Lewd System: Every Scream and Moan is EXP

Chapter 360 : The World’s Worst Job Offer, Seems Nice though

Roxana sat there, stunned into silence by the turn his words had taken.Somewhere against her will, her heart had started racing. Everything he said kept circling one impossible idea, that she mattered, that she was a piece of his life he refused to keep playing without. And then the last of it finally registered, the words sinking in deeper than any wine had managed all night.

’The place where you actually belong.’

"Forget the paperwork," Jax went on, casual as ever. "Forget official procedures. Anyone who tries to oppose it, I’ll handle them personally. All you have to do is bring your luggage back. That’s it. That’s the entire job."

She stared at that cold, flat face of his.

And that face was exactly the problem. Because she had seen it before. The same calm mask, the same even voice, on the day he had torn into her. The memory surfaced whether she invited it or not.

Her palm slammed the table.

"Give me one reason. One actual reason why I should drag myself back into a life where my value gets erased with a single sentence."

Her voice trembled now, but the anger underneath it burned slow and steady. "You said your piece that day and walked away. But did it ever once cross your mind to wonder what happened on my side of the door after it closed?"

Her fist clenched hard enough that the handkerchief wrapped around it began turning red. She didn’t seem to notice. Or care.

"Do you have the slightest idea what it does to a person? When the only human being in this entire world who ever looked at the real you, who told you that you’re not weak, not a failure, not a disappointment, suddenly turns around and calls you useless?"

The words kept coming, cracked and unstoppable.

"I was a fool, working like a slave for you. No, wait, that can’t be right. You must have fooled me. Because there’s no logical way an imperial princess willingly feels happy protecting a stupid peasant. Or genuinely caring for a stubborn bastard like you. And I did, you know. I genuinely enjoyed our whole disaster of a journey, never realizing I was just a slave with extra steps. A convenient punching bag for anger you couldn’t aim at the right person. All because I took pride in the pathetic delusion that you actually depended on me."

She laughed. It was the ugliest, saddest laugh the lounge had heard all night.

"You don’t even know, do you. How hard this lazy imperial princess worked to save your ass. I sacrificed my beloved nightly drinking sessions to sit awake at a desk making detailed lecture notes on which elite students you should never provoke. I aggressively weaponized my privileges as the Queen’s biological sister to fight off the powerful professors and political factions who wanted you expelled so badly. I went to war with arrogant noble brats and their rich, influential parents when they marched in to file formal complaints about the messes you left behind. I shut the mouth of every single person badmouthing your name, just so your already terrible reputation wouldn’t rot any further."

Her breath hitched. "Dozens of silent wars, Jax. Dozens. You never heard a whisper of a single one, because I personally made sure each of them was buried before it could ever reach your ears."

She looked down at her bloody, trembling hands. Her eyes were one blink away from flooding the table.

"And after all that. After every sleepless night, after every sacrifice. The grand evaluation I received for my efforts came in one word."

Her chin trembled. "Useless."

And then the rain started.

Jax watched her sob for exactly one second before he moved. His hand rose and settled against her tear-soaked cheek, and his thumb gently brushed away the stream running down it.

"You of all people should know my flawed nature better than that, Roxana." His voice was quiet. "I’m a man with zero communication skills to speak of. Completely atrocious at speaking my mind, and every attempt ends in total catastrophe. My voice always finds a way to brutally hurt people, to shatter their spirits from the inside out, until they’re entirely justified in hating my guts."

His thumb caught another tear.

"Other people open their mouths and comfort comes out. Warmth comes out. The right words at the right time come out. When I open mine, everything comes out wrong, or backwards, or wrapped in so many layers of sarcasm and cruelty that the actual meaning suffocates under a pile of shit I never intended to say."

He exhaled, slow and heavy, like the next part physically cost him something.

"That day was just another example of my weakness. I didn’t mean a single word I said that morning. Not one. What I should have said was the truth. That you terrify me. Not because you’re dangerous. Because somewhere along the way, without my permission, you became the one person I cannot afford to lose."

"And that day, I watched you walking into danger for my sake. And instead of telling you it terrified me to watch someone I care about gamble her life for mine, I..." He paused. "The battle I was walking into was far more dangerous than you could imagine. I was certain that if things went wrong, there would be bloodshed. And honestly, the thousand allies marching beside me, their lives meant nothing to me. Nothing at all. But yours..."

The sentence died right there. His mouth simply refused to build the rest of it.

Silence settled over the table. Roxana just stared through her tears at his face, at a pain sitting openly on it that she had never once been allowed to see.

"I told you to leave," he finally managed, "because in my twisted, broken logic, pushing you away was easier than admitting that losing you would gut me."

Then he manufactured a smile. The cheap kind he kept in stock for emergencies.

"And honestly, who could ever think you’re useless? A creature with one isolated brain cell would know that’s a lie. I’d never be able to replace a dedicated slave... ah. Slip of the tongue. I meant an essential colleague who handles all my paperwork. So drop the self-pity and get your bags packed."

He leaned back, warming up to his own performance. "Do you even realize how much I’ve been suffering lately? That bitch Lysandra still refuses to assign me a new assistant. Do you know the horror of walking into a lecture hall without a single page of prepared notes to read from? I can’t even skip my own classes anymore and dump the entire curriculum on my assistant. I just sit there like a prisoner until the very last second of the timer. So please, come back and serve me... wait. No. Help me. Help."

And Roxana smiled.

For the first time in far too many days, she actually smiled, and then a wet, bitter laugh slipped out through the tears, her lashes shining in the lounge light.

"I don’t see any profit in this deal. In fact, it sounds a whole lot like I’m being recruited as cheap labor all over again."

Jax frantically rubbed the back of his neck and discovered something fascinating to stare at on the far wall. "You’re completely misinterpreting the entire situation here. Again."

"Fine." Her voice found its authority, the princess surfacing up through the wine. "I’ll accept this toxic job offer. Under the sole condition that you fulfill a few of my personal stipulations."

"Name your desires, my lady." Zero hesitation. Not even half a second of thought. "I will gladly execute any task in this world unless it directly results in my tragic demise. You want a formal apology? Say the word and I’ll get down on all fours right now, in the middle of this crowded banquet hall, in front of every powdered aristocrat on the floating island."

Roxana watched him put on his ridiculous show, and something in her chest finally unclenched. She knew this stubborn bastard better than anyone.

Usually he was worse than a toxic spouse who would rather be buried alive than admit a single mistake. And yet here he was, volunteering to humiliate himself in front of the entire high nobility just to get his way.

She rolled her eyes. "Stop being so ridiculously dramatic. I’m not a total idiot, I can smell your transparent lies from across the table."

"Then just name your terms and watch how dead serious I am."

"First." She raised one finger. "The master bedroom is mine. All mine, permanently. No throwing me out whenever some guest shows up. Second, I want full, unrestricted rights to beat the living hell out of you, without any retaliation, if you ever dare lash out at me like that again."

Both of them smiled, knowing that the wishes were merely a pretext. The real message was clear—the ceasefire was over, and their chaotic domestic warfare was officially back on the menu.

-x-X-x-

[Somewhere in a quiet room]

Astrid and Claude had been talking for an hour now.

The conversation had wandered through every territory a father dreads. Her relationship with Jax. The gift she got from him. The small matter of him being a commoner. The considerably less small matter of the other women orbiting him. And Astrid had declared she would fight for him through all of it. She had even announced, with a perfectly straight face that she would bestow a noble title on the man herself and shut the mouths of nobles by conquering a kingdom and handing him the throne as a small birthday present.

Claude simply enjoyed himself through every minute of it as he was just checking on few things.

[A/N: The full conversation between them will be revealed in the next Chapter.]

Then a knock interrupted them, and the butler entered with a bow.

"My lord. I’ve just received an urgent report from the ballroom floor. Professor Jax has created a commotion in the banquet hall with Professor Roxana. The current rumors claim he also made her cry."

Astrid’s face bloomed into the smuggest, proudest smile. The scene assembled itself instantly in her head. Roxana, drunk on liquid courage, foolishly confessing her feelings. Jax, rejecting her ruthlessly on the spot. Beautiful. Nature healing itself.

"However," the butler added carefully, "things have since settled. The two of them are currently dancing together."

Astrid’s hand shot out and seized the butler by the chest of his suit. "WHAT DID YOU SAY?"

Then she turned to her father, and the temperature in the room dropped by several seasons.

"I know exactly which kingdom I need to conquer now. And Father, I lied to you earlier. I am not someone who makes compromises. I don’t see a single one of those desperate women as my sisters. They’re nothing but sacrificial goats, waiting to be beheaded the exact second they cross the line with my man."