Stop Hypnotizing Me, Villainous Princess!

Chapter 165: Caught in the Act

Huh?

Why… Why is Brother Xiya suddenly here?!

The moment Tiya heard that familiar voice from beyond the door, her petite body trembled instinctively.

Just a moment ago, she had been trying to wrench her hand free from Lynn’s grasp, but now she slumped to her knees in shock, her wide eyes brimming with disbelief.

Everything that had happened tonight was entirely out of character for her—someone who prided herself on being the serene and dignified Saintess of the Silent Church.

Meeting a strange man in private? Allowing physical contact with him?

On any normal day, Tiya would have spent the entire night in front of the goddess’s statue, praying for forgiveness.

But her insatiable curiosity about those twelve missing years of memory had lured her straight into Lynn’s carefully laid trap.

Now, however, it seemed everything was on the verge of being exposed.

And not just to anyone—but to the one person she had been desperately trying to avoid misunderstanding her.

At this very moment, gripped by panic and helplessness, Tiya’s mind froze completely.

The things that had terrified her just moments ago—like why she had saved him, or why she hadn’t felt disgusted when touching him—suddenly seemed irrelevant and insignificant.

She had entirely forgotten that she had come disguised and wasn’t likely to be recognized easily.

But the steady, approaching footsteps sounded like a ticking clock, each step hammering against her heart.

The moment the door opened would mark the end of her ability to explain herself.

No… no!

I have to do something!

Tiya snapped out of her daze and tried to shake off the wretched man’s hand, intending to flee immediately.

But then she realized that if she used extraordinary power to escape, it would undoubtedly leave a distinct moonlight attribute energy signature in its wake.

And with Brother Xiya’s animal-like intuition and sense of smell, he would instantly recognize her aura.

Combine that with the fact that Lynn was still at the scene, and it would lead to misunderstandings she could never hope to explain.

What… what should I do?

For the first time, Tiya felt completely flustered, her usual doll-like composure cracking to reveal panic in her expression.

Watching this scene unfold, Lynn couldn’t help but feel somewhat emotional.

It wasn’t because he was touched by the deep connection between the novel’s original male and female leads. It had nothing to do with him, after all.

No, what struck him was how blatantly the world’s will exerted its narrative correction force on him.

According to the novel’s contrived logic, the heroine secretly meeting with a strange man and even physically interacting with him would be utterly unacceptable—a “fatal flaw” in the story.

So when Lynn had tried to push the storyline deviation in this manner, the invisible but omnipresent will of the world had immediately intervened, disrupting his plan in the most “reasonable” way possible to steer the plot back on track.

Honestly, Lynn was just grateful it hadn’t gone as far as summoning a bolt of lightning to strike him down on the spot. That would have been a far harsher punishment.

Still, it was a shame.

Tonight had been a golden opportunity to increase the plot deviation significantly, and he hadn’t even gotten to showcase the full range of moves he had planned.

With a quiet sigh, Lynn resigned himself to wrapping things up for now.

Looking at the utterly panicked Tiya before him, Lynn didn’t let go of her fiercely resisting hand. In fact, he tightened his grip slightly.

“You… don’t want him to find out, do you?”

At that moment, Lynn wasn’t wearing his mask, so the hesitation and inner turmoil on his face were entirely visible to Tiya.

But Tiya, preoccupied with her growing anxiety, had no patience for his nonsense.

“Let… let go of me,” she whispered harshly after clamping a hand over her mouth to muffle her voice, realizing her initial outburst had been too loud. She shot him a resentful glare.

“If I let you go, you’ll be caught,” Lynn replied, his tone unreadable. “Your makeup is smudging… and the effects of your extraordinary item—are they wearing off?”

Lynn’s gaze rested on her hairline, where faint traces of her natural light-brown roots were starting to show, and on her ears, which were subtly becoming more pointed.

Hearing this, Tiya froze in shock. She instinctively wanted to check her reflection but then remembered she hadn’t brought a mirror, leaving her feeling utterly hopeless.

Her emerald-green eyes glistened with the beginnings of tears as she stubbornly raised her head, glaring at the man who had dragged her into this mess.

Regret filled her heart. Why had she saved him earlier?

And then, to her utter disbelief, he smiled.

“Don’t worry, Veya. If this is your wish, then no matter what, I’ll help you achieve it,” Lynn said gently, his voice low but resolute.

“Even if it means covering for my former lover… just so the person she now loves won’t misunderstand her.”

“Even if… it’s cruel beyond words to someone who still loves her deeply.”

For some reason, despite the boy’s smile, it radiated a sorrow so profound that even Tiya, for a fleeting moment, faltered in her thoughts.

It felt as though… she had wronged him in some unimaginable way.

Lost in her daze, Tiya didn’t resist as the man who should have repulsed her gently pulled her into an embrace.

The overwhelming disgust she had expected, like an electric shock, didn’t come.

On the contrary, his arms were broader and warmer than she had imagined.

What am I thinking?!

Tiya snapped out of her stupor, her disgusted glare returning with full force.

The moonlight around her surged like a tidal wave, coalescing into a semi-ethereal blade that she pressed firmly against his chest.

But Tiya underestimated the lengths Lynn was willing to go—for her, or perhaps for the Witch locked within her.

Ignoring the sharp blade against his chest, Lynn leaned closer. He tilted his head down, rapidly closing the distance between their lips.

At that exact moment, the sound of the door creaking open echoed behind them.

[S-tier storyline character "Tiya Yuhesti" storyline deviation increased to 2.55%.]

When Xiya had approached the door, his keen hearing had already picked up the faint sounds of a hushed conversation on the balcony.

Instead of stepping away to avoid intruding, he paused, recognizing something vaguely familiar in the female voice.

“Tiya?”

Xiya furrowed his brows.

The distance between them was too far for Xiya to hear clearly.

The deliberately lowered voice from the balcony sounded faintly familiar, almost like Tiya’s. But it didn’t make sense logically.

Tiya’s whereabouts had been a mystery throughout the entire banquet, yet Shirina had received her invitation card, indicating she had indeed attended.

It was perplexing.

If she was present at the banquet, why pretend to be absent?

Could she have disguised herself? But for what reason?

For someone as close to Tiya as Xiya, it was inconceivable that she’d have anything to hide from him.

And yet, the voice from the balcony instantly put him on edge.

If it really was Tiya, then why was she, at this particular time and in such a secluded place, secretly meeting with an unfamiliar man?

Even though Xiya was confident that Tiya would never betray him, the incident at the teleportation array replayed in his mind, and a seed of doubt began to stir.

An unexplainable emotion welled up in his chest, his heart rate speeding up.

Please… let this not be what I think it is.

With this thought, Xiya no longer hesitated. He pushed open the balcony door without a second thought.

The scene that greeted him was wholly unexpected.

Under the tranquil night sky, a luminous full moon cast its soft glow, painting the balcony in an otherworldly, dreamlike beauty.

At the edge of the balcony stood a lone figure with his back to Xiya.

The boy’s tall, slender frame stood motionless, his black hair swaying slightly in the breeze. His head was lowered, and he seemed frozen in place.

Xiya frowned slightly.

But then he noticed something unusual—there wasn’t just the boy on the balcony.

There was also… a woman.

Xiya’s sharp eyes caught sight of a pair of delicate arms wrapped around the boy’s back.

It didn’t take him long to realize that the two of them were locked in a passionate kiss.

“Tiya?” Xiya called softly, knowing it was unlikely.

As expected, there was no response.

If anything, the two seemed so engrossed in their kiss that the woman’s fingers, which were wrapped around the boy’s back, dug deeply into his skin. Her nails scratched across his flesh, leaving visible trails of blood.

Even from over ten meters away, the moonlight revealed faint streaks of blood seeping through the boy’s shirt.

Xiya couldn’t help but suck in a cold breath.

How deeply in love must these two be? How intense must their emotions burn, to the point where such irrational, almost feral behavior occurred during a kiss?

“Love, when pushed to its limit, turns to mutual harm.”

He had always dismissed this saying as nonsense, but now, seeing the crazy couple before him, it seemed to make a certain kind of sense.

At least for the two in front of him, they fit the description perfectly.

Realizing this, the heavy weight pressing on Xiya’s heart instantly lifted.

From his vantage point, he couldn’t see the face of the woman in the boy’s arms.

But he didn’t need to. He was certain it wasn’t Tiya.

The doll-like girl he knew, no matter how fierce her emotions, would never express herself in such a passionate, unrestrained way.

And besides, she wouldn’t do this with anyone else but him.

Not to mention, even he hadn’t managed to steal Tiya’s first kiss.

The idea that this unknown boy could have done so was simply laughable.

The conclusion was clear:

Tiya had not attended tonight’s banquet at all.

The reason she had taken those two invitations was likely to gift them to someone else.

With this realization, Xiya no longer paid attention to the couple embracing on the balcony.

He had little interest in other people’s affairs.

Satisfied with his reasoning, Xiya turned and prepared to leave.

Though his contact with Tiya so far had been limited to holding hands or leaning on each other, and though Tiya had always shown discomfort during such moments, Xiya wasn’t in a rush.

He wasn’t some lust-driven maniac. After all, physical intimacy was merely one of the ways a couple deepened their relationship.

What’s more, in about ten days, the Moonlight Ceremony—a long-awaited event of the Silent Church—would take place.

By then, Tiya would voluntarily pray to the goddess and lift the curse that had plagued her, formally becoming his partner.

This thought brought a lightness to Xiya’s mood. He descended the stairs with ease, ready to leave the dull banquet behind and head toward the Silent Church.

Perhaps Tiya had already returned home.

As the sound of footsteps fade away, the door quietly clicked shut once again.

As the sound of footsteps gradually faded, the once suffocating tension on the balcony slowly dissipated.

“Drip… drip… drip…”

In the now silent balcony, the sound of liquid falling to the ground became increasingly distinct.

If Xiya had stayed just a moment longer, or if he hadn’t allowed his mind to wander with overcomplicated thoughts, his keen senses might have picked up on the irregularities.

At this moment, a shard of moonlight, sharp like an ice spike, had taken physical form and was deeply embedded in Lynn’s chest.

Blood gushed from the wound, pooling on the ground into a glaringly vivid puddle.

Tiya stared blankly at the scene before her.

For some reason, she couldn’t utter a single word.

Moments ago, when Lynn had pulled her into his arms and leaned in as if to kiss her, she had instinctively retaliated.

But the boy hadn’t dodged. He allowed the moonlight spike to pierce through his chest without hesitation.

Yet, that kiss never happened.

His lips merely stopped at the side of her ear.

Or perhaps, he never intended to kiss her in the first place.

Everything—the embrace, the closeness—was a staged performance. It was all to create the illusion of a romantic couple so Xiya would leave, granting Tiya an escape from her predicament.

As Lynn noticed Tiya’s dazed expression, there was no trace of blame or resentment in his eyes.

“To stop him from misunderstanding you,” Lynn said with a faint smile, as if the injury in his chest didn’t exist, “I could even stomach the indignity of ‘helping a love rival.’ If I could endure abandoning my pride, why would I do anything against your will?”

The boy smiled, as though unaffected by the wound, but even Tiya could see the bitterness hidden in his gaze.

Her hands, which had been tightly gripping his back, were now unconsciously clutching at the fabric of his shirt.

For a moment, an odd silence hung in the air.

It wasn’t until Lynn started coughing violently, blood spilling from his mouth, that Tiya was jolted back to reality.

She realized, to her dismay, that the two of them had been locked in this position for far too long.

A surge of panic washed over her as she instinctively released her hands from his back, trying to push him away.

But when she saw the boy’s blood-streaked face, she hesitated.

Her hands, which had intended to shove him away, softened their force by instinct.

Instead of pushing, her palms now rested lightly on his chest, almost as if caressing him.

Given how close they already were, Tiya’s attempt to recoil only created forward momentum.

The result was her unintentionally stumbling into his arms once more.

The two now appeared no different from a playful, affectionate couple.