The Scumbag's Guide To Heroism novel Chapter 282

Chapter 282: 282 | My Room Isn’t Big Enough for Three Egos

"I’m implying that you came here to do exactly what I came here to do, and now you’re embarrassed because someone caught you at it. Must be hard, being perfect all the time. Must be exhausting, pretending you don’t have the same basic urges as everyone else."

"My urges are none of your concern."

"They became my concern when you knocked on his door while I was standing in his room."

The temperature in my room had risen by approximately ten degrees since this conversation started. Whether that was from the body heat of three people in a small space or from the sheer friction of Camille and Petra’s mutual animosity, I couldn’t tell. The air felt thick. Charged. Like standing too close to a live wire.

"Okay." I held up my hands. "New plan. Both of you leave. We pretend this never happened. Tomorrow we go back to being classmates who have absolutely no reason to be in each other’s rooms at midnight. Sound good?"

Neither of them moved.

"Belmont." Petra turned those emerald eyes on me with an intensity that made my stomach do something inconvenient. "We need to discuss the discrepancies in your Aspect file."

"Right now?"

"The documentation from today’s exercise will be reviewed by institutional oversight within forty-eight hours. Your constructs exceeded registered specifications by a significant margin. If I noticed, others will notice. I’m offering you the opportunity to coordinate our accounts before that becomes a problem."

She said it like she was doing me a favor. Like this was professional courtesy instead of whatever the hell it actually was.

Camille laughed. The sound was sharp and humorless.

"That’s your angle? Aspect files? You expect anyone to believe you put on your sexy underwear to talk about paperwork?"

"I expect you to believe whatever you want. I have no control over your interpretations."

"My interpretation is that you’re a fraud." Camille took another step forward. Petra didn’t retreat. "You talk a big game about institutional this and professional that, but underneath all of it you’re just as messed up as the rest of us. You saw what happened in that training room. You felt him pin you down." She paused. Let the words hang in the air between them.

"And you liked it."

Petra went very still.

The silence that followed stretched out between them like a tripwire. Camille’s statement hung in the air, settling over Petra like a physical thing. The space between them had compressed to maybe two feet. Neither of them backed down.

"How dare you."

Petra’s voice had dropped to something quiet and dangerous. Her shoulders had squared. Her posture had shifted into something that read like a warning even without the words attached to it.

The silk robe moved with the tension in her frame, the fabric catching light where it draped over her body in ways that would have been distracting if the entire situation weren’t already catastrophically distracting.

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