It seemed like he had transmigrated into a Japanese-style fantasy world, where the Demon King and the Hero were inevitable elements.
Although Qingmu hadn’t become the Hero here, he had indeed stepped onto the path of demon-slaying, following the Allied Army and the Hero’s sword to the gates of the Demon King’s Castle.
At night, in the military camp, Qingmu, with black hair and black eyes, clad in leather armor, a bandage wrapped around his neck, sat before the campfire lost in thought.
“Hah, I never expected that a mere live-in son-in-law like me would end up fighting the Demon King?”
It wasn’t a complaint, but a sigh of disbelief.
Six years ago, an accident caused Qingmu to transmigrate.
His body was no different from his previous life, only his identity had changed—he became a down-and-out noble with an engagement.
His fiancée was one of the current Heroes, Yueqi Fengling.
Yueqi was a great noble within the kingdom, an heir of her family even before awakening as a Hero.
The marriage arrangement between her and Qingmu, a fallen noble brought in by marriage, was meant to protect her family’s assets.
Additionally, Yueqi had a younger sister, Yuelan, an extraordinarily revered Saintess of this era.
Together, the two sisters led the charge for justice, crushing the ambitions of the Demon King.
“How’s your injury?”
Someone sat beside him and glanced sideways.
With dazzling golden hair and silver armor, Yueqi always shone brightly whether as heir or Hero, her emerald eyes full of fighting spirit and conviction.
“Not bad.”
Qingmu shifted his gaze away from Yueqi’s beautiful face and looked toward a distant, gloomy castle, faintly visible beneath dark mists.
Lightning flashed across the sky from time to time as bats flitted past.
That was their final destination; soon, a battle worthy of being recorded in history would erupt.
“Are you really okay?”
Yueqi scanned the uneasy camp.
Some prayed anxiously, others loudly boosted morale, a few wrote their wills, and several who tried to flee had been caught.
She patted Qingmu’s shoulder and sighed:
“Many will die tomorrow; danger is undeniable.
If you weren’t the Hero’s fiancé, you wouldn’t need to risk yourself at all.
But rest assured, I will do everything I can.
The Demon King’s forces won’t attack your rear, and even if there are spies causing chaos, my Saintess sister will protect everyone.
Besides, once this is all over, I will grant you any request.”
“Grant me freedom.”
Without hesitation, Qingmu answered.
After transmigrating, Qingmu was initially looked down upon by his fiancée’s family.
But soon, with modern knowledge and innate magical talent of this body, he proved his worth.
When Yueqi first started to value him, he mentioned wanting freedom someday.
Back then, she thought it was just venting from being sidelined.
Yueqi was silent for a long moment, then said confusedly:
“I admit I didn’t care about you at first, but after all these years, you can see that neither I nor Yuelan have ever treated you as an outsider.
Your current reputation and achievements are so great that no one in the Fengling Family dares to look down on you, even though you’re a live-in son-in-law.
You should know that I… I consider you like a dear friend, and Yuelan does too!”
Hearing these heartfelt words from the eldest lady of the Fengling Family and his fiancée, Qingmu was deeply moved.
He could genuinely feel the friendship forged over years of companionship.
Yet, he remained silent; Yueqi knew this was refusal.
“Can you… tell me about your homeland?”
Yueqi understood Qingmu was not truly “Qingmu,” that his homeland was a place full of wonders.
Qingmu thought for a long while and muttered, “That world, no one belongs to another, there is no oppression by might, and it’s filled with love and peace.”
Yueqi poured cold water on him: “I don’t believe it.”
Qingmu smiled and fell silent for a moment before saying, “At least, I was free there.”
Just as Yueqi was about to speak, a girl dressed in a white silk nun’s robe approached.
“Sister, Brother Qingmu.”
The golden-haired, blue-eyed Saintess Yuelan arrived.
Her face resembled Yueqi’s fivefold but was filled with solemnity.
Usually addressed as Hero or strategist, Yueqi and Qingmu exchanged a glance—they knew something had happened.
They stood, and Yuelan led them outside the camp.
They walked a long time until they reached a cliff by the sea.
Yuelan stood at the edge, looking far out; the black sea seemed to be brewing something, waves crashing with a roar.
“Brother Qingmu, drink this.
It will restore your wounds and magical power.
I have something very important to tell you.”
Yuelan handed Qingmu a bottle of magical potion.
“What is this?”
Qingmu opened the bottle and sniffed it.
Without hesitation, he downed it in one gulp.
As for what Yuelan was going to say, Qingmu and Yueqi had a vague idea.
“It concerns spies within the Allied Army.
I already have some leads.
Actually, there is more than one spy.”
Yuelan frowned, took her sister’s hand, and led her to the cliff’s edge, pointing at the sea below.
Qingmu stood there puzzled, staring at the cliff edge.
Suddenly, he noticed a sinister dagger in Yuelan’s hand.
His heart skipped a beat.
He thought he had seen wrong, but upon a second look, he was sure.
He reached out to shout, but—
“Bang!”
The potion bottle shattered on the ground.
He couldn’t make a sound.
His magical power instantly drained, and a wave of unprecedented weakness pierced his pores like thousands of threads.
Like a marionette on strings, he was forced to kneel maliciously.
The potion Yuelan gave him was not a restorative potion—it was an anti-magic drug!
Why?
His vision blurred, and he saw Yuelan stab the dagger into her sister’s back of the head.
Yueqi shuddered from the wound, reaching out to grab Yuelan’s right hand, but only caught a pinky finger.
Then her body fell off the cliff.
He could not comprehend what he saw.
She… killed her own sister?
After doing this, Yuelan turned to face him with a blank expression.
The dagger dripped with blood, and her right pinky finger trembled.
“Yuelan? What have you done…?”
“Hey, Qingmu…”
The Saintess sister who just killed the Hero walked toward him.
Her voice trembled with the same frequency as Qingmu’s heart.
When she reached him, he saw that Yuelan’s face was streaming with tears.
“Cough, why are you crying? Are you the spy? Why?”
He didn’t understand.
If it was just him and Yuelan, he would rather believe he was the spy than think the Saintess who served the gods was.
What on earth was going on?
“Qingmu…”
Yuelan pressed the bloody dagger to his cheek, tears falling as she said, “Heh heh… you never expected this, right? Neither did I… why things turned out like this, it’s so heartbreaking.”
Qingmu felt dizzy and faint.
Though he did not understand Yuelan’s reasons, he knew he was about to die.
However—
Yuelan’s face twisted in madness as she screamed, “Like like like like like like like like like… Qingmu, I like you so much!”
“Eh?”
Qingmu’s mind went blank, unable to believe his ears.
“Haa… haa… this is the only way I can have you, hehe…
I will protect you.
The Demon King’s army will soon raid the camp, and the Allied Army will fail…
Here, drink this.
Drink it, and you won’t be able to use magic to resist my love anymore.”
Yuelan took out another bottle of potion from her pocket and forcefully poured it into Qingmu’s mouth with a crazed look.
“Gah! Aahhh—”
Qingmu reacted violently, collapsing and convulsing wildly.
“Don’t pretend, this doesn’t even hurt!”
Yuelan cupped her face.
After a while, she touched her pocket and realized something.
There was an extra potion bottle.
Looking again inside her pocket, her face suddenly turned pale.
She had given the wrong potion—what she just fed Qingmu was a deadly poison!
“Ahhhh! Not that kind of thing!!!”
Though there was an attempt at remedy afterward, Qingmu remained an unconscious vegetable.
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