avendial's figure, his hair glistening in the moonlight coming through the car window.
"I will tell you everything once we reach the mansion," Avendial nodded, his mind calming as he turned his head forward, relieved to have escaped the cornered situation that would have resulted in a significant loss, as it had in the past.
He knew it was definitely due to his curse taking effect in the last moment and nullifying all the synergy Rivia had, naturally causing them to have negligible chances of winning but still at the cost of her death, so he escaped.
Now, he had dealt with the mistake he made and was taking responsibility for his fault.
He protected her and even dealt with Patric Vrandin.
But now, it was time for Rivia to take responsibility for what she did.
Naturally, it was impossible for Avendial to ever believe that being a sword Master, Rivia failed to detect something mixed in his drink when she was accompanying him inside the noble gathering.
He wasn't sure if it was true, but from the obvious body actions of Rivia – like her racing heartbeat, blush near her ears, and warmth spreading through her body as he touched her – were more than enough proof that she already had feelings for him.
Considering the number of women she had killed, with all of them having two things in common: they all tried to get near him and all of those 124 women were somewhat sent by his rivals to get closer to him.
So, he was not threatened, knowing she only killed those who were harmful, but cautious, knowing how she killed them because they got near him, added with today's event.
Surely, he was being excessive in assuming that she deliberately spiked his drink with an Aphrodisiac. However, considering his experience with several infatuated women who had gone to the extent of kidnapping him in the past life, he couldn't entirely discount the possibility of her doing such a thing.
After engaging in sexual activity with her, he realized he had ejaculated inside her multiple times, as she showed no signature of Synergy inside her body.
But he felt her stupidity from the fact that she used her muscular Synergy to destroy that room, indirectly causing her to become a normal woman without any power.
Indeed, Rivia used Synergy in three forms: To create Aura Sword, Store Synergy in her Energy Core and finally physically enhance her muscles.
The process goes like this: her energy core keeps absorbing the small amount of Synergy remnants in the atmosphere. Each drop fills her energy core, which then supplies a minimal amount to her muscle fibers to strengthen them. She preserves most of the energy for any emergency battles, where she will use it as Sword Aura.
In this way, her body creates a system that efficiently utilizes the limited available synergy.
However, because of Avendial's curse, his bodily fluid nullified the Synergy, instantly depleting all of her reservoirs and Energy core.
'Today, she needs to learn a lesson.' Avendial was determined to punish her in a way that would make her remember never to cross the line and make foolish decisions like she did today.
Immediately after he ordered the room to be destroyed, she found that she lacked the energy to create an Aura sword. She had to draw heavily infused Synergy from her muscle fibers, almost forcibly extracting even the smallest amounts to use in creating an Aura sword.
This was also the reason why she easily got leg cramps when she fell from that small height - simply because this woman, due to her stupidity, did not have any saved Synergy.
Above all, extracting Synergy from infused muscles was already something that surpassed the pain a human could endure, but she did it without any difficulty. This is what made him consider her loyal enough to follow his orders without hesitation.
But ultimately, she was the one who caused all that chaos.
"Rivia, where is the blanket?" Avendial inquired, shifting his gaze towards the car window. A smile graced his lips as he realized that the woman had draped a bed sheet around her and was dressed as a nurse on top of it.
"I threw it," Rivia said with calm eyes, blatantly lying.
'Again, she needs to fix this habit,' Avendial had determined to remove this habit of hers of always lying to him. He doesn't care in the past since he was simply a businessman and weighed his profit more, but, keeping her beside him while she kept lying was not something he could endure now.