@beazacha assuming they don’t decide to threaten her. They’ve been nothing but nice so far but they have the power to make life very difficult for her, her friends, her adoptive parents and so on and leaving could also be out of the cards if they close the border or put her under arrest.
@Chucolain he instinctively kills when he feels killing intent but he can kill whoever he wants. Or whatever he wants. As he’s said before he decides what death is.
@Redice She was alerted to the nature of the ritual by an enemy so it’s not a stretch for her to assume that said enemy has a plan in place for Leslie quitting. The Empress Dowager probably sees this as a Xanatos Gambit. If Leslie doesn’t quit and ends up dying a tremendous psychological blow...
If I had to guess literal magic was involved. Since they were trying to recreate a scene from a book that is proven to affect the course of events and the would-be heroine said the villainess’s line the magic forced Yulia into the heroine’s place.